Childhood Obesity in African American Children Research Paper

Childhood Obesity in African American Children - Research Paper Example -2004) found out that 21 percent of African Americans, 23 per cent of Mexican Americans and 14 per cent of non-Hispanic white adolescents aged 12-19 are likely to be overweight. Among children aged 6-11 years, 22 percent of Mexican Americans, 20 percent of African Americans and 14 percent of non-Hispanic white children were found to be obese (Centre for Disease Control, 2000). The main negative effects of the condition include medical, psychosocial and economic problems. Medical impacts include high cholesterol, high blood pressure, metabolic syndrome, sleep apnea and type 2 diabetes mellitus. The condition causes significant economic costs. The 2003 national rate of related expenses on obesity reached 75 billion dollars in the US, with most of the funds being generated towards social programs such as medical care. Hudson (2008) asserts that the related hospital expenses for obesity related diseases among children under the age of 17 years increased from 35 million to 127 million dollars over a period of twenty years. Overweight teens, especially girls; perceive their body size as unfashionable as they cannot conform to the recent changes in lifestyles. Most of the overweight children experience social discrimination and low self-esteem because of the teasing and neglect portrayed by their colleagues. This causes stress that increases the prevalence of th e condition. Obese teenagers significantly exhibit irregular school attendance. According to Geier, Foster and Womble et al. (2007) obese children missed an average of 12.2 days while those with an average weight missed an average of 10.1 days annually. This affects their performance as well as reduces their parents’ work output. According to USA Today (2011), most parents divert most of their attention in taking care of the obese children. The school systems also experience financial losses from taking care of overweight children. The risk factors associated with childhood obesity include genetics,

Near field communication (NFC) and its validity as a secure system of Essay

Near field communication (NFC) and its validity as a secure system of data transfer - Essay Example Being a non-contact technology, the NFC is highly advantageous as it does not require establishment of physical electrical contact. As such, in applications such as those requiring the use of cards, there is no need of inserting cards that use NFC into the reader, thus avoiding any problems that may be associated with poor contact. It is important to note that NFC uses inductive-coupling at a license free frequency allocation in the radio spectrum HF portion(Ahson & Ilyas, 2012, p. 33). NFC has a set of standards that govern it thus allowing for connectivity between NFC devices from different manufacturers. Besides creating the contactless environment for NFC interactions, the standards also determine the data transfer rates and the data formats. An NFC connection is simply achieved by bringing two electronic devices together within a close range to allow them to communicate. This eradicates the problem with identification and minimizes the issue with security, allowing for easier exchange of information. The NFC can be used for a variety of applications including in: mobile phones to transfer files from one handset to another; personal computers to link up networks for data transmission; point-of sale machines; turnstiles; parking meters; vending machines; and in other applications in the house or office, such as opening and closing of the garage doors(Finkenzeller, 2010, p. 80). The NFC connections could also be applied in the configuration of the connection between two devices that have wireless connections. Bringing the devices together allows for the initiation of the NFC connection which in turn initiates the set-up procedure. Other long-range wireless devices including the Bluetooth could be configured through communication with the NFC interface(Coskun, et al., 2011). NFC are vulnerable to man-in-the-middle (MITM) attackswhich involve attackers succeeding in interception of the communication

Small And Medium Enterprises In Bangladesh

Small And Medium Enterprises In Bangladesh There is great interest in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as major tool of poverty reduction in Bangladesh. Government of Bangladesh formulated a comprehensive Industrial Policy-2005 by putting special emphasis for developing Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) as a thrust sector for balanced and sustainable industrial development in the country to help deal with the challenges of free market economy and globalization. With multilateral trade negotiations is often leading to improving market access and with developing countries also being a lot more willing than before to participate in globalization, rich country government and the aid agencies have apparently decided to focus on the SMEs as one important ingredient of private-sector development. Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) have been playing a pivotal role in terms of economic growth, employment generation, poverty reduction and industrialization (e.g. through entrepreneurship development) in Bangladesh. Industria lizations link to poverty reduction is through charging-up the growth rate of the country, enhancement of the productivity of the worker(s) in employment, providing employment to the unemployed, expanding consumer spending and thus the confidence level by sharing lower costs from scale economies via lower prices. As a result SME in Bangladesh takes several strategies to grow itself economy of this country. Such as Market development strategy, product development strategy, diversification strategy etc. The Government of Bangladesh constituted the taskforce to monitor and operate Small Medium Scale Industries late in 2003. Present era is totally technology based; there is no any scope to operate business vigorously without technology. So each and every business sector in developed countries is using modern technology whereas our business mainly SME is using ancient methods which are not consistent with present up rising competition. Most of the small businesses in Bangladesh are no t able to export goods to other countries after meeting the demand of own country. But it is also true that our SME sectors are developing day by day and it is contributing more in economics in Bangladesh than previous time. Chapter -1: Introduction 1.1 Background