Sexual Harassment In Egypt Sociology Essay

Sexual Harassment In Egypt Sociology Essay Society incessantly undertakes transformations as it develops and grows with time. Social conflict and self-interest appear to be the essence of the way life goes. From my personal perspective, people only act accordingly to the rules and norms when and only when there is either a consequence or a reward; be it materialistic or intangible. The strive for power, social standing and self-fulfillment is what pushes people to make their decisions and take on these paths. The patriarchal Egyptian culture exemplifies the simplest theory; the conflict theory between men and women. Egypt has been changing drastically over the past thirty years and especially since the 25th of January revolution, the people have witnessed many changes in the political ruling system of the country and the frequent migrations to the city of Cairo. It has also seen increasing religious imposition, expanding poverty, pollution and inhabitants boost. One of the major changes is the westernization of Egypt. The country became more westernized due to interactions of Egypt with the West politically, economically, and socially (Homa Hoodfar and Diane Singerman). Our daily clothes, the movies we watch, the music we listen to, its all proof of the clear westernization that our culture is going through. In addition, traditionally Egyptian women often were the ones that stayed at home to raise-up the children while the men of the families were the ones out on the streets working (Nicholas S. Hopkins and Ibrahim Saad Eddin). But over the years, the traditional woman stereotype changed. Women started receiving full education of high level and getting jobs that only men had right to before. And with those huge transformational events taking places in our country and this new status that the women earned, the natural turn of events to expect is that the Egyptian women start earning more respect, at least as equal as the mens. But unfortunately this is not what is happening. Instead many men easily prove to us that our society is still years and years behind and that we are in no way even comparable to the developed countries. Not only the women are not as equally respected, in fact they are disrespected, mistreated and simply put, in a constant battle for their rights. And one example of the many abuses that women are forced to put up with each and every day is sexual harassment. To clarify what exactly is sexual harassment, it is the unwanted physical contact, remark, or attention which is often inappropriate and offensive and results in fear or embarrassment. Of course it is also frequent in many other countries, but in Egypt specifically, this social cancer is spreading at an alarmingly rapid rate. The Egyptian Center for Womens Rights (ECWR) did a survey proving that 83% of Egyptian women and 98% of foreign women in Egypt have been sexually harassed before (Komsan). Despite the fast and continuous changes that Egypt goes through, it still stays a very religious country especially compared to the developed countries of the West. This means that they heavily rely on Islam upon any rule or decision making. So how is it that such a religious country is so profoundly neglectful of the matter, whilst countries that take religion lightly such as America absolutely refuse to accept such behavior? And why is it that despite all of the changes, this behavior still remains unchanged? Although Islam is one of the oldest advocates of womens rights, Egypt lacks laws that protect its women from many important concerns including sexual harassment. Indeed, the regular and extreme occurrence of this phenomenon can be explained by the absence of laws that punish those who harass women. And the rates are increasing because these harassers know that they will get away with whatever they do and that they will just go unpunished. This attitude has been triggered or encouraged by social, financial, cultural, religious or psychological difficulties that men face as a result to the countrys changes. For instance, the societys hierarchical separation keeps getting more and more obvious not only between social classes but between genders as well. The Egyptian culture absolutely confirms the conflict between genders where women dont enjoy equal rights as men. While some patriarchal societies work perfectly, in Egypt men abuse the position that they have. Several psychologists believe that men who harass women do so because subconsciously they attempt to exert power over women (Florence L. Denmark and Michele A. Paludi). This could explain the fact that it has been projected to society that the males are superior and dominant. They believe it, take advantage of it and use it to make women feel inferior by harassing them and more. If women were given equal rights as men, they would contribute and be proactive members of society hence improve our way of life. But when it comes to Egypt, there isnt enough statistical evidence to either agree with or disclaim the fact that psychological factors contribute to the occurrence of sexual harassment. So, we could relate Egypts situation to another country where psychology of men has proven to be of importance to the issue of harassment, like the United States for example (Baker). Another key reason behind why men harass women is the economical and political situation of Egypt. Many sources including El Ahram Weekly and Europe News, write that since a huge percentage of the Egyptian population is under or just above the poverty line, lots of men cannot find jobs, cannot afford to start families because they cannot afford to get married, and just simply cannot afford decent lives. Both sources wrap up by explaining that the economic powerlessness of those men clearly shows itself in the form of repressed sexuality. And this male rage leaves them preying on women. The sources also add that due to the fact Egypt is a male central society and men are counted on to sustain their families financially; men feel powerless in a society when they cannot do that. And as a consequence of their economic incapacity, they resort to sexual harassment to empower themselves. In other words, Egyptian men harass women because it is ego enhancing for them; they feel that they have the power that way (Alison M. Thomas and Celia Kitzinger). Ahmed Salah, founder of the Respect Yourself campaign that addresses sexual harassers in Cairo writes, sexual harassment is a form of violence and anger at the current economic and political conditions that men bring against what they perceive as a weaker creature. (Diab). Since men in Egypt sometimes reach their late 30s without possessing an apartment nor a car, and without having a well paying job, they try to substitute their complete financial weakness in society together with their inhibited sexuality by their male powers that are manifested in their sexual actions towards women. But do men of upper social class harass women? Yes, but not nearly as often as men of lower social classes do. War Zone, a documentary by Maggie Hadleigh, followed an ordinary woman down the streets of New York and documented the incidents of sexual harassment that she experienced (Hadleigh-West). It was concluded that yes some poor or middle class men harassed the lady, but so did other wealthy ones in expensive suites and having prestigious jobs; however, the ratio of harassment of a poor man harassing a woman verses a wealthy man was about three to one. And therefore, this could apply to sexual harassment in Egypt. Another factor that has a great effect on the sexual harassment rate in Egypt is its political situation. The idea of democracy in Egypt has been a theory spoken of only and hardly ever applied. Due to the fact that there is no democracy