The Hudson Project Musical Festival Essay Example For Students

The Hudson Project Musical Festival Essay The Hudson Project Musical Festival of 2014 was the most exciting adventure I have ever experienced. It happened over the course of three days this past July. The goal of the people running this event was to create a modern day Woodstock, and I believe they did just that. They held the event in Saugerties, New York on Winston farm- which is over 800 acres of land. Although it was intimidating at first going on a camping trip with just me and my best friend, Katie, it truly was a life-changing experience. These types of festivals happen all the time, and have created a musically inclined following of some pretty rad people. We will write a custom essay on The Hudson Project Musical Festival specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We arrived on Thursday night, and got our parking space- which was about 5 miles from the actual venue. We didn’t realize how much of a hassle off-site parking would be, although it was definitely cheaper. After waiting on a line for four long hours, we finally boarded the shuttle bus and were on our way! Lucky for us, or so we thought, Katie and I had a friend of ours, who we planned on camping, with take our tent to set it up before we got there. We arrived at our camping area at around 4 in the morning and in our state of deliriousness, we noticed our tent had not been set up. Although Katie and I are both children who grew up around camping, neither of us could set up her tiny tent, especially not at 4 in the morning. With help from our friends, we managed to set up our tent- barely. Our excitement didn’t keep us up for long, and we slept dreaming of the long days we had ahead. Friday and Saturday were surreal. We emerged from our tent each day to see what seemed to be miles of more tents. Katie and I were like children in a candy store. The camping areas were set up and named after, the 5 city boroughs. In the center of all this chaos, was the music area- which was huge. There were 3 huge tents, and 2 main stages. Amongst the unique people and music there were tons of little shops selling an arrangement of little trinkets, hippie clothes, and whatever other wonders you may have found. Although we were exhausted from the night we arrived, you would have never been able to tell. Throughout the day, the artists who played were obviously not the headliners me and Katie had come for, so we would walk around and explore all they had to offer at this amazing place. This festival was not limited to just music, in the center of the concert area, there was a huge circle of 5 blank canvases that you could buy, if you desired. At first we obviously did not know what this was, but as the weekend went on these blank canvases were transformed into amazing works of art. There was a set schedule every day and many different activities were included. It was a bit difficult to get to enjoy early morning activities offered, such as yoga and other meditations, because the DJs who played at night would go on until around 2 in the morning. Saturday night was my favorite night, but it created a big mess. Katie and I, along with a group of friends from home we met up with, were wandering from stage to stage waiting for Big Gigantic, a group we all looked forward to seeing. They played for about 2 hours, and every second was amazing. Due to the fact that charging your phone was nearly impossible, it was very important to make sure you stayed near your group. So, Katie and I were in a group with 3 of our close friends having an amazing time dancing and enjoying the great music when all of a sudden it began to downpour. The initial reaction of everyone was just to scream- out of anger, excitement, and even fear. Although this event definitely made me dislike the rain, the way the rain felt with that music was indescribable. After about 5 minutes we all realized that we all had our phones and they would be ruined soon if we didn’t act quickly. Since Katie and I’s tent was a lot closer than our friends, we made a sacrifice and took everyone’s belongings back to our tent. We did not have our phones so we made a plan to meet at a spot in 20 minutes. Now, teenagers do not have a great sense of time so we all had our doubts about actually meeting up-especially because there were thousands of people all around us. Once we got to our tent- the reality of it all set in. Like I said, our tent was barely set up, and we knew that the rain was getting in. We did what we could to protect our things from getting soaked, but our effort didn’t help much. By the time we were finished we knew it had absolutely been 20 minutes, so naturally we spent another 10 minutes debating if going out in the rain was worth possibly not finding our friends. We finally decided that we were here regardless of the circumstances, and that we needed to make the best of it. We ran to the concert area and felt completely lost scanning the huge crowds. There was one big white tent right in the middle and that’s where we had said we would meet. Katie and I walked right up through the tent and emerged on the other side to see another huge mob in front of the main stage; we were almost out of hope at this point. All of a sudden, we saw our friends and rejoiced. We all decided that it was some type of miracle; they had been walking around looking for us because we took so long and were about to head back to the show when they saw us walk out of the tent. This happening reversed any negative thoughts I was having about the rain, and I had an amazing night. .udb6fe9e6edd1729d0708b306a0768cd4 , .udb6fe9e6edd1729d0708b306a0768cd4 .postImageUrl , .udb6fe9e6edd1729d0708b306a0768cd4 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .udb6fe9e6edd1729d0708b306a0768cd4 , .udb6fe9e6edd1729d0708b306a0768cd4:hover , .udb6fe9e6edd1729d0708b306a0768cd4:visited , .udb6fe9e6edd1729d0708b306a0768cd4:active { border:0!important; } .udb6fe9e6edd1729d0708b306a0768cd4 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .udb6fe9e6edd1729d0708b306a0768cd4 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .udb6fe9e6edd1729d0708b306a0768cd4:active , .udb6fe9e6edd1729d0708b306a0768cd4:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .udb6fe9e6edd1729d0708b306a0768cd4 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .udb6fe9e6edd1729d0708b306a0768cd4 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .udb6fe9e6edd1729d0708b306a0768cd4 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .udb6fe9e6edd1729d0708b306a0768cd4 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .udb6fe9e6edd1729d0708b306a0768cd4:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .udb6fe9e6edd1729d0708b306a0768cd4 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .udb6fe9e6edd1729d0708b306a0768cd4 .udb6fe9e6edd1729d0708b306a0768cd4-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .udb6fe9e6edd1729d0708b306a0768cd4:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Music Marketing EssaySunday was the day â€Å"mudson project† started. I would always wake up before Katie simply because I couldn’t sleep once the sun was up. Sunday morning, myself and Angela (a mutual friend of Katie and I) decided to take the shuttle bus to my car to charge our phones. The weather for that day was not looking promising and in my tired state I decided we would probably leave that night, instead of Monday morning. Our camping location really ended up saving our lives. We entered at the north entrance and the shuttle bus â€Å"stop† was a gas station about 5 minutes walking distance from our tents. By the time me and Angela got to my car, we were shot. After 3 days of being up until 2 A. M and awake by 8 A. M- the exhaustion was beginning to catch up to us. I decided that Katie and I would leave that night after the artist we wanted to see was finished preforming. The decision to move my car to a hotel across the street that day was the best decision I made all weekend. When we arrived back at the camper I told Katie the plan and at first she was upset because she, obviously, did not want to leave this amazing place. Literally over-night this beautiful farm land turned into a huge mud pit. Sunday was a bit of a recuperation day so we didn’t leave the tent until the first artist we wanted to see was preforming, this was not until 5 P. M. We spent the day being lazy and as the time approached our anticipation grew. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the gate to the concert area the security officers were turning people away. We over-heard a few conversations and realized that they were cancelling the day’s performances due to the weather. Everyone was really upset by this, of course, because we all paid good money to come to this event. Once Katie realized the concert was probably over she came to her senses and we started to bring the bulk of our things to my car so we would have a lighter load later on. We waited a few hours just to be sure we wouldn’t miss anything, but we instead got caught in the most intense rain storm I have ever been in. My car was not even half a mile from our tents, and by the time we got to it with the remainder of our things, I felt like I just got out of a pool. By the time we left on Sunday evening, we were smelly (showers were 6 dollars-each), tired, and ready to be in our beds. This music festival was by far the most exciting thing I have ever experienced. It was an eye opening event that exposed me to not only new music, but new people, unique art, and a different way of life. On Wed, Jan 28, 2015 at 7:37 PM, Kayla Kelly wrote: Kayla Kelly The Hudson Project Musical Festival of 2014 was the most exciting adventure I have ever experienced. It happened over the course of three days this past July. The goal of the people running this event was to create a modern day Woodstock, and I believe they did just that. They held the event in Saugerties, New York on Winston farm- which is over 800 acres of land. Although it was intimidating at first going on a camping trip with just me and my best friend, Katie, it truly was a life-changing experience. These types of festivals happen all the time, and have created a musically inclined following of some pretty special people. We arrived on Thursday night, and got our parking space- which was about 5 miles from the actual venue. We didn’t realize how much of a hassle off-site parking would be, although it was definitely cheaper. After waiting on a line for four long hours, we finally boarded the shuttle bus and were on our way! Lucky for us, or so we thought, me and Katie had a friend of ours who we planned on camping with take our tent to set it up before we got there. We arrived at our camping area at around 4 in the morning and in our state of deliriousness, we noticed our tent had not been set up. Although me and Katie are both children who grew up around camping, neither of us could set up her tiny tent, especially not at 4 in the morning. With help from our friends, we managed to set up our tent- barely. Our excitement didn’t keep us up for long, and we slept dreaming of the long days we had ahead. Friday and Saturday were surreal. We emerged from our tent each day to see what seemed to be miles of more tents. Me and Katie were like children in a candy store. The camping areas were set up like, and named after, the 5 city boroughs. In the center of all this chaos, was the music area- which was huge. There were 3 huge tents, and 2 main stages. Amongst the unique people and music there were tons of little shops selling an arrangement of little trinkets, hippie clothes, and whatever other wonders you may have found. Although we were exhausted from the night we arrived, you would have never been able to tell. Throughout the day, the artists who played were obviously not the headliners me and Katie had come for, so we would walk around and explore all they had to offer at this amazing place. This festival was not limited to just music, in the center of the concert area, there was a huge circle of 5 blank canvases that you could buy, if you desired. At first we obviously did not know what this was, but as the weekend went on these blank canvases were transformed into amazing works of art. There was a set schedule every day and many different activities were included. It was a bit difficult to get to enjoy early morning activities offered, such as yoga and other meditations, because the DJs who played at night would go on until around 2 in the morning. Saturday night was my favorite night, but it created a big mess. Katie, myself, and a group of our friends were wandering from stage to stage waiting for Big Gigantic, a group we all looked forward to seeing. They played for about 2 hours, and every second was amazing. .uf07a3a9aa359082af6c8dc44687fd297 , .uf07a3a9aa359082af6c8dc44687fd297 .postImageUrl , .uf07a3a9aa359082af6c8dc44687fd297 .centered-text-area { min-height: 80px; position: relative; } .uf07a3a9aa359082af6c8dc44687fd297 , .uf07a3a9aa359082af6c8dc44687fd297:hover , .uf07a3a9aa359082af6c8dc44687fd297:visited , .uf07a3a9aa359082af6c8dc44687fd297:active { border:0!important; } .uf07a3a9aa359082af6c8dc44687fd297 .clearfix:after { content: ""; display: table; clear: both; } .uf07a3a9aa359082af6c8dc44687fd297 { display: block; transition: background-color 250ms; webkit-transition: background-color 250ms; width: 100%; opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #95A5A6; } .uf07a3a9aa359082af6c8dc44687fd297:active , .uf07a3a9aa359082af6c8dc44687fd297:hover { opacity: 1; transition: opacity 250ms; webkit-transition: opacity 250ms; background-color: #2C3E50; } .uf07a3a9aa359082af6c8dc44687fd297 .centered-text-area { width: 100%; position: relative ; } .uf07a3a9aa359082af6c8dc44687fd297 .ctaText { border-bottom: 0 solid #fff; color: #2980B9; font-size: 16px; font-weight: bold; margin: 0; padding: 0; text-decoration: underline; } .uf07a3a9aa359082af6c8dc44687fd297 .postTitle { color: #FFFFFF; font-size: 16px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0; padding: 0; width: 100%; } .uf07a3a9aa359082af6c8dc44687fd297 .ctaButton { background-color: #7F8C8D!important; color: #2980B9; border: none; border-radius: 3px; box-shadow: none; font-size: 14px; font-weight: bold; line-height: 26px; moz-border-radius: 3px; text-align: center; text-decoration: none; text-shadow: none; width: 80px; min-height: 80px; background: url(https://artscolumbia.org/wp-content/plugins/intelly-related-posts/assets/images/simple-arrow.png)no-repeat; position: absolute; right: 0; top: 0; } .uf07a3a9aa359082af6c8dc44687fd297:hover .ctaButton { background-color: #34495E!important; } .uf07a3a9aa359082af6c8dc44687fd297 .centered-text { display: table; height: 80px; padding-left : 18px; top: 0; } .uf07a3a9aa359082af6c8dc44687fd297 .uf07a3a9aa359082af6c8dc44687fd297-content { display: table-cell; margin: 0; padding: 0; padding-right: 108px; position: relative; vertical-align: middle; width: 100%; } .uf07a3a9aa359082af6c8dc44687fd297:after { content: ""; display: block; clear: both; } READ: Music : Expressionism EssayDue to the fact that charging your phone was nearly impossible, it was very important to make sure you stayed near your group. This was my first experience, but I took note that many people who regularly attend these events create huge signs to hold up above the crowd for friends to see. So, Katie and I were in a group with 3 of our close friends having an amazing time dancing and enjoying the great music when all of a sudden it began to downpour. The initial reaction of everyone was just to scream- out of anger, excitement, and even fear. Although this event definitely made me dislike the rain, the way the rain felt with that music was indescribable. After about 5 minutes we all realized that we all had our phones and they would be ruined soon if we didn’t act quickly. Since Katie and I’s tent was a lot closer than our friends, we made a sacrifice and took everyone’s belongings back to our tent. We did not have our phones so we made a plan to meet at a spot in 20 minutes. Now, teenagers do not have a great sense of time so we all had our doubts about actually meeting up-especially because there was thousands of people all around us. Once we got to our tent- the reality of it all set in. Like I said, our tent was barely set up, and we knew that the rain was getting in. We did what we could to protect our things from getting soaked, but our effort didn’t help much. By the time we were finished we knew it had absolutely been 20 minutes, so naturally we spent another 10 minutes debating if going out in the rain was worth possibly not finding our friends. We finally decided that we were here regardless of the circumstances, and that we needed to make the best of it. We ran to the concert area and felt completely lost scanning the huge crowds. There was one big white tent right in the middle and that’s where we had said we would meet. Katie and I walked right up through the tent and emerged on the other side to see another huge mob in front of the main stage, we were almost out of hope at this point. All of a sudden, we saw our friends and rejoiced. We all decided that it was some type of miracle; they had been walking around looking for us because we took so long and were about to head back to the show when they saw us walk out of the tent. This happening reversed any negative thoughts I was having about the rain, and I had an amazing night. Sunday was the day â€Å"mudson project† started. I would always wake up before Katie simply because I couldn’t sleep once the sun was up. Sunday morning, myself and Angela (a mutual friend of Katie and I) decided to take the shuttle bus to my car to charge our phones. The weather for that day was not looking promising and in my tired state I decided we would probably leave that night, instead of Monday morning. Our camping location really ended up saving our lives. We entered at the north entrance and the shuttle bus â€Å"stop† was a gas station about 5 minutes walking distance from our tents. By the time me and Angela got to my car, we were shot. After 3 days of being up until 2 A. M and awake by 8 A. M- the exhaustion was beginning to catch up to us. I decided that me and Katie would leave that night after the artist we wanted to see was finished preforming. The decision to move my car to a hotel across the street that day was the best decision I made all weekend. When we arrived back at the camper I told Katie the plan and at first she was upset because she, obviously, did not want to leave this amazing place. Literally over-night this beautiful farm land turned into a huge mud pit. Sunday was a bit of a recuperation day so we didn’t leave the tent until the first artist we wanted to see was preforming, this was not until 5 P. M. We spent the day being lazy and as the time approached our anticipation grew. Unfortunately, when we arrived at the gate to the concert area the security officers were turning people away. We over-heard a few conversations and realized that they were canceling the days performances due to the weather. Everyone was really upset by this, of course, because we all paid good money to come to this event. Once Katie realized the concert was probably over she came to her senses and we started to bring the bulk of our thins to my car so we would have a lighter load later on. We waited a few hours just to be sure we wouldn’t miss anything, but we instead got caught in the most intense rain storm I have ever been in. My car was not even half a mile from our tents, and by the time we got to it with the remainder of our things, I felt like I just got out of a pool. By the time we left on Sunday evening, we were smelly (showers were 6 dollars-each), tired, and ready to be in our beds. This music festival was by far the most exciting and thing I have ever experienced. It was an eye opening event that exposed me to not only new music, but new people, unique art, and a different way of life.