of the report There is no chance to deny the fact that Bangladesh needs a sustained level of growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in order to reduce poverty. Having predominance of agro-based economic activities, low level of technological development, lack of availability of highly skilled laborers, small scale businesses have been suitably developed in the country. Considering the countrys level of economic growth, composition of resources or natural resources, level of international integration, and growing urbanization, industrialization there is huge scope for developing diversified and new SMEs in agriculture, manufacturing, service sectors etc. Scope of employment can be enlarged or widened both in rural and urban areas, which will help to reduce income inequality between urban and rural areas by SMEs. SMEs contribution to the economy is well-known. According to BSCIC (2009), small and cottage industries accounted for 90.91 per cent of total industrial establishments in 20082009. About 90 per cent of total employment and more than 55 per cent of total manufacturing value added originated from SMEs. In another estimate, there are around 66000 small industry units and 611,612 cottage industry units, which provide employment of nearly 3.5 million people. When handlooms are added, the number of cottage industry units alone shoots up above 700,000 (BSCIC, 2009). SMEs achieved considerable growth in different sub-sectors like, paper, printing and publishing; non-metallic mineral products; metal products; chemical; food, beverage tobacco etc. SMEs growth in Bangladesh is comparable with the growth achieved in different large scale industries in Bangladesh. However, a number of challenges have slowed down the development or growth of SMEs. In spite of its extensive coverage in manufacturing and service related activities, productivity of SMEs is not good in our country. In a number of sectors, there is no well-structured value chain developed between upper stream and lower stream. It is true that growing urbanization in the country and rising per capita income at urban level have been creating demand for relatively better quality products at a higher price, instead of low quality products at lower price. Currently, a larger part of this demand has been met up by low-priced, low quality imported products, because local SMEs are not able enough to provide satisfactory amount of better quality products. Though SME is becoming gradually a rising industrial sector in our country and contributing more and more in export, this sector faces several problems like- lake of technical know-how, shortage of long term financial support, lack of skilled workers, marketing link, research and development. Naturally, development of competitiveness of local SMEs is the major challenge that has to be met in order to sustain and enlarge the growth of this sector. The major objective of this report is to show the growth of SME, present status of SME, problems faced by SME and government policies to operate SME in our country. 1.2 Objectives The major objective of this report is to explore the: Current development status of SME in Bangladesh Problems faced by SME Government policies to operate SME in our country 1.3 Limitation Although it has been tried on the level best to make this report based on facts and complete information available, there are some limitations that are inevitable. They are following: This study is limited to only the development of SME in Bangladesh; There was a time limitation as three months internship period is not enough to study the growth of SME; Primary data is collected from different SMEs owners by questionnaires. So without trust on owners answers there is no any way to justify these answers. Chapter -2: Methodology To explore the growth of SMEs in Bangladesh others terms such as current status of SME, problems faced by SME, Government policies etc are described in this report. This report basically focuses on growth of SME in Bangladesh. 2.1 sampling design Sampling size is 20 2.2 Methods of collecting data For completing this report data is collected from two sourcesà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ primary Secondary Primary data Sources: Primary data is collected by questionnaires from direct respondents (small business owners). Questionnaires are also adjusted with this report. Secondary data sources: Secondary data is collected from different News paper, Web sites, Different articles, Report, etc. 2.3 Analytical tools Simple equation is used to analyses this questionnaires. Chapter -3 Literature review In the business world, small and micro-businesses form an absolute majority worldwide. Bangladesh as a developing country has started refocusing its attention on SME to enhance its economic stability. Though there is no any standard definition of SME in the world, we can say that small business is a business which starts its activities with small amount of capital, small amount of land, few numbers of employees to serve small numbers of customers it is known as small business. This paper sets out to analysis the small business growth in Bangladesh. The terms growth, success are often very closely linked and are sometimes even used as synonyms. Traditionally they are all measured by hard financial measures, such as turnover, or by increased numbers of Employees. This report tries to show the roles of SMEs for overall development of Bangladesh. Such as economic growth, poverty alleviation, employment generation, and the growth dimensions in three major sectors agriculture, industry, and service. The study also shows the bottlenecks of SMEs and the effect of globalization on its development in Bangladesh to the success of SMEs in exploiting, surviving, rapid globalization of markets. In this paper the final pursuit is to develop a framework to illustrate a sustainable business solution that simultaneously fight poverty and accelerate economic growth through SMEs. SME takes several strategies to grow itself as well as economic development of Bangladesh. Such as Market development strategy, product development strategy, diversification strategy etc. Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) are playing a pivotal role in terms of economic growth, employment generation, and industrialization (e.g. through entrepreneurship development). Many authors expressed their opinion about SME growth in developing country like Bangladesh. These are given belowà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Beck, Kunt, and Levine (2005) in SMEs, Growth, and Poverty states that Cross-Country Evidence have found a strong association between SMEs development and Gross Domestic Product in per Capita. Harvie (2004) in East Asian SME capacity Building, competitiveness and Market Opportunities in a Global Economy postulates that developing economies are especially seeing small business as potential instruments for the alleviation of poverty. Carl Liedholm, Michael, McPherson and Anyinna Chuta et al show that The percentage of job growth coming from enterprise expansion in rural areas is significantly higher than that of urban areas in developing country. Above mentioned opinions of different authors show the growth trend of SME in developing country like Bangladesh. Actually SME helps poor people to develop their position. This report tries to shows that the SMEs activities its impact on our economic growth. For developing the sense about SME its impact this report is based on field survey. Though SME is an important component of economic growth so it has to keep relation with others factors such as knowledge, capital mobilization, creativity, ability to take initiatives, record keeping, financial control, industry management experience, etc which are very important to enhance economic growth of this country. This report also focuses on these factors. In our country majority percent of entrepreneurs take decisions by their own sense. Small business brings great opportunity for small capital owners. They can easily use this small capital can remove poverty. Though small business owners are poor, they need support from external and internal sources. Here relatives different financial institutions play important roles in this case. Considering all these, the governments of many developing and less-developed countries are adopting separate SME policies. Bangladesh government has developed rules regulations to run the SME in Bangladesh. Tax rebate, interest of loan, location of this business etc are main factors have great impact on economic growth which taken by the government to run SME. After the independence of Bangladesh governments of different tenures took a long time to realize the need of entrepreneurship development. We may get the scenario if we analyze the development by deferent government tenure. à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦. 1972-1975 Period: During this period trade policy of the country was mainly project-oriented. As the country was just free from an autocratic reign of Pakistani juntas and the industrial infrastructure was damaged by the war of liberation, so, government of the then period had no alternative but to initiate by itself. Private participation over the industrial sector was totally stopped. Government initiated to establish large number of nationalized industries. As a result entrepreneurship development concept was totally lost. 1975-1982 Period: From this time government realized the need of entrepreneurship development for economic growth. Government started to privatize its seek industries and introduced deregulation policies in industrial sector. New private entrepreneurs were created with new enthusiasm. These governments introduced mixed economic system. 1982-1990 Period: Privatization and deregulation policies started in some specific sectors. Selling the seek industries to private sector got momentous. Entrepreneurship was encouraged by formulating appropriate fiscal policies. 1991-2004 Period: Governments of these periods introduced market economy to a significant extent. Initiated policies to liberalize the trade policies. Privatization board was constituted to explore the environmental opportunities. Export-oriented privatization policy was introduced. GATT, WTO established took up some issues in this country by the international policies and to provide some ways and strategies. It is another factor that, how many numbers of SME in our country it is not easy to say. So, no one knows for sure how many SMEs are in Bangladesh today. In 1975 BSCIC (Bangladesh Small and Cottage Industries Corporation) surveyed to find out the actual numbers of SME in our country, but until today actual numbers of SME are not found out. SME growth is also affected by the environment -external internal. External environment is very important to internationalize SME. Environment is major component of development without it development cannot move away. So SME has to maintain the rules and regulation of environment. To grow SME financial non-financial indicators are very important. The combination of these two factors brings the economic success of a country. To develop small business there are many institutional arrangements, which vary degrees of effectiveness in the following areasà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Financial support: Long-term financing are generally provided by Bangladesh Bank, other specialized bank and financial institutions. Commercial bank provide short term loan to business enterprise regardless of the size in the form of general credit, industrial credit, rural credit program, micro credit, special credit, etc at varying interest rate of 11-16% depending on the purpose of development. Human resource development: Small business needs skilled manpower for production, management and accounts. A number of organizations are engaged in these activities such as BUET, BIT, Polytechnic and Vocational Training Institutes, etc for making skilled manpower. Policy Instruments: Government has been supporting small business through various policy formulations and their implementation. Ministries of industry, Ministry of Finance and Planning, Ministry of Commerce and Bangladesh Bank have developed necessary policy to develop SME. Business Development Services: Business Development Services are designed to help micro, small and medium enterprises overcome these barriers to increased productivity, profitability and access high value markets so that they can realize their potential help to poor people work their way out of poverty, grow local economies and creates jobs. In Bangladesh SME faces many problems. As a developing country these problem should be overcome. Otherwise our SME sectors will not be able to see the success. To overcome these problems to develop small business in our country in future below mentioned factors should be accepted: Training Motivation Loan facility Proper application of rules Appropriate place Opportunity to capital utilization Chapter-4 SME in Bangladesh 4.1 Definition of SME Small business is any business that independently owned and operated, is not dominant in its own field and does not engage in any new or innovative practices. It is an integral part of the total business scene in any country. It means the size of which is not big the size again depends on the yardstick one uses to measure. 