in Egypt, Egyptians, especially those in the low social class, cannot contribute to the decisions being made in the country (Nicholas S. Hopkins and Ibrahim Saad Eddin). And even though a revolution occurred on the 25th of January 2011, the feelings havent change much because this event has just led to more confusion, more societal division and even less empowerment. As a result of the lack of proper democracy that represents all citizens and not just one party, Egyptians lack total political power (Saadawi). These men are aware that they, both politically and economically, are powerless. And in an attempt to seek out any form of power, they sexually harass women who come into sight to them as the weaker being. Wrapping up, economic and political sit uations of men are probably major triggers behind their sexual harassment of women. Nonetheless, the most frequent excuse that men use to justify this intolerable and offensive manner is that since Egypt is a Muslim country, premarital sex is strongly condemned. It is religiously banned. In other words, men harass women because men are sexually repressed. And as previously mentioned, the financial difficulties that they are facing make the idea and plan of marriage very unfeasible. Even if they do get married, they live in poverty where big families are located in tight quarters, so no one has any personal space. This financial powerlessness leads to a sexual frustration that materializes in the form of harassment. It makes them feel more authoritative. But there are many other poor Muslim countries that live and survive in very bad conditions, like Libya for example, but they do not have the quantity of sexual harassment that is at hand in Egypt. So it is not about economic or religious complications. Each reason used by the men is just an excuse for their unaccept able and improper attitude. Sexual harassment in Egypt has been said to be the product of the fact that Egypt is a Middle Eastern Islamic country, and therefore is conservative, and when women dress modernly and European-like, they are harassed by those men who are overwhelmed by how different they look from other ordinary Muslim women (Alison M. Thomas and Celia Kitzinger). So what they are actually saying is that women are the ones to be blamed and that they bring it upon themselves by wearing tight provocative clothes. According to the fact that Muslim women should be conservatively dressed, men from upper Egypt, for instance, who come to Cairo and find women walking down the street in revealing clothes (according to those men) start to harass women. But those men who once lived in a small village then moved to the city arent representative of all Egyptian men. Also, many of those conservative men have been living in Cairo for several years, so the idea of women walking down the street, leaving their houses, and dressing provocatively, isnt new to them anymore; and yet they continue to harass women. Another theory implies that due to the fact that rural to urban migrations in Egypt have been increasing lately; about 18 million Egyptians have migrated over the past 5 years; sexual harassment by those new to the city life occurs (Nicholas S. Hopkins and Ibrahim Saad Eddin). And therefore, sexual harassment cannot be the result of how Western-like women are starting to dress, and not about how conservative men from small villages are amazed by what they see every day. And as a result, that is not a key element that contributes to why Egyptian men harass women. Sexual harassment is assumed to be based upon sexual triggers by definition. A theory supporting that belief says that, the more provocatively a woman is dressed, the more likely she is to sexually arouse men, and therefore, the more likely she is to be sexually harassed (Tarrant). However, survey by the ECWR (Egyptian Center for Womens Rights) concluded that the majority of women who said to have been harassed in Egypt were not dressed provocatively when harassed; and also, several women wearing the Nikab were harassed too (Komsan). So, is it possible that a man would find a woman who is literally covered from head to toe in black sexually attractive? Well, to clarify the image of those women wearing the Nikab in Egypt, they are often low or middle class women, probably married with a few children and often neither in great shape nor health due to the fact that they are relatively poor (Atassi). So no, it is highly unlikely that such women be harassed on the streets. And would a man find a native, 6-months pregnant, veiled woman sexually attractive too? After the incident in 2005 in which a group of young Egyptian men harassed a pregnant woman, the answer to this question is unknown (Saadawi). The problem of sexual harassment has evolved into a strange problem. In other words, sexual harassment been going on so often that men do not harass women who are sexually appealing to them anymore, they just harass any and every woman by in order to let out any boredom, anger, frustration or just to feel superior. (Leila). Also, if men harass women they are sexually attracted to, they would be more likely to harass women of the same age, race, or social class (Florence L. Denmark and Michele A. Paludi). To sum up, sexual harassment used to be triggered by sexual interests, but these days and in Egypt specifically, it has become a habit since the offenders see sexual harassment as an act of conforming to society in a way. And not only does that result in frequently occur ring harassment, it also became strange behavior manifested in the actions of young boys (under the age of 12) as well as of teenagers and middle aged men. To elaborate, a foreign woman was grabbed while walking down the street by an 8 year old in 2006 (Atassi). That young boy must have seen other men do that to women, and thought that he is becoming more of a man by conforming to their actions. The most probable theory is that it has nothing to do with their academic or social level because men from all different backgrounds harass women. It has to do with the parents education to their child. Are they good role models for their children? Do they teach them to respect women and have moral values? These young boys are imitating what theyve seen older men including their fathers do. They are following the people they admire and want to be like when they grow up. They want to feel integrated in the society as well and feel like powerful men. Although sexual harassment is mainly trigge red by sexual thoughts, nowadays, it seems to be triggered by assimilation and conformity rather than sexuality. In conclusion, all the reasons mentioned above that try to explain why does sexual harassment occur have one thing in common: Power. Men try to enforce power over women because they are economically or politically powerless in a male dominant society- one where men are expected to have the power. In a psychological attempt to feel powerful, men harass women because women are perceived by men as a weak creature; and therefore, harassment is an effortless way for men to feel better about themselves. So, according to my findings, the excessive sexual harassment in Egypt can be traced back to the need of men to feel the power that is lacked elsewhere- economically, politically, or socially. The unfortunate news is that women have actually accepted and confirmed their supposed inferiority through their silence. Some women just do not want to speak up for themselves in order to keep the social stability, in respect of their husbands, in habit of the way the society works or because they just think that there is no hope and that any objection is a lost cause. Also, the reason that women rarely come forward and press charges against that sort of assault is that they are aware of the lack of concern among