Gary Paulsen’s novel “Hatchet” Essay

In Gary Paulsen’s novel hatchet the protagonist Brian Robenson develops many new skills after his plane crashes into the Canadian wilderness. It is his ability to make a fire, build a shelter and make new tools that enable him to survive. During one of the nights when he was stuck in the Canadian wilderness a porcupine went into his shelter and he felt it he through the hatchet as a reaction which hit the rock and made a spark he woke up the next morning, remembering what had happened during the night, sparks, fire, I I can make a fire with my hatchet and the rock, it took a fair few tries but he eventually got it on the fire lasted till the day he got rescued, during all those days he was stuck out there â€Å"he had to keep hoping† because if he gave up he wouldn’t of gotten rescued and it could have ruined the book. After the crash it took him about a day to realize had to build a shelter this would help him survive it could maybe protect him from the wild animals and definitely protect him from the bad weather, he finds a rock/cave type thing and ends up having to re-build his shelter a few times due to animals wrecking it. Through the novel hatchet , Brian makes a couple of spears and catches all different animals, sometimes he ate the food raw or cooked it on the fire some of the time, it depended what it was, he ate the turtle eggs raw, but cooked the bird. When Brian is stuck in the Canadian wilderness he needs a fire and shelter and food to survive if he didn’t have them three things he would have only lasted a few days tops, he could of died of hyperthermia or starvation and he wouldn’t of been saved, and if he dies it would of ruined the book.

Financial Statements Essay

There are four basic financial statements that companies use. They begin with income statement, statement of owner’s equity, balance sheet, and the statement of cash flows. Company’s use income statements to report how much money they have made and how much they have spent over a specified period of time. The statement of owner’s equity is used to report any changes in equity from a company’s net income or net loss, as well as report changes in the owner’s investments and withdrawals over a specified period of time. The balance sheet is used to report a company’s financial position at any point in time. This statement includes information such as what types of assets and their amounts, liabilities, and equity. The statement of cash flows is the last document out of the four basic financial statements. This statement is used to report how much money a company is bringing in (receipts), and how much they are spending (payments), during a specific period of time. Any changes found in assets and liabilities on a balance sheet reflect the revenues and expenses found in the income statement, which in turn results in gains or losses for a company. The statement of cash flows reports more information concerning the cash assets that are listed on a balance sheet and a linked, but not necessarily the same, as the net income found on the company’s income statement. Financial statements are nothing but numbers on a document when they’re on their own, but together, they provide valuable and powerful information for a company to make very big decisions about how to run their company, and how to make decisions for their company in the future. The information is also valuable for investors to make wise and educated decisions for investing in companies.

Economics of Singapore and Hong Kong Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Economics of Singapore and Hong Kong - Essay Example The Asian countries of India, China Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Indonesia, and Malaysia are notable examples NICs and their dramatic successes in economic growth have often been referred to as the East Asian Miracle. Other Asian countries like China and India have also achieved successes in economic growth. The 'economic miracle' of these East Asian countries is however not exclusive to Asia as countries in the Americas like Chile, Brazil and Mexico have also achieved appreciably high growth rates in their economies and could thus be referred to as NICs as well. It must be said though the growth rates vary amongst all the NICs and as such some growths may be relatively higher compared to others in other NICs. Countries like China, India Singapore and Hong Kong however standout of the rest due to the rapid nature of their growth within a space of about 30 years. Also, the use of NICs is a matter of definition and as such a country like South Africa that was largely secluded f rom the international economy due to its apartheid policies may now be categorised as an NIC by some, while others may classify it as a developed country. This essay will first conduct a generalised or panoramic view of the features that underlie the development experiences of NICs before undertaking a closer look at the experiences of selected NICs. It must be said that though the development experiences may be very varied, some common cardinal features can be seen in the experiences of all NICs. Most NICs were able to achieve high growth rates by instituting market reforms that favoured exports. (Hamilton 1987) There was also a strong emphasis on value added manufacturing that changed their economies from predominantly agrarian economies into industrial and manufacturing based economies. Increased capital investments from foreign and domestic sources played a key role in the development experiences of NICs and so did the development of domestic corporations that could compete with other foreign corporations both on the domestic market and on the regional or international markets as well. (Bhagwati, 1996) Typical examples are the automotive, steel and ship building companies of Korea. Political leadership also contributed significantly to the high growths in the economies of NICs. As stated earlier, though the 'authoritarian' thesis is a disputed one, the fact that relative political stability pertained in the countries that recorded significant growths in their economies goe s to show that political leadership played a crucial role in the development experience of NICs (Combie, 2000). The next segment of this essay will undertake a closer look at economies of Hong Kong and Singapore."Singapore, a leading trading power and financial centre, is one of the quintets of trillion dollar economies of Asia. Over the past two decades, the government has been kept minimum. Still the Government bodies such as sovereign wealth fund Temasek control corporations responsible for 60% of GDP. The distinguishing characteristic of Singapore's Economy is the low level of corruption, stable prices one of the highest per capita gross domestic products (GDP) in the world. The country has open business environment and one of the

NO topic - But it's a subject about URBAN PLANNING Essay

NO topic - But it's a subject about URBAN PLANNING - Essay Example This paper will look into transportation planning, growth management, defense privileges, structural unemployment and its importance for local economic development, challenges to regional planning, and the planning differences between the USA and other nations. Transportation facilitates the movement of people and goods from one place to another. It also controls the growth and economic patterns by facilitating land access. Transportation planning identifies the vital relationship between transportation and other societal objectives. Many urban areas are faced with the problem of traffic congestion. The extensive freeways may provide different collector and express paths to split through traffic from narrow traffic, or individual high-tenure vehicle paths, either as a distinct control on the innermost road or a split roadway, to facilitate easy movement. Induced demand is brought about by reduction in the efficient transport cost instigated by the new infrastructure making movement more suitable. Trucks make up for about 10% of motor vehicles on the road. Trucks are essential to the economy and welfare of society. Business is dictated by trucking, and the logistics sector specifically relies on road transport for picking up commodities and delivering them. Other than pickup and delivery, the truck provides’ other services such as fire protection and snow removal. Growth management refers to methods utilized by the government to make certain that as the population increases their requirements are fulfilled through set up services. The services not only encompass those provided by the government. Other requirements such as the preservation of the natural environment, provision of proper and affordable facilities for accommodation and housing, deliverance of services, maintenance of monuments and museums and creation of spaces for undertaking business

Managing a multicultural workforce and multicultural customers Essay

Managing a multicultural workforce and multicultural customers - Essay Example Managing a multicultural workforce and multicultural customers The functions of human resource management become more varied and complex when the customers and employees are located around the world. Apart from the factors such as technology, economic systems, legal frameworks and industrial relations, the cultural factors also assume great importance in the managing of a global workforce. And the most prominent manifestation of the cultural challenge is the diversity of modern workforce. Thus the human resource in all transnational business endeavors has become increasingly diverse in terms of age, gender, ethnicity, culture, political views, physical abilities and psychological orientation. This essay aims to explore the thesis that efficient management of a multicultural workforce can serve as a pool of opportunities for businesses that cater to a multicultural customer base. The concept of culture is difficult to define in explicit terms. On a broad and generalized level, culture refers to the set of characteristics and features that defines a group and separates it from other groups. The famous social psychologist Florence Kluckholn has defined culture as â€Å"a patterned way of thinking, feeling, and reacting, acquired and transmitted mainly by symbols, and constituting the distinctive achievements of human groups, including their embodiments in artifacts.† The expert organizational scholar Geert Hofstede has described culture as â€Å"the collective programming of the mind that distinguishes one human group from another†.

Nation State and Transnational Entities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Nation State and Transnational Entities - Essay Example This essay stresses that USA is a perfect example of a nation state. Though it is a multicultural society, it is regarded as a nation-state due to the existence of the shared American "culture." It has a territory that is composed of all the states; it also has a government as well as sovereignty. This paper makes a concludion that the European integration process has been characterized by two periods. These are; the Cold War and Second World War. After these two historical events, a majority of the European States recognized the need for cooperation. After the Second World War, Europeans learnt a lesson that encouraged them to test practically benefits that could accrue from European integration. The War had led to reduction of European power. In addition, this decline was an opportunity for the Soviet Union and the US to lead in terms of security, political as well as economic positions. These therefore pushed European leaders to put behind their differences and cooperate. The cooperation was intended to eliminate the causes of war and promote European political as well as economic union. It is worth noting that there were different reasons that motivated them. There was a group made up of states that had been destroyed following the war and were keen on reconstructing their economy as well as reestablish the lost international power. These states were prepared to sacrifice their national sovereignty so as to reach their goals.

