Coral Reef and Australia

The great outback! Hey mate! Ever wanted to take an adventurous trip somewhere, but you’re not sure where? Well Australia would be the perfect place to start! Three reasons why Australia should be the first place you visit are for starters, the amazing scenery and beauty of the country, Secondly the exquisite variety of food, and lastly, the unique culture. Australia has one of the most breath taking sceneries in the world, all the way from the Great Barrier Reef to the city of Melbourne.The Great Barrier Reef is known for being the largest coral reef in the world; it is so incredibly vast that it can even be seen all the way from outer space. It is also unbelievably beautiful. Other beautiful places to visit in Australia are the Sydney harbor, which was the first settlement in Australia and you can also find the iconic Sydney opera house there, the beautiful island of Tasmania which is the most mountainous region of Australia and is dotted with beautiful flowing rivers and wa terfalls, and also another iconic symbol of Australia the Uluru rock, this rock is famed for its amazing color changes as the sun sets and rises.Australia has so many beautiful sights to visit, which is one fantastic reason to visit Australia. Australian cuisine can vary from your common everyday food that we have here in America, to all kinds of interesting and exotic foods native to Australia. The term â€Å"bush tucker† is used to describe a certain type of cuisine in Australia, that is made up of the native foods in Australia, such as kangaroo, emu, or even crocodile. A lot of foods in Australia contain seafood, as Australia is the third largest fishing zone in the world.Some iconic foods of Australia are, for one, the Chiko roll, a deep-fried savory roll that is also similar to a spring roll. Other iconic foods are vegemite, macadamia nuts, violet crumble, cherry ripe Jaffa’s, and many other different foods. The food in Australia is often described as exotic and d elicious. This stimulating food variety is just another great reason why Australia should be at the top on your list of places to visit. The culture in Australia is very interesting and fun, especially if you’re into surfing and water sports, which are very big in Australia, along with other sports such as rugby, cricket, and soccer.Australia is also big into country music, which may come as a surprise to some people, but some great country singers have come from Australia such as Keith Urban. The common apparel in Australia is called surf wear or bush wear, and is very popular among many of the Australian people. As far as religion goes, Australia has no official one, but according to the Australian census, most people are either Christian or irreligious. Most of the Christian are either Roman Catholic, Anglican, or apart of the uniting church.As you now know, Australia has a very interesting and diverse culture, which is the last reason why you should make visiting Australi a a priority. In conclusion, Australia is stunningly gorgeous and has many captivating sights and historical scenery to visit while you’re there. It also has a very unique and beloved cuisine that is unlike any other in the world and accordingly very great tasting. Lastly, the variety of culture is just amazing and so fascinating. These are the three main reasons why your next vacation should be a trip to the great outback! See you ther!

