AIDS Epidemic among the Gay Community

Gays or homosexuals are oftentimes criticized in the community because of the so-called â€Å"morality and/or religious† issues. They are often misunderstood and degraded since they are perceived as different or deviant.One never knows how it feels like to a gay unless you become one. Nevertheless, the society in general is not acceptant to homosexuals considering that they are also members of the bigger community. Ideally, this marginalized sector also deserves the same respect as straight individuals though the level of identification and approval of the gay community varies from one nation to another.In fact, many gay figures have emerged, gained popularity, and excelled especially in the entertainment industry and in the field of arts and designing.The health issue on AIDS or Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome has been existent for a very long time yet it has remained and maintained its controversy mainly among homosexuals in the American community.Maybe because of the ri sing number of AIDS victims especially among gay men and yet the impacts of endeavors to eradicate, if not minimize, this infectious disease is not that comprehensive or maybe ineffective as of this time.In the United States, HIV infection and AIDS have had a tremendous effect on men who have sex with men (MSM) (HIV/AIDS, 2007, para.1).  Many health agencies not only in the United States but all over the world have created programs specifically for AIDS but so far some proved successful while other are still ongoing or under investigation. This topic on AIDS never lost its value of interest that is why this is chosen as the health topic at hand.AIDS Epidemic  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   2Before going into this project, it is assumed that AIDS in the United States is not that prevalent among the American gay population. Nevertheless, according to the AIDS Primer (n.d.),  The fact that the disease affected mostly gay men and was transmitted through sexual contact further stigmatized those infe cted with HIV, and by extension, the gay community, in general.Because of this â€Å"origin† and the socio-cultural and religious climate in the United States at that time, AIDS was labeled then as the â€Å"Gay Men's disease†; in fact, it was considered then as primarily a â€Å"White Gay Men's disease† (para.2).It is also assumed that majority of the AIDS cases in America are not from the gay community. MSM accounted for 71% of all HIV infections among male adults and adolescents in 2005 (based on data from 33 states with long-term, confidential name-based HIV reporting), even though only about 5% to 7% of male adults and adolescents in the United States identify themselves as MSM (HIV/AIDS, 2007, para. 1).In North America, Western Europe and other developed nations, most cases continue to be transmitted sexually between men (Sowadsky, 1998, para. 1).Another assumption implicates that the United States is very much active with the AIDS movement and has trimmed down the number of deaths per year. Yet, â€Å"Despite the new drugs, 40,000 young Americans are dying (because of AIDS) every year† (Horowitz, 2001). This simply shows that efforts in eliminating AIDS are still reluctant in the United States.AIDS Epidemic  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   3Based on the readings from scholarly journals and the internet, it can be concluded that AIDS is still a dangerous health ailment with no 100% cure so far. It can be minimized or alleviated through certain drug treatments and therapies but total eradication from an infected individual is still impossible at present.It is also learned that AIDS cases in the United States are more catastrophic among the African-American community since two decades ago, especially among young gay adults who are sexually active and engaging in multiple male partners.In 2000, AIDS is the leading cause of death among 25-44-year old African Americans (United States, n.d., para. 2). A recent study, conducted in 5 large US cities, found that HIV prevalence among black MSM (46%) was more than twice that among white MSM (21%) (HIV/AIDS, 2007, para. 2).Based on the findings, it is further stipulated that AIDS should be taken more seriously since cases and deaths are still increasing annually in contrast to the former assumption that AIDS prevalence has been already successfully controlled. Even innocent children are affected.

Business School Plan

Leslie Marion CEO of JCW Inc. has identified she will need $125,850 to open a Reference School Center in Houston, Texas. The funds will cover the purchase and installation of the equipment and machinery, leasehold improvements, inventory, office equipment, and working capital to start the business. Leslie Marion will contribute $20,000 to the project from personal funds. The remainder of $105,850 is requested to be a SBA loan at 6. 00% interest amortized over 5 years. The loan is to be secured by the equipment, and inventory, as well as the personal guarantee of Leslie Marion. JCW is a company investing in educational field for a learning center that caters to families with children who needs academic support. The Reference School Center at Houston will be a very attractive school for those who need special attention on preschool through high school difficulties. The program is based on the brain research that has accumulated in the last decade. This research suggests that stimulating the mind with mental exercise may cause brain cells, called neurons, to branch widely. This branching causes millions of additional connections between brain cells. Studies demonstrate that our brains develop throughout our lives and that they are constantly being modified and that training and practice can stimulate brain development in targeted areas. This is known as neuroplasticity. JCW company based on neuroplasticity studies created a special program to help the students to learn more from their works and solv their difficulties on memorization and getting knowledgement. We believe in our success and in our investment in the educational area.

Jacob Riis & Jane Addams Essay on Progressive Era

At the turn of the twentieth century the press received a great amount of credit for the success of the Progressive movement. Notable muckrakers Jane Addams and Jacob Riis showed determination towards there being a change; each made sure to use their abilities to aid in not only a social way, but ask economically and politically, even to this day what they've done has made a massive impact. A native of Denmark, Jacob Riis moved to the US in 1870 to pursue work. Riis worked as a police reporter, but eventually became a social reformer.He fought to eliminate the devastating slum-like conditions that were present in New York City's Lower East Side. With the use of his book â€Å"How the Other Half Lives†, Riis was able to open many of the wealthy residences eyes to how immigrants and the less fortunate lives during that era. Riis himself endured similar conditions when he first made the transition to the states; he struggled with being jobless, hungry and homeless, many nights he copes with thoughts of suicide. Three years later he acquired a job as a journalist working for the New York association. How the Other Half Lives† targeted the minds of wealthy citizens as a way to get them to open their eyes to what others just like them were forced to live through. Jacob Riis pointed out that there were single family dwellings that shared side walls with other houses, they were called tenements and were overcrowded and unsanitary. Riis was able to project a very concerned tone and empathize with the people that suffered with poverty, because he too himself knows what it feels like to experience such an battle.Through the pictures in his book, America was able to see what little the government did to help financially unstable people. Riis along with fellow muckrakers Upton Sinclair with his novel â€Å"The Jungle† which shed light on disgusting and filthy conditions surrounding the production of food products, and Jane Addams who created the Hull Hou ses as a way to provide shelter and better living conditions for Americans.Overall Riis was able to accomplish exactly what he wanted, he was capable of successfully accomplishing what he set out to, with the recognition â€Å"How the Other Half Lives† received, people from the outside looking in changed their mindsets and actually improve the living conditions for the poor, which at that time lessened the amount of diseases spreading. An advocate for immigrants, the poor and women, at the age of twenty-nine Jane Addams established the Hull House in 1889, which opened its doors to European immigrants, providing them with food and shelter.Located in Chicago, the Hull House became the first settlement house in the United States. As a social reformer, Addams became the spokesperson for organized labors and was determined to eliminate poverty. Through her writing and speeches, Addams left a lasting impression on the nation during the Progressive Era; her commitment to immigrant c ommunities, and similar to Jacob Riis in her work with wanting to improve slum-like communities, helped change the way people view impoverished living conditions and the things they do to improve them.Both Jane Addams and Jacob Riis did whatever they sought necessary to improve the conditions that immigrants encountered during the progressive era, both worked and successfully got the wealthy and the government to make a change in the way they handled those specific situations, all while influencing modern day. With what they've done during the Progressive Era, Jane Addams and Jacob Riis made a key point in empathizing the needs for more jobs for immigrants and shelters for the less fortunate.

A Critical Evaluation of the Quality of Employee Relations Essay

A Critical Evaluation of the Quality of Employee Relations - Essay Example Using this theory it is possible to provide an account of the many different parts and link them together using the functions each play in keeping the whole system running (Nicholls 2003, pg. 18-19). This report critically asses the quality of employee relations that exist at Coca Cola Company. It will look at the internal arrangement of the company and specifically its Human Resource Management structure and how the company uses levels of relations to improve its productivity and reputation (Budd, 2012). The report will also look at the ethic and culture of the company and the impact of employer-employee relationship in Human Resource Management in the company. Coca Cola was invented on May 8th 1886 in Atlanta USA by Dr John Stitch Pemberton. The formula was patented by Asa Candler when he bought the formula from the inventor. In 1893, it was registered as a trade mark and shortly thereafter could be found in practically all the states in America (Hyman, 1975, pg. 25). Due to Asa Ca ndler’s aggressive marketing techniques by the late 1890s it was one of the most popular drinks in America. At present Coca Cola is present in more than 200 countries and has over 500 brands and 300 beverages. It has an associate employment population of over 92,000 worldwide and net operating revenue of over $31.9 billion (December 31st 2008) Coca Cola is the most recognizable brand in the world today. The use of systems theory in analyzing employee relations has its shortcomings. The concept implies that the subject matter is capable of description while suggesting that the realm of employment is a definite system that exhibits common values that hold it together, hence giving it the appearance of a system (Hyman, 1989, pg 25). It is also argued that to define employee relations strictly in terms of rules and regulations is a very narrow and restrictive. Nevertheless systems theory gives an important framework for describing the context of employee relations. It has created terms that have been accepted in the subject of employee relations. This approach was adopted in United Kingdom by a number of scholars. Clegg (1979) took this concept, contextualized it in the British understanding and came out with a definition. He defines it as the study of rules governing employment and the way rules are formulated, changed and administered (Clegg 1979, pg.1). Therefore; employee relations are the methods of formulating rules and regulations which governs the work place. Employee relationship is the process of managing diversity and change which necessitates maintaining employer-employer relationships that contribute to adequate productivity and motivation. The systems theory avers that there are three main broad areas that constitute employee relations. These are (i) inputs, (ii) processes and (iii) outputs. The inputs have three elements in it. The first being the actors. The actors are represented by the trade unions, management, employee associations and th e public bodies mandated to regulate employment (Clegg 1979, pg. 1). The second factor is the context or environment, which is usually complex and dynamic. The workplace is not only affected by the policies and procedures in place there, the internal environment, but also by economic, political and social developments beyond it, the external environment. The last factor is ideology. Industrial relations create a common body of ideas and beliefs regarding the role of the players which in turn helps the system to operate. The outputs are the rules and regulations which are in two parts, substantive and procedural. Substantive part deals with matters like pay, overtime, holidays and the way in which a job should be accomplished.