the police. The policemen participate sometimes in the harassment. They can say comments while women are crossing streets, for example. So it is natural that women do not feel comfortable in taking proper action against the harassment since the people that are supposed to protect them from that kind of abuse are already taking part in it. So in order to represent these women and encourage them to speak up and take action, many groups try to launch awareness campaigns in different kinds and forms. For example, the Egyptian Initiatives group has launched a Stop Sexual Harassment in Egypt campaign. They organize events that inform people about the situation, explain to women how to defend themselves and encourage the women to speak up. Another campaign that is even more successful is the Banat Masr Khat Ahmar campaign (Egypts Women are a Red Line, e.g. a line in the sand) was launched this year to raise awareness on the problem  through communicating with people in the streets (Samir). We neither argue with the harassers nor lecture them. We simply talk with them in their own language, Dina Farid the founder of the Banat Masr Khat Ahmar movement said, explaining that her personal participation in the revolution taught her how to build a movement (Samir). During the Eid Al-Fitr holiday that wraps up the holy fasting mon th of Ramadan, the movement focused on downtown and the Nile Corniche area. Also, the dream of Welad El Balad (The Countrys Sons) an Alexandria-based initiative founded by Karim Mahrous in 2011 to clean Alexandria of sexual harassment. To reach this dream, Welad El Balad also organized street-level awareness campaigns (Samir). Before engaging with people, the initiatives volunteers first get trained. They learn of the legal aspects, including the constitutions articles that affect sexual harassment and they also focus on the psychological aspect of the problem, including the different kinds of harassers and how to address them (Samir). We explain to women that the law is on their side and that they should not tolerate sexual harassment. We also educate men on the serious consequences of this act, Zeinab Ayoub, Welad El Balad campaign coordinator noted (Samir). Estargel (Behave like a Man) was also launched two months ago to stop the rising problem of men riding in the women-only car riage in the Cairo underground metro which also leads to sexual harassment, says founder, Sherine Badr. Estargel launched door-knocking campaigns in downtown Cairo to stir discussion on sexual harassment (Samir). The fact that society has started to realize the problem and talk about is in itself a good milestone, Badr explained. Welad El Balad have partnered with certain neighborhoods in Alexandria, where they have shops there hanging their posters and cooperating with them to stop harassment and make their areas safe territories (Samir). Also Banat Masr Khat Ahmar has managed to secure the support of street venders in some areas in Cairo who help them fight the problem and intervene in case of any harassment happening in the area. Another way to raise awareness is through social media, art and cinema. Many Youtube and Facebook groups were created. These groups not only encourage women to speak up and empower them, it also allows them to post any images or videos the harasser so they will be found by others and dealt with. That not only helps the women psychologically but it also threatens these harassers. And regarding the arts and cinema, in 2010  an Egyptian film entitled 678 brought the issue to public attention (Ibrahim). The film told the stories of three women from different social classes who were all victims of harassment one way or another. It shows how they dealt with it and how at the end all they had to do is speak up and be strong united women. Other than the awareness that has been growing in different types, the government and some NGOs have been trying to take actions instead of just awareness against the issue. But, in my opinion, none of them have succeeded so far. For example, the government has started new method for fighting sexual harassment in Cairo via the Web. It is called Harassmap. They locate where the incident took place and try to track the man down. It also calculates the amount of sexual harassment in each area so before going out of her home, a women can check out the map and see which area had the most sexual harassment complaints and opts to take another road. In my personal opinion, this project is a complete failure because these men dont just stand there. They move. So the number of complaints by area is not really an indicator. I also dont see how they could be tracked down. Besides, this project has been up and running only for a few months now. Therefore, its efficiency is still uncertain. But two issues arise as we look at the solution the government provided the women. Not all women have a way to the Internet. In particular the poor ones are those who need it the most since they are most likely to get harassed in the po orer neighborhoods with less security. And even for those who do get to have access to the Internet, only a very few know about the project. It is not well marketed, therefore only some women know about it and use it. Another major initiative that took place but also failed is parliament representative Amr Hamzawys. Hamzawy tried  to pass a law against harassment when he was an MP but faced resistance from Freedom and Justice Party (FJP), the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, and Al-Nour Party, run by Salafists; as he explains: I tried during the period of the parliament to push for proposing tougher sanctions to ensure law amendments to some articles in the penal code, but the majority from both of FJP and Al-Nour parties overturned it and emptied its content. It exceeds personal bitterness to grieve what Egyptian women have to face daily and around the clock from the systematic violation of their dignity, and the male enforced twist of the catastrophe by a very bad vindicatory speech. (Hashim). After a profound analysis of the issue, even though some of the initiatives werent very successful, we can see that the country is progressing in the right direction. Many support groups and measures have been initiated in order to make the women feel powerful, protected and secure. The most significant battle to be done right now is for the women to express their will to have equal rights and respect that they have so rightfully earned and merited. The more economically developed a country is, the more opportunities women have to attain their rights; countries that are more critical of injustice towards women are actually improving their societies because they provide it with more productive members that are involved in advancing it. The stereotypical stance on women being inferior to men must be erased from society; the notion that females are incompetent merely because they are female is a sign of intense sexism and discrimination. Men try to assert their power and gain respect as alpha males by suppressing the women around them; this fractures our society. Instead of using these differences to discriminate, we ought to use them to balance out society and benefit it. The feminist conflict theory advocates for equality of basic human rights, it depicts why gender roles are planted within us and explains how all this is backfiring on society as a whole. It is not easy to change norms and status quos that have been carved so deeply into our minds, but we must acknowledge that change is not a spectator sport. By understand the role that gender plays in controlling society, we can understand it better and do more to improve it. So by uniting and coming together, they might finally balance the society and make it function more like it should be.