Irish Child And Adolescent Mental Health Services Social Work Essay Essays

Irish Child And Adolescent Mental Health Services Social Work Essay Essays Irish Child And Adolescent Mental Health Services Social Work Essay Essay Irish Child And Adolescent Mental Health Services Social Work Essay Essay but besides states that many of these will stay untreated because/due to the deficiency of services ( Share and Lalor,2009 ) . Many working groups and studies have been improved or implemented since the 2001 Mental Health Act, including the kid and Mental Health Service Report 2009-1010, a Vision for alteration 2006, the specializer Child and Adolescent Mental Health Advisory Group 2009, mental Health Commission 2002, and the Mental Health Expert Advisory Group. A Vision for Change presently in its 5th twelvemonth was launched by Mary Harney the so T A ; aacute ; naiste and Minster for Health and Children in 2006, prior to the recession or recent authorities crisis. This vision was so adopted as the formal national policy for the proviso of mental wellness services and was endorsed by patients advocators for patients and the mental wellness professional community. This vision was to advance a individual centered recovery orientated and holistic attack to mental unwellness and that the programme was to be funded from the sale of preexistent mental wellness lands and belongingss ( HSE, 2010 ) , including the sale and closing of 15 Victorian infirmaries promised by John Moloney during his statement to the House of the Oireachtas on 23 March 2010. Although it would be far to besides add that he did non print a clip line or budget program. The Child and mental Health service ( CAMHS ) have duty for the development of mental wellness services for kids and adolescents up until a younger grownup reaches 18 old ages of age There purpose is the development of 90 nine multi-disciplinary CAMHS squads, of which 50 five are already in topographic point, fifty community squads, to twenty-four hours hospital squads and three pediatric infirmary affair squads in add-on to other recommendations. With so much support being available to organize and implement so may groups and studies betterment should be huge. Deputy John Moloney the so Minister of State during his statement to the House of the Oireachtas on 23 March 2010, is recorded as saying that 70 per cent of mental wellness troubles begin in the kid and adolescent old ages, and that despite the economic down bend that advancement is being maintained in relation to mental wellness services an illustration of these betterments was the doubling of available inpatient beds from the minimum figure of 15 to the tremendous figure of 30 inmate beds, to cover the full population of 20 six counties in a state where the population harmonizing to the 2006 figures from the cardinal statistics office was recorded as being 4,239,848 of which 864,449 were aged between nothing and 14 ( Central Statistics Office, 2010 ) . The failure of mental wellness services available to Children and striplings has been highlighted in recent old ages with newspaper headlines foregrounding the usage of grownup psychiatric wards being used to suit kids every bit immature as 14. Harmonizing to newspapers such as the Belfast Telegraph on 7 October 2010 over one 100 adolescents enduring mental unwellness were admitted to adult psychiatric units during 2010. The graduated table of the job emerged after four adolescents over a few twenty-four hours period were admitted to the same mental wellness service unit at Waterford regional infirmary. It was noted that of the 100 adolescents forty three were under 17 old ages of age and the staying 50 seven were under 18. It was fortunate that at the clip this entrees occurred the amendment to the mental wellness ordinances had non come into force, and was non considered a breach of mental wellness ordinances, from December 2010 the age bound for preventing admittances to adults un its was increased to seventeen and this is due to be raised once more from 1 December 2011 to eighteen. ( Belfast Telegraph,2010 ) . Despite these Numbers 2010 really showed a lessening in kids and striplings being admitted to adult units, harmonizing to Amnesty International, in 2009 two 100 people were admitted to adult units and in 2008 this figure was two 100 and 40 seven. The figure of Children and striplings being admitted to adult units may be diminishing but the existent figure really being admitted to inmates units continues to lift, during the first nine months of 2010, sixty three per cent of immature individual s being treated for mental wellness conditions were admitted to child and adolescent units an addition of 19 per cent on the 2009 figures. This harmonizing to the Department of Health and Children is expected to go on to increase with the gap of the two new 20 bed units in both Cork and Galway ( section of Health and Children.2010 ) . Prior to the execution of the Vision of Change the age cut off age between kids and grownup services was 16 old ages. These additions occurred despite the purposed move off from the infirmary based theoretical account and towards more attention in the community and within the clients ain place ( HSE, 2010 ) . Improvements despite nevertheless minimum are still betterments, from small acorns turn almighty oaks. The HSE published its 2nd one-year study on Child and Mental Health Services on 23 November 2010, This study highlights that within the twelvemonth 1 October 2009 and 30 September 2010 7651 new instances were seen by the CAMHS squads and of these new instances 47 per cent were seen within one month and 69 per cent within three months of the initial referral ( HSE,2010 ) . This study states that waiting lists have decreased by 9.5 per cent stand foring a lessening of 247 individuals compared to the study besides acknowledges that despite this lessening 2370 kids and striplings still await assignments. These 2370 immature grownups all with households, parents, callings, siblings, equals, instructors all waiting an assignment all perchance affected by behaviour jobs of some sort, all indirectly expecting aid to some grade, and all trusting for a positive results. These immature grownup s await assignments despite the fact that the UN Convention on the Rights of the kid states that Governments and relevant subordinate organic structures of province have a duty to take all available steps to guarantee that kids s rights are respected, protected and fulfilled ( ACAMH,2008 ) .. The exact figure of these that could be considered at hazard despite the purposes of the 2001 Mental Health Act remain unknown. Despite apparently little betterments or what the HSE see as a broad scope of community based services such as outpatient clinics, medium support groups places, residential units and acute admittances wards etc. , ( HSE,2010 ) . Orla Barry manager of the Mental Health Commission states that cuts in staffing, edifices unfit for use/purpose, funding cutbacks, deficiency of conformity with basic criterions and with no meaningful programs to drive reform that the HSE is non presenting on its promises ( Amnesty International,2010 ) . Orla Barry besides states that mental wellness disbursement is at its lowest degree in modern history and that over half of the staff cuts in 2010 were from mental wellness which represented nine per cent of the Health service Executive work force ( Healthrisk,2010 ) . Dr Teresa Carey, Inspector of Mental Health Facilities besides paints a subdued position of the mental wellness system and provinces that cardinal to the bringing of effectual mental wellness s ervices is the ability to garner, analyse and manage information, but describes the information capablenesss of the Irish mental wellness service as primitive which has further deductions for the allotment of resources and make up ones minding of staffing degrees ( SIPTU NURSING, 2006 ) This essay will reason that despite recorded betterments to the mental wellness Servicess or the good purposes of all the studies and working groups. Purposes are lone purposes, more evidently needs to be done, for those who merely by age entirely irrespective of the mental wellness job they are sing, are one of the most vulnerable sectors of society and are unable to recommend for themselves. A waiting list regardless of size is still a waiting list. These immature grownups can be sing different grades of mental damage from depression to consider self-harm, and the demand for betterment can merely be enforced, with the Child and mental Health service ( CAMHS ) really saying that good results are most likely if the kid or stripling and their household or carer have entree to seasonably well-coordinated advice, appraisal and grounds based intervention ( HSE,2010 ) .

How to Use Mood and Atmosphere in Your Novel - Freewrite Store

How to Use Mood and Atmosphere in Your Novel - Freewrite Store ï » ¿The mood, or atmosphere, of your novel, is one of the things that makes your story stick in your readers’ minds long after they’ve turned the last page. Think about some of your favorite novels - what is it that you remember most? For me, the stormy atmosphere of my favorite novel, Wuthering Heights, is the first thing that comes to mind. Emily Bronte managed to create a mood in the novel that I really related to during my turbulent teenage years. As I’m writing this, I’m listening to the angry crashing of thunder and the pouring torrential rain, listening to children screaming as they run inside - what a perfect reminder of how nature creates atmosphere without any effort at all! The Power of Your Setting for Atmosphere There’s a variety of factors that go into creating mood and atmosphere in fiction. Your setting - including details like the weather and climate - can be a great starting point for conveying a mood. In Wuthering Heights, for example, the windswept moors of the Yorkshire Dales created the perfect backdrop for the atmosphere of the story. It’s the setting that allows you to introduce details that create the mood. The kinds of details that you can use for conveying the atmosphere against the backdrop of your story include smells, sounds, and sights. For example, you could create a gothic mood by using details that describe the decay of an abandoned house - cobwebs in the corners, rust on the bars on the windows, clouds of dust, and so on. Using Mood Words As a beginning writer, when I first came across the term ‘mood words’, I thought it referred to a list of moods (e.g. happy, depressed, angry, despondent, etc.). I was wrong. Mood words are broadly defined as descriptive verbs and adjectives that add an extra dimension to non-descript actions. For example, consider the difference between these sentences: Adelaide walked towards the door. Adelaide tiptoed towards the door. Walking is non-descript. We all do it, and without any kind of descriptors about howa character is walking, there’s no sense of mood or atmosphere. To tiptoe, however, is to walk in a particular way - to avoid being heard or to avoid disturbing someone. Overall, tiptoeing creates a sense of stealth and can be used to convey an atmosphere of tension or caution. Mood words are incredibly useful when you’re trying to convey an atmosphere. It can be helpful to have a list of mood words for particular types of scenes that you can easily refer back to. Here’s an example to get you started: Eerie Mood Words: Creaking Rattling Thumping Scuttling (as in a mouse scuttling) Whistling (as in the wind whistling) Cracking (as in a twig cracking) Show, Don’t Tell The easiest way to create a mood is to tell the reader what the mood is, right? Wrong. Which of these two passages is more engaging and captivating in its description of mood?: Rebecca felt happy that the interview had gone well. She was excited to hear back from the manager. Rebecca walked sedately out of the building, but as soon as she was out of sight of the reception desk, she almost danced across the road to where Dom was waiting for her. A bubbling laugh escaped her lips as she ran to him and threw her arms around his neck. â€Å"I think I’ve got it!† she almost shouted. â€Å"Oh, Dom, you should’ve seen me in there!† You should always avoid telling your readers something when you can show them through your characters actions and speech. The second passage conveys the excitement in a way that makes the reader feel part of the scene - simply telling the reader that your character is excited isn’t going to create an atmosphere of excitement. Word Choices The words that you use to describe a scene or setting can have a powerful impact on the kind of mood you create. When I was studying for my Creative Writing degree, my tutor set an assignment that I thought I’d suck at, but I actually found that I enjoyed it. We were given a setting - a simple backyard - but told to describe it in three different ways, conveying a different atmosphere each time. This is how it turned out: Scene 1: Shadows played across the yard like a shroud. Long grass, unkempt and almost knee-high, danced in the breeze. A child’s bicycle, long abandoned, lay in the shadow of a withered oak tree. Sunlight blazing off the sash windows of the house made it impossible for Derrick to see whether Susan was inside. Scene 2 Alstroemeria bloomed in the bright-blue planter pressed up against the side of the front porch. Danny’s bike was, yet again, abandoned in the middle of the lawn at the foot of the old oak. Excited giggles drifted down from the treehouse as the boys quickly hauled the ladder up. â€Å"Is your Mom home?† Derrick called out to the boys, shading his eyes against the glare of the sun. Scene 3 There were some signs that this had once been a happy home - the rusty bicycle below the oak tree, and the partially-collapsed remains of a treehouse. There had once been a lawn, but now it was just a scorched black scar in front of the dilapidated house. Derrick dug the toe of his boot into the dirt and sighed. It had been fifteen years, but if he breathed in deeply enough, it was almost as if he could still smell the smoke of the fire. The words that you choose to describe anything in your novel have the power to convey very different moods. You have to be careful about the vocabulary that you choose, to ensure that every word matches up with the mood you’re wanting to portray. Descriptions are a lot like paintings. The details that you show to your reader come together to create an overall picture - and if you use details that don’t fit the mood, they’ll be jarring to your readers. Putting What You’ve Learned Into Practice Actually practicing using mood and atmosphere in your novel is the best way to get better at it. I’ve put together some exercises to help you get started. Imagine you’re writing a ghost story. Which of these two settings would provide the best backdrop for your story?: A cabin on the beach on the island of Barbados in summer An isolated cabin in a remote part of the Scottish highlands in winter (where there are only a few hours of daylight each day) Imagine you’re writing a story about a marriage breakdown. How would these different settings change the mood of the story?: The kitchen during the morning rush to get the kids to school A seating area outside a cafe close to where there’s a group of protestors shouting and waving placards A clifftop as your characters are participating in a walk for charity Create a mood word list for each of the following atmospheres: Spooky Tense Despairing Excited Joyful Find a scene in a novel (yours, or one you’re reading) where there’s more telling than there is showing. Re-write the scene in a way that conveys a mood without using the actual word. Describe a house and garden in three separate scenes, creating a different atmosphere in each.