Business BA top up in the UK Personal Statement Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Business BA top up in the UK - Personal Statement Example I have some business background, in both education and practice, that I feel is pertinent in reinforcing my reason for joining your institution. I graduated with a higher national diploma in business management, with a human resource option from the North Atlantic College in Qatar, in 2007. From college, I immediately ventured into business practice in various capacities as will be outlined. I first worked as a marketing officer in a local bank before joining Sidra Medical and Research Center, in the human resources department. In this institution, I worked in the capacity of relations administrator in the foresaid department. Currently, I work as a staff relations officer in the same department. In this capacity, I ensure that all the staffs are supported with the right chances of having a development plan. I also assist the staff in choosing the right courses to take and ensure that they get the recommended in-house training. I have played a crucial art in developing the human reso urces department in Sidra as the company improved from a projects’ base to an operations base. In the organization, I also facilitated the employment of the first person with special needs. I play other minor roles as well. In order to excel more in my career, I believe that the education knowledge I currently possess is not enough. I therefore believe that getting a bachelor’s degree in the same field will give me better chances. As I yearn to do even better that I have done, I will ensure that I maximize from my student relationship with your institution. An institution of the caliber that your university boasts of will act as a stepping stone to a brighter future for me. Acceptance into your institution will open a new chapter in my career life, as I seek to excel in business, not just in my country, but all over the world. I look forward to a time when I will make a resounding impact in the business world. On my side, I promise to uphold the utmost moral

An analysis of the theoretical ideals of Thtre des Champs-lyses Essay

An analysis of the theoretical ideals of Thtre des Champs-lyses - Essay Example That said, the Theatre des Champs-Elysees itself also showed other elements, including avant-garde and art deco. This was because it was built in 1913 in Paris, and, during this time, art was experiencing a kind of cultural renaissance. The artists during this time were blending African influences with the newest movements, which include futurism, a movement which disdained the past in full. Therefore, the building was in keeping of the spirit of the times, while blending the classicism and lines of the past. This report will detail Perret and his influences, along with a brief discussion of the artistic environment surrounding the building of the Theatre des Champs-Elysees, with a description of the key architectural elements of this structure. Influence and Theory of Perret Auguste Perret (1874-1954), was a French architect whose architecture was founded upon using reinforced concrete frame construction. As Frampton (1995) notes, Perret was influenced by the Romans, who used reinfo rced concrete in their construction of their vaults, including the Roman Pantheon. These structures gained their strength through their monolithic shells, as opposed to the â€Å"thrust and counterthrust of arch and buttress† (p. 121). ... 123). His frames were based upon classicized rationalism, which combined the classical with the rational. Perret had another influence around the time that he created the Theatre des Champs Elysees, and that was Paul Valery. Valery, according to Frampton (1995), stated that the importance of architecture is the durability of the framework, which means that the building will stand up through time. It is through the passage of time that the building will attain its character, which was the thinking of Valery, who noted that the buildings are currently furnished with elements and forms, but its harmonious style and character would come with time. This is what makes a building beautiful, according to Valery, as time gives it character, style and harmony. Moreover, buildings which have stood through time would give the culture memory of form, which complements the structure of the building of steeples and towers (Frampton, 1995). Frampton (1995) explains that Perret met Valery around 1909 , which was just three years before Perret realized the Theatre des Champs-Elysees. Valery was fond of the theatre, and he was on personal terms with luminaries such as Maurice Denis and Antoine Bourdelle, who are the artists who supplied the decor and sculptural relief for the theatre. Valery’s theory was that bearing constructions must be separated from reticulated construction, which also must be separated from consolidated construction cast in reinforced concrete. However, Perret’s theory for the Theatre des Champs-Elysees was that the tectonic potential of the concrete frame must be realized, which means that it was removed from Valery’s ideas of the tectonic which was based upon Greek culture. Other influences for Perret, according to

Social Psychology Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Social Psychology - Assignment Example First, Bernice stood up in the wedding and announced to all the visitors that the reason for the wedding was the advice-seeker’s pregnancy. And that the pregnancy was done in purpose to tie down Simon. Second, during Bernice’s hospital visit when the advice-seeker gave birth, she once again reiterated that the pregnancy was just a rouse to tie her son down. The final straw for the advice-seeker was during the college graduation party of her husband. Bernice made reservations for everyone but the advice-seeker and her baby. And everytime conflict happens, the advice-seeker will get the same answer from her husband, â€Å"I can’t control my mother.† The situation shows high consistency in Bernice’s and Simon’s behaviour thus implying that the root cause of the conflict between the marriage is Bernice’s behaviour towards the advice-seeker. These situations also indicate low distinctiveness since in different stimuli and events, Bernice ha s the same reaction towards her daughter-in-law. Bernice’s behaviour indicates clearly resentfulness towards her daughter-in-law and Simon’s behaviour indicates clearly that Simon hasn’t come into terms that he should be supporting his wife and defending her and their marriage against her mother. The situation shows high consensus, low distinctiveness and high consistency. This leads to a conclusion that the marriage is continually being destroyed because of the behaviour and actions of the mother-in-law and the husband’s low response with his wife’s need of support against her mother’s behaviour. The marriage may then really be saved if the couple will not encounter anymore of the mother-in-law’s behaviour. The second situation tells about how a woman wanted to help out her friend in dealing with his son (Dear Abby). The deep friendship between the woman and the father started from the time

Art and Advertising Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Art and Advertising - Essay Example This essay "Art and Advertising" outlines the connection between the business world and creative; and what areas of overlap might exist between art and advertising. We only have to look at the commissioned work of the masters in the renaissance era to see the influence of the rich and famous patrons of the arts in their works. Going further back, we can examine how the kings and queens influenced the works of the artists in the classical and medieval eras. Therefore, it is perfectly logical to see how some of the best artists in present times (including the top graduates of art schools) have been recruited by advertising agencies and media syndicates to work for them. In the modern world, art and advertisements seem to have the same purpose, i.e. to motivate and move people towards some form of action (Lee, 2000). In this respect advertising may be a more difficult art form than painting or sculpture since it might be far easier for people to give off an emotion which costs them nothing rather than loosen their purse strings and spend money on something which they might even not need at all. Given the times we live in, even things like the GUI (Graphical User Interface) design of a computer or the layout and graphics used on a website could indeed by accepted as a valid form of art (Brierley, 2002). Moreover, even the applications being used on the computer for productivity or entertainment can be art forms as exemplified by the computer gaming industry which now beats Hollywood in terms of monetary size (Wikipedia, 2006).

Igor Stravinsky Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Igor Stravinsky - Essay Example Stravinsky left Russia for the first time in 1910, going to Paris to attend the premiere of his ballet L'oiseau de feu (The Firebird) (Craft 20). During his stay in the city, he composed three major works for the Ballets Russes-L'oiseau de feu, Petrushka (1911), and Le sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring) (1913). Eventually Stravinsky's music was noticed by Serge Diaghilev, the director of the Ballets Russes in Paris. He commissioned Stravinsky to write a ballet for his theater; so in 1911, Stravinsky traveled to Paris. That ballet ended up being the famous L'Oiseau de Feu. However, because of World War I and the October Revolution in Russia he moved to Switzerland in 1914. The first of Stravinsky's major stylistic periods (excluding some early minor works) was inaugurated by the three ballets he composed for Diaghilev. The ballets have several shared characteristics: they are scored for extremely large orchestras; they use Russian folk themes and motifs; and they bear the mark of Rimsky-Korsakov's imaginative scoring and instrumentation. The first of the ballets, L'oiseau de feu, is notable for its unusual introduction (triplets in the low basses) and sweeping orchestration. Petrushka, too, is distinctively scored and the first of Stravinsky's ballets to draw on folk mythology. But it is the third ballet, The Rite of Spring that is generally considered the apotheosis of Stravinsky's "Russian Period" (Hill 45-46). Other pieces from this period include: Renard (1916), Histoire du soldat (A Soldier's Tale) (1918), and Les Noces (The Wedding) (1923).The next phase of Stravinsky's compositional style, slightly overlapping the first, is marked by two works: Pulcinella 1920 and the Octet (1923) for wind instruments. Both of these works feature what was to become a hallmark of this period; that is, Stravinsky's return, or "looking back", to the classical music of Mozart and Bach and their contemporaries. This "neo-classical" style involved the abandonment of the large orchestras demanded by the ballets. In these new works, written roughly between 1920 and 1950, Stravinsky turns largely to wind instruments, the piano, and choral and chamber works. Some larger works from this period are the three symphonies: the Symphonie des Psaumes (Symphony of Psalms) (1930), Symphony in C (1940) and Symphony in Three Movements (1945). The pinnacle of this period is the opera The Rake's Progress completed in 1951. This opera, written to a libretto by Auden and based on the etchings of Hogarth, encapsulates everything that Stravinsky had perfected in the previous 20 years of his neo-classic period. The music is direct but quirky; it borrows from classic tonal harmony but also interjects surprising dissonances; it features Stravinsky's trademark off-rhythms; and it harkens back to the operas and themes of Monteverdi, Gluck and Mozart. The Serialist, or Twelve Tone Period Stravinsky first began to dabble in the twelve tone technique in smaller vocal works such as the Cantata (1952), Three Songs from Shakespeare (1953) and In Memoriam Dylan Thomas (1954), as if he were testing the system. He later began

Contrasts between the Movie Rambo II and the book In Pharaoh's Army by Essay

Contrasts between the Movie Rambo II and the book In Pharaoh's Army by Tobias Wolff - Essay Example On the other hand, Wolff, in his book, does not try to portray himself as a wartime hero. Instead, he tries to narrate the details of his experiences in an objective fashion. Wolff takes the readers to a journey to Vietnam through naturalistic, old-fashioned methods. Wolff tells the story of his decision in joining the army as well as his Southeast Asian tour of duty. He was sent back home after one year. However, after reading the book, one could say that the book’s title has nothing much to do with the specific emotional gravity of the Vietnam War no matter how evocative the book’s title might sound. Personally speaking, it is a story that talks about the coming-of-age of an individual that could easily happen even in non-Vietnam specific wartime setting. To better understand the vast differences of the book and the movie to the historical event, one should first learn the emotions that filled America during the post-Vietnam era. It has taken several years before the Americans were able to start to accept the consequences of the Vietnam War. The U.S. legacy lingers on at the mental hospitals, drug treatment clinics, shelters for the homeless, and the rural wilds where some war veterans escaped to in order to avoid the realities of going back to their native land. These are apart from the generation of limbless and maimed civilians and the Vietnamese landscape poisoned with munitions, mines, defoliants. Aside from the negative consequences to the Vietnamese landscape, the Vietnam War left a deep scar in the cultural landscape of the Americans. It can be seen in several expressions and outlets such as underground press, anti-war songs, fiction, and films (Kellner 161-3). To link these statements above to the context of the movie Rambo, one can begin by looking at how Rambo is transformed into a superhero rescuer of

