Globalisation Is a Euphamism for Neo-Colonialism

Globalisation is a euphemism for neo-colonialism. Discuss. Globalisation is a complex and multifaceted issue (Bayliss 2008:252). However, this essay will on the imbalance between western powers and the developing world and consequential exploitation, which, rather than being condemned as neo-colonialism, is justified as globalisation. The end of colonial rule did not mark the end of the trend of economic control and exploitation of the developing world (Manzo 2009:267).The cultural, political and economic effects of globalisation upon the developing world resemble that of neo-colonial power – an inequality that is defended by the benevolence of neo-liberalism and egalitarianism of the free market. This essay will focus on the cultural and political international dominance of the west and economic partiality of globalised institutions, referring to IR theories of globalisation defending it as beneficial (Bayliss 2008:248, Pasha 2009:330) and condemning it as capitalist imperial ism.Colonialism describes a period of expansion and exploitation by European powers spanning the 15th to 20th Century, the ‘political control, physical occupation, and domination of people†¦ and their land’ (Crawford 2002:131). Between 1946 and 1976 European powers granted independence to all their colonies. However, Horvath writing in 1972 argues that neo-colonialism swiftly followed its predecessor (Horvath 1972:46).Neo-colonialism implies that whilst post-colonial states attained nominal sovereignty within the international system, they remain dependent upon western powers and are subsequently politically controlled, culturally conditioned and economically exploited (Nkrumah 1968:x-xii). States with the ‘†¦outward trappings of international sovereignty’ but in reality have their ‘economic system and thus its political policy†¦ directed from outside. ’ (Nkrumah 1968:xi)Globalization can be defined as the expansion of ‘wor ldwide interconnectedness’; where states integrate and supranational institutions are formed. Whilst stronger states control their involvement, weaker states are forced to integrate, being influenced rather than influencing (Bayliss 2008:255). Neo-liberalism argues integration is beneficial (Bayliss 2008:249, Sorenson 1997:10) globalization will ‘restructure the world economy without the need for interventionist policies’ creating equality within a competitive free market (Hirst 1999:134).World-system theory however, describes monopoly capitalism where rich ‘core’ states exploit ‘peripheral’ poorer states, essentially an international class system (Bayliss 2008:147, Wallerstein: 1989). Realist thought, would argue that powerful states merely use the globalised system for their own benefit (Waltz 1979). Globalization could therefore be seen as an ‘instrument for imperialism’ favoring strong capitalist states (Bayliss 2008:153 ) essentially a euphemism for neo-colonialism. Democracy is promoted through globalization based upon neoliberal ideals of humanities right to ‘libertarian happiness’ (Morgenthau 1960:100).The political weight of Western thought, and the professed moral legitimacy of its international promotion highlights a neo-colonial dominance (Nkrumah 1968:ix), The Western world believes international co-operation can only safely occur between liberal democratic states (Owen 1994:96). ‘Separate peace’ (Doyle 1986:1151), co-operation solely between liberal democracies, can be seen through EU accession criteria (Europa 2010:Copenhagen Criteria) and ENP policy (DeBardeleben 2008:21) and IMF and World Bank loan policy (Cogan 2009:211). Imposing Western political principles using economic incentive.Here, humanitarian aid is a gift of neo-colonialism; foreign capital used for the exploitation rather than the development of the third world (Nkrumah 1968:x) For Western powers f orce is often a necessary option against illiberal states (Hoffman 1995:31) Owen 1994:97). US involvement in Afghanistan and Iraq has been motivated by the desire to spread democracy and ensure security (Owen 1994:125-127). This power politics contradicts equality of neo-liberal co-operation in globalization suggesting political homogeneity imposed by an imperialist force.Realists argue that states espouse humanitarian motives as a pretext to cover the pursuit of national self-interest (Franck and Rodley 1973). Nato selectivity of response in Kosovo (1999) failing to act in Sudan (Bayliss 2008:527) and the illegitimate intervention of France in Rwanda (1994) expose a flawed international justice, where Western powers act without restraint. In 2005 the UN adopted the ‘responsibility to protect’, giving itself legitimate right act upon human rights breaches. This is one of many examples of nternational institutions imposing Western political and moral ethics justified by an international responsibility (Morgan 1972:33-34); a practice widely accepted in Western public opinion (Reisman 1985:279-80). Globalization is essentially creating an international super power that transcends state borders possessing hegemony on moral and political principles with a self-legitimised right to enforce them. Defenders of globalization suggest the international community is one of shared and defended values.However, these values are presented by the West, who misuse this influence to intervene without justification. Globalization has allowed for an increased flow of culture and traditions internationally. However, this flow has not been evenhanded, media dominance of Western powers dwarfing smaller states. The advanced nature of US media and sheer weight of capital has created ‘Media Imperialism’ (Sklair 2002:167) where the developed world is flooded by broadcasting promoting Western products, creating an externally dictated popular culture.The consequen ce is a developed world dominated by Western products e. g. Coco cola; the best selling drink in the world (Coca Cola 2010). Under the theory of neo-colonialism, neo-colonial states are obliged to purchase manufactured products from imperial powers to the deficit of local products (Nkrumah 1968:ix). The culture and products of powerful societies are not imposed upon weak societies by force or occupation (Crawford 2002:131, Sklair 2002:168) but underhandedly via an internationally dominant media ‘limited to Anglo-American interests’ (Lee 1980:82).Whilst globalization arguably encourages multiculturalism (Bayliss 2008:423), a disparate International system has created a dominant culture within the global community (Kymlicka 1991:182) that exploits its status to the demise of the developing world (Golding and Harris 1997). Colonialism saw a moral arrogance with missionaries striving to create ‘a replica of ones own country upon the natives’ (Emerson 1969:13-14 ) a ‘noble purpose of saving the wretched. ‘ (Horvath 1972:46) Colonial powers occupied weaker states, imposing culture, religion and values based upon a superiority of power, policing and governing without legitimacy (Crawford 002:131-133). Similarly neo-colonialism operates in ‘political, religious, ideological and cultural spheres’ where the powerful ‘transform â€Å"the other† into oneself’ (Toje 2008:83) based on moral conceit. Globalisation has revealed conformity to Western democracy and culture, whether it has been received or enforced is the issue of debate. Globalisation as ‘interconnectedness’ (Bayliss 2008:252) economically the ‘integration of national economies into global markets’ (Todaro 2000:713) is driven by economic growth.The creation of the international free market intended to have a beneficial effect on developing countries (Hirst 1999:134) ‘shifting power away from developed countries to the rest of the world’ (Martin 1997:12). However, free market competition creates losers, often the most vulnerable ‘feminized’ states (Peterson 2009:287). Whilst globalisation did not create inequality, the solution for development was flawed, merely worsening the imbalance (Peterson 2009:287) – arguably, colonialism creating inequality, neo-colonialism maintaining it (Horvath 1972:46).Realists believe states only benefit at other states expense (Art, Waltz: 1988:67-68) suggesting neo-liberal ideas of development would harm the developed nations. Whilst international economic institutions such as the WTO, IMF and World Bank are intended to maintain free trade and assist developing countries, they have often been accused actually maintaining inequality (Peterson 2009:291) for the benefit of elites (Gray 1998, Greider 1997). A free market is intended to be free, impartial and competitive (Bayliss 2008:249). However, the rules of world trade are created, and therefore weighted in favor of rich countries.For example, trade-related aspects of international policy rights require international patent protection favour firms based in the Western World who hold 90% of patents forcing expensive products on the developed world who cannot produced their own low cost versions, the worst example being that of patented medicine (Watkins 2002:78). The double standards of the free market are also apparent in trade tariffs (Anderson 2006:147-159). Northern governments promote free trade and use the IMF and World Bank to impose import liberalization on poor states (Romano 2004:1012).Yet they refuse to open their own markets, south-north export trade tariffs cost developing countries $10 billion annually, twice the amount they receive from humanitarian aid (Watkins 2002:79). International economic institutions are essentially governed by Western powers – the World bank presidential post dominated by American citizens since its creation, not based on votes but informal agreements between the US and European stakeholders (Cogan 2009:209) Since the outset the US has shown dominance (Gowa 1983) creating the ‘Bretton Woods system’ in 1944 and causing its breakdown, in 1971 (Bayliss 2008:245).The competition of the free market, handicapped against the third world by dishonest steward of international economic institutions has allowed for economic hegemony – post-colonial states remaining dependant upon their ‘former masters’ (Young 2001:45). Marxist theories fit alarmingly with criticisms of globalization, World System Theory and Dependency Theory showing resources flowing from â€Å"periphery† of poor, underdeveloped states to a â€Å"core† of wealthy states (Bayliss 2008:147). Poor states are ‘impoverished and rich ones enriched’ by the way poor states are forced into the globalised world system (Blomstrom 1984:8-45).Lenin’s work Imperialism, The Highest st age of Capitalism shows a ‘capitalist monopoly’, essentially neo-colonial ‘periphery’ at the bottom of a tiered international system, a system Marxist’s would argue is essentially globalisation (Bayliss 2008:157). However, unlike colonialism globalization has arguably empowered ideas above states, giving the defenders of ‘neo-colonial’ states a louder voice. Social Constructivism argues that globalisation is far deeper than interaction between states (Snyder 2004:60).Whilst colonialism remained acceptable for centuries, the exploitation and imbalance of the current world system does not go unnoticed, numerous NGOs pressuring government institutions and operating independently as aid organizations. Globalisation has created an imbalanced world system retaining North-South divides that emerged during Colonialism (Horvath 1972:46). Whilst neo-liberal free markets aimed to resolve the inequalities, Realism argues flaws and bias within the cu rrent international system were retained and created as to ensure the Western powers remained economically powerful over the developing world (Emerson 1969:15).Emerson claims it would be a ‘turning point in history’ for global systems not to bring forth a ‘new imperialism and new colonialism’ (Emerson 1969:16). The cultural and moral dominance of Western powers and active promotion of values, for the ‘benefit’ of the developing world however, is a far more malevolent sign that globalization is a euphemism for neo-colonialism (Nkrumah 1968:xi). Bibliography Articles J. Cogan (2009) ‘Representation and Power in International Organization: The Operational Constitution and Its Critics’ The American Journal of International Law, Vol. 03, No. 2, pp. 209-263 R. Emerson (1969) ‘Colonialism’, Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 4, No. 1, pp. 3-16 J. Horvath (1972) ‘A Definition of Colonialism’ Current Anthropolog y, Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 45-57 J. M. Owen, (1994) ‘How Liberalism Produces Democratic Peace’, International Security, Vol. 19, No. 2 (Autumn, 1994). pp. 87-125. D. Roman, R. Sandbrook (2004) ‘Globalisation, extremism and violence in poor countries’ Third World Quarterly, Vol. 25, No. 6, pp. 1007-1030. K. Watkins (2002) ‘Is the WTO Legit? ’ Foreign Policy, No. 132, pp. 78-79 J.Snyder (2004) ‘One World, Rival Theories’ Foreign Policy, No. 145, pp. 62-62. Books J. Art and K. Waltz (ed. ) (1988) The use of force London: University press of America. N. Crawford (2002) Argument and Change in World Politics, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press J. DeBardeleben (2008) The boundaries of EU Enlargement, Basingstoke: Palgrave MacMillan P. Hirst, G. Thompson (1999) Globalization question, Cambridge: Polity Press S. Hoffman (1987) Janus and Minerva Essays in the Theory and Practice of International Politics, Boulder: Westview Press. W.Greider (1 997) One World Ready or Not: The Manic Logic of Global Capitalism, New York: Simon and Schuster J. Gray (1998) False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism. London: Granta Books J. Gowa (1983) Closing the Cold Window, New York: Cornell University Press W. Kymlicka (1991) Liberalism Community and Culture, Oxford: Clarendon Press K. Nkrumah (1965) Neo-colonialism : the last stage of imperialism, London: Nelson C. Lee (1980) Media Imperialism Reconsidered: The Homogenizing of Television Culture California: Sage L. Sklair (2002) Globalization, Capitalism and its alternatives, New York: Oxford University Press M.Todaro (2000) Economic Development, Harlow: Addison Wesley Longman A. Toje (2008) America, The EU and Strategic Culture London: Routledge R. Young (2001) ‘Post-colonialism: An Historical Introduction' Book Chapters K. Manzo (2009) ‘Do colonialism and slavery belong to the past’ (ed. ) J. Edkins, M. Zehfuss, Global Politics and new introduction, London: Routle dge, pp. 244-271. V. Peterson (2009) ‘How is the world organized economically? ’ (ed. ) J. Edkins, M. Zehfuss, Global Politics and new introduction, London: Routledge, pp. 271-294. M. Pasha (2009) ‘How can we end poverty’ (ed. J. Edkins, M. Zehfuss, Global Politics and new introduction, London: Routledge, pp. 320-344 K. Anderson (2006) ‘Subsidies and Trade Barriers’ (ed. ) Bjorn Lomborg How to Spend $50 to Make the World a Better Place, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp. 147-159. A. Bellamy, N. Wheeler (2008) ‘Humanitarian Intervention in World Politics’ (ed. ) John Baylis, Steve Smith, Patricia Owens The Globalization of world politics New York: Oxford university press. pp. 522-538. S. Hobden, R. Wyn Jones (2008) ‘Marxist theories of International Relations’ (ed. John Baylis, Steve Smith, Patricia Owens The Globalization of world politics New York: Oxford university press. pp. 142-157. N. Woods (2008) ‘I nternational political economy in an age of globalization’ (ed. ) John Baylis, Steve Smith, Patricia Owens The Globalization of world politics New York: Oxford university press. pp. 244-258 Websites Coco-Cola Company, http://www. coca-cola. com/index. jsp Europa, Copenhagen Criteria, http://europa. eu/scadplus/glossary/accession_criteria_copenhague_en. htm Europa, ENP policy, http://ec. europa. eu/world/enp/policy_en. htm