Developmental Care Within the Neonatal Intensive care unit Essay

Developmental Care Within the Neonatal Intensive care unit - Essay Example Developmental care also calls for clustering of nursing care for instance carrying out blood pressure and temperature checks to ensure that the babies have longer periods for sleeping. The other strategies used in neonatal intensive care entails turning down the lights in the rooms and providing a quite and dark environment to ensure that infants are able to enjoy maximum sleeping time. In neonatal intensive care, parents are encouraged to visit the infants and adoption of kangaroo care. By adopting developmental care in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs), premature and sick child are able to make a smooth transition from the environment they were enjoying in the womb to the world easily (Abbott and Israel, 2008, p. 80). The area of developmental care within NICUs has been addressed by various bodies that authors and stakeholders in the sector. This paper will be a critical review of the various publications on the topic including a journal by Hamilton, Moore and Naylor; the Bliss initiative by Abbott and Israel and a journal by Sonya Louise. In addition, the paper will critically review the provisions under the Bliss Baby Charter, the Neonatal Toolkit and the British Association of Perinatal Medicine of 2010. Developmental care According to Hamilton, Moore and Naylor (2008, p. 190), developmental care should create a framework within which neonatal care processes are adapted and organised to ensure that they are able to support individual medical, developmental and psychological needs of premature infants and their families. Developmental care has been necessitated by the fact that despite the relentless efforts to prevent premature births; such births are still persistent recurrent with about 6 percent of all lives in UK being preterm in UK annually and these statistics are higher in USA where they are estimated to be 12 percent (Hamilton, Moore and Naylor, 2008, p. 190). Consequently, the demand for neonatal care has increased with more than 70 percent of NICUs admissions resulting from premature infants. In addition to the high costs of providing neonatal care among preterm infants, such infants experience developmental impairments compared to their counterparts. This is explained by the fact that the brain of preterm infants is usually undergoing rapid development and these kids are exposed to a strange environmental setting, repeated invasive assessments and protracted illness (Hamilton, Moore and Naylor, 2008, p. 190). This adversely affects their growth and organisation of hearing, vision and sleeping pattern having long term effects on the neuro-development of the infant. Developmental care exposes parents and premature infants to various stressors and negative feelings for instance guilt, anxiety, helplessness and depression (Hamilton, Moore and Naylor, 2008, p. 190). This is because the highly technical setting and the condition of the premature infant led to the disruption of parental roles and reduces parent-infant relatio nship. To deal with this problems Hamilton, Moore and Naylor (2008, p. 190) proposes the adoption of supportive care to optimise the development and reduce negative impacts of premature births. In light of this, developmental care must involve a range of interventions that will help reduce stress within NUICs including controlling the

Discuss the view that American urban government was more corrupt but Essay

Discuss the view that American urban government was more corrupt but more democratic than its British equivalent in the late nineteenth century - Essay Example Apart from these considerations, questions of class, race and gender, through topics such as the roles of women, the impact of slavery and the experience of immigration, are dealt with. Before delving any further into the differences that marked the individual approaches of urban governance for these two nations, it would be imperative to indulge in a minor ‘scene setting’ exercise. Besides sharing obvious similarities in terms of language, a liberal and cultural heritage, and a democratic political system, Britain and the United States have also had pronounced differences, for their economic, political, and social structures have developed in distinctive ways. If we were to compare and contrast the historical course of the two countries and explore the significance of their similarities and differences over a period of two centuries, we would come up with wide ranging and up-to-date analyses of such issues as industrialization and urbanization, democracy and politics, class and gender, and citizenship and welfare. That brings us straight to the topic at hand: In the late nineteenth century, was American urban government more corrupt, yet more democrat ic than that of its British counterpart? To understand the relevance of the question and its subsequent answer, one would need to consider the social structure of the two countries and justify the description of Britain as a class and America as a status society since the 1870s. This prompts us to explore the responses of the two countries to social problems and, in particular the reasons following which the two countries took such different responses to the question of welfare. Finally, by considering the relationship between welfare, industrialization, democracy, class conflict, social control and ideological change in the two countries, the purpose of historical enquiry and explanation will be reached. A

Impressions of Visiting Vatican Museum Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Impressions of Visiting Vatican Museum - Essay Example Before going into the particular sensations that my senses felt, it is necessary to begin to describe the experience with relation to the mood that I had upon arriving at the Vatican museum. The mood itself was a mixture of feelings that helped to add to the overall experience and the level to which I can recall it. Firstly, I was exhausted from my travels. Secondly, I was fatigued from standing in line under the hot Italian sun for over an hour. Thirdly, I was thrilled to realize the fact that finally, I was going to be able to realize my dream. And lastly, upon entering the museum itself, I was in pure amazement. What greeted my senses was something that is difficult to retell while keeping the experience as powerful as it was to me. Upon entering the museum, I remember the distinct smells that I encountered. It was an interesting medley that recalled the smell of an air conditioner that had just been turned on for the first time of the season mixed with the powdery smell that ston e buildings often have. What was noticeably remarkable was the fact that the museum did not smell like a museum. Instead, it smelled more sterile. This had the combined effect of somewhat distancing the exhibits from the reach of the visitor. Had the location smelled more like a museum, it is likely that I would have in some way met at least a few of my prior expectations regarding the exhibits housed within. One factor that detracted from the overall experience was the sheer number of people that were in the Vatican museum at the same time that I took my tour. Although I expected that such a tourist attraction would be crowded, I had no way of preparing myself for the number of people that I encountered. Unfortunately, at times, the crush of the crowd did take away from the overall experience as I felt that at certain times I was being herded through the museum without having the necessary time to take in the setting and/or the artwork that greeted me.  

Problem statement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Problem statement - Essay Example This problem will guide the research study in understanding the situation of the students, especially with regards to the different semesters of their Bachelor’s degree. In addition, the organization of the research study will have to incorporate the students’ input and requires their cooperation, especially in order to match the different semesters in their degree course to different degrees of motivation. These problems, therefore, requires that the study investigates a group of students over different semesters in their school years. The research question for this study will be; what is the degree of motivation for nursing students across different semesters of their Bachelor’s degree course? Twenty students will be chosen at random from each year of the nursing course, which will make sixty students, and they will be studies across the three semesters of their school year. The research methodology will be a quantitative one with data collected using questionnaires that have a scale of 0 to 10, which will range from not motivated at all to highly motivated, respectively. The data will then be stored in a computer-based database for further Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, or SPSS, analysis. The independent variable for this study will be the degree of motivation that the students, while the dependent variable will be the different semesters that the students attend during the course of their school year. For this study, the non-directional hypothesis will be that there is a significant difference in the motivation of nursing students during different semesters of their degree course. The directional hypothesis will be that motivation of nursing students score more highly during the first semester and during the last semester. The reason these hypotheses were reached is that, it is expected that motivation of nursing

