Social Performance, part 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Social Performance, part 2 - Essay Example Many financial industries, especially those dealing in financial services, have codes of conduct. The table below shows the codes of a competitor to Pioneer Financial Group and criticism of their codes. COMPANY CODE OF CONDUCT CRITICISM SERVICES OFFERED LINCOLN FINANCIAL GROUP Fairness Respect Employee Ownership Diversity Responsibility Integrity Commitment to Excellence They have stringent do’s and don’t’s, and their employees feel that if something is not specified in the code of conduct, then it is acceptable. Life insurance Annuities Retirement plan services Group protection AF FINANCIAL GROUP Honesty and fair dealing Workplace environment Compliance with laws and regulations Conflict of interest Gifts Records and reporting information Political activities Insider trading Revoked their contract with Lowerell as their independent auditors without giving them notice as this contradicts their code of honesty and fair dealings with other intermediaries Insurance services Loans such as mortgage loans Offers business services such as checking accounts CUNA MUTUAL GROUP Integrity in the workplace Integrity with company resources, information and financial disclosure Integrity while dealing with others Integrity with business conduct Faced with challenges of measuring the effectiveness of their program, though they have ambitious programs and codes of ethics Crop insurance Retirement planning for members and small businesses Insurance for union members Trevino and Nelson (2007) define business ethics as behaviors that are in line with the principles, standards, and norms of practice that are in accordance with the society. Pioneer Financial Group is facing a conflict of interest of some shareholders, side deals done by employees, and corruption. Establishing an ethical business culture is one way of improving the corporate governance. Pioneer Financial Group should have ethical codes that promote ethical behavior. This guides employees in cases where ethical course of action is not clearly known. The codes help the company to communicate their expectations to employees, communities, government, and other stakeholders. The codes do promote market efficiency, build public trust, enhance business reputation, raising awareness on the societal needs, and help the company reinforce and acquaint new employees with their values and culture. Pioneer Financial Group have put in place training programs regarding ethics in the company that are designed to offer real solutions to those employees under ethical dilemma. A code of conduct or ethical code sets out the company's values, ethics, objectives and responsibilities. Pioneer Financial Group will have the following code of conduct: COMPANY CODE OF CONDUCT PIONEER FINANCIAL GROUP (PFG) HOW TO DEAL WITH COMMUNITIES HOW TO DEAL WITH COMPETITORS GOVERNMENT ®ULATORS,EMPLOYEES,SUPPLIERS AND INTERMEDIARIES Take into account community concerns Providing good employment opportunities Su pport communities through Charitable donations Seek competitive advantage through superior products and performance Avoid discussing confidential information with competitors Not engaging in restrictive trade practices that abuse market dominance Not evade tax Report and record all reportable transactions Giving room for employees to air their grievances about the company Encourage freedom of association Providing safe & healthy working environment Rewarding employees who observe ethical behavior Providing quality products and

Nationalisation of Oil Industry Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Nationalisation of Oil Industry - Essay Example However, Argentina has been forced recently to reverse its earlier decision to privatize the company by nationalizing 51% of YPF (Minder 2012). This move has been met with a lot of fury from Spain and other major stakeholders who are strongly opposed to move if media reports are anything to go by. The nationalization has been termed a forced purchase. As a result, the Argentine government is required to pay for Rapsol shares. Tracy (2012) reported that the Argentine government made such a move because of Rapsol’s continued failure to invest in gas and oil production in the country, a scenario that has forced Argentina to over-rely on imports to keep up with its high internal demand. For instance, Tracy (2012) reveals that Argentina spent over $9.4 billion in 2011 to import energy from other countries. This was despite the fact that Argentina is considered one of the countries with the largest hydrocarbon reserves in the world. The privatization of YPF snatched away the control of the government over oil and gas usage in the country. It is important for the Argentine government to understand that nationalization of oil supplies in the country has both its advantages and disadvantages. Advantages of Nationalisation to Argentine Government Oil and gas are commodities that contribute massively to the development of the economy of Argentina. As such they are products that should never be in shortage especially now that they are on high demand almost throughout the year. The Argentine government needs to ensure that no shortage of gas and oil is experienced in the country for their economic importance and therefore needs to be in control of the supply of the commodities. One of the main advantages of the move by the Argentine government to nationalize YPF is that it will give the government power to control how gas and oil is utilized in the country. Privatization takes these powers away from the government as has been the case since the Argentine government p rivatized YPF by selling it to the Spanish company, Rapsol. As Tracy (2012) states, the privatization of this YPF gave Rapsol absolute control of how gas and oil are used in Argentina. However, since Rapsol has not been able to adequately invest in equipment to boost productivity as was expected, Argentina has had to depend on energy imports from other countries, this despite its massive potential to produce its own energy. Nationalizing the company will give the argentine government control over the country’s oil and gas resources thereby enabling the government to invest in the petroleum industry and hence reducing its dependency on oil imports. Secondly, nationalization of the company will be of great advantage to the Argentine government in the sense that it will enable the Argentine government to be able to invest heavily in its oil and gas reserves so as to increase the production of oil and gas in the country. Doing this will enable the country become energy sufficient and avoid or reduce its import of energy as noted by Porter (2001). This is based on the fact Argentina is one of the countries that experiencing high-energy demand in the country. However, just as Tracy (2012) pointed out, privatisation of YPF interferes with the sector that used to supply much of Argentina’s gas and oil. As earlier indicated, Argentina spent over $9.4 billion dollars in 2011 alone because of energy shortage in the country. However, a closer look at what caused this shortage points at the inefficiency of