Alexander Graham Bell :: essays research papers fc

General Biographical information Bell was born on March 3, 1847, in Edinburgh, Scotland, and educated at the universities of Edinburgh and London. He went to Canada in 1870 and to the United States in 1871. In the United States he began teaching deaf-mutes, publicizing a system called visible speech. The system, which was made by his father, the Scottish teacher Alexander Melville Bell, shows how the lips, tongue, and throat are used in the articulation of sound. In 1872 Bell made a school for deaf and mute people, in Boston, Massachusetts. The school became part of Boston University, where Bell was a teacher of vocal physiology. He became a U.S. citizen in 1882. Since Bell was 18, he had been working on the idea of transmitting speech. In 1874, while working on a multiple telegraph, he came up with the basic ideas for the telephone. His experiments with his assistant Thomas Watson finally were successful on March 10, 1876, when the first complete sentence was transmitted: "Watson, come here; I want you." The demonstration at the 1876 Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania introduced the telephone to the world and led to the organization of the Bell Telephone Company in 1877. Six Major Events  1871 Bell started teaching deaf students in Boston.  1874-75 he began work on his great invention.  Bells attorney had applied for a patent on February 14, 1876  1880 Bell received the French government’s Volta price for the telephone.  1898 Bell succeeded his father-in-law as president of the National Geographic Society.  He died at his estate on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia on August 2. 1922. Major Contributions Alexander Graham Bell’s greatest contribution to mankind was obviously the telephone. Alexander Graham Bell invented the telephone in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1876. One year later Bell founded the Bell Telephone Company and began licensing telephone exchanges to route telephone calls through New England. Bell Telephone Company got in a fight with the Western Union Telegraph Company, which had filed a patent for the telephone just hours after Alexander Graham Bell.

Aristotle Essay example -- essays research papers

y does Plato believe that only Philosophers are fit to rule? Rather than the practical pursuit we are accustomed to, for Plato, Politics is an intellectual faculty. Governance by non-philosophers is to be governed by opinions, beliefs and self-interest; in contrast the philosopher ruler will govern with virtue and justice with no hidden agenda. The philosopher is in love, in love with learning, knowledge and truth. It is important to make a distinction here between the acquisition of knowledge and the acquisition of truth, because knowledge is not necessarily the truth. With the help of an allegory, Plato explains the sensible world of illusion and belief, the place where most people reside. The philosopher has stepped outside this world, into a world of knowledge and truth. Plato makes use of a cave to explain this; I will use another means. A child believes in the myth of Santa Claus, a child has good reason to suppose this myth is true, it is inculcated when he receives Christmas presents, the media, family and friends consolidate the belief, the child even writes to Santa Claus and receives a reply. On Christmas Day this belief becomes a ‘reality’. Through education and maturity, the child will have doubts as to the truth of this illusion. At some stage during the transition from childhood to adulthood he will acknowledge the illusion, and further, during parenthood the myth really comes home to roost as knowledge and absolute truth. (He now has a choice; he can put an end to the myth or continue the cycle) What is distinctive regar ding each stage, is how far they have come out of the cave. Through illusion and belief to knowledge, or from artisan to auxiliary to philosopher. The fundamental prerequisite to becoming a philosopher ruler is to have knowledge of the forms, therefore knowing the truth. The forms do not exist in the sensible world, they can only be found in the super-sensible world. Platos‘ theory of the forms is partly logical and partly metaphysical. The logical part is, take for example a dog, there will be many types of dog, and general particulars regarding a dog. The form of a dog is universal and eternal it has no position in space or time, it is not born when a dog is born, nor does it die when a dog dies. The metaphysical part of the theory is the form of a dog is a perfect, unique dog, created by God. The dog is real, pa... ...ft of the preeminently "excellent" citizen to protect the state's constitution by making him the ruler of the state. Aristotle further justifies his position by stating that a citizen should not be made the ruler of a state because of his wealth or his ancestry. Unless by some chance wealth or ancestry affects the ability of a citizen to work towards the interests of the constitution. Of course the wealthy citizens and those citizens of glamorous ancestry should not be denied the chance to rule the state, for the ruler should be chosen for his "excellence" alone. Even in modern democracies like our own Aristotle's ideas hold true. When we vote in the election of the ruler of our country we, theoretically, are voting for the single most "excellent" citizen of our nation. That is we are voting for that citizen who can do the best job of working towards our common interests. The citizen of a state who has the greatest ability to work towards the salvation of the constitution has a gift that all citizens can benefit from. It only makes sense to beseech that citizen to lead the rest of the citizens in working towards the common interests of the state.