Descartes Free

Descartes Free Will Essay In Meditations on First Philosophy Descartes attempts to explain the cause of errors in human beings. Descartes says that error occurs since the will extends further than the intellect (Descartes p. 39). Thats because our intellect is something that is finite; it is limited to the perception of only certain things. Whereas our will, ability to choose is not limited; it is has an infinite capacity. Therefore we sometimes attempt to will things which we do not have a complete understanding of. Descartes argument, as I will briefly describe, is quite sound, if you agree to all his conditions (being that the intellect is limited and the will infinite). I am not, as of yet, sure if I necessarily agree to the later of his two conditions. I will strive to evaluate different discernments of what will is, and if it is truly free. Then apply it to his argument. But first let me explain Descartes argument on the causation of errors. Descartes discussion begins in saying that errors depend on the simultaneous concurrence of two causes: the faculty of knowing that is in me and the faculty of choosing (Descartes p. 38). I will first tackle the faculty of knowing, or intellect. Descartes says that it merely perceives and understands ideas, which can later have judgment passed on them (see Descartes p. 38). The intellect is limited and finite because it can occur in different degrees. While some people have a simple understanding of a language others have a mastery of its grammar and syntax. But no one can have a mastery of all the mysteries of the universe. Then there is the faculty of choosing, as Descartes calls it, or rather the will. Descartes says that he experience[s] that it is limited by no boundaries whatever (Descartes p. 38). It is seen as infinite because unlike the intellect is does to adhere to different grades. It exists merely as a matter of being able to do or not to do something; to affirm or deny something proposed by ones intellect (see Descartes p. 38). In some cases ones will is unable to make such a decision, Descartes says, not because of a fault in the will but rather because the intellect is lacking complete knowledge of the situation (see Descartes p. 39). It is here that one should be indifferent to passing judgment. If in such a instance indifference is not the outcome an error is most likely to occur. Descartes says that this error will occur only when both work together because alone they cannot produce error. Thats because intellect, in and of itself, only perceives ideas which one knows and error would only occur if one tried to perceive ideas he did not know, which is impossible. The other, the will, in that it acts of itself, is only a utility of choice which alone cannot error. Therefore error and sin occur when both intellect and will work with each other. It is the disproportion between the limit of the will and the intellect that causes blunders. The will, as Ive stated, is a limitless aspect of ourselves and therefore can pass judgment on any proposition brought forth. But the intellect can only clearly perceive and understand very few propositions. As Descartes says it is where I extend it (the will) to things I do not understand (Descartes p. 39) that error is caused. Thats because one is, instead of acting indifferent, passing judgment on things that are not clear in the intellect. A person can easily then turn away from the good and truth given to our intellect by God and partake in sin and deceit (see Descartes p. 39). The finally area that Descartes adds is that in some instances a person can pass judgment on things that arent understood and not produce an error. In those cases the person has still acted in an incorrect manor, but it is just be chance that the correct choice, or judgment was made (see Descartes p. 40). It is here that I have concluded Descartes argument and will now attempt to seek answers to my own questions: If the will is in fact as free as Descartes speaks? If it is actually comparable to that of Gods? And if its ideal state is the same as that of practical use? The first aspect I would like to navigate through is the constraints placed on the ability to choose. One does not have the opportunity to choose freely in an organized society, community or institute. There seems to always be a restriction to the actual amount of choices one has. If Descartes was correct in his assumption of complete freedom of choice and will every option would be available to someone at any given time, in any given situation. But this is not necessarily the condition. There are a few different examples that one can view to comprehend this facet of my argument. Take for instance, perhaps an extreme but an occurrence none the less, people born of poverty do not have the ability to choose to acquire certain things. It is impossible simply by the fact that they do not have the means to get it. There is no choice of purchasing a fifty dollar object if all one has is twenty dollars. I feel though that perhaps Descartes was speaking of another free will, a non-materialistic aspect. Another example one can then try to explain is how in many middle eastern nations individuals are born into a society where one religion is forced upon them. They must live to follow this religion or risk outcast by the community or even death. In such a decision one does not have the opportunity to choose to not follow the religion because, although it may seem available, most choices against the norm bring with them an extreme consequences. Is there really a free will if one knows a consequence to be so evil, or heinous that they really have no choice but to go with the other option. On the other hand if Descartes was strictly speaking of free will in the sense of judgment and affirmation another option arises. One should have the ability to, in a sense, will something even if its not available to him. For example if a person has been convicted of a crime and is going to be sent to prison he can will that he doesnt have to go. Although here is seems that willing something is almost in a way the same as wishing it. But if it does follow that free will is only involved in passing judgment then a person can will whatever they want in their own mind, it doesnt mean necessarily that they will receive it. But one again this illustration is somewhat similar to my previous two, in that, if in actuality a choice will provide no outcome is the choice even there and if not its a limited faculty. The definition of limitless qualities that Descartes affiliates with the will is something that is questionable as well. Descartes, in a sense, contradicts himself when he says that he can see mans image and likeness to God in the ability to choose because both are infinite (see Descartes p. 38). But then says that the faculty of willing is incomparably greater in God than it is in me because of the power and knowledge God uses with it (ibid). So I ponder then if the ability to will cannot truly stand on its on, because by Descartes definition it passes certain judgment on something else, and that something in God is greater, how can one be equal to God. How can His infinite ability be greater than mans infinite ability. By definition there are no degrees of infinite, there is only finite or infinite, limited or limitless. In such a practical aspect I must appeal to my reason and then say that we cannot have an equal will to that of Gods. I say this because Gods willing can partake on any area of knowledge and have a boundless consequence over many things. Where as mans cannot. As I said, that was my practical deduction of our will in comparison to Gods. I was sure to state practical because I do feel there is a great difference between ones free will in a practical sense and an ideal sense. Actually in the practical sense I will be so bold as to say ones will is not free at all. All the examples I have given are practical uses of the will. And all of these examples seem limited for a number of reasons. As I already pointed out, I felt that the comparison between mans will and God will not be equal because in practice will cannot stand unaccompanied. That is why the will is not free or infinite in a realistic way because it never stands by itself. It relies on other faculties that, as Descartes even says, are limited which in turn make it limited. Therefore when people are faced with choices, like in my examples, not all the options are available because of a lack of knowledge or perhaps a constraint placed on someone from his society. If the will was able to stand alone I would agree that it is an infinite faculty but it doesnt. Hence I must also reason that the will Descartes speaks of is not the will that can be used in practice but rather it is an ideal will. In this ideal state people would be able to will anything they wanted, although they would most likely not receive it. In an ideal state I would have been able to will that I did not have to do this paper and not receive and F on it, but I very well know that would not have been possible. But the acting of willing alone would be free and infinite. I now must apply what I have learned to Descartes original argument of error. Since I have concluded that the ability to choose, or will that Descartes speaks of is ideal, this causation of error would also be ideal. Descartes said that when one should be acting indifferent to things and does not is when errors or correct choices by luck occur (see Descartes p. 39). Ideally this would be true, but in actuality many things lead to errors, and prevention of errors as well. Of course I do agree that in many cases mistakes are made because of people make judgments on things they have lack of knowledge of. But errors and sin can also occur when people have no other choice. For instance if a person is held at gun point and told to do something he may very well be passing a false judgment on something he has total knowledge of and in turn acting in error. From the other side of the argument Descartes says that to prevent himself from ever erring he must follow his feeling of indifference and stick with it instead of attempting to affirm or deny something (see Descartes p. 41). But I must also add to this argument that society does place constraints on things to prevent people from committing errors. Therefore it is not entirely internal. So I will conclude with saying that I have no choice but to say, from my reasoning, that in Meditation on First Philosophy Descartes speaks of a very ideal situation which would, in that state, hold true. But in the practical world ones perception cannot be so narrow because there are many facets that contribute to what we can do and why we can do them. Works Cited Descartes, Rene. (1993). Meditations on First Philosophy . translated by Donald A. Cress. Indianapolis, IN: Hackett Publishing Corp.