Christianization throughout History Essay

Introduction â€Å"Curiosity about life in all of its aspects, I think, is the secret of great creative people†, Leo Burnett once said. I agree, and can proudly say that curiosity is my motive for writing this project. The purpose of this project is pure research. I want to gain knowledge about the subject of my choice and also improve my writing and planning skills. I chose this topic after watching a National Geographic program concerning Mithraism in ancient Rome. I became very curious about Religious customs, Christian in particular. My main form of research was the Internet. I read University studies and encyclopedia articles. Finally I ended up with 3 research questions. I wanted to find out the true origins of the 3 major Christian holidays: Christmas, Easter and Halloween. Where their (sometimes strange) traditions came from, if other cultures celebrated similar holidays in the past and how they came to be the Christian holidays we know today. 1. What are the true origins of Christmas? The dictionary definition of â€Å"Christmas† is: The annual festival of the Christian church commemorating the birth of Jesus. It is basically a feast in which Christians celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the most prominent figure in Christian belief, making this their most cherished holiday. Christmas is celebrated on December 25 (or January 7 in eastern orthodox churches, due to incompatibility between the Julian and Gregorian calendars). Popular customs of the holiday include gift-giving, music, church celebrations, a special meal, and decorations like Christmas trees, lights, garlands, mistletoe, nativity scenes, and holly. Today, Christmas is celebrated in many places around the world by Christians and an increasing amount of non-Christians, but few people know the true pagan roots of this holiday. First and foremost, the early Christians did not celebrate the birth of Christ. There were two reasons for it: The first was the simple truth that no one knew the exact day of Christ’s birth. Today, most historians believe, according to the biblical description, that his birth took place around September (approx. six months after Passover). One thing is sure though, that it is very unlikely that Jesus was born in December. The biblical story tells us there were shepherds tending their sheep in the fields that night. This is quite unlikely to have happened during a cold winter. The second reason came further in the church’s development. During the first three hundred years of the religion the church in Rome discouraged celebrating the birth of Christ, not wanting it to seem more like a pagan ritual than a Christian holiday. So why is Christ’s birth celebrated on the 25th of December? The Answer is simple: Christianization, or the conversion of native pagan culture to Christian use. Church officials developed different methods of conversion to Christianity, and the main one was based on the belief that conversions were easier if people were allowed to retain the outward forms of their traditions, while claiming that the traditions were in honor of the Christian God. Basically, the traditions and practices themselves were kept, but the reasoning behind them was altered. Many pagan societies held celebrations around the winter solstice (the shortest day of the year, which occurs between the 21st and the 25th of December) with the prevailing theme being the welcoming of the sun and the joy in the rebirth of the world. There are also many stories of children of wonder being born on or near the winter solstice, like Mithras, Attis, Dionysus or Apollo, who are all savior deities sent in manifestation at the darkest time of the year. The oldest winter solstice celebration known to us took place in ancient Egypt over 4000 years ago. Large parties were held to celebrate the rebirth of the sun god Horus. The held a 12-day festival that mirrored their 12 month calendar, which revolved around Horus. This Egyptian idea of a 12 day celebration was also the first of its kind. Local countries adopted these ideas from the Egyptians (perhaps wanting to share in Egypt’s success). A prominent celebration was the Babylonian â€Å"Zagmuk† honoring the creator-sun god Marduk. The Babylonians believed that while Marduk had created the world peaceful and beautiful he has to battle the monsters of chaos to keep it so. Every year as the weather grows colder the monsters regain their strength and Marduk has to fight them off, but he needs the help of the people. This battle lasted for 12 days and it was the duty of the people to cheer Marduk on and help him win the war. Only then peace would be restored, the earth’s beauty renewed and the people would be safe for another year. As we move east we reach the Persian â€Å"Sacaea†, a celebration honoring the return of the sun. The Sacaea was also celebrated by the Greek in honor of Zeus’s defeat of Kronos and the Titans. These celebrations consisted mainly of feasting, partying and light ing of large bonfires. The Roman holiday season lasted a week and was called Dies Natalis Invicti Solis, the Birth of the Unconquered Sun. It began on the 25th of December with the Saturnalia, the holiday honoring Saturn (the God of agriculture) and ended with the Kalends of January (the roman new year’s), which represented the triumph of life over death. This holiday was celebrated in honor of Sol Invictus (the invincible sun), The official Roman Sun God (whose day of rest was Sunday). Mithraism was also a common cult in the Roman Empire, and many celebrated the birth of Mithras on this date as well. This festival was marked by much feasting, gift giving and merrymaking in general. The Pagans of northern Europe also celebrated the winter solstice, with a festival called â€Å"Yule†. Yule has many names for the different tribes: For the Celts it was â€Å"Nodlaig†, for the Saxons â€Å"Gehul†, and for the Welsh is was â€Å"Hal†. More names were Juul, Oel, Heol and many more. The word Yule is derived from the Norse word Iul, meaning wheel. The wheel was a pagan symbol for the sun and for the cycle of life. The Yule celebration lasted for a number of days and involved feasting, fires, and sacrifices. Bonfires blazed in honor of the sun’s struggle against, and eventual triumph over, the darkness and cold of winter. One of the most prominent symbols of Yule was the evergreen tree. The evergreens seemed to have magic powers enabling them to resist the short and cold days. Evergreen trees would often be brought into home and evergreen boughs were carried as luck totems (especially Holly, which was considered the food of the gods). Sacred ceremonies were held by druids surrounding and worshiping these trees. More traditions included kissing under the mistletoe (a fertility ritual) and gift giving. Even the idea of Santa Clause can be found in many Yule celebrations. The Pagans viewed these celebrations of the return of the sun as the fact that good will prevail over evil, which made it easy to adapt them to Christianity, seeing how Jesus was born to save the world (according to the belief). Jesus has often been referred to as the â€Å"light of the world† and it only seemed fitting that his birth would be celebrated with the rebirth of the sun. So, in the year 350, Pope Julius the first and the roman emperor Constantine declared that Christ’s birth would be celebrated on December 25. There is little doubt that he was trying to make it as painless as possible for the pagan Romans (who remained a majority at that time) to convert to Christianity. The new religion went down a bit easier, knowing that their feasts would not be taken away from them. However, some experts believe it went the other way around. They say the early Christians were tempted by the partying and feasting, so the Christian leaders quickly decided to give the holiday a Christian reasoning so as not to lose their followers. 2. What are the true origins of Easter? Easter is the second major holiday in the Christian liturgical year. According to the New Testament, Jesus rose from the dead 3 days after his crucifixion. Easter Day is the celebration of his resurrection, also called Resurrection Sunday. Prior to Easter Day come a 40 day period called Lent. This is a time for fasting, praying and penance. The last week of Lent is called Holy week and it contains Good Friday, which honors the crucifixion of Christ. After Resurrection Sunday comes a 50 day period called Eastertide, ending with Pentecost Sunday. This is a time for rejoicing and growth. Easter is not fixed in the civil calendar because it is a lunar holiday. Easter Sunday occurs on the first Sunday after the full moon proceeding the vernal (spring) equinox, which occurs on March 21. Easter customs and symbols include a large feast (with ham as the main course), a sunrise worship service, egg hunting and decorating, hot cross buns, flowers, the Easter bunny and outdoor activities. The thing is, none of the customs and symbols, or even the name of this holiday, has anything to do with Christianity. The word Easter is actually the name of the pagan goddess of fertility, also named Ostare, Oestre, Ostara, Ishtar, Ashtoreth, and Asthart in different cultures. Many pagan cultures held vernal festivals in honor of this goddess, celebrating the arrival of spring and the awakening of life. The oldest of these festivals was held in ancient Babylon, Phrygia (modern day Turkey), Canaan and Phoenicia. The Phoenicians were a civilization of traders who brought the Easter customs to Greece, Rome and the northern countries of Great Britain. The legend of this spring festival begins with Nimrod. Nimrod is, according to the book of Genesis the son of Cush, grandson of Ham and great grandson of Noah. Nimrod was a powerful leader who formed the first empire in the world, Babylon, by conquering the â€Å"Land of the Seven Cities† (the Persian gulf). In his rule he made the people rebel against God and join in his own mystery religion, in which he figured prominently. When Nimrod eventually died, his mystery religion continued on. His wife Queen Semiramis saw to that. Once he was dead, she deified him as the Sun-god. In various cultures he later became known as Baal, the Great Life Giver, the god of fire, Baalim, Bel, Molech, etc. Queen Semiramis continued developing her mystery religion. She set herself as a goddess as well, proclaiming to have hatched from an egg that fell down from the moon on the first full moon after the spring equinox (she taught that the moon went through a 28 day cycle and ovulated when full). She became known as the goddess of fertility and the moon, mother of all life. She later became known as Ishtar, or Easter. Semiramis soon became pregnant, claiming that is the rays of the sun god Baal which caused her to conceive. She gave birth to Tammuz, who was the supposed savior, the son of God. Tammuz was a hunter, and was one day killed by a wild boar. He was sent to the underworld, but through his mother’s weeping he was resurrected and allowed to ascend to be with his father Baal. Another version tells that Semiramis (or Ishtar) was so grief stricken that she followed Tammuz to the underworld. With her gone, the world became a cold and barren place. Ea, the Babylonian God of water and wisdom, sprinkled them both with the water of life, allowing them to return to the world for 6 months of the year. The remaining part of the year Tammuz was to return to the underworld, causing Ishtar to follow him and the cycle to continue. This is how the people explained to themselves the miracle of spring that happened every year. Each year a spring festival was held to celebrate Tammuz’s resurrection from the underworld on the first Sunday after the full moon of the spring equinox, Ishtar Sunday. All of the common Easter traditions originate from this belief. Ham was to be eaten as a reminder of Tammuz’s death. The sunrise worship service is a common pagan practice honoring the Sun God. The egg is probably the oldest symbol of fertility and new life in pagan worship. Then there is the story of Ishtar’s hatching from the moon egg, known as the Ishatr, or Easter egg. The hare too, is an old fertility symbol, due to its rapid rate of reproduction. The story of the Easter bunny brings us back to Ishtar, or Ostara as she was called in northern Europe. The Goddes Ostara arrived late from the underworld one spring and found a little bird whose wings had frozen from the snow. Full of pity for the creature she made him her pet and turned him into a snow white hare (which would then become her symbol). She also gave him the gift of being able to run with incredible speed. In remembrance of his earlier form as abird, the hare had the ability to lay eggs, which were rainbow colored, but only on one day of the year (guess which?). The Hare eventually managed to annoy the goddess, and she put in the sky as the constellation Lepus (the hare). He was allowed to return to the earth once each year on Easter Sunday to lay his eggs. It became an Easter tradition to seek out the Easter hare’s rainbow colored eggs. Also, in Celtic culture, it was forbidden to eat hare meat except on Beltane (the 1st of May) when a ceremonial hare hunt was held (Beltane is the Celtic name for Easter – Bel meaning the same as Baal). The hare remains a symbol of luck and fertility even today. The Act of fasting in preparation for a great occasion can be found in many lands. The Babylonians and their neighbors fasted for 40 days in preparation for the annual celebration of Tammuz’s resurrection. This is probably the direct source of the Christian Lent, but a pennence period like this can be found in many other societies as well. Pagans in Mexico and the Andes mountains practiced a 40 day fast in honor of the sun around this time of year. The Egyptians fasted for 40 days to honor Adonis and Osiris. The lighting of fires was also a common pagan ritual. Fire was the symbol of Baal and the fires were used in ceremonies and even for human sacrifices. The New Testament says nothing about sunrise ceremonies, lent, colored eggs or bunnies. These are all classic examples of Christianization. The Christian leaders wanted to convert the pagans to Christianity, so they decided to adopt their rituals and give them Christian significance in order to make the transition easier. But perhaps there is another, more primitive reason. People enjoy celebrations and festivities, and do not care for the most part who or what the celebration honors. The pagans probably did not care what name was given to their festival, as long as they could continue feasting and rejoicing. 3. What are the true origins of Halloween? The name Halloween is actually a Scottish shortening of the name â€Å"All Hallows Evening† or â€Å"All Hallows Eve†. It is celebrated on October 31st and it is so named because it comes before All Saints Day (or All Hallows day) which occurs on the first of November. According to Christian tradition, the souls of dead roam the earth until All Saints Day, when the prayers of the people free them from purgatory and allow them to reach heaven. Halloween is the last night the dead spend on earth and their last chance of gaining vengeance on their enemies before moving on to the next life. To avoid being recognized by a soul, Christians would wear masks and costumes to disguise themselves. This is where the custom of dressing up and â€Å"trick or treating† came from. More traditions of Halloween include costume parties, carving jack-o’-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, visiting haunted attractions and playing pranks. In these traditions we can see the pagan origins of Halloween crystal clear. The Celts of Northern Europe celebrated their New Year on the evening of October 31st and the first of November (the Celts followed a lunar calendar and their days began at sunset). This holiday was named â€Å"Samhain† in Ireland, Galan Gaeaf in Wales and Allantide in Cornwall, and is Celtic for â€Å"summer’s end†. They believed that the New Year starts with the death of the sun god in winter. It was also believed that the veils of the world were thinnest as the old year waned into the new and that troublesome spirits, ghosts of the dead, fairies, and demons were free to roam about, scaring people and damaging crops. Traditionally, Samhain was time to take stock of the herds and grain supplies, and decide which animals would need to be slaughtered in order for the people and livestock to survive the winter. The reason for this was that the meat could keep since the cold months have come and also since summer grass is gone and free foraging is no longer possible . Large fires played a large part in the festivities. They were called Bonfires because the bones of the slaughtered cattle were thrown in as sacrifices to the sun and spirits. Often two bonfires would be built side by side, and the people would walk between the fires as a ritual of purification. The druids (celtic priests) performed ceremonies around these fires including divination concerning marriage, luck, health and death. Since the barrier to the otherworld was so thin this was the best time for these rites. Each family in the village would extinguish the fire in their home, and then relight their hearth from the common flame. This ritual was said to bond the village together and protect each family from the spirits roaming about. More attempts to ward off spirits included wearing costumes and masks and carving candle lanterns from turnips. Large turnips were hollowed out, carved with face and placed in windows. Samhain was also a night of mischief and confusion. The spirits were impersonated by young men with masked, veiled or blackened faces, dressed in white or disguises of straw. These young men would go from house to house â€Å"trick or treating† as a form of bribery. The family would give the â€Å"spirits† fruits or nuts to keep them from damaging their crops. Mischievous pranks were played on the ungenerous including moving farm equipment and livestock and bombarding their houses with cabbages pulled at random from gardens. Other than these young men people usually preferred to stay indoors on Samhain night. During the Roman rule in Britain (43-410 AD) aspects of Roman religion were incorporated into Samhain. Candied apples and bobbing for apples became associated with this holiday because of Pomona, the Roman goddess of fruit trees and gardens, whose symbol was the apple. Traditions often involve fruit centerpieces and decorations. Furthermore, the Romans observed the holiday of Feralia, intended to give rest and peace to the departed. Sacrifices were made in honor of the dead and prayers were offered as well. The jack – o – lantern is perhaps the most famous Halloween symbol. It is named after the phenomenon of strange light flickering over peat bogs, also known as will –o –the wisp, representing the scary spirits roaming about. Furthermore, the Celtic folklore tells about a fellow named Stingy Jack, a thief that managed to trick and trap the devil. In order to be set free, the devil had to promise never to takes Jack’s soul. When the day came and Jack died, he wasn’t allowed to enter Heaven because of all the bad deeds he had committed in his life. He was sent to Hell, but the Devil kept his promise and wouldn’t take Jack in. Jack was condemned to roam the earth with only a burning ember in a turnip lamp to light his way. This is where the tradition of carving vegetable lamps came from. When the first English immigrants came to North America they traded the turnip for the larger native pumpkin, which was larger and readily available. This pumpkin lantern is the jack- o –lantern known to us today. Another important holiday honoring the dead belonged to the ancient Aztecs. It was named â€Å"The Day of The Dead† (El Dà ­a de los Muertos) and is still celebrated in Mexico, South America and around the world. Originally it fell on the ninth month of the Aztec calendar, symbolizing the nine stops the dead must pass on their way to heaven, and was celebrated for an entire month. Sacrifices were made to the lady of the dead, Mictecacihuatl. Today, â€Å"The Day of The Dead† is celebrated on the 1-2 of November, probably due to the Catholic Spanish conquering which led to the merge of the Day of The Dead with All Saints Day. Traditions of this holiday include a family meal with emphasis on remembering deceased family members, decorating graves and family altars, and prayer. These are the basic traditions, but in different cultures activities may vary, from kite-flying in Guatemala to skull decorating in Bolivia. The essence of this day is celebrating the lives of those who are gone and helping them on their way. The early Christians also had a day celebrating the remembrance of all the church’s martyrs. It was established by Pope Boniface the 4th and was set on May 13. Later, it was Pope Gregory the 3rd that changed the date to November 1st, and renamed it â€Å"All Saints day†, so it would correspond with the existing pagan holidays. Christianity continued to spread throughout the world, and pagan holidays were either Christianized or forgotten. Samhain and The Day of The Dead were absorbed into Halloween. Their traditions and rituals were preserved and incorporated into the new holiday, but their names were omitted. However, now, despite all of the Christian efforts, people essentially enjoy the aspects of the holiday that derive from pagan origins. The Halloween celebrated by the great majority of people today is just a fun holiday, and has lost its religious signifance for most people. Conclusion To summarize everything, I believe it can be safely said that Christian holidays rarely mean and originate where they seemed to at first. Christianization can be found throughout history in many different cultures and aspects, from major holidays to minor superstitions. Celebrations of the winter solstice were common around the world, and Christmas was just the latest addition. The early Christians merely replaced the birth of the sun with the birth of the son, but kept the rituals and traditions of the pagan festivals. The Easter holiday even managed to keep its pagan name. The festival of the earth’s rebirth is recycled today as the day honoring the resurrection of Jesus, and celebrated in the same way the Babylonians did 3000 years ago. Even Halloween is just a pagan holiday dipped in holy water. It’s as pagan as you can get, honoring ghosts, spirits and the like, but it got Christianized nonetheless. In my personal opinion, there is nothing religious about these holidays anymore. They merely represent how far ideas can travel when you take advantage of human nature. The early Christians understood that people are just simple beings who like to have a good time, and don’t really care in whose honor. Christianization was a smart idea, but I believe it breaks a few copyright laws. Working on this project I improved my research and writing skills, and also my time management. If I had been given the chance I would have written more about the Christianization of sacred places, like the pantheon and Celtic sacred groves. All in all, I learned a lot during the entire process and am satisfied with the result.    Bibliography Websites 1. http://www.nvcc.edu/home/lshulman/rel232/resource/RileyPaper.htm 2. http://www.pocm.info 3. http://searchforbibletruths.blogspot.com/2011/04/easter-origins-traditions-and-customs.html 4. http://www.thercg.org/books/ttooe.html 5. http://www.lasttrumpetministries.org/tracts/tract1.html 6. http://www.goddessgift.com/Pandora’s_Box/Easter-history.htm 7. http://www.essortment.com/christmas-pagan-origins-42543.html 8. http://www.wikipedia.org 9. http://www.simpletoremember.com/vitals/Christmas_TheRealStory.htm 10. http://www.goodnewsaboutgod.com/studies/holidays2.htm 11. http://christmas-celebrations.org/ 12. http://www.near-death.com/experiences/origen048.html 13. http://www.frontline-apologetics.com/Mithras.html 14. http://ldolphin.org/semir.html 15. http://www.sccs.swarthmore.edu/users/08/ajb/tmve/wiki100k/docs/Ninus.html 16. http://www.christiananswers.net/q-eden/edn-t020.html 17. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05224d.htm 18. http://www.goodnewsaboutgod.com/studies/holidays2.htm 19. https://pantherfile.uwm.edu/barnold/www/lectures/holloween.html 20. http://spanish.about.com/cs/culture/a/dayofdead.htm 21. http://www.traditioninaction.org/religious/e008rp_Halloween.htm 22. http://landscaping.about.com/cs/landscapecolor/a/halloweenOrigin.htm 23. http://www.allaboutpopularissues.org/origin-of-halloween.htm 24. http://inventors.about.com/od/sstartinventions/a/Samhain.htm 25. http://www.etsu.edu/writing/adcomp_f06/students/halloween.htm 26. http://www.cbn.com/spirituallife/onlinediscipleship/halloween/halloween_Pagan_Ankerberg.aspx 27. http://www.albee.org/halloween/history.htm Articles 1. Julia A. Gengenbach, â€Å"Is Christmas Christian†, Prism University of Wisonsin- Eau Claire Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies, 2002 2. Prof. Bettina Arnold, â€Å"Halloween Customs in the Celtic World†, Center of Celtic Studies, Department of Anthropology, University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee, 2001 3. Donna-Lynn Riley, â€Å"Christian Feast Days and their Relationship to Pagan Holidays† , Introduction to World Religions, 2003

