Developing Strong Academic Study Skills - 926 Words

Developing strong academic study skills in Higher Education is arguably the most important area of learning and development a student can cultivate, in order to achieve academic success. The skills that are acquired, the learning techniques that a student refines and life learning experiences are all going to develop into long-term career prospects and future career enhancement. Some of the key areas for development and discussion in this essay will include note taking/essay writing, critical thinking and analysing questions and reflective thinking skills. A major area for development and improvement revolves around effective note taking and essay planning/writing. As a Higher Education student you will be required to plan and produce countless essays in relation to the course you are studying, and a key point of reference to help with this would come from â€Å"The Guide to Learning and Study Skills for Higher Education and at Work† who give the following advice and tips: ‘Identify the purpose of the essay and who the audience (reader) is and what is required for both – structure your work and develop your arguments/main points – proof read your work and improve language, spelling, punctuation, grammar and style – review what you did and use feedback to improve your essay writing for the future’ (Bingham, R. and Drew, S. 2012 The guide to learning and study skills: For higher Education and at work). With regards to effective note taking in Higher Education, a key starting pointShow MoreRelatedWriting an Academic Essay1224 Words   |  5 PagesAcademic writing is different from other forms of writing; it is distinctive, clear and concise. This essay will describe the factors that contribute to the credibility of an academic piece of writing, and incorporating them effectively into your own writing. In this essay I will further discuss the following three features to enrich credible academic writing; planning and drafting, critical writing and referencing and plagiarism. With an abundant quantity of literature available, it is importantRead MoreDeveloping Good Work Habits1022 Words   |  5 Pagesschool years, students must begin to develop good work habits including preparing for schoolwork, organizing time and effort, and developing effective study skills. As students continue into middle school and high school their success depends, to a large degree, on refining and sustaining these work habits. Time management, organizational skills, and efficient study skills become especially important by this stage. Students who are able to develop and maintain good work habits are in a position to succeedRead MoreEssay about Key Prepartions For College Life1127 Words   |  5 Pagescourses, as well as developing good time management skills. Participation in extracurricular activities is important in succeeding in a college environment because it helps students to explore their interests and talents. Challenging courses also benefit students because they h elp to prepare students academically for the demanding workload found in college. Time management is yet another important skill to have because it will help students to manage their time between academics and socialization ParticipationRead MoreMy Highest Level Qualification Is Useful For The Target Audience And The Medium Of Communication Essay1621 Words   |  7 Pagesextensive experience in academic administration; or an equivalent combination of relevant experience and/or education/training. My highest-level qualification is a Master of Business and Information Technology (completed at an average of 83%), while I have over 20 years’ experience at three different universities across a variety of relevant roles. Knowledge and Skills -Essential †¢ Advanced level of written communication skills and effective interpersonal and oral communication skills. I possess highRead MoreThe Arts And How It Is Beneficial1624 Words   |  7 PagesThe Arts and How It Is Beneficial Over the years, numerous studies and surveys have been conducted about the arts and if and how they are valuable. An overwhelming approval for the arts were shown in nearly all forms of studying the benefits of the arts. Online articles and other media are just a few samples of these studies. Among these articles, states how The arts are essential for the developing brain, for applying and learning skills, for maintaining positive mental health, and for buildingRead MoreUnited Kingdom Council For International Student Affairs965 Words   |  4 Pagesgo on discussing other obstacles such as, academic skills and plagiarism, which international students might face during their degree. One of the greatest challenges that face students in their degree is the language barrier, which many students feel less confident to speak, read, listen and write in a language that is different from their mother tongue. One possible implication of this is that students who have week academic English abilities and skills that could affect negatively on their proficiencyRead MoreMy Highest Level Qualification Is A Master Of Business And Information Technology Essay1744 Words   |  7 Pagesat an average of 83%), while I have over 20 years’ experience at three different universities across a variety of relevant roles. Excellent written communication skills and effective interpersonal and oral communication skills. I possess high level skills in both written and verbal communications as evidenced by my tertiary studies and professional involvement in, inter alia, the development of course and program submissions, student communications, policies and procedures, web content, staffRead MoreThe Academy Of Business And Entrepreneurship Charter School1408 Words   |  6 PagesI. SCHOOL DESIGN The Academy of Business and Entrepreneurship Charter School is a K-12 model school utilizing a unique combination of PA Common Core Standards aligned curriculum and specialized programming with a focus on developing 21st Century skills to prepare students for their post- secondary goals. It will open its doors in 2014, starting with 240 students in grades K-5 and add a grade a year to reach K-9 during the course of the initial charter. However, as the model is envisioned as a fullRead MoreThe Synthesis Of Semiconductor Devices982 Words   |  4 PagesThe synthesis of semiconductor devices in microelectronics and photonics applications has always fascinated me, and the field of developing electronic and photonic solid-state devices is a field that I find continuously interesting and rewarding. The physics behind these devices and their manufacturing are consistently setting new limits or allowing for new methods that produce useful applications. By embracing and driving research, ind ustries which rely on evolving electronic devices and methodsRead MoreThe Sense Of Belonging And Interpersonal Connectivity1222 Words   |  5 Pagesby solitary thoughts, feel lonely and lose interest in many social interaction opportunities (Goodenow, 1993). This in turn is attributed to dwindling academic performance, as the students don’t feel accepted and motivated within the social parameters around them (Goodenow, 1993). Considerable research has shown that people who don’t have strong relationship ties with others experience more stress than their peers, chiefly due to the solitary thoughts which engulf their minds and frequently convince

Double Consciousness Invisible Man And The Bluest Eye

Double-Consciousness in Invisible Man and The Bluest Eye W.E.B DuBois was a well-known civil rights activists, Pan-Africanist, and a co-founder of the NAACP. Double-consciousness is a phrase coined by DuBois in his novel The Souls of Black Folks in 1903, which describes the idea of double-consciousness as a state of affairs in which an individual is both representative of and immersed in two distinct ways of life. When DuBois introduced this phrase, he was specifically talking about black Americans in the United States who face a double jeopardy of being identified as black and American while having to deal with the injustices of Jim Crow America. Black Americans, unlike their white counterparts, have this internal conflict of having to identify with their ‘black’ culture, which was stripped from them and deemed improper and the American experience, which denied them of their basic human rights through systematic oppression. Black Americans have always dealt with having to see themselves through the perspective of the society they live in and needing to prove their worth in order to obtain a sense of belonging. Ralph Ellison’s Invisible Man and Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eyes are able to depict the psychological trauma of what double-consciousness does to an individual through the eyes of their main characters who suffer immensely due to their social circumstances. Through racial discontent and self-realization acknowledged in both Ellison s Invisible Man and Morrison’sShow MoreRelatedThe Bluest Eye-Theme of Vision1553 Words   |  7 PagesToni Morrison’s highly acclaimed debut work, The Bluest Eye, is one of unquestionable beauty and intricately woven prose. As a fictional writer, Morrison avails herself of her literary faculties, using her mastery of description in order to convey an unusually lucid picture to the reader. The five senses seem to envelop a great deal of description in the novel, most notably that of sight. As has been discovered by virtue of studying the bra in’s neural and cognitive machinery, vision occupies large