Japanese and Chinese Styles comparison Research Paper

Japanese and Chinese Styles comparison - Research Paper Example Japan’s offenses of omission in dealing fully with its past marks as hindrance to its present overseas policy, but they pale in contrast with China’s historical sense of entitlement to local hegemony and its strong new form of condition-sanctioned anti-Japanese patriotism. China’s tactful language emphasizes toeing party’s line history rather than discriminating present-day interests, and it presumes that only one position in international affairs more often than not China’s — can be correct (Hagstrà ¶m 9) China today has much more to gain from association with Japan than from disagreement. Harping about past inflaming and sins the disputes over the islands do little good. If republic of China is to become the main power in the region, it can only do so with Japan, not next to it. As Germany and France have confirmed, ideas can change when government’s interest demands it. But changing Beijing’s thinking from hierarchy to collaboration will require strong leadership and a nuanced indulgent of national interests. China’s new leaders haven’t inspired much hope of either (Hunt 17). Socially, Japan developed on the Shogun ate life in which society revolved around honoring the emperor while maintaining a familys personal respect. The samurai, compared to the knight in the western European society, was one of the most accepted figures in Japanese society. While Post-modern China was also imperial in nature, China went without the Samurai system and instead relied heavily on a national army and private army. China and Japan both claim to be the shareholders of over  East China Sea  islets that China calls it the  Diaoyu Islands and Japan refer to it as Senkaku Islands. Tensions have been high from 2012 September, when Japanese government acquired three of the islets from private Japanese proprietor. This leads

Market Models of Education - Pros and Cons Essay - 2

Market Models of Education - Pros and Cons - Essay Example The authors of the Brave new classrooms : democratic education & the Internet argue that even though the online courses might have their place in providing for a higher level of education with respect to the social sciences or to the hard sciences, argues that the provision of online classes in terms of teaching creative writing skills is doing a strong disservice to students around the world. As a function of analyzing this particular point of view and summarizing it, the following critique will provide an interpretation into the method of argument that the authors in question use and this student’s view of whether or not it is an effective argument or not. Essentially, the authors indicate that there are several key reasons why Internet sources are not sufficient in teaching creative writing, or even writing in general. Firstly, the basis of traditional writing courses, as defined by the authors, has been predicated on small groups for many decades. As denoted within the chapter, this is not by accident. Instead, the utilization of small groups increases the overall level of interaction, self and peer review, and other relevant factors relating to the way in which creative writing is taught. However, within the Internet classroom, the overall interaction between students is necessarily limited and a one dimensional level of interaction between the instructor and the student is ultimately affected. Another rationale that the authors provide for why electronic courses are not as effective in teaching writing has to do with the fact that Internet classes necessarily pander to the elements of computer writing and professional business correspondence. The authors argue that even though it is true that these elements should doubtless be taught, to base entire courses on this is to lose sight of how effective writing techniques have produced exceptional articles, books, and opinions the past several decades.

Historical Methods-Archaeology Essay Example for Free

Historical Methods-Archaeology Essay Julius Caesar is probably the most famous Roman of all. As dictator, he paved the way for the establishment of the Roman Empire under his great-nephew Augustus, more infamously, had a love affair with Cleopatra of Egypt, and even invented the leap year, before being assassinated by friends and colleagues who had previously supported him. But before his dictatorship he had conquered a vast area of Europe in an incredibly short time. Caesars Gallic War is the most detailed eye-witness account of war that survives from the Greek or Roman world. In Book I, chapter 5 of his Gallic War, Julius Caesar writes of the Helvetiis practice of migrating en masse and of burning down their oppida or walled towns, villages and houses as they went. This would certainly explain the lack of remains of urban construction and monuments, and is likely to have been common to the Celts as a whole. Evidence of the existence of oppida or walled settlements has been found in the Cisalpine area and elsewhere and date to the third and second centuries B. C. Among the most prominent surviving monuments in continental Europe of the late Celtic period are the oppida (sing. ppidum) or large fortified settlements that have an urban character. They were constructed on naturally protected sites, and some remains of the massive original perimeter walls have turned up in Gaul and on the right bank of the Rhine, as well as in Danubia. Together with the rectangular enclosures (Viereckschanzen) that were probably part of the nemeta or open-air sanctuaries created by the rural population, the oppida are the most significant group of monuments surviving from this time (Jimene 90). The first surveys were made by Baron Stoffel, an officer under Napoleon III, who embarked on a series of historical investigations into the sites of Julius Caesars battles in Gaul. Since then, knowledge has been based on excavations carried out in the west and east, on the careful assessment of material unearthed, and on the new and painstaking historiographical and philological interpretations of Caesars chronicles of his campaign in Gaul, Gallic War. The derivation of the concept of oppidum from Caesars war campaign chronicles and the progressive extension of its application as archaeological research proceeds make it necessary to explain exactly what is meant by the term oppidum in its more restricted sense. Caesar divides the settlements of Gaul into three categories: oppida (fortified towns), vici (villages) and aedificia or aedificia privata (single farmsteads). This careful subdivision not only gives a clear indication of the different types of settlement pattern, increasingly confirmed by the present-day archaeological campaigns, but also gives an idea of the function of the oppida. Even with their large populations, the oppida cannot have been entirely selfsufficient. To some extent at least, they also served as storage points for crops and livestock, as well as centers for the processing of raw materials to cater for both town and countryside. As a result of this they also functioned as marketplaces, especially once regular coinage came into use in the second century B. C. , when coins of base metals (bronze or those known as potins), and in small denominations, made their appearance. The term urbs is used sparingly in Caesars account to highlight the importance of a handful of larger locations, such as Alesia, Gergovia and Avaricum. Unlike the oppida of free Gaul, the towns of Tolosa ( Toulouse), Narbo (Narbonne) and Vienna, situated in the Provincia, were subject to provincial Roman administration, as implied by their definition as civitates. Caesar also uses this expression to define ethnic communities in Gaul in terms of political and administrative entities. The central role of the oppida in the political, economic and cultural life of the Gaulish groups (and hence their strategic importance as fortified outposts for the Roman armies), is clearly described in Caesar Gallic War, which lists the oppida of twenty-nine different Gaulish tribes, with their names followed by a brief description. Some tribes, however, had control over more than one town (twelve in the case of the Helvetii). But most of the population of the time was scattered through villages and farmsteads. As for southern Germany, the diffusion of nemeta rectangular enclosures that were presumably nature sanctuaries for the rural populations and the proliferation of sites containing graphite-decorated pottery indicate a significant population in the countryside outside and between the large oppida (Zander 2005). Furthermore, over a wide geographical area numerous unfortified settlements in advantageous trading sites have yielded considerable information on the metal and pottery workshops. Some of these sites could be classed as trading posts. Their position along the navigable waterways, at harbors or fords seems to have been decisive in their development. In addition to the civitates or capitals of the separate races, there were also smaller urban-type settlements, presumably the centers of small territories, such as a pagus. It is reasonable to assume that not all these centers were founded at the same time. The location, size and, presumably, the number of inhabitants, varies depending on the political and economic importance of the settlement. Despite their many common features, settlement types are not consistent. Although the information offered by Caesar is sound only where the territories of his military campaigns are concerned, certain basic urban features he mentions have a more general application, as corroborated by archaeological research undertaken in the larger fortified settlements. This is valid if we consider the term oppidum in its broadest sense, that is, an urban settlement with a sizable population, which is both regional center and refuge for smaller settlements and populations over a wide area. None of the definitions that in each case highlight some specific feature can claim to be generally applicable to all late Celtic fortifications. The reason for this lies not so much in Caesars choice of term (which is limited to the campaign in Gaul) or in the variability of his meanings, as in the insufficient development of archaeological research. The details of site position and outward appearance could not be described more accurately than Caesar did in his account of the oppidum of the Sotiates tribe: oppidum et natura loci et manu munitum (â€Å"a fortified town in a natural location and built by the hand of man,† Gallic War, III, 23). For all this, Caesars memoirs are still a lively and informative resource.

Industrial Change in Britain :: European Europe History

Industrial Change in Britain Industrial Change in Britain:'There was frequent and widespread discontent' How accurate is this statement? The Industrial Revolution is a term describing the many changes that transformed Great Britain from approximately 1760 and 1830. The main feature was the change to the factory system that depended on power driven machinery instead of manpower and the rapid growth of the cotton industry. The Industrial Revolution occurred because the scientists and inventors used their imaginations to develop new products and to exploit the opportunities of booming markets. Examples of this occurred in the textile, pottery and iron industries. The development of mining, particularly of the widespread use of coal, road improvements due to the road tolls, the building of canals, the growth of coastal shipping and the later rise of the railways were all crucial in the Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution in Great Britain meant that the country could import cotton, woollen goods, iron and steel, machinery, hardware and coal on a huge scale. Other countries were not so industrialised therefore Great Britain had a strong advantage over them. Factory owners were able to move their products around the country more quickly, more cheaply and with greater safety than previously. For example, Britain's main fuel was coal. As the towns grew they needed more coal. The coal was heavy and difficult to transport by road. During this time many canals were built and soon a canal network made transporting coal, merchandise and communicating a lot easier. During the Industrial Revolution, the cotton industry rapidly increased with the invention of an improved spinning wheel powered by water. These machines were quickly mass-produced for factory use. Factories could be built in the towns and employ many workers. The cotton industry saw rapid growth and needed many workers to keep it going. The increase in factories and employment meant that there was a huge amount of work to do. Many children obtained work in the factories instead of attending school. Before the Industrial Revolution, families worked hard but could also rest when they could not work. In the factories, children and adults alike were expected to work very long hours and hardly ever had free time at home. In some cases, children worked from 3am to 10pm. Children could easily be trained to work in the textile industries because it was made up of simple tasks. Sunday was a day of rest, yet in some factories, the children had to turn up for work to clean the machinery.