Human resource management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Human resource management - Assignment Example Management functions can affect the performance of a business and the main intention of HRM is to raise awareness among employees like how poor management can influence the overall performance ultimately. Employee engagement is one of the highly pursued trends in the business world presently and more and more organizations today are seen making their living by assessing employee management in order to show it to their clients later on. It is defined as â€Å"as a combination of commitment to the organisation and its values and a willingness to help out colleagues (organisational citizenship). It goes beyond job satisfaction and is not simply motivation† (CIPD, 2011). Though, increased employee engagement is a useful measure by which more clients could be gathered, there are also doubts that employees, at large, would call this another HR thing which may be fake and not so beneficial in long-term context. Actually, employee management is not a fake issue but a whole new knowled ge domain by which HR executives can help raise an organization to a higher place in the market. Employee engagement is judged by the level of five kinds of roles existing within an organization. Describing these five roles holds huge importance before critically evaluating the role played by HR executives in achieving employee engagement. Employees may just remain self-involved and do only what is required of them, while there may also be employees who go out of their way to help the organization even if their jobs do not require them to do so. Some employees may also be engaged to the point that they play an entrepreneur role by presenting one after another new creative idea and help their fellow members for moving towards common goals. Now, HR executives can play a role in achieving employee engagement by removing barriers to work and consequently, transforming the organizations into places where every employee will come to work and act in a more engaged manner. Employees are in a highly engaged state when they are found doing the non-job roles and HR executives can bring the employees near this state by compelling the managers to converse more often with their employees because it is the managers ultimately who can make engagement happen (Welbourne, 2003). The idea of a high performing CSR (corporate social responsibility) organization can never be fulfilled without raising the level of employee engagement. Now, HR executives have a key role to play to strengthen employee commitment and engagement. Employee engagement is majorly raised by the HR executives by unlocking human potential and by inducing the managers to motivate their employees so that they may feel more motivated to present their innovative ides for the betterment of the organization (Strandberg, 2009). If HR executives fail in talking the managers into motivating their employees by blending with them, credibility of an organization is seriously damaged because employees are not engaged at an y level (Mees & Bonham, cited in Strandberg, 2009). HR executives have the full benefit of playing an instrumental role in helping the organizations raise their respective levels of employee engagement. Actually, employee engagement does not involve HRM alone, rather it involves everyone