Art Of Dissolving Boundaries English Literature Essay

Art Of Dissolving Boundaries English Literature Essay The art of dissolving boundaries is what living is all about. 1 Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni, an Indian immigrant woman writer anticipates through her writing to dissolve boundaries among people of different backgrounds, communities, ages and even different world. She spent 19 years of her life in India and learned all the costumes and traditions of her own, thus, she knows her motherland very well. But her migration from one country to another made her comprehend about the feeling of dislocation and homelessness. She felt the adjustments to get shifted from one place, which is your own homeland or roots. Before she became a writer, Chitra Divakaruni was only a simple young woman in a novel country, far away from her own country. She was excited at the prospect studying in America, but forlorn missing her family in Kolkata and the traditions of her culture. For her, it has been such a great attempt just to make it to the U.S. because her very traditional family didnt understand why she would want to leave her home. Ultimately, she was able to convince her family to let her go. In 1976 when she came to the U.S., she went through some incidents and realized the gap between the East and the West. Once while walking down on a Chicago street with some relatives she was horrified when a few white teenagers shouted nigger and hurled sludge at her. This incident deeply shamed that she didnt want to discuss even. But somehow it stayed in her mind and acted as the spur kick her to start writing and then one evening, her five-year-old son Abhay came back from school and tried hard to wash off t he dirt color of his skin. Through these episodes she realized that still there is the sense of other and this made her interest to start writing about her own experience of immigration, which are the same for the many other immigrant women. She identified that people still behave them as alien. Divakaruni said in one of her interviews that, It was a big adjustment, moving from a big city like Calcutta to Dayton, Ohio, which, at that time, didnt have many Indians and was not cosmopolitan; I felt a real sense of being other. People were so startled to see an Indian person in Indian Clothesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. I think all people come to a new country with preconceived notions, so there was an adjustment on both sides. 2 It arouses several views to think about once own identity and roots. The question Where are you from? put her in a shock that people even didnt know about them. It would be really a challenge to get settled in a country where all their lives or their appearance would proclaim them Foreigners. Moving to the United States really made me renegotiate my boundaries and in some ways, even reinvent myself as a woman, says Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni 3. For her, writing is the only way to fight for her self-identity. Before her migration she never thought to be a writer, but later on she felt that whatever feeling she had that was also the same for many-many other immigrant women and she wanted to share it with her readers. That understanding taught Divakaruni that she had stories to tell- stories that could get people together and disclose the common humanity in everyone. The totally new experiences or environment turned her into a writer. She spotted a light on it by saying, In some ways, I think that immigration made me into a writer, because it gave me a subject to write about. When I lived in India, I was so immersed in the culture that I didnt really think about it. But when I moved halfway across the world, I began to think a lot about what it meant for me to be Indian, and also how immigration changes us. 4 Thats why all the way through her skills she wants to write about the life of immigrant women and their problems of dislocation or cultural clash. By showing her own culture the author would like to remove the gap between the two different communities. She believes that situations, conditions, circumstances or destiny are the same everywhere only the implication and reactions are different. The main theme of Divakarunis work is immigrant conflict and acquired values vs. adopted one. There are so many challenges if someone is writing about two distinct worlds. She says, Its okay to be an Indian person who loves Indian culture but now Im an American citizen and committed to making life in this country better. We need to remain secure in our own identity but participate fully in the culture, politics and daily life of America. The important part of integration is that you dont give up, you share. For me as a writer, a major challenge is to keep my finger on the pulse of both worlds. That means talking to people on both continents, observing them, learning what is changing with them and what remains the same. This also means that Im writing for audiences that are very different. This is difficult, especially as I refuse to explicate culture. 5 Divakaruni has studied both Eastern and Western literature. She likes to bring the two together in her writing. She feels this is the only way to enrich both traditions. She recognized that different readers will take different things from her works. She really likes that her books have different kinds of readers or observers. She would want South Asian or South Asian American audience, who will read the books and think about the issues in their communities and lives. She hopes that her readers will see that though we come from different places, what we have in common is humanity. She conveys her great desire that people may eventually come together and make a better world. This chapter will provide an introduction to Divakarunis essential theme. She writes to unite people by dissolving boundaries among them. She is a bridge-builder between these two different cultures, one is her own motherland India and another is where she is living United States. May be both these communities are different in their traditions, customs and lifestyle but feeling, emotions and sensibility are the same. Yet, over the course of 15 books, her motivation remained clear her books are a bridge of words, an attempt to take a reader to understand both themselves and those they might have labeled other 6. So, being an award-winning poet and author, Divakaruni senses a lot about her early days in America. As a creative writing professor at the University of Houston, she makes an effort to use her knowledge to help out worldwide students to feel comfortable in their new environment. Thus, such understanding of her life directed her to write, first poetry, and then fiction. The author also writes about family, domestic violence, emotional abuse, cultural alienation, and human trafficking. Thus, we can analyze how Chitra Benerjee Divakaruni promotes healthy family relationships. She recognizes the positive aspects of traditional culture or values and its places in family and community. Like her fiction her life walks in a careful line between the two worlds. Six months ago, she shifted to Houston with her husband and two sons from the Bay Area to Texas, where she teaches at the University of Houston. Like the characters in her books, she sometimes finds herself struggling to keep in equilibrium the demands of family and career, tradition and modernity. According to her the solution is to combine the best parts of both but she also knows that it is not always easy. Its really a juggling act. Some days, its clear what the best aspects are, some days its not, Divakaruni said with a warm chuckle 7. The author talked about the boundaries between the two East and West plus the two different cultures and the differences among the psychology of the human being. She wants to get rid of the gap between her adopted land and motherland. She has experienced both of these worlds very well and realized that each has its own positive and negative aspects. India has valuable traditions, enrich culture or ethics and on the other side the U.S.A. has modernity, freedom plus lots of exposure in every field. Her writing relates to her homeland and culture of origin; it shows the powerful relations to the culture of the native soil. She tried to give knowledge to her readers about her origin or identity as well as the experience of her new home, thus, she wants to be an Indian-American. Divakaruni shared her views in one of her articles Indian Born in the U.S.A. that, In my dark kitchen I bow my head to pray for strength for India, facing, on her 50th anniversary of freedom, the severe challenges of poverty and illiteracy and communal violence. And for us all, children of the Indian Diaspora, here on the other side of the world, who have our own challenges. I pray that we may be able to preserve the values weve gained from our past: love of family, of traditions, of spirituality and the simple life. That we may combine them with what weve learned in our new home: energy and enterprise and how to fight for our rights. This, perhaps, is the best legacy we can leave our children: The art of being Indian American. 8 Aug 21, 1997. Hence, the act of migration implies a bodily shifting out of the familiar place and relocation in the new and unfamiliar land. It was due to the colonial impact and its after effect which created uprooted and dislocation of identity. Edward Saids Orientalism (1978) enlarged the range of the post colonial approach by revealing the Eurocentric Universalism which establishes Western superiority over the East, recognized as the other. In other World (1987) by Gayatri Spivak, Nation and Narration (1990) by Homi Bhaba, The Empire Writes Back (1989) by Bill Ashcroft, Culture and Imperialism (1993) by Edward W. Said and such other works accelerated the study of colonialism and its effect on other cultures. They all are stuffs of Western education and living outside from their native environment. They can imagine a pre-colonial at best; mythological motherland in Africa or Asia to articulate or end up expressing a cross identity. Therefore, the native speaker of English language shifted to th e foreign land and tried to create their self-identity, culture, and individuality in an alien atmosphere. All those hardships and obstacles which they have faced provide them a new mindset. All these experiences are well dealt in Diaspora literature. This concept of Diaspora often focused on a forced displacement along with centered on negative experiences in terms of unfriendliness, disaffection, loss, and persecution. Even as their ancestral deficiency is an overpoweringly negative concept, the idea of the Jewish Diaspora describes a community whos socioeconomic, cultural, ancestral and political networks across boundaries of states, and protect a common shared identity. Although transformed by the influence of nearby cultures; for many the dream of return to the homeland provided a fundamental principle of identity. Thus, Central to the concept of Diaspora is the image of a journey; however, not all journeys can be understood as the Diaspora. Diasporic journeys are not the same as casual travel; they are about setting down and putting roots elsewhere (Brah, 1996) crossing geographical and mental borders. These discussions of the Diaspora are inevitably bound up with the notion of borders and territories the arbitrary lines of social, cultural and psychic demarcation. 9 The migration experience does not finish with the point of settlement or agreement; it is handed down through the age groups, consciously or unconsciously making its role to the way in which those Diasporas bargain their existence through societies in which they and their culture is in the minority. Being in Diaspora means living in a cross-cultural circumstance, one in which fusion, change, and expansion are predictable. Those alerts of the complexities of this recognize the notice to redefine their identity and the requirement to discover a medium through which to articulate their progress. In their process of defining and redefining their individuality and the struggle this involves, South Asian women in Britain have had to tackle the combined issues of gender and society. Most of all, Diaspora is understood as transcontinental the socio-cultural collection reminiscence of diasporic people is a community having its ties to a homeland, which establishes the false appearance of an ideal past. Emigrants inhabit their communal imagined homeland, which has its location in another place and time. A longing and affection for the discarded homeland is the driving force, which hypotheses an image of the lost country. Divakarunis depiction of her inherited home has, is committed to region in part, her otherwise lost Indian personality. Her accounts are derived from a memory blurred by the distance of time and space. A settler or immigrant are distanced by space and time, as they no longer reside in their country of ancestry and the inhabitance of language and culture of the birthplace is removed from their daily lives. To synthetically recreate the milieu of the lost motherland is flowed due to wistful and false memories, which are created in part to endure a sense of identity and maintain a link to the disconnected motherland. Currently there are almost 20,000,000 people of South Asian origin living outside of India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, with the majority in Africa, the U.S., the Caribbean, and Oceania 10. Although there are regional differences in their adaptations in many ways, still tried to display a common Indian identity. They may want their children to flourish in their adopted countries, but at the same time they may wish them to accept Indian family values, share their common culture, and get married to other Indians. In other words, many Diasporas living over as tend to reproduce their Indian culture, language, values, and religion as much as possible. People are getting migrated to other countries because of so many reasons; it could be education, business, residential, and so on. Many writers have also migrated to the West and have been producing a large mass of literature in English which is a powerful organ to voice their emigrant sensibility and migrant experience in the West. The inactive social or cultural hostilities, feeling of isolation from their roots and thereafter a steady search for attaching and assimilating these ancestries in the Western surroundings constitute the center themes in their works. Themes of homelessness, migration, loss of identity, exile, culture clash, cultural assimilation, and rootlessness are often discerned in their works with remarkable similarities. The dilemma of these immigrant writers in a multi-cultural circumstance often get combined with their personal suffering due to bias or a sense of rootlessnesss, if they are rejected by their host countries. Indian Americans writers have made their presence felt in American culture, society, business, and even politics. These writers are writing about common people, identity, a feeling of uprooted, immigrant experience, East-West relations, and life in the United States or the Indian Diaspora. Indian American writing broke new earth from the 1970s and so on. With the relation of immigration laws, Indians migrated to the United States in large number. One consequence of this has been a propagation of women writers. They got the right exposure may be because of the modernity and free atmosphere of the foreign countries. In large American cities, one can easily find their books. Their readership has widened, with many women who are reading novels and short stories in order to learn about their own communities. Indian American women authors wrote about the experiences of immigrant life, which became the reading materials for thousands of immigrants. As it is evidence in the works of Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. She has studied both Eastern and Western literature, thus, she likes to bring the two together in her writing; she feels it is a way to enrich both these traditions. Divakarunis books, which are set in both Indian and American, A feature Indian born woman torn between Old and New world values. She gives laser-like sight and skilled use of story, plot, and lyrical description to give readers a many layered look at her characters and their respective worlds, which are filled with fear, hope, and discovery. 