4.1.1 According to industrial policy For manufacturing industries, the Taskforce recommends that: an enterprise should be treated as small if, in todays market prices, the replacement cost of plant, machinery and other parts/components, fixtures, support utility, and associated technical services by way of capitalized costs (of turn-key consultancy services, for example), etc, were to up to Tk. 15 million; an enterprise would be treated as medium if, in todays market prices, the replacement cost of plant, machinery, and other parts/components, fixtures, support utility, and associated technical services (such as turn-key consultancy), etc, were to up to Tk. 100 million; from both definitions above, land is excluded. For non-manufacturing activities (such as trading or other services), the Taskforce defines: An enterprise should be treated as small if it has less than 25 workers, in full-time equivalents; An enterprise would be treated as medium if it has between 25 and 100 employees; From both definitions above, land and structures, once again, are excluded. 4.2 Government policies of SME in Bangladesh As a developing country to develop its economic status and to reduce the poverty rate, SME is very important sector in Bangladesh. But unfortunately, until today Bangladesh could not make separate SME policy to operate this sector significantly. Some very simple polices are included in the industrial policy in 2005. These areà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ The Industrial Policy-2005 states: the SME sector has been given priority as a privileged sector. The PRSP states: The Government will pursue an employment intensive industrialization with emphasis on SMEs and export-oriented industries. . The Small and Medium Enterprise Cell (SMEC) was created in the Ministry of Industries (MOI) in 2003, and was tasked to take specialist interest in SMEs development. October 2003 saw the constitution of the SME Taskforce (SMETF), with the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister as the convener. The SMETF blended the Government, the private sector, academia and the civil society as participants. The Taskforces report was approved by the Government early in 2005. On the basis of the report of the SME Taskforce, the Government of Bangladesh issued Small Medium Enterprise Policy Strategies, 2005 to provide a framework for interventions and policy strategies for the development of SMEs. The Government constituted a Small Medium Enterprise Advisory Panel (SMEAP) as an independent and meritocratic brains-trust for the MOI for all developmental, technical and structural advisories in the name of SME development. According to Industrial Policy 2005, there are special fiscal incentives for SMEs. Since Industries will enjoy tax holiday facility for a period of 5 to 8 years depending on the locations; Agro-processing and computer software industries will receive income tax relief for a fixed period; Industrial enterprises engaged in the production of RMG will receive taxation facility at a reduced rate of 10 per cent on their export income; Special revenue facilities will be provided to industries marked as thrust sectors, SMEs and cottage industries; Industrial enterprises registered with the Board of Investment need not pay any transfer fee; The Government is committed to develop industrialization led by the private sector amid a business environment that can bring out the best among all SME stakeholders It is also pointed out in the industrial policy that Bangladesh government has taken initiatives to make separate SME policy. But when this policy will be made and implemented it is a big question today. 4.3 Strategy for Small Business development in Bangladesh Four strategies we can follow to grow the Small Business in our country. These are given belowà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Penetration strategy Product Development Strategy Market development Strategy Diversification Strategy Penetration strategy A Penetration strategy focuses on the firms existing product in its existing market, and entrepreneurs try to develop the product and market by encouraging existing customer to buy the more of the firms current product. Market development Strategy It is a strategy which grows small business by selling the firms existing product to the new customers There are several strategies under the market development strategyà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Market Development Strategy Geographical Market Demographic Market Product use B.1) Geographical Market: This simply suggests selling the existing product in new location. B.2) Demographic market: demographics are used to characterize customers based upon their income, where they live, their education, age, and sex; and so on. B.3) Product use: An entrepreneur might find out that people use its product in a way that was not expected. This new knowledge of product use provides insight into how product may be valuable to the new group o buyers. C) Product development strategy Product development strategy for growth involve developing and selling new product to people who are already purchasing the firms existing product. Diversification strategy This strategy involves selling a new product to a new market. 4.3 Opportunity and challenges for SME of Bangladesh Opportunities: Bangladesh is an agricultural country. 