Berlin Urban Form and Politcal Ideology Essay Example for Free

Berlin Urban Form and Politcal Ideology Essay Discuss the relationship between political ideologies and urban form in 20th century Berlin Berlin has developed over 800 years and has undergone major changes. It is the place where German unification, after 40 years of separation, becomes apparent and this provides us with an excellent location for studying urban processes. The twentieth century saw different political ideologies impose themselves onto the city and I will use certain political ideologies and explain the impact they had on urban form. I will use these examples to show a relationship between political ideologies and urban form and the implications of this. Firstly, the key terms must be defined. When referring to urban form, I use the basic definition by Anderson et al (1996), who define it as the ‘spatial configuration of fixed elements within a metropolitan region.’ They go on further to state that it includes the spatial pattern of land uses and their densities as well as the spatial design of transport and communication infrastructure. More importantly from a political perspective, a change in urban form requires a change in people’s lifestyles and this may not be possible unless there is a shift in attitude from the public (Kuhn, 1992). This is something to bear in mind when looking at 20th century Berlin. Political ideology can be loosely defined as a set of beliefs about the proper order of society and how it can be achieved (Denzau and North, 1994). They further go on to say ideologies are shared models that groups possess and that these models provide an interpretation of the environment and how it should be structured. I am now going to discuss the relationship between political ideologies and urban form in the 20th century Berlin. The relationship can be approached by looking at Berlin at different stages throughout the 20th century. I will look at urban form before the Second World War, during the period where Berlin was divided and finally after unification. At each stage, a certain political ideology had influence on urban form. It is important to note that when the allied forces took control of Berlin, the city had undergone amalgamation on a gargantuan scale. In 1920, 59 villages and 27 estates were joined to form a city of 3.9 million citizens, making it the third largest city in the world after London and New York (Elger, 1992). This is important because the city would have had less time to develop its urban form to the same stage as London and New York, which developed over many years. Their urban form reflected that of the concentric zone model. The Nazi regime  tried to impose their nationalist ideology onto the urban form of Berlin. They built the Ministry of the Air Force, which eventually became the Treuhand holding company, who restructured the former GDR industries after reunification (Blockmans, 2003). In 1942, Albert Speer designed plans for the Nazi regime which intended on creating a new urban centre. Tempelhof airport was designed as a result. There were also railway stations planned for north and south Berlin as was Siegesallee, or the Lane of Victory. Adolf Hitler, leader of the Nazi party, had an obsession with building big monuments and when queried as to why he always wanted to build the biggest, he would say that it was to restore self-respect to each individual German (Hall, 1996). A north-south avenue was planned and this was designed to show the political, military and economic power of Germany. Plans were made to build seventeen highways and big towns to the north and the south and these towns would do away with the Nazi favouritism towards single family homes and a shift towards closed apartment blocks that surrounded big yards (Larsson, 1978). In terms of the basic principles, Hall says that Speer’s plan showed that incompatible land uses were segregated, through traffic was excluded from residential areas, light and air and space was in abundance. It is important to state that much of this vision was not built and only one ceremonial space was built on the east-west axis (Helmer, 1980). Whilst much of Speer’s plans were not fully implemented, it does not stop us from seeing the relationship between political ideology and urban form in 20th century Berlin. We can see from what Hitler said to Speer, that the priority was trying to impose the ideology first. The preference for huge monuments is clear to see and this implies a state that is all powerful. In my opinion, building these monuments was Hitler’s primary focus in terms of implementing his ideology and the people’s needs were of a lower priority. The focus on monuments is apparent throughout the plans especially when looking at housing. Hall said the plans showed housing that resembled apartment blocks with big courtyards. Courtyards in apartment blocks are designed for the people living there to gather and socialise. Similarly, people gather at huge monuments because they mean something to the people. So we can see that if the vision had been implemented then the ideology behind the design would not only have occurred in public space but also in a subtle way, entered people’s private space. Where Hall describes the Nazi  aim of creating the ultimate ‘City beautiful’, Koshar (1991) prefers to describe Nazi Berlin as ‘city as Stage’. Nazism was in favour of heritage preservation and introduced legislation in 1936 aimed at creating stricter guidelines for new buildings and adapting old buildings for more up to date uses. The aim for the Nazis was for the city and urban region to retain their function as spatial settings for commodity production but without liberal capitalist, Jewish and Marxist influences. National Socialism tried to disengage the city from ‘historical contingencies’, giving rise to the metaphor for the city as a stage where actors wer e the masses and Hitler was the star (Koshar, 1991). The relationship shown in the case of Nazism is one where the political ideology is dominant in everyday life. From Hall and Koshar’s ideas one can see that Hitler wanted complete power and that people should be aware of this power through certain changes in urban form such as heritage preservation. Exclusion of modern buildings would eliminate the idea of capitalism from people’s minds. Under Nazism, there seems to be a preference for segregated areas in Berlin, in terms of function. This idea of Nazi dominance, power and control would suggest knowing that an area only had one function would make it easier for authorities to control. In one sense it can be misleading explaining about Hitler’s influence on urban form in Berlin seeing as many of his ideas did not come to fruition however the nature of some of his plans tells us that political ideology had a great influence on his thinking about urban form. I will now look at the relationship between political ideology and urban form after the second world war, specifically just before and during the Cold War period. In the case of the GDR, the authorities wished to show their ideology and demolished the city palace of the Prussian kings in 1953 and erected the Palace of the Republic, which was open to the public. The reminders from the past were destroyed and new projects were designed such as Karl-Marx-Allee. Here we are seeing the construction and demolition of remnants as a way of the political ideology to express their ideas on the land usage aspect of urban form. Top- down processes lead to this acquisition of political attitudes in the GDR as well as the case of nationalism with the Nazi party (Lost et al. 2009). It is important to note that transport also constitutes urban form and transport policy can affect urban form. The literature has so far primarily focused on the land use policy and not enough attention has  been alloc ated to transport. Urban design in East Berlin was contradictory to what one might expect. There was a shift towards traditional design as seen in Gendarmenmarkt with its baroque style buildings. This has prompted Urban (2009) to question the GDR regime and its sudden change in thought from a modernist approach to urban design, which was seen at the time to be the only appropriate expression of a socialist system, to a focus on historical buildings. Urban does not explicitly mention the reasoning behind the change so it is important to bear in mind that other factors could have affected the change in urban design. Of course, this does not stop us from making assumptions based on facts. The launch of an ambitious housing program in the 1970s resulted in many old buildings being renovated and the majority of these were built on the periphery of East Berlin. The socialist policy in the 1970s was to go ahead with the abandonment of German reunification and this allowed socialist leaders to use certain pre-socialist traditions as their own. In essence, this means that socialism was increasingly evident in the urban form and signs of German history could be removed. Monuments returned to their original position such as the one of Prussian King Friedrich II on the boulevard of Unter den Linden. New socialist principles are partly behind such moves and this was said to guarantee ‘joy of life, aesthetic pleasure, social activity, and high performance’ (Urban, 2009). Unter der Linden is an interesting case to look at because it has been described as the most interesting and important boulevards in the history of twentieth century design (Stangl, 2006). Its importance means that it is a valid location to research when discussing the relationship between political ideologies and urban form. After the Second World War Unter der Linden became a battleground for the competing socialist and capitalist ideologies. Communists and leading German elites had a considerable effect on the urban form in many different ways. As mentioned by Urban (2009), Stangl says that historical buildings were preserved and this was intended to show the strength of the new system. Socialist- Marxist ideology was essential to this. The East German state wanted urban form to be incorporated into the building of the state. Why might they emphasise urban form as a key expression of their ideology? You could say that the urban landscape shows change and certain urban landscape expressions such as monuments and old buildings carry significant social meaning. As mentioned  before, the monument of the King Friedrich II was moved to Unter den Linden. The ideology has influence over urban form as the monument has been moved and has been reinterpreted to legitimise state thinking so from this we can deduce that ideology plays an important role in the interpretation of the urban landscape. It is important to note that Stangl’s use of Unter den Linden as a case study is particularly interesting mainly because, contrary to the views in West Berlin at the time, socialist planning was not a unified vision from Marxist ideology but rather it was a series of compromises between different strands of socialism and communism. A criticism of Stangl is that he does not mention whether this compromise is seen in other parts of East Berlin. Whilst using one of the most important boulevards in the twentieth century makes his assumptions more valid, it would have been useful to know a brief picture of whether this was the case in the whole of the city, after all the discussion that is taking place is of Berlin and not just a small fragment of it. So far I have looked at political ideologies before and after the war when Berlin is divided. After the war, there is an emphasis on preservation of historical buildings in certain parts of Berlin and the urban form is such that it deliberately reflects the ideology that is dominant. With Unter den Linden being a relatively central, the strategic location of buildings and monuments is important hence the King Friedrich II monument was relocated. The political thinking at that time prioritised Marx-Engels Square as a place for parades and what you would see from there is the historical buildings of Unter den Linden (Stangl, 2009). People would watch the parades and associate the buildings with the ideology of socialist realism. The influence of political ideology over urban form can be noticed in this instance. One can see that socialist ideology is very clever in that it does not change the urban form a huge amount however by preserving what was in the past, it can change the historical meaning and apply its own interpretation. Simply put the designers original intentions are thrown away and replaced. Finally I briefly look at Berlin after reunification in the late part of the twentieth century. After the fall of the Berlin wall and moves to unite Germany in 1990 there was a considerable shift in political ideology. Now it was a capitalist dominated approach and this had effect on the urban form. Kujath (2005) talks about how the unification meant that two separate states were  founded, Berlin and Brandenburg. It restructured to make economic clusters for the core region. There was spatial redeployment of manufacturing plants from the core to the suburbs; many new shopping malls were built in the suburbs as were warehouses for logistics providers. You can see the core of the city is providing knowledge services and suburbs providing other useful services. Conclusion I have looked at three different political ideologies, Nazism before the war, socialism in the GDR and briefly touched unification and capitalism. Each had a different approach to urban form. Nazism and Socialism had similarities in that both resorted to keeping historical buildings however much of Hitler’s stuff could not be built. From all three we know that political ideology is effective when expressed upon the urban form hence it has its greatest influence however for some like Nazism this can be misleading at it was very influential in terms of their control over people but hardly any of their plans were built. REFERENCE LIST Anderson, W.P., and Kanaroglou, P.S., and Miller, E.J., (1996) Urban Form, Energy and the Environment: A Review of Issues, Evidence and Policy Urban Stud 1996 33: 7 Kuhn, D. (1992), Science as argument : Implications for teaching and learning scientific thinking, Science Education, 77, 3, p.319-325 Denzau, A.T., and North, D.C., (1994), Shared Mental Models: Ideologies and Institutions, Kyklos, 47, 1, p.3-5 Ellger, C., (1992), Berlin: Legacies of division and problems of unification, The Geographic Journal, 158, 1, p. 40-45 Blockmans, W.P., (2003), Reshaping Cities: The Staging of Political Transformation, Journal of Urban History, 30, 1, p7-12 Hall, P., (1996), Cities of Tomorrow, p.86-90, Blackwell Publishers, Cambridge, Massachussets, USA Larsson, L.O., (1978), Die Neustalgung der Reichshauptstadt: Albert Speers General bebauungsplan, Stockholm, Almqvist and Wiksell Helmer, S.D., (1980), Hitler’s Berlin: Plans for reshaping the Central City developed by Albert Speer, Ann Arbor, University Microfilms Koshar, R.J., (1991), Altar, Stage and City: Historic Preservation and Urban Meaning in Nazi Germany, History and Memory, 3, 1, p. 30-34 Lost, J.T, and Federico, C.M., and Napier J.L., ( 2009), Political Ideology : Its structure, functions and Elective Affinities, Annual Review of Psychology, 60, p. 307-18 Urban, F., (2009), Neo-historical East Berlin: Architecture and urban design in the German Democratic Republic 1970-1990, MPG Books, Great Britain Stangl, P. (2006), Restorting Berlin’s Unter der Linden: ideology, world view, place and space, Journal of Historical Geography, 32, 2, p.352-370 Kujath, H.J., (2005), Restructuring the Metropolitan region of Berlin- Brandenburg: Economic trends and political answers, URL accessed: http://globus.igipz.pan.pl/wydaw/GP_78_1.pdf#page=62

