Savings and Weath in Old Age Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Savings and Weath in Old Age - Essay Example The government is responsible in setting up policies that will help individual to accumulate resources that will aid them when they reach the retirement age or old age. For this reason one finds pension policies, taxation policies, housing policies and policies that govern homes where the old can live. The economy of America depends on the saving behavior of the people. To come up with this kind of behavior, one has to look at the patterns at which people are saving or view savings. Patterns of saving reveal the economic conditions of a country. High savings mean that individuals have high disposable income thus their living standards are better (Graham et. al., 2003). The saving rates of Americans have lately decreased to 5.3% from 7.6% annually. This is because very many Americans have a problem with household debt which has been on the increase. This is because Americans are spending more money in purchasing things that are essential for their existence. There is the problem of the wealth effect where the more an individual owns the more he or she needs to pay for it. The taxation policy really discourages savings and thus when such a wealthy person gets old; they have nothing to spend because he or she spent it securing the wealth. This reduces the accumulation of wealth for usage during the old age (Graham et. al., 2003). For the past ten years, there has been a great... People can quickly acquire liquid cash easily than before. This is increasing the inflation rate thus making things become more expensive and savings reducing completely. When one spends time purchasing goods and services for the use of that particular time, then it means that they have no more cash to keep for later use or for emergencies. Thus wealth is not accumulated and its abundance is a long gone story. This is a negative impact to the people because they have nothing to sustain them when they reach old age (Paul M. et al., 1996). Since the government sets the particular policies that affect the savings behavior of the people, it has the responsibility of coming up with public policies that will increase national savings. These can only be done by making good public policies. It can first of all make contractionary monetary policies to control the circulation of liquid cash within the economy. This will reduce the amount of liquid cash that is circulating within the economy. The action will reduce inflation by making money become scarce to the people. Thus expenditure in goods and services will reduce prompting people to save more (Paul M. et al., 1996). Savings can not be done by the government alone. Americans need to balance their purchase of things to enable them to save for their future which is mostly old age. These can be done through campaigns that are being used to educate individuals against high rates of purchasing. They need to learn to purchase the most important things and leave out those that are less important (Paul M. et al., 1996). The taxation policy by the government is a complete discouragement to saving by

Groups in High School Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Groups in High School - Essay Example The gentlemen ask questions but only when necessary. They ask questions solely to clarify their concept. Whether or not the class pays attention to their question does not matter to them. All they want is clear concept from the teacher. They don’t tend to become prominent through speaking in the class or acting in the ways that are expected of the capable children. They are quite likely to be seen in spectacles. Most of them lose their eye-sight as a consequence of their obsession with studies. The gentlemen assume a higher status amongst the class fellows. They are idealized by the regulars and envied by the back benchers. The Regulars The regulars are seated in between the gentlemen and the back benchers. They make a bulk of the class and are the main source of income for the schools. They are the question raisers. They raise questions not because they are quite as interested in the lecture, but because they want to make their presence felt. Quite often, the regulars establi sh a gentleman as a benchmark and commit to themselves that they would beat that particular gentleman in the upcoming exam. Sometimes, the regular works hard enough to achieve this goal and thus, be promoted from the status of a regular to a gentleman. The regulars are generally quite vocal about their ambitions and challenges. If one regular establishes a gentleman as a benchmark, his friends would most likely know it. The regulars are all-rounders. They are not bad at studies but also not very good either. They have a wide array of topics to discuss with their friends on everyday basis. They are the first to know which movie is expected to release when and how much business would it do. They know what is going on in the national and international political scenario. In other words, their attention is diverted to so many areas at the same time that they are not able to do as good in studies as they are capable of doing. In a vast majority of cases, the regulars are more brilliant t han the gentleman, but they cannot help paying attention to activities other than studies. If they focus entirely upon their studies, they can do much better than most gentlemen. Many regulars are in this community because of their laziness. If they overcome their laziness, they are quite capable of becoming the gentlemen. The Back Benchers The back benchers are just as many as the gentlemen in the class. They occupy the rear-most seats in the class and are least enthusiastic about studies. They come to class just for the attendance. They bunk the classes yet make sure that they attend the classes just enough to have their case forwarded to the board for enrollment in the exam. The back benchers come into the classroom with earphones plugged in. They listen to the songs on MP3 while the lecture is on. Some of them sleep with their heads down on the table. They are artists. Most of them sleep in a way that you cannot catch them from a distance. They hold the book high in the hands to hide the face behind that. Somebody from a distance can take a back bencher for a gentleman. They are mostly found in the cafeteria with a cup of tea in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Their most favorite topic of discussion is girls. One back bencher consults the other for ways to make friends with girls. They discuss how they spent the weekend and the plans for the upcoming weekend. The back benchers