11 Most of her work is partially autobiographical and based on the lives of Indian immigrants which she has dealt with. She writes to help people and unite them by breaking down old stereotypes. Divakaruni skillfully expresses the experience or familiarity of South Asians in America. She says that her books are somewhat based on practice plus social observation. But Divakaruni endeavors to interlace such observation with the factor of magic, myth, and ancient culture alongside contemporary culture. She tries to bring a sense of the daily realities of immigrant life and ancient culture together. But she also insists that she doesnt write for a specific spectator in mind. She explains in a soft, gentle tone of voice that, I like to stay close to the story, think about the story, stay close to the characters. I find it distracts me if I begin to think of audience while Im writing 12. Therefore, it shows that she is still attached to her own motherland while adopting another one very well. She only explains her adjustments and conflicts during her journey to the U.S. from India. Divakaruni accepts that both sides have the same problems and circumstances only the way of looking towards those situations are little different. Somehow she realized the frontiers between these two worlds and strived to remove them. Chitra Banerjee has an empathetically personal and boldly imaginative style of storytelling that draws readers into the lives of people across cultures, particularly the lives of Indian and Indian American women. Thus, she has an unusual ability to breakdown different kinds of boundaries, e.g. those between the East/West, prose/poetry, magic/realism, past/present, and native/immigrant. She was able to do all such through the dramatic style and social content of her work. If we look through the geographical point of view there are boundaries or gaps between the East and the West countries, but its all about our psychology only. If we glance it positively and treat all of them as a human being, then there is no boundary as such. No doubt that there is a difference between the culture, lifestyle, atmosphere, customs, and dressing sense; but it doesnt mean that their sensibility is also different. The author tried to show it in the course of her characters that they are able to adopt the new rules of a new country after a lot of adjustments. Divakaruni wants to explain whether they got shift to another country but they have never sensed any boundary between their motherland and foreign-land. They are still attached towards their own roots and homeland. While they have adopted the lifestyle along with the customs of their new home but by some way they still feel the attraction towards their own tradition. Thus, she makes it clear that shifting to another culture or land doesnt mean to leave something; its all about to adopt another home. By her writing Divakaruni illustrates that how difficult it is to remove the border line between East/West and maintain the gap between these two different cultures. Divakaruni brings together wide critical applaud with the publication of her first collection of short stories Arranged Marriage (1995), which pays attention on women who came from India and caught between two worlds. That book also went on to American Book Award in 1996. Many characters in Arranged Marriage deals with this rapid transform in worldview, at once exciting and also horrifying. They have to build a sense of the new condition, which begins to convert them as women. Even it begins to transform their relations with the people in their family like their parents, who are usually back in India and their husbands, who are with them in the novel country. There are kids also who are now born in the new milieu, still wedged between two cultures, so far with an entirely different worldview. Well this is also an awfully chief theme in her another story collection The Lives of Strangers (2001), with movements back and forth between the two worlds. Divakarunis more than 15 books address the stories about to the understanding of women or immigrants in a new nation. Though she said her books are not autobiographical, but many of her characters contribute to similar apprehensions. She is concerned with how we make a new home for ourselves in a place that is so far away and so unlike from our home culture. The author also said that, she is concerned about how we as immigrants change the places in which we find ourselves. She is very much interested in the ways womens roles have changed as we move into different cultures. Eventually, Divakaruni expects that her words will challenge readers to think about what it means to be an immigrant and about larger issues such as family and home. She further says that, What I hope people get out of my books is that it will encourage them to think about important issues. I also hope that they see that although we come from many different places, what we have in common is the humanity we want the same things, we desire the same things. I hope my books will dissolve boundaries and bring people together. 13 Therefore, in her writing Divakaruni keeps on to be stimulated by her students at the University of Houston, many of them are immigrants themselves. In her time at UH, Divakaruni has been pleased to see the increasing variety among faculties, particularly at the highest level with President Renu Khator, who is also from India. Divakaruni talks about the strength of Renu that, Her having come from a different background and really having overcome many difficulties in her own personal background makes her an inspiring role model. She can also understand the struggles of some of our students who maybe come from different backgrounds where they havent been given the kind of support they need for college success. 14 Through her writing Chitra Banerjee wants to share all her experiences and also wish to unite the East/West by telling the stories of different characters. In her novel Sister of my heart (1999), Divakaruni presented two different characters Anju and Sudha, who were born at the same time. They both grew up together in the guardianship of their mothers in India. After marriage Anju went to America with her husband and on the other side Sudha lives in India with her in-laws. Author figured out Anju as a young woman in a new country, far away from home as well as from the sister of her heart Sudha. Anju tries to adjust in a new atmosphere with the past memories of her family and culture. There was no family support for her and she had to do everything by her own. She says while living alone in her new apartment, I dont like walking into the empty apartment. Theres something about the air unpeopled and stagnant, as though its from the bottom of a well that dried up a long time ago that makes me uncomfortable. Thats when the longing for the house of my childhood shakes me the most. How irritated I used to be at the constant commotion milkmen, vegetable sellers, Ramur Ma shouting at the neighbors cat whod snuck into the kitchen, Pishi calling me to go for my bath. Now Id be glad to see even the teatime aunties!15 Thus, through both of these protagonists the author wants to show two different lives in different cultures. Anjus life is entirely different from Sudhas. There is a gap between both of them, but this is physically only not mentally. Distance didnt change anything much between the relationships of these two sisters, after all they are sisters of the heart. They used to keep their connection through phone calls or letters as well as share each and every experience or growth of their life in different surroundings. By showing the life of these two sisters the writers aim is to remove the gap between the East and the West. She also gave us an idea about the contrast between the two different cultures Western culture splendidly as well as Indian. Anju presents her positive attitude and advantage of American customs. She says, Unlike some of the other Indian husbands I know, Sunil has always encouraged me to feel comfortable in America. He taught me to drive and introduced me to his colleagues at work. He bought me jeans and hiking boots, and when I said, Go for it! Hes taken me to malls and plays and dance clubs and the ocean. And finally though money is short, he has been enthusiastic about my going to college to get a degree in literature. 16 By showing the contrast, Divakaruni gave a picture of her motherland plus her current home (America). Thus in her book Sister of my Heart, she discussed the relationship between the older generation of India, who lives in a world full of mystical tales and magical occurrences plus Anju and Sudhas generation which is more drawn to western ideals. She believes that her readers must know about each others culture. If we put a glance on her other works like Mistress of Spices (1997), Queen of Dreams (2004), and Vine of Desire (2002); we will feel the same sensibility among the protagonists. They all are trying to get adjust and make their life better in the new and free atmosphere of the United States, keeping their past in their heart or memories. In her novel The Vine of Desire, the same story runs between the two sisters. Anju was living in America with her husband and now Sudha also joined them with her little daughter Dayita. Now Sudha is also trying to enjoy the new place and learn new things. Sudha turns on the T.V. Anju has told her she must, it will help her to understand Americans. So she watches a weather report that states theres a 70 percent chance of rain; a commercial for paper towels that features a giant male, a dirty floor, and a tiny, agitated woman; and then return of a game show. 17 They all are living far away from India and somehow they have adopted the new culture but still India is alive in their memories as their motherland. Thus, by heart they never go far away from it. Sudha is pretending to be happy, so once Anju asked her disappointedly, Do you miss India? 18. The whole setting of this novel is in America, but we also get a glimpse of India through the inner feelings of the characters. We can know about the different lifestyle of America, their way of thinking, rules, choices, and culture. Sudha also understands that, All the rules are different in America, and she knows none of them yet 19. The author made an effort to explain us about the reason that why people are getting attract towards the foreign culture; its all because of their free rules and open mentality. Thats the technique of the writer to break down the barrier among different continents. She not even presented the combination of east/west but also blends past and present together in her novels very well. It is to be sure that the element of secrecy or mystery is an integral part of Divakarunis work. She skillfully conveys her experiences of South Asian in America. She said that her books are partially based on the experience of social observation. But the author strives to weave such observations with the element of magic, myth, and ancient culture beside contemporary culture. She tries to bring those belongings together- the daily realities of immigrant life and a sense of ancient culture. She does so in her novel Queen of the Dreams that combines the story of a dream-teller mother and her young Indian-American daughter with the event of September 11, 2001. In her novel Queen of Dream, Rakhis mother is a dream teller, born with the ability to interpret and share the dreams of others. Her work is to foresee and direct them through their fates. This gift of vision fascinates Rakhi but she is totally separated from her mothers past in India and the dream world which she inhabits. She puts an effort for something to bring them closer. Rakhi was totally caught beneath the burden of her own painful secret; her comfort comes in the discovery after her mothers death through her dream journals, which began to open the long closed door to her past. Thus, the whole story wonderfully deals with the concept of past and present. It gives us the sense of a new America as well as the sense of traditional India. Via this novel we also get a glance of dream world and real world, there is a fine combination of both of them. Thus, This story of an emotionally distant mother and a daughter trying to find herself transcends cultural boundaries. Queen of Dreams combines the elements that Divakaruni is known for, the Indian American experience and magical realism, in a fresh mix. The tale succeeds on two levels. She effectively takes the reader into an immigrant culture but she also shows the common ground that lies in a world that some would find foreign. The search for identity and a sense of emotional completion is not confined to small corners of the world. It is a dilemma that all readers can understand. (Denver Post) 20 Divakarunis another novel The Mistress of Spicesis unique in its style. It is written with a combination of prose and poetry, thus this book has a very mystical quality to it. She wrote this novel in a spirit of play to collapse the divisions between the timeless one of myth or magic and the realistic world of twentieth century America. Its her attempt to create a modern fable. The novel follows Tilo, a magical figure who owns a grocery store and uses spices to help the customers and overcomes their difficulties. She also develops dilemmas of her own when she falls in love with a non-Indian. This creates great conflicts, as she has to choose whether to serve her people or to follow the path leading to her own happiness. Tilo has to decide which part of her heritage she will keep and which parts she will choose to abandon. The writer has well succeeded in her aim to remove gap between east/west, magic/realism and past/present in her novels which are discussed as above. In her article Dissolving Boundaries, she shared her experience which made her a new turn towards the theme of dissolving boundaries. She shared her feelings in it, It was Memorial Day. I waved good-bye to my two year old son and his grandma as my husband pulled our car out of the driveway, tires squealing. Ill be back in a few days, I called out to my son, with a brand new baby brother for you. As our car speed onto the freeway, I tried to reassure my nervous husband, telling him the pains werent too bad, and that everyone said the second time around was much easier. I had no premonitions at all. I didnt know that a normal delivery would not be possible for me. That the ensuing Caesarean surgery would go wrong in every way. That I would end up having to remain in the hospital for over a month, unable to take care of my newborn. I didnt know that I would balance precariously for weeks on the frail and perilous boundary between living and dying.21 That was really a tough time for her. She went through no dark tunnel, saw no bright lights. She did not rise out her body even. That encounter with death affected her deeply, though not in ways one might expect. She got the sense of life and death. But that time she felt a strange, dizzy sense of emptiness, of peace, in the way Buddhists use the term. She felt as though she drifted between states of death and life, and that it didnt matter which side she landed on. Because the boundary which we humans had drawn between these two states was not as irrevocable, nor as important, as we believed. She committed, I mused a lot about boundaries as I lay in bed recovering over the next few months, learning to live again. And it seemed t