Indra Nooyi †Leadership Style Essay

Indra Krishnamurthy Nooyi, who is a woman comes from India, she is a manager and leader of PepsiCo Incorporated. At her age of 50, she became the CEO. Leader is a role of a team or organization, the ideas he/she thinks about and the strategy he/she decides will play an important role in a group. In addition, being a successful leader generally needs to have more high requirements, such as the managerial knowledge, communicational skill, creative ability and especially his/her leadership style. There is no doubt that Nooyi can be equal to such a great position today because she not only is equipped with these conditions but also she has an excellent leadership style. According to Darling and Leffel’s (2001) framework, this paper will evaluate how Indra Nooyi develops her leadership style of Analyzer and Director and become a successful as well as effective leader. Kreitner and Kinicki (as cited in Darling & Leffel, 2001, p356) state leadership is a process where on individual guide and assist a group to achieve a common goal. Being a successful leader, he/she should have profound knowledge as well as skills. Additionally, Leadership is distinguished form management and this distinction is crucial. Kotterman (2006) explains that to management is that taking responsibility to accomplish and conduct the tasks as well as target. However, he also states that to lead means to direct and influence by an action as well as opinion. Furthermore, Darling and Leffel (2001) point out that leadership styles can be classified into four types which include Analyzer, Connector, Director and Creator, all of which are various. However, different leaders and styles are required in different situations, which is what Morrison (2000) illustrates that different leadership styles generate different influence and significance on the entrepreneurial spirit. According to Darling and Leffel (2001), by analyzing the four main leadership styles, Indra Nooyi, CEO of PepsiCo, could be regarded as an Analyzer. Analyzers generally are system, cautious. Searching information and collecting a large number of data are always required before analyzers performing tasks. Analyzers also are diligent, objective. They always are not emotionally and they can control themselves well. In addition, analyzers generally manage clearly and orderly, when confronting with the bad  situations or major problems they will not easily compromise (Darling & Leffel, 2001). Nooyi is such a type of leadership. In 1994, Nooyi analyzed the market and she found that the growth rate of Fried food and quick meals which are â€Å"unhealthy† food of the restaurant industry gradually developed slowly because people started to focus on healthy eating and nutrition problems. Then, Nooyi decisively proposed to spin out the food and beverage business, split over the canned business at the same time and listed them individually, all of which can reduce the fixed capital and promote the overall influence of PepsiCo (Jagannathan, 2009). Moreover, Nooyi identified the market and recommended that stop in carbonated beverages tend to be saturated market competition environment and open up new fruit drinks market as she considered that promoting healthy food and drink is very significant for building PepsiCo’s brand image. In 1998, Nooyi acquired Tropicana which is fruit juice company brand and product line (Hays, 1998). In addition to a Director style, Nooyi also could be considered as a Director. As Darling and Leffel (2001) explain the style of director is pragmatic; they are clear about their tasks and goals and are able to work steadfastly in accordance with this direction. What is more, they always pay attention to the results. Director is confident and determined; they not only like to accept new challenge but also have the courage to take risks. As a CFO, in 2001, under the direction of Nooyi, Pepsi Company completed the acquisition of Quaker Oats (Quaker Qats) 2002 R & D efforts to develop healthy products and all the products are divided into three categories: the â€Å"beneficial class† (good for you), â€Å"health class† (better for you) and â€Å"fun† (fun for you), as a consequence, PepsiCo’s non-carbonated beverage industry in the world to occupy a market share of 25%, 1.5 times that of the major competitors of Coca-Cola. After Nooyi became CEO of PepsiCo, She began to pay attention to PepsiCo products health and balanced concept through the acquisition and product innovation, further enrich the product line. Specific measures are successfully merger and acquisition Stacy’s Bagel, Pita Chips, Izze carbonated drinks business in North America, there are also including fruit and vegetable juice drinks ( Jagannathan, 2009). Nooyi not only can be considered and regarded as a successful manager but also can be an effective leader. To illustrate Nooyi’s effectiveness,  looking back on the performances that Nooyi achieved, for example, when Nooyi was SVP, due to her strategy measures that are logical, serious and thorough, the profits of sales of the company were grown a lot, which rose from US$ 20,337 million in 1996 to US$ 26,935 million in 2001 (Jagannathan, 2009). What is more, Jagannathan (2009) mentioned that during that period Nooyi as CFO, the growth of sales of the PepsiCo increased from US$ 25,112 million in 2002 to US$ 35,137 million in 2006. Most importantly, with the great efforts of Nooyi, PepsiCo Company has been built up a positive and healthy brand as well as image around the world. In conclusion, by synthesizing the explanation of Darling and Leffel’s (2001) framework, it is obvious that the characters of Nooyi’s Analysis as well as direction are showed extremely well. Those strategies which include the spin-in of food and beverage business, the acquisition of Tropicana as well as Quaker Oats all prove Nooyi has highly keen analysis ability and long-term vision. Undoubtedly, Nooyi plays a curial role in Pepsico Company, without the smart analysis as well as audacious decision of Nooyi, and if Nooyi do not focus on vision as an Analyzer and Director, PepsiCo may not obtain such great achievements. In the future, people believe that Nooyi will develop and strengthen PepsiCo Company more and more efficiently with her â€Å"performance with purpose† strategy. References list Darling, J. & Leffel, A. (2009). Developing the leadership Team in an Entrepreneurial Venture: A case Focusing on the Importance of Styles. _Journal of Small Business and Entrepreneurship_, 23(3), 355-371. Hays, C. (1998, July 21). Pepsico to pay $3.3 Billion For Tropicana. _The New York Times_, p.1. Retrieved form: http://www.nytimes.com/1998/07/21/business/pepsico-to-pay-3.3-billion-for-tropicana.htm Jagannathan, R. (2009). Leadership-The Indra Nooyi Way. _IBS center for management Research_. Retrieved form: http://www.icmrindia.org/casestudies/catalogue/Leadership%20and%20Entrepreneurship/LDEN058.htm Kotterman, J. (2006). Leadership versus management: What ‘s the difference? _The Journal for Quality and Participation_, 29(2), 13-17. Retrieved form: http://search.proquest.com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/docview/219091679?accountid=14543 Morrison, J, A. (2000). Developing a Global Leadership Model. _Human Resource Management_, 39(2&3),117-131. Doi: 10.1002/1099-050X