Laws and policies affect family life Essay Example for Free

Laws and policies affect family life Essay â€Å"Examine the ways in which laws and social policies affect family life† To start with a social policy is an initiative or plan that the government would put in place to try and fix a problem or to make a positive change in society. Various political and social groups have different opinions on social policies, for example in the UK conservatives are very right wing and as of the moment Mr Osborne is proposing to save  £10billion by making cuts across the board in its welfare fund. The Labour party however would be unlikely to make such drastic cuts if they were in office. This essay will explore marriage and divorce, the welfare state and domestic abuse policies. Marriage affect many families, the government has a number of laws to control people behaviour inside marriages for example marriages must be monogamous (You can only be married to one person at a time) Governments tend to encourage marriage as they believe the nuclear family is the ideal environment to bring up children, couples receive tax credits and other benefits this also discourages divorce, Marxists would believe that this is the governments way of supporting capitalism, by encouraging people to marry it means they remain a productive asset that they can continue to exploit. The new right would agree that the nuclear family is the best place to bring up a family but would not want to give tax credits or any other financial encouragement as they believe that its best to keep out of peoples affairs. Feminists would feel this is another way of oppressing women, by using financial means to discourage divorce the women may feel as though they are trapped in the relationship especially if they have to support outside the family. Divorces where first made legal in 1857 although at that time they where incredible hard to get however changes in divorce laws in the late 1960s made divorces much easier and since then divorce rates have been steeply rising. Functionalists and the New Right think that divorce is a bad thing and believe once there is marriage between two people this marriage should be permanent. Both perspectives see males and females as having different roles in the family, the male – earns the wages and the woman – Cares for and brings up the children on top of the housework whilst the man is working. These perspectives, believe that this is the right way for the family to be and that single parent families are wrong because they have not got one of the parental figures around, they feel single parent families are wrong because they lack the support you get from having 2 adults. Feminists  would disagree with this view and would say that women are exploited by men, both in the workforce and at home, and seen as figures in relationships who are there to please men’s needs after being at work. Marxist Engels states â€Å"The housewifes position is one of glorified prostitution Engels (1902)† Feminists see this as one explanation to the dramatic increases of divorce, they say women don’t want to be in a relationship where they are exploited. Feminists also believe that the government offer benefits that are not available to different types of couples such as cohabiting couples; they see this as the government’s way of encouraging marriage and discourage any other ways of living they feel this is causing less people to have a divorce even though they may not be happy. Welfare state, the welfare state is the system where benefits are given to those who are entitled or qualify for them, for example the job seekers allowance where the government gives you money if you are searching for a job. Marxists see this as supporting capitalism because if the proletariat are working for the bourgeoisie they are being actively exploited by being grossly underpaid for the services. This happens because the Bourgeoisie own the means of work. The welfare state appease the poor and makes the Proletariat feel as though they are being well treated but its just a smoke screen to stop them seeing the bigger picture, Its a tool used by the government to prevent class consciousness and revolution. The new right disagrees with this view and in fact sees it a weakening the family because they feel the families become over reliant on the generous benefits the welfare state grants them new labour although it has similar views as new right feels that the welfare system is a good way to support and encourage young people to work. Feminists have the independent view that the benefit system only supports the patriarchal nuclear family and neglects all other forms of family. When men get benefits they feel this weakens the women’s position because the man is in control of his wages and the benefit. However feminists also feel the benefits women do get â€Å"more maternity leave† and â€Å"control of child benefits† are trying to cement the view that women should be staying at home and looking after the children. The government has laws that are designed to protect all members of the family from domestic abuse, this is achieved by social services taking children out of dangerous families or the police will remove the violent family members, there are also various programmes and  counselling available to try and fix family problems to maintain stable family life. It is hard to depict how successful theses measures are as many domestic abuse cases go unreported due to fear, embarrassment and love. So even though the government provides services such as counselling and social services its unlikely we will ever know the true extent of domestic abuse because we don’t know what goes on behind closed doors. Liberal Feminists would believe that the safeguards put in place are a step forward to protecting women however Radical feminists would feel that it was not enough and moor should be done to help protect women. Marxists are not opposed to sanctions put in place to help protect the family. To conclude i would say social policies effect families in positive and negative ways, while the new right believe that social policies should favour the nuclear families while feminists and Marxists feel that the government need to recognize other family types such as cohabiting couples and gay couples and make laws which benefit them.