Women in Positions of Power in Northen Ireland

Women in Positions of Power in Northen Ireland Few women have made an impact on politics in Northern Ireland. The political culture and traditions of Northern Ireland politics are very much male-oriented and whilst women have worked hard for change behind the scenes for many years, few have taken the step into standing as candidates in elections, less still successfully winning elections. Following the Belfast Agreement, things may, slowly, be beginning to change. Mo Mowlam writes enthusiastically of the part that women played in the talks leading up to the Agreement: â€Å"one of the most remarkable aspects of the talks process was seeing women, not only in the Women’s Coalition, but also in other parties, sitting alongside their male colleagues and arguing their points. They brought a new quality of debate to the proceeding† (Galligan, Ward Wilford 1999).Nonetheless, despite the election of three women MPs in the first general election (2001) after the Belfast Agreement, women remain massively under-represented in politics in Northern Ireland. This dissertation examines the reasons for this. Chapter two looks at the traditional role of women in politics, both in Northern Ireland and in other parts of the world. Election in the UK and policies towards women of other British parties are examined. The chapter also looks at women’s movements abroad, in the likes of South Africa and Nicaragua and analyses how they have affected the political landscape in their own countries. Chapter three takes a general overview of women in Northern Ireland, commenting on how they have reacted to the traditional view and values of the Church and the State in the province. The formation of the earlier Women’s movements is detailed here – although these groups have remained on the borders on mainstream politics, the fact that women have for decades joined together on particular issues is important in the context of women’s involvement in politics. The difficulties face by women in what is a conservative, traditional and often sexist culture is also discussed. Chapter four looks at the attitudes towards women in politics held by voters in Northern Ireland and analyses whether the small number of women involved is determined by supply or demand factors. Using data from the Northern Ireland Life and Times Survey, this chapter argues that there is no lack of demand for women to be involved in politics amongst the electorate, rather that a number of factors around the inclination of women to enter into politics and the traditional views that still hold sway in Northern Ireland, are influential. This chapter also makes use of research undertaken in interviewing a number of women councillors in Northern Ireland about their perceptions on why many women avoid political life. Various reason for women to remain outside of representative politics are given – again he traditional culture of Northern Ireland and perceptions about a woman’s role are seen as important, Chapter five examines in details the attitudes and policies of the main political parties in Northern Ireland towards women’s issues and the role of women within the political parties themselves. Parties in Northern Ireland have traditionally focused primarily on constitutional and security issues to the detriment of women’s issues. Party leadership in parties across the political spectrum have been male dominated. This chapter looks at each of the main parties, examining firstly how party structures and leaderships accommodate female members and secondly how party policy makers address (or fail to address)women’s issues. Chapter six provides a conclusion to the dissertation. The situation in Northern Ireland where women have traditionally had difficulties establishing themselves within the formal political process has been mirrored, if perhaps not to such an extent, in other Western democracies. Evidence from UK elections indicates a historical prejudice against women candidates, whilst elsewhere in Europe and across the world, there are examples of women having to draw together on their identity as women to challenge their exclusion from politics. Analysis of general elections in Britain indicates that many fewer women than men are selected as prospective parliamentary candidates and those that are usually chosen for less hopeful seats (Leonard and Mortimore 2001, p97). However, the number of has candidates has grown reasonably steadily since 1996, with parties gradually accepting the need to take steps to increase the number of women selected. The Conservative in particular have found this difficult, largely due to the reluctance of the party leadership to interfere with the autonomy and conservative nature of many of its local associations. The Labour Party has had more success. Its party conference took the decision in1993 to try to increase its number of women MPs by introducing policies of positive discrimination. The introduction of all-women shortlist and quotas proved controversial, with the process being deemed illegal by an industrial tribunal in 1996, yet the drive by Labour to increase women’s representation paid dividends – with the party’s victory in the1997 election, the number of women in the house of Commons doubled to120 (Leonard and Mortimore 2001, p97). Elections for regional assemblies in Scotland and Wales have seen an increase in the number of women winning seats. The systems of proportional representation used in these elections has allowed Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the nationalist policies to ensure that candidates on lists were alternately male and female. As a result over38 per cent of representatives at Holyrood and 40 per cent at Cardiff Bay have been women (Leonard and Mortimore 2001, p98). Elsewhere, women have made direct interventions within their political systems to ensure that they are represented within the political process. In Spain, the Women’s Democratic Movement (WDM) began as an opposition group to the Franco regime and went onto lobby for women’s interests during the country’s democratic transition. It successfully pressured the government into ratifying the Convention for Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). In Iceland the Icelandic Women’s Alliance (IWA) emerged in the 1980s as a group powerful to win 11.1% of a national poll (Fearon 1999 appendix 1). In Sweden, the issue of women’s participation in politics directly compelled women to join together on a cross-party basis in the prelude to the 1994 elections. As a result, Sweden then elected what Faluditerms â€Å"the most female government in the world – a parliament that was41% female with a cabinet that was 50% female. (Fearon 199 9, appendix1). More relevant to the issues around women’s political involvement in Northern Ireland are the examples of South Africa and Nicaragua, where women have acted together to challenge male-dominated political times when their countries have been undergoing periods of transition. In Nicaragua, women achieved political gains during the revolutionary period but, perceiving that these gains were not being fully transferred to the new society after a transitional period, women joined together to form the Nicaraguan National Coalition of Women(NNCW) in January 1996. Under this cross-party coalition women joined together to educate and themselves and prepared themselves to go backend fight elections within their existing parties in October of that year. The aim was to promote the equitable participation of women in the country’s politics, something that was made difficult, as women within the coalition had historically been political or even military enemies. There were certainly so me similarities with Northern Ireland and the group had to strive hard to focus on unity and reaching a consensus. The NNCW was able to agree a minimum agenda emphasising women’s participation in civil and political society. In South Africa, women had become influenced by the experiences of women’s organisations around the world and the ANC Women’s League(ANCWL) sparked a debate across the country about ‘the necessity of organising as women’ (Fearon 2001 appendix1). In September 1991 thirty women’s organisations came together in the Women’s National Coalition(WNC) to discuss the drawing up of a women’s charter on equality. The charter was eventually produced after a huge participatory exercise that included an estimated 2 million women and was made up of twelve articles, one of which called for â€Å"mechanisms to enable women’s participation in civic and political life† (Fearon 2001 appendix 1) The charter was vitally important to the development of women in politics in South Africa as it challenged traditional perceptions and values about the woman’s place in political and civic life. Another success of the WNC was to lobby hard for a ruling passed in 1993 that required all negotiation delegations to reserve space for women. Prior to the formation of the NIWC, the impact that individuals or groups of women had made on Northern Ireland politics had been relatively minimal. There are however a few examples of women who, although not directly involved as representatives in the political process, made their presence known. In the 1970s, two Belfast women, Betty Williams and Mairead Corrigan won the Nobel Peace Prize for leading a peace movement that aimed to end the violence by way of ‘people power’. Inspired to action following the death of three children in a car chase involving IRA men, the Peace People as the movement was known called on the people of Northern Ireland to reject terrorism and quickly snowballed into a movement that could attract tens of thousands of people onto the streets in outdoor rallies. The movement eventually failed due to internal divisions within the movement, personality clashes and disputes on how to spend the Nobel Prize money. Whilst still surviving today, the Pe ace People is now a small-scale movement that failed to deliver on the hopes that it once raised. Helen McKendry was a brave Belfast woman who campaigned to raise the issue of the so-called ‘disappeared’ victims of the IRA, who had included her own mother Jean McConville, taken from the family home in1972 and never heard of again (Independent, March 2, 2005). Following the IRA ceasefire in 1994, McKendry launched a campaign to have her mother’s body returned and eventually pressured the IRA into giving details about the location of her mother’s body and those of other victims. May Blood was a woman that played a prominent role in the loyalist community for many years, prior to involvement in the NIWC. She was a determined community activist in the Shankhill Road district, concentrating on issues such as housing, welfare, jobs, training, employment and labour relations. Speaking after she had been made across-bench peer in 2000, Baroness Blood stated: â€Å"My life is about serving this community, particularly young people. For years they have just been fodder for the paramilitaries. We want the next generation to be real people with real futures.† (Independent, March 2, 2005). It is worth noting that like May Blood, the trend in Northern Ireland has generally been for women activists to concentrate on community development rather than electoral politics. The situation of women in Northern Ireland is not entirely unique. Whilst the particular circumstances of Northern Ireland affect politics at all levels, the fact remains that women in Northern Irel and share common experiences with women elsewhere in terms of the difficulties that they have making an impact in the political arena. Rightly or wrongly, representative politics around the world remains largely dominated by males, and in this respect women in Northern Ireland face the same challenges as women elsewhere. Analysis of the women’s movement in Northern Ireland or attempters tointegrate women more fully into the political process must understandsome of the cultural traditions and influences that affect women’slives. As Monica McWilliams states: â€Å"the role which both the Church andState play shapes not only the more traditional thinking behind some ofthe major institutions, such as the education system or the judiciary,but it also responsible for the extremely conservative ideology forwhich the Province has become infamous† (Hughes 1991, p91). Theattitude of the Church has certainly been that the primary role ofwomen is that of mothers and housewives and this has been somethingthat has held women back from entering into politics. Issues aroundsexuality, the dissolution of marriage or rights in the home or at workhave seen feminists face opposition from clergy, politicians and as aresult, their communities. Again McWilliams summarises the situationstating, â€Å"in the face of such traditional Catholicism and Protestantfundamentalism, it has proved extremely difficult for women to organisearound issues which are of personal and political influence to them(Hughes 1991,p81). Both the Protestant and Catholic Church have maintained a traditionalline on the domestic role of women. They have exhorted mothers to takeresponsibility for their children by looking after them at home andhave largely opposed political initiatives such as the provision of daycare for children as it poses a challenge to the traditional ideologywhich supports the segregated division of labour in the home. The viewof the Church from half a century ago has remained prevalent in modernday Northern Ireland. Bishop McGean had stated in 1945 that â€Å"the properplace for the baby is in the home and the proper guardian is themother. Nature decided that and God approved of that decision ofnature† (Hughes 1991, p89). Women’s groups in Northern Ireland have made gradual progress ininstigating political and social change. They have begun to createstructures that enable individual women to have some measure of controlover their lives. One example is found in the work of an umbrellaorganisation known as ‘The Women’s Information Day’, along withprojects such as Women’s Aid, the Women’s Education Project and theNorthern Ireland Women’s Rights Movement. All of these groups, formedprior to the establishment of the Northern Ireland Women’s Coalition,were organised in a non-sectarian way, holding meetings in bothloyalist and nationalist areas and raising controversial issues thatwere sensitive to one another’s beliefs. In 1985, whilst campaigning onchanges to the benefit system, a group of Catholic and Protestant womentravelled to London to lobby their MPs to oppose a propose SocialSecurity Bill and were appalled to find that their own political representatives were more interested in opposing the Anglo-Irishagreement (which had been launched on the same day) and refused to meetthem on the grounds that they were too busy. McWilliams writes thatâ€Å"they returned home to Belfast on the same night more convinced thanever that their political representatives were much less interested inmatters of social and economic concerns† (Hughes 1991, p92). One of the most glaring features of life for women in Northern Irelandhas been the hardship of poverty with all its social, financial andpsychological repercussions. Women in Northern Ireland have come at thetop of research tables listing infant mortality rates, unemployment ordependency on social security (Hughes 1991, p92). It is women who haveexperienced poverty as prisoner’s wives, as widows, as single parents,divorced, separated or unmarried, as managers of unemployed families,as single and elderly women living alone, or as low paid wage earners.As a result, women’s groups such as the Northern Ireland Women’s RightsMovement began to offer advice and information to women, producingleaflet to help women in the face of overpowering bureaucracy.McWilliams writes of the pressures upon women in Northern Irelandstating â€Å"existing from day to day in the North can often become anintolerable strain for women. Not only must they provide a reasonablestandard of liv ing for their kids, but they have the additional anxietyof worrying about husbands and children when they are out of the home.The years of ‘the troubles’ have added to their pressures and manyrespond y using tranquillisers or smoking excessively† (Hughes 1991,p93). Women in Northern Ireland have played a leading role in anti-povertycampaigns, a significant political role which tends to be overlooked bymedia, church leaders and politicians. Such groups have remainednon-hierarchical and have refused to let single individuals becomesolely identified with their campaigns. The non-hierarchical structurehas provided the supportive type of environment that women require andeach group has become knowledgeable about the particular issue underscrutiny. Often the women have maintained links after individualcampaigns have been dissolved. Northern Ireland feminists have played apart in various campaigns and community projects over the last fewdecades. Many cut their political teeth in the civil rights movementsof the 1960s and 1970s and had their first dealings with other feministmovements. Female students at Queens University held a public meetingin1975 which formed an action group ‘with the aim of bringing the roleof women in Northern Ireland into l ine with that of their sisters inBritain’ (Hughes 1991, p93) and went on to form the Northern IrelandWomen’s Rights Movement which successfully campaigned to bring the SexDiscrimination Act to Northern Ireland. There are of course issues that divide women’s groups in NorthernIreland. Many are related to the national question, which as in allareas of politics in the province, remain difficult to overcome.Whether groups are based on single issues such as Women’s Aid or theRape and Incest Line, or more generic groups such as the Derry, Belfastor Falls Road Women’s Centres, the political affiliations of membersmay be surreptitiously agued in order to clarify the line that theymight take on the national question. The sheer weight of issues aroundthe constitution and security in Northern Ireland make it near onimpossible for the issue to be ignored. Disputes have occurred between,for example, the Relative’s Action Committee and Women AgainstImperialism (which largely supports Sinn Fein) and other women’s groupssuch as the Belfast Women’s Collective and the Northern Ireland Women’sRights Movement. The Belfast Women’s Collective argued that it wasvital to work in as wide a range as possible, including areas which maynot initially meet with a big response because they challengetraditional political and religious beliefs (Hughes 1991, p95). TheRelative’s Action Committee, on the other hand, organising around thewithdrawal of political statues for the H Block prisoners took the viewthat the campaign about prisons should be central. Regardless of divisions within women’s movements in Northern Ireland,the fact remains that the there is a level of oppression caused by theunique nature of politics in the province. Many women arepsychologically scarred by the deaths of or injury to loved ones. Manyothers are emotionally burnt out by the years of armed troops presenton the streets. Women on both sides of the sectarian divide have seenthe destruction of family life when family members are arrested underthe Prevention of Terrorism Act and possibly held for long periodswithout trial. Women visiting husbands and son in prison have beensubjected to degrading and humiliating strip searches. They live infear for the lives of their children and have had the constant worrythat they will be caught in crossfire, caught up in a riot or killed byan explosion. On top of all of these factors, women have also had totackle continuing economic exploitation and sexual oppression. Women in Northern Ireland have had to endure an ingrained culture ofconservative sexism that emanates both from the UK and the Republic ofIreland. They have had to fight for equality of opportunity in theworkplace – interestingly, the Equal Opportunities Commission, which isknown to play a more active role in women’s lives than its GBcounterpart, was almost abolished in Northern Ireland (Hughes 1991,p96). An influential factor in the under representation of women in NorthernIreland politics has been the traditional assumption of gender rolesand values held by many within the province. These powerful politicaland cultural restraints support the theory that the lack of women inpolitics is due to supply rather than demand factors – the electoratehas little problem with female candidates, it is getting women intoposition as candidates for public office that is largely the problem. There is general support amongst the Northern Ireland public for womento be involved in politics and indeed this support has grown steadilythroughout the 1990s and the development of the Belfast Agreement. Oneof the key questions included in the 2002 Northern Ireland Life andTimes Survey was did respondents think that the greater number of womenin politics since the formation of the Northern Ireland Assembly makethings better or worse in Northern Ireland politics? Whilst 44 per centof respondents remained neutral on the question, 41 per cent thought ithad made things better, with only 14 per cent thinking it had madethings worse (NI Life and Times Survey 2002). Attitudes towards therole of women in politics shifted markedly from the survey completed adecade earlier. In 1991, only one fifth of men felt that at least onehalf of senior government posts should be held by women. By 2002 thisfigure had doubled to 40 per cent, with support from women rising from38 per cent to 50 per cent (L ife and Times Survey 2002). Research carried out in 1993 sought to use the experience of womencouncillors within Northern Ireland to attempt to gauge exactly why sofew women were involved in politics at the time. In 1989, only 60 ofthe 566 district councillors were women, equating to a mere 10.6 percent (Wilford et al 1993, p341). Following changes after direct rulewas introduced in 1972, many functions of local government had beenreplaced by intermediate bodies appointed by the Secretary of State forNorthern Ireland. This situation reduced the tiers of local governmentwith Wilford et al commenting â€Å"Thus, aspiring politicians enjoy anextremely limited opportunity to run for elected office† (Wilford et al1993, p343). In addition, council meetings throughout the 1980s wouldoften be used by political parties to argue out their constitutionaldifferences rather than focussing on the relevant issues of localpolitics – the symbolic value of politics in Northern Ireland helps toexplain the paucity of women. Interviews with women councillorsrevealed six main reasons that they believed explained the small numberof women in Northern Ireland politics – psychological, familial,organisational, functional, patriarchal and systematic. All have somerelevance. Psychological reasons included a simple lack of self-esteem felt bywomen. The vast majority of women councillors had been prompted orasked to stand for election by other members rather than have theconfidence to stand on their own initiative. It seems exceptional forwomen to deem themselves eligible for candidature, yet this is setagainst a backdrop where with relatively few people willing to standfor election in local politics and being successful would be seeminglyunproblematic. One SDLP councillor commented on the issue: â€Å"it neveroccurred to me to stand†¦we (women) had the traditional view that wewere the back up for men: making the tea and the like† (Wilford et al1993 p344). Familial reasons were most cited reason for non-participation of womenin politics and reaffirm the ideas of traditional cultural valuescontributing to the role of women in Northern Ireland. There is a cleardifferential in the assumed responsibility of men and women for childrearing in Northern Ireland and this impacts strongly on theopportunity for women to enter into public life. At the very least, astrong and supportive partner is needed by women looking to go intopolitics, yet in addition to this it would appear that many women inNorthern Ireland do not simply put family responsibilities firstbecause that is their assumed role – many believe that they actuallyshould put their family first and postpone any political aspirationsuntil their children have reached post-school age. It should also benoted that childcare facilities in Northern Ireland were poor duringthe 1980s and 1990s, a further complication for women that wanted toenter into politics. Organisational reasons for women councillors are similar reasonscommonly cited by women MPs in the UK Parliament – the unsocial hoursthat politician are required to work. Councillors in Northern Irelandfound that childcare made it difficult for them to attend councilbusiness scheduled during the day. At the time of the survey, Sinn Feinwas the only political party in Northern Ireland that paid thechildcare expenses of its councillors (wilford et al 1993, p344). Patriarchal reasons for the limited involvement of women in localpolitics in Northern Ireland are based around the attitude of malecouncillors towards their female counterparts. One councillorinterviewed stated: You’re a thorn as a female councillor. Men don’twant you there; they’d prefer it to be all male. They want to be thedominant ones in the council; it’s true everywhere† (Wilford et alp344). Mnay of the women councillors interviewed felt that they werenot taken seriously because of their sex and this was a hugedisincentive to continuing to take an active role in politics. Manyreferred to the cultural belief ingrained in Northern Ireland about awoman’s place and that the arena of politics was very much a mansworld. There is evidence that women were ‘ghettoised’ into certaincommittees that were less important and more focussed on what weredeemed to be women’s issues – home safety committees serve as anexample. Ag ain, the partisanship of politics in Northern Ireland has tobe seen as a factor here – some of the issues likely to be raised bywomen in particular, like pre-school places, education and the NHS,have a tendency to take a back seat to constitutional and securityissues. Finally, under the label of patriarchal concerns were genuineconcerns of sexual harassment within the arena of council politics.Some female councillors reported patronising language as well as outand out harassment. Systematic and functional reasons for non-participation are also given.The lack of power held by local government in Northern Ireland prior tothe Belfast Agreement has been a disincentive – women are deterred fromsacrificing family life simply due to the fact that there is relativelylittle to do in local politics and little opportunity to instigateeffective change. For the more ambitious women, local government is notseen as a step on the way to better things and many women see the listsof men waiting to become MPs and simply assume that they have littlechance of ever doing so. A final systematic reason for women stayingout of politics is the actual physical risk involved. It is not unheardof for Northern Ireland councillors to be targeted or even murdered byparamilitaries. Much of the research carried out with female councillors supports thetheory that it is indeed supply rather than demand that limits thenumber of women involved in politics in Northern Ireland. With onlythree women MPs being elected between 1972 and 1990 (Wilford et al1993, p345) there is clearly a problem in attracting candidates. In looking at the demand for women in politics, whilst there isevidence that the public has a growing desire to see women involved inpolitics, it is also important to examine the reasons that people inNorthern Ireland think that there are relatively few women involved.The 2002 Life and Times Survey asked for explanations as to why thereare so few women in politics: What is noticeable from this research is that the main factors appearto be based on a conscious choice made by women rather thandiscrimination against them. Women not putting themselves forward ascandidates and putting their families before their political aspirationappear to be more decisive factors than a view that women do not havethe interest in or capability to succeed in politics. Certainly thisattitude has hardened during he 1990s. Whilst in the 1991 survey womensaw the reason for a lack of women as a mixture of barriers andinclination, by 2002 the most important reasons are clearly women’s owninclinations and choices. Another important perception is that aroundwhether or not people assume that women candidates lose votes – in boththe 1991 and 2002 surveys, only around one third of respondents thoughtthat this was the case. One of the obvious solutions to the fact that there are proportionatelyfew women involved inpolitics in Northern Ireland would be theintroduction of positive discrimination policies by the major parties.Howver, whilst there appears to be a view that women involve themselvesin the political process and be encouraged to do so, there is littleevidence that parties should actually be required to blance theircandidate lists with similar numbers of men and women. When questionedas to whether political parties should be required to put forward aproportion of women candidates, only 19 per cent of respondents agreed– 17 per cent of men and 21 per cent of women (Life and Times Survey2002). The more common view was that political parties should beencouraged to put forward a proportion of women candidates – 55 percent agreed with this (52 per cent of men and 57 per cent of women).The survey also asked whether the parties should put more resourcestowards the campaign of women candid ates than men candidates: this metwith a slightly more positive response with 33 per cent of men and 45per cent of women agreeing that more resources should be assigned towomen candidates. A further indicator that there is sufficient demandfor women politicians came from the questions asking respondents tochoose four attributes they would most like to see in Northern Irelandpoliticians and the attributes that they would then use to describeboth male and female politicians. Clearly, the Northern Ireland see women candidates as most likely tohave the attributes that they see as desirable. Whilst male politiciansare seen largely as aggressive, ruthless and crafty, female politiciansare seen as more likely to be honest, approachable and willing tocompromise. Attitudes in Northern Ireland towards women politician are generallyfavourable. These attitudes have noticeably become more positive since1991 and voters are now looking to parties to present them with morewomen candidates both in the Northern Ireland Assembly and atWestminster. Whilst barriers to women entering politics remain, theyappear to have been diluted over the last 10-15 years and whilst thereis still some discrimination against women in politics this haslessened. Perhaps most importantly of all in terms of attitudes towardswomen in politics, there appears to be a consensus that the qualitiesthat women bring to political life are closer to the qualitiesidentified in an ‘ideal’ candidate or representative than are of thoseof men in politics. Other research on specific questions about the role of women inpolitics gives a good insight into the attitudes of the NorthernIreland electorate. Surveys On line asked respondents what proportionof senior government posts should be held by women. Male Female % % A majority 2 3 About half 18 35 At least some 47 38 Nodefinite proportion 31 21 None 2 2 This would suggest that theelectorate is generally happy to see women holding some of the mostimportant posts in government. Again, this would suggest that there isno problem in terms of demand for women to be involved in politics inNorthern Ireland. Opinions of the general involvement of women onpolitics give a similar picture. Asked about women being elected to anational assembly, respondents felt that there should be: Again the broad consensus appears to be in favour of women beinginvolved in politics. Research indicates a slight imbalance in thatwomen appear to be more strongly in favour of a greater political role,but men also are broadly in favour of women’s involvement The attitudes towards