Terrorism Financing Finance

Question: Write about Terrorism Financing? Answer: Terrorism Financing Terrorist financing and money laundering raises an important issue in most of countries regarding the detection, prevention and prosecution. Different terrorist groups get the financial support from the act of terrorism financing. The governments of the States maintain the list of terrorist organiations. The States will employ laws for preventing the money laundering, which helps those organizations financially (Irwin et al. 2014). The money laundering and terror financing laws are exercised worldwide. Terrorist groups use sophisticated techniques to launder money and finance terrorism, such as, financial dealings using the financial institutions and related entities like financial advisors, service providers as intermediaries, etc. Money laundering is a profit-making crime, which includes drug trafficking, tax evasion, corruption, fraud, market manipulation. To control the terrorist financing, the United Nations (UN) made frequent efforts by signing various international treaties, to fight against finance which helps terrorism (Othman and Ameer, 2014). Terrorist groups find support from many countries, individuals or organisations, and the criminal activities by which they generate revenue. The funds raised in the means of money laundering by the terrorist. Therefore, the banks and the financial organisations are able to track and identify the financial activity of the terrorist organisations. The key issues in financing the terrorists are money laundering and terrorism financing. To stop the money laundering and terrorist financing, we can emphasize five areas, such as, The criminalization of terrorist financing The improvement of international and domestic cooperation Value transfer system Non-profit organizations, and The freezing of assets (Irwin, Choo and Liu, 2012) We are discussing the areas as follows: (a) The criminalization of terrorist financing The researchers of the criminalization of terrorism financing faced difficulty to establish any rule which criminalizes the act of funding previously defined as comprehensive. Terrorism financing was separated from the actual terrorism and defined as a separate legal offence. This act of separation provides greater powers to the authorities to prevent the terrorism (Walters et al. 2012). Terrorist financing and acts perceived by some people who believes to be justified politically by their aims. This perception distracts their attention that they cannot assume the act as a crime, and they effectively engages in national and international combat of terrorism and its related financing. Determination of effectiveness of the legislation for criminalizing terrorism financing is a difficult task. Criminalization of terrorist financing is supposed to be the preventive effect as the provisions of terrorist financing recently introduced. Beyond the investigations and conviction, number of prosecutions, or the assets would be confiscated under the criminal laws for terrorism financing, the indicators should consider these as assess effectiveness. There should be an assessment of effectiveness under any jurisdiction which should include evaluation (Hamin, Othman and Kamaruddin, 2014). (b) The improvement of international and domestic cooperation When all the relevant agencies evolved with an understanding of the topic of terrorism financing, shrted information between each other and have a common agenda, then there is a need for international and domestic cooperation. The transparent and corruption free economies are fully equipped with appropriate regulatory, anti money laundering and institutional frameworks. These economies give fully effective global and local effort to prevent the terrorism financing. Several assessor bodies discovered that a lot of important domestic agencies have lack of staffs, are not trained and requires permission and powers regarding the terrorism financing issues. The well-developed domestic agencies must give the permission and have powers to deal with the terrorist financing with the intention of building effective global regime and partnerships of public and private area (Hayes, 2013). Measurement of the effectiveness of international cooperation and national coordination is very difficult. There is a very less research to identify all of the obstructions in the national system that has obstructed the international cooperation. States are not able to use all the effective legal instruments included in the conventions available for the mutual legal extradition and assistance in handful cases of suspected financial terrorism (Halonen, 2012). (c) Value transfer system The terrorist groups and terrorists use many methods for disposal of funds move around worldwide. These groups can use the formal financial methods or any unregulated channels, or move the cash across the borders. There are evidences to show that the groups of terrorists exploited the international trade systems to shift value from one place to the other for the illegal purpose. The individuals and organizations, sometimes within the same organization, could make these illegal transactions. There are some private donors, who donated value for illegal purposes. The transfer of values plays an important role to bring the terrorists together (Camacho, 2013). When any financial organization detected such a suspicious transaction, they should report it to the respective authority. The respective authority should take the appropriate action to analyse such transactions and determine the involvement of the terrorism financing. States should take the responsibility to build the border control agents to control the cross border cash transactions. Prompt and early detection of of risks can be made by new technologies. The authorities may decide which technology should be used for the detection. The regulators, financial institutions and international financial institutions should provide the guidelines for best practices and aware about the terrorism financing to mitigate the risk (Dean, Thompson and Keatinge, 2013). (d) Non-profit organizations Non-profit organizations (NPO) describe the surplus of entities from the domicile associations of the societies, which gather money for supporting the relief work worldwide. NPOs are one of the ways, which used by the terrorist organizations for terrorism financing. States already implemented some controls aiming to limit the risk carried by the NPOs. However, the effectiveness of the existing measures or the level of risks is remains unclear. States uses the financial authorities, institutions and the NPOs as the key tools or instruments to protect the financial sectors from abuse (Pok, Omar and Sathye, 2014). The States should recognise the NPOs themselves involved in terrorism financing and the NPOs exploited by the terrorist financiers. The types of abuse should determine before any action is enforced to NPOs. If an individual is suspected, there is no reason to shut down the NPO. The States should take action proportionate to the action of the NPO and reflect the specific risk (Brzoska, 2014). (e) Freezing of assets One of the effort to interrupt with the global terrorism is freezing the assets of the designated entities and persons. The United Nations Security Council targeted the specific groups or parties and confiscated the assets. This effort became weak globally as many countries have no legal framework to confiscate the property or money of the terrorists. Sometimes, despite having legal framework, there is no implementation (Cooper, 2014). When the State freezes or confiscates the money or property of an individual, that person has the right to inform and able to see the evidence against him. The procedure for designation is also being informed to the individual. Government should issue the guidance on the domestic level for unfreezing. States also consider for the national help desk relating to the issue of freezing or unfreezing for the financial institutions. In this regard, the participation of the private sector is also necessary. The State should avoid the problems created by its regulation upon the financial institutions which may conflict with the regulations of the other country. A national policy mechanism should be maintained by the State to guarantee the implementation of freezing compulsion and distribute a list to the financial institutions and the organizations that are able to identify the assets of the terrorists. The terrorist list of one country may be distributed to the other countries (Png, DeFeo a nd Hicks, 2015). Illustration An international NGO/charity organization wanted to open a bank account in Nigeria through Bank A. Bank A while investigate, found that the NGO and one director was involved in a case of terrorist financing. A Suspicious Transaction Report was filed with the Nigeria Financial Intelligence Unit. On analysis of the statements and transactions of the NGO, inconsistency found in the account. There was regular deposits and withdrawals in those areas where terrorist activities occured by some persons not connected with the NGO. Funds transferred by a foreigner from a foreign jurisdiction known as the state sponsor of terrorism. Investigations established that the NGO operated in Nigeria for a long time and maintained many bank accounts. The respective NGO is affiliated by an NGO that supported terrorist groups including Al Qaeda. Finally, it was proved that the charity operations of the NGO actually supported the Hamas, an extremist organization of Palestine. This case illustrated the vulnerability of charities and NGOs to terrorist financing as they are able to move their funds in various locations (Freeman, 2011). Conclusion The occurrence of terrorism and its financing is indisputable. To raise funds, the terrorists and the terrorist organisations use illegitimate and legitimate means. The funds are used for their personal maintenance and for their families. The terrorists use to move the cash by all sorts of formal and informal ways (Parker, 2014). Surveillance and security of several national and international borders are very weak. This is one of the reasons of flourishing the terrorism day by day. There is lack of law enforcement, the security and intelligence services are short of capability and efficiency that are challenging the terrorists and the terrorism financing. References Brzoska, M., 2014. Consequences of Assessments of Effectiveness for Counterterrorist Financing Policy.Administration Society, p.272. Camacho, A.R., 2013. Modelling the Risk Profiles of Clients in the Fight Against Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing.International Journal of Business and Economics,12(2), pp.97-120. Cooper, K.A., 2014.A critical examination of the anti-money laundering legislative framework for the prevention of terrorist finance with particular reference to the regulation of alternative remittance systems in the UK(Doctoral dissertation, University of Leeds). Dean, A., Thompson, E. and Keatinge, T., 2013. Draining the Ocean to Catch one Type of Fish: Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Global Counter-Terrorism Financing Regime.Perspectives on Terrorism,7(4). Freeman, M., 2011. The sources of terrorist financing: Theory and typology.Studies in Conflict Terrorism,34(6), pp.461-475. Halonen, L., 2012. Catch Them If You Can: Compatibility of United Kingdom and United States Legislation against Financing Terrorism with Public International Law Rules on Jurisdiction.Emory Int'l L. Rev.,26, p.637. Hamin, Z., Othman, M.B. and Kamaruddin, S., 2014. Watching the Watchers: The Financial Action Task Force (FATF) and the Gatekeeping Role of Lawyers under the Anti-Money Laundering and Anti-Terrorism Financing (AML/ATF) Regime in Malaysia. In4th International Conference on Law and Society (ICLAS IV), Auditorium, Academic Building, UniSZA(Vol. 10). Hayes, B., 2013. How international rules on countering the financing of terrorism impact civil society.CIVICUS (2013), State of civil society, pp.117-126. Othman, R. and Ameer, R., 2014. Institutionalization of risk management framework in Islamic NGOs for suppressing terrorism financing: Exploratory research.Journal of Money Laundering Control,17(1), pp.96-109. Parker, M., 2014.Cicero, money and the challenge of'new terrorism': is counter terrorist financing (CTF) a critical inhibitor? Should the emphasis on finance interventions prevail?(Doctoral dissertation, University of St Andrews). Png, C.A., DeFeo, M. and Hicks, T., 2015. Design and implementation of a capacity development programexperience with combating money laundering and financing of terrorism in Mongolia.Journal of Money Laundering Control,18(4), pp.488-495. Pok, W.C., Omar, N. and Sathye, M., 2014. An Evaluation of the Effectiveness of Antià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ money Laundering and Antià ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ terrorism Financing Legislation: Perceptions of Bank Compliance Officers in Malaysia.Australian Accounting Review,24(4), pp.394-401. Samantha Maitland Irwin, A., Raymond Choo, K.K. and Liu, L., 2012. Modelling of money laundering and terrorism financing typologies.Journal of Money Laundering Control,15(3), pp.316-335. SM Irwin, A., Slay, J., Raymond Choo, K.K. and Lui, L., 2014. Money laundering and terrorism financing in virtual environments: a feasibility study.Journal of Money Laundering Control,17(1), pp.50-75. Walters, J., Smith, R.G., Davis, B., Choo, K.K.R. and Chadwick, H., 2012. The anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing regime in Australia: Perceptions of regulated businesses in Australia, The.AIC reports. Research and Public Policy series., p.83.