Personal Leadership and Career: Becoming a Total Leader

Personal Leadership and Career: Becoming a Total Leader Some people are born leaders and some people become leaders by learning to lead. Learning to lead helps you to understand leadership, develop leadership ability and grow as a leader (Adair J, 1988.). This report describes my personal and professional leadership development. First section focuses on critical review of the article to become a Total Leader. Second section reflects on my 360-degree feedback and third section summarises what experiments I undertook to develop my understanding of leadership and career related competencies during October 09 to March 10. 1. LITERATURE REVIEW Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life Article by Stewart D. Friedman Stewart Friedman is a professor of management at the University of Pennsylvanias Wharton School of Business. He runs a programme called Total Leadership at the Wharton Business School, at companies and workshops around the word. Essence of Be a Better Leader, Have a Richer Life article revolves around his idea of Total Leadership. It is all about being a good leader by developing the power to understand and manage yourself better. Friedman emphasises that integrating work, home, community and self, will make you a whole person and a better leader. The article begins by presenting a case behind the total leadership concept. The author states that his research and experience over the past two decades has found that many executives feel unfulfilled because they are focusing more on work aspect and less on other aspects of their lives. Friedman emphasises that it is possible to achieve excellent performance in all four domains of life work, home, community and self, and refuses to believe that we need to trade off one domain of life for the betterment of other, which is the main idea behind his Total Leadership programme. The article then starts building upon how people can improve their performance in multiple domains of their lives through simple but thought-provoking experiments. Friedman then tries to convince the readers by presenting the strong evidence of his study of more than 300 business professionals over the period of four months. His evidence shows that, the total leadership approach has increased the satisfaction of professionals in their work lives, home lives and in their community lives. In addition, the most significant satisfaction for the professionals comes in the area of themselves their physical and emotional health and their intellectual and spiritual growth. The author explains that authenticity, integrity and creativity are the three main attributes of the Total Leadership process. The process starts by indentifying our own core values, vision and important people in our life. Once we have a complete picture of what we want to achieve in our life, we begin to see new ways of achieving our goals. Friedman asks professionals to think about various possibilities/combination of various components through nine types of Total Leadership experiments. He encourages readers to design and test experiments that will create meaningful and sustainable change that benefits themselves and important people around them. He urges the reader to take the notion of innovation through experimentation beyond the work role to other aspects of their life. He encourages leader to start small experiments and emphasises that small steps lead to a big win. Friedman also gives examples of measuring progress of various experiments. He points out importance of setting practical ways to measure outcomes. The experiments and follow-up reflections help readers learn to focus more on the things that matter to them and the people around them. He concludes that total leadership approach helps people to generate more support and feel more connected to the important people in their life. It helps people to become more resilient in response to the impulse of our turbulent world. It gives readers a blueprint of how to be real, be whole, and be innovative as a leader in all four parts of their life. As per Venables J. and my personal experience, in the UK, working late is a sign of dedication to the job and normal corporate culture. I have also seen my father worked extremely hard throughout his life to achieve his goals. Therefore, I was particularly drawn to this article and the subject of being successful leader while maintaining your personal life. The article takes a positive approach towards becoming a successful leader. The authors central concept is about identifying our inner values and using those values to improve our leadership in four areas. Authors key remark is, to be a leader one must be whole and balance in all aspects of life work, home, community and self. The concept of whole person as good leader in this article is similar to the view of Bartolome F. add Evans P. in the Harvard business review book Executive success, that executives who are able to maintain balance in their private and professional life are able to do things better than the other executives, but different to the point of view of John Adairs situational leadership. This article gives importance to the key stakeholders in work as well as all aspects of leaders life. This is very different to the view of article Leadership Lessons from India (Cappelli, P., et al., 2010), where the article mentions working with employees and focusing on their issues within the company and giving them importance rather than giving importance to the company shareholders only. The articles main strength is that it is very easy to follow and understand. It is a structured approach to produce measurable changes in our life. It takes readers through, various simple experiments and practical examples on how