Archaeology And Patterns Of Trade Iron Age Europe History Essay

Archaeology And Patterns Of Trade Iron Age Europe History Essay In the Iron Age most European communities would have been linked together to some degree and this can be seen as a continuation of contact established during the Bronze Age (Piggott 1965: 174). Peaceful trade between these communities, for goods that were either a basic necessity or possibly just desirable, would happen for a number of reasons, none of them mutually exclusive, such as exploitation, cross-cultural interchange or mutually beneficial exchange (Woolf 1993: 211). When considering what archaeology can tell us about this trade, according to Collis (1984: 15),there is a common assumption that it divides into the three spatial patterns of long distance, inter-regional and local trade However, this differentiation may only be a modern construct that would not have been recognised by Iron Age communities (Wells 2008: 356-8). This essay will use some of the material culture available from burials, hoards and settlements to examine each pattern in turn looking at the objects trad ed, how trade was organised, why and who was involved in an attempt to assess whether or not the archaeological evidence supports this largely economic model. Before any assessment can be undertaken it is important to define the terms Trade and Iron Age as they are used in this essay. Trade is used here to describe any transaction intended to acquire goods not available in the local environment, which are either required for basic physical needs or are desirable, through purchase, barter or exchange for other goods (Wells 2008: 357). The process of goods or gift exchange was also in operation at this time and this term is used to describe the distribution of goods as a social interaction between communities aimed at increasing wealth, prestige or status (Wells 2008: 356-7). From the available evidence it is not always possible to tell the difference between these two systems and in fact Iron Age communities may not have differentiated so the two interactions can be interpreted as forming a continuum with traded goods being passed out from centres of trade to the rural periphery via exchange (Wells 2008: 358). The Iron Age was widespread across Central Europe by the 7th century BC and lasted until the Roman conquest in the 1st century BC. Traditionally It is divided into two phases, the Early Iron Age from 750-450BC, which is also termed Hallstatt after the type site in Austria, and the Late Iron Age from 450-50BC also known as La Tene from the type site in Switzerland (Darvill 2008: 215). This essay will use Early or Late Iron Age when referring to time periods, Hallstatt or La Tene when referring to artefact styles. Long distance trade is the easiest to detect in the archaeological record through the identification of foreign or exotic goods (Collis 1984: 15-16). In the Early Iron Age trade was stimulated by the metal using state societies of the Mediterranean , principally Greece and Etruria , as they sought sources of the basic raw materials like tin, copper, iron and salt to fuel their growing economies (Collis 1984: 15). Apart from Baltic amber and Mediterranean coral Europe had a plentiful supply of these basic raw materials locally available so the main import was in manufactured goods like the Attic pottery, Greek amphorae and Etruscan bronze vessels found at the Vix grave on Mont Lassois in France and the Heuneburg in Germany. These demonstrate trade as opposed to a social bond but are also indicative of links between the elites of Western Europe and the Mediterranean for the supply of feasting equipment and wine (Wells 1995: 231). The presence of elaborate graves with rich assemblages o f local products found in context with imported objects such as those found at Durrnberg in Austria which contained glass vessels from Italy, sword handles from Africa and vessels from Slovenia or grave 6 at Hohmichele on the Heuneburg , which contained silk textile from the far east, are indicative of long distance trade in prestige or luxury goods rather than social interaction (Wells 2008: 363). Colonies, such as Marseille founded by the Phocaeans in 600BC, were established by the Mediterranean societies to open up new trading markets (Milisauskas 1978: 270) as can be evidenced by the trade in wine and luxury items up the Rhone valley to central Europe (Greene 1990: 116), although not all Mediterranean drinking gear found in central Europe came via this route. Items such as the beaker flagons found in the Vix grave may have come via alpine routes from the Etruscan controlled Po valley (Cunliffe 1999: 62). Correspondingly the Early Iron Age saw the rise of European towns like the Heuneburg and Mont Lassois, with large populations and high levels of production and trade, which acted as core centres in local areas importing foodstuffs and raw materials from rural periphery for inter-regional exchange and distributing finished goods locally (Wells 1980: 46-47). In the Late Iron Age these towns were replaced by oppida like Manching in Bavaria and Bibracte in France which fulfille d a similar role. These oppida were also used as ports of trade and may have been established to attract and increase trade rather than to restrict or control it (Woolf 1993: 211). Following the foundation of the colonies feasting and drinking artefacts from Greek and Etruscan workshops appear in graves of the European aristocracy indicating the presence of well established trading links between central Europe and the Mediterranean (Cunliffe 2010: 462). It could therefore be assumed that that this elite aristocracy were in control of trade however there is evidence at the Heuneburg and Narbo for the presence of a merchant class who bring wine and other Mediterranean goods to the native markets and exchange them for raw materials, slaves and, as their population grew, foodstuffs (Nash 1984: 92-94). This trend continues into the Late Iron Age, when following a hiatus after Greece turns eastwards for trade in the 5th Century BC, contact with the Mediterranean is renewed in 2nd century BC, and there is evidence from Magdalensberg near Salzburg for trade being in the hands of Italian merchants with no evidence for native traders (Collis 2002: 31). Not all long distance trade was in luxury or prestige goods. The potential for interchange of rituals, ideas, technologies or even specialists should not be ignored nor should the smaller, domestic or lifestyle products like brooches and pins. It may be that the European elite in the towns and oppida acted as a core for the redistribution of these commodities in their local area or inter-regionally as the distribution of artefacts made from a variety of raw materials and involving the use of many technologies can be taken as indicating a defined social hierarchy within a settled society (Phillips 1980: 266). Inter-regional trade, or rather at this level exchange, can be described as the movement of goods between communities that share cultural similarities (Collis 1984: 15-16). For example, in the Late Iron Age objects found in graves from France, Austria and Bohemia and ornamented in the La Tene style would seem to indicate a social link between regional elites who express their cultural similarity and identity through material culture (Wells 2008: 363). The objects exchanged may be similar in form to those produced in the local environment and this exchange is traditionally seen as a social rather than economic event. To this end there is no merchant class involved in the transaction as it is based on family and kin relationships (Collis 1984: 15-16). Occurring more in the Early rather than the Late Iron Age it is characterized by gift exchange between the powerful members of peer societies possibly representing not only trade but also tribute, ransom, dowry payments or even wedding gi fts (Wells 1995: 239). This may also represent the practice of reciprocity whereby goods were given as a social interaction between elite members of society, not in the expectation of immediate exchange, but rather as a long term investment whereby reciprocation was made by the provision of services, labour, goods or even trading treaties (Nash 1984: 93-4). Stretching Europe slightly to include south-west Britain will allow the trade between Alet in France and Hengistbury Head to be used as a case study. The discovery of an iron anchor and chain dating from the 1st century BC at Bulbury in Dorset can be interpreted as providing evidence for maritime trade between continental Europe and Britain (Cunliffe 2010: 480). Hengistbury Head was a designated port of trade used by the local elite to control the flow of goods both into and out of Britain whilst utilizing the foreign trade relationship to increase their advantage over their regional periphery (Nash 1984: 93). Goods such as iron from the Hengistbury area, non-ferrous metals from the Mendips and Kimmeridge shale were exchanged with Alet, via a short haul sea crossing to the Channel Islands and thence to the port of Reginca, for Mediterranean pottery, prestige finished goods and wine (Languet 1984: 73). This is evidenced by the presence of Dressel 1A amphorae, glass and fine ware potte ry from Northern Italy at Hengistbury Head and changes in the local manufacture of ceramics, bronze and iron artefacts that are indicative of inter-regional exchange of ideas and technologies (Cunliffe 1984: 8). Although this short range, cross-channel contact was probably based on a recurring requirement between the respective core communities it could also be interpreted as a core-periphery pattern of trade whereby Continental Europe is the core supplying finished goods and south-west Britain is the periphery providing raw materials in exchange (Nash 1984: 92). There is evidence from the vast amounts of Armorican pottery at Hengistbury Head that the Armoricans themselves may have lived there, at least for part of the year, and acted as continental agents liaising with the local communities for the exchange of goods (Cunliffe 2010: 479). The hoard from Llyn Fawr in Wales could provide evidence of this interaction as it contains Hallstatt C type artefacts ,such as iron swords and br onze discs for harness ornamentation, that are similar to types found in Belgium and southern Germany and could have been shipped via Alet to Hengistbury Head before being exchanged locally (Cunliffe 2010: 456). Thus a case can be made for regarding Hengistbury Head as the core for its immediate environment with the local rural communities as the periphery. Local trade is probably the least studied of all the patterns of trade as there is a traditional assumption that the mechanisms used are already well understood (Collis 1984: 15). The interaction between local communities was possibly based on reciprocity with the exchange of finished goods for services, labour or raw materials. The oppida of the late Iron Age, like Manching and Bibracte, and the towns of the Early Iron Age, like Mont Lassois and the Heuneburg, were not just trading centres but were also manufacturing and production sites creating their own finished goods which is evidenced by graves containing bronze objects, pottery and glass beads that reflect local patterns of trade. These manufactured goods may have formed part of a core-periphery trade with smaller local communities for food and forestry products (Wells 1995: 236). Increases in rural production, which created a local self sufficiency and provided a greater surplus for trade, engendered the conditions that allow ed for a large scale social organisation with elaborate hierarchies. The emergent elite in these hierarchies were able to engage in local trade for a wide range of goods which could also be used to foster a regular contact with other regional elites for exchange of commodities, technologies and ideas (James and Rigby 1997: 76-7). Although they are classified as elites it is possible that individuals acted as à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‹Å"centresà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã¢â€ž ¢ for trade and the rich burials in which we find lavish prestige and luxury goods, such as the Etruscan beaked flagons found in the middle Rhine area of Europe and dated to the Late Iron Age (Cunliffe 1999: 63), indicate wealth but maybe not elite status (Collis 1984: 16). After all not all trade was in luxury or prestige goods and the presence of non-elite objects like decorative pins and brooches, such as the bronze fibulae found in the female grave at Vix (Wells 2008: 364), in a local area can be taken as representative of local trade o r exchange networks. These socio-economic systems also saw elite leaders give gifts of lesser value to those lower down the hierarchy in order to retain status and power (Cunliffe 2999: 61). The spread of items like the long slashing Grundelingen swords can be explained by simple local exchange mechanisms providing examples that are then copied (Cunliffe 2010: 449) and at Alb-Salem in WÃÆ' ¼rttemberg there have been found ceramics of a particular size and decoration distributed across an area that could be walked in a day (Wells 2008: 361). In the late Iron Age coin evidence appears to indicate that specialist workers, who mass produce goods and administer their own commercial aspects of trade, replace control by elites, initially in their local area but eventually along the whole commodity supply chain (Wells 1995: 240-1). This is further evidenced by the appearance of mass produced Roman wares in graves where they replace unique foreign imports and is paralleled by a diminution in the role played by elites and social networks as they are superseded by professional merchants in a globalised economic market (Wells 1995: 240-2). The available archaeological evidence is open to ambiguous interpretation however this essay has argued that it would seem to support the spatial model of long distance, inter-regional and local patterns of trade even though this is a modern economic construct. These patterns should not be seen as being mutually exclusive but rather as strands in a complex system of exchange mechanisms that reflect social interaction between communities, that have a symbolic as well as an economic dimension whilst moving commodities, as well as ideas and technologies, bi-directionally around Europe and the Mediterranean (Renfrew 1993: 214). It should also be borne in mind that intangibles such as slaves, foodstuffs, hides and hunting dogs will leave no trace in the archaeological record even though they were subject to the same trade and exchange systems (Cunliffe 1984: 4). However, without the benefit of written sources to enhance our understanding, what the evidence cannot prove is how the Iron Age communities themselves regarded trade. It is a possibility that they did not differentiate by region or distance but instead regarded all trade as local and based on simple exchange systems no matter what the commodity or how far it had travelled (Wells 2008: 358). As the Iron Age came to a close, with low value coinage being adopted and Rome becoming predominant in Europe and the Mediterranean, there was a move to a globalised, impersonal, commodity market that removed the need for a differentiation in trading patterns. The emergence of standardised weights, measures and prices rendered redundant the requirement for barter and exchange systems with a professional Italian merchant class controlling trade and replacing local elites who were subsumed into the Roman provincial government process (Collis 2002: 30).