High Cost of Poverty in the United States Essay

Poverty can be defined in many different ways. In certain attempts, it can be used in numbers, while other definitions can be more vague, and used to define a life style. The defined term of poverty is â€Å"the state of one who lacks a usual or socially acceptable amount of money or material possessions†. (Mirriam Webster, 2011) According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 37 million people live below the poverty line. â€Å"The ranks of America’s poor swelled to almost 1 in 6 people last year, reaching a new high as long-term unemployment left millions of Americans struggling and out of work. The number of uninsured edged up to 49.9 million, the biggest in more than two decades.† (Yen, 2011) Poverty is obviously very common in our country, and all over the world. Even with the United States being the wealthiest country in the world, we still have many Americans who struggle everyday to survive. The topic I chose to focus on is the high cost of poverty, and ho w it actually costs more to be poor. Although it seems like an oxymoron, it is a very realistic topic. I chose this topic because I have personally been involved in both sides of economic statuses. Although I do not live in extreme poverty, I technically have an income that falls within the line of poverty, but I do not have a family to support and have student loans to live off of. I wanted to know further detail of how those who only experience poverty, have limited choices, and how their disadvantages actually cost them more money. My personal life experience is one from an upper middle class family, and was raised in a wealthy suburb in a predominately white community. My family never had financial struggles, so I had no experience with battling bills. I worked in high school and had my own money, but I had nothing to pay for. I thought I made a decent amount of money making $7 an hour, and only working 15-20 hours a week. For a person with no bills or rents to pay for, $150-200 a week was a lot to me. Recently, I moved out of my parent’s suburban home and into the city to be closer to school and gain some independence as an adult. I make about $250-400 a week, depending on the activity of the restaurant I waitress at. I soon realized that I am very dependent on my two roommates to split bills and rent, because I could never afford to live on my own. Although we live in a low income neighborhood, the cost of food, rent, electric, heat and cable bills stack up, and I struggle to pay them. I also only pay one third of the full cost. I have a car I need to put gas in, a gym membership I pay monthly and credit card bills every month. I now see how people that make just as much, or less than I do, struggle even more to make ends meet when their income is at the head of the household. I wanted to show to people that it is more expensive to be poor, because of the lack of resources, income and credit, and also what their options become for survival due to these circumstances. I also did a quantitative study on renting versus owning an item, to show that it actually costs more to rent something than to purchase it upfront. I chose to sample the same three items from two different stores, and recording the prices to see the differences of renting and owning it. I am aware that most individuals in poverty, usually do not have enough money to purchase items or homes upfront so they often rent them, thinking they can afford weekly or monthly payments to stretch out their income to afford other life necessities. My first concept I chose to focus was access to food. I thought about how much I spend on the food I enjoy for just for me personally, and I think it is expensive. I enjoy fruits and fresh vegetables, brand name cereals and expensive breads. Since I grew up eating the certain brands, I continue to try and afford the things I like. Being an individual with a low income, I cannot imagine supporting not only myself, but a family solely on my income. In this research paper, I will explain the hardships of getting to and from the grocery store, and if you cannot, you need to shop elsewhere, such as corner stores.† Prices in urban corner stores are almost always higher, economists say. And sometimes, prices in supermarkets in poorer neighborhoods are higher. Many of these stores charge more because the cost of doing business in some neighborhoods is higher.† [ (Brown, 2009) ] This can lead to spending extra time, danger, stress, and in the end, costing the individual more money. It also forces those with less money to spend, higher risk for obesity. â€Å"Inequitable access to healthy foods is one mechanism by which socioeconomic factors influence the diet and health of a population†. (Drewnowski, 2009) Since they do not have the money to afford healthy choices, they must choose foods that they can stretch out in order to feed their families, even if it is not healthy. My next concept I chose to study was the price of minimum wage, and how it isn’t really the minimum coverage of standard living. In New York State, the minimum wage is $7.25. â€Å"About 20% of American adults who have jobs are earning less than $10.65 an hour. Even at 40 hours a week, that amounts to less than $22,314, which is the poverty level for a family of four†. [ (Isidore, 2011) ]. This simply states that a monthly income of about $1,000-$2,000 is almost impossible to survive on. This may lead to bad credit, forced into renting, and having people do dangerous or criminal activity to get money or items for their families. The poverty rate for all people disguises substantial variation between racial and ethnic subgroups. Poverty rates for blacks and Hispanics greatly exceed the national average. According to the United States Census Bureau, â€Å"In 2010, 27.4 percent of blacks and 26.6 percent of Hispanics were poor, compared to 9.9 percent of non-Hispanic whites and 12.1 percent of Asians.† (Bureau of the Census, 2011) Poverty rates are most often the highest for families headed by single women, particularly if they are black or Hispanic. â€Å"In 2010, 31.6 percent of households headed by single women were poor, while 15.8 percent of households headed by single men and 6.2 percent of married-couple households lived in poverty.† (Bureau of the Census, 2011). â€Å"The official poverty level is an annual income of $22,314 for a family of four â€Å". (Yen, 2011) On average, depending on the size of a household, a family living in poverty has an average income of less than $20,000. This can include couples with children, single parents with one or more children. Needless to say, this is not a lot of money to support a family on, and thus they have to take extra steps to survive, which results in higher costs, and contributing to the statement of the high cost of poverty. You have to be rich to be poor. This is what some people, who have never lived below the poverty line, don’t understand. The poorer you are, the more things cost. Additional steps in money, time, hassle, exhaustion, and danger. This is a fact of life that television, magazines and media, do not often explain. Take for example, food. First, if you do not have a car, getting to the supermarket can take anywhere from one to three hours of public transportation, and costing a price to use the bus or a taxi. To use the method of public transportation, it is necessary to hav e to load all of your groceries into the bus, or taxi. This is limiting to space and capability of carrying all of the groceries. A simpler version of this would be to walk to the corner store, for free, but where the grocery selection is limited and prices are doubled. â€Å"Prices in urban corner stores are almost always higher, economists say. And sometimes, prices in supermarkets in poorer neighborhoods are higher. Many of these stores charge more because the cost of doing business in some neighborhoods is higher.† (Brown, 2009) Also, if you are living in poverty, you will most likely not be making enough money to buy $100 or more worth of groceries for your family. This results in the person or family spending more money, to either get to the grocery store, or paying more for the food to save money traveling to and from. In the end, it is a losing situation, and the poor are paying more in the end than someone who is wealthy and has access to the necessary resources. Spending more money than middle class, or wealthy class to buy groceries is one example of how high the cost of poverty is. If the poor is spending money in the corner stores, they are most likely not getting nutritious foods or healthy choices that most corner stores do not carry. Obesity is a direct result from that, seeing that unhealthy foods cost way less than healthy eating does.† Obesity and type 2 diabetes follow a socioeconomic gradient. Highest rates are observed among groups with the lowest levels of education and income and in the most deprived areas. Inequitable access to healthy foods is one mechanism by which socioeconomic factors influence the diet and health of a population†. (Drewnowski, 2009) Low income levels leave people no choice but to choose foods that are nutrient poor, because it is a price that can afford and something they can stretch out among their whole family to feed them. It is also the best way to provide daily calories at an affordable c ost. Those who are struggling financially are clearly the most disadvantaged when it comes to healthy eating habits. In our grocery stores today we have so many artificial sweeteners, preservatives, fats and sweets that are sure to taste good, but not good for our health. Fats and sweets tend to cost way less, where as healthy foods cost more. It makes no sense to have unhealthy foods cost less than healthy foods, but it is the manufacturing and production that determines the cost of foods. Therefore, those who do not have the money to purchase healthy options have to choose foods that fit in their budget. These are usually unhealthy, packaged, canned or frozen options that have little to no nutritional value. Even those families that have government support, welfare checks and food stamps are still on a restricted budget. The foods they are allowed to get for free or reduced price are items such as fruit juices, canned fruits, cereal, grits, and corn tortillas. These items are all packed with sugar and calories which is not aiding in healthy lifestyles. â€Å"Researchers have shown that low-income neighborhoods attract more fast-food outlets and convenience stores as opposed to full-service supermarkets and grocery stores† (Drewnowski, 2009). This also relates back to travel costs, transportation and affording food. Since it is easier to get to the corner stores, it is a disadvantage to the customers because the corner stores are usually just packed with unhealthy options. It is economic deprivation that is a key factor in obesity, and one key factor of weight gain may be low diet cost. Another example of how the high cost of poverty is, is the price of minimum wage and if it really acceptable to be the minimum wage you can survive on. Most people and experts agree that to get out of an economic slump, we need more jobs. But another problem is that millions of Americans already have jobs that don’t pay very much. â€Å"About 20% of American adults who have jobs are earning less than $10.65 an hour. Even at 40 hours a week, that amounts to less than $22,314, which is the poverty level for a family of four†. (Isidore, 2011) In New York State, the federal minimum wage is $7.25. Minimum wage is supposed to be the wage in which it is the bare minimum amount of money that one can survive on. Even at 40 hours a week, that equals to be $290 without taxes taken out. This would be a paycheck of about $250 for one week, and this equals about $1000 a month. Taking into consideration that those who are the working poor, they need to spend more money getting to and from work, which also costs extra time. They also need to pay bills, feed themselves and their families. For an individual making $1,000 a month, this is almost impossible to survive on even in minimal conditions. An average cost of rent in Buffalo NY is fairly inexpensive, and taking into consideration that Buffalo on of the poorest cities in the United States, we have to be aware that there is many people in the city below the poverty line. According to Rentjungle.com, An average one bedroom apartment in Buffalo is $679 a month and two bedroom apartment rents average $750. To see this in comparison to another large city, one bedroom apartments in New York City rent for $2356 a month on average and two bedroom apartment rents average $2767. Minimum wage is clearly not enough to survive on if your average monthly income is $1000. Out of $1000 income, you have to set aside an average of $600 for rent, leaving you $400 for car fees, if you have one, or transportation fees if you depend on them. If your apartment does not include utilities, you need money for electric bill, gas bills, which can skyrocket in our area when it is winter, cable or internet if possible, and food budget. Another example of a disadvantage the poor have is the actual process of cashing their check to get their money. The rich or middle class usually have the option of direct deposit for their paychecks. The poor have check-cashing and payday loan joints, which cost time and money. The poor pay more for financial services, and many people who cannot be capable to have a bank account may have to pay extra money for a money order to pay their bills and cash their checks. â€Å"They may pay a 2 percent check-cashing fee because they don’t have bank services.† (Brown, 2009) Many people in poverty literally live paycheck to paycheck. If they have a bill that’s due, they do not have a luxury of online payments, because they cannot afford computers or internet, so they have to mail it. If they do not have the money in time for a bill, they have to wait for their next paycheck. This can cost late fees, and in an end result, spending more money than a person with those luxuries. While many people are surviving in this manner, people will look for any way to get by without spending their money. Many people in poverty may depend on credit cards to help them afford things they cannot. Credit cards can help out for temporary reasons, but if not paid off, this can cause more problems. People who are struggling to pay their bills will most likely have bad credit, and have no other option but to rent homes, items, and many other things they cannot afford, due to their credit and income. Bad credit also costs more money than those with good credit. If a person does not have enough money to pay off bills in full, they will get extra interest charges and fees that stack up and end up costing more for them. Since I did not have the option of going into homes of the people in poverty, I decided to do research on items, rather than homes, to compare the costs of rent to own. Poor people do not have the option of owning homes, because of their credit and/or income, so they have no choice but to rent. I wanted to see if the price you pay for being a low income individual actually costs you more, than to own something. This is to show that poverty does in fact cost more to live I chose to look at a refrigerator, a range and a television from two different department stores to compare prices on a rent versus owning the item. My first item, the refrigerator, a 25.3 cubic foot, Side-by-Side with thru-the Door Ice and Water, Black color, was $799.99 to own immediately from Best Buy. At Rent- A-Center, the same exact refrigerator was $37.99 to rent per week, for 91 weeks. At first, it seems like a cheap deal and a realistic price for those who do not have the $799.99 upfront to spend. When you do the math, $37.99 per week for 91 weeks is $3457 total to own after renting at the $37.99 per week. This is over four times the price it would cost to buy at Best Buy and own immediately. I also learned that consumers can get a â€Å"discounted† price by purchasing the item after 90 days, which seemed a little better to me. When I did the math again, it would equal out to be $1728 total to own after renting for 90 days. This is still about double the price of buying it immediately. My next item I compared was the range. A GE-30† Freestanding Electric Range, Black-on-Black Quickset III oven. At Best Buy this was $429.99 to own immediately. Rent-A-Center had the same oven for $24.99 to rent per week for 74 weeks. The total to own after renting for 74 weeks at $24.99 was $ 1849. After 90 days of renting, the total price to own would be $924.63. The prices are clearly different, but yet it seems manageable when you are there. Looking at a price of $25 a week for a nice, brand new stove seems pretty manageable if you have a low income. When you look at the math and how much it will actually cost to rent rather than own, it is actually over four times the original price to own the oven upfront. The last item I compared was a television, an Insignia © Advanced 42† Class/1080p/ 120Hz/ LCD. This item from Best Buy was $749.99 to own immediately. Rent-A-Center had the same television for $39.99 to rent per week, for 74 weeks. It seems like a reasonable, affordable price until you calculate it and realize that it would cost $2959 total to own after 74 weeks of renting. This is about four times the original price. After 90 days of renting, the â€Å"discount† price to own, at Rent-A-Center is $1479, still double the original price. All three of the items I chose to compare are most needed in homes, with the exception of the television. Although it is not a necessity, almost all homes have at least one television. When those who are living in poverty want to own these items, they will have struggles to afford paying them. They turn to the option of renting because they see the low price and it appeals that it is affordable to them. The small payments they think they can afford weekly add up and end up costing them quadruple of original prices. In conclusion, being poor is a struggle. It costs much more money and time to be poor. Working lots of hours and making little money takes a toll on many people here in the United States. I wanted to show readers that this is a very realistic topic to study, and that the cost of poverty is high. The obstacles and disadvantages those in poverty have to deal with are frustrating, stressful ,and in need of change. Poverty is a very difficult thing to understand and take control over because lifestyles cannot be forced upon. People choose their own paths of life, and lack of education, jobs, motivation, children and many other situations are uncontrollable. In our society, I think it is important to know the struggles of those in poverty stricken situations and to understand their hardships. This can be motivation to those in it, or headed towards it in their future. Learning about the costs and disadvantages poverty comes with can be a motivating factor for people to go to college and get an education to receive a well paying job, get a job in general, educate themselves about saving money, and learning that renting is not cheaper than owning. Hopefully my research will be beneficial to those in college, living on low income, to do well in school to gain better jobs, educate those in poverty about the costs they are spending and figuring new alternatives, and to open eyes to those that think it is cheap to be poor. Being in poverty costs time and the cost of poverty is certainly high. In the end, the high cost of poverty will be a never ending cycle of time and money and I hope this research paper opens the eyes of all individuals to help make this problem change. Bibliography Brown, D. L. (2009). The High Cost of Poverty: Why the Poor Pay More. Lexis Nexis Academic , A-4. Bureau of the Census. (2011). Income Alternative Poverty Estimates in the United States. Washington D.C: U.S Census Bureau. Drewnowski, A. (2009). Nutrition Reviews: Obesity, diets, and social inequalities. Seattle: University of Washington. Isidore, C. (2011, September 27). CNN Money. Retrieved November 15, 2011, from Not getting by on minimum wage: http://money.cnn.com/2011/09/27/news/economy/minimum_wage_jobs/index.htm Jason M. Sutherland, E. S. (2009). Getting Past Denial — The High Cost of Health Care in the United States. The New England Journal of Medicine , 1227-30. Mirriam Webster. (2011). Mirriam Webster Dictonary. Dictionary . Brittanica Company. Yen, H. (2011, September 13). Yahoo News. (A. Press, Ed.) Retrieved November 15, 2011, from Census: US poverty rate swells to nearly 1 in 6: http://news.yahoo.com/census-us-poverty-rate-swells-nearly-1-6-142639972.html