to be a successful leader in all domains of life. The examples and experiment suggested by the article are so simple that anyone can try them without being a subject expert. This article emphasis on developing leadership qualities based on authors holistic perspective. The only criticism I have about this article is in its approach. It provides broad sets of simple experiments to create a positive change around you. But in reality, situations are more complex. The article does not take account of any organisational factors. If it is that simple and easy to develop skills as suggested by the author, then everyone will be a good leader. Authors arguments have great deal to do with our understanding of leadership and careers because self concept is essential in understanding the leadership. As per one of the greatest leaders, Mahatma Gandhi Be the change that you want to see in the world. In other words, if you want to see change, you start with yourself. If you cannot do it, then how can you expect others to want the change? To lead others we must learn to lead ourselves and leadership starts from within. Power to see yourself brings with it a new depth of motivation and a sharper sense of direction. This article is really helpful for those who are trying to learn about becoming a better leader and interested in initiating a self-dialogue about professional and personal values. It shows simple experiments about how to be a great leader not just at workplace but also at home, in the community and above all being yourself and become a whole human. Total Leadership is a sensible and practical approach about finding out what makes you a great leader. I favour authors notation that an effective human being is a better leader. Inspired by this, I designed an experiment of doing yoga every morning with my wife to improve home and self aspects of my life. The results of the experiment were great and I noticed that I was feeling more energetic and happier in personal life, but I have not seen any changes in my leadership style at work and in community. As a result of this, I am encouraged to design some more experiments to improve my performance in work and community domains. There are no rules for leadership, but there are certain skills that every good leader should have. It is important to see different authors approach to develop your leadership skills and this article definitely gives different perspective to it. 2. CRITICAL REFLECTION ON MY 360-DEGREE FEEDBACK 2.1 Competing Value Framework From my Competing Value Framework feedback in October 2009 I learnt that, out of 12 managerial and leadership competences my scored average on 5 competences, good on 2 competences and very good 5 competences as shown in Appendix iii. I learnt that I need to develop my following leadership/managerial skills: Emphasizing speed, Initiating significant change at my work place Controlling my projects well Inspiring people and Clarifying policies I started focusing my efforts to develop my leadership skills in the areas mentioned above and by January 2010, I could see that perception of my leadership quality was improved as a result of my efforts. I always encourage my colleagues to develop their career by supporting them in their daily activities. I learnt that not all people share my view of working in a team, improves performance. I felt that some people in the team would like to work on their own, as they had their own views and ideas. I was willing to leave them in peace as far as they are doing the right thing for them and for the company. Therefore I decided to take a step back and not to interfere, but always checked the quality of work they produced. Over the past few months I have trained myself hard to work faster through various technical trainings. And I can now produce good quality work with greater speed than I was expecting before four months. I still think that there is no alternative to hard work. All this views are reflected in my 2010 feedback. I am now making sure that everyone who is involved with the task is fully aware of formal guidelines and what they are doing and have a clear understanding of company procedures and policies. I now do regular team meetings and try to keep close eye on how the project is going and keep them under control. I have also suggested new ways of doing traditional things by introducing latest software which will enhance employees performance and will also benefit the project by faster outcomes and achieving the deadline more promptly. I also attend client meetings with my seniors and try to understand what they expect from us at the end of the project and what we need to do emphasis more on to win the future projects. I have made some small changes in my team and group which will enhance the performance and quality of the outcome. According to my Competing Values Framework Feedback report in Appendix iii, my peers and colleagues also have similar views about myself in areas of Control, Performance and Creativity. Their views differ from my views to some extent in the category of Collaborativenes. They think I am not encouraging people to have work- life balance, but expect from everyone to work hard to create quality work. They feel that I am not making sure that everyone has a career development plan and not handling their career issues. I was really surprised that my leaders thought of me as a less collaborative person. Because I have always given importance to the work-life balance and have tried to understand other peoples need. From my competing values framework, I learnt that my peers think of me as a less collaborative person then I perceive myself to be. Therefore, I should try to make more efforts to improve my skills towards developing other people, encouraging them in active participation and acknowledging their needs. 