Angels Demons Chapter 28-31

28 Secretary Sylvie Baudeloque was now in a panic. She paced outside the director's empty office. Where the hell is he? What do I do? It had been a bizarre day. Of course, any day working for Maximilian Kohler had the potential to be strange, but Kohler had been in rare form today. â€Å"Find me Leonardo Vetra!† he had demanded when Sylvie arrived this morning. Dutifully, Sylvie paged, phoned, and E-mailed Leonardo Vetra. Nothing. So Kohler had left in a huff, apparently to go find Vetra himself. When he rolled back in a few hours later, Kohler looked decidedly not well†¦ not that he ever actually looked well, but he looked worse than usual. He locked himself in his office, and she could hear him on his modem, his phone, faxing, talking. Then Kohler rolled out again. He hadn't been back since. Sylvie had decided to ignore the antics as yet another Kohlerian melodrama, but she began to get concerned when Kohler failed to return at the proper time for his daily injections; the director's physical condition required regular treatment, and when he decided to push his luck, the results were never pretty – respiratory shock, coughing fits, and a mad dash by the infirmary personnel. Sometimes Sylvie thought Maximilian Kohler had a death wish. She considered paging him to remind him, but she'd learned charity was something Kohlers's pride despised. Last week, he had become so enraged with a visiting scientist who had shown him undue pity that Kohler clambered to his feet and threw a clipboard at the man's head. King Kohler could be surprisingly agile when he was pisse. At the moment, however, Sylvie's concern for the director's health was taking a back burner†¦ replaced by a much more pressing dilemma. The CERN switchboard had phoned five minutes ago in a frenzy to say they had an urgent call for the director. â€Å"He's not available,† Sylvie had said. Then the CERN operator told her who was calling. Sylvie half laughed aloud. â€Å"You're kidding, right?† She listened, and her face clouded with disbelief. â€Å"And your caller ID confirms – † Sylvie was frowning. â€Å"I see. Okay. Can you ask what the – † She sighed. â€Å"No. That's fine. Tell him to hold. I'll locate the director right away. Yes, I understand. I'll hurry.† But Sylvie had not been able to find the director. She had called his cell line three times and each time gotten the same message: â€Å"The mobile customer you are trying to reach is out of range.† Out of range? How far could he go? So Sylvie had dialed Kohler's beeper. Twice. No response. Most unlike him. She'd even E-mailed his mobile computer. Nothing. It was like the man had disappeared off the face of the earth. So what do I do? she now wondered. Short of searching CERN's entire complex herself, Sylvie knew there was only one other way to get the director's attention. He would not be pleased, but the man on the phone was not someone the director should keep waiting. Nor did it sound like the caller was in any mood to be told the director was unavailable. Startled with her own boldness, Sylvie made her decision. She walked into Kohler's office and went to the metal box on his wall behind his desk. She opened the cover, stared at the controls, and found the correct button. Then she took a deep breath and grabbed the microphone. 29 Vittoria did not remember how they had gotten to the main elevator, but they were there. Ascending. Kohler was behind her, his breathing labored now. Langdon's concerned gaze passed through her like a ghost. He had taken the fax from her hand and slipped it in his jacket pocket away from her sight, but the image was still burned into her memory. As the elevator climbed, Vittoria's world swirled into darkness. Papa! In her mind she reached for him. For just a moment, in the oasis of her memory, Vittoria was with him. She was nine years old, rolling down hills of edelweiss flowers, the Swiss sky spinning overhead. Papa! Papa! Leonardo Vetra was laughing beside her, beaming. â€Å"What is it, angel?† â€Å"Papa!† she giggled, nuzzling close to him. â€Å"Ask me what's the matter!† â€Å"But you look happy, sweetie. Why would I ask you what's the matter?† â€Å"Just ask me.† He shrugged. â€Å"What's the matter?† She immediately started laughing. â€Å"What's the matter? Everything is the matter! Rocks! Trees! Atoms! Even anteaters! Everything is the matter!† He laughed. â€Å"Did you make that up?† â€Å"Pretty smart, huh?† â€Å"My little Einstein.† She frowned. â€Å"He has stupid hair. I saw his picture.† â€Å"He's got a smart head, though. I told you what he proved, right?† Her eyes widened with dread. â€Å"Dad! No! You promised!† â€Å"E=MC2!† He tickled her playfully. â€Å"E=MC2!† â€Å"No math! I told you! I hate it!† â€Å"I'm glad you hate it. Because girls aren't even allowed to do math.† Vittoria stopped short. â€Å"They aren't?† â€Å"Of course not. Everyone knows that. Girls play with dollies. Boys do math. No math for girls. I'm not even permitted to talk to little girls about math.† â€Å"What! But that's not fair!† â€Å"Rules are rules. Absolutely no math for little girls.† Vittoria looked horrified. â€Å"But dolls are boring!† â€Å"I'm sorry,† her father said. â€Å"I could tell you about math, but if I got caught†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He looked nervously around the deserted hills. Vittoria followed his gaze. â€Å"Okay,† she whispered, â€Å"just tell me quietly.† The motion of the elevator startled her. Vittoria opened her eyes. He was gone. Reality rushed in, wrapping a frosty grip around her. She looked to Langdon. The earnest concern in his gaze felt like the warmth of a guardian angel, especially in the aura of Kohler's chill. A single sentient thought began pounding at Vittoria with unrelenting force. Where is the antimatter? The horrifying answer was only a moment away. 30 â€Å"Maximilian Kohler. Kindly call your office immediately.† Blazing sunbeams flooded Langdon's eyes as the elevator doors opened into the main atrium. Before the echo of the announcement on the intercom overhead faded, every electronic device on Kohler's wheelchair started beeping and buzzing simultaneously. His pager. His phone. His E-mail. Kohler glanced down at the blinking lights in apparent bewilderment. The director had resurfaced, and he was back in range. â€Å"Director Kohler. Please call your office.† The sound of his name on the PA seemed to startle Kohler. He glanced up, looking angered and then almost immediately concerned. Langdon's eyes met his, and Vittoria's too. The three of them were motionless a moment, as if all the tension between them had been erased and replaced by a single, unifying foreboding. Kohler took his cell phone from the armrest. He dialed an extension and fought off another coughing fit. Vittoria and Langdon waited. â€Å"This is†¦ Director Kohler,† he said, wheezing. â€Å"Yes? I was subterranean, out of range.† He listened, his gray eyes widening. â€Å"Who? Yes, patch it through.† There was a pause. â€Å"Hello? This is Maximilian Kohler. I am the director of CERN. With whom am I speaking?† Vittoria and Langdon watched in silence as Kohler listened. â€Å"It would be unwise,† Kohler finally said, â€Å"to speak of this by phone. I will be there immediately.† He was coughing again. â€Å"Meet me†¦ at Leonardo da Vinci Airport. Forty minutes.† Kohler's breath seemed to be failing him now. He descended into a fit of coughing and barely managed to choke out the words, â€Å"Locate the canister immediately†¦ I am coming.† Then he clicked off his phone. Vittoria ran to Kohler's side, but Kohler could no longer speak. Langdon watched as Vittoria pulled out her cell phone and paged CERN's infirmary. Langdon felt like a ship on the periphery of a storm†¦ tossed but detached. Meet me at Leonardo da Vinci Airport. Kohler's words echoed. The uncertain shadows that had fogged Langdon's mind all morning, in a single instant, solidified into a vivid image. As he stood there in the swirl of confusion, he felt a door inside him open†¦ as if some mystic threshold had just been breached. The ambigram. The murdered priest/scientist. The antimatter. And now†¦ the target. Leonardo da Vinci Airport could only mean one thing. In a moment of stark realization, Langdon knew he had just crossed over. He had become a believer. Five kilotons. Let there be light. Two paramedics materialized, racing across the atrium in white smocks. They knelt by Kohler, putting an oxygen mask on his face. Scientists in the hall stopped and stood back. Kohler took two long pulls, pushed the mask aside, and still gasping for air, looked up at Vittoria and Langdon. â€Å"Rome.† â€Å"Rome?† Vittoria demanded. â€Å"The antimatter is in Rome? Who called?† Kohler's face was twisted, his gray eyes watering. â€Å"The Swiss†¦Ã¢â‚¬  He choked on the words, and the paramedics put the mask back over his face. As they prepared to take him away, Kohler reached up and grabbed Langdon's arm. Langdon nodded. He knew. â€Å"Go†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Kohler wheezed beneath his mask. â€Å"Go†¦ call me†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Then the paramedics were rolling him away. Vittoria stood riveted to the floor, watching him go. Then she turned to Langdon. â€Å"Rome? But†¦ what was that about the Swiss?† Langdon put a hand on her shoulder, barely whispering the words. â€Å"The Swiss Guard,† he said. â€Å"The sworn sentinels of Vatican City.