Capitalism Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Capitalism - Assignment Example Various companies reduced their labour force while others fully shut down leading to massive loss of employment. The economic depression led to loss of business and closing down of many businesses, which led to decline in tax revenues. Many organizations and individuals were also unable to pay their taxes, which made things worse. Prices of goods and services also declined, and profits not witnessed. Crop production fell with most farms affected by drought, which saw the fall in crop prices. The hardships witnessed and non-remittance of taxes forced people out of their homes creating a situation of homelessness. Situation of unemployment and homelessness seriously affected the poor in the society. The economic activities in many countries were markedly affected with many sectors facing problems. Construction industry in many countries slowed and even stopped owing to materials and labor force needed. Farming in a rural setting was also affected by drought and financial inability. Farmers were not able to pay off debt accrued from production expenses due to poor production and fall in crop prices. Among the sectors affected is the mining and logging sectors, which faced drastic, negative effects due to decline in demand for its products, most were forced to cut down on their activities with others closing up, which further affected unemployment. The ending of the great depression was witnessed by different countries at different times, but it was with the advent of WWII. There is believe that government spending in the war stimulated the economies of various nations. The war required production of various products to be used in the war and agricultural goods to be consumed. The sourcing of labor to participate in the war aided in solving the unemployment problem. Women and men who did not participate in the war also got the opportunity to work in the local industries (Maddison, 2007).

Management of information technology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 1

Management of information technology - Essay Example in this hostile environment and to cope with such dynamic environment brought by information technology, it is extremely important to keep pace with management, technological and organizational issues concerned with the development and use of information systems. There are massive issues in this field and they need to be thoroughly evaluated in order to reap maximum benefits. This report explores the management and other issues related with information technology in the leading bank of Middle East, Eskan bank. Eskan bank has a huge customer base and it has been consistently expanding for the past few years. With increased competition from the rival banks entering the market and with consumers demanding a wider range of financial services, the bank was looking for ways to exploit the available technology to sustain its lead. It took a major shift in its direction and invested in information technology and acquired a core banking solution for its banking operations from a well-renowned software service provider Misys. Information Systems Strategic Planning (ISSP) refers to the â€Å"activities directed toward (1) recognizing organizational opportunities for using information technology, (2) determining the resource requirements to exploit these opportunities, (3) and developing strategies and action plans for realizing these opportunities and for meeting the resource needs† (Boynton and Smud, 1987, p.59). Strategic planning is a top level management activity and it requires absolute commitment from those positioned at the higher level of organizational hierarchy. The strategic plan charters the mission, short term and long term plans of the organization. The need for improved information systems project planning has been obvious because the cost of information system has risen rapidly and it’s approximately forty percent of the total expenses in some organizations (Hoffer, George and Valacich 2002, p. 141) As the Eskan bank was embroiled in a competitive

Haiti earthquake Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Haiti earthquake - Essay Example Haiti has seen many natural disasters in the past. The next section of the article talks about the deaths of UN personnel in the UN headquarters in Haiti. The number of deaths and missing personnel was not known. The head of the UN mission in Haiti, Hedi Annabi, was also inside the building. Haiti’s ambassador in US reported that many buildings including the presidential palace, the tax office, the ministry of commerce, the foreign ministry, and the local offices of the World Bank were destroyed. The President was reported to be safe. The airport was fine. US President Obama delivered his wishful thoughts and prayers. Emergency food aid and relief came from the Red Cross, the UNs World Food Programme, The Inter-American Development Bank, UK, Canada, Australia, France, and Latin America. The last section of the article talks about Henry Bahn, a visiting official, who reported his experience. The Tsunami watch was lifted when the danger of Tsunami

Employability Skills Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Employability Skills - Assignment Example According to Arthur (2012), every store has a store manager so do Flagship store. It is the responsibility of the store manager to see that the store achieves its target and earns profit. It is his duty to see that the image of the store is maintained throughout the time. Store should be attractive enough in designing. He should see that the stock is available all the time in the store as this is the main retail outlet. A store manager should be aware of all the products because if any problem occurs about the description of the product, then the customer will ask the manager only. Quality assurance is also the responsibility of the store manager as he should see that there are no expired products as this may ruin stores image. The flagship store has been set up new. Previously, company use to sell through online and it was big success. The sell which use to take place through online can’t be compared to the retail store as it is new and it has not created brand name yet. Avai lability of the product can be an issue as it may happen that transportation of products from the factory to the store has not been fixed and so the product shortage takes place frequently. It may happen that products which are available online are not available in the store as transportation is again the issue. Proper precautions have to take regarding fabrics as it can be out of fashion and still lying in the store which affects the brand image. Quality of fabrics has to be maintained as it can get dirty or spoiled due to negligence. A store cannot keep all the stocks as it is available in online because online store purchasing doesn’t need storage, order is directly packaged from the factory itself but products in the outlet needs storage with proper maintenance. There are many flaws and effectiveness in the set up of main outlet which will be rectified slowly as this is time

History 82 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

History 82 - Essay Example 1. The American Indians were passive to the European attack in the beginning as they did not expect the new comers to be rivals. They believed the new people came in search of friendship and were superior to them. 2. The American Indians had ideals much different from the Europeans. They believed in sharing since they had abundance of everything. They did not see any reason to fight. They wondered why the Europeans mercilessly slaughtered the natives when there was so much available for everybody to share. Columbus rightly judged they would fall without resistance if they were attacked initially as they were very unsuspecting. 3. Once the word regarding the Spanish massacres started to spread, the American Indians started to fight against the new comers. But, they were not able to withstand the mighty armies of the Europeans and soon succumbed to them. Protests continued over centuries making the Europeans hate the Indians to the core. 4. African Americans were bought into the pictur e to work in the abducted Indian lands. What was kept common for all was made a particular communities properties and a new community which neither owned the land nor belonged to the nation was forcibly migrated there to work as slaves making their situation very vulnerable. The situation lasted for many centuries. 5. The African Americans accepted their plight due their vulnerable situation for the first few years. They started to voice their concerns in the form of rebellions and strikes after a few decades. 6. Cultural genocide was unleashed on the African Indians with the sole aim of eliminating their pride. Their children and land were abducted, families split and forced to live a secondary life in the name of civilizing them. Forced religious transformations were done to exterminate the Indians and make them follow only the European culture. The African Americans had great persistence through which they safeguarded their culture and spirituality. â€Å"Arawak men and women, n aked, tawny, and full of wonder, emerged from their villages onto the island's beaches and swam out to get a closer look at the strange big boat. When Columbus and his sailors came ashore, carrying swords, speaking oddly, the Arawaks ran to greet them, brought them food, water, gifts.† (Howard Zinn, 1) â€Å"The Indians, Columbus reported, "are so naive and so free with their possessions that no one who has not witnessed them would believe it. When you ask for something they have, they never say no. To the contrary, they offer to share with anyone...." (Howard Zinn, 5) â€Å"When a Spanish armada appeared at Vera Cruz, and a bearded white man came ashore, with strange beasts (horses), clad in iron, it was thought that he was the legendary Aztec man-god who had died three hundred years before, with the promise to return-the mysterious Quetzalcoatl. And so they welcomed him, with munificent hospitality.† (Howard Zinn, 12) â€Å"They lack all manner of commerce, neither buying nor selling, and rely exclusively on their natural environment for maintenance. They are extremely generous with their possessions and by the same token covet the possessions of then; friends and expect the same degree of liberality. ...† (As told by Las Casas)( Howard Zinn, 7) â€Å" We are unarmed, and willing to give you what you ask, if you come in a friendly manner, and not so simple as not to know that it is much better

Laser Printer and Government Intervention Case Study

Laser Printer and Government Intervention - Case Study Example In other words, this is represented by the area a+b+c+d. On the other hand, the producer’s surplus is represented by the variation between the marginal cost of production and the revenue earned (P1). This is the area f+g+h. The producer surplus corresponds to the profits minus the fixed cost. However, production of Q results into externality effects such as lack of market for the home produced cartridges. This is represented by the Marginal External Cost (MEC). Considering that such costs do not change, then it means that the entire cost to the society regarding the production of Q is the marginal society curve, as represented by MSC = MPC + MEC. Q1, which is an external cost, corresponds to the area: c + d + e + f + g + h. The intervention of the Kuwait government through the imposition of tax on the imported cartridges is aimed at internalizing the externality, which is arrived at after taking consideration the external cost of production (Barthold 133). If the government imposes a constant importation tax on every unit of cartridge imported so that this raises the cost of production, which corresponds to the MSC curve, then it means that the new market will be represented by P2 and Q2. Lower quantity and a higher price will occur as a result of the government regulation. Area (a) is the consumer surplus at the new equilibrium and (h) is the producer surplus. Area b + c + f represent the government tax collection. The tax’s deadweight loss (DWL) is represented by d+g. Nonetheless, b + c + f, is the external cost, which is avoided. This means that the net benefit from the government intervention is d + e + g - d - g = e > 0, which is: MEC-DWL. To find out whether the imposed tax is really efficient, then a benefit-cost analysis should be conducted. Assuming that the producers are supposed to pay extra tax, their surplus will be represented by the area (b), in which case area c + f + h is the elevated production costs resultingà ‚  from the government intervention. As the output decreases from Q1 to Q2, some jobs are lost, though more jobs are gained when the home industries employ more people (Barthold 135).