2.2 Cultural Intelligence As we enter the twenty-first century, we live and work in a social and organisational world that is increasingly diverse and offers more opportunities for interaction among people who do not share a common history or culture. (Caproni P., 2005). Cultural Intelligence is persons ability to function efficiently in situations characterised by cultural diversity (Earley Ang, 2003). Culture often relates to peoples perspective on their values, beliefs, stories or rituals. Cultural differences can influence peoples preferences, expectations and behaviours at work. In modern organisations, the ability to function effectively in multi-cultural situations is important attribute for employees and managers. Corporate culture rests in distinctive capacities and incapacities that are built in to the attitudes and approaches of organisational members. (Morgan G., 1997) Cultural Intelligence provides insights about how to interact with others in multi-cultural society and organisations, engage in cross-cultural interactions appropriately, and perform effectively in culturally diverse work groups. From my 360-degree feedback report, I learnt that my perception of ability to act across different cultures has changed between October 2009 and January 2010 as shown in Appendix iii. This change reflects that my recent experiences differ from my expectations. When compared with how others perceive my cultural intelligence, it is higher than what I perceive. I learnt that people see me as a person with good cultural diversity skill. It reflects my good understanding of cross culture knowledge. I need to be aware of how my behaviour affects others. I need to pay attention to the social context in which I am working. I need to continue to think in broad way and integrate diverse information and see uncertainty as an opportunity to develop my cultural intelligence. 2.3 Qualitative Feedback Qualitative feedback from my peers shows that I am open minded, friendly, hardworking and committed person. I realise that I must take advantage of these attributes to develop good relationship with my colleagues and interact with them more frequently. My peers suggest that I should become more pro-active and articulate my ideas rather than keeping them to myself. They also suggested that I should develop smart ways to work faster and effectively while producing quality work. What surprised me most was that my peers noticed that I sometime think that my superiors are infallible. I believe that, this is partly due to my cultural beliefs. I need to ask questions to my superiors about their assumptions to change their perception. 3. REFLECTION ON PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT AGENDAS Between October 2009 and March 2010 I have focused on developing three leadership qualities based on MBTI /ICCS assessment, class room notes, my past job performance, my current and future career requirements. These qualities are: Effective Communication Trust Building Networking The table below reflects on my leadership self-development process. It reflects on my commitment of developing right attitudes to become a good leader. It describes what I did to develop the above mentioned skills. It also mentions the results of my experiments and how these qualities will be useful to me in future. Table 1 Developing Leadership skills (Adapted from Kolbs Learning Cycle) Developing Effective Communication Skills Activities: Communicating Effectively workshop 09/02/2010 Power and Influence workshop 10/02/2010 Managing Conflict workshop 11/02/2010 Coaching and Developing Others workshop 11/02/2010 Reading related books and articles (Oct09 Mar10) Reflective Observation: I am very confident, comfortable and clear in communicating my message across to my family and friends and I generally adopt communication style which suits peoples culture. Although, I have observed that I am not an effective communicator in the public and at workplace due to fear of: Cultural differences Lack of self confidence and Lack of trust Sometime while taking criticism I become defensive rather than being more open to accept it. So, I need learn to respond to criticism with empathy. Concept and Generalisation: To be a good leader communication is the utmost important aspect. Thinking about great leaders in modern times: Mahatma Gandhi, Churchill, Hitler and Martin Luther King, its clear that they were powerful leaders because they had ability to communicate their vision and inspire people to follow them in achieving their goals. Communication is a two-way process. Knowing how to listen is just as important as being able to communicate (Venables J., 2002). Application/Experiments: Apply active listening method to improve communication skills. Try to give full attention to the speaker and listen with empathy. Try to be more confident and maintain eye contact during conversations. Try to see my facial expressions and observed what others will perceive from it and learn how I can improve. Try to be more open and friendly with colleagues to over-come my fear of cultural differences and lack of trust. Try communication skills experiments in my organisation, group meetings, client meetings and presentations. Outcome: As a result of above experiments, my self-confidence has grown and I have overcome some of my fears of speaking with colleagues. I have received good response from my colleagues and team mates regarding my presentation style. This skill will be helpful to me in communicating effectively with my clients and coaching and developing my team. Developing Trust Building Skills Activities: Reading related books, journals and research papers (Oct09 Mar10) Believe in Myself (Oct09 Mar10) Be Truthful, Reliable and Fair (Oct09 Mar10) Set Boundaries (Oct09 Mar10) Reflective Observation: I feel I am Open-minded, trustworthy and reliable person. I am highly regarded and trusted in my friend circle and been asked for advice regularly. But I feel I am not always involved in the decision making process in my organisation and family. I am not sure if this is for a good reason or a sign of mistrust. And therefore, I feel that I need to develop ability to earn trust of my fellow colleagues, clients and family members, to build good relationship and to develop positive emotions and atmosphere around me. I also feel that workers in the organisations should not be judged against quantitative goals such as profit, cost and other numerical scale, which are to be ineffective as motivational tools against qualitative values of trust, responsibility and innovation. Concept and Generalisation: If you trust yourself, you know you made the right choice. And thats a strong foundation on which to build trust. Trust is critical to managerial effectiveness and building client relationship. Great relationships and organisations are made and broken on trust. Trust helps clients deal with market uncertainties and risk, ultimately resulting in increased satisfaction and loyalty in the client relationship. Breach of trust can lead to breaking of relationship and confidence. According to Robert Bruce Shaw, author of Trust in balance The importance of trust becomes clear when we try to imagine a world without it. Application/Experiments: Always try to be truthful. Set realistic deadlines and make every effort to achieve them Delegate work to juniors and help them with their problems Attend client meetings Outcome: I have been truthful and learnt to say no to unrealistic deadlines. Being truthful does not always work in my favour. I have mange to develop good relationship with my juniors and earned their trust. I understand importance of client needs from business perspective. This skill will be very helpful to maintain trust of colleagues, clients and family members for the years to come. Developing Networking Skills Activities: Reading related books, journals and research papers (Oct09 Mar10) Develop good working relationships with colleagues (Oct09 Mar10) Make new friends and attend social events (Oct09 Mar10) Develop friends community on social networking website (Oct09 Mar10) Reflective Observation of my Networks: I have come here from India and my network here is limited to my family, university friends and work colleagues. In addition, I am very introvert person (also indicted by my MBTI assessment) when it comes to making new friends. When I meet the quality kind of people who share my interests, I have been friends ever since with them. I feel strongly that friends are forever. I feel society tends to value extroverts more highly than introverts and I sometimes feel sensitive to social rejection. I sometimes fear that other people might not understand and hurt my feelings. I desire to improve my networking skills. I fell that I need to stay open to new ideas. I need to develop relationships with clients, my senior colleagues, old school friends and sport friends. Concept and Generalisation: Networking is a deliberate, systematic process of building and maintaining relationships based on mutual benefits. The quality of relationships with your subordinates, bosses and peers significantly influences your task effectiveness, careers development and personal well- being. (Caproni P., 2005) Businesses thrive on relationships. The more people you meet, the better the chances will be to find good, new, personal and professional opportunities. Networking is helpful in sharing knowledge, experience, opinions and differences which helps to develop a broader worldwide view. Application/Experiments (inspired from Kerr C., 1999): Business networking: I have joined Business Networking website BNET. Attended Institution of Civil Engineers evening meetings. I invited my work colleagues for a dinner at my home. I invited my previous boss at my place for a long weekend. I have joined my organisations cricket and badminton club. Personal Networking: I have joined health club with my friend and a neighbour. I have joined School friends group on Facebook. Call friends and family frequently. Attended my little sisters engagement party in India. Outcome: At first no one joined my school friends community and had a disappointing start to my experiments. I tried finding the contact numbers of my old friends and after a few quick calls to old friends the community has grown to 15 members, but a few are still not convinced. I have also managed to develop good relationship with my colleagues and I feel more open to express my views and accept different opinions of other colleagues. I am able to engage in discussions. Initially, I found social events boring and exhausting but now I am starting to enjoy it. I have experienced that networking requires a lot of time, perseverance and efforts. Therefore, I need to focus on important relationships and not waste valuable time to convincing people who lack enthusiasm and similar interests. Networking is more effective when people share similar interests. Through these experiments I have made new friends. I have become happier, more open to new ideas, possibilities, aware of differences in opinion and less worried out rejection. All in theses networking experiments has boosted my confidence to make friends develop relationship with important people. I am thinking of starting to arrange a social events club for my organisation. I need concentrate my efforts more to develop a network of clients. I am also thinking of taking part in a charitable activity over the next year. Networking skills will help me to develop and progress my personal and professional life in years to come.