† 31 The X-33 space plane roared into the sky and arched south toward Rome. On board, Langdon sat in silence. The last fifteen minutes had been a blur. Now that he had finished briefing Vittoria on the Illuminati and their covenant against the Vatican, the scope of this situation was starting to sink in. What the hell am I doing? Langdon wondered. I should have gone home when I had the chance! Deep down, though, he knew he'd never had the chance. Langdon's better judgment had screamed at him to return to Boston. Nonetheless, academic astonishment had somehow vetoed prudence. Everything he had ever believed about the demise of the Illuminati was suddenly looking like a brilliant sham. Part of him craved proof. Confirmation. There was also a question of conscience. With Kohler ailing and Vittoria on her own, Langdon knew that if his knowledge of the Illuminati could assist in any way, he had a moral obligation to be here. There was more, though. Although Langdon was ashamed to admit it, his initial horror on hearing about the antimatter's location was not only the danger to human life in Vatican City, but for something else as well. Art. The world's largest art collection was now sitting on a time bomb. The Vatican Museum housed over 60,000 priceless pieces in 1,407 rooms – Michelangelo, da Vinci, Bernini, Botticelli. Langdon wondered if all of the art could possibly be evacuated if necessary. He knew it was impossible. Many of the pieces were sculptures weighing tons. Not to mention, the greatest treasures were architectural – the Sistine Chapel, St. Peter's Basilica, Michelangelo's famed spiral staircase leading to the Museo Vaticano – priceless testaments to man's creative genius. Langdon wondered how much time was left on the canister. â€Å"Thanks for coming,† Vittoria said, her voice quiet. Langdon emerged from his daydream and looked up. Vittoria was sitting across the aisle. Even in the stark fluorescent light of the cabin, there was an aura of composure about her – an almost magnetic radiance of wholeness. Her breathing seemed deeper now, as if a spark of self-preservation had ignited within her†¦ a craving for justice and retribution, fueled by a daughter's love. Vittoria had not had time to change from her shorts and sleeveless top, and her tawny legs were now goose-bumped in the cold of the plane. Instinctively Langdon removed his jacket and offered it to her. â€Å"American chivalry?† She accepted, her eyes thanking him silently. The plane jostled across some turbulence, and Langdon felt a surge of danger. The windowless cabin felt cramped again, and he tried to imagine himself in an open field. The notion, he realized, was ironic. He had been in an open field when it had happened. Crushing darkness. He pushed the memory from his mind. Ancient history. Vittoria was watching him. â€Å"Do you believe in God, Mr. Langdon?† The question startled him. The earnestness in Vittoria's voice was even more disarming than the inquiry. Do I believe in God? He had hoped for a lighter topic of conversation to pass the trip. A spiritual conundrum, Langdon thought. That's what my friends call me. Although he studied religion for years, Langdon was not a religious man. He respected the power of faith, the benevolence of churches, the strength religion gave to many people†¦ and yet, for him, the intellectual suspension of disbelief that was imperative if one were truly going to â€Å"believe† had always proved too big an obstacle for his academic mind. â€Å"I want to believe,† he heard himself say. Vittoria's reply carried no judgment or challenge. â€Å"So why don't you?† He chuckled. â€Å"Well, it's not that easy. Having faith requires leaps of faith, cerebral acceptance of miracles – immaculate conceptions and divine interventions. And then there are the codes of conduct. The Bible, the Koran, Buddhist scripture†¦ they all carry similar requirements – and similar penalties. They claim that if I don't live by a specific code I will go to hell. I can't imagine a God who would rule that way.† â€Å"I hope you don't let your students dodge questions that shamelessly.† The comment caught him off guard. â€Å"What?† â€Å"Mr. Langdon, I did not ask if you believe what man says about God. I asked if you believed in God. There is a difference. Holy scripture is stories†¦ legends and history of man's quest to understand his own need for meaning. I am not asking you to pass judgment on literature. I am asking if you believe in God. When you lie out under the stars, do you sense the divine? Do you feel in your gut that you are staring up at the work of God's hand?† Langdon took a long moment to consider it. â€Å"I'm prying,† Vittoria apologized. â€Å"No, I just†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Certainly you must debate issues of faith with your classes.† â€Å"Endlessly.† â€Å"And you play devil's advocate, I imagine. Always fueling the debate.† Langdon smiled. â€Å"You must be a teacher too.† â€Å"No, but I learned from a master. My father could argue two sides of a Mobius Strip.† Langdon laughed, picturing the artful crafting of a Mobius Strip – a twisted ring of paper, which technically possessed only one side. Langdon had first seen the single-sided shape in the artwork of M. C. Escher. â€Å"May I ask you a question, Ms. Vetra?† â€Å"Call me Vittoria. Ms. Vetra makes me feel old.† He sighed inwardly, suddenly sensing his own age. â€Å"Vittoria, I'm Robert.† â€Å"You had a question.† â€Å"Yes. As a scientist and the daughter of a Catholic priest, what do you think of religion?† Vittoria paused, brushing a lock of hair from her eyes. â€Å"Religion is like language or dress. We gravitate toward the practices with which we were raised. In the end, though, we are all proclaiming the same thing. That life has meaning. That we are grateful for the power that created us.† Langdon was intrigued. â€Å"So you're saying that whether you are a Christian or a Muslim simply depends on where you were born?† â€Å"Isn't it obvious? Look at the diffusion of religion around the globe.† â€Å"So faith is random?† â€Å"Hardly. Faith is universal. Our specific methods for understanding it are arbitrary. Some of us pray to Jesus, some of us go to Mecca, some of us study subatomic particles. In the end we are all just searching for truth, that which is greater than ourselves.† Langdon wished his students could express themselves so clearly. Hell, he wished he could express himself so clearly. â€Å"And God?† he asked. â€Å"Do you believe in God?† Vittoria was silent for a long time. â€Å"Science tells me God must exist. My mind tells me I will never understand God. And my heart tells me I am not meant to.† How's that for concise, he thought. â€Å"So you believe God is fact, but we will never understand Him.† â€Å"Her,† she said with a smile. â€Å"Your Native Americans had it right.† Langdon chuckled. â€Å"Mother Earth.† â€Å"Gaea. The planet is an organism. All of us are cells with different purposes. And yet we are intertwined. Serving each other. Serving the whole.† Looking at her, Langdon felt something stir within him that he had not felt in a long time. There was a bewitching clarity in her eyes†¦ a purity in her voice. He felt drawn. â€Å"Mr. Langdon, let me ask you another question.† â€Å"Robert,† he said. Mr. Langdon makes me feel old. I am old! â€Å"If you don't mind my asking, Robert, how did you get involved with the Illuminati?† Langdon thought back. â€Å"Actually, it was money.† Vittoria looked disappointed. â€Å"Money? Consulting, you mean?† Langdon laughed, realizing how it must have sounded. â€Å"No. Money as in currency.† He reached in his pants pocket and pulled out some money. He found a one-dollar bill. â€Å"I became fascinated with the cult when I first learned that U.S. currency is covered with Illuminati symbology.† Vittoria's eyes narrowed, apparently not knowing whether or not to take him seriously. Langdon handed her the bill. â€Å"Look at the back. See the Great Seal on the left?† Vittoria turned the one-dollar bill over. â€Å"You mean the pyramid?† â€Å"The pyramid. Do you know what pyramids have to do with U.S. history?† Vittoria shrugged. â€Å"Exactly,† Langdon said. â€Å"Absolutely nothing.† Vittoria frowned. â€Å"So why is it the central symbol of your Great Seal?† â€Å"An eerie bit of history,† Langdon said. â€Å"The pyramid is an occult symbol representing a convergence upward, toward the ultimate source of Illumination. See what's above it?† Vittoria studied the bill. â€Å"An eye inside a triangle.† â€Å"It's called the trinacria. Have you ever seen that eye in a triangle anywhere else?† Vittoria was silent a moment. â€Å"Actually, yes, but I'm not sure†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"It's emblazoned on Masonic lodges around the world.† â€Å"The symbol is Masonic?† â€Å"Actually, no. It's Illuminati. They called it their ‘shining delta.' A call for enlightened change. The eye signifies the Illuminati's ability to infiltrate and watch all things. The shining triangle represents enlightenment. And the triangle is also the Greek letter delta, which is the mathematical symbol for – â€Å" â€Å"Change. Transition.† Langdon smiled. â€Å"I forgot I was talking to a scientist.† â€Å"So you're saying the U.S. Great Seal is a call for enlightened, all-seeing change?† â€Å"Some would call it a New World Order.† Vittoria seemed startled. She glanced down at the bill again. â€Å"The writing under the pyramid says Novus†¦ Ordo†¦Ã¢â‚¬  â€Å"Novus Ordo Seculorum,† Langdon said. â€Å"It means New Secular Order.† â€Å"Secular as in non religious?† â€Å"Nonreligious. The phrase not only clearly states the Illuminati objective, but it also blatantly contradicts the phrase beside it. In God We Trust.† Vittoria seemed troubled. â€Å"But how could all this symbology end up on the most powerful currency in the world?† â€Å"Most academics believe it was through Vice President Henry Wallace. He was an upper echelon Mason and certainly had ties to the Illuminati. Whether it was as a member or innocently under their influence, nobody knows. But it was Wallace who sold the design of the Great Seal to the president.† â€Å"How? Why would the president have agreed to – â€Å" â€Å"The president was Franklin D. Roosevelt. Wallace simply told him Novus Ordo Seculorum meant New Deal.† Vittoria seemed skeptical. â€Å"And Roosevelt didn't have anyone else look at the symbol before telling the Treasury to print it?† â€Å"No need. He and Wallace were like brothers.† â€Å"Brothers?† â€Å"Check your history books,† Langdon said with a smile. â€Å"Franklin D. Roosevelt was a well-known Mason.†