A Study of Trends in Indian Partition Literature Essay Example for Free

A Study of Trends in Indian Partition Literature Essay The Partition of India was the geographical division of colonial India into two bordering nation states of India and Pakistan based on religious demographics.1 It was proposed as an unsavoury but necessary accompaniment to the Independence of India from the British Empire. However, it was not only a diplomatic and administrative exercise but rather had a long-lasting psychological impact on the human population of these areas. Though Bapu2 was firmly against this idea, it was reluctantly accepted by Nehru and Jinnah as the only solution to the growing communal divide between the Muslim and Hindu communities. 3 However, what the political class had never predicted was the unprecedented amount of bloodshed, violence and widespread civil unrest that followed in its wake. Even years after this event, the perpetrators and the victims are still baffled as to the cause of this â€Å"madness†4 that gripped civilized society. In the aftermath, historians pretended to ignore it terming it unfortunate but somewhat inevitable while literature tried to come to terms with its bestiality and future implications. The authorial response of the first generation was severely limited however due to a level of emotional attachment and involvement in the subject matter. They lacked perspective and varied in two ways: either they were very brief and lacked empathy or tended to be voyeuristic in nature. The official responses attempted to historicise Partition through statistics, facts and figures while literature, to the contrary attempted to give voice to subaltern perspectives personalising victim narratives. Despite such a movement, it was not until the 70’s that it was realised that hardly any attention was paid to the experiences of women during Partition. There was a deep reluctance to address the gender atrocities committed during Partition and it manifested itself through the invisibilisation of women voices. Although it had been clear from the start that the worst sufferers of Partition violence had been women5, a stoic silence upon the tragic reality had been maintained. Many of these women had led forgotten lives and their trauma suppressed in an attempt to forget the onslaught upon their bodies and minds. Therefore, renewed efforts began to document and portray the forgotten stories of such women. But it was a complex problem in many ways. Partition had had a multifaceted impact on the women of India and Pakistan that not only defined their coming lives but also impacted the future generations as psycho-somatic memories and construction of familial structures post-Partition.6 Literature took the initiative of this task: there were two major strains of women oriented Partition narratives that emerged in the period thus. One school of thought dealt with Partition as a backdrop to the â€Å"larger narrative†. In such stories, the lives of the main characters were highlighted and their lives were allegorised to represent the trauma of the nation itself. The stories of their existence were represented dually: as human beings involved in personal dramas and as social creatures part of a larger mainframe. Their places within the higher superstructure and as creatures dominated by the larger contexts were analysed by writers. A startling example of this was â€Å"The Clear Light Of Day† by Anita Desai which never referred to Partition in specific incidents but rather subtle, broken reflections into the people whose day-to-day lives were affected by the growing communal tension and changing socio-political equations. It refers to the ties of family, friendship, kinship and love that were abruptly ruptured by the literal division of the nation. There were novels such as â€Å"Ice-Candy Man† by Bapsi Sidhwa that looks at Partition from the ‘outside’. The narrator Lenny is imbued with unique qualities that were highly unconventional for the times. She was a child, hence she had a limited worldview, a Parsee, hence not religiously biased and neither a participant, physically disabled, therefore able to sympathise with the suffering of others and, a girl therefore her narration is unapologetically gender-conscious. What she learns, is all by association. The story is a sharp attack on official discourses that denied the suffering of millions of people. Lenny’s story is not only her own but a mirroring of girl-children everywhere that were faced with questions with identity, sexuality, community and nation as a whole and how they shaped individual lives. A child is brutally honest and spares nobody and nothing. She has no inbuilt prejudices so she can speak for those who cannot speak for themselves. As a result of such experimental tales, women felt ready to finally speak up. But, their attempts were met with more resistance than expected. They were themselves reluctant to speak about they went through; it was too painful but combined with societal pressures, their mouths had been almost sealed shut from fear. For daring to break this unspoken taboo, some of them faced severe consequences and were even disowned by their own families for besmirching the family name. But such actions often took a huge toll on their mental and physical health and though they had survived, they hadn’t healed. As a result of mass migration, women were abruptly uprooted from their homes to move to a strange and unfamiliar place. They had to build their lives and homes anew, sometimes with no support system. Many of these women were so bereaved at losing their home and hearth, that they could never recover from this sense of loss. Women in traditional society had since ancient days been tasked with looking after the home. Since they were not allowed to venture outside their domain7, the home had been almost personified for them. It was a living breathing space. The only place which they could rightfully stake claim to and which was a source of comfort and solace for them. They were so tangibly attached to their land that family was synonymous with home and her identity came to be defined by her place in the home. Hence when forced to migrate, their sense of unsettlement and upheaval was immense. They could never return to their past lives and change was not so easy for these women who had never been given the opportunity to trespass their comfort zones. Some stories that movingly illustrated the dilemmas of such women are â€Å"Jadein† by Ismat Chughtai, â€Å"Sikka Badal Gaya† by Krishna Sobti Sahni and â€Å"The Thirst Of Rivers† by Joginder Paul . These women had to undergo the process of relocating their selves. Many women like Bebe from â€Å"The Thirst†¦Ã¢â‚¬  refused to leave their homes assured of its protection from evils outside. However, their families were broken up with some members choosing to stay back and some leaving for a new land. Due to differences in opinion, family members become estranged and refused to talk to each other or had problems meeting each other due to large geographical distances. Often, migrants did not have enough money to travel back and forth and permits were hard to come by. Due to mutual hostilities, communication across borders was sketchy at best. Hence, many a times, a natural void between families occurred. All the while, the matriarch of the family remained a silent witness to events. The family ties that she had spent all her life building up and nurturing were breaking up right before her eyes and she was helpless, unable to act or intervene. Who would listen to her? Partition had served to further communal tension and hardening religious identities than perhaps any event in the history of India or Pakistan. People who had lived together for several millennia with tranquillity were suddenly made conscious of their differences from each other. They who had been friends earlier were suddenly staunch enemies and women bore the brunt of these realizations. In â€Å"Peshawar Express†8, one such incident is narrated when at Wazirabad station, where Muslim, Hindu and Sikh communities had celebrated Baisakhi together for ages becomes a site of base humiliation and gruesome celebration; the women of the Hindu and Sikhs communities were paraded around naked as if they were nothing but objects of gratification for the general public. These women had become mere shells, their souls long dead. In Kamleshwar’s â€Å"Kitne Pakistan†, the author ruminates upon the fruitlessness of Partition and the breaking of bonds of families, love and friendships due to its occurrence. It is the story of a Muslim girl, Bano who falls in love with a Hindu boy, Mangal but is not able to marry him because of religious dogmas. She is told that she will cause communal riots. There is a hidden implication in this viewpoint that seems to say that the cause of every mishappening must be a woman somehow. Rules for men and women in traditional dogmatic societies are different It is ironic that men are not chastised for forcibly marrying a man of the other religion but they will not allow their daughters to choose her spouse on her own and he may never belong to another religion. There is rampant hypocrisy and hollowness in societal mores regarding women. Bano is married off to Muneer who unable to provide for his family with his own hard work resorts to selling his own wife’s body to earn money. The shamefulness of this situation is beyond imagination. These are not falsifications as advocated by fundamental religious leaders but a retelling of many women’s lives. Another kind of psychological trauma that many women underwent was the loss of a child. Many women were forced to leave their children by their husband and children during flight. Children became a burden during this time. They had to be cared for especially with crucial funds required by the family going for their supplies. Also, escapees with children were more vulnerable to attacks by rioters since they not only had to look after themselves but look after their child as well. There are real life cases documented by Urvashi Bhutalia in her book, â€Å"The Other Side Of Silence† wherein women of Muslim as well as Hindu communities were forced to desert their infants that could raise an alarm in the rioters by making noise. Sikh men told tales of killing their children, asking the author, if they should be saving themselves or their daughters? Clearly, man’s inherent selfishness had come to the fore where no one mattered more than the self. Many children were abducted during the widespread chaos to be sold off as domestic help or prostituted in the streets. Women who lost their children during this time were incessantly plagued by guilt and grief. One such woman was Kulsum from â€Å"Pali†9 who lost her child and along with him, her mental balance as well. She was blanketed completely by her grief and only the return of her child restored her sanity. But meanwhile, Zenab who had taken care of her son, Dilip when she found him lost had developed a motherly bond with him and cannot bear parting with him. She knows that she has no biological claim over him but what the mind knows, the heart does not. Eventually, she has to reconcile herself with the reality of her situation. But her life will forever be shadowed by this sadness. Women who were forced by circumstances to give up their child were forever haunted by their own actions and decisions. They were always in search of redemption and peace and could not reconcile themselves to the loss of their offspring. One example of this can be seen in â€Å"The Abandoned Child†10. Infant as well as toddler girls were left by the roadside or killed by their families to avoid making them a target. The life story of one such girl is narrated in â€Å"Where Did She Belong† by Suraiya Quasim wherein the protagonist Munni is not sure of her religious or national identity. She is pushed into prostitution by her so-called ‘saviour’11 , who only wants to use her for economic gain. She is deceived by two of her customers who pretend to love her, but leave her bereft when Partition happens. Nobody asks for her or enquires as to her whereabouts. She is deceived by everyone in her life, ultimately. There were also cases of women who were injured and deceived by members of their own community. People who had been their well-wishers and whom they trusted implicitly, took advantage of their vulnerability and preyed on their bodies. Ayesha’s12 story is the ultimate tragedy of such a ‘lady’13. In guise of protecting her and reuniting Ayesha with her daughter, Nurul takes her with him to Pakistan but betrays her trust by prostituting her instead. She is cursed to a life of assault, on her body and her mind. Her saviour turns out to her destructor. She dies a life of desolation, her own brethren refusing to come to her aid and never seeing her child again. Afroz too in â€Å"I Am Game†14 falls weak due to her instincts of providing and caring for daughter. Seeing no option left for herself and her child, she agrees to prostitution. This depicts to us the sad state of affairs during Partition, when uncertainty and insecurity reigned supreme. Man, woman or children, all had to protect themselves on their own and women for the sake of their families were forced into professions of exploitation to earn their keep. Besides these atrocities, women were also subjected to particularly vulgar sexual attacks. Writers like Ashis Nandy, Veena Das, and Mushirul Hasan describe the bizarre and horrific nature of sexual violence afflicted on women. It was pornographic in its varied forms. Their bodies were mutilated, disfigured, slogans15 branded on them like they were animals, their wombs sliced open and their foetuses savagely butchered. Women were reduced to spoils of war who were never allowed to unburden themselves or be free. They were reduced to a part of the multitude, just one of many. Many victims had been traumatised to an extent that they lost themselves to insanity. They could not cope with their reality. Many underwent derealisation16 wherein after the superficial wounds had mended, they started to deny that anything had ever happened to them. It became something of a nightmare, horrific but fantastical. Literature becomes a cathartic medium for many such women, a chance to narrate their tale. Such memoirs also provided a base for Partition scholars to analyse the feminine subject in social and historical contexts of that time period. Partition has often been termed as the dark underbelly17 of Independence but what it really exposed was the base attitudes of patriarchal Indian society, be it any religion. It revealed how women were equated with the community they belonged to. Though the violence was inter-religious in nature, the modes of inflicting violence were one and the same. All ethics were forgotten in the frenzy of religious vendetta. Revenge was used as an excuse to inflict