Music Education Advances Culture Essay examples -- School Art Essays

Music Education Advances Culture With many music programs now beginning to be cut from public schools, music educators now find themselves having to defend the value of their art in an educational setting. Most educators view music education to be an important aspect of overall education, but they view it as luxury rather than a necessity. Often times, music and art education unfortunately lead the way when tough budget cuts have to be made. Some people even believe that the arts should not be included in curriculum because it is difficult to evaluate art formally. Others believe that a culture as advanced as ours should have the arts as the keystone of our educational system. I believe that music education plays an important and valuable role in the further development of our culture and is essential to a good education. Music education is important in the development of a stronger culture and society because it encourages creativity and individuality. Students are provided with an opportunity to expand their minds and experience what their true potential is through the art of music. This encourages individual opinions and allows students to draw their own conclusions without a correct or incorrect answer. I believe that music education should be a keystone in the foundation of our educational system. As Williams states, "the arts are a basic and central medium of human communication and understanding."(Williams 190) Music communicates aurally what we can not put into words or visual images. Music and the other arts should be treated as essential to improving and strengthening our culture. Music always requires more than 100%. It is not enough just to play all the correct notes. Musicians strive for something greater than ... ...and increased math and reading scores. I think that we will find that music directly impacts math and reading skills. I believe that music requires a more diversified utilization of the brain, and that it inherently combines both math and communication skills. Yes, it is true that music may not fit into our modern mold of statistics, test scores, and financial value. Although music may not fit the mold, it is essential to all advanced cultures and its value is shown throughout the history of the world. Although technology in the modern world offers quick satisfaction, we must remember that without music and the arts culture becomes stagnant. Music is essential to our culture and should be essential to our educational system. Works Cited Dahl, Ronald. "Burned out and bored" Hughes, Robert. "Behold the Stone Age" Williams, Harold M. "Don’t Ignore the Arts"