Indian village Essay

In a small Indian village, a young child, Natu, wanders away into the jungle and was assumed to have been killed by the evil man-eating tiger Sheer Khan. In the other hand, a pack of wolves took care of the boy as one of their pups and named him Mowgli. Raksha, his wolf mother, kept a watchful eye out for him for she knew that Sheer Khan has a relentless thirst for the man-cub. During his years in the jungle, he befriended several animals which aided him as he grows old. Raksha is a she wolf who nursed the little Mowgl as an infant. Baloo, a kind-hearted laidback grey-hided bear, teaches Mowgli and his feral brothers the law of the jungle. The black panther Bagheera sets an eye out for Mowgli for he is constantly hunted by a evil man-eating tiger, Sheer Khan. Kaa is a huge powerful hundred year old serpent who helps Baloo and Bagheera rescue Mowgli when he was captured by group of monkeys in the hidden ruins. The boy grew into a young man and one day stumbles upon the village once again. His real mother recognized the boy as the child she lost long ago and welcomed him back home. She teaches Mowgli how to speak their language and how people behave in their village. Mowgli’s extraordinary ability to talk to the animals as fascinated the whole village including the young lady Mahala, Buldeo’s daughter. Buldeo is a boastful and arrogant hunter who despises Mowgli for contradicting him about real life and animals in the jungle. Mowgli wants to buy a â€Å"tooth† (knife) in order to kill the evil tiger Sheer Khan and buys one from Buldeo. Buldeo wanted to kill the tiger Sheer Khan for the reward of his hide. But Mowlgi killed the tiger first before Buldeo did. Buldeo forced Mowgli to surrender him the tiger skin but he refused for he vowed to lay it upon the wolfpack’s council rock. Even though Buldeo forbids Mahala to talk to Mowgli, she goes with him into the jungle. Mowgli shows her the ruins of an ancient city with a vast treasure horde. Inside the ruins, a python named Kaa warns them that the jewels are deadly. Mahala takes one coin with Mowgli’s permission. Buldeo finds out about the treasure and persuades Mowgli to show him the rest of the treasure. He accidentally drops the coin his daughter took from the trove which caught the eye of the barber and his customer, and now they want to find the treasure too. After finding out about his daughters discovery of the gold coin, Buldeo coerced Mowgli to lead him to the treasure trove. He accidentally let the barber and his customer to find out about the treasure too. Mowgli leads the men and set out to the jungle to look for the ruins. They find the ruins but greed took place and they all fought for the treasure. When the barber and the customer died, Buldeo set the jungle on fire. Mowgli saves his mother and goes back to live in the village. A quintessential characters in the story is Mowgli, the main character in the story, a child raised by wolves who eventually goes back to his village when he becomes a young man. Another is Baloo, sleepy old grey bear, teaches the wolf pups and Mowgli the laws of the jungle and how to live in the jungle. Same is Bagheera, the black panther is originally born in captivity in the palace of the Rajah of Oodeypore, India escapes his cage when he was mature and strong enough, saves the life of Mowgli by offering a freshly-killed bull to the pack of wolves and demands them to raise Mowgli. Stock characters in the story include Mahala, a gentle young lady who fell in love with Mowgli. Mogli showed Mahala the ruins where the treasure was hidden. Messua is the wife of the richest man in the village and she believes that Mowgli is her long lost son, Natoo, who was lost in the jungle some years before. When she and Mowgli are reunited, teaches him the virtues and language of their village. Raksha is the she-wolf who takes care of Mowgli and raised him as one of her own pups. Defying the tiger Sheer Khan who is determined to hunt and eat the man-cub Mowgli she says that her name is Raksha, which means Demon, because of her ferocity and fighting skills, and vows to fight to her death for any of her cubs, natural or adopted. The play wanted to portray the 1894 original story of author Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book. The cast sought to represent the essence of each character in the story for the audience to feel the flow and tension of the play. The producers did an excellent job on capturing the spirit of the original story. Every key character was played well and with outstanding acting skills. The setting, background, and lighting makes the audience feel that they are one with the environment. The play and production was all meaningful for it captured and delivered what the audience would like to see, feel and hear. The cast skillfully played their roles and vividly showed emotion of the scene. As a child, I really enjoyed Disney’s animation of The Jungle Book. I enjoyed the play a lot. It made me feel like I was in the story with the characters. I liked how the play was delivered and how the cast depicted the characters. The lights and background gave a good addition to the environment. The sounds made the play alive. Sound effects give a really big impact to me in plays. I like how the production and script matched the original story, but with a little twist, which made it play even more fascinating. I look forward to watch more plays similar to this one for it brings back memories of my childhood. I know that the audience loved it too. Plays like this will be excellent to fuel the minds of kids and help enjoy life. Reference: (2006). The jungle book. Retrieved October 17, 2006, from Answers.com: world’s greatest encyclodictionalmanacapedia. Web site: http://www. answers. com/topic/the-jungle-book Internet Movie Database Inc. (2006). Full cast and crew for the jungle book (1942). Retrieved October 17, 2006, from IMBD: Earth’s Biggest Movie Database Web site: http://www. imdb. com/title/tt0034928/fullcredits Scheib, R. (2003). Jungle book. Retrieved October 17, 2006. Web site: http://www. moria. co. nz/fantasy/junglebook42. htm _____. (2006). The jungle book. Retrieved October 17, 2006, from Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Web site: http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Jungle_Book

Associates vs Bachelor Degree in Nursing Essay