wounds. They were the contested sites between two opposing factions and were devoid of any agency. One example may be an incident in â€Å"The City Of Sorrow†18 , where a man is forced to strip his sister naked by someone of the other religion. When given a chance to retaliate, he forces his tormentor to strip his own wife naked. Hence, the revenge is complete but ironically, in both cases, the women were the innocent parties who became the medium of exacting justice. They were expected to uphold familial and communal honour and were sacrificed at the altar of â€Å"izzat†19 if they were in danger of being captured by the enemy. The concept of honour was internalised20 hence any stain on it was beyond tolerance by patriarchal society. Therefore, to insult and hurt communal sentiments, it was natural that in order to debase the enemy and shed him of his honour, women of his community were targeted systematically. There were also women who had been indoctrinated to such an extent by religious propaganda that they committed suicide, misled into thinking that they were fulfilling their duty as women. This tradition dates back to the time of ancient Rajputs whose women committed Johar21 to sustain their honour. Hence, it has been a concept propagated throughout the history of religions, Hinduism especially. Bhishma Sahni in â€Å"Tamas† and Jyotirmoyee in â€Å"The River Churning† present such incidents where women of Hindu and Sikh communities drown themselves in wells in order to â€Å"save†22 themselves. Women of the family were the most precious possessions and were to be protected at all costs. However, when they presented an obstacle in the escape of their family, they were brutally â€Å"martyred†23 without compunctions by the family itself. The men of the family did it all in order to save themselves first and to prevent dealing with the hassle of looking after these women. Such people had no conscience in them. This is demonstrated in Shauna Singh Baldwin’s novel â€Å"What The Body Remembers† where the daughter-in-law of a Sikh family, Kusum is mercilessly killed by her father-in-law and furthermore chopped into pieces to prevent her from being â€Å"contaminated†24 by Muslims. Her womb is also removed as a symbolic gesture to signify her being pure25. We can therefore read into the implied fear and repulsion of a child born of an inter-religious union. Hence, Kusum is a victim of her own family’s moral code. Such incidents are not hyperbolic in nature but rather fictionalized accounts of reality. Women who were misfortunate enough to fall into the hands of the â€Å"other†26 and raped by them could never again return to their roots. They were dirtied and treated as untouchable because they had lost their chastity to the enemy. In â€Å"The River Churning†, the protagonist, Sutara is treated as a lower caste untouchable would be27. Though never raped, even staying in a Muslim household had damned her. She had become polluted like Sita. Like Sita, she became a victim of â€Å"social morality†.28 If women had become pregnant somehow, it was even worse for them. They were miscarried forcibly and if the child was born somehow, he or she was never accepted as a part of the family. Women themselves had to come to terms with their reality. They had to learn to let go of their self-loathing which often took root in their minds. They had to live with a child who was a constant reminder of their suffering. Yet, women learned to let go and forgive but their families could not move past this situation. The woman was given the choice of either abandoning her children or her family. Therefore, she was kept trapped in overlapping identities of woman, mother and daughter. There was no time to consider the interests of the self. The children of such women were often physically, mentally and verbally abused all throughout their lives. They were the victims of religious hatred. It left deep scars on their psyche that could never be repaired. They were often castigated for having lived and their mothers looked at with contempt for not having died in order to preserve themselves. Women often started hating their own selves when faced with a constant stream of disgust and repulsion. It is said that â€Å"Rape is the only crime where the victim is held guilty† and these women were the prime examples of this adage. They were made to feel guilty, demeaned and dehumanized to such an extent that they often felt that dying would perhaps have been a better option. Women were at the highest risk of being abducted during migration across borders. These women stranded on the wrong side were forcibly converted and married off to their abductors. They were raped repeatedly or sold off as entertainment. Women were objectified as commodities and their bodies became alien to their own selves. They were not their own persons but mere belongings. Anis Kidwai in her novel, â€Å"Azaadi Ki Chaon Mein† writes starkly about these girls who were nothing but stuff to be shared among the men who were, but slaves of their lust. In his short story, Open It!, Saadat Hasan Manto further elaborates upon the savagery doled out to these women. The main protagonist, Sakina had been ravaged to such an extent that she had lost her personality and her sanity. She was alive only physically, but emotionally and mentally dead. She knew nothing but what she had been forced to go through again and again. Her senses had been so wrecked that she only expects men to want one thing from her i.e. her body. This story presents a horrifying picture to the reader who is compelled to question if Sakina will ever recover from her trauma. Other women were forcibly married off to their abductors and underwent alienation of the self. They were conflicted as to their identities. On one hand, they felt abhorrence for their abductors. On the other hand, such marriages often bore children which caused these women to war with their motherly instincts. Ultimately losing all hope of rescue or restoration, these women had resigned to their life but, again, they were expected to return at the behest of the respective governments of the two countries. Women had become mere tools of diplomatic manoeuvring between the hostile governments who were under immense political pressure to retrieve the population of women that had been left behind or abducted during Partition. One such woman’s tale is narrated in â€Å"Exile†29 where the woman narrator is forcibly married to her abductor, Gurpal, a man who regards her as nothing more than a maid that he brought to serve his mother (Badi Ma). What is even more poignant is the fact that Badi Ma, a woman herself is not able to empathise with her Bahu30 or show kindness towards her. She is merely there to serve their needs, like a tool. Ironically, Gurpal who is clearly devoted towards his mother evidently has no guilt about ill-treating a woman of another community. We can see here the oppressive influence of patriarchal society that does not allow for women to exercise an opinion of their own. The narrator has never been able to accept Gurpal as her husband. In nine years she has never able to understand why her brother, whom she dearly loves has not come to rescue her. She feels lonely and abandoned by her loved ones. She longs for her home and wants her life to end at last so she can be at peace. When the soldiers arrive to rescue her, she knows that she cannot return since she will not be accepted back as a ‘mother’. And she cannot leave her children. Hence she hides from the soldiers. Her apprehension of the other option can be justified by reading â€Å"Lajwanti†31 whose tragedy is shrouded by complete silence. She was treated abominably by her husband, Sunderlal who asserts his domination over her body and mind by beating her like an animal. She bore it all as part of her wifely duties clearly adhering to traditional norms of domesticity. But when she is abducted during Partition chaos, her husband, perhaps, feeling remorse for how he had treated her, became a campaigner for the rights of abductee women. He advocates their rehabilitation and reacceptance into society but when his wife, Lajo is restored to him, he distances himself from her and sets her on the pedestal of a goddess. She feels alienated, lonely and longs for her old life where she could at least interact with her husband. In the present, her husband wants her to forget her sufferings and not to speak of them. But can the past really be forgotten as easily as he wanted it to be? Many women who had built new lives for themselves post-Partition often came face to face with their pasts when their lost loved ones returned back to them. In this situation, what was the woman to do? Should she abandon her present life to return to her past happiness? This is obviously a problem to which there is no clear-cut solution. But it was often expected of women to move on from their pasts and not look back but even they are living, breathing human beings with feelings and emotions. These may be unwanted but cannot be so easily banished from the mind. Women end up feeling conflicted all throughout their lives. One text that accurately depicts one such situation is â€Å"A Visitor From Pakistan†32 where the protagonist Saraswati is trapped between her first husband, Baldev whom she had thought dead; and her husband at present, Sunderdas who had saved her and her parents during the riots. Her own mother chastises her for even talking to Baldev so then who will understand her predicament? She is blamed for something that she is not even responsible for. Partition left a long-lasting impact on the women who witnessed and suffered through it. They passed on the lessons they learned to their daughters hoping for a better future for them. It is an important part of women’s history and it should be analysed carefully to change the conservative thought processes of Indian society to avoid women from becoming subjects of patriarchal oppression and break the repetitive patterns of history. END NOTES : 1. India and Pakistan were divided along the Radcliffe Line with Muslim majority areas seceded to Pakistan and Hindu-Sikh majority areas to India. 2. Mahatma Gandhi was deemed the â€Å"Father Of The Nation† and hence affectionately called Bapu by the general populace. 3. J.L. Nehru and M.A. Jinnah were leaders of the Congress party and Muslim League respectively. They were not agreeable to sharing power in the united govt. of sovereign India and hence the only option was to divide the country with both parties ruling over their majority vote areas. 4. The metaphor of madness was used by many Partition writers like Saadat Hasan Manto in â€Å"Toba Tek Singh† to describe the religious hatred that changed normal people into rioters, rapists and murderers. 5. J.L. Nehru stated this in The International Women’s Conference in 1947 alluding to the extreme violence perpetrated upon women in North India. 6. Ideas postulated by Carl Jung and supported by Freudian theories. 7. Women were kept under purdah and not allowed to meet with people outside the family. Women lived in separate quarters of the house called the ‘antahpur’ which was solely in their control. 8. written by Krishan Chander 9. written by Bhishma Sahni 10. written by Gurmukh Singh Musafir 11. Ironic since Munni’s saviour is herself a victim of circumstances and Munni is just a way to earn more money. 12. â€Å"A Grave Turned Inside Out† by Ibrahim Jalees 13. Ayesha was the lady of a noble family but debased to the level of a common prostitute. Shows that societal hierarchies were suspended during Partition. 14. written by Sultan Jamil Nasim 15. The slogans Hindustan Zindabad and Pakistan Zindabad were carved onto their bodies as validating gestures of the victimiser’s own national identity. 16. Derealisation is a psychological condition where the subject deludes himself/herself into thinking that their present reality is illusory and unreal and that reality is different. 17. Independence was achieved after a long struggle, so there was jubilation among the people but at the same time, this happiness was marred by the grief of Partition and its aftermath. 18. written by Intizar Hussain 19. Izzat is one of the basic concepts of Hindu womanhood where a woman’s honour is defined by her chastity and any outrage of her modesty stains her honour as well as her family’s. The family’s honour is an extension of the woman’s honour. 20. Internalisation is the process of integration of certain values as part of the self-identification. It becomes a part of one’s self-image. 21. Johar is the ancient Rajput tradition of women jumping into huge fire-pits to save their honour from the enemy’s army if defeat seemed imminent. 22. Women jumped into wells to protect themselves from rape and mutilation. Dying chaste was preferred to living a life of humiliation. Hence, they were saved in the eyes of society. 23. Women who committed suicide were venerated because they were believed to have died for a noble cause. Hence, their deaths received social sanction and appreciation. 24. If women were raped, their bodies no longer remained solely of their religion. And, hence, inter-religious taboos were applied to such women. Hence chopping of the bodies signified that no one of the other side had had sex with her or would be able to. 25. The womb was removed to signify that it did not carry a Muslim bastard child and her ability to do so is removed from her. 26. During conflict, the opposing faction is alienated and presented as someone strange and unfamiliar to the minds of the mob. This requires dehumanization of the people from the other side so that they do not evoke emotions of sympathy. 27. The taboos associated with untouchability are not allowing them to eat and drink from the same vessels and prevent from touching them. 28. Sita was banished from Ayodhya because even though she was pure, the people of Ram’s kingdom did not believe her. Doubts were cast on her character since she had lived in Ravana’s Lanka for a long time. 29. Written by Jamila Hashmi 30. When a bahu arrives in her marital household, she is bedecked with jewels, dressed in finery and serenaded by shehnai. She is full of happiness and hope. Here, the narrator is exactly opposed to this situation and yet, ironically she has become the bahu of a family. 31. written by Rajinder Singh Bedi 32. written by Ramlal BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. â€Å"Partition In Fiction: Gendered Perspectives†, Isabella Bruschi, New Delhi, Atlantic Publishers Distributors (P) Ltd.,2010 2. In The Heat Of Fratricide: The Literature Of India’s Partition Burning Freshly (A Review Article)†,Jason Francisco 3. â€Å"Stories About The Partition Of India†, Vol. 1.,Ed. By Alok Bhalla, Delhi,Harper Collins, 1994 4. Re-Membering Woman: Partition,Gender And Reorientations, â€Å"Narrating Partition:Texts, Interpretations And Ideas†, Sukrita Paul Kumar, Indialog Publications,2004