Ashitaba herb Essay

Ashltaba Is a large herb that grows primarily In the central region of Japan. Its root, leaf, and stem are used to make medicine. Ashitaba is used for â€Å"heartburn, stomach ulcers, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, gout, constipation, and fever. It is also used for cancer, smallpox, fluid retention, blood clots, and food poisoning. Women use it to increase the now ot breast milk. The fresh leaves and dried powder are used as food. There is not enough information to know how ashitaba might work. Some chemicals in ashitaba seem to work as antioxidants. Other chemicals might block secretions of stomach acid. But most research has been done on animals or in test tubes, not people. *Disadvantages Pregnancy and breast-feeding: Not enough is known about the use of ashitaba during pregnancy and breast-feeding. Stay on the safe side and avoid use. The appropriate dose of ashitaba depends on several factors such as the user’s age, health, and several other conditions. At this time there is not enough scientific information to determine an appropriate range of doses for ashitaba. *Advantages One of the fundamental actions of Ashltaba Is that It is great at activating Blood. The application for this is apparent in the treatment in the menstrual problems. It removes stagnation in the uterus, which will help with many menstrual difficulties. It also increases blood flow. Ashitaba is a useful Lactagogue, that is, an agent which Induces the secretion of mother’s milk. There Is anecdotal evidence from Japan of a cow that was fed Ashitaba and had record milk production. By analogy, Ashitaba could be used with mastitis or low milk production after delivery.

‘Away’ by Michael Gow

Michael Gow’s play Away is the story of three different Australian families who go on holiday for Christmas in the sixties. By going away each family is hoping to resolve their issues. Although Away is set some time ago the themes and issues explored in the play are still relevant to a modern day audience, even one of a non-Australian background. Shakespearean plays that were written many hundreds of years ago and are still understandable and relevant to people all over the world today. Away is the story of three Australian families who go on holiday during the Christmas of 1968. Roy and Coral (the headmaster and his wife) are becoming increasingly close to breaking up. Their son was killed in the Vietnam War and Coral is still grieving for him. Tom and Meg were in the school’s production of A Midsummer’s Nights Dream. Tom has Leukaemia, and his parents, Harry and Vic, haven’t told him that he is going to die, but Tom has worked it out already. Tom and his family immigrated to Australia form England. They are going on holiday knowing that it could be their last together as a family, and are determined to have a good time. Meg is the same age as Tom and they both like each other. Meg’s parents, Gwen and Jim are going on holiday so Gwen can have a break. Gwen is a rather uptight and stressed person and thinks that to have anything good happen you have to make sacrifices. During each of the three families holidays there is a storm and they coincidently end up on the same beach. Away by Michael Gow is set in suburban Australia in the summer of 1968. However the specific time and place do not make it any less relevant to me. I could still relate to and understand what was happening in the play, even though it is set in a time before I was born. This is very much like Shakespearean plays that were written hundreds of years ago, even today people can still connect with the characters in them. It is interesting to note that Gow begins Away with a Shakespearean play, A Midsummer’s Nights Dream, and then choses to end it with another of Shakespeare’s plays, King Lear. Away, like Shakespearean plays is non-naturalism, a feature of this being the non-changing set. Throughout the production of Away that I saw the set remains the same except for basic props such as suitcases and a table. White sand covered the floor and lights were shone on the sails to show the hanges between scenes for the play. In the play Tom is compared to Chip Rafferty, a well-known Australian actor who died at age 62 in 1971. Younger people of today probably haven’t heard of him, but from watching the play and reading the script can safely assume that he was a famous actor. What makes Away relevant to an audience of today or from a non-Au stralian background are the universal themes present in the play. As long as the audience can connect and empathise with a character or understand a theme in the play then it will be relevant to them. Some of the themes in the play include death/grief/loss, racism, class systems, and relationships. The relationship between Gwen and Meg (mother and daughter) is quite strained during the play. Gwen is portrayed as a very uptight and stressed person, while Meg is in her late teens and has her own ideas about things. During Act Three Gwen and Meg begin arguing over Jim’s missing Christmas presents for everyone. The argument ends with Gwen saying how hard she tries to make things good for Meg, and Meg apologises. I feel that I can connect to Meg, especially in the scene where she is arguing with her mother. After that argument her father, (Jim) asks her why she did it, because he’d asked her not to upset her mother and she did. Meg replies that she couldn’t help herself. I know how she feels. You don’t mean to hurt the person or upset them but you just have to have your say, no matter what the consequences of that may be. I also feel that I can relate to Gwen, Meg’s mother as she reminds me of my own mum. The near constant stressing about everything, and wanting the very best for her daughter is very familiar. The issue of death is also covered in Away. Roy and Coral lost a son in the Vietnam was and Coral is still grieving for him. While Harry and Vic know that there son Tom is going to die from leukaemia. People all over the world, no matter what language they speak, what culture they come from, or which country they live in can understand and empathise with what these families may be feeling. The sense of loss and grief that comes with death is a universal feeling that can make the play relevant to so many people.