Bachelor degree nursing programs are highly regarded for the skilled, clinical thinking, and professionalism of nurses they provide for the community. Obtaining a baccalaureate in nursing provides the same skills and knowledge encompassed in most associate’s programs, while allowing a broadened look into research, public health, management, and humanities (AACN IENP, 2012). Many facilities are now providing incentives for nursing staff to continue their education; from tuition reimbursement, an increase in pay, and played time off for the sole purpose of education. Research has proven that with a more educated nursing populous there is a decrease in morality rates and medication errors, and it also provides more positive outcomes (AACN Fact Sheet, 2012). With such a high demand for nurses, the scope of nursing has become more comprehensive with a larger responsibility being placed on nurses. All of this has shown not only to the medical field but also policymakers and other leaders of the community that a higher level of education not only makes a difference, but many feel it should be a requirement. The difference between a baccalaureate and associates degree program may seem obscure at first, but looking into the information and research that students learn in a four year program verses a three year program can be shocking. When looking into the core requisites needed to graduate with a bachelors verses an associates, some obvious differences are the higher levels of English, math, communication, and pathophysiology required to graduate with a BSN. Also, the higher level course work required to complete a bachelors shows the necessity of critical thinking and research a nurse needs to even graduate. Once past the prerequisites required for a bachelor’s in nursing we have to exam the nursing course work itself. As stated before, most of the associates program is incorporated in a bachelors degree; with an associates the clinical experience is more limited to the clinical setting hospitals, nursing skilled facilities, and rehab centers, where as many bachelors programs also included public and community projects. Bachelors programs also put a broader focus on ethics, religion and spirituality, research, global awareness and public health, as well as nursing leadership and management (GCU, n. d. ). Nursing care is focused on the assessment, nursing diagnoses, planning, implementation, and evaluation of patients. This nursing process can also be implemented in aspects outside of nursing and on the nursing field as a collective group. The nursing role is evolving, following the process the outcomes have to be evaluated and put into perspective. Research is being completed the conclusions are all the same, the higher education of nursing care the better the patient outcomes. In an article published in Health Services Research in August 2008 that examined the effect of nursing practice environments on outcomes of hospitalized cancer patients undergoing surgery, Dr. Christopher Friese and colleagues found that nursing education level was significantly associated with patient outcomes. Nurses prepared at the baccalaureate-level were linked with lower mortality and failure-to-rescue rates. The authors conclude that â€Å"moving to a nurse workforce in which a higher proportion of staff nurses have at least a baccalaureate-level education would result in substantially fewer adverse outcomes for patients. † (AACN Fact Sheet, 2012) A Jewish patient is awaiting discharge after receiving an open heart procedure. The difference a bachelor’s educated nurse and an associate degree nurse may have on the patient can be profound in this scenario. A bachelors nurse will have a better understanding of the pathophysiology of this patient’s condition, instead of providing instruction on just the patient after care of the procedure the higher level education will allow the nurse to incorporate teaching of the patient’s condition that brought along the cause of the procedure, the nurse will be provide a broader education base to help the patient better understand the treatment and the conditions that they may face. The bachelors nurse will be able to better identify environmental factors, diet and exercise factors, and other stresses that could be changed to promote health wellness for the patient. The bachelors nurse will be more aware of community based health assistance and programs that will help the patient make more positive health changes. The bachelors nurse will be more aware of the patient’s religious requirements and needs, this may help the patient in making better overall health and wellness decisions. Also, BSN nurses have a more in-depth education in regards to ethics and religion, this may provide a more trusting bond between the nurse and patients allowing the patient to see that the nurse is there for providing care not only in his treatment but all aspects of the patient’s wellbeing. The history of nursing provides a great foundation and view on how nursing came into existence and how nursing has always strived for higher education. Before World War II great strides were made for university nursing programs, with the onset of war and the need for nurses, diploma and associates nursing found its place (Creasia and Friberg, 2011). Many feel that the nursing shortage is the reason that diploma and associates nurses programs still exist. Though, with the growing population that has increasing comorbidities it is more important than ever for nurses to have higher education. References American Association of Colleges of Nursing. 2012. Fact Sheet: Creating a More Highly Qualified Nursing Workforce. Retrieved from http://www. aacn. nche. edu/media-relations/NursingWorkforce. pdf American Association of Colleges of Nursing. 2012. The Impact of Education on Nursing Practice. Retrieved from http://www. aacn. nche. edu/media-relations/fact-sheets/impact-of-education Creasia and Friberg. (2011). Conceptual foundations: The bridge to professional nursing practice. (5th ed. ) St. Louis, Missourit: Mosby Inc. Retrieved from http://pageburstls. elsevier. com/#/books/978-0-323-06869-7/pages/47247567 Grand Canyon University. (n. d. ). Registered Nurse to Bachelor of Science in Nursing (RN to BSN). Retrieved from http://www. gcu. edu/degree-programs/registered-nurse-to-bachelor-of-science-in-nursing.

How to Create a Marketing Plan Essay

When was the last time you dusted off that marketing plan you created for your business? Wait, you do have a marketing plan, right? Well, if your marketing plan somehow found its way to the recycle bin or if you have actually never planned out a marketing strategy for your business then BusinessMarketingBlog is going to help you. Before we jump into the 6 Simple Steps to Developing A Marketing Plan, it is important that you understand the following elements of every successful marketing plan: 1) Spend the time and resources to plot out your marketing strategy and budget 2) Implement your marketing plan 3) Analyze and adjust your marketing plan as needed 4) Refine your marketing plan for the upcoming year, quarter, month, etc. 6 Steps to an Effective Marketing Plan Step 1: Define the Purpose of Your Marketing Efforts Before you can create a successful marketing plan you must have a strong understanding of what the purpose of your marketing plan is. QUESTION: What do I want people to do after they have been exposed to my marketing? Your answer should be something very specific, not something vague like â€Å"I want my marketing to help my business grow.