Usa and Middle East, Heirs to a Millenium of Missteps

The USA and the Middle East experience a relationship today that bears the stamp of a millennium and more of crucial decisions on both sides.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Usa and Middle East, Heirs to a Millenium of Missteps specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More From nearly the first years of contact between people of European descent and the peoples of the Middle East, these decisions have reflected more misunderstanding and self-interest than statesmanship or vision. There are several moments over this span of time that stand out as opportunities: periods in history when relations could have been turned towards tolerance and even cooperation, but were not. Three examples of these are: the medieval push to take control of religiously important sites in what is today Israel, the betrayal of the region at the end of World War I, and more recently, the failure of Arab governments to adopt the best practices of modern governance. While these are by no means exhaustive, they are exemplary. In the 11th century, the hardline, and an altered attitude of the Seljukian Turks towards Christian pilgrims prompted outrage and ill-organized crusades. However, a glance at a map of the area suggests the great potential advantage to the nations north of the Mediterranean of control over the sea lanes in the Mediterranean and eastward. Trade, at the least, would be easier if European powers controlled this region. This may have been the reason for the increasing emphasis on naval campaigns in the later Crusades (Bridges 10). In this instance, a more tolerant attitude by the Seljukian Muslims towards Christian pilgrims who had moved with relative freedom through the region for a long time would have made a great difference. After all, the Muslim faith had already successfully, albeit violently, taken over as much as two thirds of the European continent (Madden, Hillenbrand and Ryan). However, the behav ior of the Europeans was regarded as boorish and ignorant by the Saracens, so there was probably fault on both sides (Madden, Hillenbrand and Ryan). This was a chance for mutual understanding that was thrown away. At the end of World War, after taking advantage of the Arab revolt to topple the Ottoman Empire, the Allies secretly agreed to partition the area. The Balfour agreement, also secret, promised the Jewish people a homeland in Palestine. These baldly self-interested betrayals and subterfuges were the reasons that prompted T.E. Lawrence to work for three years to make the Arab revolt as effective as possible (Lawrence).Advertising Looking for research paper on international relations? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More This double-dealing gave the Middle Eastern countries a very good reason to resent the Allies (Lawrence). It also injected a massive and persistent disruptor into the area in the form of the Zionist homeland (Zakaria, Why do They Hate Us?) . This dishonesty was probably not necessary and fairer dealings could have laid the groundwork for greater cooperation. Over the decades since then, the sponsorship by the USA of Israel has colored all US-Middle Eastern relations. More recently, the increasing interests of the European countries and the United States in regional oil have distorted matters further (Djerejian) (Atiemo). The Middle Eastern countries have not achieved the development of modern governments and what the West regards as desirable liberties and markets. To some degree, this retarding of governmental evolution was enhanced by the use of several countries as proxies for the former USSR (Djerejian) (Ahmadov). Many of the countries of the Middle East have, additionally, cut themselves off from many of the advantages of the Western world, often, according because of a distaste for the values associated with them (Ozdemir) (Christie, Zwarun and Clark) (Woods). It is possible that if the West had not been more honest and less self-interested, these nations might have turned towards Europe rather than to the USSR or to fundamentalism. Thus, the West and the Middle East may have had chances for rapprochement, which have been discarded. As far back as the Middle Ages, and in both the Twentieth and Twenty-first centuries, approaches have been taken that plunged increasing wedges of distrust and distaste between the two. These turning points should be our guide to avoiding such bad choices in the future. Works Cited Ahmadov, Ramin. â€Å"The U.S. Policy toward Middle East in the Post-Cold War Era.† Alternatives: The Turkish Journal of International Relations Spring/Summer 2005. Web. http://www.alternativesjournal.net/volume4/number1/ramin.pdf. Atiemo, Nancy. â€Å"What is the relationship between the United States’ energy policy and its foreign policy in the Middle EastT?† n.d. Dundee University. Web. http://www.dundee.ac.uk/cepmlp/car/html/ CAR10_ARTICLE21.PDF.Advertising We will write a custom research paper sample on Usa and Middle East, Heirs to a Millenium of Missteps specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Bridges, Cyprian. Sea Powerand Other Studies. Echo Library, 2006 . Web. https://books.google.com/books?hl=enlr=id=UTuZeVOU23QCoi=fndpg=PA1dq=%22why+did+the+crusades%22ots=ASWFLQn7mZsig=PKfclXE1VzsZHnjVTgNLrSoxgWU#v=onepageq=%22%20crusades%22f=false. Christie, Thomas B., Lara Zwarun and Andrew M. Clark. â€Å"Finding a Credible Message to Win Hearts and Minds of the Muslim World: Article 2.† Global Media Journal Volume 5.Issue 8 (2006). Web. http://lass.calumet.purdue.edu/cca/gmj/PDF_archive/amer_edition/spring2006/2%20Christie%20Clark%20Zwarun.pdf. Djerejian, Edward P. â€Å"The US and the Middle East in a Changing World, The.† Department of State Dispatch 444 (1992). Washington: HeinOnline, 2 June 1992. Web. http://heinonline.org/HOL/LandingPage?co llection=journalshandle=hein.journals/dsptch5div=246id=page=. Lawrence, Thomas Edward. â€Å"Introductory Chapter.† Seven Pillars of Wisdom. 2012. Web. http://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks01/0100111h.html. Madden, Thomas, Carole Hillenbrand and Antonia Ryan. â€Å"The Crusades: Why the Crusades Stil Matter: An Interview with Carole Hildebrand and Thomas Madden.† 24 February 2006. National Catholic Reporter. Web. http://www.natcath.org/NCR_Online/archives2/2006a/022406/022406a.php. Ozdemir, Erhan. â€Å"Globalization and Its Impact on the Middle East.† 2008. US Navy Post-Graduate School. Web. http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?verb=getRecordmetadataPrefix=htmlidentifier=ADA493849. Woods, Joshua. â€Å"The Common Enemy Rationale: An Attempt to Apply Concepts of Cognitive Consistency to the Portrayals of the United States in the Foreign Press.† Fall 2005. Purdue.edu. Web. https://lass.calumet.purdue.edu/cca/gmj/PDF_archive/amer_edition/fall2005/4%20Woods.pdf.Advertis ing Looking for research paper on international relations? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Zakaria, Fareed. â€Å"Why do They Hate Us?† n.d. http://xa.yimg.com/kq/groups/12447013/417620819/name/whydotheyhateus.pdf. This research paper on Usa and Middle East, Heirs to a Millenium of Missteps was written and submitted by user Channing G. to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

How to Ask Your Parents for Money in College

How to Ask Your Parents for Money in College Asking your parents for money while youre a college student is never easy or comfortable. Sometimes, however, the costs and expenses of college are more than you can handle. If youre in a situation where you need to ask your parents (or grandparents, or whomever) for some financial help while in school, these  suggestions should help make the situation a little easier. 6 Tips for Asking for Financial Help Be honest. This is probably the most important. If you lie and say you need money for rent but dont use the money for rent, what are you going to do when you really do need money for rent in a few weeks? Be honest about why you are asking. Are you in an emergency? Do you want a little money for something fun? Have you totally mismanaged your money and run out before the semester ended? Is there a great opportunity you dont want to miss but cant afford?Put yourself in their shoes. Most likely, you know how they are going to react. Will they be worried about you because you had a car accident and need money to fix your car so you can continue to drive to school? Or furious because you  blew your entire semesters loan check within the first few weeks of school? Put yourself in their situation and try to imagine what theyll be thinking and open to when you finally ask. Knowing what to expect will help you know how to prepare.Know if youre asking for a gift or a loan. You know you nee d money. But do you know if you are going to be able to pay them back? If you aim to  reimburse them, let them know how youll do so. If not, be honest about that, too. Be grateful for the help youve already received. Your parents may be angels or well not. But, most likely, they have sacrificed something money, time, their own luxuries, energy to make sure you made it to school (and can stay there). Be grateful for what theyve done already. And if they cant give you money but can offer other support, be grateful for that, too. They may be doing the best they can, just like you.Think about how to avoid your situation again. Your parents may be hesitant to give you money if they think youre going to be in the same situation next month or next semester. Think about how you got in your current predicament and what you can do to avoid a repeat and let your parents know your plan of action for doing so.Explore other options if possible. Your parents may want to give you money and help out, but it just may not be a possibility. Think about what other options you have, from an on-campus job to an emergency loan from the financial aid office, that can help. Your parents will appreciate knowing that youve looked into other sources besides them.

Top Ten Confused Words [T]

Top Ten Confused Words [T] Top Ten Confused Words [T] Top Ten Confused Words [T] By Maeve Maddox My cumulative list of â€Å"words commonly confused† continues with ten that begin with the letter T. The confusion relates to spelling or meaning. 1. taught / taut The word taught is the past tense of the verb to teach. It is also used as an adjective to mean instructed: â€Å"Howard Phillips Lovecraft, weird fiction writer and primogenitor of modern horror fiction, was a self-taught writer.† The adjective taut means â€Å"pulled tight.† A common error is to spell taut as taught, as in this fishing advice in a magazine called Backpacker: INCORRECT: Use more weight to keep the line taught. CORRECT: Use more weight to keep the line taut. 2. titivate / titillate The verb titivate means â€Å"to spruce up, to make more attractive.† Ex. We decided to titivate the kitchen with new cabinets and countertops. The verb titillate means â€Å"to excite the senses or imagination in an agreeable way.† Ex. Camilla Ochlan has crafted a supernatural mystery-thriller that  will titillate  the palate of even the most discriminating  Sci-Fi Fantasy  reader. The error is to mix them up, as in this example from a restaurant site: INCORRECT: We are sure to have something to titivate your tastebuds. CORRECT: We are sure to have something to titillate your taste buds. 3. tortuous / torturous The adjective tortuous means â€Å"full of twists; complex.† The  tortuous road  we had to climb had one steep and narrow curve after another all the way to the  top. The adjective torturous means â€Å"full of pain or suffering. Ex. More significantly, the book prominently features a scene in which the heroes resort to torturous means in order to extract vital, life-or-death information. The error is to mix them up, although some might argue that a thing can be full of twists and pain at the same time. 4. tenant / tenet A tenant is someone who rents property. Ex. The tenant always paid her rent on time. A tenet is a principle or belief. Ex. The tenet to love one’s neighbor is stated in Leviticus 19:18. The error with these words goes both ways: INCORRECT: This course is designed to give the students an overview of the basic  tenants  of Christian Doctrine. CORRECT : This course is designed to give the students an overview of the basic  tenets  of Christian Doctrine. INCORRECT: Most importantly, stay informed about your rights as a  tenet. CORRECT: Most importantly, stay informed about your rights as a  tenant. 5. than / then The word than is a conjunction used after a comparative adjective or adverb to introduce the second member of the comparison. Ex. She thinks her border collie is smarter than my boxer. The word then is an adverb that refers to a specified time, past or future, as opposed to the present. Ex. We didn’t have enough money for luxuries like books then. 6. through / threw Through is a preposition used to convey the idea of entering the inside of something and coming out the other side: They always go through the churchyard on their way home. Threw is the past tense of the verb to throw: He threw the ball over the fence. The usual error is to spell through as threw, as in this example from a geocaching site: INCORRECT: You will need to go  threw the tunnel  to access this cache. CORRECT: You will need to go  through the tunnel  to access this cache. 7. throws / throes Throws is the third person present singular of the verb to throw: He throws with his left arm. Throws can also be the plural of the noun throw that refers to a light blanket: She keeps throws on all the couches and chairs. Throes is a noun that means â€Å"severe pains.† Figuratively, it can mean â€Å"difficult times.† Ex. The pirate lay in the last throes of death. The Smiths are in the throes of divorce. 8. track / tract As a noun, track is a mark or series of marks left by the passage of something. The Mountie caught the fugitive by following the track left in the snow. One meaning of the noun tract is â€Å"a book or written work treating of some particular topic.† Ex. The evangelists passed out tracts on the subject of salvation. 9. till / ’til Till has different functions, one of which is that of conjunction with the same meaning as until: ‘to the time that; up to the point when†: I will sit here till he agrees to speak to me. The form ’til is an unnecessary shortening of until. The error is in thinking that till is a shortening of until. 10. torpid / turgid The adjective torpid means benumbed or â€Å"devoid of the power or motion of feeling.† Ex.  Even when he was awake he was completely  torpid. The adjective turgid means swollen, distended, puffed out. The word is applied figuratively to language with the meanings inflated, pompous, bombastic. Examples of literal and figurative use: My arm was turgid where the snake had bitten it. Eventually, the movie surrenders to the most turgid Hollywood speechifying and sentimentality, far more so than the original permitted itself to do. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Misused Words category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:7 Types of Narrative Conflict15 Great Word GamesHonorary vs. Honourary