Should You Prep for the PSAT 3 Reasons Why

Should You Prep for the PSAT 3 Reasons Why SAT / ACT Prep Online Guides and Tips Even if prepping for the SAT or ACT isn't the most enjoyable of activities, it's easy to see why it's important to do well on these tests. Depending on your point of view, SAT and ACT scores are either tools that colleges use to help figure out if you're a good match for them and if you'll succeed at their schools...or are admissions gatekeepers that you have to conquer if you want to attend most American colleges*. By contrast, PSAT scores are never seen by colleges. Even if you get a perfect score on the PSAT, it's really only useful for helping you qualify for a National Merit Scholarship- something that only US citizens and permanent residents are eligible for. So why prep for the PSAT, and what do you need to know about PSAT prep if you're interested in trying it out? Keep reading to find out more about the pros and cons of focused PSAT prep (rather than joint PSAT/SAT prep) and what our PSAT prep recommendations are. *exceptions include test-optional schools and Hampshire. Why Take the PSAT? While the SAT (or ACT) is far, far more helpful to college applications than the PSAT, there still are good reasons to take the PSAT. We'll start with the most important reason: if taking the PSAT is required by your high school. If The PSAT Is Mandatory in Your School In some high schools (particularly public high schools), the PSAT is mandatory for all students. Sometimes, this just means that you'll have to take the PSAT NMSQT the fall of your junior year. Depending on your school, however, you may also have to take the PSAT NMSQT or PSAT 10 sophomore year, and indeed some students start taking PSAT-like-exams (PSATLE?) as early as 8th grade with the PSAT 8/9. Dealing with all these extra standardized tests is kind of a pain as a student, but from the high school's point of view, the PSAT is a good way to see if students are on track for college applications. No matter what point of view you look at it from, though, if it's mandatory to take the PSAT at your school, then you'll have to take the PSAT. What if, though, you don't fall into this category? Perhaps you could take the PSAT but you'd have to go to a different school to take it, or your school offers the PSAT but doesn't require students take it- should you take it anyway? In these cases, the PSAT is still worth taking for the following two reasons. Taking the PSAT Is Mandatory to Qualify for National Merit You may know that another name for the PSAT students take in the fall of 11th (and sometimes 10th) grade is the PSAT NMSQT (or National Merit Scholarship Qualifying Test). That's because the only way to qualify for a National Merit Scholarship is through taking the PSAT NMSQT as a high school junior. National Merit Scholarships are merit-based (rather than need-based) awards given to students who have (through testing and other factors) qualified as National Merit Finalists. The competition for National Merit is open to high school students who: are enrolled and progressing normally towards graduation (basically, you plan to graduate high school in four years, not more or less) plan to enroll full time in college the fall after high school (no gap years!) are US citizens or US lawful permanent residents planning to become citizens We'll discuss the different kinds of scholarships you can win by becoming a National Merit Finalist (and what steps beyond the PSAT you need to take to become one), but for now, just know that if you want to win a National Merit Scholarship, you must take the PSAT NMSQT in your junior year and do extremely well. The PSAT Is Great Practice for the SAT Taking the PSAT can be a great low-stakes way to see what taking a college entrance exam will be like. You can treat it as an extra chance to get used to standardized testing without having to worry about the scores affecting your college acceptance. Learning how you react to extended periods of focus on a test, how stressed you feel doing a math test without a calculator, what the time pressure is like- you can gather tons of different data points for future SAT/ACT prep by taking the PSAT. There are fewer and fewer schools these days, even among top-tier colleges and universities, that require all SAT scores sent (notable exceptions include Yale, Georgetown, UC Berkeley and Carnegie Mellon), so if you have the time and money, you can take the real SAT just to see what it's like and not worry about your scores. However, in most public high schools, taking the PSAT is free- or at least significantly cheaper than the SAT- and its administration is built into the school day (no need to waste half a Saturday). Bottom line: the PSAT is a fine way to dip your toe into the waters of college entrance tests at low cost but under realistic conditions. Dip your toe into the water of college entrance exams with the PSAT and the sands of standardized test experience will follow. PSAT Prep vs. SAT Prep: What's the Difference? While there's a lot that remains the same between the PSAT and the SAT (including the subject areas covered and test structure), there are a few major differences between the tests that lead to differences in PSAT prep compared to SAT prep. The most important difference between the two tests is that PSAT scores are not looked at by colleges, whereas SAT scores are very much an important factor in college admissions. It's possible to argue that colleges might consider your being a National Merit Semi-Finalist when looking at your application, which indirectly relates to your PSAT score, but the SAT vastly outweighs the PSAT in importance when it comes to college admission. Because of this, PSAT prep is lower stakes than SAT prep. Another key difference between the PSAT and SAT is that the PSAT has no essay section. While the SAT essay section is optional, and more and more schools are making it optional to send SAT essay scores, there are still a number of schools (mostly highly selective colleges) that do require you to take the SAT with the essay. Therefore, students prepping for the SAT and aiming for a high score to get into top-tier schools will need to spend some of that prep time learning how to write a high-scoring SAT essay. By contrast, students studying for the PSAT don't need to bother with essay prep. Overall, the PSAT is also a little easier than the SAT, both in terms of timing and content covered. With the exception of the Writing and Language section (which has the same number of questions and is the same length on the PSAT as on the SAT), there are fewer questions per section on the PSAT than the SAT. While you have the same time per question on PSAT Reading as on SAT Reading, there are fewer questions on each passage; and both PSAT Math sections give you more time per question while asking fewer questions than the SAT Math sections do. The cumulative result of these timing differences is that you need slightly less endurance to take the PSAT than the SAT- you only have to concentrate for an hour and 45 minutes instead of two full hours. Combined with having more time to answer each Math question, these timing differences between the PSAT and SAT mean that when prepping for the PSAT, you don't have to get as good at time management as you do for the SAT. Finally, there are subtle differences between the content covered on the PSAT and SAT. As we mention in this article comparing the PSAT and SAT, there may be slightly fewer big picture and inference questions and more detail-finding questions on the PSAT than on the SAT. In addition, the PSAT Math sections contain proportionally fewer questions that require geometric and trigonometric knowledge than do the SAT Math sections. Instead, PSAT Math includes more questions (compared to SAT Math questions) on the Passport to Advanced Math topic areas, like functions and linear and nonlinear systems of equations. Your PSAT prep will reflect this difference- instead of having to cover the SAT's harder topics (that you may not have yet learned in school as an 11th grader), you can spend more time perfecting a smaller number of skills. Now that we've discussed why you should take the PSAT at all and the differences between prepping for the PSAT and the SAT, we'll move on to the debate of whether or not to prep for the PSAT. Why Do PSAT Prep? With the College Board offering free SAT prep through Khan Academy and ACT, Inc. offering paid ACT prep, it's become pretty clear that even the testing companies themselves admit that prepping for the SAT and ACT will help you get a higher score. Because the PSAT is just a slightly easier, slightly shorter version of the SAT, it makes sense that you can prep for the PSAT and increase your score the same way you can with the SAT. Since PSAT scores aren't used in college applications, however, it can be harder to figure out whether or not it makes sense for you to prep for the PSAT. To help you decide, we've laid out the arguments for the three most compelling reasons to spend time prepping for the PSAT: qualifying for National Merit, focusing on one thing at a time, and getting ready for SAT prep. Reason 1: Qualifying for the National Merit Scholarship The number one reason students take the PSAT is to qualify for the National Merit Scholarship. We have a more detailed breakdown of how the National Merit Scholarship process works in this article, but basically what happens is that you take the PSAT NMSQT in the fall of your junior year to see if you can score well enough to become a National Merit Semifinalist (which is the first step on the road to becoming a National Merit Finalist and getting a National Merit Scholarship). As a National Merit Finalist, you can win a National Merit scholarship, a scholarship from your college, or a corporate scholarship. For more info on how to get each type of scholarships, read this article explaining how you can qualify for and win a National Merit scholarship. Let's now go back to the first step of the process, which happens when you take the PSAT NMSQT in the fall (usually October or early November) of your junior year. Your PSAT score qualifies you for National Merit depending on whether your score passes the cutoff for your state. The cutoff isn't announced officially by the College Board, but it can be inferred from students receiving notification that they have or haven't become a national merit semifinalist. You can find out what your state's National Merit cutoff score was last year here. By taking an official PSAT practice test or by comparing your sophomore year score on the PSAT to the cutoff score for your state, you can get a good idea of how much prep you'll need to score high enough to pass your state's cutoff score and become a National Merit Semi-Finalist. Aiming for a National Merit Scholarship but worried your score won't qualify? If you're not sure you can self-study your way to a qualifying PSAT score, you'll love our PSAT prep program, PrepScholar. We designed our program to learn your strengths and weaknesses through advanced statistics and customize your prep to be as effective as possible for you. When you start with PrepScholar, you’ll take a diagnostic that will determine your weaknesses in over forty PSAT skills. PrepScholar then creates a study program specifically customized for you. To improve each skill, you’ll take focused lessons dedicated to each skill, with over 20 practice questions per skill. This will train you for your specific area weaknesses, so your time is always spent most effectively to raise your score. We also force you to focus on understanding your mistakes and learning from them. If you make the same mistake over and over again, we'll call you out on it. There’s no other prep system out there that does it this way, which is why we get better score results than any other program on the market. Check it out today with a 5-day free trial: Reason 2: Focusing on One Test at a Time Because PSAT prep and SAT prep are so similar, many students who are aiming for National Merit either go straight to studying for the SAT as prep for the PSAT or try to study for both tests at once. Whether or not this is effective really depends on the individual student. Some students thrive by multitasking. Whether it's doing homework while listening to music and eating dinner or preparing to take multiple SAT subject tests on one day, these students get good results when they maximize their time by doing multiple things at once. For other students, however, having to prep for multiple things at once (particularly if they're academic or test-related things like the PSAT and SAT) is so stressful that it leads to poorer performance on everything. As an example: during college, I had multiple assignments I had to hand in at the end of each finals period. Rather than work a little on each assignment each day, I found it more effective for me to focus on one project at a time and get it out of the way before going on to the next. Similarly, depending on what kind of student you are, you may find that it's more helpful to start out by focusing just on the PSAT, getting that over and done with, and then moving on to study for the SAT. This "one thing at a time" strategy works well for students who have some time during sophomore year or the summer before junior year to set aside specifically for PSAT study. CAUTION: If you're just starting to study the fall of your junior year and your prep time is limited, you're better off going straight to SAT prep. If you have to choose between PSAT prep and SAT prep, the clear choice is SAT prep. It's only if you have the time to do both that you should consider prepping for the PSAT and SAT separately. If you're feeling overwhelmed by everything you have to do for college applications, it can be helpful to prep for one test at a time. Reason 3: Getting in Gear for SAT Prep One other benefit to prepping for the PSAT is that it put you in a good place for SAT prep. As we discuss in detail in this article comparing the PSAT and SAT, there are very few content differences between the PSAT and SAT (the main difference being in the math concepts covered and the increased length of the SAT). By prepping for the PSAT, you'll be more than 75% of the way there for the SAT. You won't be able to get away without doing any SAT-specific prep (particularly for those math topics that aren't on the PSAT), but the amount of work that you'll have to do is way less than those starting on SAT prep from scratch. If the "doing more prep now means less hard prep later" argument isn't convincing, think about it in non-test prep terms. Imagine that you want to learn how to play the piano by the end of junior year of high school. You have the option of learning how to play an electric keyboard first or just starting straight on the piano. Also, for some reason there's an electric keyboard competition the fall of your junior year that could lead to you winning money; it's only open to people playing the electric keyboard, though (not people playing the piano). Because the electric keyboard and piano are so similar, if you do start out by just teaching yourself to play the electric keyboard (what the notes are, how to read music, how to do different things with your right and left hands at once, etc), you'll be most of the way there to learning the piano; all you'll have to get used to is the bigger range and using the pedals. Or in test-prep terms, if you prep for the PSAT, you'll just need to learn any pre-calc math you hadn't learned when you took the PSAT and work on time management and endurance in order to prepare for the SAT. What if you're already studying for the SAT, or don't have the time to first study for the PSAT and then for the SAT? Going back to the analogy, if you already know how to play the piano, then you don't need to do intensive prep to teach yourself how to play the electric keyboard- you just need to do a practice test to make sure you get used to playing on a simpler instrument. Or in the case of the PSAT/SAT, if you've already studied for the SAT, you just need to take a PSAT practice test to make sure you're all set for that. Basically, if you prep for the PSAT, it'll help you prep for the SAT; if you're already prepping for the SAT, that will also prep you for the PSAT. While we've gone over some of the reasons students might want to prep for the PSAT, there are also cases in which PSAT prep is unnecessary and pointless. We'll get into these cases in the next section. When PSAT Prep is Unnecessary As we mentioned above, the main reason to take the PSAT (other than your school forcing you to take it) is to qualify to apply for a National Merit Scholarship. If you're not interested in qualifying (or are ineligible) for that National Merit Scholarship, then there is no point in doing pure PSAT prep. That doesn't mean you can't prep at all- you just should jump right into prepping for the SAT (or ACT) You can still treat the PSAT as a chance to take an official standardized test and get used to what sitting and concentrating for that long at once feels like, but there's no need to prep for the PSAT in particular. Another important point that we touched on earlier is that prepping for the SAT will help you with the PSAT. If you start to prep for the SAT before your junior year (when you'd take the PSAT NMSQT), any SAT prep you do will also prepare you for the PSAT. Of course, if you're not prepping for the SAT effectively, then you won't prep for the PSAT any more effectively. But, assuming you're putting in time and effort in the right way, if you're already prepping for the SAT, there's no need to do additional PSAT prep. Summary: Is PSAT Prep Right for You? Whether or not it makes sense for you to prep for the PSAT specifically (instead of just prepping for the SAT) depends on a few different factors. We've put these factors into a checklist you can go through below to see if prepping for the PSAT is the right call for you. Should You Study for the PSAT? YES, if... NO, if... You're hoping to qualify for National Merit You don't care about National Merit You work better when focusing on prepping for one test at a time You're already prepping for the SAT anyway You want to get a head start on prepping for the SAT but don't want to prep for the SAT because you haven't learned all the math you need to know for it yet You don't have the time and just want to focus on SAT prep If you checked off all "No" answers, there's no need to do any PSAT-specific prep; instead, you should turn all your prep energies toward studying for the SAT (or ACT). However, if you checked off any of the "Yes" reasons, then it's worth thinking about doing some prep for the PSAT in particular. What's Next? Doing well on the PSAT is just the first step to winning a National Merit Scholarship. Find out how the whole process works with our complete guide to becoming a National Merit Finalist and winning the scholarship. The PSAT NMSQT is only offered once each year in the fall, but what date is it this year? We tell you when the PSAT is and when you'll get your scores in this article. Curious what the PSAT looks like? Want to try your hand at a practice test? We have a complete list of all the free official practice tests the College Board has released here. Want to improve your PSAT score by 150 points? We have the industry's leading PSAT prep program. Built by Harvard grads and SAT full scorers, the program learns your strengths and weaknesses through advanced statistics, then customizes your prep program to you so that you get the most effective prep possible. Check out our 5-day free trial today:

Toxic Waste Effects1 essays

Toxic Waste Effects1 essays Canada and all of the developed countries in the world produce some kind of toxic waste(s). It doesn't matter whether it's a chocolate bar wrapper or a canister of highly radioactive plutonium, they're potentially dangerous to us and/or our natural environment unless properly disposed of. Toxic waste is defined as any waste that is hazardous to human health or to our natural environment. According to the Institute of Chemical Waste Management, about 15% of our garbage is classified as toxic, and only 85% (approximately) of that is disposed of properly. The rest is either illegally dumped or accidentally mixed up with non-toxic garbage. That 15% may not seem like a lot, but when you consider the millions of tons of toxic waste that we produce every year, that 15% is enormous. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that we produce one ton of toxic wastes for every single person living in Canada every year. That means that the 15% represents about 4.2 million tons of toxic waste. Toxic wastes which are dumped in improper sites can seep into underground water supplies and contaminate huge areas. If the land that is intoxicated supports plant life, most of the plants and trees will die off. If the area is lived on by humans, it could cause serious illness or death. For example, an area by Niagara Falls (US side) was used during the 1930s by a chemical company to dump it's wastes. Most of them were hazardous, and the containers that held the chemicals later (after the company had gone out of business) began to leak. The chemicals spread for miles killing off plants and causing cancers and deadly diseases in humans. Included in these wastes was a chemical called dioxin... one ounce of it used under the right circumstances was enough to kill off everyone in One of the most popular places to dump toxic wastes is in the oceans. ...

Elisha Grays Telephone Invention Patent Caveat

Elisha Grays Telephone Invention Patent Caveat Elisha Gray was an American inventor who contested the invention of the telephone with Alexander Graham Bell. Elisha Gray invented a version of the telephone in his laboratory in Highland Park, Illinois. Background - Elisha Gray 1835-1901 Elisha Gray was a Quaker from rural Ohio who grew up on a farm. He studied electricity at Oberlin College. In 1867, Gray received his first patent for an improved telegraph relay. During his lifetime, Elisha Gray was granted over seventy patents for his inventions, including many important innovations in electricity. In 1872, Gray founded the Western Electric Manufacturing Company, the great-grandparent of todays Lucent Technologies. Patent Wars - Elisha Gray Vs Alexander Graham Bell On February 14, 1876, Alexander Graham Bells telephone patent application entitled Improvement in Telegraphy was filed at the USPTO by Bells attorney Marcellus Bailey.  Elisha Grays attorney filed a caveat for a telephone just a few hours later entitled Transmitting Vocal Sounds Telegraphically. Alexander Graham Bell was the fifth entry of that day, while Elisha Gray was 39th. Therefore, the U.S. Patent Office awarded Bell with the first patent for a telephone, US Patent 174,465 rather than honor Grays caveat. On September 12, 1878  lengthy patent litigation involving the Bell Telephone Company against Western Union Telegraph Company and Elisha Gray began. What Is a Patent Caveat? A patent caveat was a type of preliminary application for a patent that gave an inventor an additional 90 days grace to file a regular patent application. The caveat would prevent anyone else that filed an application on the same or similar invention from having their application processed for 90 days while the caveat holder was given an opportunity to file a full patent application first. Caveats are no longer issued. Elisha Grays Patent Caveat Filed on February 14, 1876 To all whom it may concern: Be it known that I, Elisha Gray, of Chicago, in the County of Cook, and  State of Illinois, have invented a new art of transmitting vocal sounds telegraphically, of which the following is a specification. It is the object of my invention to transmit the tones of the human voice through a telegraphic circuit and reproduce them at the receiving end of the  line so that actual conversations can be carried on by persons at long distances apart. I have invented and patented methods of transmitting musical impressions or sounds  telegraphically, and my present invention is based  on  a modification of the principle of said invention, which is set forth and described in letters patent of the  United  States, granted to me July 27th, 1875, respectively numbered 166,095, and 166,096, and also in an application for letters patent of the United States, filed by me, February 23d, 1875. To attain the objects of my invention, I devised an instrument capable of vibrating responsively to all tones of the human voice, and by which they are rendered audible. In the accompanying  drawings  I have shown an apparatus embodying my improvements in the best way now known to me, but I contemplate various other applications, and also changes in the details of construction of the apparatus, some of which would  obviously suggest themselves to a skillful electrician, or a person in the science of acoustics, in seeing this application. Figure 1 represents a vertical central section through the transmitting instrument; Figure 2, a similar section through the receiver; and Figure 3, a diagram representing the whole apparatus.   My present belief is, that the most effective method of providing an apparatus capable of responding to the various tones of the human voice, is a tympanum, drum or diaphragm, stretched across one end of the chamber, carrying an apparatus for producing fluctuations in the potential of the electric current, and consequently varying in its power. In the drawings, the person transmitting sounds is shown as talking into a box, or chamber, A, across the outer end of which is stretched a diaphragm, a, of some thin substance, such as parchment or gold-beaters skin, capable of responding to all the vibrations of the human voice, whether simple or complex. Attached to this diaphragm is a light metal rod, A, or other suitable conductor of electricity, which extends into a vessel B, made of glass or other insulating material, having its lower end  closed by a plug, which may be of metal, or through which passes a conductor b, forming part of the circuit. This vessel is filled with some liquid possessing high resistance, such, for instance, as water, so that the vibrations of the plunger or rod A, which does not quite touch the conductor b, will cause variations in resistance, and, consequently, in the potential of the current passing through the rod A. Owing to this construction, the resistance varies constantly in response to the vibrations of the diaphragm, which, although irregular, not only in their amplitude, but in rapidity, are nevertheless transmitted, and can, consequently, be transmitted through a single rod, which could not be done with a positive make and break of the circuit employed, or where contact points are used. I contemplate, however, the use of a series of  diaphragm  in a common vocalizing chamber, each diaphragm carrying and independent  rod, and responding to a vibration of different rapidity and intensity, in which case contact points mounted on other diaphragms may be employed. The vibrations thus imparted are transmitted through an electric circuit to the receiving station, in which circuit is included an  electromagnet  of ordinary construction, acting upon a diaphragm to which is attached a piece of soft iron, and which  diaphragm  is stretched across a receiving vocalizing chamber c, somewhat similar to the corresponding vocalizing chamber A. The diaphragm at the receiving end of the line is this thrown into vibration corresponding with those at the transmitting end, and audible sounds or words are produced. The obvious practical application of my improvement will be to enable persons at a distance to converse with each other through a telegraphic circuit, just as they do now in each others presence, or through a speaking tube. I claim as my invention the art of transmitting vocal sounds or conversations telegraphically through an electric circuit. Elisha Gray WitnessesWilliam J. PeytonWm D. Baldwin

HW9 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

HW9 - Essay Example Extended Matrix 3: Once firm B enters and exits the market, the profitability chances collapse at the same time as the company loses $1,000,000. The only sound approached is considering paths NP and PN (this combination considers neutral risk taking) as it considers the N =Neutral path in both cases. c. By choosing to take 7500 and 50% gamble chances of winning between 5000 and 10000, the CEO is considered a risk taker as the cash amount and the expected outcome range only add up to $7500 + 0 = $7500 or $7500 + either $5000 or $10000 = either $12500 or $17500. d. From the utility function, the extended matrix show that the CEO has better changes of accepting $10,000 in cash and 50% gamble of winning between $7500 and $12500. This would make her returns 10,000 without risks and 50% chance of losing the opportunity to win 7500 or 12500. However, an ideal path from 1 on the above extended matrix show that accepting $10000 and taking the 50% gamble chance increases her chances of having 22500 if the gamble paid of. Either way, the taking of chances with decisions whose outcome can result to benefits or no benefits shows that the CEO is a risk

An enemy of the People by Arthur Miller Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

An enemy of the People by Arthur Miller - Essay Example In his play entitled â€Å"An enemy of the People,† Henrik Ibsen uses the character of Dr. Stockmann to bring out the extent to which the society can compromise the desires and beliefs of an individual. Reading through the play, one gets to understand how hard it is for people who have compromised their principles to be confronted by someone who has not. The use of the styles of characterization, irony, and symbolism help the author to show the reader ways in which a person can be disliked by the very same society he is doing his best to help. Dr. Stockmann, the main character of the play is a popular practicing medical doctor as well as the medical officer of a small coastal town in Norway. He is the brother of the mayor, an authoritative figure in the town. In the play, Dr. Stockmann is the protagonist who struggles to do the right thing and stand against the social intolerances that he encounters in his day to day activities. As a health officer of the town, Dr. Stockmann d iscovers a problem with pollution that is causing illnesses to the town’s tourists. To this effect, he comes up with a solution to the pollution problem which he presents to the Mayor. However, he discovers that it would not be an easy task to get the attention of the authorities and the townspeople as it becomes clear to him that they only care about the financial gain of the baths and not the problems they present. He realizes that he is alone in his quest for being right and notes â€Å"†¦..† (Ibsen 1011). Dr. Stockmann experiences a lot of negativity from the very same people of the town he is trying to help. When he discovers the extent of pollution in the waters, he believes that people will be interested in finding a solution. However, the townspeople, even his friends term him an â€Å"enemy of the people† mainly because his suggestions take the prosperity associated with the benefits of the baths back. He even notes himself "I've decided. I am an Enemy of the People"(Ibsen 1028) when he finally accepts that most of the towns people will never support him. This brings out irony in the play. It is ironic because Dr. Stockmann had the best of intentions when he proposed limiting the damages of pollution by closing the baths. In any case, the people are their own enemy because their greed and desire for prosperity will in the end bring harm and destruction to the town. It is clear that people do not realize the shortsightedness of their stand against Dr. Stockmann’s opi nion of what is best for the town. Ibsen’s use of imagery as brought out by the character of Dr. Stockmann who points out images of pollution throughout the play. At the beginning, Dr. Stockman literally discovers the polluted baths which in this case, are getting polluted by literal filth from the tanneries. As the play progresses, images of dirty water are used as a symbolic representation of moral and societal corruption. According to Roshwald, there is the physical filth, as well as moral pollution, and one can see the biological poison as a representation of the moral corruption in the society (229). In a community, there are always selfish individuals who have compromised their principles and find it challenging when confronted by someone of integrity. The mayor is dishonest and callous, but his brother is an honest man and that is why as Roshwald notes, Dr. Stockman accuses his brother by saying â€Å"We are making our living by retailing filth and corruption!†