My Educational Goals and Philosophy Statement :: Philosophy of Education Statement Teaching Essays

My Educational Goals and Philosophy I decided to choose teaching as my profession because I want to help the students who have distinct potential, but may be struggling in the classroom. By ignoring a student who is a slow learner, we may be losing the next genius of our generation. I have worked with children in several different aspects. In high school, I worked with the Strong Mountaineer Program. This program allowed me to go into an elementary class and work with the students who needed extra help. I tutored the students in their weakest area. In this program, I encountered a student in the second grade who could not read. The teacher gave me material to work with her and after several weeks of tutoring she could read as well as the other students in her class. The look of pride on this little girl’s face when she read aloud was priceless, as was the look on my face because I made the difference. I also worked for a day care program in which tutored children after school with their studies. These programs have influenced my decision in becoming a teacher. In addition, I am in the process of earning my undergraduate degree from Concord College. My area of emphasis is Elementary Education/ Multi- Subject/ K-6. The reason I chose this major is because of my love for children. Since every child learns differently, I will use all the major philosophical perspectives. This is why my teaching style is eclectic. I believe children today do not have the proper respect for teachers and parents. This is why I agree with William Bagley when he says children should be taught the traditional values of our culture. He also says the teacher should be the center of the class. Teachers are the ones who have the college degree and are trained to instruct students. Not all my students will be able to attend college, so they need to be familiar with the real world so they can communicate with other people and things. My Educational Goals and Philosophy Statement :: Philosophy of Education Statement Teaching Essays My Educational Goals and Philosophy I decided to choose teaching as my profession because I want to help the students who have distinct potential, but may be struggling in the classroom. By ignoring a student who is a slow learner, we may be losing the next genius of our generation. I have worked with children in several different aspects. In high school, I worked with the Strong Mountaineer Program. This program allowed me to go into an elementary class and work with the students who needed extra help. I tutored the students in their weakest area. In this program, I encountered a student in the second grade who could not read. The teacher gave me material to work with her and after several weeks of tutoring she could read as well as the other students in her class. The look of pride on this little girl’s face when she read aloud was priceless, as was the look on my face because I made the difference. I also worked for a day care program in which tutored children after school with their studies. These programs have influenced my decision in becoming a teacher. In addition, I am in the process of earning my undergraduate degree from Concord College. My area of emphasis is Elementary Education/ Multi- Subject/ K-6. The reason I chose this major is because of my love for children. Since every child learns differently, I will use all the major philosophical perspectives. This is why my teaching style is eclectic. I believe children today do not have the proper respect for teachers and parents. This is why I agree with William Bagley when he says children should be taught the traditional values of our culture. He also says the teacher should be the center of the class. Teachers are the ones who have the college degree and are trained to instruct students. Not all my students will be able to attend college, so they need to be familiar with the real world so they can communicate with other people and things.

Global Politics in the 23rd Century Essay -- Ecnomics Economy Essays

Global Politics in the 23rd Century The Earth of the turn of the 23rd century has a tri-polar global power arrangement. The traditional balance of power has been upset by the decline of oil; this was an eventuality everyone knew was coming but no one did anything about. The tremendous growth of China and India, among other places, created a supply shortage worse than anyone predicted. The subsequent and fairly sudden loss of petroleum as an affordable and, later, existent energy source led to international economic collapse and opened the door for a new international paradigm. The first immediate result after this collapse was a shift in the Middle East. Having lost oil both as a revenue source and as a cause for intervention by outside states, the region had newfound drive towards two goals: the first was a more appropriate political reorganization and the second was scientific resurgence. The Peoples’ Islamic Republics (the plural in the title was retained to emphasis the union of many, though the term ‘Republic’ was used purely as a rhetorical device) was eventually created to fill the void the collapse of oil created. This is a communist state based on the principles of Islamic communism as formed during the middle 21st century. This form of communism is not at all Marxist, Maoist, or Leninist, but is based on the religion of Islam particularly emphasizing Islam’s pillars of community and community assistance. There is not an oppressive state. Various levels of religious leaders largely carry out the roles of a government. These leaders are answerable in turn to a religious Caliph-like leader who is elected among the local leaders. Redistribution of wealth is accomplished through this system but in actuality much o... ... influential in attempting the area’s resurgence. Policy is driven by the Confederated Congress in Beijing and the member states have less and less autonomy to determine their own futures. The basic world situation is thus that there are three superpowers, each drastically different and each searching for its place in a new world order. Other nations do, of course exist, and can be influential figures regarding trade and alliances, but the three superpowers, only two of whom are really interested in expansion and conflict, drive the international scene. This scene has expanded into a space race for resources to drive the power that made the Anglicans so powerful. The main source of conflict at the turn of the 23rd century is that struggle in near outer space for control of prime radiation collection points and the supply routes back to Earth.

Essay --

Being located in the Middle East next to the Mediterranean Sea and surrounded by Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, and Israel, Syria has continued to be a struggle area for different regions to take control of and rule over. Since 1500 B.C. the land of Syria has been ruled by many different empires and rulers including the Persians, Arabs, and Ottoman Turks. However, since gaining its independence in 1946 Syria has been a home to 21 million people including those from many different ethnic and religious groups including: Kurds, Armenians, Assyrians, Christians, Druze, Alawite Shia, and Arab Sunnis. With its capitol at Damascus, the government of Syria has gone through a lot of change since it reached its independence in 1946 from the French. It began as a parliamentary republic which is a republic where the executive branch of government is accountable to the legislative branch. However in the time since then their government has not held firm and strong. Military coups, or groups of people that are usually the military who attempt to get rid of the existing government and replace it, have made many attempts to try to overthrow the government of Syria and replace it with their own. These attempts ultimately began to weaken Syria’s government. They joined a union with Egypt that lasted only 3 years because it was torn down by a military coup. A short time after, Syria began to be less and less democratic and the citizens began to lose more of their rights. In 1970 Hafez al-Assad became president and led the Baath government which was mostly led by the Alawites. W hen he died in 2000 his son, Bashar al-Assad became president. Since then Syria has endured many revolts and ultimately led to a civil war breaking out in 2011... ... on by so much rain that these camps have become flooded and just more miserable and almost uninhabitable for these poor refugees attempting to stay away from the violence of the civil war (CBSnews). The rise in violence against women has also been an outcome of the civil war. With many women being raped, tortured, and used to act as forms of showing control and intimidation towards the enemies. Lauren Wolfe wrote an article saying that, â€Å"everyone from the direct victims of the attacks to their children, who may have witnessed or been otherwise affected by what has been perpetrated on their relatives†, she is saying that it is not only the women that are being the victims, but the families of these victims who usually see what is happening to them (Bernard). The basic human rights that everyone should be guaranteed are continually stepped on in Syria.