Changes to Spending Capacity in the US Under Obama

Changes to Spending Capacity in the US Under Obama TABLE OF CONTENTS (JUMP TO) HAS THE SPENDING CAPACITY OF AVERAGE AMERICAN INCREASED UNDER OBAMA? CONCLUSION APPENDIX TABLE OF FIGURES Figure 1: Spending capacity presentation Figure 3: Spending in various sectors TABLES Table 1: Comparison between the spending capacity of Bush and Obama HAS THE SPENDING CAPACITY OF AVERAGE AMERICAN INCREASED UNDER OBAMA? There has been a drastic change in the economic condition of America under the political control of Obama. As per the statistics revealed in several of the sources, the spending of the Americans has fluctuated in some of the sectors (Hewitt 2012). As per the average spending calculated in the year 2012, the people are ready to spend  £489 in a week to complete their demands and desires whereas a decade ago, the spending was  £526 in reality. This change in the figures is due to the recession in States[a1] (Garon 2012). People have reduced their travelling expenses as the petrol rate has shown a rise in few years (MATT CHORLEY 2013). On the other hand the public has shown an interest towards clothes and many other things. The spending towards the gym membership and regular holidays has also increased to some extent. Figure 1: Spending capacity presentation (Source: mail online) As per the data of the last two years are concerned, people have spent in housing fuels and power  £66.40 in 2011 and  £68.00 in the year 2012 which clearly shows an increment in the spending. Along with this, there is also a decrement in spending on transport in 2012 than in 2011 (MATT CHORLEY 2013). The total spending in the year 2012 for transport was  £64.00 whereas in 2011 it was  £67.20. As per as the recreation and cultural section is concerned, there is a demotion in the spending in 2012 as compared to 2011. The figure of 2011 is  £64.00 whereas the figure of 2012 is  £61.50 which clearly shows a decrement in the values (MATT CHORLEY 2013). On the other hand, there is an increment in the spending of food and alcoholic drinks in the year 2012 that is  £56.80 whereas in 2011 it was  £56.60. At last, as far as the clothing and footwear sector is concerned, there is an increment in the year 2012 represented as  £23.40 whereas it was  £21.90 in 2011(MATT CHORLE Y 2013).[a2] In comparison to the spending capacity at the time of Obama with that of Bush, there is huge difference. In 2014, Obama declared the budget of $3.78 trillion where as in case of 2008; the budget revealed by Bush was 27% less than 2014. The spending done by Bush was more of a ravage than what is done in the era of Obama in Democracy. There was a trap cost included in the year 2008 with the budget and that is the reason behind the distort picture of budget growth. The spending figures revealed that there was a jump that was from $1.86 trillion in 2001 to $2.98 trillion in 2008 whereas the major thing was that in the year 2009 when the new president Obama came to power, the jump was recorded as $114 billion. In overall the actual comparison of the spending growth can be clear with the table given below:- Table 1: Comparison between the spending capacity of Bush and Obama Figure 3: Spending in various sectors (Source: mail online) Considering all the section on a separate manner, it has been analyzed that there has been a growth of 5 percent (Kuttner 2008). The figure recorded in the earlier years was 29 percent but as per the valuation of the current year, the figure is recorded as 34 percent. As per the research it has been found that on an overall basis there is a decrement in the spending due to the effect of inflation. In 2006, the spending was calculated as  £526.40[a3] (Kuttner 2008). If the transportation sector is considered in the research, there is a drastic downfall i.e. in 2001-02 the total spending in the field of transport was  £82.10 whereas in the current year it is almost  £64.10 (Garon 2012). Subdividing the total spending of the food sector, there is a distribution of spending between the veg and the non-veg section. The total spending on meat and fish is  £15 and in case of vegetable it is  £4.20. The total spending on the fresh fruits is  £3.20[a4] (Garon 2012). There are some of the graphs that are related to the discussion done above:- (Source: mail online)[a5] (Source: mail online) (Source: mail online) (Source: mail online) (Source: mail online) On a critical note, the spending in the year 2014 has increased. As per the report presented by the TD Securities economist Gennadiy Goldberg, without the increment in the wage rate, the growth in the field of spending will not last for a long time (Hajnal 2010). Taking in to consideration the government report has been analyzed that the spending of the Americans increases in the month of November and therefore the investment is seen in the field of electronic and healthcare. The value is estimated to be 5% rise in the following products. The automobile industry is also responsible for the increment in the spending of Americans. By determining and assessing the spending of the Americans, it can be stated that the American have made themselves free from the tension of rise in payroll tax (Okonkwo 2007). In the year 2014, the economic recovery of the U.S. will get accelerated as there is rise in the consumer spending. Along with this, the gross domestic product of U.S. has grown to 70% . There are high rate of job creation and development in the manufacturing sector in U.S. The upward fluctuation in the graph of consumption is also a positive sign for regarding future growth. As per the research of Alan Ruskin (head of currency strategy at Deutsche Bank Securities), there is a need to include the consumers. There is a 0.2 percent of increase in the personal income for November and 0.1 percent for October. This shows that the consumers are trying to sustain spending along with the management of saving (Okonkwo 2007). There are some of the Americans who are active in nature and due to them the consumer spending in the month of September, October, and November becomes high. Due to the regular effect of the recession, the workers are not getting any increment in the wages due and which automatically there is no growth in the spending part also. The Commerce Department’s November Report has declared that there is a downfall in the personal saving rate of the Ame ricans i.e. 4 percent. The savings are equivalent to the saving done by them during the period of financial crisis. There has been a huge growth in the annual rate as compared to the figures of 2005 to 2007. There are some of the reasons behind the increment in the spending part (Okonkwo 2007). The major is the demotion in the tax taken by the government. As the government has relaxed the Americans from the tax part and therefore the savings from the tax are spend in other necessities (MATT CHORLEY 2013). Along with this the government has improved the job opportunities for the public which increased the earnings of the public at the same time. The stock market has also shown a less downward fluctuation in the recent years and due to this the people who are depend on the share market for their earning are secured from getting definite return. But as per research in the economic market, it was analyzed this kind of the initiative of the government was partial to the some of the Ameri can rather than publically beneficial (Okonkwo 2007). In the month of November, the unemployment rate is calculated to be 10.8 percent. As per the report presented by the Labor Department, there are 10.9 percent of the Americans are still in search of a stable job for earning their livelihood. The stock market will also need time to cover the losses made to the shareholders during recession (Greenstein 2004). As per the recent data of the third-quarter gross domestic product, the economy has expanded to a level of 4.1 percent annually and 2% growth rate in the consumer spending. This reflects that there is less effect of all factors associated with the spending as the American has become more confidence to spend more in the upcoming years. CONCLUSION As per the research is concerned, there has been an increment in the spending capacity of the American under the control of the Obama government. It will take time for this government to improve the condition after the effect of double recession in U.S. with the change in some of the factors such as interest rates, housing prices, bank loan borrowing and tax rates, the government will be able to control the management of the total spending of the American and can improve the upcoming years. BIBLIOGRAPHY Garon, S., 2012. Beyond Our Means: Why America Spends While the World Saves illustrate., Princeton University Press. Greenstein, F.I., 2004. The George W. Bush Presidency: An Early Assessment, JHU Press. Hajnal, Z., 2010. America’s Uneven Democracy: Race, Turnout, and Representation in City Politics illustrate., Cambridge University Press. Hewitt, H., 2012. The Brief Against Obama: The Rise, Fall Epic Fail of the Hope Change Presidency, Hachette UK. Kuttner, R., 2008. Obama’s Challenge: Americas Economic Crisis and the Power of a Transformative Presidency illustrate., Chelsea Green Publishing. MATT CHORLEY, M.P.E., 2013. Why your cash really IS going up in smoke: Alarming new figures reveal how families’ biggest cost is now heating and looking after their homes Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2521821/Families-spending-revealed-Biggest-cost-heating-looki. MailOnline news, sport, celebrity, science and health stories. Available at: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2521821/Families-spending-revealed-Biggest-cost-heating-looking-homes.html [Accessed July 29, 2014]. Okonkwo, U., 2007. Luxury Fashion Branding: Trends, Tactics, Techniques, Palgrave Macmillan. 1 | Page [a1]Reference? DONE [a2]Also mention George bush period from 2001 to 2009 then explain and compare changes in spending capacity with Obama period [a3]Reference? DONE [a4]Reference? DONE [a5]These graphs are irrelevant. We are talking about US why you are using UK graphs Delete all