Critically review the evidence of multi stakeholder governance of the Literature

Critically the evidence of multi stakeholder governance of the sustainability. issue of population and the issue of mega - Literature review Example The largest cities of the world are found to be growing at the fastest pace. However, it has been observed that large cities are not concentrated in the developed nations but mostly in the developing countries of the world. The process of urbanization has resulted in a number of issues associated with most of the mega cities which have been discussed in this study. The issues discussed are mostly related to the various sustainable problems and governance issues faced by the megalopolises of the world. Sustainability and Mega Cities Sustainability development refers to the fulfilment of needs and requirements at present without compromising on the future generations’ ability to satisfy their needs (World Commission on Environment and Development, 1987). Sustainability is a concept of achieving simultaneously the objectives of an improved environment, a good economy and a society which is more participative in nature. Although the primary context of sustainability is global in n ature, it becomes more meaningful when it is given a global significance through local initiatives and practices. As regards the cities, metabolism can be used as a metaphor to sustainability. A city is adjudged to be more sustainable if it has the ability to reduce its resource inputs in the form of materials, land, water, energy, etc. and waste outputs in the form of air, solid wastes and liquid and at the same time has the capacity to bring about improvement in its liveability in the form of employment, health, housing, income, community, public spaces, etc. (Newman, and Kenworthy, 2003, pp. 235-242). The research study by Williams and Haughton (1994) suggested the various roles played by cities towards the process of sustainability and examined the different issues associated with environmental degradation taking place in the urban areas. In today’s world people living in cities surpass the total number of people living in rural areas. There has been a significant rise in the urban population of the world. It has been estimated that the urban dwellers would increase up to around five billion by the end of the year 2030. The most interesting trend related to this rise in urban population is that it is mostly concentrated in the cities of the developing nations of the world. The primary reason behind the growth of urban population is that the urban fertility rate has increased at a greater rate than the urban mortality rate, especially in cases of the mega cities of the world (Renner, 1998). The future prospects of world community are dependent upon the urban sustainability (McGranahan et al., 2001). New risk dimensions along with physical, social and economic dynamics are created through the increasing mobilisation of people, capital, goods and information. This results in the importance of cities for the creating sustainable development. Mega cities are not confined to the aspect of concentration of people only. Resources that are available all over the world are absorbed by the mega cities; this leads to the generation of huge amounts of sewage and waste. It thus uses environment as a sink to dump all its waste. The increasing per capita income of people living in the cities has resulted in the increase of resources consumed and the residues produced as a result of such activities. The data related to evaluation of the resource demands which has been

Galinsky's 6 stages of parenthood Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Galinsky's 6 stages of parenthood - Essay Example The parents will create an image of what comes ahead in terms of the birth of the child and parenting behaviours. The parents will have this image in their entire life because parenting will be a lifelong process. Growth then occurs when the parents modify an image that is consistent with the reality that is happening. Nurturing is the stage that occurs when the child is born to the time it starts speaking simple words. Parents do comparison of themselves and that of their child to find available discrepancies. Discrepancies present between the imaged child and the actual child is done by parents getting to know the child by touching and caring for it. At this stage, there is bonding and the parents become attached to the child. Parents face questions relating to their priorities; how much time they will devote to the child and how much time they will have for doing their other duties. Authority stage begins when the child is two years to when it is five years, and parents are faced with the task of deciding the kind of authority to be put in place, the rules to be followed and consequences of breaking the rules. Parents, having assured themselves of their identity, develop an attachment to the child, are faced with the task of accepting the authority they have over the child. This is the stage where they come to understand the child is not their extension; therefore, they form images of getting angry, having unconditional love, and having disciplinary actions that are different from those of their parents. There are parent/child relation problems, and the big question at this stage is how to solve problems that occur. Interpretive stage has its onset when the child begins preschool years to onset of teenage. With the entering of the child into kindergarten, the parents ask themselves whether they have been realistic and they evaluate the past in order to prepare for changes coming. The task

The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

The 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act - Research Paper Example Because whatever occurs in history has an effect on the prospect, it is significantly imperative to understand the background of the Act along with how it influenced the North American community and other sections of society. Conceivably, by evaluating the past represented by implications of the Chinese exclusion Act, it might be achievable to build up a superior prospect in a perceptible way. This paper endeavors to provide research on the factors behind the Act, the implications of the Act particularly on North America and the milieu of the legislation. Additionally, the paper will give the results on the appraisal of the happenings adjacent to the Chinese exclusion Act, its execution along with issues emanating from its enactment and implementation. Obviously, any law touching on sensitive issues like race and immigration will derive numerous controversies and conflicts. The research paper will illuminate on the controversies of the incidence of the Act and its position in the vas t Asian American studies. Alternative perspectives of the Act, with respect to the 19th century, and its relationship with contemporary thought will form part of the discussion shedding more light on the Act. In essence, the exclusion Act led to a fall in economic production around the country because the Asians especially Chinese (barred from migrating to America) were hardworking individuals who played a prominent role in economic production (Powell 67). The enactment of legislations that focus on categories of people during times of need is of no gain to any population. The Cause and Effect of the Act The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, emanated from decades of Chinese intolerance signified by increased riots and campaigns against the mounting presence of Chinese laborers in parts of the United States. This culminated into the launch of decades of Chinese exclusion witnessed by the barring of Chinese people from migrating to America for ten years and later indefinitely (Daniels an d Graham 22). Enacted in 1882, the Act was the peak of three decades of continuous racism in America. Anti-Chinese perceptions had prevailed right from the momentous migration of the Chinese throughout the period of Gold Rush. In this period, miners and prospectors placed several taxes and legislations to obstruct the success of people of Chinese origin. The increase of Chinese migration into America augmented racial apprehensions, a factor that was significantly becoming a source of serious social misunderstandings. The migration of Chinese emanate from the ground of job rivalry by the whites who perceived the Chinese as a huge threat to their jobs and financial success. Though, the perceptions towards most perspectives were more of racial than economic nature and that the introduction of economic dimensions aimed at destructing the public from the inherent racial hatred towards the Chinese people. The exclusion act was, therefore, culmination of inherent racial mistrust directed t owards Chinese immigrants and primarily intended to last a period of ten years. However, the congress prolonged period of the Act to indefinite in 1902 thus cementing the existent racial perceptions against the Chinese group. The Chinese were not quick to react to Act as majority of them conflicted the idea of oppression, and many chose to stay silent on the issue. The advent of the Second World War was a significant development in the relationship

Culture, Behaviour and Management in field of Construction Project Essay

Culture, Behaviour and Management in field of Construction Project Management - Essay Example The potential effectiveness of these ideologies is tested through the London Olympics 2012 construction projects. It is proved that such ideologies can be effective in the construction industry but only the terms that they are appropriately supported in all their aspects. 1. Introduction In the last decade, the rapid expansion of globalisation in countries worldwide has caused a series of changes in traditional organizational practices and frameworks. It is in the context of this trend that the recent credit crisis appeared. The specific crisis has been related to a series of mind-sets and ideologies. In this way, the management of the effects of the credit crisis is not an issue of organizational practices but rather of ideologies and behaviour. The role of mind-sets and ideologies in the development of the recent credit crisis is examined in this paper; emphasis is given on the potential use of these mind-sets for handling the effects of the crisis on the UK construction industry. The construction projects of the London Olympics 2012 are used as indicative examples for highlighting the potential value of mind-sets in handling problems related to the financial crisis – especially cultural and behavioural problems. ... It is recommended that project managers involved in the particular construction projects – those related to London Olympics 2012 – emphasize more on the use of mind-sets for resolving the cultural and behavioural problems of these projects. At the next level, these practices could benefit the construction projects developed in markets with different characteristics, such as the Thai market. 2. An explanation of the recent ‘credit crisis’ taking the perspective of ‘ideologies and mindsets’ to account for the phenomenon. The recent credit crisis proved the inability of leaders in organizations of all industries to take the necessary measures for increasing the strength of their firm towards the market pressures. As noted in the study of Dotlich et al. (2009) in order to be able to face the developments in the global market, modern leaders should ‘develop four mind-sets: a) a global mind-set, b) an innovation mind-set, c) a virtual mind-set and d) a collaborative mind-set’ (Dotlich et al. 2009, p.36). The above mind-sets could be further explained as follows: a) the first (global) mind-set would help leaders to understand the conditions in the global market and set the appropriate strategic priorities, aiming to help their firm improve its position in the international market, b) the innovation mind-set would refer to leaders who are able to identify and promote creative ideas; these ideas could help organizations to increase their competitiveness or, at least, to avoid major losses in periods of severe crises, like the recent one, c) the virtual mind-set refers to leaders who are able to communicate effectively with external providers established in other countries worldwide (Dotlich et al. 2009, p.36), d) the collaborative mind-set reflects the leader