Infection Control Practice in Saudi Arabia Assignment

Infection Control Practice in Saudi Arabia - Assignment Example tive in the modern times that every measure should be taken to reduce the spread of communicable disease which has of late increased the morbidity and mortality rate in Saudi Arabia. Sadly or perhaps even disappointing, the Saudi Arabian Commission of Health Specialty does not request any specific tests of any nature for infection control prior to the renewal of nursing license. This is in light of even the presence of the most lethal and dreadful virus Ebola virus scare in the modern times. While Ebola scare should not only be the cause for having infection prevention and control test (Krisberg, 2013) there are many other benefit that comes with well-educated and trained medical personnel in line of infection prevention and control. This are benefits that are proven scientifically and there is every rationale that the hospitals in Saudi Arabia should adopt measure of identifying the proficiency in infection prevention and control among its member. This can provide information for training need for the nurse on the very line. According to Krisberg (2013) he assert that it is not only important to request Infection Control Test as a prerequisite to renew nursing license in Saudi Arabia, it is imperative also for its benefit across the divide. The benefits touches both on the care givers of the patients and the patients. Proficiency of infection prevention and control is also very beneficial to the government since it reduces the cost of government in caring for the morbidity that is as result of poor measures of infection and control of diseases in the hospital. There are several empirical research that remain as prove that the test could revolutionize the infection prevention and control and henceforth reduce the preventable infection in Saudi Arabia. Despite the resounding empirical research indicating that improved infection prevention and control is very important, the recently released research report of Saudi Arabian practice on infection prevention and

Anything a high school girl would write Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Anything a high school girl would write - Essay Example I reported the act to the authorities so that action could be taken against the wrongdoers. The incident took place after a few months of the beginning of my high school. The victim was a very sweet boy from our class. He was very shy but he was always ready to help everyone. During one of my free periods, I noticed in the corridor that this boy was surrounded by many students of the senior classes. He was standing there and could not do anything. They were slapping him and taunting him for no reason. They snatched his glasses and walked from there laughing. I was watching everything and I did not understand that what I should do. I knew it that my reporting of the incident would result in problems for me as the seniors would also turn against me. I thought for a while and I understood that it was my duty to stand by what was right irrespective of the consequences. I immediately went to the coordinator to report of the incident. The coordinator took a prompt action. She called all the students involved in the act and she issued warning letters to these students. She also called their parents and the matter was forwarded to the principal. Strong action was taken against the students and they were suspended from school. The student who was bullied was not seen in school for many days but he joined in after a few days and he was very quiet and stayed alone. The coordinator arranged counseling sessions for him to overcome the effects that the bullying had left on him. He started to improve and was good again. This incident taught me an important thing that a person should always stand by what is right and should not worry about the consequences. A person should help people who are in need. Furthermore, programs for ending this act of bullying should be designed for assisting students and for the maintenance of a healthy educational environment. This is because the years of school are important for everyone and such unhealthy incidents serve to

The Effects Of The Rising Chinese Economy To The Job Opportunies Essay Example for Free