Early Marriage in South Asia Essay

Early marriage affects millions of children through the world. It is widely practiced in the countries of South Asia where every year millions of girls-preteens and teens- become the wives of older men. Young girls are married when they are still children and as a result are denied fundamental human rights. Early marriage compromises their development and often results in early pregnancy and social isolation, with little education and poor vocational training reinforcing the gendered nature of poverty. Required to perform heavy amounts of domestic work, under pressure to demonstrate fertility, married girls and child mothers face constrained decision-making and reduced life choices. Both boys and girls are affected by child marriage but the issue impacts girls in far larger numbers, with more intensity—and is wide ranging.[1] Early marriage, better known as child marriage, is defined as marriage carried below the age of 18 years, â€Å"before the girl is physically, physiologically and psychologically ready to shoulder the responsibilities of marriage and child bearing†[2]. Many factors interact to place a child at risk of marriage. Parents encourage the marriage of their daughters while they are still children in hopes that the marriage will benefit them both financially and socially, while also relieving financial burdens on the family. Strong correlations between a woman’s age at marriage and the level of education she achieves, the age at which she gives birth to her first child and the age of her husband have been well documented. Early marriage means also the individual becomes sexually active early, raising children while children themselves. The marriage of a young girl affects not only her life but that of the children she will bear. Early marriage is by no means a new phenomenon.[3] It is a socially established practice that has been carried on from generation to generation. This is despite the existence of international and regional instruments that all the States in South Asia have ratified. Governments in the region also settled upon 18 as the minimum legal age at marriage. However, they are often either unable to enforce existing laws, or rectify discrepancies between national laws and customary and religious laws. Most often, child marriage is considered as a family matter and governed by religion and culture, which ensure its continuity. It remains therefore a widely ignored violation of the rights of girls and women and exposes them to multiple risks, including to sexual abuse and exploitation. Compiled from a study undertaken by Mira, B. AGHI, this paper examines early marriage in the region in order to offer information for analysis and discussion. The Prevalence Of Early Marriage In South Asia It is very difficult to get accurate data on the true extent of early marriages. This is because most marriages are not officially registered, and many parents resort to falsifying girls’ ages. Such acts are made easier in rural areas where birth certificates are often non-existent or not properly recorded. There is also very little data on girls married before the age of 15. Available data are often outdated and fail to provide adequate information. Although early marriage is said to be declining in many parts of the world, the total number of girls at risk or affected is very significant and cannot be ignored. It is estimated there are worldwide more than 51 million adolescent girls aged 15–19 who are married and bearing the burden of domestic responsibility and the risks associated with early sexual activity, including pregnancy.[4] In South Asia in 2005, 48% (nearly 10 million) of young women were married before the age of 18[5]. Figure 1 Child marriage, 1987 – 2006. (% of women 20-24 years of age that were married or in union before they were 18 years old) [pic] Despite a shift towards later marriages in many parts of the world, in the countries of South Asia a majority of girls still marry before age 18 (65% in Bangladesh, 57% in Nepal, 54% in Afghanistan, and almost 50% in India). One problem in assessing the prevalence of early marriages is that many are unregistered and unofficial and hence, are not a part of any data collection system. Very little data exists on marriages of children under the age of 10, even less on those below that age[6]. Some countries do have data. According to Bangladesh’s demographic and health survey of 1996-1997, there are 28 million adolescents in Bangladesh, 13.7% of these are girls, and the survey reported that more than half the girls below 19 were married and 5% of 10-14 year old girls were married. Another survey of women 25-29 years old reported that in Bangladesh 81% were married before the age of 18[8]. The lowest age at marriage is to be found in the western and southern parts of Bangladesh – specifically those adjoining India. In India, more than 57 per cent of girls are reported to get married before they turn 18. According to the Reproductive and Child Health District Level Household Survey, 28% girls overall, with 34.5% in rural and 13% in urban areas, are being married before they turned 18. According to a Rapid Household survey conducted across the country, 58.9% women in Bihar were married before the age of 18, 55.8% in Rajasthan, 54.9% in West Bengal, 53.8 % in Utter Pradesh, and 53.2% in Madhya Pradesh. National Family Health Survey data suggests that the median age for marriage in India is 16.4 years. This survey also found that 65% of the girls are married by the time they are 18.[9] There are additional surveys like one in 1993 which reported that in the Indian state of Rajasthan, on 5,000 women 56% had married before age 15, and of these, 17% were married before they were 10.[10] Another report indicated that nearly 14% of the girls in India’s largest state (Uttar Pradesh) are married between the ages of 10-14 years, whereas in the central province of Madhya Pradesh, 11% of urban and 16.4% of rural girls are married between the ages of 10-14 years.[11] In Nepal, the law has helped in increasing the age at marriage. However, the data which included female marriages at all ages showed that ethnicity is the major factor of age at marriage in Nepal. The ethnic groups are mostly concentrated in the Terai region, which borders India, and where the cultural norms and practices are highly influenced by the culture of north India. In contrast to other groups, especially in the mountain region, women belonging to the Terai groups are generally confined to farming; they exercise comparatively less control over the economic resources and decision-making. The most notable data from Nepal is 83.1% of girls of some ethnic groups marry before they are 15 years old. 79.6% Muslim girls marry before they are 15 years old. 69.7% girls in the mountainous and hilly regions marry at the age of 15 whereas 55.7% in rural Nepal marry before they turn 15.[12] Early marriage is more common in Surkhet district of mid-western Nepal.[13] One of the findings of the study is that higher caste girls do not feel the pressure to marry at a very young age and while they are in primary school. But when they reach 13 years, pressure is put on them especially if they fail their school exams. If they are doing well their parents will often let them continue with their studies. Lower caste girls have much higher pressure and less choice.[14] A survey of adults 25-29 years old revealed that in Pakistan 37% of the girls were married before the legal age, which at the time was16.[15] In Pakistan, as in other countries of South Asia, early marriage is more common in rural areas. Also people living in rural areas observe traditions more closely than those who live in urban areas. Causes Of Early Marriage Many reasons are given by parents and guardians to justify child marriage. Economic reasons often underpin these decisions which are directly linked to poverty and the lack of economic opportunities for girls in rural areas. Girls are either seen as an economic burden or valued as capital for their exchange value in terms of goods, money or livestock. A combination of cultural, traditional and religious arguments also justifies child marriage. The fear and stigma attached to premarital sex and bearing children outside marriage, and the associated family honor, are often seen as valid reasons for the actions that families take. Finally, many parents tend to curtail the education of their girls and marry them off, due to fear of exposure to sexual violence and abuse encountered. Early marriage as a strategy for economic reasons Poverty is one of the major factors underpinning early marriage. In many of the cases, the families are in poverty and one less daughter is one less mouth to feed. Poor families may regard young girls as an economic burden and the practice of early marriage, as an act of unburdening and a coping strategy. When poverty is acute, a young girl’s presence in the house is felt as unbearable and her marriage to a much older or even elderly man who can pay a very high price may be seen in her interest. Child marriage is valued as an economic coping strategy which reduces the costs of raising daughters. In this sense, poverty becomes a primary reason for child marriage because of perceived benefits to the family and the daughter. |Ethnicity/culture has emerged as the most complex reason for girls’ early | |marriages. In fact at some places like the Terai region in Nepal, where | |the cultural norms and practices are highly influenced by the culture of | |north India, it has emerged even stronger than the socio-economic | |factors.[16] It has been observed that ethnicity affects not only the age | |of marriage but the timing of family formation and entry into motherhood. | Marriage arrangements and requirements, such as dowry payments in parts of South Asia where parents of the young woman are obliged to give gifts to the spouse and his family, perpetuate child marriages. This is because the dowry requirement often increases with the age and the education level of the girl. Additionally, poor families tend to marry off girls at the same time to help reduce the burden of high marriage ceremony expenses[17]. However, child brides are often more likely to experience domestic violence and least likely to take action against this abuse. The majority of affected girls become condemned to a life of financial and social insecurity. This is a real paradox for many parents, given that they marry off their daughters at a young age in the belief that this will enhance the girl’s and the family’s security. Poverty ultimately fuels child marriage, which in turn perpetuates the feminization of poverty. In many villages that practice child marriage in Tamil Nadu State in India for example, girls are married off before they attain puberty because of the social stigma the community attaches to marriage after puberty. Many such marriages end in divorce. In case there is a large age’s difference, the girls become widows at a young age. Custom forbids divorced or widowed women to remarry, further impoverishing them. Entrenched community norms and myths clearly help to perpetuate the practice of child marriage and related poverty. Son preference is very strong in many communities in South Asia, which may not be unrelated to the expenses involved when marrying off a daughter. The rising costs of marriage ceremonies force many families to marry their daughters at the same time to reduce costs. Boys forced into marriage early may also suffer financially. Economic responsibilities can place heavy burdens on them and curtail their education sooner than they might want. However, while boys can leave their wives at their parents’ homes and seek employment opportunities elsewhere, this option is not available to the majority of young wives[18]. Marriage alliances and traditions Often marriage arrangements are made between families for dynastic, business, property or conflict resolutions. In Pakistan, India and Nepal, children may be betrothed or even married while toddlers or well below the age of 10. This custom is a means of consolidating powerful relations between families, making deals over land or other property, or settling disputes in the way routinely conducted between royal houses and aristocratic families throughout history. It may be a way of maintaining or fostering business ties with them. It may also be arranged as apart of the deal to settle a feud between two families.