Literature :: essays research papers

In â€Å"Oxford Concise Dictionary Literary Terms† by Chris Baldick, characterization is defined as the representation of persons in narrative and dramatic works which include direct and indirect methods in inviting the readers to infer qualities from characters’ actions, speech, or appearance. However, modals in literature context serve as an eye opener to the personality and traits of the characters in short stories. It enables the readers to learn of the characters’ abilities, capabilities, prohibitions, obligations and so forth. The appearance of modals in literary texts serves its own specific purposes in accordance to the author’s wish. In David Leavitt’s â€Å"Territory† which describes the relationship between a mother (Mrs. Campbell) and her son (Neil) who is a homosexual, gives me an interest to explore and find out more about the characters. Through the use of modals found in the extract, it enables me to go in depth and examine t he characterization in the story.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Firstly, in paragraph 2, line 1 of the extract, the modal â€Å"must† is used by David Leavitt to show one of Neil’s traits indirectly – â€Å"The last item puzzles him: Pedro. Pedro must be the gardener.† Here, as Neil read through his mother’s daily list found on the kitchen table, he came across the name â€Å"Pedro† which he was unfamiliar with. Eventually, he expressed an assumption which he believed was true. However, instead of using â€Å"could† to indicate possibility, the writer chose to use the modal â€Å"must† to reveal Neil’s inner self which was lacking in confidence and even probably having a strong need of self assurance despite the fact that the modal is meant to express certainty. Thus, the readers are able to know more of Neil’s character as the modal is used to create a reverse effect on the readers as an irony. Secondly, in this extract, Neil the protagonist is presented by the writer as a son who was torn between his own desire to follow his heart or to live up to the society and his mother’s expectations of him. He tried to vision himself as the son that his mother expects of him through the use of modal â€Å"could† – â€Å"He could make a list of his own selves: the child, the adolescent, the promiscuous faggot son, and finally the good son, settled, relatively successful.† (Paragraph 2, line 3)By using the modal â€Å"could†, it gives the readers a feeling that he is capable of doing what he was expected to and it only depends on whether he is willing or not.

Taekwondo :: essays research papers

Do you know what Taekwondo is? Do you know how Taekwondo benefits the practitioner? Do you know Taekwondo is also considered a sport and is an event in many major competitions? When these questions are asked, the majority of the people who answer do not know the correct answers or the complete answer. Although many people do not know much about Taekwondo, there are hundreds of thousands of people worldwide getting involved. Taekwondo is the world's fastest growing martial art, with currently over fifty million practitioners and growing everyday. The majority of the practitioners who get involved do so to learn self-defense. Not only do the practitioners learn self-defense, but they also learn many helpful things and receive the benefits that Taekwondo has to offer. Also, Taekwondo has become a sporting event in many major sporting competitions. But mainly, Taekwondo provides people with sporting and self-defending ability and gives that person an edge in daily life, with its merits a s a martial art sport of self-discipline.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  First of all, Taekwondo teaches the practitioner self-defense, which can be used for a lifetime. Many of the self-defense techniques taught stimulate many real life situations so the person would know what to do when caught in a similar situation. Also, because not everything can be taught for all situations that arise, many basic techniques, rules, methods, and concepts are taught and emphasized. On the other hand, self-defense practice includes doing everyday drills, forms, and sparring. Self-defense training does not always have to be 100 percent self-defense training. Although, you really do not get instruction on self-defense when doing drills, forms, or sparring, those practices are just another way of learning self-defense and improving your skill of self-defense. Basically, all the instruction concepts, techniques, and rules of Taekwondo teach a person self defense in one way or another.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Second of all, Taekwondo is classified as a sport along as being a martial art. Because Taekwondo is classified as a sport, Taekwondo is sometimes referred to as a martial art sport. There are many reasons why Taekwondo has become a sport. A few reasons are because the popularity that Taekwondo has received is overwhelming, the organized athletic competition (similar to boxing), and the push to consider Taekwondo as a sporting event by many practitioners, masters, instructors, and officials of organizations worldwide. Many athletic competitions are starting to or already have included Taekwondo as an official event.

Videogames and Violence Essay -- Violent Games Ethics Morals Essays

Videogames and Violence In 1979 the United States was vehemently attacked by aliens from outer space, an event that was to forever change life on our planet. The release of Space Invaders for the Atari Video Computing System became an instant hit. Kids stopped listening to music, playing sports or going to movies, choosing instead to defend the nation from alien attack, from the safety of their television sets. The success of Space Invaders launched the video game revolution as the demand for personal game consoles soared (Atari). Videogames soon became the preferred leisure activity for children, forcing parents and critics to question the possiblibility of ill effects. With the advent of new technology, parents have even more reason to be concerned today. On October 26th of 2001, Sony released its Playstation 2 game console to the public. It features a 300mhz processor with 32 megabytes of RAM and 42 sound channels. Compare this to Atari's 1.19mhz processor with 4k of ROM and mono sound, and it is easy to conclude that today's systems deliver lifelike sound and graphics. Unfortunately these advancements in technology and gaming quality have been utilized into creating games that more often than not contain highly violent plots, action, and graphics, forcing critics to once again question the ethics behind such games. Three students were killed at a Kentucky high school in 1997 by 14-year-old gunman Michael Carneal. Testimony was given in a Congressional hearing on violence in videogames that Michael's only experience with handguns came from playing video games (Rattiner). On April 20, 1999, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold launched an assault on their schoolmates of Columbine High School, murdering 13 and wounding 23 bef... ... and Aggressive Thoughts, Feelings, and Behavior in the Laboratory and in Life." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Vol. 78, No. 4, 772-790. April 2000. http://www.apa.org/journals/psp/psp784772.html "Atari Video Gaming System." http://retrogamer.merseyworld.com/atari2.htm Cesarone, Bernard. "Video Games and Children. ERIC Digest." ERIC. 1994 http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed365477.html Cesarone, Bernard. "Video Games: Research, Ratings, Recommendations." ERIC. November 1998. http://www.ed.gov/databases/ERIC_Digests/ed365477.html Choi, Suzanne. "Computer Games and Violence: A Child's Friend or Foe?" University of Calgary http://www.ucalgary.ca/~dabrent/380/webproj/sue.html Rattiner, Marlen. "Video Game Violence." About.com 29 March 2000 http://videogames.about.com/games/videogames/library/weekly/aa032900a.htm