Assess the Claim That the Main Function of Education

Assess the claim that ‘the main function of education is to maintain a value consensus in society' Functionalists believe that education is a value consensus, which means that the majority of a society agree with this statement. For example, inadvertently, people in the UK agree that wearing clothes is a norm as is education. Education has many purposes such as secondary socialisation of children and allocation of roles, because of the meritocracy which education is also seen as.Functionalists, like Durkheim, believe that teaching about history in schools creates a link between the individual and society. This link allows the individual to feel ‘part' of the society and therefore is more likely to support this. For example, in the U. S children are taught about the founding fathers and give the pledge of allegiance daily. Also, this is used with religion, in the U. K many schools says prayers and sing hymns and other religious songs. This, often, instils the idea of relig ion into the child's mind and it becomes a part of the child.However, teachings such as these can be seen as deviant and unwanted by parents because of how these things are treated as ‘norms' whereas they might not be in the home. This creates social solidarity because of the increased number of shared ‘norms and values'. Furthermore, Parsons says that school is the bridge between family and the wider society. Because in the family you are treated as an individual based upon particularistic traits whereas in society you are based on your merits.School is a blend between the two and allows a consensus of your merits and your personality. However, that blend is more between students and students than students and teachers. Teachers base students more on their merits, hence the meritocracy of school and the wider society as it is a quicker and easier way to assess people. This lead to the beginning of the education triage where pupils where ‘streamed' into classes of varying difficulty depending on their intelligence. However, Marxist's like Althusser, Bowles and Gintis argue that the role of ducation is the â€Å"reproduction of labour power† i. e. a workforce. This is enabled by use of the hidden curriculum – This is where ‘norm's such as doing repetitive tasks, not complaining and maintaining order in a class are taught but not formally as these are merely blended into every lesson. This is further exaggerated by schools legitimising and justifying inequality. This prepares students for the world of work where they are exploited for cheap labour and do as they're told as indicated by the hidden curriculum.They are also prepared for the inequality between them and their bosses in the social/economic hierarchy and accepts their positon. Legitimation of inequality; helps to justify and explain the system of social inequality in a capitalist society, helps people come to terms with their position in society and therefore reduc es the discontent and opposition to inequality. Althusser saw the role of education as a reproduction of technical skills and a reproduction of the ruling class ideology. . e. the dominant beliefs and values which is the wealthy minority 1% and the majority 99%. This allows the 99% to accept the 1%'s ideology. To prevent rebellion against capitalism, people must believe that the ruling class ideology is beneficial to themselves. This done by a number of ideological state apparatuses like the media, religion and education. These outlets of information can control masses because they have been ‘trusted' staples of society which are seen as beneficial.However, all of these outlets show the ruling class ideology and justify the capitalist system. The system can give several messages out to society such as behaviour, fashion, education standards, when to accept or submit to authority and to accept your place/position in society. Despite, these views Marxist's have been seen as too deterministic. As, the give education more credit for its influence on children. For example, the hidden curriculum may not exist and many children don't care for rules, authority and choose to rebel at these things.Whilst the hidden curriculum maybe exaggerated, the formal curriculum maybe under exaggerated as it is not entirely designed to benefit ruling class ideology as with subjects like philosophy, sociology and arts which are designed to encourage various views and opinions with critical thinking on how and why. Neo-marxists, like Willis, show that some students at school who are rebellious and prioritise â€Å"avin' a laff† are the ideal candidates for the ruling class ideology as they treat education as a barrier between â€Å"avin' a laff† and socialising.Because they prioritise their friends they lose the benefits of education and are forced, in order to survive, to accept work which maybe dull/repetitive (as taught by the hidden curriculum). Often, the type work these people undergo are manual labour jobs which enable the ‘lads' to be together and â€Å"av' a laff†. The end product is a capitalist society getting a proportion of the population doing dull work and the ‘lads' are able to stay together as they have created their own class position.Durkheim, also argues that education prepares young people for adult roles such as learning to cooperate with people who they might not like. Schools trains people to follow a set rules which accommodate tolerating people who they don't like. Functionalists, assume that stratification/some sort of social hierarchy is vital and inevitable. Because there are only limited places for top jobs. By a meritocracy which allows people to be test judged on ability those with the highest ability are about to be placed in jobs which match their talents/abilities.

Young People Need to Spend Less Money and Save More

Young People Need To Spend Less Money And Save More Human beings have different thoughts about their life. Some of them believe in enjoying life without considering anything, but some others believe in saving money for their future. But it is better for young people like me to save their money instead of spending it carelessly. Because young people have lots of expenses in the future, like education, unpredictable emergencies, besides that the job market is not steady. So it is better for youngers to save more and spend less.One of the reasons that make youngers to save money and spend less is education expenses. Education is expensive so young people like me cannot totally depend on our parents to pay all the bills. We have tuition, books, maybe rent and other educational expenses to pay for. Even though our parents help us, but we have to pay part of it. So we should save some of our money for that. The other reason that saving money in youngers is better than spending it carelessl y is emergency situations.Emergencies could occur any moment. For example one of our family member may need help and we will have to give them money, or one of our parents might have an unexpected injury or serious illness and they could not go to work for some time so we must have some savings for that emergency moments in our life. Besides that there is other reason for younger people to save more and spend less and it is the oscillation of the job market. The job market is not steady, specially these days.Due to oscillation in the job market we cannot predict what will happen next. For example one of my friend lost her job due to recession. She did not get a job for about one year and a half, but she had savings so she was able to overcome that bad situation, like paying rent, grocery, car loan and other bills. Without an income it is difficult to pay for these. It shows that if she did not have the habit of saving money, then she could not have managed hat situation. In the conc lusion I must say that saving is a very good tendency for young people and it will never let a person down. You must plan a head. Youngers should know they will have expenses for their schooling, they also should know that they might be confront with an unexpected emergencies in life, besides that they know the oscillation of the job market so they must be prepared. They need to save money for these events.

American Red Cross: Decision For New Building

The American Red Cross is one of the very busy organizations operating both inside the country as well as in international locations. But this does not impede the movement of the internal operation of the organization that ensures that the American Red Cross is always accessible and amenable to new developments that can help it perform better as an international aid and assistance organization. One of the recent internal decisions that the organization made was the transferring of some of its sections to another location from its former business address.The transfer will have South Central Division changing its office address, as well as key laboratory facilities and divisions of the American Red Cross including the National Testing Lab or the NTL as well as the Missouri-Illinois Blood Services Region. The previous office address of the three offices is found in 4050 Lindell Boulevard in St. Louis (American Red Cross Blood, 2008). Once the building is completed, they will transfer to a new office found in Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) campus.The start of the timeline of this project can be attributed to the time when a study conducted six years before the official announcement of the transfer was made, yielding results that include the identification of the need for important facelift in the buildings that houses important sections of the organization, including the blood manufacturing and blood processing section. The next important point in the timeline of this project came two years ago, marking the selection of the current location after a painstaking process of narrowing down prospective location candidates that will house the new building (American Red Cross, 2008).This decision no doubt has financial implications, including the identification of important and key costs that will surface before the project reaches completion. The two relevant costs for this particular decision of the American Red Cross to transfer to another establishme nt will include the cost of the construction of the building and the cost of the new technology that the American Red Cross will bring inside the building since the creation of the building is also a move to have the organization catch up with the available latest technology for its laboratories.While the American Red Cross has not yet identified the official cost of the project, the public may have an idea already if they will base it from the previous American Red Cross projects that involve the erecting of new buildings or the purchasing of existing establishment for the organization. In 1917, the group started shopping for its first national headquarters office, and the money that was used to pay for it came from the government and from private individuals and institutions.The result was a building budgeted at $854,897. 01. A memorial building for the organization followed in 1930, the cost of which pegged at $780,000. There is also the Fiftieth Anniversary Office Building which officially opened its doors on July 7, 1932 after the building project was completed to the tune of $850,000, again shouldered by the government and private groups.Considering the changes in the value of the US dollar and the current costs of building construction and the amenities of the said building, it is easy to say that the new building will amount to not less than 5 million US dollars at the very least (RedCross. org, 2008). There are also some non-relevant costs in this decision, two of which includes the costs of the operation of the American Red Cross for its outreach programs inside the country and for its international operation, and the costs of the education campaign that the American Red Cross is undertaking all year long.The costs of these two particular aspect of the American Red Cross operation is non-relevant to the recently-made decision because this aspect of the operation of the organization is in no way connected to the move of the American Red Cross, since t he move will only involve part of the organization’s laboratory work, including the installation of the equipment necessary for blood testing as well as blood manufacturing.All in all, the probable result(s) of this move will include the improvement of the operation of the group, as well as the shouldering of financial costs of the building if it is burdened to pay such amount in the long term. There are implications rising from this result(s), and it would include operation and financial implications made about by this development. References: American Red Cross (2008). Retrieved May 12, 2008, from http://www. redcross. org/ American Red Cross Blood (2008).American Red Cross Blood Services Relocation Announcement. Retrieved May 12, 2008, from http://americanredcrossblood. org/News/NewsReleases/NewsReleaseViewer/tabid/97/ArticleID/120/CBModuleId/428/Default. aspx Handal, Kathleen A. (1992). The American Red Cross First Aid and Safety Handbook. American Red Cross. Boston: Litt le Brown. Red Cross. org (2008). Red Cross Square: Headquarters of the American Red Cross. Retrieved May12, 2008, from http://www. redcross. org/museum/history/square. asp