Make a title Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Make a title - Essay Example Britain took measures to retain control over the colonies and to raise income to settle the debt. In 1763, King George III issued a Royal Proclamation which had a provision barring any colonial settlement beyond west of the Appalachian Mountains. In so doing, Britain hoped to avoid expensive Indian wars; and to keep western land speculation under her control (Kindig 1995). Immediate resistance led to its modification. In 1764, Parliament enacted the Sugar Act, in an effort to raise income in the colonies through a tax on molasses. The British parliament also passed the Stamp Act 1765, which obliged colonists to obtain a government-issued stamp for paper goods including all legal documents. There were massive protests to oppose these Acts, which often resulted into violence (Kindig 1995). It seems the British fruits of victory sowed the seeds for future problems with her American colonies. Attempts to increase taxes to service debts for the expensive war; and to limit western expansion by colonists were met with great resistance and resentment from the colonists. These disagreements would eventually encourage colonial rebellion and consequently the full-scale independence war. "French and Indian War/Seven Years War, 1754–63 - 1750–1775 - Milestones - Office of the Historian." State Department - Office of the Historian. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Oct. 2014. . "The Expansion of the West - Boundless Open Textbook." Boundless. Version 4. N.p., 9 Dec. 2010. Web. 12 Oct. 2014.

Rogers & Hammerstein Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Rogers & Hammerstein - Essay Example The collaboration between the composer and the writer was the beginning of a musical partnership "for over twenty years and wrote a number of successful musicals-even though Rodgers was a workaholic and Hart was an alcoholic."(Oklahoma, 2005 ). Hammerstein with his theater and opera inclined paternal family was a stage struck since childhood, which unsurprisingly led him to be a performer and a writer of amateur routines in his freshman. After a year at Columbia Law school he became famous librettist for operettas. Hammerstein had a successful career before beginning his partnership with Rodgers. (Gordon, 1990). With Jerome Kern, they collaborated in "most notably Show Boat (1927), and wrote the book and lyrics for Carmen Jones, the 1943 all-black version of Georges Bizet's opera Carmen" (Remarkable Columbians, 2004). Rogers was asked by the Theater Guild of New York City in 1940 to compose new musical. Asking Hart to once again work with him, to no avail due to Hart's deteriorating health. He then contacted Hammerstein to whom he already had an acquaintance in their undergraduate lives in Columbian College. This was the beginning of a wonderful and creative workmanship. Their first collaborative and radical work was in Oklahoma! which became the foundation of the 17-year partnership and "continued through ten other musicals, including one motion picture (State Fair, 1945) and one teleplay (Cinderella, 1957), Carousel (1945), South Pacific (1949), The King and I (1951) and The Sound of Music (1959). In all, the duo won 35 Tonys, 15 Oscars, two Grammys, two Pulitzers, and two Emmys." (Remarkable Columbians, 2004). The Oklahoma! set the stage of sweeping changes for American musical theater. The dynamic duo challenged the current styles of the musical theater. They have ingeniously integrated the elements of drama, music and dance as never before. During this time, musicals' attractions include songs which were usually irrelevant to the story and comedy arranged with little plot. This is how Oklahoma! defined its uniqueness ushering the birth of "a new genre, the musical play, representing a unique fusion of Rodgers' musical comedy and Hammerstein's operetta. A milestone in the development of the American musical, it also marked the beginning of the most successful partnership in Broadway" (Biographies, 2005). This pioneering masterpiece was experimental in its nature. It tried to set new guidelines of entertainment in its fullest. The play effectively intertwined funny musicals and serious types of music. The songs either enhanced the plot or direct the audience to understand the characters. T he plot and the music characterized the birth of the musical play. Such twist of interest was made through the fitting of the music to the pre-written words, the effect which is astounding. The music became a tool of emotion and storyline. Not yet done, the team made another hit in 1945 in Carousel with its more dramatic plot. For the second time, audience was arrested by further innovations on the arrangements of the musical play which was unbelievably pleasing entertainment. Among its unusualness, the play started with the whole cast performing a ballet as the orchestra plays, in place of the usual overture before the show begins enchanting the audiences and further redefining the art of the genre. Rodgers and Hammerstein apparently are not

ASTR 123 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

ASTR 123 - Assignment Example This theory however, fails to account for the possibility of the huge unconceivable numbers of comets that could have collided or passed near earth for this to have happened. It is believed that during the formation of the earth e.g. the big bang process and later developments, the materials that formed it contained large amounts of water that condensed and later collected, resulting in its large surface water volumes. Though this could be a possibility, the earth’s surface was less massive during the development stages leading to its gravity being too weak to hold the waters from escaping its surface at that stage. This fails to explain the almost immediate existence of water after the earth’s formation. The Snowball earth theory explains that at least once, massive glaciations occurred on earth that left almost the whole of it--if not its entire surface -- completely frozen. The theory has convincingly tried to explain the existence of similar sedimentary deposits found especially at the tropical paleolatitudes. Despite the many suppositions of the theory, it however, cannot feasibly be dependent on as it contradict known facts and theories such as the origin of glacial models and the slushball earth hypothesis. The surface of Europa is believed to be covered in thick ice crust, which prompts scientists to conclude that there is a possibility of a large salty water body rich in chemicals beneath the ice. These combined, form basic necessities required by extreme microbial life forms to thrive. Heat from tidal flexing regulates the energy changes and provides the necessary energy for microbe survival. Sulphur and sulphuric acid deposits in Europa has little resemblance with some extreme conditions on earth where microbes like pioneering bacteria evolved and mastered basic survival skills without directly getting their energy from the

Marxism as a major ideology in the 21st century Essay

Marxism as a major ideology in the 21st century - Essay Example The mere fact that the beginning of the Marxism was 1848, when Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels published the Communist Manifesto, speaks for itself: it was a different time. And the current XXI century is not the XIX century, and, if Marxism was not to gain a foothold in the minds of people in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, then this will not happen in the twenty-first century. And such notorious Marxist terms and phrases as â€Å"the proletariat†, â€Å"Rent†, â€Å"world revolution†, â€Å"communism - a bright future for all mankind† are can not often be heard even at rallies and demonstrations organized by the Communists at the present time. We know that in the twentieth century the ideology of Marxism was adopted by the Soviet Union, some countries of Eastern Europe, China, Mongolia, North Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia and Cuba. Lots of aforementioned countries still remain the supporters of Marxism nowadays. Even in the most developed capitalist co untries there are always some Communist Parties. With all respect to certain postulates and the noble ideas of Marxist philosophy, our contemporary society can not possibly accept Marxism as a whole, so the given ideology is unlikely to return as a major ideology in the twenty first century. Let us take, for example, such a doctrine of Karl Marx, as his famous theory of surplus value. Marxists believe that under capitalism a great part of the produced surplus value is given to the capital, which inevitably leads to an increasing stratification of society and the growth of class struggle.... Marxists believe that under capitalism a great part of the produced surplus value is given to the capital, which inevitably leads to an increasing stratification of society and the growth of class struggle (â€Å"Karl Marx – Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy†). In accordance with this postulate (and the inevitable growth of the class struggle), it is possible to make a conclusion that sooner or later the global economic crisis and revolution will occur. Besides, ultimately the means of production, sooner or later will move to the workers and peasants. Thereafter, in accordance with the following Marxist postulate, productivity growth will sooner or later lead to the fact that human capabilities will outstrip human needs, thus, social wealth will flow an endless stream, comes communism. Under these circumstances, the postulate that â€Å"material existence of any person ultimately determines his or her consciousness† will work. Thus, we can run to the conclusion that each person will receive material benefits according to needs. And all the people will automatically become happy. An era of universal happiness will come. That what is said about the strengthening of the class struggle in the Manifesto of Communist Party, â€Å"Over the past few decades, the history of industry and commerce was nothing but the history of the revolt of modern productive forces against modern conditions of production, against the property relations that are the conditions for the existence of the bourgeoisie and its rule. It suffices to mention the commercial crises that, coming back from time to time, call into question the existence of the entire bourgeois society ... The growing competition among the bourgeois, and the resulting commercial

ASTR 123 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

ASTR 123 - Assignment Example This theory however, fails to account for the possibility of the huge unconceivable numbers of comets that could have collided or passed near earth for this to have happened. It is believed that during the formation of the earth e.g. the big bang process and later developments, the materials that formed it contained large amounts of water that condensed and later collected, resulting in its large surface water volumes. Though this could be a possibility, the earth’s surface was less massive during the development stages leading to its gravity being too weak to hold the waters from escaping its surface at that stage. This fails to explain the almost immediate existence of water after the earth’s formation. The Snowball earth theory explains that at least once, massive glaciations occurred on earth that left almost the whole of it--if not its entire surface -- completely frozen. The theory has convincingly tried to explain the existence of similar sedimentary deposits found especially at the tropical paleolatitudes. Despite the many suppositions of the theory, it however, cannot feasibly be dependent on as it contradict known facts and theories such as the origin of glacial models and the slushball earth hypothesis. The surface of Europa is believed to be covered in thick ice crust, which prompts scientists to conclude that there is a possibility of a large salty water body rich in chemicals beneath the ice. These combined, form basic necessities required by extreme microbial life forms to thrive. Heat from tidal flexing regulates the energy changes and provides the necessary energy for microbe survival. Sulphur and sulphuric acid deposits in Europa has little resemblance with some extreme conditions on earth where microbes like pioneering bacteria evolved and mastered basic survival skills without directly getting their energy from the