[19] Early marriage as a way to ensure the protection of girls Early marriage is also one way to ensure that a wife is â€Å"protected† or placed firmly under male control; that she is submissive to her husband and works hard for her in-laws’ household; that the children she bears are ‘legitimate’ and that bonds of affection between couples do not undermine the family unit.[20] It has been observed that in child marriages there is invariably a large gap between married women and their husbands—between 7-9 years.[21] The customary age difference helps to preserve the traditional cultural pattern of an older husband dominating a much younger wife. Social pressure appears to play a significant role in the girl getting married early. If girls remain unmarried by 15, neighbors, villagers and relatives begin to doubt her chastity and health. Parents are under huge pressure not to give a chance to the society to pass any aspersion on their girls. Early marriage is often a way of ensuring that the daughter is not at risk of losing her virginity in an irregular sexual encounter.[22] For many communities, the loss of virginity in girls before marriage is the worst shame that can be brought upon a family. The desire to protect a girl’s virginity drives many parents to force their daughters into marriage at an extremely young age. For this reason and to control girl’s sexuality, girls are married to prevent pre-marital sex or pregnancy. Once it is known in the village that a girl had pre-marital sexual relationship, it could be quite difficult to find a suitable boy who will be willing to marry her. Therefore parents willingly/unwillingly arrange early marriages to avoid such unpleasant situations. In rural communities, fetching water and firewood are usually chores undertaken by young girls. There is frequently a serious fear of their being raped.[23] The rape will be devastating with enormous implications for the girl. In many communities the rape is not considered to be a crime against a girl but against her father, husband, or brothers. Situations of insecurity and acute poverty, particularly during disasters such as war, famine or the HIV and AIDS epidemic, can prompt parents to resort to child marriage as a protective mechanism or survival strategy. Among some populations which have been disrupted by war (Afghanistan), marrying a young daughter to a warlord or someone who can look after her may be a strategy for physical security or family support. In the worst cases, girls are abducted or kidnapped by armed militia or rebels and forced into temporary marriages which amount to â€Å"a combination of child prostitution and pure slavery.† Displaced populations living in refugee camps may feel unable to protect their daughters from rape, and so marriage to a warlord or other authority figure may provide improved protection.[24] Consequences Of Early Marriage The consequences of child marriage are often far wider than just their impact on the individual children affected. The marriage of children has negative effects on families and communities. The practice thrives on poverty and impacts adversely on a country’s health and education sector. Young girls are forced to marry men they have never met before and who may be many years older than they are. Once married, they are responsible for looking after their husbands, the house, and the children they give birth to while still children themselves. This is one of the reasons that offspring born too early in their mothers’ lives are at increased risk of illness and death. These girls often have little knowledge about the responsibilities of being a wife and no information about sex and childbirth.[25] Early forced sex as a violation of rights where a girl is married has not been recognized as a form of sexual abuse except where warlords or traffickers have recruited girls as sexual slaves.[26] Early marriage is associated with a number of poor social and physical outcomes for young women and their offspring.[27] They attain lower schooling, lower social status in their husbands’ families, have less reproductive control, and suffer higher rates of maternal mortality and domestic violence. They are often forced out of school without an education, their health is affected because their bodies are too immature to give birth. |Child marriage impedes the Millennium Development Goals | |(agreed by governments and the international community in | |September 2000). | | | |Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger. | |Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education. | |Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women. | |Goal 4: Reduce child mortality. | |Goal 5: Improve maternal health. | |Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. | Health and related outcomes The younger the boy or the girl is at the time of marriage, the worse is the abuse of child and human rights, both on grounds of lack of consent and on grounds of forced early sex. However, the implications for the females are much more severe. The younger the girl at the time of her first sexual relations – with early sex much more frequent and less likely to be consensual within marriage than outside marriage – the greater the chance of severe pain, physical damage, and of birthing complications and injury. Pregnancy and childbirth It is common sense to assume that girls who marry before 18 will usually have more children. Early child-bearing has long been seen as a risk to maternity, contributing significantly to large families. Since girls who are married young have a large number of child bearing years, they are more prone to miscarriage, infant death, malnutrition, cervical cancer, sterility, and maternal death. Even when girls are closer to the age of 18 but not yet that age, the risk remains. Girls between age 15 and 19 are twice as likely to die of pregnancy-related reasons as women between age 20 and 24. Child marriage is the leading cause of young women between the ages of 15 and 24 dying during pregnancy. Figure 4 Percentage of women age 15- 19 who have begun childbearing Selected countries in South Asia, 2004-2006 [pic] Not only the mothers but offspring born too early in their mothers’ lives are at increased risk of illness and death. The babies of child brides are sicker, weaker and many do not survive childhood. Evidence shows that infant mortality among children of very young mothers is almost two times higher than among those of older peers. The health problems linked to early marriage not only affect the pregnant mother but also continue after child birth. Complications are more likely during pregnancy and birth purely because of the mother’s young age. A large proportion of reproductive and sexual health concerns of adolescent girls and women root from early marriage and early pregnancy. In the context of reproductive health girl spouses face well-acknowledged risks. These include the problem of giving birth when the pelvis and birth canal are still under-developed which leads to an increased risk of complications during delivery including protracted labor.[28] Mothers aged less than 15 are especially vulnerable to fistulae – relentless pressure from baby’s skull can damage the birth canal causing breakages in the wall. A girl or a woman with this condition ─ irreversible without surgery ─ is not only in constant pain but will be socially ostracized and may well be divorced because of this.[29] The perils of child marriage are not limited to only health complications during pregnancy and delivery period but in many cases during post-natal period as well. Because of the prolapsed uterus, they suffer from backaches, experience difficulties while walking, working and sitting for a long time. At times they had to give birth even after prolapsed uterus and this made the situation worse for them. [30] Child brides cannot negotiate the terms of sex with husbands who are usually older and have had previous sexual partners.[31] They cannot insist on fidelity or condom use.[32] Research in India (Calcutta) revealed that almost half of the women patients in the hospital interviewed had been married at or below the age of 15 with the youngest being married at 7 years. This age group has one of the highest rates of vulnerability to sexual violence in marriage, second only to those whose dowry had not been paid. The women had forced sexual intercourse before menstruation had started. The sex was early and painful and many still continued to be forced into sexual activity by their husbands. Although young girls had made their husbands aware of their unwillingness to have sex or of pain during sex, in 80% of these cases, the rapes continued.[33] Increased risks of contracting sexually transmitted diseases and HIV Early marriage threatens girls’ health and the health of their children and thwarts efforts to combat HIV/AIDS. Of substantial consequences, yet largely ignored, is the fact that the majority of the sexually active girls aged 15-19 in South Asia are married and these adolescent girls tend to have higher rates of HIV infection than their sexually active unmarried peers. Early sexual activity within marriage is even more likely to expose young people to sexually transmitted infections than sex outside marriage.[34] Crossing the threshold into marriage greatly intensifies sexual exposure via unprotected sex, often with an older partner, who by virtue of his age has an elevated risk of being HIV positive. This dramatic rise in the frequency of unprotected sex is driven by not only the implication of infidelity or distrust associated with certain forms of contraception such as condoms, but often also by a strong desire to become pregnant. Demographic and health survey data reveals that on an average 80% of unprotected sex encounters among adolescent girls occurred within marriage. Not only are married adolescents girls often isolated within their new households and from external public and private support but their needs have not been prioritized or sometimes even considered in current reproductive health initiatives. Moreover many of the most common HIV/AIDS policies and messages are not appropriate for them.[35] Denial of education It is believed that investment in a girl’s education is wasted when she simply going to be married and work in another household.[36] Girls reported that even if married girls are allowed to pursue their education, they cannot continue for too long because of the varied burdens imposed on her by early childbearing and the chores in the house. An important reason why girls in South Asia do not go to school or are withdrawn at puberty is for the assumption of domestic duties and confinement at home as prelude to marriage. Lack of exposure outside the immediate home environment means lower self-esteem, less sense of identity as an independent person with an independent mind, reduced socialization with peers and non-family adults, and considerably less knowledge of what early marriage entails.[37] There is a clear connection between early marriage and low educational attainment. Early marriage puts the young girl at a disadvantage by the loss of educational opportunity. Often girls are not allowed to go to school which diminishes her opportunity to acquire critical life skills. Children benefit as much as their families, since a school-going child has been observed to be an agent of change in rural societies.[38] A girl who is educated will most likely educate her daughter and thus establishes an inter-generational trend of educating girls. Besides, the correlation between the number of years of a girl’s schooling and the postponement of marriage is shown to be firmly established by demographic and fertility studies36. A one year postponement of marriage increases schooling by 0.32 years and literacy by 5-10%.[39]