Homosexuality Is a Mental Illness Essay -- Argumentative Essay

Homosexuality Is a Mental Illness The history of gay or same sex marriages has been long in the whole world. Most of the western societies in the early time tolerated it. Astonishingly, they went to an extent of celebrating the same sex relationships and marriages. In ancient Rome, there are evidences of the same sex marriages but their proof is not clear. Same sex marriages can also be traced in medieval Europe and also the ancient Greece. There are also some other proofs of gay marriages among Africans Native Americans. There have been a lot of evidences which shows that homo sexual desire has been recorded from primordial times in the east part of the globe. This yearning is the reason behind gay unions, normally between men. It repeatedly included some variation in age. There has been very rare information on relationships amongst women in early times. This could be because women were not treated with equal status with men, such that while men were free to practice sexual and romantic pleasure both without and within marriage, women were not allowed (www.gay-art-history.org). In China, Male love was quite encouraged especially in Fujian, the southern province. Men would marry youths in sophisticated ceremonies. These marriages would last long. At the last part of this marriage, the senior partner would help the younger partner find a female wife so that he could settle down and start a family. At the west, ancient Greece gives us the first western documents regarding gay relationships. In ancient Greece, gay relationships and marriages were a norm in the society. Fortunately, these relationships did not substitute marriage between woman and a man, but occurred beside or before it. During Hellenic times in Europ... ...s morality. Since time in memorial, same sex relationship is deemed immoral and it will remain immoral forever. Allowing this thing to happen openly is to send a bad message to God, the people and the sanity will have been undermined. This goes against gods teaching and according to the holy Bible; it is the same reasons that made Sodom and Gomorrah to be burnt down. The same thing can still happen today. References: Eric M. Rodriguez (2010). At the Intersection of Church and Gay: A Review of the Psychological Research on Gay and Lesbian Christians. Journal of Homosexuality.1-35 Ralph E. Roughton, (2002) MD. Rethinking homosexuality. What It Teaches Us About Psychoanaysis. Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association. The world history of gay love. Retrieved on 7th December 2010 from www.gay-art-history.org

The Great Gatsby in the American Classroom :: Great Gatsby Essays

The Great Gatsby in the American Classroom      Ã‚  Ã‚   In determining why The Great Gatsby is so frequently assigned at various education levels, my thoughts reverted to our discussion on the Vendler text and the premise that teachers may be attempting to seduce their students into learning. In connection to this discussion, I reflected on my own classroom and what I hope to achieve with my students. I find the "seduction" of students to be an integral component in teaching students to appreciate the learning process. Not all learning is "fun," but I attempt to teach my students that it can at least be an interesting process.    Do I teach Gatsby in my own classroom? No. Do I think it is a significant text to be taught? Yes. Do I think Gatsby should be included in the literary canon? I think that question is irrelevant. This is because teachers, if educated well, should be able to determine the needs of the classroom Sometimes these needs go beyond or outside of the literary canon. I understand the relevance of the literary canon to English studies, but I also perceive the canon primarily as a tool or resource for the teaching of English. The canon also helps to preserve works of literature, but mere usage also helps to preserve. If works of literature are continually used in the classroom because of their relevance and usefulness, then there is not truly a need to encapsulate that work of literature in the canon to preserve it. That preservation occurs through popular use. Being exposed daily to the challenge of engaging minds in a discourse on literature, I believe it is possible, and sometimes necessary, for teachers to structure their material to fit the needs of their students. Gatsby is one such novel that appears to be filling this role.    In the preface to The Great Gatsby, Matthew J. Bruccoli asserts that    The Great Gatsby is a classic-a novel that is read spontaneously by pleasure-seekers and and under duress by students. A popular classroom fallacy holds that classics are universal and timeless. Literature has staying power, but it is subject to metamorphosis. (vii)    The Great Gatsby is pushing its way into more and more classrooms, because it is interesting as a literary work and, moreover, because it remains relevant to issues in modern society.