Training Schedule For Employees Of Mach Speed Couriers Essay

Training Schedule For Employees Of Mach Speed Couriers - Essay Example The return on investment for example, given the professionals and companies that Mach Speed Couriers deal with, let for instance the cost of the training program to be $ 300,000 for three years. This delivers an additional profit of $ 500,000 for the business period of the three years. The information is used to calculate the value of ROI as shown below;ROI = profit gains fewer Investment costs (training cost) divided by investment costs. ROI= ($ 500,000-- $ 300, 000) / 300,000 = 66.67 %The designed training program caters for individual differences because the employees come from different backgrounds and initial exposure to varying experiences (Carnes, 2010). For meaningful transfer of training, there are specific materials very suitable to the trainee. The charts and marker pens for the trainers must be available. The charts are useful in demonstrating the whole concepts on the board or the wall. However, computer use and the projector are more useful in the exercise. This can be used for easier simulation. The trainees are provided with writing materials to note down key concerns in the courier industry. The design must have the clear and realistic objective that can be accomplished. The information relayed must be applicable and related to job specifications and how to improve on them. The real reflection on the working environment is captured by the trainer.Transfer of training is possible through sub-division of trainees into small manageable groups.

Coperate strategy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Coperate strategy - Essay Example From 1988 to 97, it grew from a Uk/European food company into one of world's largest producers of sweeteners and starches in the world. With globalization, profits were expected to soar. However, inspite of the major expansion programme, profits were down by 60million from 1991 to 97.This made the company think of new products, which could give them an edge over the competitors. Sucralose, which is marketed under the trade name SPLENDA, was the result of over 30 years of research by Tate and Lyle and is now the subject of over 30 patents, which describe its manufacture. The sweetener is not manufactured under license by anyone else and is only produced at Tate and Lyle's two sites - in the US, and now in Singapore too. The sweetener has found use in over 4,000 products including drinks, breakfast bars and ice creams. To combat the risks associated with demand downturn for sweeteners and sugar products, Tate and Lyle moved to higher-value-added products, which would help them increase their margins. Today, they are the sole producers of Sucralose in the world. Sucralose is a low calorie /zero calorie sugar alternative used in a wide range of zero-sugar drinks and food products. According to research by The Freedonia Group1 "Increased food production and gains in value-added sweeteners, nutraceuticals and natural additives will drive US food additive demand up 4.8 percent annually through 2008. Flavors and flavor enhancers will remain the largest segment, while alternative sweeteners will grow the fastest. Grain mill products, pet food and snack food show best market prospects." Expansion in Production Capacity To double production capacity and meet the demand of sucralose, a 42m ($75m) expansion project was completed in June 2006 in the US. To help Tate and Lyle meet the global demand for Sucralose, another plant was opened in Jurong Island, in Singapore in April 2007. Utilization of Local resources The new facility at Singapore is expected to cater to the Far Eastern markets, which is predicted to be a lucrative one. Availability of skilled workers, cheap labor and tax breaks by the government are other factors, which led to the setting up of this unit in Singapore. Key Factors of success in Food Additives Industry Sucralose, the sweetener has been passed as fit for use in over 80 countries around the world and has been found to be more stable than Aspartame, the previously favoured sweetener for food manufacturers. Though derived from sugar, Sucralose is 600

Airline marketing Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Airline marketing - Research Proposal Example In fact, Dubai is known as the business hub of Middle East. Even though Dubai witnessed rapid growths during the latter part of twentieth century, a national airliner was a dream until 1985, despite having an excellent airport. Dubai had been used as the stopover on routes between Europe and Far East during the 70’s and early part of 80’s. The business savvy Dubai royal family has realized potential of airline business during this period and they decided to exploit it. Thus the initial works for the formation of the company EA has started in 1985. †Because of Dubai's unique political structure, Emirates could be described as both government-owned and privately held, though most considered it state-owned. It was required to operate independent of government subsidies, however, apart from $10 million in start-up capital† (The Emirates Group History). It is difficult to consider EA as a private or public company because of the unique political and administratio n system prevails in Dubai. The royal family is responsible for Dubai administration and at the same time, they are engaged in many other private businesses like EA. In 1974, three years after independence, the rulers of the UAE decided to establish a joint flag carrier: Gulf Air. However, a tense relationship between the airline and the Dubai government existed ever since its inception, as the latter re fused to give in to Gulf Air’s demands to abandon its open-skies policy. In reaction, Gulf Air reduced frequencies and capacities to and from Dubai by more than two thirds between 1984 and 1985 without advance notice. Since foreign carriers proved unable or unwilling to fill the gap, Dubai’s then ruler, Sheik Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, convened a team of experts – headed by Maurice Flanagan and later joined by Tim Clark and the ruler’s then 26- year old son, Sheik Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum – to devise an emergency plan. The group’s rec ommendation to set up a home carrier for Dubai was quickly accepted by the ruler, but he imposed two conditions: The new airline should meet the highest quality standards and there would be no additional capital injections from the government other than the agreed USD 10 million start-up capital (Knorr and Eisenkopf, p.1). EA was formed in 1985 under the chairmanship of Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum, the nephew of the ruler of Dubai. Maurice Flanagan has taken charge as the managing director of the new airline. The first Emirates flight took off on October 25, 1985, from Dubai to Karachi. â€Å"Thereafter, Emirates Airlines reached Delhi and Mumbai. The airline launched services to Colombo, Chaka, Amman and Cairo in 1986. It kicked off non-stop services to London Gatwick in 1987 and also added Frankfurt, Singapore and Male to its network later on† (Emirates Airlines). Within nine months from the beginning operation, EA became profitable. Even though chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum was only 27 years of age at the time, of taking charge of the airliner, he succeeded in converting EA into one of the most prominent airliner in the business with the company of Maurice Flanagan. As mentioned earlier, the differences with Gulf Air, motivated the Royal Family of Dubai to give take the growth of EA as a challenge. The Royal family allotted lavish funds for the initial expenditure, and took the growth of EA

Animal Symmetry Essay Example for Free

Animal Symmetry Essay 1. Animals with radial symmetry function differently than animals with bilateral symmetry. Unlike animals with bilateral symmetry, these organisms use their appendages, usually tentacles, to bring in food to its mouth, which is located at its center. Also, animals with radial symmetry have less complicated systems than animals with bilateral symmetry. The radial symmetry body plan involves appendages radiating out from the center of the organism, this means that most systems are not included in these animals. Since the radial symmetry body plan has little to no systems, this makes the animals less intelligent than the bilateral symmetry body plan. This means animals with radial symmetry cannot react as well as other animals. This also means the organism cannot, see, taste, smell, or think as well, as bilateral symmetry animals. Due to this disability, any animal that follows this body plan has adapted to be able to react without these senses. Though this makes it harder for the animal to function, by using a different life style it can survive. The cnidarian eats by pulling food in with its tentacles. This lack of senses means that the cnidarian relies on prey swimming into its tentacles. After eating, the waste then exists the way it entered, through the mouth. These animals have limited motion, relying mainly on currents to move, or not even moving at all. Cnidarians also reproduce fairly simply. When they reproduce asexually, they bud. This means that a new cnidarian grows off of an existing one. When they reproduce sexually, the female makes an abundance of eggs, and the male secretes sperm in the hope of fertilizing the eggs. That is the lifestyle of the cnidarian.