Trifles and A Jury of Her Peers Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Trifles and A Jury of Her Peers - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that Susan Glaspell’s play â€Å"Trifles† was written in 1916 and then reworked into a short story entitled â€Å"A Jury of her Peers† in the following year. The content is very similar to each version. Both pieces tell the story of a murder investigation. In both cases, the main suspect, Mrs. Wright, is much discussed, but she never appears. The women deduce that Mrs. Wright has been abused by her husband, and they cover up incriminating details so that the men do not find sufficient evidence to convict Mrs. Wright of the murder of her husband. The play shows how the men notice different things than the women, while the story allows an even more nuanced judgment of the various characters. The play begins with the investigation of the Wright household. The men proceed according to the letter of the law as written and enacted by men. The Sheriff, for example, dismisses the evidence of the domestic environment by looking around and saying â€Å"There’s nothing here but kitchen things.† The play’s title is an ironic reference to the domestic objects and activities which make up the majority of women’s lives in this period. The way the kitchen looks and the condition of objects within it are factors which bear witness to what happened to this woman. Only women can read and understand these signs, while men think they are unimportant and do not look closely enough at the detail. When the women look at the preparations that were underway in the kitchen they see what has happened. Mrs Peters says â€Å"she had bread set.† (p. 12) This looks, on the surface, like a simple observation. Both women understand the context of bread-making, however, and they realize that something must have interrupted Mrs Wright, because normally a housewife would not leav bread half made. The play illustrates the complicity of the three women. These subtle connections are difficult to convey in dramatic form on the stage, and this may be why one performance of the play had mixed reviews. A modern production of the play in East Village, Manhattan, performed in February 2010, received mixed reviews (Jaworowski, 2010). The director introduced elements to enhance the dramatic atmosphere: â€Å"Extended pauses have been inserted throughout, creating long silences; characters often abruptly stop for 5 or 10 seconds between lines or in the middle of dialogue.† (Jaworowski, 2010) Jaworowski finds this pretentious, and implies that the audience also were nervous and not sure how to interpret the silences. Other additions such as wordless singing and musical accompaniment, as well as lighting effects, help to convey â€Å"an eerie, affecting mood that lingers after the show ends.† (Jaworowski, 2010) The rising tension is conveyed effectively by these novel means, but the reflective side of the short story is largely lo st. The intimacy of the reader sitting alone and imagining the meaningful looks between the women is a more effective technique than any real life visual representation could manage. On stage an actor has to use body posture, timing, and facial impressions to indicate what the character is thinking. The subject matter of this play is subtle, and so it is extremely difficult to convey the solidarity of women in their thinking. The written form is simply better at showing nuances of judgement about characters.In contrast to the play the story’s title â€Å"A Jury of Her Peers† uses legal language to point out that the peers of Mrs Wright are not the sheriff, the attorney and assembled male jurors, but in fact women like herself who can understand the pressures she has suffered in her life. In a way the story is a plea for the right of women to be judged by women, and not by a sexist legal system which is subject to male prejudice, while the play is more like a debate abo ut the two perspectives. The story is more detailed and explicit than the play, providing extra information about the relationships between all three women characters. The narrative voice

Sports Organizations Essay Example for Free

Sports Organizations Essay Sports has become a very important part of every social being(Gerdy, 2002). The levels of involvement of people in sports has increased tremendously (Chak, 2003). Sports is defined as any activity that has specific rules that define how it is played and the main reason in engaging in such activities is to win (Gerdy, 2002). Sports has developed so much that sports organization have been forced to develop system that will help them engage in the competition that exists both in and out of the fields (Chak, 2003). Information technology especially the use of internet has come out as some of the most commonly used avenues through which such organizations can meet their objectives (Guttmann, 2007). The clubs have developed into money making organizations that have become so much absorbed into commercialization and financial practices that separating them from profit making organization is not an easy task (Norlin, 2002). Professionalism in sports has developed greatly due to increased mass media coverage that has made the games available to a wider audience, improvements in technology which have made the transmission of the games in a clear form to a larger audience and increase in incomes levels that has allowed a large number of people to engage in sports as leisure (Chak, 2003). Traditionally, sports is a social event where communities come together and join each other to celebrate (Chak, 2003). The nature of sports is thus voluntary from the very start in that the members of the community are free to chose whether or not they wanted to join in the games (Chak, 2003). Clubs and organization have embraced the principles of free will and there are many clubs and sports organization where members are free to join ad leave at their own will. Web Presence Web presence is a social definition of a website which is a collection of files stored in a database that are made available through the internet through specific universal resource locators (URL) addresses (Chak, 2003). The owner of the sites are responsible for updating the field and upgrading the data depending on the data policies (Chak, 2003). The files that contain data kept in the sites are only accessible to the administrator though there are situations where the sites are made to be as proactive and dynamic as possible through the aid of scripting languages and the use of programming languages that allow for dynamic programming in designing the websites (Chak, 2003). The dynamism associated with this kind of programming provide the web visitors with an interactive interface through which they can interact with the databases (Norlin, 2002). Professional Real Madrid The official site of the professional club based in Europe can be accessed through the URL http://www. realmadrid. com/cs/Satellite/en/Home. The site is comprehensive and contains lots of facts including the latest article, fixtures and results. The site is quite navigable and provides the option of either using English or Spanish. The sites provide a number of intra-page links to some of the issues and subjects that any sports fan could be interested in. The page uses colorful pictures and story heads which blend effectively to create a good visual impression. The site is updated twice in a week and is accessible as it uses the hypertext transfer protocol (http) that is implemented by most browsers and requires no additional plug-ins to be able o assess the homepage fully. The promoters of the club are also included in the clubs official site. The last date of update of the site is also included in the site. The site provides the capabilities of redirection to live matches and match casts and provides an efficient dialog box that is easily typed on for unstructured search. The speed of the searches and the nature of the response is effective in dealing with the user navigation requirements. Boston Celtic The official site of the professional basketball club based in North America can be accessed through the URL http://www. nba. com/celtics/. The language used is English and the site presents links to a number of articles. The page provides an interactive platform for interaction between the users who are allowed to vote on who they consider to be the player whose impact will be greatest. The results and fixtures of the club including the clubs best scorers and relevant statistic of the game have also been included. The site provides links to live coverage of games and to software that make access live streaming of game easier. Pictures and graphic that relate to the club have been included in the page and is then included are. The sponsors of the club have clearly been displayed in the sites, the fans can buy tickets and read the previews to a game through this site. The site provides links to contacts, fans and history of the team. Furthermore, the site provides the functionality for searching article and information that relate to the club through a dialog box. Club Atletico Boca Juniors The South American club official site can be accessed through the URL http://www. bocajuniors. com. ar/english/. The site is provided in English and has both text and graphics. The site has no link to the fans and the home page does not show any results. Navigation is easy though access to some resources have been restricted by the use of user names and passwords. The site also provides a platform for interaction with the fans as they are allowed to vote. Though the site is in English Spanish phrases and words can be seen in their pages. The date of last update does not appear anywhere in the page. Compared to the first two the site is less superior and has low visual appeal. Voluntary Bexley Athletic Club The club can be accessed through the URLhttp://www. bexleyac. co. uk/. The homepage has a short history of the club and provides links to other areas of interest. The links to results, records and statistics are such that if the user the user has to be extra careful to identify them. The page cannot be displayed fully if additional plug-ins have not been downloaded. The only form of interaction that the site has with the fans is a link that leads to a page that allows the users to shop on-line. The Sports Club/LA It is located in Boston, Massachusetts. Their official site can be accessed through the URLhttp://www. thesportsclubla. com/clubs/template. asp? Club=boston. The page can be opened by any browser and does not need additional plug-ins to display the content. Simplicity describes the homepage as it has the front view of the club followed by a short description of the facilities provided by the club. The external links are very few and the links to other pages though clearly displayed do no give the website visitors a chance to interact with either the site or other member of the club. The search functionality is aimed at getting the user to navigate to other clubs and does not in anyway help the user get information about the club. Castle Sports Club The official website can be accessed through the URL http://www. castlesportsclub. com/. The homepage is covered in texts and lacks in visual impression. There is no avenue for interaction with the site and the article are based on topics that could be of interest to members and those contemplating joining the club but not for the fans who may wish to find out more about their club. The page is full of news and does not in any way provide a searching mechanism, moreover the date of last modification of the site has not been indicated. Differences The are a key difference in the manner in which the professional and the voluntary sports franchise implement their websites. The functionality provided by the professional cites is of a much higher degree. The sites are fast and quite attractive they focus more on the aspects that an ordinary user could be interested in. The pages compared to the voluntary franchise have better links and can be opened without necessarily having to add additional plug-ins. The statistics posted by the professional franchise are focussed more on performance while those posted by the voluntary sports franchise focus more on skills and levels of development (Potts, 2007). The voluntary clubs have links to articles that relate more to social events while the professional clubs have links that are focussed more focussed on performance. The professional clubs present more dynamic websites that allow for interaction not only between the club and its fan but also within the fan base; voluntary sports organizations lack on this aspect as their websites are rarely interactive and if they are they provide limited functionality. Another major difference is the use of graphics: The professional franchise websites use more graphics than the voluntary sports organizations. The graphics in the professional sports franchise are aimed at bringing the feel of belonging and is often include images of players and glory moments. The voluntary sports franchise on the other hand have websites that rarely load images and if they do the images address issues that are of a social dimension.

Behaviour policy Essay Example for Free

Behaviour policy Essay Behaviour policy is a guideline to all staff on how pupil behaviour should be managed it is important that this policy is constantly being applied to ensure full safety of the pupils; this is why all staff must be familiar with this policy. The policy outlines the schools aims of how to create a positive community atmosphere in which children can learn effectively by showing good standards of behaviour. The school aims to identify and respond to good behaviour in children, promoting a positive classroom environment where children with good behaviour and work are recognised. It outlines rewards sanctuary’s and sets put a code of conduct that all children staff, parents and governors should be aware of. Although good behaviour is encouraged in schools, children will still behave inappropriate at times consequences for bad behaviour †¢Name on the board (sad face) †¢Miss time out from golden times, break or lunch play. Be sent to the head of year / deputy head †¢Be sent to the head teacher and a meeting with parents. Good Behaviour †¢Full golden time awarded †¢Raffle tickets gained †¢Star of the day †¢Extra time to choose activities †¢Certificates in Friday assembly All staff can give certain rewards and sanctuary however some may be given by a certain member of staff for example, if you behave well you may be chosen to put your name down on the deputy chart and then at the end of each term a prize is given to the one that is chosen. Golden rules †¢Always do your best †¢Be proud of our work and our school †¢Be polite at all times †¢Respect each other’s property †¢Treat other as we would like to be treated ourselves Bullying policy is there to prevent and deal with any behaviour that is bullying, and to promote an ethos where bullying is regarded as unacceptable, so that a safe and secure environment is created for everyone to learn and work in. This policy applies to everyone in, and every one visiting, our community. The setting policy includes guidance on how to prevent bullying. Discusses monitors and reviews our anti-bullying policy on a regular basis. Supports staff to promote positive relationships and identify and tackle bullying appropriately. Ensures that pupils are aware that all bullying concerns will be dealt with sensitively and effectively that pupil feel safe to learn and that pupil go by the bullying policy. Reports back to parents/carers on bullying and deal with complaints. Definition on bullying is name calling, taunting, mocking, making offensive comments,; kicking; hitting; taking belongings; inappropriate text messaging and electronic messaging (including through web-sites, Social Networking sites and Instant Messenger); sending offensive or degrading images by phone or via the internet; producing offensive graffiti; gossiping; excluding people from groups and spreading hurtful and untruthful rumours. Bullying can happen to anyone the policy covers all types of bullying including: †¢Bullying related to race, religion or culture. †¢Bullying related to special educational needs. †¢Bullying related to appearance or health conditions. †¢Bullying related to sexual orientation. †¢Bullying of young carers or looked after children or otherwise related to home circumstances. †¢Sexist or sexual bullying. †¢Cyber bullying.