A Conflicted Society Essay

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the novel â€Å"Things Fall Apart†, Chinua Achebe challenges the reader to actively engage in the analysis of issues raised throughout the text. Achebe brings the issue of tradition versus change to the forefront of Umuofian society for the reader to examine. Achebe shows the reader the gradual downfall of the main character, Okonkwo, through his refusal to accept change in his society. Achebe also brings about the controversial issues dealing with masculinity in Umuofian society. Okonkwo rejects anything that he feels is â€Å"womanly† and thus seals his own demise. Achebe shows the reader that acting â€Å"manly† doesn’t necessarily make one a man. By simplifying the issues within Umuofian society and the conflicted Okonkwo, Achebe paints a clear picture of the consequences of closed-minded societies, and the people who exist within those societies. Okonkwo and his Umuofian society are strong believers in tradition, and continually ignore the need for change throughout the novel. In a deal with a neighboring village, Okonkwo becomes the illegitimate father to a boy named Ikemefuna. Over time, Okonkwo comes to accept the boy, finding him to be an ideal son. While Okonkwo is fond of the boy, he never shows any affection toward Ikemefuna. After three years of living with Okonkwo and his family in Umuofia, Ikemefuna is murdered by the man that he treated as his father and other men in the village simply because the â€Å"Oracle† told a village elder that the boy must die. Rather than challenge what his society is doing, Okonkwo goes along with his clansmen and takes part in the death of Ikemefuna. In his dying moments, Ikemefuna runs to Okonkwo for protection, but Okonkwo kills Ikemefuna because he refuses to question the ideals of his fellow villagers, and does not want to appear weak. After Okonkwo is exiled from Umuofia for accidentally killing another young man in the village, the reader still sees a reluctance to embrace change in society. Now living in his motherland, Mbanto, Okonkwo and his family are met with missionaries that have travelled to the village to share Christian beliefs with the villagers. The missionaries preach about the danger of worshipping false gods. The villagers reject the missionaries’ beliefs, simply because it is not what their fathers and grandfathers believed. The people of Mbanta cling to their pagan religion with complete closed-mindedness, rejecting the Holy Trinity and any other beliefs that differ from the traditional beliefs of their ancestors. Reverend James Smith, who is the leader of the missionaries, has his church burned to the ground because one of the villagers who converted to Christianity unmasked an egwugwu during a pagan ceremony, which the villagers believe to be the same as killing an ancestral spirit. Rather than be open-minded to other religions and beliefs, the villagers reject anything that is not what they are used to believing. They burn down Reverent Smith’s church to get rid of the villagers, and the new ideas that they preached. Okonkwo is not accepting at all of anything that seems feminine to him.   Okonkwo sets very strict boundaries with his daughter, Ezinma, simply because she is female. Even though it is his daughter, Ezinma, that knows her father the best, and that Okonkwo feels closest to, he keeps her at arms length. The feelings that Okonkwo has for his daughter are illustrated in the passage that states, â€Å"Okonkwo was very lucky in his daughters. He never stopped regretting that Ezinma was a girl (Achebe 172)†. Because Ezinma was a girl, even though she probably understood her father the best of any of his children, he pushed her away and avoided a close, loving relationship with her simply because of her gender. By pushing away Ezinma, Okonkwo is passing by a great opportunity to get to know his daughter and have a closer relationship with her. Simply because she is a female, he rebuffs her attempts to have such a relationship with her father. Another example of Okonkwo’s intolerance for â€Å"womanly† things is within his relationship with his son, Nwoye. Nwoye decides that he is going to go against his father’s wishes, and join the missionaries. Upon learning of Nwoye’s decision, Okonkwo sits down with his sons and tells them that, â€Å"I will only have a son who is a man, who will hold his head up among my people. If any one of you prefers to be a woman let him follow Nwoye now while I am alive so that I can curse him (Achebe 172)†. Okonkwo would rather drive away his own flesh and blood than to have them be who they really are, and accepting them for all that they are, and all that they aren’t. By pushing away his son simply because his aspirations differ from those that Okonkwo would have for him, Okonkwo is creating a very large crack in the foundation of his family. Once a child is told that his father isn’t proud of him, it is very difficult to rebuild any relationship. Okonkwo would rather maintain a â€Å"manly† appearance than accept his family for who they are. Chinua Achebe’s novel, â€Å"Things Fall Apart† addresses the always controversial issue of tradition versus change, and shows his readers how a failure to be open-minded and accepting of new ideas can lead a one into a vicious cycle of making mistakes. Achebe also addresses the issue of masculinity versus femininity in the novel. Through the actions of his main character, Okonkwo, the reader realizes that simply because a man is â€Å"tough† does not necessarily mean that he is a good, respectable man, even if he is highly regarded within his own society. Achebe’s novel brings these issues that exist within African society, and allows the reader to see the consequences of rejecting change through the absolute demise of the main character of the story, Okonkwo, and the subsequent effects of rejecting new ideas and beliefs on society in general. Works Cited Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart. New York: Anchor Books, 1994.