† Here are some common purposes that business owners use to drive their marketing efforts: * Get someone to pick up the phone and call me * Entice someone to email me * Get people to tell others about my marketing / business HINT: The more thought and planning you put into this first step, the higher your conversion rates will be throughout your marketing efforts. Step 2: Determine Your Competitive Advantage and Emphasize It Now that you have pinned down a couple of the purposes for your marketing plan it is time to think about and plan out how you are going to get people to complete these actions. QUESTION: Why will people take the specified actions you have identified? You must determine what your competitive advantage is over your competitors. Sure, you probably have a lot of great benefits and value adds,  but you need determine your one strongest and most specific competitive advantage. HINT: Stress your competitive advantage as a solution to a problem (if possible). Step 3: Determine Your Target Audience Your marketing plan cannot be effective unless you know the specific demographics of the customers you are trying to reach. Again, try to be as specific as possible as the most effective marketing plans are centered around targeted, accurate broadcasting and not so much reaching the highest number of people possible. A thousand random prospects will usually not earn you as much profit as 10 of the right prospects. QUESTION: Which group of people will be most accepting and willing to receive my marketing message? You can save a ton of money by knowing who your target audience is and tailoring your marketing to that group of people. HINT: Identify ALL of your target groups, BUT market to each group with tailored, targeted messages. Step 4: Determine Your Marketing Methods There are so many ways to market a business these days; however, only a few marketing methods and mediums are raising to the top as being the most cost effective and penetrating. Get out of your old, set ways of how marketing needs to be and expand your efforts into some of today’s most effective means of reaching prospects. Ask yourself this question: QUESTION: Which marketing strategies will allow me to reach my prospects where they are without annoying or interrupting them and will I be able to directly track the results of these efforts? Online marketing is one of, if not, the most cost effective ways to market a business these days. We recommend a comprehensive marketing campaign that includes all of the following online marketing methods: * Business Website and/or Blog * Paid Search Marketing * Search Engine Optimization * Social Media Marketing * Email Marketing * Video Marketing HINT: Hire a professional to implement and maintain these online marketing services for you. You will save a ton of money in the long run. Step 5:  Determine Your Niche Now that you have pin-pointed your purpose, benefits and target market, you need to define your niche. Ask yourself this question: QUESTION: When people hear your product / business / company name, what’s the first thing that crosses their minds? Is it price, speed, exclusivity, service, value or something else? Your answer to this is your niche, also known as positioning, and it is what your prospects see and expect from you. The more defined and specialized your business becomes, the more likely it is to succeed in the long run so put some thought into this one. HINT: Once you define your niche, specialize in it as much as possible and communicate this niche throughout all of your marketing Step 6: Determine Your Marketing Budget Last, but most definitely not the least important, is to define what your marketing budget is for your business. Your marketing budget is something that should be evaluated at least 4 times a year, if not more. You should stick to your planned budget as much as possible. Too often do we see businesses get nervous in tough economies and decide to cut expenses with marketing being one of the first to see cuts. QUESTION: Do you really think that cutting your marketing budget or holding off on aggressive marketing is going to position your business appropriately in any economy? Marketing is not something you should ever cut corners on, especially in down economies when opportunities are ripe for cheaper market penetration. We recommend preparing to spend at least 10% of your gross sales on marketing your business. HINT: Calculate your marketing budget using your projected gross sales; this will help you operate in a growth mode. If you work off of your current sales then you will be plan ning a marketing strategy to just tread water. Putting It All Together These 6 steps are more than enough to get you started on developing a real marketing plan for your business. There are many more elements to a full scale marketing plan that deserves time, research and planning; however, once this work is done and you are able to see, follow, analyze and refine your marketing plan we can almost guarantee that your business will be taken to new levels of success that you have not experienced yet. Good luck and  please let us know if you need assistance or have specific questions about any or all of the steps outlined above.

Single Mothers in Poverty

Single Mothers in Poverty Midterm Essay 1 After doing the exercise of creating a budget for a single mother with two kids who is trying to â€Å"make ends meet† on a minimum-wage job, I have come to have so much compassion for those struggling with this dilemma. The odds are highly against a poor woman trying to do her best raising her children on a low-income job, some might even say that it would be impossible to do alone.The hurdles of expensive daycare, the rising cost of housing, the low-availability of welfare for women already working, the demanding natures of jobs which don’t allow for paid medical leave, and the skyrocketing costs of health care, all contribute to the poverty of single mothers. While I was taking a deeper look into this problem, it became abundantly clear to me that this is definitely a big â€Å"public issue† that needs to be addressed from a social policy standpoint. One of the biggest issues facing America today is poverty.One of the single most contributing factors of poverty is single-parent (namely single mother) households. Certainly it’s easy to look at individual families like these and see a string of individual choices. Yet, it goes far beyond â€Å"personal trouble† and is definitely considered to be a â€Å"public issue† (a â€Å"public crisis† one might say). As Mills sates in The Sociological Imagination, â€Å"Perhaps the most fruitful distinction with which the sociological imagination works is between ‘the personal troubles of milieu' and ‘the public issues of social structure’† (Mills, pg. 2).Let’s zoom out and look at the bigger picture here. â€Å"The poverty rate among children is higher in the United States than in most other major Western industrialized nations† (Leon-Guerrero, pg. 44). When looking at the single mothers who raise these children, the poverty rate in the U. S. for these women is far above the average in other high income countries, even though the single mother employment rate in the U. S. is also above the average. Less generous income support programs in the U. S. help explain the exceptionally high poverty rate for single mother families in the U.S (forbes. com). This clearly demonstrates the legitimacy of this being a public issue. It’s true that more and more children are growing up in single parent households, and many of these families struggle to get by. In fact, â€Å"†¦children are more likely to live in poverty than Americans in any other age group† (Leon-Guerrero, pg. 44). But that’s not an accident of poor choices: while single parenthood has been skyrocketing, we’ve also been paring back the supports that could help these families stay afloat. Single mothers have an especially hard time getting out of poverty.Households headed by single mothers are four times as likely to be poor as are families headed by married couples (Leon-Guerrero, pg. 46). Not only that, but, â€Å"Single-parent families are more vulnerable to poverty because there is only one adult income earner, and female heads of household are disadvantaged even further because women in general make less money than men do† (Leon-Guerrero, pg. 46). In fact, â€Å"Families with a female householder and no spouse present were more likely to be poor than families with a male householder and no spouse present, 28. % versus 13. 