Edgar Degas: Six Friends at Dieppe | An Analysis

Edgar Degas: Six Friends at Dieppe | An Analysis This paper discusses Degas’ representation of his circle of friends in reference to heroes and hero worship. For the purposes of the paper, ‘hero’ will be taken to mean ‘characters, that, in the face of adversity, and perhaps from a position of weakness display courage and the will for self-sacrifice’, with hero worship following the generally understood meaning ‘intense admiration for a hero’. The paper will show that Degas viewed his friends as heroes, in that they sacrificed themselves for their work, and that, through his collecting of various works, especially by those of close friends, and his portraits of his close friends, he exhibited ‘hero-worshipping’ towards these friends. The book Edgar Degas: Six Friends at Dieppe, based on a 2005/6 exhibition of the same name at the RISD Museum, looks in detail at Degas’ relationships with his close circle of friends, as portrayed in Degas’ 1885 pastel portrait of the same name. In this work, Degas presents Ludovic Halevy, Daniel Halevy, Jacques-Emil Blanch, Henri Gervex, Walter Sickert, and Albert Boulanger-Cave. The complex, often highly volatile, but always extremely loyal, friendships between these men, and with Degas, are narrated in Degas’ portrait. This is discussed in more detail in the book Edgar Degas: Six Friends at Dieppe, which concludes that Degas had an extremely complex relationship with his friends, and that once he had formed a friendship, Degas was at pains to let this friendship go, whatever the cost. He valued his friendships extremely highly, particularly, it seems, because he saw them as a means of releasing himself to the world, for his own timidity was often restrictive, and it was his relationships with close friends that allowed him to flourish (see Meyers, 2005). Degas formed many strong friendships throughout his life, as we have seen, with Ludovic Halevy ranking amongst the most dear, with loyal friendships with other artists (such as Emile Zola) informing his work, in terms of developing ideas about realism, and the role of painting, for example. Degas’ friendship with Sickert, for example, withstood the test of time, as relayed by Sickert himself in his 1917 article about his friendship with Degas (see Sickert, 1917), which portrays a profound affection for his friend Degas. This friendship is also explored in Robins (1988), which shows that Degas had a deep respect for Sickert, so much so that he introduced Sickert to mutual friends and to his own dealers. Degas’ friendship with Sickert was, however, only one of his many close friendships: he also had deep, and well-documented, friendships with Manet, with Toulouse-Lautrec, and with Emile Zola amongst others. Indeed, it is within the context of these friendships that he cam e to see ‘realism’ in art as the true path that his work should take, as documented in his many letters and through his various works (see, for example, Degas, 2000). Degas’ friendship with Manet is legendary, based on a comradely rivalry, with many ups and downs, forged together through strong artistic bonds, described as ‘(they) used the same models, shared an iconography and indulged in reciprocal quotations’ (see Baumann et al., 1995). The two artists, thus, informed each others works, and, indeed, an explicit connection between Degas’ pastel works and Manet’s Chez le Pere Lathuille has been made (see Meyers, 2005), perhaps suggestive of some form of reciprocal hero worship towards Degas on the part of Manet. However tumultuous their friendship, however, it is perhaps indicative of the depth of Degas’ respect for Manet that Manet’s Ham and Pear were opposite Degas’ bed, so they were the first things he saw in the morning when he awoke (Meyers, 2005). Degas’ portraits of Manet, such as his 1968/9 Portrait of Monsieur and Madame Edouard Manet, often raised trouble between the friends, and indeed, Manet cut Suzanne’s face off of this portrait, in disgust, although it is thought, through analyses of Degas’ writings, that no harm was actually intended, and, indeed, the portrait seemed to have been intended as a genuine compliment to the couple, leading to a temporary split in the friendship (see Baumann et al., 1995). Other portraits, such as the etching Portrait of Edouard Manet completed in 1862/5 shows Degas’ utmost respect for Manet, showing Manet as alert and attentive, reinforcing Degas’ tendency to reveal how he felt about his friends, as artistic heroes, and even perhaps, as personal heroes who saved Degas from the darker sides of his own personality, and from his own personal demons[1]. Degas, the complex artist, with complex interpretations, can thus be argued to have exhibited ‘hero worshipping’ towards his friends, as we have seen, through spending time with them, discussing realism with them, and by taking his time to paint portraits of them. In addition to this, Degas was an avid collector of art, and he avidly collected the work of old masters and contemporaries, with the aim of founding a Museum to house his extensive collection, although his loss of faith in the idea of a Museum, his suicide and the subsequent war-time sale of the collection did not allow for the construction of a Museum to house his collection. As Dumas (2000) and Ives et al. (1998) document, Degas’ personal art collection numbered over 5000 works at the time of his death, including works by masters such as Delacroix and Ingres, but mostly works by his contemporaries, including Manet, Cassatt, Van Gogh and Gauguin. This represents a form of appreciation of their work, an d, indeed, Degas is known to have only collected the best works of each artist, often, as was the case with Cezanne, collecting their work before the artists had attracted a dealer, or had sold their work widely. His dedication to his work as a collector constitutes, in some form, hero worship, as one artist appreciating the heroic efforts of another artists to produce worthy art. Understanding representations of friends of Degas as heroes is therefore a valid way in which to understand Degas’ intense admiration for the work of his contemporaries. Under this understanding, for Degas, collecting and portrait painting was a form of hero worship. References Baumann, F.A. et al., 1995. Degas Portraits: Portraits. Merrell Holberton. Dumas, A., 2000. The Private Collection of Edgar Degas. Yale University Press. Degas, E., 2000. Degas by himself: Drawings, paintings and writings. Little, Brown. Ives, C., Stein, S.A. and Steiner, J.A. (eds.), 1998. The Private Collection of Edgar Degas: a summary catalogue. Harry N. Abrams Inc. Julius, M., 1996. Edgar Degas – obsessive artist, obsessive collector. Contemporary Review August, pp.13-14. Lipton, E., 1988. Looking into Degas: Uneasy Images of Women and Modern Life. Meyers, J., 2005. Impressionist Quartet: the intimate genius of Manet and Morisot, Degas and Cassatt. Harcourt. O’Brien, M. et al., 2005. Edgar Degas: Six Friends at Dieppe. Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design. Robins, A.G., 1988. Degas and Sickert: notes on their friendship. The Burlington Magazine 130(1020), pp.198+210-211+225-229. Robins, A.G. and Thomas, R., 2005. Degas, Sickert and Toulouse-Lautrec: London and Paris, 1870-1910. Tate Publishing. Sickert, W., 1917. Degas. The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs 31(176), pp.183-187+190-191. Vollard, A., 1986. Degas: an intimate portrait. Dover Publications. Footnotes [1] Nowhere is this better illustrated than in his extremely close relationship with Cassatt. He owned more than ninety of Cassatt’s prints, and aside from painting Cassatt’s portrait, he also produced a series of etchings entitled Mary Cassatt at the Louvre (see Julius, 1996).

Islamic Women :: essays research papers fc

Many times when feminists looked at Islamic women they criticized the man for not treating women properly. However, as Jane I. Smith states, women of Islam are not really offended by that fact, on the contrary, they believe that it is better for them. The Holy Koran is the basis for the Islamic believers. It has many interpretations, however there are certain facts that are sure to be clear as to the position of women in an Islamic society. Koran did introduce very significant changes as to treatment of women. Certain women did play powerful roles in societies. However, whatever the earlier realities for women in terms of marriage, divorce, and inheritance of property, it is clear that Islamic men believe that they are above woman. However, they are supposed to support them and make sure that they have everything that they need to help raise their children and praise the god. In Islam, marriage is not a sacrament, as it is in other religions. It is a contract that man and woman sign and in which the woman can clearly includes her own clauses and negotiate terms. It is rare however possible for a man to have more the one wife. However, when that happens the man is responsible for caring and supporting both of them. In order to marry another woman however, the man must have the permission of his first wife. Although Muslim women have had been married at extremely young age, this practice is related to the fact that father and other male relatives generally have chosen the grooms themselves. There are however some discrepancies. Islamic women are not treated equally in the face of the law. â€Å"Ones women statement in the court is equal to half of one man.† The same principle also applies to inheritance and other issues. The Koran states that the man, since he is supporting the woman, should receive twice as much of everything. Until recently education for women in the Muslim world has been minimal.

Nuclear Power - Whats missing from the debate? Essay -- Argumentative

Nuclear Power - What's missing from the debate? It is not generally a great idea to apologize for one's paper at the beginning, but the majority of this essay is going to include something which Swatties (or at least, I) have a great tendency to do - through attempting to think critically about issues, end up tearing apart the reasoning/argument of the author we don't think has thought everything through, or with whose opinion we do not agree (which, as some of us were informed by a professor of ours, is not very nice). However, I do think this is a worthwhile exercise, especially when dealing with a very real world problem/debate such as that surrounding nuclear power, as everyone can learn from the holes others see in one's argument. Hopefully, as well, you all will help to point out further discrepancies for me and refute my attacks on the author's behalf. In his essay Yes: Nuclear Power Is Safe, and We Need It, Jagger presents a litany of reasons for why nuclear power is safer than other energy-gathering technologies, why it is economically viable, why all of the fears surrounding its by-products are unfounded. He presents his case for nuclear power almost exclusively in relation to coal-burning energy, however. If nuclear power really will solve all the world's energy problems, including reducing the amount of air pollution released each year (which cuts down on respiratory disease, acid rain, ozone depletion, and the greenhouse effect), providing limitless energy to the world through the use of an infinite resource, and doing everything safely and at extremely low cost, why would one consider it in terms of purely the dirty, environmentally unfriendly, dangerous coal industry? Why not take on all possible energy te... .... It does not require an extreme view, but if one looks at the natural environment as being worthy of consideration, in addition to human life, one may find extremely compelling reasons for rejecting nuclear power on ethical grounds. This ethical rejection would be grounded firmly in reasoning and based on facts surrounding the debate, but would not accept the requisite disposal problems associated with nuclear power. I believe that this is the approach we have discussed in class on numerous occasions, and that Hans has been hoping we would adopt it as the way to defend ourselves and our environment. However, it requires critical thinking, constant questioning, a lot of refuting, and awareness of the (disappointing) potential for impurity in science. I hope we can work on developing these kind of ethical approaches to many of the problems we encounter in the future.

The Impressionist Movement :: essays research papers fc

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Impressionism was a movement that occurred in both art and poetry. It was a time in which the people broke from the traditional standards or styles. They wanted to bring new ways of expressing their ideas to their societies. These ideas were seen through subjects of interest, such as art and poetry. Claude Monet’s Woman with a Parasol: Madame Monet and Her Son and William Butler Yeats’s â€Å"The Wild Swans at Coole† both characterize important aspects of the Impressionist Age.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The word â€Å"impressionism† is mostly associated with the artistic movement. The first time this term was used with reference to art was when one writer was speaking of a painting by Claude Monet, called Impression: Sunrise (1872, Musee Marmottan, Paris). The term was first officially used in 1877 (â€Å"Impressionism†). The artists of this movement were characterized as impressionists because of their simplified works (â€Å"Monet, Claude Oscar†). They were part of a group in which the artists shared similar styles and techniques between 1867 and 1886. Some of the important artists were Monet, Renoir, Pisarro, Sisley, Morisot, as well as a few others (Pioch). Monet and Renoir both painted scenes of La Grenouillere. Their work signified the beginning of this new age of art (Mataev). The Impressionist Movement grew because these painters wanted a different style, a new technique, and paintings with more unique subjects. The popular paintings of the time were all approved by the Academie des Beaux Arts. The standard type of paintings that were most commonly approved included a scale of tones for forming shapes and blacks and browns for making shadows. These classical paintings were realistic, usually of scenes indoors. Impressionists turned from this traditional art and began to paint their subjects outside, using unarranged light. These paintings were more spur-of-the-moment type, and appeared less realistically (â€Å"Impressionism†). There are certain characteristics that set impressionist art apart from all other styles of art.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Impressionists, both in art and poetry, portrayed great images of their subjects by using their styles or techniques. They often captured scenes with vivid color, with great light effects, and with motion (Sporre 525). The impressionist painters tried to view their subjects not as what they really were, but as different areas of color, shapes and light. They commonly used quick, free brush strokes of non-detailed spots of color. This method created a lively appearance (Sporre 527). Impressionists did not mix their colors, as the earlier artists had done.