Most Beautiful And Interesting Buildings In History Construction Essay

Most Beautiful And Interesting Buildings In History Construction Essay During modern era nowadays, exciting new innovations in the world of building construction has brought soaring skyscrapers and fresh new approaches to building design. Actually since many years ago building construction was a significant part of our industrial field. If somebody asks what is the most significant, most beautiful and most interesting of the past 1000 years, there will be no single correct answer for this question. Some will choose the Taj Mahal or Eiffel Tower while others might choose the soaring skyscrapers as the most significant building. Perhaps the most innovative building is not fixed for the grand monument only but sometimes obscure home and temples also. These are some of overlooked treasure that still exists till now. The first one is Forbidden City in Beijing,China or some people called it as Purple Forbidden City or Gugong Museum in Chinese. It is one of the largest and best-preserved palace complexes in the world. In Gugong Museum there are over a million rare and valuable objects. It is built between 1406 and 1420 during the Ming Dynasty by a rectangular area of more than 720000 square meters. The Forbidden City was the imperial home for 24 emperors of the Ming ( 1368-1644) and Qing (1644-1911) dynasties. http://s1141.photobucket.com/albums/n589/nadiahasbullah/?action=viewHYPERLINK http://s1141.photobucket.com/albums/n589/nadiahasbullah/?action=viewcurrent=pic1.jpgHYPERLINK http://s1141.photobucket.com/albums/n589/nadiahasbullah/?action=viewcurrent=pic1.jpgcurrent=pic1.jpg Next is Basilica Palladiana building. The architect who was Andrea Palladio gave the Basilica in Vicenza, Italy two styles of classical columns which are doric on the lower portion and ionic on the upper portion. Originally, the Basilica was a 15th century Gothic building that serve as the town hall for Vicenza and also contained shop. When the old building collapsed, Andrea Palladio won the commission to design a reconstruction of this building. He grabbed this opportunity and created a great stunning transformation covering the old gothic facade with marble columns and porticos modelled after the classical architecture of ancient Rome. http://s1141.photobucket.com/albums/n589/nadiahasbullah/?action=viewHYPERLINK http://s1141.photobucket.com/albums/n589/nadiahasbullah/?action=viewcurrent=pic2.jpgHYPERLINK http://s1141.photobucket.com/albums/n589/nadiahasbullah/?action=viewcurrent=pic2.jpgcurrent=pic2.jpg Eiffel Tower in Paris is also one of past greatest building construction. Eiffel Tower was built on 1889 and pioneered new uses for metal construction. Perhaps it was the most famous example of this new use for metal. With 324 feet, Eiffel Tower was measured as the tallest building structure in the world for 40 years. The metal lattice-work formed with very pure structural iron make the tower both extremely light and able to withstand tremendous wind force. During the construction, the Eiffel was considered as an eyesore for the French but the criticism died down once the construction was completed. http://s1141.photobucket.com/albums/n589/nadiahasbullah/?action=viewHYPERLINK http://s1141.photobucket.com/albums/n589/nadiahasbullah/?action=viewcurrent=pic3.jpgHYPERLINK http://s1141.photobucket.com/albums/n589/nadiahasbullah/?action=viewcurrent=pic3.jpgcurrent=pic3.jpg The Fuller Building in New York is one of the worldà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s earliest skyscrapers and has been designed by Daniel Burnham architect. It was built on 1902 with a height of 285 feet. The wedge shaped like a clothing iron of this building make it became known as Flatiron Building. This unusual shape of building is because to maximize the use of the triangular lot. A sturdy steel skeleton that has been used during the construction of this building allowed it to achieve record-breaking height without the need for wide supporting walls at the foundation. http://s1141.photobucket.com/albums/n589/nadiahasbullah/?action=viewHYPERLINK http://s1141.photobucket.com/albums/n589/nadiahasbullah/?action=viewcurrent=pic4.jpgHYPERLINK http://s1141.photobucket.com/albums/n589/nadiahasbullah/?action=viewcurrent=pic4.jpgcurrent=pic4.jpg Nowadays, there is many and more big challenge facing us. The technology shifts had made the construction technology today more advanced and the world is getting smarter. The construction methods, structure or sustainable building, design and the construction system are rarely important not only at national level but also globally. The example of advance construction building in the world now are the CCTV headquarter in China, Bird Nest Olympic Stadium, Khalifa Building at Dubai and some of other buildings. One of the form that being used today is insulated concrete from construction technology. Insulated concrete form are lightweight, highly durable foam blocks or forms composed of an expanded or extruded polystyrene and recycled materials. These are the formwork that stay a permanent building insulation fore cast in place, reinforced concrete walls, floor and roofs. The forms are consisted of interlocking modular units that are dry stacked and concrete filled. The forms just like LEGO bricks that create form for structural walls or roofs. The concrete is pumped into cavity and stacked in shape. The reinforcing steel bar is placed inside to give flexural strength. The forms are left permanently for the reason of thermal and acoustic insulation and the space to run electrical conduit and plumbing. The advantage of insulated concrete form is that it reduces the consumption of energy, the concrete will absorb solar heat and release it slowly so that heat is distributed throughout the home. Besides it create lower noise from outside world as it high in sound absorption and the system contribute to more peaceful and healthy environment. Over the past 30 years, construction practices had not really changed much because many people thought that there are no problems using the traditional practices. However, for current situation the old practices might be not practical anymore due issues that involved limited area and construction costs that continue to rise in the country and also around the world. Therefore, by using the effective method of construction, we actually can overcome these problems. After several researches that consider all of the elements, there are some methods that believe can practices in the future such as modular construction and sustainable construction (green construction). By using these methods to construct a building, a lot of benefits we could gain in terms of time consuming, capital cost, labour cost and so on. In Malaysia, modular coordination or construction in building had been practiced such a long time ago. It is well documented in Malaysian Standard MS 10064: Part1-10 2001. This practices can provides dimensional basis for the coordination of the dimensions and of those buildings incorporating them, however it also acts to rationalization and industrialization of the building industry. In addition, modular construction can be applied by adding or reducing the size or removing certain components. For developing country likes Malaysia, this method will help the contractor to face the project that running in busy area or high capacity area because it is speed construction and faster returned in investment. In common method of construction, once projects might need to be done in 12 months but by practicing modular construction the work can be done in 90 à ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬ 120 days only. This is because, the buildings are sectional prefabricated buildings that consist of multiple modules or sections which are manufactured in a remote facility and then delivered to the site. Modular construction allows the building and the site works to be done simultaneously and this will reduce the time until 50%. Furthermore, the quality of modular buildings is made to match and adhere to all the same building codes as standard construction. Thus, when the building is rebuild the structure become high in quality compared with the previous structure. Moreover, by using this method, all problems involve weather delays, logistical problems and legal hassles increase in turn can be solved because the structure is not build in the site. A lot of advantages we can gain based on modular construction and it is not hard to imagine if the future commercial developments are completed by using this method. http://s1141.photobucket.com/albums/n589/nadiahasbullah/?action=viewHYPERLINK http://s1141.photobucket.com/albums/n589/nadiahasbullah/?action=viewcurrent=pic5.jpgHYPERLINK http://s1141.photobucket.com/albums/n589/nadiahasbullah/?action=viewcurrent=pic5.jpgcurrent=pic5.jpg Modular house by Broadway Malyan for Sime Darby Property as a first carbon zero house in Southern East Asia. http://s1141.photobucket.com/albums/n589/nadiahasbullah/?action=viewHYPERLINK http://s1141.photobucket.com/albums/n589/nadiahasbullah/?action=viewcurrent=pic6.jpgHYPERLINK http://s1141.photobucket.com/albums/n589/nadiahasbullah/?action=viewcurrent=pic6.jpgcurrent=pic6.jpg The house not only pushed costs expand but also speed up the construction process On the other hand, sustainable construction is one of the practices that might be used widely in future. It involves a greater emphasis on the environmental implication of policy and business decisions in addition to the traditional focus on economic and social objectives. Sustainable building can include measures to reduce energy consumption and associated emissions of carbon dioxide, minimize the use of resources such as water, construction material, etc., reduce the release of pollutants, maximize the use of sustainably sources and recycled materials likes timber, promote sustainable travel choices through public transport and cycling provision, save and enhance biodiversity. Example of sustainable building is building that use sunlight through passive solar, active solar and photovoltaic techniques and using plants and trees through green roofs, rain garden and for reduction of rainwater run-off. Besides that, by using packed gravel or permeable concrete instead of conventional c oncrete or asphalt to enhance addition ground water, are used as well. Nevertheless, based on the study done by some researchers, the department usually failed to achieve target ratings and environmental assessment by the government. 80% of the projects are not attained the required standards. Various factors lead to these problems are lack of coherent monitoring on the progress of the projects by the government bodies, lack of sufficient knowledge and expertise in sustainable procurement among those department staff responsible for them, negative perception about the conflict between sustainability and value for money and so on. However, this barriers can be solved by establish a clear information to the division of policy that responsible on sustainable construction to the public sector so that the public will acknowledge clearly about the policy of sustainable construction. Then the responsible division can also establish a source of expertise that available to all departments to provide advice on sustainable construction for smaller construction and refurbishment projects. http://s1141.photobucket.com/albums/n589/nadiahasbullah/?action=viewHYPERLINK http://s1141.photobucket.com/albums/n589/nadiahasbullah/?action=viewcurrent=pic7.jpgHYPERLINK http://s1141.photobucket.com/albums/n589/nadiahasbullah/?action=viewcurrent=pic7.jpgcurrent=pic7.jpg Bird Island is currently developed in Kuala Lumpur. Designed by Grafts Lab Architect for YTL Green Home Competition. In a nutshell, for future building construction, all elements of environmental friendly must be considered in order to construct a building or structure. This is because as we know, we need to save our Earth by reducing energy costs such as electrics, reduce air quality and construction materials and many more. Therefore, by applying modular construction and green construction will lead us to help our nature.