85% populations of Bangladesh are Farmer. So agricultural gets the priority all times. But today people are becoming aware of industry. In this circumstance small business has huge opportunity to develop itself in our country. Some important opportunities of SME are described in below- Education Rate: The education rate of Bangladesh is increasing day by day. Educated people are always tried to do something new, and they are not afraid of taking risk. So, new businesses are being launched day by day. Industrial Policy: Industrial policy help people to do business correctly and it provides many facilities to new business owners. So, small business is seeing new sun of success. Availability of Resources: In our country there are many resources to develop and operate small business significantly. Foreign Market Potentiality: Small business of Bangladesh produces many goods which have demands in foreign market, and can earn huge foreign currency. So, small business is developed day by day. Honorable Profession: Many people imagine that Small Business is very prestigious profession. So, young people are developing small business day by day. Environment: Environment of Bangladesh is appropriate for business. Those businesses are not appropriate in ice-land area these are appropriate in our country. Growth of domestic product GDP of a country is very important to measure the growth of SMEs. In our growth rate is becoming good day by day. Current GDP growth of our country is 6%. Without above mentioned opportunities there are many other reasons for which Small Business is developing successfully. Problems of SME in Bangladesh: There is a great prospect of SME in Bangladesh. It plays a pivotal role in the economic development of this country but SME of Bangladesh faces many challenges in different areaà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Government policy Until today Bangladesh could not make a standard SME policy to operate this sector significantly. Moreover the government policy emphasizes on production factors rather than human factor. Human factor is getting the least attention for the promotion of small business in the country. There is another problem for making the policy. Government is not making a clear cut policy of developing small business in the country. Awareness of facilities Sometimes government offers a few facilities to the small business but owners of small business are not aware of the available facilities in the country for establishing small business. There is no any proper media to aware small business owner about facilities. Training facilities To develop entrepreneurship and small business in the country availability of training and education facilities is must. But in Bangladesh there are hardly any training facilities for the small businessman. Incentive measure To develop the small and medium enterprise government of country has to provide the incentive measure. But here the small entrepreneurs are deprived of such incentives. Loan facilities Different financial institutions are offering loan facilities to small business owner. But it is a problem that small business owner who has no any power doesnt get loan facilities very easily. Security Many small business owners operate their business in open place like field, road, bus, and in other transportation. They are not secured because they face many dangerous situations. Women entrepreneurship Women are controlled by man means husband or father or elder brother. So women small business cant be operated very smoothly. In our country there is no suitable social environment to operate small business by women. Small capital Small business owners have no huge capital to operate the business. So they cant achieve the apex of goal. Modern technology they cant use and standard product they cant produce. Above mentioned points are considered as strong barriers of SME development in Bangladesh. So it can be said that to increase the contribution of SMEs on Bangladesh economy government, NGOs, commercial banks, others financial institutions have to put great emphasize on SMEs sector in Bangladesh 4.4 Government budgetary measures for the development of SME in 2010 Table Sectors Taka(cr) % Fiscal year Economy industry 1219 1.07% 2010-2011 Business 185 0.16% 2010-2011 Bangladesh is agriculture based country. So main priority is given to this sector always, but comparatively business sector always gets little priority, though it has great contribution on our economy. To develop the SME sector Bangladesh government has to give great priority to this sector. 4.5 Role of SME on economic development of Bangladesh The role of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) to economic development of a country is well organized. Across the globe it is strongly perceived that SMEs do play vital role in the industrial development, economic development of a country. Bangladesh is not lagging far behind in this respect. SME has great opportunity in this country. Environment, cheap labor, business strategy etc are the key features of SME. In view all the favorable factors; there is an urgent need in development of SME in Bangladesh as a developing country. SMEs are characterized on the basis of size, investment and employees in most countries across the world. Here are small business are those which have employees less than 50 person and have an investment of less than tk. 250 million. On the other hand, medium enterprises are those which have investment between tk.250 million and tk. 500 million with the number of employed workers ranging to 50 and 99. Generally, hand loom, food processing, lather and tannery, ceramic, light engineering, electric and electronic, handicraft, specialized textile and garments etc are fall in the category of small and medium enterprise. Information from MIDAS suggested that, around 88% of countys total industrial workforce is employed in the SMEs and the sector manufactures over 33% of industrial value added goods. Although there is no concrete information about number and types of SME in Bangladesh, an estimate of the Bangladesh small and cottage industries corporation (BSCIC) says that, there are over 42000 cottage industries in Bangladesh. There are also tens of thousands of small industries and a large number of hand loom and power loom industries in this country. Despite having huge potential to flourish, the growth of SME sector in Bangladesh is being impeded by multifarious problem, both at micro and macro levels. Inadequate knowledge of many entrepreneurs about the existing lending system and absence of necessary training facilities for small enterprise, widespread corruption and extortion and high rate of value added tax and unnecessary harassment from taxvat officials, law enforcer etc are also seen as impediments for the growth of SME. On the other hand absence of modern technology transfer policy, lack of infrastructure and support like port, power, gas, poor law and order, inadequate legal frame work, policy have been identified as the key macro level problem. Bangladesh SMEs have no enough exposure to international market. Considering the above all situation, Bangladesh government along with donors support took some measures over the year to support the development of SMEs. Various institutions including the BSCIC, BOI (Board of investment) Commercial banks, other financial institutions are working to promote the MSE sector, but their services and support are still inadequate. Experts argue that all the institutions have to build up