Fast food and health promotion Essay

Abstract Healthy eating is a major concern of the public and has been under-researched for decades. A successful healthy eating campaign can help to raise awareness and in the long run, prevent and minimize long-term diseases such as high blood pressure, heart disease and cancer. This can also reduce the burden on the National Health Service. For all of these reasons, this dissertation aims to determine what people eat, why they choose to eat the way they do and whether they feel the Government has done enough to promote healthy eating. Initially, this study examines the trends of contemporary food culture by sociologists and the marketing powers of promotion to increase student awareness on healthy eating. A discussion on Government policies indicates the efficacy of the Government to reach students with their healthy eating promotion in this country. This study uses qualitative research methods to determine the awareness of the students, on healthy eating and their opinions on the Government’s attempt to promote a healthy nation. Based on the data gathered in this research, an evaluation was made on whether healthy eating promotion is effective in today’s student society. In this study, student choices of food were shown to be primarily affected by price, taste and peer pressure. This is in contrast with the available literature which suggests that social class, culture, the food industries and Government campaigns are the main influences on people’s eating habits. Introduction This dissertation aims to understand how food is promoted and consumed by the public. Our choices of food are affected by many factors such as our social class, our culture, and the media and Government campaigns. Over the past thirty years a surge of interest has arisen and an increase in the consumption of fast food. However, more recently health concerns regarding fast food consumption has surfaced. Sociologists often seek explanations for human behavior and try to link this with the environment in which they live in. Similarly, sociologists such as Alan Warde have examined contemporary food culture and suggested reasons that influence people’s choice. Initially, changes in food consumption patterns and healthy eating promotions from different dimensions were examined. The  © 2006 The International Journal of Urban Labour and Leisure 1 dissertation then describes the interviews that were conducted with regards to healthy eating. Some key findings were revealed to support the sociological theories. Finally, the discussion sums up and reflects the findings in relation to these theories and see if there is any correlation between the two. This research was undertaken at a University and based on ten one-to-one interviews. It is important to examine whether we are eating healthily. Food is the basic necessity in life humans consume daily. In this dissertation I want to explore student’s knowledge on healthy eating and whether the Government is doing enough to promote a healthier nation. Sociological Promotion. Perspectives on Food Consumption and Healthy Eating Current Trends in Food Consumption Food consumption relates to the substances that are taken in to produce energy, stimulate growth and maintain life. It consists of essential body nutrients, such as carbohydrates, proteins, fats and vitamins or minerals. Healthy food is considered to be highly beneficial to health, especially a food grown organically or free of additives. Food consumption has tilted towards fast food culture over the past few decades due to its price, convenience and the shortage of eating time. In this section, general consumption trends will be studied and the change of consumer culture over time will be discussed. Sociologists like Bourdieu and Bauman have written literature and devised their own theories on the consumption of food. Many of them believe that this is a structureagency debate. In other words, how social structure shapes our actions and how we, in turn, shape the social structure (Germov, 1999:302). One of the examples given by Pierre Bourdieu is that the way we consume food reflected our social class and background (Warde, 1997:9). He argued that consumption is based upon cultural upbringing and is therefore socially embedded. Bauman, on the other hand, saw consumption as â€Å"less restricted† rather than another part of life (Warde, 1997:10). In reality, Bauman claimed that there is a small role for choices, for example, we cannot choose to be born into which family, but within consumption, we have more power to alter our choices. Bauman believed that individuals are thought to gradually detach themselves from the social regulations and create their own personal identity by making their own choices. These two theories differ in relation to social environment and habits, to freedom of choice on the consumption of food. Bourdieu’s theory is more commonly practiced in modern society as different social classes dominate our choice of food. The working class tends to eat food which has a â€Å"high amount of animal fat†, compared with the middle and upper classes (Mennell, 1992:54). Besides, people from poorer backgrounds may understand that fresh food is healthier; however, they could not afford to travel further to purchase fresh food (Whelan, 2002: 2083). Therefore they tended to purchase cheap quality food with a high fat content, from nearby shops.  © 2006 The International Journal of Urban Labour and Leisure 2 There have been rapid changes in food consumption over the past few decades. Alan Warde, in his book, Consumption, Food & Taste suggested four theses for the changes in eating habits. Firstly, people have more freedom on the choice of food, but are uncertain of what to eat. In modern society, we have a wider range of food available to us. As technology is constantly improving, we are no longer restricted by the seasons and harvests, which had affected people previously (Beardworth, 2000:33). However, Claude Fischler saw this as an â€Å"omnivore’s paradox† (Warde, 1997:30). Human beings want a variety to choose from; however, they feel anxious and unsure about trying new foodstuffs. This can be further explained by the changing concept of food poverty. In the past, food poverty was referred to as â€Å"lack of food, under- nutrition† (Adams, 2000:48). In the contemporary society, food poverty means â€Å"overabundance of processed foods, lack of balance diet† (Adams, 2000:48). Before, we experienced under nutrition, and now, we suffer from an unbalanced diet. Although we may have more food than before, we do not know what to choose. This reflects the lack of education in healthy eating. The second thesis suggested that in a mass producing society, people would consume similar products and gradually lose their identities. Individual producers tend to dominate particular industrial markets, for example big brands like McDonald’s and Coca-Cola target customers en mass. Mass food production can be explained by ‘McDonaldisation’, where customers experience the â€Å"same look, same service, same products and same taste† (Germov, 1999:12). This thesis is supported by a report by the Financial Times Exporter in 1995 (Adams, 2002:47). In the report, sixty-five percent of people in China recognized the brand name Coca Cola and nearly half of the people knew big brands like Pepsi. This concluded that large corporations ‘mould’ our taste and have great control over our choice of food. One may argue that supermarkets bring a wider selection to people. In fact, some of the varieties are created by developing alternative forms of packaging and storing methods, such as canned fish, frozen fish and fresh fish (Warde, 1997:167). Therefore, we will enjoy many versions of the same products. In a broader view of the food industry, the five largest supermarkets in the UK, dominates seventy percent of the grocery market. (Adams, 2002:47) This large market share led to the closure of many local stores. Single mothers or elderly people who live in rural areas will suffer a further limitation of food due to the restriction on mobility and financial support (Whelan, 2002:2083). Since mass production has moulded our tastes and choices, consumers start losing their personal taste and identities. To react against this passive consuming pattern, people are driven towards the post-Fordist view on consumption, which is the main focus of the third thesis. In the post-Fordist world, all commodities are expected to be more consumer-orientated. As the consumer’s expenditure increases, they expect the quality of food to be higher. People require greater differentiation of the commodities in different markets. For example, McDonalds serves a different menu across the world to accommodate differing cultures with distinct tastes. This is illustrated by McDonald franchises in Germany, whom also serve beer as refreshment. Customers hope to buy food that serves their interests and their local traditions. Businesses increase their profits and the consuming power; by produce the right products for the targeted consumers. A more suitable product for the customers, equates to more purchases which in turn equates to more income.  © 2006 The International Journal of Urban Labour and Leisure 3. The final thesis describes the persistence of social differentiation. Warde uses Bourdieu’s theory to prove that food consumption is a â€Å"means of expressing ‘distinction’† and has social meanings behind it. For example, class differences play a role in dictating eating habits. In this way, food consumption has more social meanings than a consume-to-survive model. In comparing the eating behaviour of manual workers and white collar workers, Bourdieu observed that clerical staff paid more attention to body maintenance and slimness whilst manual workers, paid limited attention to their waistline. This observation is seen in France. In Britain, Warde suggested that class distinction in relation to food has been more obvious in recent decades. Finkelstein supports this idea by saying that â€Å"dinning out is an expression of individuality, choice, spontaneity and that we select restaurants for food and price in ways which demonstrate our discrimination and what we value and desire† (Beardsworth, 1997:119). The interest of the media, increasing eating-out habits and foreign cuisines are becoming more common, food consumption has made a significant distinction between classes. There is a clear line between the richer and the poorer, and who can afford to taste different types of food. These theses have helped us to understand the reasons behind changes in food consumption. Fast food outlets are one of the popular choices for dinning out and have had a big impact on our food consumption. In the following paragraph, the significant effects that fast food has on our choices of diet will be examined. A Fast Food Nation? Fast food culture has penetrated into our lives and influenced our eating habits. The fast food industry grew fast in the 1990s. In 1991, fast food had reached nineteen percent of the global consumer catering market (Tansey, 1995: 133). From 1992 to 2003, expenditure spent on eating and drinking outside home has increased by 89. 9 per cent. (Website 1) These food shops provide roast chicken, pizza, etc. However, there is a limited choice of food and most of them have a high fat content (Millstein, 1993: 220). Excessive consumption predisposes individuals to a great deal of health problems in later life. Foods high in fats can cause high blood pressures, cancer, atherosclerosis and heart disease. In recent years, the increase in consciousness of healthy eating has forced the fast food chains to change their menu in order to survive. For example, McDonalds now offers a new menu which includes green salad, carrot sticks and a fresh fruit pack. This was done in response to public concern about the nutritional values of its food, following the film â€Å"Supersize Me†. This programme follows Morgan Spurlock who lived on nothing but McDonalds for an entire month. Spurlock risked his health the sake of this project and it resulted in numerous visits to the doctor. (Website 2) Increasingly, fast food chains have started to advertise with the concept of â€Å"light or low fat† meals. As a customer, we are often misled by these statements and believe that the â€Å"low fat† meal is a healthier option. The Times Newspaper compared the fat content and the price of a standard burger with a chicken caesar salad. (Website 3) With regards to the price, the salad costs twenty nine pence more than a Big Mac. Data shows that a chicken salad with dressing and croutons contains 21. 4g of fat, whereas a standard burger only contains 7. 7g of fat. Even adding a portion of chips to the burger will result in a smaller amount of fat (16. 7g) than the salad. (Website 3) One may think that the salad dressing causes the high fat content of the salad; however, this is not true.  © 2006 The International Journal of Urban Labour and Leisure 4 From the McDonalds website, a chicken caesar salad without a dressing still contains more fat than a burger. (Website 4) Another shocking data is the salt content of the crispy chicken ranch salad is more than half of the Government’s recommended daily allowance of 6g. (Website 4) Therefore, the salad which seems like a healthier option to the consumer is in fact more expensive and less healthy than a burger. Other than fast food chains, consumers can purchase fast food from the supermarkets. Ready meals, frozen or canned food can be categorized as fast food (Millstone, 2003: 94). With the invention of the microwave, ready meal culture has been further developed. There was a rapid increase in the sale of microwaves from five million in 1981 to seventy million in 2000 (Milldstone, 2003: 94). Microwaves enable food to be ready within minutes whereas it may take at least half an hour to cook a meal using the oven. In 1997, an Australian newspaper demonstrated how different social classes chose different fast foods (Germov, 1999: 137). Wealthier and well educated people believed that choosing takeaway foods such as Thai and Japanese are higher in nutrition (Germov, 1999: 137). On the other hand, people in the lower socioeconomic state tended to consume food with a high fat and salt content, for example, pizzas and burgers. Therefore, we could find â€Å"nutritional underclass† with distinct eating patterns (Germov, 1999: 137). Nutritional underclass refers to the difficulty of lower socioeconomic groups in making choices about food and diet. This is turn leads to a poor nutritional intake. By comparing different consumption patterns of takeaway food between people in different classes, two features have been developed. Firstly, fast food is consumed and well developed in all classes but wealthier people tend to have more choices available to them. Besides, most fast food does not provide the consumer with balanced nutritional values that we need from a meal. That is a reason why the public label fast food as unhealthy food. Our food consumption patterns are affected by different media in our society. These are a powerful way of educating the public with the knowledge of what is healthy to eat and how to eat healthy. The following paragraphs examine the effectiveness of the healthy eating promotions. Health Promotion (By Government, Media, Food Industries). Different groups have tried to promote healthy eating in their own distinct ways. Several groups take control over our choices of food and actively promote healthy eating. These include: the Government departments, the food industries and the media. The progress and the effectiveness of the healthy eating promotion campaigns within these sectors will now be examined. The Governments the dominant enforcement body has introduced many healthy eating promotion initiatives to push the nation to eat more healthily. Its aim is to enforce regulations on food production in a bid to prevent illness (Mennell, 1992:40), so as to reduce the costs and burden on National Health Service. The Government has come a long way on the healthy eating campaign. The emergence that some of  © 2006 The International Journal of Urban Labour and Leisure 5 