Soft skills using in public universities in Malaysia

Soft skills using in public universities in Malaysia Malaysians, especially the institutes of higher learning, begin to realize the importance of soft skills after the Higher Education Ministry introduced the Soft Skills Module to all public universities in August 2006. With the emphasis on soft skills, it has then become a necessity to integrate soft skills into the undergraduate programmes. Such remedial action is taken due to the increased of graduates unemployment rate in Malaysia, as well as the rapid expand of job market through the globalization. The graduates in education play a great role in the human capital development one of the utmost crucial aspects in developing our country. The power of our human capital is highly connected with the graduates mentality and intellectual capacity. Producing graduates in education with the essential elements of soft skills would heighten the countrys capability to compete with the rest of the world. This is a must if Malaysia aims to realize the vision of the New Economic Model, the Government Transformation Programme, and the 10th Malaysia Plan (2011 2015). Indeed, institutes of higher learning around the world indisputably are working their best to mould graduates with skills that are highly regarded by employers and able to contribute to the countrys prosperity and social capital. Even more important is, the society would generally expected that besides the solid theoretical knowledge (hard skills), a quality education graduate should acquire additional soft skills. This balance is what gives one graduate competitive edge over another. The term soft skills, which can also be referred as process skills, generic attributes or transferable skills, has no single definition on a particular set of skills. The general common descriptions of these skills include communication skills, life-long learning, team work, leadership, creative and critical thinking skills. All these qualities can be obtained beyond the classroom and of course, the textbooks. Thus, book education alone will no longer suffice in building successful educators. Besides equipping themselves with knowledge, it is also important that the graduates must acquire practical skills and good values. According to Chapman (2006), Blooms Taxonomy of Educational Objectives comes with three learning domains: Cognitive, Affective and Psychomotor Domains. The Cognitive Domain involves intellectual capability such as knowledge, whilst the Affective Domain involves feelings, emotions and behaviour just like attitude, and Psychomotor Domain involves manual and physical skills. Hence, the measurement of TESL undergraduates knowledge, skills, and attitude require appropriate tools, which are certainly more than just the traditional pen and paper. In Malaysian context, institutes of higher education are perceived as having a very important role in instilling soft skills to students. No doubt, it would be challenging in the attempts to offer an optimum learning environment. Still, it is crucial to get our students ready to compete with the rest in todays rapidly changing world. Students should be well-rounded academically and personally. In other words, besides knowing-what, students must know-how. Statement of the Problem The system and focus of education in Malaysia has witnessed immense changes over the past two decades. The nature of universities is changing in seeking to meet the new demands and needs of the industry from time to time. Furthermore, through the reinterpretation of the universitys purpose and role in the face of societys changing aspirations, universities have attempted to clarify the nature of the education which they offer to their students. This is crucial in order to extend their graduates potential of contribution to the society (Barnett 1990). The most evident attempt in which universities have sought to articulate their role and purpose is through the description of their graduates qualities, in another word, soft skills. The acquirement of soft skills is pivotal in terms of improving the nations development and curbing the latest issues in society, such as the increased rate of unemployment and complaints about graduates performances which are way below expectations. In 2005, the Malaysian government declared that there were 67,000 unemployed graduates, where most of them had graduated between 2000 and 2004. About 92.6% of these unemployed graduates were from public universities; in contrary, only 5.3% from private institutions. Even before the nation received this alarming news, the Malaysian Institute of Economic Research (MIER 2004) had announced the results of a survey on the employability and marketability of university graduates, showing that 46.2% of public university graduates were unemployed in 2003. The reasons cited for the low unemployment prospects of public university graduates are that they are inadequately prepared for the job market, lack linguistic (English proficiency, both oral and written) (Lim and Normizan 2004; Chiam 2005; Norizan et al. 2006; EPU 2007; Marina 2007) and technical skills, plus cognitive abilities (analytical thinking, problem-solving, reasoning). Many other countries have also recognized that higher education has not met the expectations of employers (Leckey and McGuigan 1997; Bennett et al. 1999; Kember et al. 2006). The issue of graduate employability seems to be associated with the quality and relevance of programmes offered by public universities (World Bank 2007). Apparently, the formal syllabus structure of public universities has inadequate focus on the integration of soft skills in the curriculum (see also Quek 2005; Quah et al. 2009). Not only that, the teaching approaches has also been mainly didactic, where the students are so used to receive inputs rather than discovering themselves. Studies, researches and employers have suggested it is important for the public universities to incorporate additional soft skills into their curriculum (communication, critical thinking, and problem-solving). By bridging the gaps between universities and the demands of current industry, it creates opportunity for students to be exposed with workplace experience in different sectors (World Bank 2007). Purpose of the Study The main objective of this research is to examine the perspective of TESL undergraduates on the most important soft skills for professional development. Secondly, the study also aimed to investigate the TESL undergraduates perception on the soft skills developed by University of Malaya. The last purpose is to identify if difference exists in the level of importance and competency in soft skills. Significance of the Study It is crucial for the government and public universities to improve the quality and employability of graduates. This study reviews the infusion-acquisition of the soft skills in the curriculum of TESL the undergraduates perspective. Hence, it provides the society a clearer picture on the current achievement of the university in bridging the gaps between soft skills and the formal curriculum. The study would show whether the graduates that the university produced possess a right balance of diverse abilities. Besides that, this study helps to gain wider attention on the importance of soft skills among the undergraduates. They would obtain greater realization that students are now both inputs and outputs (see also Newman et al. 2004), under the broad dimension of quality in higher education. Furthermore, it also increases recognition where student learning must be enhanced beyond the mastery of content. This is important as it ensures the graduates to succeed in the local labour market. Therefore, this paper aims to shed light on the importance of soft skills as perceived by TESL undergraduates on the role and values of these skills in educating the future educators, in an attempt to understand what value they attribute to this set of skills. Research Questions The research questions for this study are as follows: 1. What are the most important soft skills as perceived by TESL undergraduates? 2. How do TESL undergraduates perceive the soft skills development by University of Malaya? 3. What is the relationship between the importance of soft skills and the levels of soft skills developed? Background Literature Review What are soft skills? There are no specific skills that are listed as soft skills; it is being defined differently around the world. In the context of Malaysia, the Malaysian Institute of Higher Learning interprets soft skills as incorporating aspects of generic skills. It includes non-academic skills such as leadership, teamwork, communication, and lifelong learning. The seven traits of soft skills that are introduced for the institutes of higher learning in Malaysia are communication skills, critical thinking, problem-solving, lifelong learning and information management skills, leadership, entrepreneurship skill, team work, ethnics and morals. First, from the aspect of communication, students are required to achieve fluency while conversing in Bahasa Malaysia and English language. As graduates, they should be able to express their ideas with clarity and confidence both in written and oral forms. Aside from that, they are expected to be active listeners where while providing the necessary response. Graduates should also be capable of using technology during presentations confidently (Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia 2006). The following trait, critical thinking and problem solving skills, allows graduates to reflect in a critical, creative, innovative, and analytical way. Not only that we want the graduates to obtain higher level of knowledge, we also want them to be capable in applying the knowledge. Elements that graduates must possess under this aspect are the ability to identify and analyze complex situation as well as making evaluations that are reasonable. In addition, they should have the ability to expand and improve thinking skills, to provide ideas, and alternative solutions (Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia 2006). Apart from that, the skills of team work are also being integrated to the curriculum. Such skills involve the ability to work and cooperate with people from various social and cultural backgrounds in order to accomplish a shared goal. Forming a good working relationship with the peers is essential. Graduates are inculcated with sense of respect towards others attitude, behaviour, and belief. From time to time, graduates are also expected to undertake the role of a leader and a group member interchangeably (Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia 2006). In addition to that, from the aspect of lifelong learning and information management, graduates are nurtured to acquire skills and knowledge in practicing self-directed learning independently. They should have the skills to look for relevant information from diverse sources and able to organize them efficiently. Moreover, they should be responsive to new ideas and able to develop an inquiry mind (Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia 2006). Entrepreneurship skill, also one the traits of soft skills, involves the ability to venture into business and work-related opportunities while creating risk awareness. This skill includes the ability to identify business opportunities and be able to prepare, build, and explore business plans which eventually leads to self-employment (Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia 2006). Aside from that, ethics and professional moral is significant in moulding quality graduates as well. With the above skill, graduates are able to practice high moral standards in their respective professional fields. Graduates should own the capability to understand the effects of economy, environment, and socio-cultural factors of their professional practice. In relation to ethical issues, graduates should have the capacity to analyze and make decisions in matters concerning ethics. Beyond the working environment, graduates should be able to practice good ethics while being responsible towards the society (Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia 2006). Last but not least, the Malaysian Institute of Higher Learning also seeks to develop leadership skill Leadership skill entails the ability to lead in various activities. Graduates should have the knowledge on basic leadership theories which will enable the graduates to lead a project. It is also essential that graduates are able to understand the role of a leader and a group member and be able to carry out those roles interchangeably (Ministry of Higher Education Malaysia 2006). The Pre-Employment Programme of the University Malaya Soon after the Malaysian Institute of Higher Learning has launched the Soft Skills Module for Malaysian Public Universities, in 2007, University of Malaya has introduced Pre-Employment Programme for graduates who scored below CGPA 3.0. The objective of this programme is to encourage the use of English in and beyond the classrooms setting. It is also strive to develop communication skills in English but also to motivate cooperative learning. The aims of the curriculum and activities designed for this programme are to assist students to write effective letters of application, to conduct themselves favourably at interviews, and to improve their fluency and accuracy in English. Furthermore, it aims to prepare the students to be more confident and train them as active communicators at the workplace. In the pre-employment programme, communication skills are being improved by the reading of advertisements as well as to learn and using social greetings. The graduates would practice telephone conversations, role playing, make speeches, and express their opinions and suggestions. Plus, they would learn the use of discourse markers and persuasive skills in interpersonal communication, grammar and vocabulary as well as writing cover letters and resumes. The graduates would also have to participate in public speaking and stage presentation. Apart from that, this programme promotes cooperative learning among the graduates. They are divided into small groups with different gender, ethnics and backgrounds. Being in smaller groups enables the graduates realize that each group members efforts are required and indispensable for group success; they should know everyone has a unique contribution to make. Critical thinking and problem solving skills are also learnt through the group activities. Friendly competitions are created between groups to identify the group with the best solution. Groups with the best solution and with the most critical ideas would be announced as winners. Such competition between the groups helped to develop not only the communication and negotiation skills in English, but also the inter-personal and small group skills, where social skills such as leadership skills, decision making, trust building, communication, and conflict management skills are learnt and developed as well. Teaching Practicum Teacher training or teaching practicum can assist in bridging the gap that exists between education and employment. It has become a recognized method for developing the carrier potential of students and making education more relevant (Hymon-Parker Smith, 1998). Teaching practicum presents the student with an opportunity to gain invaluable experience. Classroom learning alone is no longer sufficient to adequately prepare students for the demands of our education field. The right training can be the key to a great job success because it gives the student a change to take on real responsibilities while working side-by-side with professionals. According to Dennis (1996, as cited in Verney, Holoviak, Winter, 2009), internships can help expand upon immediate skills that can improve course performance, such as better time management and communication skills, better self-discipline, heightened initiative and an overall better self-concept. These skills cannot be properly developed if it is just from classroom learning. In University of Malaya, TESL undergraduates will have the opportunity to personally experience the real working culture during the final year for 12 weeks. Mihail (2006) asserted that job training can instill the real work values, gain direct access to job sources, impress potential employers and assist in making wise career choices, all of which can help to improve future job opportunities. Hence, in order to compete and survive in the challenging and competitive working environment, students must develop their work skills, both hard and soft through real work experience. This real work experience has been employed by the education system in developing soft skills in students. The real job setting is expected to enhance students soft skills effectively. Research also suggested that the development of any skill is best facilitated by giving students practice and not by simply talking about it or demonstrating how to do it (D.R. Woods, et al., 1997 as cited in Kamsah, 2006). A study by Cook, Parker and Pettijohn (2004) has shown that job training has improved the general ability to get along with people in work situations, increased confidence level and influenced the future career of the graduates. Furthermore, collective feedback obtained from the evaluations can also be used to revise the curriculum in order to improve student performance and meet employers needs and expectations in the future. Issues such as the lack of practical application as commented by the employers can be minimized and the students can develop various applied workplace skills for transition from the classroom to the world of work. Therefore, with the teaching practicum, development of soft skills among TESL graduates is projected to be more effective. Perception of graduates towards soft skills According to the study of Devadason, Subramaniam, and Daniel (2010), the general perspectives of final undergraduates in University of Malaya shows that the skills embedded in both coursework and training has not met the needs of the students, with the exception for a few skills. This implies that these skills are not adequately infused or acquired either by coursework or training. Plus, their perception also shows that there is insufficient of infusion and acquisition on lifelong learning and information management skills. This reveals a lack of dynamism in the existing programmes of public universities. Courses should be structured to cultivate lifelong learning through active reading and research beyond textbook learning. The result also shows that there is insufficient of integration of leadership skills in the formal curriculum. In fact, this skill is perceived as a critical weakness of local graduates (Quah et al. 2009). In total, the perceived low and selective appreciation of skills by students implies that graduates are still ill-equipped with the necessary competencies. It reflects that there is indeed a need to readdress the existing strategies within the teaching-learning process to ensure a better integration of soft skills. The findings of selective acquisition of certain soft skills in Malaysian universities correspond to the study by Aida et al. (2006). The current situation that happens to Malaysia is many students are equipped with the latest technical certifications and solid work experience; yet lacking the non-technical skills (Kamsah, 2006). While graduating, students may enhance their employability by obtaining an extra degree or certificates, they may not realize on the payoff in acquiring soft skills until after graduating (Brown, Hesketh, Williams, 2003). Another research by Kamsah (2007) indicates that the graduates of University Technology Malaysia believe that each of the soft skills is developed moderately. Therefore, more effort should be put in to empower soft skills among the students through co curricular activities or even during the teaching and learning processes. The university graduates happen to realize that critical thinking and problem solving skills as well as the team working skills are essential to survive the working field. Both domains are viewed as equally important for professional development. Aside from that, from a graduate perspective, soft skills are seen as being deficient in graduates relative to hard skills (Arnold Davey, 1994; Mullen, 1997) although Strebler (1997) notes that technical or hard skill are perceived by graduates as being relatively more critical for getting a job. Similarly, soft skills are generally viewed as less important by academics in comparison with workplace professionals (Page, Wilson, Kolb, 1993). Whereas, Arnold and Davey (1994) note that as graduates spend longer in industry, they rate themselves as more competent in their hard skills but not soft skills. Methodology The main objective of this research is to examine the perspective of TESL undergraduates on the most important soft skills for professional development. Secondly, the study also aimed to investigate the TESL undergraduates perception on the soft skills developed by University of Malaya. The last purpose is to identify if difference exists in the level of importance and competency in soft skills. These objectives led to the following research questions: 1. What are the most important soft skills as perceived by TESL undergraduates? 2. How do TESL undergraduates perceive the soft skills development by University of Malaya? 3. What is the relationship between the importance of soft skills and the levels of soft skills developed? Population and Sampling The population for this research is defined as the TESL undergraduates in University of Malaya. The undergraduates participation in the study would be of voluntary. Selecting TESL undergraduates as the participants creates rich authenticity data for this research. The future teachers of English play significant role in nation building; therefore, their perspectives on soft skills are very much appreciated and valuable. The selected site for this research is University of Malaya. Choosing the oldest and one of the most established universities in Malaysia enhances the research data by reflecting the perspectives of the undergraduates from the university. At the same time, the suitable location and comfortable setting of University of Malaya greatly allows the research to progress smoothly.