The Effects Of The Rising Chinese Economy To The Job Opportunies Essay This topic first came to me while browsing the business section of a Border’s bookstore.   Admittedly, at the time, I was searching for ideas for the Research Seminar class.   I was looking for a subject area that met three requirements: it had to be a business-related topic, something that would interest me, and something I knew very little about so that I could learn about something new.  Ã‚   A couple of hours later, I was getting anxious, it was taking longer than expected and absolutely nothing drew my interest. Then a book title caught my attention, â€Å"CHINA  « INC. HOW THE RISE OF THE NEXT SUPERPOWER CHALLENGES AMERICA AND THE WORLD.†Ã‚   The book describes how China, â€Å"once hobbled by poverty and Communist ideology† has come to be the â€Å"supercharged center of global capitalism†.   It discusses the global impact of â€Å"300 million rural Chinese walking off their farms, heading to the cities in the greatest migration in human history†. It talks about China’s growing dominance as an industrial superpower and the profound shift in global economies and how it is already affecting all of us.   I was immediately shocked, curious and fascinated.   All of these are happening and I was completely oblivious to such important developments in China.   I immediately knew that this was the topic for my paper.   Happy with my evening’s work, I made my purchase and left the store. On the train ride home, I began reading the book, which proved to be equally interesting and unsettling.   Many of the predictions do not bode well for workers in the United States, including me!   But that is good, even more reason to focus on this subject matter.   Fishman is just one writer, the purpose of the paper is to research and report on the opinions and studies completed by a number of experts.   Already I was coming up with the paper title â€Å"The rise of the Chinese Economy, Threat or Opportunity for the United Sates† or something of that nature. In the following weeks, I spent many, many hours engrossed researching the growing Chinese economy and how it affects the world.  Ã‚   It seems that the growth of China influences the U.S. in every way.  Ã‚   Since the fall of the USSR, the world has had one superpower, the United States, now China fast and furiously is becoming the rising star and superpower of the East.   Along with becoming an economic power to be reckoned with, it has a growing military strength, something the U.S. fears.    Its economic success means its people have more and want more. China is now second to the U.S. in the demand for commodities such as oil, steel, concrete, water, etc and its demands are growing, again a threat to the United States as they are competing for the same resources.   A booming economy also increases the political standing of the country, so previously where the â€Å"slumbering giant† stayed out of global events that did not impact China, the Chinese government have more and more clout not only within Asia but also Europe and Latin America as well. When the time came to write the paper, I ran into problems.   I had too much information and did not know where to begin.   In many ways, I had over-researched the topic but not really focused on a particular aspect.   The information I had collected was enough for a book, not a chapter. This meant returning to the drawing board and revising the paper but using the information already available to me.   I decided to focus on a very current topic, the role that China has in rising job losses within the United States.   Thus the title for the Research Paper.   BACKGROUND   Since the World Wars, the United States of America has made its presence felt in the world scientifically, economically and politically.   The United States, along with Europe, has led the world in producing new technologies, which other countries adopt, buy and imitate.   The United States also wield economic and political power through its control of food and media.   It is the major supplier of corn, soybeans, wheat and cotton (USDA) and he who controls food controls the world, at least the third-world countries.   This is not to mention it being the foremost supplier of pesticides and fertilizers.   It sells its surplus at cheap price making buying countries dependent on it.   Subsequently, dependence equals power (Greene, 2000). China is the oldest civilization and has been leading in the arts and sciences but it was set back by civil wars, famines, military defeats, and occupations. After the great World Wars, it was imposed under strict governance and not until the leadership of Deng Xiaoping that it reviewed its economy (Huang, 1997).   Now, China is one of the major key players in the international markets and even sending fears to paranoids.   China was once a very Communist country and it may be pitching for world dominance through economy. The People’s Republic of China, an Asian country, has an underestimated population of 1.3 billion people as of 2003 (National Bureau of Statistics, 2003).   It has the largest in the world and the target of different industries, each hoping to get even a small percentage of its buying population. Since 1978, the Chinese economy have quadrupled its GDP and improved its agriculture and industrial sectors.   Its government though is a product between socialism and capitalism. America had been totally under the British rule until some colonies decided cry for independence in 1776.   It was just a colony and now it is undeniably the most powerful country in the world leading in almost everything.   Experiences such as the Civil War of 1861-65 and the Great Depression of the 1930s were the saddest part of its history (Allen, 1967).   Its economy enjoys steady growth, low unemployment and inflation rates and continuous advancement in technology. The United States of America has controlled various economies through their agriculture and military and is currently the lone superpower after the Cold War. The US has market-oriented economy where private entities make their own decisions with the full support of the federal type of government. According from the CIA World Factbook, the United States has the largest economy in the world, with a per capita GDP of $42,000 while China has a GDP of just $7,198 per capita.   The former is known for its power, the latter for its population, but, as you know, the GDP is calculated using population.   The lower GDP does not automatically mean that China is poor, only it has a large number of inhabitants.   Imagine if both countries have the same population, which do you think between the two will have the greater GDP?   But GDP does not dictate the richness or poorness of a country.   Even with a small GDP China is actually the second largest economy in the world after the US.   The reality is China’s enormous population is its biggest asset. Furthermore, the United States with its most advanced economy is suffering a decline in its status.   Though it is enjoying solid increases in real output, low inflation rates, and a drop in unemployment there are emerging problems such as inadequate investment in infrastructures, rapidly increasing medical costs, trade deficits, and stagnation of family income.   This is the opposite with what is happening to China.   China has become the largest trading partner of Asian countries, which are not exactly few. The United States is doing its best to maintain its hold as the most powerful country and the rise of the Chinese economy seem to pose a threat.   Feelings of dissatisfaction over the administration is being felt all over the United States worsened by the lost of jobs , which is attributed to the economy of China getting stronger? China is beginning to influence the world.   Noticeably, it is making a turn around which is not missed especially in the business community as it becomes an industrial powerhouse of the world (Kynge, 2006).  Ã‚   The writer said that China used to account for the third of the global economy and after falling due to different conflicts, it is reemerging as a force in the world. Different studies have been made to establish the facts behind China’s ascent to world economics and the further effects it can bring to global trade.   They intended to identify the factors behind its recovery and the foundation of its economic policies. Also, different studies intended to show the connection between the Chinese rising economy and the rising job losses in the United States.   They tried to prove if there were basis for the claims that there were really links. Results of the studies could be basis for further looking into the Sino-American trade relations and if the US and China will be continuing its agreements or if cooperation is still worth sharing. Results provided general overview about the rising discontent among Americans and what they feel towards China and its policies.   Likewise, they highlighted China’s attitude towards America and its accusations, current economic growth and its overall view to United States as a trading partner. LITERARY REVIEW   Numerous studies have been made regarding US economics and economics in general.   Numerous studies have been made that links one country’s policy with another’s but few have had focused on China as a strong force behind them, that was until the last quarter of the century when governments and different industries recognized that China have been making a comeback and its enormous population is actually being an asset than a liability and they could profit from it. Also, there were articles, reports and journals all devoting discussion towards the emerging economy and its effects to America and the whole world as a whole.   They contain facts and figures alluding their respective claims, some true; sadly, some are not so true. Deficit is produced when the expenditure is higher than the income.   In the case of the US and China it when the outgoing dollar is greater than the incoming Yuan.   In 2003, US-China Economic and Security Review Commission stated that there was a $124 billion US deficit and as of February 2006, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced that the international deficit reached a record of $726 billion for year 2005 $60.3 of which is from US-China trade relations.   That is with China edging to the automobile and oil industry.   Specifically, the value of Yuan, China’s currency was particularly blamed for the deteriorating US economy. The deficit is blamed for the job losses in the United States.   It was said that the deficit came from the trade deficit caused by the import-export relation of the US and the People’s Republic of China.   In an article of Robert E. Scott in AsiaTimes, he claimed that the deficit with China is the reason for the allegedly 1.5 million productions or service related jobs lost starting the last decade of the century.   What was alarming that those jobs were not just on the labor-intensive work but also in the once American-dominated industries like electronics and communications.   This situation worsened when China joined the World Trade Organization. Scott furthered that the most affected states in terms of numeric terms were California (199,922), Texas (99,420), New York (81,721), Pennsylvania (69,822), Illinois (69,668), North Carolina (62,698), Florida (60,026), Ohio (58,094), Michigan (50,991) and Georgia (46,848).   For the total state employment were Maine (14,951, or 2.47%), Arkansas (19,123, 1.67%), North Carolina (62,698, 1.65%), Rhode Island (7,548, 1.56%), New Hampshire (9,443, 1.53%), Indiana (43,533, 1.50%), Massachusetts (46,463, 1.46%), Wisconsin (39,668, 1.43%), Vermont (4,211, 1.41%) and California (199,922, 1.39%). There have been public outcries regarding the job losses. An example was given by then Republican candidate for the US Congress, Jay Helvey.   He stresses that one of the hardest hits was the State of North Carolina suffering from huge job losses blaming the China Currency Policy and pled that the US citizens must be â€Å"armed† so that they can â€Å"fight† the unexpected losses (Helvey, 2003).   China though has made changes over the years. Expectedly, most of the criticisms were directed towards the administration.   Though one out of four factory jobs had disappeared since 1979 giving a total of 2.5 million jobs lost, still, it took more than two decades to lose them compared same amount lost since Bush took office in January 2001 (Vieth, 2003).   The elections even were dictated by the stands of the candidates towards the Sino-American trade.   Voters were as thorough as they were regarding the Iraq issue. As overview, US exports increased fourfold from $5.8 billion in 1989 to $26.1 billion in 2003.   However, it started decreasing and it fell 2.3% to $66.5 billion this November 2006. Likewise, imports increased from $11.9 billion to $151.7 billion and unlike the export figures, it actually increased 1.3% to $155.85 billion during November.   Both resulted to a Sino-American trade deficit increase. What is interesting is that there is a very big similarity between the bulk of China’s export to the US and US’ exports to China: manufacturing goods.   If the US is exporting manufacturing goods, does it make sense to import the same kind of goods as well?   Under globalization it is.   The aim of the free world trade is competition among products based on their quality and value (Destler and Balint, 1999).   Ironic that the blueprint of the American economy is what is creating the reason Americans are claiming responsible for the job losses.   Naturally, consumers would go for cheaper goods.   In this case, they are obviously â€Å"Made from China.†Ã‚   Of course, this deal did not bode well for the US manufacturing industry as affirmed by the ballooning trade deficit. On the other hand, though there have been a slowdown for the previous year (2005), the services and goods sectors of the United States economy achieved strong marks. There have been increases in the services industry growing by 4.1% while the goods industry grew by 2.6%.   Findings for 2005 by the Bureau of Economic Analysis are as follows: information-communications-technology-producing industries experienced double-digit growth of 11.9 percent in 2005, down slightly from 12.9 percent growth in 2004, growth in accommodation and food services accelerated to 4.8 percent in 2005, exceeding its average annual growth of 3.9 percent over the period 1995-2000, and for the second consecutive year, professional, scientific, and technical services growth of 7% exceeded its average annual growth of 6.9 percent over the period 1995-2000    China’s key economic indicators as published by Chinese State Statistical Bureau showed that exports in 1999 from $194.7 billion jump to $249.1 billion in 2000, which was a 27% increase.   Likewise, imports in year 2000 posted an increase of 35% having a value of $214.7 billion from $158.7 billion in 1999.   Both the export and import for 2001 posted an almost 10% increase.   Also, notice that the manufacturing data posted an initial increase of almost 13%. Recent findings stated that: China has been the receiving end of the bulk of US exports ranging from $35 billion to $71 billion in the recent years, exports of electronics, computers, and communications equipments are faring better in sales than that of shoes, apparel and plastic products, China has become one of the worlds leading largest trading nations competing with the United States and Germany as its foreign trade value reached US$1 trillion in the first 11 months of 2004, and Shanghai has overtaken Rotterdam as the No 1 port in terms of cargo handling an average of 380 million metric tons of shipment So far, countries have recognized China as a major player in the market.   