our diets are responsible for certain diseases such as cancer, new food policies were created to improve and promote healthy eating (Baggott 2000,168). From the early 1970s onwards, the Government became more aware of the public’s diet and set up several organizations such as the Committee on the Medical Aspects of Food and Policy (COMA), the National Advisory Committee on Nutrition Education (NACNE) and the Joint Advisory Committee on Nutrition Education. (Baggott, 2000:136) Their mission was to provide nutritional advice to the public and promote healthy eating. (Beardsworth, 2000:136) However, the Government departments’ interference with the work of these organisations resulted in little success being achieved (Baggott 2000:170). With the increasing public interest in health and food safety in the 1990s, the Labour Government introduced tougher policies on food and health when they came to power in 1997 (Baggott, 2000:175). The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has been authorized a new set of powers to give nutrition guidelines and labelling advice. The FSA recommended six grams of salt per day and wanted to introduce the â€Å"colourcoded system† on ready-made foods, so customers could identify the fat, salt and sugar content of the food by the labels. The FSA believes that specific seasoning contained within the food, will determine whether it is healthy or not. Food with a low salt, fat and sugar content is considered to be healthy by the FSA. (Website 5) The colour-coded system will show consistency for all food packaging; therefore, it is easier for everyone, including children, to recognize the foods which are considered to be healthy and also reduces any confusion. In February 2004, the National Health Service (NHS) published a free booklet called â€Å"Five a Day Made Easy† to promote a healthier lifestyle. (Website 1) It believes that eating five portions of fruit or vegetable per day, is eating healthily. Therefore, the Government considers fruit and vegetables as the key element of healthy food. In November 2004, the FSA put forward the ‘traffic light labels’ to the Public Health White Paper. (Website 7) However, there are a lot of pressures around this recommendation. The food and farming industries were worried that full labelling indicating the fat, sugar and salt content will increase their cost and cause restriction on their marketing strategies. (Baggott 2000:171) Moreover, the Food and Drink Federation (FDF) who is the largest representative of the food and drink manufacturing companies pointed out that the ‘traffic light labels’ are too â€Å"simplistic, subjective and potentially misleading†. (Website 8) Rather than help consumers fit the labelled food into a balanced diet, it is likely that they will simply view the food as good or dismiss it as bad. There are pressures that prohibit the Government from implying more regulation on food labels. Since the closure of food industries do not simply lead to less food choices, but also a great deal of job losses and plunging of the economy, the Government is required to think carefully about the implications of new regulations and whether the new comprehensive food label would working on not. The media also plays an important role in promoting healthy eating concepts. The term media refers to television, radio, poster advertisements, and newspaper and magazine articles. With the media’s wide spread of power, the issues they brought up helped to give information on diets quickly. However, it is debatable whether all the media are impartial and helpful in improving our diets. Since most of the media  © 2006 The International Journal of Urban Labour and Leisure 6 relied on the advertising revenues to survive, concerns are made to the effect of their advertisers (Tansey, 1995:183). In the advertising aspect, American children watch 20,000 commercials a year where at least 10,000 of them are food products. (Millstein 1993:219) In Britain, food industries have spent forty billion every year on advertising (Millstone, 2003: 98). Food advertisements are wide spread on television, magazines, radio, internet and posters on the street. Most of the advertised products are branded and processed. More importantly, compared with the perishable food, they are high in sugars, refined starches, fats and added salt (Millstone, 2003:98). These advertisements persuade consumers to buy more. Food products such as chocolates and crisps are promoted to the teenage market (Conner, 2002:120). Children consume the confectionaries between meal times which lead them to miss out their meals, consequently, not acquiring enough nutrition (Dobson, 1994:19). The effects of advertisements are powerful, but not always helping to promote healthy eating ideas. Media can be a direct tool to help the public understand the scientific reports and learn about food safety and what is healthy to eat. However, sometimes the headlines of the news reports are misleading and exaggerated. One of examples is the headline from New York Times â€Å"Low fat diet does not cut health risks†, where that heading is referring to a study of women aged fifty to seventy-nine years old with respect to breast cancer research (Newsweek, March 2006). People who do not read the details will presume that low fat diet is useless in maintaining health, whereas if you read the whole article one will find out that low fat diet does not reduce your risk of breast cancer. The media penetrates every household and although it might not always guide the public on healthy foods, they are definitely helping to shape the future food consumption patterns. Food industries and the retailers produce and sell the food. Food industries promote their products in a healthy manner only because of the market’s need. The major concern of a food business is to make profit. There is a limit on how much a person can eat and consume, therefore the overall demand for food will not increase much. However, the food industries can further expand their market and make more profit by adding value to fresh food and turning them into commodity goods such as canned food, frozen food etc (Warde, 1997:191). Food processors have a set of ingredients to ‘add-value’, they are sugar, starch, fat and flavourings (Tansey, 1995:111). Consequently, processed food is not as healthy as raw food. In order to fulfil the customers’ health desires, supermarkets use healthy eating as one of their promotional strategies. Tesco has improved their company image by initiating healthy eating and has launched food labels on its retail products (Murcott, 1998:119). Although its original aim was to increase profit, it did arouse people’s attentions to eat healthier. On one hand, the supermarkets are promoting healthy eating; on the other hand, they develop all sort of processed food such as chilled and ready meals at the same time to exploit another market. Most supermarkets have developed their own branded products. This is to enlarge their market share rather than providing customers with a wider choice. One of the examples is chilled ready-meals where this kind of product was completely new in 1980s (Murcott, 1998:119). Marks and Spencer, as a pioneer, developed this market. By the 1990s, this market was worth over three hundred million pounds per annum  © 2006 The International Journal of Urban Labour and Leisure 7 (Murcott, 1998:119). These ready-meals are one of the processed foods with added salt and sugar. With confusing food labels on the packaging, consumers can hardly calculate how much salt they consume. Since the central aim of food manufacturers and retailers are to make profit, their intention to promote healthy eating is not convincing enough. There is still a baffling question of what to eat is value for money and good for health (Jenkins, 1991: 54). Do We Have a Choice to Eat Healthy? Although we are responsible for looking after our own health, the public, private and voluntary sectors have directed our choice of food. Our choices of food are affected by social, cultural and political factors rather than individuals’ preference. Social factors included class, age, family backgrounds considerations. The direct social-economical restriction of our choice of food is the amount of money we have available to spend on food. Jenkins supports this idea by noting that â€Å"knowledge is a source of consumer power, but only when you have got money to spend† (Jenkins, 1991:72). Our choices of food are based on the amount of wealth. He pointed out that poorer people tended to pay more for food. This is not only due to the limitation of transport, but due to the amount of product they could afford to buy (Jenkins, 1991: 74). Small purchases are more expensive compare with bulk sales. Poor people suffer from the consequences of supermarket sale strategy. For example, the price for two packs of chicken thighs is 148 pence per pound, whilst the price for eight packs of chicken thighs is 135 pence per pound (Jenkins, 1991:73). Customers will get a better deal if they buy products in bulk. This illustrates that poor people know how to eat healthily, but they cannot afford to do so. Other than getting food that is not value for money, poor people suffer the fact that they know what is good for them but cannot afford to purchase it. For poor people, food expenditure is elastic and paying for other bills to maintain the living is more important (Murcott, 1998:177). Cutting the food budget is the most direct way to save money. Therefore, even though parents know that fresh juice is more nutritional than squash, they can do nothing about it. At the end of the day, even if the government has successfully promoted the healthy eating concept to the public, certain people still do not eat healthily due to the financial constraints. Different age groups have various food consumption patterns. The elderly prefer to stick with the traditional food for instance roast meat, whereas young people adopt new things such as rice or curries easily (Murcott, 1998:175). There is a rapid development of convenience food, but it does not necessarily mean that people in all age groups enjoy more choices to eat healthy. The elderly is an example that demonstrates a negative perception on fast food and ready-meals and they believe that home-cooked food is healthier. Therefore, a larger range of processed products do not mean a greater choice of food for everyone. Our eating habits are also constructed by the environment in which we grow up. Therefore, our families have a direct effect on our diet. A research was carried out in the early 1980s, on all major aspects of family food provision and consumption (Rodmell, 1986:73). This study found that the role of the housewife did not  © 2006 The International Journal of Urban Labour and Leisure 8 automatically give you the power to make a decision of what to prepare for meals. Surprisingly, most housewives claimed that they would cook whatever their husbands liked, in order to please them. Some wives claimed that even though they did not like the unhealthy diets, they would still cook it for their husbands to reward them for a long working day. As a child, there was less choice; they had to eat what was given to them. As a result, our tastes of food are customized by the working men. Recently, with the increasing number of single parent households, where many of them are either unemployed or earn a small amount of money, the choice of food remains to the individuals who purchase food for the rest of the family. Cultural differences affect our choices of food and whether we know how to eat healthily with our ethnicity backgrounds and traditions. There is a diversity of health implications and how people define healthy choices among different cultures. People have their own traditions in choosing and cooking food. ‘One size fits all’ health education programmes do not fit all the ethnics. One of the examples is that in Chinese traditions, food is divided in to ‘yang’ (hot) and ‘yin’ (cold), where eating yang food when our body is in yin’s condition and vice versa (Germov, 1999:150). Therefore, the health professionals have to study the background of minority groups and teach them to eat healthily without spoiling their culture. To familiarise the ethnic minority groups with the nutrient value, specialists about particular cultures are required to educate the minority group with healthy eating knowledge. There have been a few changes in food labelling policy, but these regulations have never requested manufacturers to provide a comprehensive nutrition label. As a customer, we have the right to know what kind of ingredients are in the processed food that we are consuming. However, food industries remain powerful and can keep the customers in ignorance. The Health Education Authority performed a survey with regards to food labels in the early 1990s (Hea, 1996:19). In this survey, twenty five percent of the informants have never read the nutritional information on food packages. This shows that the food label is important in directing food choices, as three quarters of those questioned follow guidance from the nutritional advice. Therefore, providing a comprehensive label on food packaging is essential. In recent years, a great deal of new products has had dishonest slogans on them, such as â€Å"low fat†, â€Å"freshly squeezed†, and â€Å"no artificial additives† (Jenkins, 1991:43). For example, olestra is a type of oil used to produce ‘low fat’ products. However, it brings significant side effects such as abdominal cramps when we consume it in large amounts (Germov, 1999:303). As a customer, reading the food label is not sufficient to conclude whether a particular product is healthy or not, we have to under the meaning behind these â€Å"low fat† products. In a food market where food labels are not universal and some of the packaging is misleading, there is no way to ensure that the product we choose is healthy. Knowing what is healthy is not good enough for the contemporary food market, consumers also have to learn and understanding the meanings behind the food labels. Therefore, understanding how to eat healthily is important, but regulations on food labels are also essential.  © 2006 The International Journal of Urban Labour and Leisure 9 Methodology. Research Aim There are a few aims for this research. This study aims to explore perceptions on the healthy eating concept and review the reasons behind people’s choice of food. Furthermore, it seeks to examine awareness of Government policies on healthy eating promotion. It is also important to examine the reliability of food labels and the popularity of fast food culture. Semi-structured Interviews. It is important to see if there is a correlation between the literatures in chapter one and the research I do, therefore, selecting an appropriate way to carry out this research is essential. Semi-structured interviews were held on a one-to-one basis where interviewees were given a few topics to discuss. This interview consisted of three main parts. Part A is concerned about the interviewees’ healthy eating concepts and their view of contemporary eating culture. By understanding how they defined a healthy diet, participants were asked to review their food consumption habits, restrictions on food shopping and their opinion on fast food culture. In the final of the interview, I enquired about their knowledge on Government policies and supermarket promotions on healthy eating. This research aimed to understand people’s view and opinion rather than to test their knowledge and numerical data. Therefore, it is more suitable to use a qualitative approach. Qualitative research helps to develop interviewees’ personal opinions and experiences for this research. The research is based on one-to-one semi structured interviews, which allows me to have more freedom in developing the interview and pursue further questions in response to the replies received (Bryman, 2004:543). Each interview lasted approximately an hour in order to allow interviewees to express themselves fully. In order not to interfere with the interview, I did not express my opinions on the topics. I guided the discussions with the same topic questions for everyone.