capacity and upgrade their attitudes to provide appropriate and quick service to entrepreneurs. The government has already given special attention to the promotion of SMEs sectors. Though government and others financial institutions have given special attention to the promotion of SMEs sector, the contribution of non-government organization in this sector is still poor. So it can be said that to increase the contribution of SMEs on Bangladesh economy government, NGOs, commercial banks, others financial institutions have to put great emphasize on SMEs sector in Bangladesh. Chapter 05: Present status of SME in Bangladesh questionnaire This part is based on survey through questionnaires. Calculation: Number of respondent: frequency ÃÆ'-100 Question 01: Age of entrepreneurs Table -01 Responses 20-25 26-30 31-35 36-40 41-more Total Number of respondent 02 04 08 04 02 20 Percentage 10% 20% 40% 20% 10% 100% From the above table we can state that, 31-35 years people are more interested to do own business like SME. Question02: Owners of SME are male or female Table-02 Responses Female Male Total Number of respondent 7 13 20 Percentage 35% 56% 100% From above data we can conclude that male is more interested than female. Ques

A Comparison of Michelangelos and Donatellos Sculptures of David Essa

A Comparison of Michelangelo's and Donatello's Sculptures of David Michelangelo and Donatello were the most respected and inspiring artists of their time. Michelangelo of the High Renaissance and Donatello of the Early Renaissance both hailed from Italy. Both tell the biblical story of David versus Goliath, as told in I Samuel 17:28-51, in their sculptures "David." David was a Shepherd boy who killed the giant Goliath with nothing but a slingshot in his hands. Michelangelo displays David before the battle while Donatello shows David after the battle with Goliath. Michelangelo and Donatello were two of four famous artists who have created a statue depicting their image of David; Bernini and Andrea del Verrocchio were the others, but Michelangelo's and Donatello's were far more famous. Donatello had a more detailed and wide-ranging knowledge of ancient sculpture than any other artist of his day. Some time between 1404 and 1407, he became a member of the workshop of Lorenzo Ghiberti, who taught Donatello how to sculpt in bronze. Donatello, the first to create a statue of David, did so between the years of 1430-1440. This bronze figure was life-size at 5'2Â ½" and was nude, which was done for the first time that we know of since antiquity. 4David is seen with a feminine body structure that serves both as a possible explanation for Jonathan's love for him as well as to show that David's accomplishment in tossing the stone at Goliath was not a result of his feminine physic, but rather of God's will. 1Donatello was a very homosexual person and might have drawn upon it in his characterization of David. 1The sophistication of the gleaming bronze, together with David's self-absorption, feminine pose, and slime, graceful, ad... ...isplays David before the battle while Donatello shows David after the battle with Goliath. 2Michelangelo shows the scene where David might have heard that his people are hesitating and he sees Goliath jeering and mocking them. Donatello shows the scene of David standing on Goliath's head, which he cut off his body with Goliath's sword after defeating the mighty giant. These two pieces of David are some of the best artworks in history. Michelangelo and Donatello are the best and most respected artists of their time. It is hard to compare and contrast these works since they are both very similar and so remarkable. I grew up knowing of only the David made by Michelangelo, but once I saw Donatellos, I was speechless. There are so many similarities, yet both tell their own story. I do not think we will ever see works as magnificent as these in our lifetime.

General Ethical Perspectives Essay

Leadership is usually effective when leaders are motivated. Self drive is important to attain good leadership. Motivation for leaders is usually cultivated by the getting concerned with others. Leadership is further built by the development of ethical prospects such that there is a clear guideline on what leaders are required to do and what they can omit. Leadership personalities differ from person to person and high moral standards are required for effective leadership. Nevertheless whatever is moral in some communities may be immoral in another culture. For a leaders to fit in different cultures they must be culturally diversified in their leadership techniques. Ethical leadership is developed depending on an organizational culture. Different cultures are developed differently for different organizations. There are institutions that promote then culture of morality while others may develop a culture of corruption. There are no definite universal codes of ethics designed for particular organizations or associations. However, there are well developed general ethical leadership theories used for the purpose of encouraging unique leadership techniques and moral stability for leaders. This essay discuses general ethical theories or approaches used on the selection of moral choices. A variety of general ethical perspectives such utilitarianism, Kant’s Categorical Imperative, Justice as Fairness, Communitarianism, Altruism, Ethical Pluralism are discussed. Utilitarian ethical perspective is a theory based on motive of promoting the well being of the majority of people within a community. According to utilitarianism theory, ethical choices are depended on their repercussion. In this case, most leaders explore possible outcomes to their deeds when they make decisions. Utilitarianism advocates for decisions whose profits outweigh its demerits. These benefits are expected to meet more needs for the majority. In other words, utilitarianism seeks to extend greater good to most people. Many leaders approach situations from a perspective of utilitarian approach in making critical leadership decisions. In some situations one evil may seem a solution and a source of satisfaction of majority of the community. For instance, lying may protect someone’s dignity. Although the lie may protect one leader’s dignity, lies are considered unethical and destructive than constructive. A good example of such leadership is the case of president Truman of U. S, who decided to end the war in pacific by dropping atomic bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This was an ethical decision towards the safety and security of Americans. However, it