Discrimination Caused by Stereotypes essays

Discrimination Caused by Stereotypes essays Discrimination Caused by Stereotypes When I lived in a small town called Crestview, Florida, I was known as a skater or punker. This was because of the way I dressed, the way I talked, the way I wore my hair and the music that I listened to. Because I was known as a skater people had a preconceived opinion of me. What I mean is that people treated me differently because of their concept of me. Even though some people got to know me pretty well, some still thought that I was a stereotypical skater. I really was not a typical one, which is what I First, most stereotypical skaters do drugs; I wont and never will, but because of my stereotype a lot of people thought that I did drugs. A lot of skaters are also very rude. I am a very polite person, which a lot of people did not want to believe, and because of Second, my clothes are a little baggier than normal, and because of that I was treated differently. For instance when I walked into a gas station, the clerk would not take his/her eyes off of me just because of the way I dressed, and the clothes that I wore, which was really annoying to me. They went out of their way to watch me and only me. Also, when I would walk into the mall in Ft. Walton cops would follow me around all over the place because of my clothes and the stereotype that goes along with that. Another example is one day my friends and I were skating outside a grocery store called Winn Dixie which allowed us to skate there, and a cop pulled up and watched us the whole time that we were there. One time a cop tried to arrest us, pulled us over, and searched us, but he did not find anything on us that was not supposed to be there. So he probably felt kind of stupid. My friends and I know it was not his fault. It was the stereotype of skaters that made him do ...

General Motors Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

General Motors - Article Example Bowen and Radhakrishna (1991) define motivation as a force that makes an organism or a person to respond. Thus an effective manager must be aware of the various factors that induce his or her employees to behave in a certain way. One of the significance theories that early managers adopted in their management was related to the appetitive function. According to this theory, the result of motivated employees which is the outcome of the forces and stimulus provided by the employers is brought about by imagination, memory as well as perception.According to James (2010) in his article on understanding employee’s motivation, staffs are not only motivated by salary increment but also by other factors such as more responsibilities, training, and shifts among others. Additionally, James (2010) covers the Hawthorne studies that sought to indicate the significance of human relations to the managers especially in focusing at the motivation and the needs of the employees. Two major ways t hat GM can emulate to maintain a productive work force is through provision of extrinsic and intrinsic motivators. Intrinsic factors include recognition of the hard working employees. This may be undertaken by promoting them or making them to be team leaders. On the other hard, James (2010) argues that a firm can provide job security and increased salaries as key extrinsic factors. James depicts that managers should also ensure equity among the employees as a way of motivating them. Equity is attained when the ratio of a worker’s output over inputs is the same with that of other employees (James, 2010). Studies undertaken by Adams (1965) indicate that for managers to effectively motivate their employees, it is paramount to first understand their goals. This is based on the fact that the goals of the employees vary. Through the provision of hygiene factors that include security, safety, salary, fringe benefits among others Adams (1965) argues that employees are powerfully motivated. Thus it is paramount for the GM managers to determine what their employees like and dislike so as to identify the appropriate hygiene factor to emulate. Adams (1965) argues that employees like six major aspect to improve their performance. First is achievement. This implies that workers are motivated when tangible goals are derived from their efforts. Secondly, employees like to be appreciated and recognized by their managers and other workers. Thirdly, employees are motivated by the work itself. For example, employees who enjoy working in garages will be more motivated if the GM managers take them to the production facility. Fourthly, workers are motivated when their responsibilities are increased. Fifthly, labor force is significantly motivated through promotion and advancement within their firm. In the same way, workers performance is enhanced when a company creates opportunities for growth. This can be undertaken by ensuring that workers are given ample opportunities to undertake part time courses either within the firm or from high institutions of learning. To ensure its employees in various parts of the word are motivated and are focused at attaining their own goals and those of the organization, General Motors should adopt McClelland's Human