Some of them were   Malaysia, Singapore and New Zealand declaring China as having a full market economy status.   This means that the Chinese government has been enjoying   advantages when dealing in the foreign market (Gelken, 2006). Undeniably, whatever some people claims, trade relations between the United States and China has brought something good for both countries.   The trade has given a growth of more than $70 billion since it started in 1978 (US Department of Commerce).   The United States is Chinas single largest export market while China is, as mentioned, is likewise.   The large population of China is also an attraction for US investors as China sales can keep a business very competitive.   On the other hand, China gets the latest technology the US has. For every rise of China in the world market, incidentally there is a corresponding fall for the United States.   Allegedly, the rate of dollar versus yuan is causing tremendous blows to the US economy.   The yuan has been pegged at 7.92 against the dollar since the mid-1990s, and Beijing has begun to allow a modest fluctuation in the last year or so (The Wall Street journal). At the turn of this century, both the Democrats and the Republicans favored the new trade agreements with the world, believing that such agreements would create global markets, creating jobs and raising incomes in the Untied States. (Scott, pg 7)  Ã‚   In 2000, the Clinton administration actively supported China in becoming a member of the World Trade Organization. Likewise, the Bush administration endorsed new international trade agreements.   In 2002, the Senate approved the fast-track trade negotiating authority (Trade Promotion Authority) which Bush described to be a â€Å"watershed moment.†Ã‚   It emphasized foreign trade agreements, creating jobs resulting to higher incomes for American workers (Bush, 2002). Scott, in a research paper for the EPI, investigated Sino-American trade between 1989 and 2003 and its impact on jobs and industries in the U.S.  Ã‚   His research paper showed that international trade agreements have indeed resulted in a growth in exports, but the U.S. trade deficit rose at an alarming rate.   Between 2001 and 2003, exports to China increased by $8 billion, up 44% and during the same two-year time period, U.S. imports increased by $50 billion, or 49%†, the resulting trade deficit increased by 50%.   He concluded that the growing U.S. trade deficit with China between 1989 and 2003 has displaced production supporting 1.5 million U.S. job opportunities (Scott, 1, 7). In the mass of reports and studies, the most affected were the American people, especially the blue-collar workers.   Trade Unions were angry and in March 2004, The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) filed the Section 301 Petition Against China.   The Petition was filed on behalf of the 13 million members of the AFL-CIO, including 6 million manufacturing workers. The AFL-CIO demanded for stiff tariffs on Chinese imports and it claimed that the Chinese government through violation of workers’ rights and failure to enforce its labor laws give China an unfair competitive advantage.   It stated that the exploitation of the Chinese workers costs hundreds of thousands of U.S. manufacturing jobs and puts a heavy weight on U.S. wages.   The petition contended that the difference between the prices of American-made and Chinese-made goods was the result of low wages and the lack of workers’ rights in China.   It should be noted that the Petition was not approved Looking back at the events leading to the China prosper, and if all of the findings were true, it is funny that the US itself had a hand on its decline. It was President George W. Bush who requested to fast-track China’s membership to WTO believing that it would create more jobs for the American people.   During his term, former President Bill Clinton saying China being a member of WTO would be a win-win situation also endorsed it. The most famous analogy for this was that if the United States exports 1,000 products, say, computers, to China, many American workers would be employed in the production.   Interchanging, if the US imports 1,000 computers from China then a similar number of Americans who otherwise could have been employed domestically will have to find other work. In short, increase in exports support the domestic employment while increase in imports displaces domestic production. A study reported by the Nixon Center reported that membership of China to WTO would have encouraged reforms and stability in Asia not to mention it would strengthen the ties of China and United States.   Then Deputy Treasury Secretary Eizenstat outlined the many economic benefits of the bilateral trade deal with China.   He said that the deal is, †¦the most one-sided trade agreement in our favor that has ever been signed with any foreign government. â€Å"To thrive as a WTO member, China will need to become more market based, more respective of personal and commercial goods, and more open to the free flow of information and ideas.   Eizenstat further stressed that the old deal with China regarding trade relations was not enough for the US to access key market concessions.   Besides, the WTO membership would have improved the relationship of Taiwan and China, which were both had tensions way back then (May and Sgro, 2000). Chinas entry into the WTO was supposed to provide openings for a sufficiently rapid growth in US exports to reduce the trade deficit with China. While the export growth rate has increased since 2001 (from a very small base), the value of those exports has been swamped by a rapidly rising tide of imports. The WTO is a free-trade and investment agreement that has provided investors with a unique set of guarantees designed to stimulate foreign direct investment and the movement of factories around the world, especially from the US to low-wage locations such as China and Mexico (Groombridge, 2001). Nicholas Lardy in his economic commentary, â€Å"The Economic Rise of China: Threat or Opportunity,† took a different approach.   It addressed the view that China’s economic rise is a serious threat to jobs in the United States.   He pointed out that, to date, China is responsible only for a very small percentage of manufacturing job losses in the U.S. because many of the manufacturing industries had previously relocated to other Asian countries, namely Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea.  Ã‚   With the availability of an abundant, even cheaper labor pool, China only displaced Hong Kong, Taiwan and Korea to become the major producer and supplier of footwear, toys, games and sporting goods.    A similar transformation occurred with the production of information technology related items, such as computers, laptops, monitors, PC servers, and so on.   A large portion of the $300 billion information technology industry is produced in Asia.   Again, within Asia there has been a migration of production, from Taiwan to China.   By 2000, China had surpassed Taiwan to become the world’s third-largest producer of information technology after Japan and the U.S.   In 2002, China had displaced Japan to rank number two (Lardy, 2003). Also, in reaction to criticisms regarding China trade Daniel Griswold, writer for the Free Trade Bulletin, disagreed.   He argued that there the role of international investment flows had been ignored.   He claimed that the billions of dollars that Americans spend on imports (over and above exports) quickly returns to the country in the form of investments made in U.S. assets such as stocks, bank deposits, commercial and Treasury bonds or as direct investment in factories and real estate. He further claimed that jobs are created as the incoming flow of foreign investments is used to purchase new machinery, fund research and development, and keep interest rates low. (Griswold, 2) In addition, Griswold believed that the central assumption of the EPI model – â€Å"that rising imports directly displace domestic output – collides with the empirical reality.   He said that imports and domestic output rise together in response to demand.  Ã‚   He cited figures from the Federal Reserve Board, the U.S. Department of Commerce Bureau of Economic Analysis, and Ibid. He showed that between 1994 and 2000 when trade deficit was a burden to U.S. economy employment actually rose by a net 12 % and the unemployment rate fell from 6.1% to 4.0 %.   During the same time, the U.S. manufacturing output rose by 40 % though the volume of imported manufactured goods doubled.   Griswold stresses that trade and prosperity go hand-in-hand and efforts to cut imports of manufactured goods will seriously undermine the ability of the U.S. economy to expand output and create jobs (Griswold, 2). In the issue of revaluing yuan, to affected American people especially the blue-collar workers.   Some would say that China is just moving towards progress and some are thankful that it is embracing capitalism, but should part of the American people suffer?   Alarmed and bothered by the voting majority, the Bush administration has joined the clamor for the Asian country to consider changes to its trade policies including revaluing Yuan (The Boston Globe). In February last year, Senator Lindsey Graham, a South Caroline Republican sponsored a bill that will force China to abide by international trade agreements and stop the alleged manipulation of the value of Yuan. Senate hearings revealed that yuan is undervalued against the dollar and maintained at â€Å"narrow band† weakening the dollar.   The â€Å"artificial low value† of Chinese currency subsidizes their exports and serves as unwritten tariff to foreign products.   Expectedly, the Chinese government denied the manipulation accusations and stated that sanctions are not the answers to trade problems (AFX News Limited) But this is not a manipulation of its exchange rate so much as it is a contracting out of its monetary system to the U.S. Federal Reserve Board. That strategy has allowed China to remove the uncertainty of exchange-rate fluctuations from investment decisions and allowed China to grow rapidly while controlling inflation     The Chinese have thus avoided the bane of most developing nations of inept monetary controls leading to price fluctuations and periods of hyperinflation. China was one of the few Asian nations that did not face crippling currency devaluation during the monetary crisis of the late 1990s. Nor is it clear that a yuan revaluation of even 10% to 30% would have any meaningful impact on the U.S. trade deficit. China imports some $100 billion a year of raw materials. A stronger yuan would lower the price of those inputs, and thus of production costs, which could largely offset the impact of the stronger currency on export prices (McKinsey Quarterly). Surprisingly China revalued its currency.   For years, China has been gracefully ignoring urges to revalue their money as such an action would raise the price of their products in the international trade markets.   Also, China learned from history when Hong Kong dollars changed its rate and consequently sank.   Furthermore, revaluing yuan could have had cut foreign investments, country growth rate, increase bad loans and unemployment and generally destabilize not just their economy but that of their neighboring ASEAN countries as well (Hanke, 2005). Now, why did China changed its stance?   With the international pressure and possible tax sanctions from the United States, Chinese leadership braved to revalue as it realized that they would soon profit from such changes (McClenahen, 2005).   As they printed more of their money to buy dollars, they knew that they could avoid possible inflation if they would raise their currency.  Ã‚   In addition, they shifted or shared the growth of exports to domestic economy as they know the dangers of relying to foreign money. The main reason there was a clamor for the revaluation of yuan was for the dollar to regain its dominance.   Unfortunately, even with the changes made to the Chinese currency, it will have a very little effect to the dollar as there are no direct link between the yuan exchange rate and the US trade deficits as only 10% of US imports come from China.   Worse, the revaluation would actually reduce the trade value of dollar by 2%.   Revaluation of will never be enough as there should also be an increase in purchases of dollars (Dorn, 2006). An article, published in Business Week, said that the fate of U.S. workers depends mainly on domestic conditions not the trade relations.   The article referred to a Brookings Institution study, which maintained that trade accounts for only about 12% of the manufacturing job losses since 2000.   According from the article, the rising trade deficit is due to high U.S. savings rate and not to the imports from China.   Ã‚   Tyson, the author of the article added that the U.S. current deficit hit the ceiling because of a sharp drop in personal savings and out-of-control federal spending.   To back this up, Tyson further referred to a study by economist Ronald I. McKinnon of Stanford University.   He cited that if the current account were balanced in 2003 there would have been additional 4.7 million U.S. manufacturing jobs.   Tyson concluded that the lost jobs were due to America’s â€Å"macroeconomic choices† and not from China’s so-called â€Å"unfair trade and currency policies† (Tyson, 2005). In addition, a McKinsey Quarterly report published in Forbes.com titled â€Å"Don’t Blame Trade for US Job Losses† claimed that trade and rising imports of goods and services did not really destroy the vast majority of the jobs lost in the United States.   It was said that there was only about 314,000 jobs lost as a result of trade and that falling exports not rising imports were responsible.   The figure was a very small percentage of the millions of positions that are annually lost and created in the United States.   It pointed out that job losses were due to weak domestic demand, rapid productivity growth and the dollar’s strength, which all dampened the U.S. exports.   The document provided a number of different reasons why jobs were in fact lost. One was the rapid growth of productivity.   If the output per employee is rising, product output must also increase to maintain the employment.   After year 2000, the US domestic demand grew less than the productivity so companies needed fewer workers to fill their domestic orders thus the laying-off and closure of many companies.   Similarly, export figures fell sharply in 2001 and had continued to decline ever since.   The report also suggested that the US is perhaps competing in the â€Å"wrong† markets.   Exports to Brazil, Canada and Europe were â€Å"soft† yet trade with China and Mexico was positive.   The report claimed that the appreciation of the dollar accounts for the weakness of US exports and hence for the number of manufacturing jobs lost. A large group believes that the loss of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. is a natural process wherein it is shifting from an industrial age into a service era.   