was at the expense of thousand of lives of Japanese. The war stopped, but the world wondered why the president thought that atomic bombs were the only solution to ending the war. Another outcome was a consistent exploration of atomic bombs and on ground nuclear power test which resulted in numerous cancer cases on humanity. This is because the public was not aware of the effect on nuclear radiations effect and the leaders did not enlighten them in safety measures. This ethical decision was reached at when the president of America found it more beneficial to safeguard the lives of American than it would cost him in dropping the bombs. He pleased his people by securing them from the war. In contrast, Kant’s categorical imperative philosophy advocates that we must do the right thing regardless of its underlying costs and benefits. Leaders are encouraged to follow the rules of morality; that we may not need to tell a lie or kill one person for the sake of saving many. Kant uses deontological ethics in which he applies moral reasoning. For instance, he says that if we want to make choices in an important issue it is important to reason first and validate our decision. We should be able to take a decision only if the rest of our society would also pick on the same. In other words, if one is guilty, then they are taking the wrong decision. According to Kant, it is always right to tell the truth no matter the cost but cheating is always wrong. Several wrong can not make a right just as several lies will never make a truth. Although most leaders use the led as a means to an end, they should learn that humans ought to be treated as the end itself. It is undisputable that humans can be used for the success of others, but they should be respected and supported moral in capacity building. The society need to be encouraged and empowered in decision making as well as being protected against harm. In this context it is not right for production firms to pollute the environment without the necessary public safety awareness and protection. According to this philosophy one should be ready to help the needy, since the failure to help them is incapacitating them. They need to be encouraged to work and persist in doing right against wrong. Justice as fairness is philosophy that encourages equality of opportunities and rights to all, which works against ignorance. John Rawls researched on justice as fairness and documented some of his articles. In his research, he realized that utilitarian principles would not be applicable in society. According to him, when the largest benefit to the society is delivered there would be some marginalized groups within the members of the society. Some individuals may never be advantaged at any one point. He therefore encouraged the formation of corporations within the society which would comprise of free, democratic and equal citizen. He believed that this category of people would always strive to alleviate any inequalities among them. They would always try to promote their limited and varied talents and capabilities. For instance, he pointed out that if a national leadership decides to withdraw corporate taxes, the beneficiary is the firm owner and not the free citizens. In the light of utilitarian principles, generally national economy would grow but citizens must cover for the lost corporate taxes thus thy end up being disadvantaged. Rawls advocates for equality of rights to access basic liberties thus emphasizing similarity of liberties across the society. He further insists that economic and social inequality should be aimed at the satisfaction of conditions of fairness in equality of opportunity availability to all and development of great advantages to the less privileged in the society. According to him, discrimination of whatever kind; gender or race, poor, immigrants, disabled or marginalized, need to be alleviated. It is clear that inequality exists naturally, but leadership needs to focus on the elimination of the differences. The disadvantaged must be uplifted, empowered and directed towards personal development which has an overall effect of their well being and overall development of the national economy at large. Equality must be sought in opportunity availability, liberty provision, and care for the disadvantaged. Communitarianism is a philosophy of the 20th century in which individualism was shunned, and communal activity and ownership embraced. These involve the redefinition of individual rights, citizenship relationship with civil responsibility and improvement of public security, safety and health. Redefinition of legal right to the traffic rules and regulation ensure safety for more road users in within the communitarian society. Civic rights communitarians’ society means taking part in civic responsibility like serving the jury. Communitarianism involves the promotion of community health through the provision of necessary team cooperation, participation, community maintenance, affirmation, and diversification of amenities to serve that community. Collaborative leadership is encouraged in the communitarian. This encourages problem solving based on the collaborative leadership representation in which leaders from diverse categories take part in the solution of civic problems. Altruistic leadership approach emphasizes on leadership principle promoting high moral values some of which are developed from Christianity and Judaism. This kind of leadership acknowledges hospitality, generosity, empathy, concern for others as well as compassion, in with leadership should promote love for God and for humanity. This kind of leadership is the driving force in many social organizations. Volunteer work, good turn and spirit of giving to the poor and less privileged is advocated for. Through altruism, leaders are bound to experience more risks on behalf of the led. Ethical pluralism is whereby all several ethical theories of leadership are merged and practiced concurrently. The mixture of the five approaches of ethics is very important in the solution of particular ethical problems and making decisions that would otherwise not be made by use of a single approach. In general leadership is developed by a combination of various leadership principles and personalities. Different Ethical leadership perspectives are used by different leaders to lead the society. Deferent leadership decisions are based on different ethical perspectives. Reference Johnson, C. E. (2004). Meeting The Ethical Challenges of Leadership: Casting Light Or Shadow. 3rd Edition. California: Sage publications.