8%† (Leon-Guerrero, pg. 45). And because the majority of single-parent households are headed by single-mothers, this inevitably increases the rate of poverty nationwide. Most of these mothers live in relative poverty, which refers to, â€Å"†¦a situation in which some people fail to achieve the average income or lifestyle enjoyed by the rest of society† (Leon-Guerrero, pg. 40). Take childcare for instance; the high cost of taking care of one’s child is crippling to a single mother making minimum wage and alm ost immediately plummets her into relative poverty.On average, a poor mother spends 32 percent of her total weekly income on child care. This percentage nearly doubles when more than one child needs care (forbes. com). When a family is faced with relative poverty, the affects spread wide. Income loss appears to affect the well-being of children indirectly through negative impact on family relations and parenting. Single parents experience a variety of stressors related to poverty (i. e. , financial, emotional, social). Single mothers must obtain sufficient money to cover the most basic needs, such as food, shelter, and clothing. Wealth is a particularly important indicator of the individual and family access to life chances. Wealth is a special form of money not used to purchase milk and shoes and other life necessities. More often it is used to create opportunities, secure desired stature and standard of living, or pass class status along to one’s children† (Leon-Guerr ero, pg. 39). So, what about solutions? â€Å"The sociological imagination will also help us make a second connection: the one between social problems and social solutions† (Leon-Guerrero, pg. 23).When looking at public issues, the textbook makes it clear that, â€Å"Solutions require social action – in the form of social policy, advocacy, and innovation – to address problems at their structural or individual levels† (Leon-Guerrero, pg. 20). It is essential that we take a fresh look at our national policies — and their dismal results. Not only are U. S. poverty rates extremely high, with one out of five children living in poverty (Leon-Guerrero, pg. 40); crime rates are also high, with all the resulting costs not only to crime victims, but to taxpayers in court, prison and other attendant public expenses.Even more costly is the enormous price our nation is paying, and will pay, if we continue not to invest in a remedy to this poverty crisis. So, if single parenthood and poverty are so closely related, some people say, we should spend hundreds of millions of dollars promoting marriage to help children avoid poverty (and other problems). That’s what the government has done, with money from the welfare budget. Even if it worked (which it apparently doesn’t) it’s only one approach. What about reducing poverty?And, more specifically, what about reducing the relative likelihood of poverty in single-parent families versus those with married parents? That is, address the poverty gap between the two groups, rather than the size of the two groups. This has the added advantage of not singling out one group — single mothers — for social stigmatization. And, because it defines the problem as economic rather than moral, may make it easier to build public support for helping the poor. Although, â€Å"Helping our nation’s poor has been an administrative priority of many U. S. presidents† (Leon -Guerrero, pg. 0), the poverty problem does not seem to be getting much better. Maybe we need to change the conversation about we’re facing here. The conversation about single mothers should focus on how the extreme poverty of U. S. woman-headed families is a symptom of failed U. S. policies. And the conversation about the U. S. economy should focus on the urgent need for a caring economy. We are clearly lacking a â€Å"caring economy† when we are compared to other wealthy nations, â€Å"U. S. wage and welfare programs are much smaller than similar programs in other countries† (Leon-Guerrero, pg. 46). Issues have to do with matters that transcend these local environments of the individual and the range of his inner life. They have to do with the organization of many such milieux into the institutions of an historical society as a whole, with the ways in which various milieux overlap and interpenetrate to form the larger structure of social and historical lifeâ⠂¬  (Mills, pg 2). The issue of poverty clearly stems from the larger structure of social and historical life. It is sad to know that our efforts as a wealthy society are not effectively healing this tragic situation.The poverty level of single mothers affects so many areas of our society as a whole, and our nation’s children get the brunt of it. Not only are they raised poor and impoverished, but their quality of education is compromised, the food they eat is low-quality and unhealthful, and most of them never find their way out of poverty. Writing this paper has truly touched my heart and I long to reach out to single mothers and their children who are desperately in need of compassion and support. More importantly, I would like to reach out this election year and see what I can do to promote the well-being of these mothers who are struggling so hard.Budget Summary for Single Mother in Delta County, Colorado The most recent report for minimum wage in Delta County, Colorado is $7. 25 an hour. The total monthly income for a person working full-time at minimum wage is: $1198 (after taxes). Explanation of calculation: 7. 25 * 40 = 290 (a week) 290 * 52 (weeks in a year) = 15,080 15,080 / 12 (months) = 1256 1256 * . 0463 (income tax rate in Delta County 4. 63%) = 58 1256 – 58 = 1198 Housing Costs| $616| Food Costs| $536| Other Necessities:| | Medical| $412| Clothing| $35| Transportation| $439|Childcare| $996| Phone| $40| Laundry/toiletries/cleaning supplies| $52| School supplies and fees| $20| Appliance and furniture| $17| Miscellaneous| $47| Nonessentials| | Entertainment| $20| Cable| $0| Cigarettes and alcohol| $0| Eat out| $25| Lottery| $5| TOTAL| $3260| *This budget reflects the fact that there is absolutely no public transportation in or around Delta County, so the transportation costs include car payment, insurance, and gas costs. This budget also reflects that I would not invest any money in cable, cigarettes, or alcohol.Also, the cost of ch ildcare for two children in Delta County is exorbitant! At any expense, I couldn’t have my 7 year-old child be a latchkey kid so young. The entertainment and costs of eating out are kept to a minimum. I would (just in case) spend $5 a month on the lottery. Clearly, this mother (hypothetically, me) would be nowhere near making ends meet. I would be living in relative poverty, scraping by every day, living hand-to-mouth, and I would have to be very creative with my time and resources. I would have to make almost TRIPLE what I am currently making in order to live comfortably.Most likely, I would reach out to neighbors, church members, community support groups, food banks, and any other possible resource to keep my head above water. Works Cited Covert, Bryce. â€Å"The Rise and Downfall Of The American Single Mother. † Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 16 July 2012. Web. 21 Oct. 2012. ;http://www. forbes. com/sites/brycecovert/2012/07/16/the-rise-and-downf all-of-single-mothers/;. Leon-Guerrero, Anna. Social Problems: Community, Policy, and Social Action. Thousand Oaks, CA: Pine Forge, 2011. Print. Mills, C. Wright. The Sociological Imagination. New York: Oxford UP, 1959. Print.