One supporter of this idea is Robert Reich, former Labor secretary.   In a Wall Street Journal article, â€Å"Nice Work if you can get It,† he offered that employment in the manufacturing industry had been dropping all over the world for years and not just in the U.S.   He cited studies by Alliance Capital Management revealing that between 1995 and 2002, 22 million factory jobs had been lost worldwide. â€Å"The U.S. wasn’t even the biggest loser. Japan and China both had higher losses, Japan 16% and China 15%, compared to 11% for the U.S.,† added Reich. According to him, technological advances, computerization and automation have increased productivity thus reducing the need for manual labor.   Reich claimed that the U.S. is transitioning from an industrial to a service economy imitating the shift from agriculture to industry at the turn of the twentieth century.   He believed that this is natural and that once the U.S. economy gets back on the track old jobs will be replaced by new ones.  Ã‚   Those new jobs will fall under two categories: symbolic-analytic work and personal-services work.   Examples of those belonging to the first type are lawyers, bankers, doctors, and management consultants.   For the second sector, they will be restaurant workers, retail workers, and security guards (Reich, 1, 2). Carlos Gutierrez, Commerce Secretary, in a New York Times article, agreed with Reich.   He contended that the United Sates and China are in different states of development and he said that they do not compete head-on.   China’s economic foundation lies the manufacture of commodity-type products, whereas U.S.’ are in higher-value manufacturing, differentiation of products, higher technology and new services (Lague, 2). Christopher Meyer, the former director f the Center for Business Innovation, stated that the loss of manufacturing jobs is just another chapter of technological progress in America.   According to Meyer, a country moves forward by replacing low-level jobs with more sophisticated ones.   Thats how economic growth happens—the new jobs have to have higher value-added, higher productivity.   It is as when automation replaced blue-collar jobs—we look at most of the jobs it displaced as brutish and short: mining coal, or having your internal organs cooked by the infrared radiation from a ladle of steel. These adjustments will allow more people to do what they want to do, not what they have to do (Budman, 2). However, Shenkar argued with this position.   He pointed out that the evolution of the United States from agricultural to industrial economy was due largely to the improvements in machinery and fertilizers. It never altered the country’s production capacity. He added that those displaced in the old agriculture sector shifted to factory jobs the reason why U.S. employment figures were not significantly affected and he wondered if the incoming service sector could do the same.   Would people be able to shift jobs easily and have the same opportunities?   Would the expected transition maintain if not improve the country’s economic figures?   Luxembourg, Hong Kong and Hawaii are service economies, but they are small, somewhat protected havens.   Shenkar was not sure if the United States will survive as a service economy, however he admits that this is â€Å"terra incognita† (Shenkar, 164). In addition to emphasizing the colossal size of the Chinese workplace, as described above, Fishman and Shenkar also talked about the growing number of third level graduates, especially in science and engineering.   A recent article published in the New York Times expounded it.   The article discussed a new study recently done by the National Academies, the nation’s leading advisory groups on science and technology.   The study surveyed over 200 multinational companies on their research decisions.   The results showed that 38% of those 200 companies planned to change the worldwide distribution of their research and development work over the next few years. The report cited senior executives from leading multinational companies such as Dow Chemical, IBM and Hewlett-Packard and the common sentiment could be summed up with the statement, â€Å"we go with the flow, to find the best minds we can anywhere in the world,† a quote from Nicholas M. Donofrio, Executive Vice President for technology and innovation at IBM.   The article strengthened Fishman’s predictions when it reported that American executives are concerned about the â€Å"incipient erosion of scientific prowess in this country, pointing out the lagging math and science proficiency †¦ and the reluctance of some college graduates to pursue careers in science and engineering† (Lohr). One time, The Economist published an article displaying the current Chinese â€Å"obsession† with English.   â€Å"Up to a fifth of the population is learning the language,† Gordon Brown, the British finance minister shared.   He observed that in two decades China’s English speakers would outnumber native English speakers in the rest of the world (Economist Article, 2006). Fish, author of â€Å"China, Inc.† referred to the Chinese population as the â€Å"super sized workforce.†Ã‚   When discussing the Chinese population he included â€Å"China’s uncounted multitude† stating that the Chinese population is closer to 1.5 billion rather than the official census count of 1.3 billion.   He pointed out that the â€Å"uncounted multitude† was approximately 200 million, a country in itself and would be the fifth largest in the world. Fish also pointed out that for twenty-five cents an hour, the Chinese workers are not the cheapest in the world but rather they belong in a â€Å"world’s workshop† because China is a stable part of the globe and it offers a vast workforce of â€Å"reliable, docile, and capable workers who have been groomed by the government-enforced discipline†.   Since the government has relaxed its policy on the movement of the Chinese people, hundreds of millions of Chinese peasants have been leaving the countryside moving to urban economic centers in search of better paying jobs providing industries with a bottomless pool of low-skilled workers for many years to come (Fish, 7). However, more recent newspaper articles are claiming that China is already experiencing labor shortages.   Once such article printed in the New York Times in April, reported that labor shortages are pushing up wages making Chinese-made products less of a bargain.   It reported that international manufactures are already talking about moving their factories to lower-cost countries like Vietnam.   The article quoted Hong Liang, an economist for Goldman Sachs saying, â€Å"†¦We’re seeing an end to the golden period of extremely low-cost labor in China.†Ã‚  Ã‚   The article offered a couple of explanations for the labor shortages. It said that one was the changing government policies.   In an effort to improve rural communities in China, the government scrapped the agricultural tax and it encouraged investments in local economies especially in the poorer, inland provinces.   The resulting economies created jobs providing alternative options instead of migrating to far places for job opportunities.   Another reason was said to be the China’s one-child policy.   Many of this generation are now emerging into the workforce with post secondary education. Opportunities exist are laid out for them which were not provided for their parents. Chen Guanghan, a professor at Zhongshan University in Hong Kong explained that the new generation is different.   He said, â€Å"they are reluctant to take factory jobs that are harsh and pay very little.†Ã‚   Barboza offered a third reason for the labor shortages.   He stated that workers are more concerned about factory conditions, knows a good deal from a bad one transfer from one job to another (Barboza, 2006). Interestingly, with all the heated arguments regarding China’s rising economy, Daniel Griswold, writer for CATO Institute advised the government and economic people to forget the deficits and go for growth.   Trade deficits are actually reflections of the flow of capital across international borders so trade policies in reality do little to affect a nation’s trade deficit. The US Department of Commerce made a study briefly outlining the nature of the deficit.   The study claimed that 90% of imports from China do not actually replace the American manufacturing goods.   Instead, they serve as substitutes for imports, which should have been provided by other countries.   It also supported other studies stressing that China is not really the culprit as the US also trade with other countries.   It just so happened that previous export processing plants and businesses were transferred from other Southeast countries to mainland China. On the other hand, China is unfair to US in the sense that it does not give the same access to its market.   It imposes high tariffs to US goods so in the end Chinese products are brought at lower prices while US merchandise are sold at higher prices.   Normally, cost-conscious consumer will buy cheap items.   An American will prefer the cheaper MP3 made in China than the domestic produce contrary to the Chinese choosing between the cheap domestic-manufactured gadgets over the US imported one, which due to the high taxes are not that budget-friendly. But some thinkers believe that deficits are not disastrous for a country.   Instead, they are said to be sign of good times.   One example cited was the tripling of US trade deficit in the early 90’s where industrial production actually increased by 24%.   In addition, deficits do not cause job losses.   They are evidence of rising employment.   These are according to the Trade Deficit Review Commission. In reality, there are really no great harmful effects of the rising Chinese economy to the US trade values, even if there are, those effects are normal and it just so happened that they are dealing with China.   The same thing happened during the initial boom of the off-shoring business.   Also, there had been similar instances like that of during the 1980’s and early 90’s when the US government pressured Japan for the same reason (The Economist). The original proponent of the Anti-China campaign was started by the textile industry.   The truth is that American consumers benefited greatly from the influx of China cloth   Ã‚  It actually hurts the American consumers.   Protecting the textile industry have high cost   shouldered by the low-income earners who are the largest proportion of clothing buyers (Dan Ikenson, 2003).   Also, it is wise to note that the domestic recession of 2001 and not the Chinese ascent is the main culprit for the losses (Tyson, 2005).  Ã‚   As the United States experienced huge growth in the early year, reaching peak normally causes the expected decline.   Whatever goes up will eventually go down.   The problem began when America failed to maintain its lead. Also, as the United States suffered job losses China suffered as well.   A 2003 study of Alliance Capital Management proved that data to show that as employment in the US dropped by 11% from 1995 through 2002, employment in China dropped even further by 15% or a net job loss of 15 million.   It was a large figure compared to the 1.5 million alleged job losses.   It seems that Americans are just worrying too much.   As Daniel Ikenson put it, â€Å"..all there is are surplus in politics and deficit in leadership.†    REFERENCES    BALINT, I. M. D. a. P. J. (1999). The New Politics of American Trade: Trade, Labor, and the Environment, Policy Analyses in International Economics 58. BARBOZA, D. (2006, April 3, 2006). Sharp Labor Shortage in China, May Lead to World Trade Shift. The New York Times BETTS, J. A. a. J. L. (1967). History: USA. New York: American Book Co. BUDMAN, M. (2004). Looking Ahead of Our Place in the Next Economy, Across the Board. Paper presented at the Conference Name|. Retrieved Access Date|. from URL|. BUSH, G. W. (2002). Paper presented at the President’s Economic Forum, Waco, Texas. China Losing More Manufacturing Jobs Than U.S.): The Conference Board. China Statistical Yearbook 2003.). Chinese Strength, U.S. Weakness. The New York Times. CLINTON, B. ( 2000). Expanding Trade, Projecting Values: Why Ill fight to make Chinas Trade Status Permanent.  Ã‚   January 1, 2000 The New Democrat,. The Decline of the U.S. Dollar. Finance and Conversion. Dont Blame Trade For U.S. Job Losses.   (2005).): McKinsey Quarterly. DORN, J. A. (2006). Better Way to Handle Asian Currencies: CATO Institute. English beginning to be spoken here; The language business in China. (2006). The Economist. FISHMAN, A. (2003). Inflation and Efficiency in a Search Economy. International Economic Review, 44(1), 205-222. GREENE, R. (2000). 48 Laws of Power: Penguin. GRISWOLD, D. (2003). The U.S. Trade Deficit and Jobs: The Real Story. HELVEY, J. Mr. President, Arm Us And We Will Fight   Huang, R. (1997). China: A Macro History, Revised Edition New York: M.E. Sharpe. IKENSON, D. (2003). Threadbare Excuses: The textile Industry’s Campaign to Preserve Import Restraints (No. 25): CATO Institute. Journal, W. S. (2006). Angry Bear. KOTKIN, S. (November 5, 2006). Off the Shelf Living in China’s World New york times KYNGE, J. (2006). China Shakes The World. Boston   Houghton Mifflin. LAGUE, D. (2006, 4/1/06). China Output Not a Threat, Official Says. The New York Times LARDY, N. (2003). The Economic Rise of China: Threat or Opportunity: Federal Bank of Cleveland. LOHR, S. (2006). Outsourcing is Climbing Skills Ladder. Retrieved 6/1/2006. from http://web.lexis-nexis.comezprody2.lib.depaul.edu/universe/printdoc MARQUAND, R. (2005). As China changes, so does its image of US. The Christian Science Monitor. McCLENAHEN, J. S. (2005). Substantial Revaluation Of Yuan Inevitable. IndustryWeek MEKAY, E. A win-win textile deal especially for the US, Asia Times. Petition Against China, Executive Summary, 2004. (2004). Retrieved. from http://www.aflcio.org/issues/jobseconomy/manufacturing/iuc/ExecSummary301.cfm POOLE, W. (July 31, 2006). Chinese Growth: A Source of U.S. Export Opportunities. Paper presented at the The Council of State Governments’ Southern Legislative Conference (SLC) Louisville, KY. REICH, R. (2003, 12/26/2003). Nice Work if You Can Get It. The Wall Street Journal ROACH, S. (2006). collision course. Melbourne ROBERTSON, B. (13 March 2006). Chinese predict bright future News Global. SCOTT, R. (2005). U.S.-China Trade, 1989-2003; Impact on jobs and industries nationally and state-by-state. : Economic Policy Institute. SGRO, G. M. a. M. (2000). The Strategic Implications of Chinas WTO Entry and PNTR. Paper presented at the Conference Name|. Retrieved Access Date|. from URL|. SHENKAR, O. (2005). The Chinese Century: The Rising Chinese Economy and Its Impact on the Global Economy, the Balance of Power, and Your Job   Special Report, Watch out, India – Outsourcing to China. (2006). The Economist. Three good reasons for U.S. to say yes to Chinas entry into WTO. (1999, September 11, 1999). The Boston Globe   TRUMBULL, M. (2006). China reaching $1 trillion in global clout: Its foreign reserves are a cushion but signal its imbalanced economy. The Christian Science Monitor. TYSON, L. D. A. (2005). Stop Scapegoating China – Before it’s Too Late. Business Week(Issue 3931 ), p26. United States. (2006). The CIA World Factbook. VIETH, W., (Saturday 25 October 2003). As Factory Job Losses Rise, So Do Risks to Bush. The Los Angeles Times.