AP us witch trials

Explain the economic and political causes underlying the Salem witch Trials? The causes underlying the Salem witch trials has a lot to do with religious practices during the late 17th century. These cases were proven however not to be Just based on religion. Though the church was the power of the state the act of treason and the striping of due process concluded these trials could have been for money and property. When an accused was executed, sometimes that person's property was given to the state. Another possible underlying cause would be out of spite, or the slaking of someone.For example an accuser may accuse someone her or she does not Like and they could be executed. It could have started out of religious purposes however it seemed to be more of personal issues. Analyze the role that reverend Paris played In the Salem witch trials? The Role of reverend Paris played was quite Interesting and quite suspicious. Paris served as a justice during the trials but there's a catch. Two of the allegedly â€Å"possessed† girls were related to him. One being his daughter and another who was his niece. Paris was also responsible for â€Å"breaking Tuba†.Otherwise known as questioning until the truth is revealed, Paris struck Tuba with hard questions until she confessed. Whether her confession was true or not, Is not known but Reverend Par's' roll Is quite skeptical to me. Evaluate the Significance of who was accused of witchcraft and who the accusers were? Well right off the back people being accused were the Native Americans and slaves. The Native Americans were already believed to be â€Å"employees† of the devil. Some people living in Salem even claimed the woods of the new world was the devil's home. Slaves and Native Americans were not the only ones. W class colleens and people who seemed to be the poorest were being put on trial. These accused were being put on trial by the Upper-class and even farmers were sometimes accusing the poor. Brai nstorm and Discuss more recent events that you might label as witch-hunts? Something that I believe is a recent event that could be labeled, as Witch craft would be something about exorcisms and possessions. People, are claiming abnormalities from ghosts or lost ones just as the girls were In the Salem trials. However these cases are not usually brought to court. Instead they are made into TV shows, and OFF for ghosts.In some ways the Salem witch trials and Ghost hunters are very similar. Both are all claims and technology was and is not advanced enough to detect spirits or contact with the devil. Another event I think could be labeled as â€Å"witch hunts† would be the search of information on the illuminant. A group of people who are believed to worship satanic figures Just like the witches. Debate the use of spectral evidence and Tuba's confession in the trials. What would a modern court do with such evidence? Spectral evidence is a form of evidence based upon dreams and v isions.It was admitted into court during the Salem witch trials by the appointed chief Justice, William Sought. The definition Justifies the use right there, it is invalid and should not be used. This was evidence only the accuser could provide, being dreams, visions, sounds, and other strange things along those lines is not valid or factual enough to prove someone's innocence. Tuba's confession in my opinion could not have been Justified as truthful. Firstly she was from Barbados and though she may have been participating in witch like activities is does not mean she cursed the kids.Secondly she may have Just have confessed to get it over with because the community believed in forgiveness. If spectral evidence was used in court today it would probably be laughed at and the person claiming these visions or whatever would probably be placed in a clinic. Discuss how the witch trials came to an end in Salem and what their consequences were. In your view, were matters resolved fairly? T he witch trials came to an end with a realization, that perhaps the accusers were not telling the truth. In 1693 Tuba was proven guilty and sold into slavery.Over 200 people were accused and 55 were executed, survival usually came from a confession. After realizing the courts were wrong, in 1697 a pubic fasting took place, and in 1702 John Hale gave a powerful apology statement. It wouldn't be 300 yeas later until the last case was reversed. In my opinion matters were probably as solved as fairly as possible. How I see it was this whole case to our society seems crazy and we think of these accusers and Judges Just as crazy. During the 17th century though, witchcraft was thought to be so real that the inhabitants of a lusciously based community really had no choice but to believe.Mistakes were made ? Old say yes, but what needs to be looked into is those who were accused out of personal reasons for that was unfair treatment and people were losing loved ones over a claim, Justice was not served fairly then. How and why have different political and social groups competed for influence over society and government in what would become the united states? Well our country was Just on its start. In my opinion these groups competed because purpose. That purpose is to live in and make a perfect society, whether it is through elision, law, government or another practice the goal is all the same to live happy.Take a look at the 18th century in order to understand this competition more. Liberalizes, Nationalists, and Conservatives, all competing against each other to form that golden society. Liberalizes wanted equality and liberty, generally speaking civil rights and freedom. Nationalists this involves individual identifying with a nation, very similar to Patriotism. Conservatives was basing culture aspects based on western civilizations. You see all three want what's best but Just believe and have different opinions how to do it.How have Americans agreed or Argued over t he Values that guide the political system as well as who is part of the political process? Many Americans believe today's system is unjust and unfair. Americans have argued over the political system and schemes for years. It seems like the government always has something up its sleeve and its people know that. Like the Salem witch trials, and many other cases family members and friends were working on cases involving loved ones. This didn't make sense and people argued over that. How much say a person has, the penalties, who and when to speak has all been argued about until a solution was thought of.The agreeing and Arguing is what essentially shaped the political system into something more fair. How and why have changes in moral, philosophical and cultural values affected US history? Change, comes through one thing experience, and experience can come from mistakes or well doings. These values have all been tested up until now by trial and error. Starting with moral values take a lo ok at punishments for crime. The electric chair and hangings was a way of being punished for a crime, but with research and discovery these methods were found painful and unethical and charges have now differed.Philosophical values are along the lines of pollution. People have been polluting for centuries and it is now Just taking a toll on our environment and change is being made. Lastly cultural is more along the lines with lets say helping other countries, a few hundred years ago why would we do that? The world is ours, but we have realized we all need each other if we want to survive and live peacefully. So how has this affected United States history, well its simple change in values is what shaped our country today.. Each time a change happens, the previous thing being changed will no longer happen in history again.