Farenheit 451 Reflection

Reflection #1 Cipriano Echavarria Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury Pg. 72 â€Å"You can’t build a house without nails and wood. If you don’t want a house built, hide the nails and wood. If you don’t want a man unhappy politically, don’t give him two sides to a question to worry him; give him one. Better yet, give him none. Let him forget there is such a thing as war†. (72) Censorship has stroked the world for many decades; fearful governments have been hiding information or modifying it to its citizens. Why? Why are governments afraid of the knowledge of their people?Knowledge is power, and throughout history we’ve seen how man is always in search for more knowledge, curious on finding explanations to unanswered questions and on analyzing both sides to a question. Knowledge of people has caused many problems to world governments, many revolutions and wars have started due to the fact that citizens have encountered a new form of thinking. Fahrenh eit 451 portrays a futuristic society in which the government has censored everything, from books to newspapers and from T.V shows to Radio shows. This society never experiments conflict or disagreement because everybody is taught the same things and therefore think the same way. This has made me think on which is actually the best way to rule a society. Is it the way most countries in the world implement, an uncensored and free-thinking way, were due to the different opinions and thoughts many conflicts are created which lead to death, torture and cruelty. Or is it the way shown in the book, were everybody is thought to think the same way.I arrived to a conclusion and basing myself on the Human Rights Declaration, people should be free on what information they want to know and on how they want to think, but they must be taught to respect differences, and to be tolerant in order to avoid conflict. Reflection #2 Cipriano Echavarria Farenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury Pg. 181 I really enjoy ed myself and learned a lot while reading this book. I’ve never liked fiction or realistic-fiction books but I’ve got to admit that this book will make me think twice whenever I’ll have to choose between a fiction and a non-fiction book.The author did a really god job on creating a Futuristic place were many things were associated to reality but had different roles. For example, firemen instead of having to extinguish fire had to create fires which burned books. This makes you think about reality and ask yourself questions about how would society be if roles were inverted, if firemen instead of extinguishing fires created them, if policemen instead of providing security against thefts and murders would attack you, if drugs were legal etc.The book not only provided an interesting perspective on how would a society be if everyone thought the same way but it also gave many lectures about love and friendship. It showed how Montag (main character) didn’t love his wife and that even though he pretended and tried to be happy with her and tried to love her wasn’t able to do it. This made me think about the importance of love, and of never trying to trick your feelings on trying to make them love a person who you really don’t, it also made me think (as harsh as it could sound) if I really loved my girlfriend or if she was just a person who physically and mentally attracted me.Finally the author did a great job in writing many quotes that relates to everyday situations, one of the quotes that I most liked and related to was: â€Å"We cannot tell the precise moment when friendship is formed. As in filling a vessel drop by drop, there is at last a drop which makes it run over; so in a series of kindnesses there is at least one which makes the heart run over. † The author used this quote to explain Montags feelings towards a girl named Clarisse, which after a short time being friends Montag started to love.This quote extreme ly relates to a situation I experienced in the past, my best friend and I let our hearts â€Å"run over† and after many years of being friends we fell in love. Fahrenheit has been probably the book from which I’ve most learned about and the one with I could relate the most; it’s my new favorite book. It’s curious how things in life just arrive in the perfect moment. A week ago I was in the UN model of Barranquilla discussing Extrajudicial Executions and censorship done by the government; coincidentally Fahrenheit 451 is based on different types of Extrajudicial Executions and censorship done by the government.

Organizational Behavior: An Analysis of Helm Fire and Rescue Company Essay

Introduction Organizational Behavior is referred to as the study of individuals and their relative behavior subject to the existing organizational environment. The concept applies in a diverse workplace setting in different ways and had diverse impacts to the organization. Organizational behavior field includes communication, sociology, psychology, and management. The concept is subject to both internal and external factors affecting the organization. The formula for success in business as noted by Millstein et al. (1998, p.7) requires two elements including the external environment and the individual. Major scholars have also noted that removing one of these values is impossible within the organization setting. This paper uses report that analyses organizational behavior issues in the context of fire and rescue services. It applies learned theory in the analysis for a compressive understanding of the issues underlying organizational behavior. Definitions †¢Organizational Behavior – It is the study of individuals and their relative behavior subject to the existing organizational environment (Gary 1995, p.128-129). †¢Organizational Development – it is a planned, organization-wide effort to increase an organization’s effectiveness and viability. It is also referred to as a response to change, a complex educational strategy intended to change the beliefs, attitudes, values, and structure of the organization so that they can better adapt to new technologies, marketing and challenges, and the dizzying rate of change itself (Robert 2009, p.297–299). †¢Corporate Planning – From a company’s perspective, corporate planning involves formulating long term business goals so that the strategic planning of an enterprise may be developed and acted upon (Millstein et al 1998, p.7) †¢External Environment – They are the conditions, entities, events, and factors surrounding an organization which influence its activities and choices, and determine its opportunities and risks (Francis & Fred 2009, p.69-76). †¢Stakeholders – These are persons or groups that an organization perceives itself to hold accountability to (Robert 2009, p.297–299). Helm fire and rescue company, provides fire and rescue services in Virginia state. The company has been in the market for  over four years since its start. Over the years, the company has grown and has expanded its services to other states including California and Las Vegas. Over the years, the company has survived the highly competitive market, which have been established across the respective states offering fire and rescue services. The company has employed at least 25 employees in every station across the states holding diverse responsibilities and assigned roles. Its competitive nature and su ccess has been attributed to appropriate handling of organizational Behavior aspects and the strong capacity of streamlining both internal and external elements (Gary 1995, p.128-129). Helm fire and rescue service is organized principally into the two key functions including service delivery and service support both managed by selected managers by the board of directors. The functions are supported by the corporate planning and finance department and the people and Organizational Development department also managed by respective individuals. All the teams operating within the company including the respective departments and fire stations are within the identified areas. The entire team is led by the chief executive officer and his assistant with other departmental heads following the hierarchy including head of communications, head of community fire protection, head of community safety, and the head of unitary performance. The case analysis revealed four principal components as critical to a successful effective organization. The case identified these components as the way in which governance of an organization is facilitated, how it attains and establishes its obj ectives and goals, if it promotes ethics, and if the company maintains healthy organizational aspects. The findings provided from the analysis indicated that a Helm fire and rescue service was an effective organization though in some of the departments, it required improvements. Francis and Fred (2009, p.69-76) was of the view that management must continuously be the main element palpating the pulse of the specific organization and at all times know their opportunities, threats, strengths, and weaknesses. They noted that four cardinal contributors to a success within an organization are the way in which that particular organization is governed, the way it attains and establishes its goals and objectives, its strategies to promote ethics, and if the strategic maintenance of aspects that reflect a healthy organization. To effect change and allow for full operations to take place  at Helm fire and rescue services management has been the key element of consideration. Helm fire and Rescue Company has its mission as being effectively saving property, lives and the environment. The strateg ies implemented to accomplish this mission, and the identified values are subject to management (Millstein et al 1998, p.7). These aspects drive the organization, and management is facing a herculean challenge (Robert 2009, p.297–299). However, the company has thrived in operation with the management facilitating periodic evaluation of diverse components of the organization including success and failure in the year’s operations, communication between departments and environmental conservation. Due to external forces of globalization Kimberly (2009, p.87–110) noted that, in today’s changing environment, it is critical that an organization conducts diagnosis, assessment, audit or evaluation of its operations to analyze whether it is on the right step of success. Helm Service Company has valued this aspect, and it is working hard to oversee that its operations conform to international standards. These external factors have called for the organization to restructure itself and conform to the rapidly changing market. Kimberly (2009, p.87–110) also noted that the main external factors affecting firms in the modern day include competition, changing customer expectations and globalization. In this context, helm rescue services also have faced such factors in its external environment. Technological improvements have been on the frontline of the company’s management, which has been adopted within its services (Gary 1995, p.128-129). These improvements have been targeting rescue service processes geared towards meeting its goals and objectives. The company has also changed its structures to fit efficient rescue services that will also provide safety to for its employees. The structures have been laid including diverse administrative and legislative arrangements (Robert 2009, p.297–299). The fire service company has undergone changes since the beginning of this year with significant indications, a process that has been exacerbated by devolution of the state’s central government powers and the introduction of new legislation policies guiding companies in this line of operation. Other leading external factors that have contributed to change being effecte d in the organization include changes to operational procedures particularly in the modern era of terrorism attacks and threats across the country. Strategic organizational assessment Francis and Fred (2009, p.69-76) has involved the respective teams within Helm fire Service Company assisting in identifying and finding the real organizational problems. The teams have cooperated to express concisely the way forward for the organization in its expansion of services (Silverthorne 2004, p.592–599) to other states. The strategies adopted in organizational development include an introduction of free services that are categorized under exceptional services that are charged for by other service providers. The company has also established additional services free to the end user especially to be used in the case of an emergency. With such strategies the company handles the competitive market appropriately and it has been thriving well across states with its operations. Robert (2009, p.297–299) noted that organizational assessment is a excellent facilitator of organizational change and what is acceptable in enabling organiza tions to continually improve and develop their performance capabilities. In its structural reforms, Helm Service Company has also looked into governance issues. Governance is a broad concept used in the organization to define an organization’s exercise of control or authority and the management system (Gary 1995, p.128-129). In general, governance is the internal means through which a firm establishes policies which are ideal in determining control mechanisms, establishing decision-making processes, allocating power, and setting up procedures that help to perform specific tasks (Francis & Fred 2009, p.69-76). At Helm fire and rescue service, governance has been transformed to comprise of the internal relationships with a strong consideration of its stakeholders, managers and boards of directors. Organizational governance is what Helm has embarked on indulging a process that involves consultation by administrators as well as other governing boards in all decision making to ascertain that decisions made are appropriate for the company’s growth and development of a competitive edge. Conclusion The concept of organizational behavior applies in a diverse workplace setting in different ways and had diverse impacts to the organization. Organizational behavior field includes communication, sociology, psychology, and management. The concept is subject to both internal and external factors affecting the organization. At Helm fire and rescue services, this concept  has been applied diversely and it has worked for the company in improving its performance and sustaining growth within the market. Proper application of the concept has also worked well for the company in sustaining its competitive advantage across the market, which is ideal for its long-term survival. References Francis, J. & Fred, D 2009, A newer organizational behavior, in Francis, Y. and Fred, D. (ed.) Multi-Level Issues in Organizational Behavior and Leadership (Research in Multi Level Issues, Volume 8), Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.69-76. Gary, D 1995, Managing Organizations in an Era of Change, Florida: Dryden Press, pp. 128-129 Kimberly, E 2009, the effects of social comparisons on managerial career satisfaction and turnover intentions, Career Development International, 14(1), pp. 87 – 110 Millstein, Ira, et al 1998, Corporate Governance: Improving Competitiveness and Access to Capital in Global Markets, London: OECD. p. 7 Robert, L 2009, Positive Organizational Behavior, Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 30(3), pp. 297 – 299 Silverthorne, C 2004, the impact of organizational culture and person-organization fit on organizational commitment and job satisfaction in Taiwan, Leadership & Organization Development Journal, 25(7), pp. 592 – 599