Gender and Power in the Media Essay Example for Free

Gender and Power in the Media Essay Media is the best avenue for companies to advertise their products, especially if they want to reach a greater scopre of target consumers. Every day, persuasion through the television, internet, and radio commercials, as well as in printed ads and billboards will make them sell more of their products in an effectual manner (Allen). Radio and television are the two channels where most Americans get information, especially news, aside from the Internet, magazines, and many others. And because of these two media, they can definitely change the way audiences perceive things in society, especially the youth, who may be more vulnerable to media influence compared to adults. This may partly be attributed to their inexperience. It affects how they decide on things that matter greatly to them and to others (Reed). The core and obvious difference is that the radio only produces sound, while the television produces both sound and images. The radio was formed from different ideas coming from Michael Faraday’s electromagnetism, to James Clark Maxwell’s treatise on electricity and magnetism, to Heinrich Hertz’ Hertzian waves, down to Gugliemo Marconi’s wireless telegraph and signal company (the world’s first radio factory) and tuned syntonic telegraphy (Parker). The radio was first used as a transmitter of information, especially for the ships who sails long distances (Parker). This later on became a major requirement for ships, especially to have radio auxiliary power and two operators with a licensed driver after the Titanic sank in early 1900’s (Schoenherr). Previously, the programs in radio were only for musical and talk show purposes. However, starting 1940, the programs in radio also offered drama and news (Schoenher). In California, KALW San Francisco is one of the stations that operated in FM as it was aired on September 1. 1941. It was licensed by the Federal Communications Commission on March 10, 1941, to broadcast educational programs. Its first program was Schoolcast. The listeners of this program were mostly soldiers training in tanks as their radio is reached by the signal of the station (Tripod. com). Radio was even once classified as monopolistic competition, as only few individuals or group of people operate the radio industry in some states. But with the Telecommunications act of 1996, ownership was also granted to some groups (Drushel). Nowadays, there are registered and licensed 643 public and private FM and AM radio stations available for the listeners in California. One of these is 102. 7 KIIS FM or KISS FM in Spanish located in Los Angeles (SHG Resources State Handbook and Guide). The station was first heard in 1948. Presently, it was owned and managed by Clear Channel Communications. The station is actually a result of change formats, purchasing, and trade frequencies among defunct radio stations, individuals, and companies. Today it the stations is also known as LA’s #1 Hit Music Radio Station as it is one of the highest rated Radio station in the United States, and is recognized as 2007’s station of the year. The station plays RB, pop, and rock music. They said that their play list is based on the likes of their listeners. Unlike any other station, they censor the songs before they play it on air. One of the popular personalities in the station is Ryan Seacrest. In society, some topics are beyond common knowledge, for example technical terms that are medical in nature and only medical experts can further explain. By having discussions on the radio or in television or having these placed in an article will allow information for more people, especially if these concern health and safety of the majority. Critical issues need to be exposed, analyzed, evaluated, and properly addressed, thus the role of media is vital in this stage (RadioIslam. org). Popular media, like FM Radio programs, particularly KIIS FM, in the late capitalist societies became the primary source of knowledge and experience virtually about anything, including gender. It is said that they are important in the creation of power relations in society (Hains). Take for example the social status of women and men. In the construction of gender and sexuality, it is said that the school, particularly the teacher, plays a very important role in this crucial stage. As expected, one can only be masculine and feminine. In some cases, some of the abuses of these children are coming from male teachers, whether this be physical or verbal. Some experts opine that femininity is always shown as sexual appeal, while men are sex seekers. Students would favor a woman teacher rather than a male teacher because they act as mothers and more overtly show concern for their students. To some students, male teachers are impatient. Male students are punished heavily by male teachers as compared to female students. Having said all of these, we can say that both sexes experience harassment and abuse from both sexes, and not just the females (Chege). The media can use their influence to expose these problems and seek help and justice for this people, who at an early age have been subjected to such trauma. Moreover, it may be worth noting that media may also be partly blamed for reinforcing both the abusive behavior of the teacher and the shame felt by student over her stigma (Chege). Previously, females were viewed as passive. They are not allowed to work and usually stay at home, doing the chores of a wife, and only serve as trophies of their husbands. Worse, they are not allowed to go to school as it was believed that only men can seek education since they are the heads of their families. They are always expected to watch themselves and to act according to the norms of society, especially in the eyes of men as she is the object of men’s sight. Her skin must be supple, hairless, and smooth. Her face must be free of wrinkles, with no signs of stress or whatsoever. Her lips must be kissable, and her eyes mysterious. Women are said to be more restricted with their movements. They must be cross legged when sitting, and toes pointing only in straight or inward directions. Aside from these, they are also trained to show their smiles more than men do. They must stand with stomach in and chest out. If any of these are violated, it means that they violated norms of morals, speech, and movements. Moreover, women tend to occupy the lower and marginalized positions in a company, or even in society. Most women are given reproductive, productive, and community work. Reproductive tasks would include giving birth, feeding and educating her kids, taking care of her husband and children, and other domestic tasks. Her productive work would mean to produce products and services for others’ consumption. Community work would entail her to support different activities that will directly benefit society through volunteerism. However, not all women are given the chance to enjoy community work, since they are burdened by her reproductive and productive functions. Men tend to be more powerful in most realms. Needless to say, they occupy most of the highest positions in industrial organizations and society; thus the glass ceiling phenomenon (Chege). On the other hand, men are expected to be active, and to make things happen. They go out of their houses to work, and were sent to school whether they like it or not. Men are allowed to sit with legs apart so they can move loosely from one place to another (Employees. oneonta. edu). Nowadays, as media plays a greater role in building society, things have changed. There is equality among men and women. Women are more empowered to do things that men usually do. Media brought the new concept of a woman, someone who is ideal. For most, what is beautiful is a woman who is firm, with a narrow hip, with a small breast, and slim, as evidenced by the models in the cover of a magazine. For those who do not posses this kind of body, dieting is an alternative. Another way is to have surgery in order to enhance one’s physical attributes. Diet and surgery are some of the popular topics both in print and non-print media (Employees. oneonta. edu). Women are becoming more liberal as evidenced in the paper of Izabel Magalhaes. She said that it the responsibility of media especially radio in introducing the said concept to these women. Media is more open about talking about women’s stories that discuss their sex experiences at the expense of entertainment of others (Magalhaes). They say what they feel; they enact what they think (Employees. oneonta. edu). Women would go to school and get the job opportunities opened for men, and nowadays, women excel in different fields, almost overtaking men in different positions and levels. Some male workers would even be surprised that their boss is a woman In KIIS FM; men are not the only DJ’s in the station. There are also women who work everyday for the station. Even in describing the achievements of a woman, some adjectives that are associated with men are actually used. Those words are not anymore exclusive to men. The main reason is that men are usually viewed as individuals with physical strength. Nowadays, physical strength is not the only issue, topics about men’s health, fashion, and trips are now being featured by the media. This time, the notion that men only desires for women is not anymore true, since nowadays they are also interested in fashion, health, and many other things like women do (Magalhaes). As what have mentioned a while ago, media, particularly radio is also used to attract possible buyers by different companies. It is said that advertising, such as those in radios, contributes in representing and constructing gender identities in urban region which also exists in the past. The interests of large corporations are presented to the people, and whoever has the most interesting advertising skills and features will be favored by the consumers (Magalhaes). Alternatives were provided in front of us everyday, both are competitively packaged. Women are now represented by these advertisements as liberal, yet viewed as a commodity to be used by the society. Men on the other hand, are presented to be not only dominant over women, but with other types of men as well: disabled, heterosexual, homosexuals, and many others. At some point, women remains presented as incapable and dependent on men, and that it is assumed by the society that their existence is for the purpose of men’s pleasure. Some advertisements would use adjectives for a product that is a characteristic of a woman (Magalhaes). The choice of words will trigger our minds to think of different things. But because of these, more women are verbally harassed by men, whether in public or in private places. This injury is transformed into grievance, and lastly to a dispute. These situations encouraged more women to aspire greater positions in the society like in Congress, in the courtroom, or in media, and to acquire greater power. It is assumed that the media can change an individual’s outlook in life, behavior, ethics, and values. The combination of media with law, for example, has goals of transforming the society, using naming, blaming, and claiming. Naming would imply discussing harassment and defining it; blaming would mean identifying the suspect for harassment; and claiming would demand for the transformation of grievance into a remedy. In this situation, media can be used to educate the people in the different harassments that women acquire. But despite this fact, until now, there are still women who remains marginalized in the society. They still remain powerless and voiceless against the criminals (Laniya). Aside from advertising, media is also influential in the political realm. In every Presidential election, candidates would use the media to reach more people, and to persuade them to vote for him or her, such as in the case of the United States. This scheme started in 1930’s and 40’s when President Roosevelt used the radio to campaign in such a conversational manner with the people. Its success triggered other U. S Presidents to follow him, such as Franklin D. Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, Dwight D. Eisenhower and John F. Kennedy. Aside from media exposure for these candidates, media can also be a source of funds for the candidates (The University of Texas at Austin). The voter’s idea of the personality of the speaker either make or break them. However, we should remember that personality and leadership is not really together. There were presidents who are idolized for their great leadership, but not for their personality. There were inefficient leaders who are revered for their personality (The University of Texas at Austin). Television and radio debates are important especially in educating the voters about who the deserving candidate They scrutinize the past and present of this candidates. But although media affects our decision regarding this matter, studies would show that face to face contact is still the most effective medium to get votes from the people. In election histories, it is said that a well oiled political machine, particularly with good relationship with the media, is more likely to win the elections (The University of Texas at Austin). In this juncture, we can say that indeed, media has the power to make a change, but not as much powerful as we do (The University of Texas at Austin). The real problem is that people does not have the power to control the media. It is said that in this setting it is the minority that dictates the people the things that they want others to know, the events that will only be consider for reporting, the facts that will be examined and evaluated, and many other instances. This minority controls the media, which affects the politics of the country, then way wee live, the way we talk, the way we think, and many others. The discussion on radio and televisions regarding any political issue that directly affects the interest of the people is only limited, as it is restricted to discuss some sensitive issues. Take for example if the discussion on the radio program is anti-Semitism, the station would not actually invite true anti-Semitist. In this case, the discussion is not really a discussion of the topic at all. Investigative journalism on the other hand, plays as a hero in revealing to us the hidden truth, up to some point that they already invade public lives (RadioIslam. org). The music played on the radio affects our moods and our emotions. Music can trigger sad and happy memories, depending on the song played at the program. Radio stations can dictate what kind of music and genres society ought to appreciate, and which singers ought to be popular. It modifies choice of music into something that favors the capitalist. Other artists may not be given the chance to be heard and present their talent (RadioIslam. org).