Catholicism in Eighteenth-Century England Essays -- European Europe Hi

Catholicism in Eighteenth-Century England February hath XXVIII Days Rouze, Protestants, the Year of Wonder’s gone, Great George is now establish’d on the Throne; A Mighty Prince, by God for us prepar’d, Us to preserve from Dangers greatly fear’d; From Popery the Devil’s great Master Fear, Where Men are Slaves, and Priests their Gods do eat . . . (Mullan and Reid 2000, 173) This poem, published in John Partridge’s almanac Merlinus Liberatus for 1717, shows the common feeling amongst the English Protestants towards Catholics. The term â€Å"Popery† was actually a hostile term for anything relating to Catholicism (Popery). Although many other countries in Europe were moving toward more modern, secular governments, the English were not prepared to let go of old prejudices so easily. One of the problems between Protestants and Catholics in England was that the â€Å"self-image of the protestant elite comprised not only religious doctrine and providential history, but constitutional theory and a concern for cultural and economic improvement; the Catholic case represented a challenge in each of these areas† (McBride 2003). During the eighteenth century, Protestants in England felt that they had endured persecution from the Catholics and so justified their resentment and intolerance. This sentiment can be seen in anti-Catholic literature published during this period. The Kalendar, of the Cruelties of the Papists to Protestants also from 1717, reports: July. Altho the Weather in this month was hot, yet the Persecution of poor Protestants by the Papists was much hotter, as you may see by following List of Martyrs who underwent fiery Trials, because they would not turn Papists and ... ... 1882. MacCaffrey, Rev. James. From the Renaissance to the French Revolution. History of the Catholic Church, 2000. [cited November 19, 2003]. Available from World Wide Web: (http://catholicity.elcore.net/MacCaffery/HCCRFR2_Chapter%2005.html) McBride, Ian. The Language of Liberty 1660-1822; Anti-Catholicism in 18th-Century England; and Catholicism in a Protestant Kingdom. History Today, 2003. [cited November 18, 2003] Available from World Wide Web: (http://www.historytoday.com/index.cfm?articleid=16961) Mullen, John and Christopher Reid, Ed. Eighteenth-Century Popular Culture. Oxford: University Press, 2000. Popery. Oxford English Dictionary [online], 2000. [cited on November 17, 2003]. Oxford: University Press, 1989. Woloch, Isser. Eighteenth-Century Europe: Tradition and Progress, 1715-1789. Norton and Company Press: New York, 1982.

The movie Super Size Me

The movie Super Size Me, is an in your face way of making people realize how the fast food industry is negatively affecting our nation. The surgeon general has declared the increasing rates of obesity an â€Å"epidemic†. In this documentary movie, Morgan Spurlock conducts an experiment, to investigate if indeed, fast food is the correlation to our nations obesity epidemic. The movie has severally bonus features such as an interview with Eric Schlosser, the author of Fast Food Nation, and an interview with Phil Lawler about the PE 4 Life program. As well as, The Smoking Fry, an interesting experiment looking at the decomposition of food. The movie Super Size Me, and all of its bonus features, revolves around two main components, the importance of nutrition and physical activity. I. Fast Food Nation The interview between Morgan Spurlock and Eric Schlosser discusses how fast food is processed and flavored, the unhealthy agricultural settings, obesity trends and how both the government and the people need to make a change for the better. I was appalled by the information provided in the interview, I had a basic idea of all the concepts but did not realize how extream they were. I can easily say that after knowing how fast food is made I have no interest at all in eating it. The fact that while in feed lots, cattle are pilled in fecal matter which can make it into the hamburgers that we eat, and that is why there is a higher increase in poisoning and disease from eating fast food. I think that is absolutely disgusting and it should not be allowed. I definitely will read the book Fast Food Nation, if this short interview opened my eyes this much; I am very interested to see how the book will make me feel. II. PE4LIFE Phil Lawler pointed out that, Illinois is the only state that enforces mandatory physical education k-12. During his interview talked about the PE4Life program, how it refocuses testing based on a healthy zone, that physical activity is the â€Å"fertilizer† for the brain, and the importance of creating a pattern and habit of exercising. PE4Life departs from the traditional approach to physical education by not focusing on traditional sports, but rather physical activities that assures every child is active. Testing in the PE4Life program assesses results on whether the students â€Å"does it well enough that he/she is considered healthy. While the traditional program assesses testing based on what percentile the student falls into compared to their peers. If the State of Michigan were to adopt a serious daily approach to physical education, such as the PE4Life program the outcome would be extremely beneficial to the students overall heath. We discussed in class how students in Michigan do not meet the set goal of exercising five times a week for thirty minutes at a time. Also, how forty percent of children in MI are currently over weight. The end of the Super Size Me video made it a point to state that Detroit is now the fattest city in the United States. Obviously something needs to be done to change these trends, implementing mandatory physical education k-12; using a PE4Life philosophy may be exactly what Michigan students need. III. The Smoking Fry The Smoking Fry was an experiment conducted by Morgan Spurlock to examine how different McDonalds food items and less artificially enhanced flood items would decompose after periods of time. I thought that all of the different food items would start to mold after about a week, and they all would get worse as more time went by. I just assumed that food that wasn’t frozen or at least refrigerated started to mold after a period of time. My reaction to the results was disgust; it made me wonder what kind of crazy chemicals are in those fries that they do not show any signs of molding after ten weeks. I think that as our bodies decompose food we ingest from fast food chains it is exposed to the many chemicals preservatives put in the food, and does not receive the proper nutrients. I would also assume that the same logic would apply from the experiment, to our bodies, meaning that it is more difficult for the body to decompose fast food as opposed to more natural foods. My mother eats mostly all organic food whenever possible, so when my birthday came she was going to make a cake from scratch like usual. I told he that I would rather have a funfetti box cake instead; begrudgingly she made the cake for me. Not without going on and on about how bad it is for you, and how many chemicals, and ingredients you cant even pronounce and in it and that not even like eating a real cake. What was interesting and supports the results from the Smoking Fry is that, she pointed out to me that after a month of sitting in the tupperware not a speck of mold was on it. Processed foods contain so many preservatives that they may never mold, for instance a Twinkie has no expiration date, I think that is absolutely crazy. The fact that processed foods are filled with so many chemicals to they have a longer shelf life should be a good indication as to how bad they are for your body. IV. Movie Super Size Me The movie Super Size Me is a documentary by Morgan Spurlock. In this movie Spurlock undertakes eating nothing but McDonalds for thirty days, to determine if fast food is the fast track to becoming obese and if its unreasonably dangerous. Spurlock had a set of rules for the month; can only super size when asked, can only eat food from McDonalds water included, has to eat everything on the menu at least once, and he must eat three meals a day, lastly limit the amount of steps per day. Before the experiment Spurlock consulted with a cardiologist, gastrologist, and a general practitioner, all three doctors concluded that he was currently physically healthy. The doctors said that increased cholesterol and triglyceride levels, weight gain, and an increased risk for heart disease were expected outcomes of this experiment. The actual end results of the experiment where much more serous than expected. Spurlock gained twenty four and a half pounds, the liver had basically turned to fat, cholesterol shot up sixty five points, body fat percentage increased seven percent, he doubled his risk for heart disease and failure, felt exhausted and depressed, experience rapid mood sings, had a non existent sex life, and developed an addiction, he craved more and more and had headaches when he did not eat the food. There was a point where he considered stopping short of the thirty days because his health being seriously affected. The movie addressed the lack of regards to the state of our nations physical education programs. Again it was stated that Illinois is the only state that makes physical education mandatory k-12. Brain Philips a physical education teacher stated that students in his elementary school only receive physical education one day a week for forty-five minutes. According to the surgeon general, a person needs to be physical active thirty minutes a day, every day to maintain your weight and a healthy well-being. The Nations schools are not close to implementing these standards, and its only getting worse. In 2001 while President Bush was in office he created the No Child Left Behind reform. Due to this reform schools cut recess time, heath, nutrition, and physical education classes back to allow for more time to prepare for the more â€Å"academic† classes. Naperville, Illinois setting the standards for the model program of physical education because they are creating an awareness in the community about the importance of physical activity, and in turn receiving the support to make the PE4Life program possible. In my opinion other states are not pushing to adopt this model due to the No Child Left Behind reform, lack of effort, fear of change, and the financial expenses. Physical education should be of the utmost importance for individuals making decisions about education in Michigan. Detroit is heaviest city in the United States. From class lecture we no that in Michigan forty percent of children are over weight compared to thirteen to fourteen percent Nationally. It can no longer be ignored; it must be addressed by the school systems, to stop this growing epidemic of obesity. This movie mad an impact on how I view fast food. I do not consume fast food on a regular bases, but occasionally when I am starving and I do not have time, or am not around to cook something, I will eat it. That is definitely going to change, after watching this how could you eat fast food, its disgusting. When I have children of my own, I will not allow them to eat fast food, except on very rare occasions. I grew up with a mother that always cooks dinner, buys organic food, and has always been very couscous on the making sure I eat a balanced diet. I plan to use the same nutritional approach with my own children. V. Conclusions After viewing Supper Size Me, my position of consuming fast food still stands, as it not being a healthy choice. Proper nutrition directly related to a persons heath, and with a sufficient amount of physical activity a person is at their optimal level of overall health. After watching Super Size Me, and its bonus features, it opened my eyes wider to both the importance of nutrition and physical activity, and how the Nation is in a fight against obesity epidemic. I do now think that eating fast food is truly the fast track to obesity. I now will make a more conscious decision about the things I am eating. My periodic fast food visits will be eliminated, and I will try to stay away from all process foods, anything with artificial flavoring, and definitely increase my eating of organic foods.