Biography of Adolf Hitler Essay example -- essays research papers

Adolf Hitler Introduction Hitler, Adolf (1889-1945), German political and military leader and one of the 20th century's most powerful rulers. Hitler converted Germany into a fully militarized society and launched World War II in 1939. He made anti-Jewish culture a top priority of his lies and policies and built the Nazi Party into a mass movement. He hoped to conquer the entire world, and for a time dominated most of Europe and much of North Africa. He founded sterilization and euthanasia measures to enforce his idea of racial purity among German people and caused the deaths of millions of Jews, Roma (Gypsies), Slavic people, and many others, all of whom he considered inferior. Early Years Adolf Hitler was born in Braunau am Inn, Austria-Hungary, in 1889. Hitler had a comfortable childhood. His grades at school were above average and it was decided that he would attend a secondary school that prepared students for further studies and emphasized modern languages and technical subjects, at the school which was called a Realschule. However, Hitler and his father strongly differed over his career plans. His father wanted him to enter the public service. Hitler insisted on becoming an artist. So Hitler did poorly in Realschule, having to repeat the first year and improving very little from then on. During this time, Hitler began to form his political views: a strong sense of German nationalism, the beginnings of anti-Jewish culture. Like many German-speaking citizens of Austria-Hungary, Hitler considered himself first and a pure German. The death of Hitler?s father in January 1903 changed everything. The family income was adequate to support Hitler, his mother, and his sister, but the absence of a dominant father figure alte... ... of Europe, the war hastened the end of colonial empires and the emergence of the new Jewish state of Israel. It also brought about the creation of new international organizations like the United Nations that might prevent such wars in the future. Ironically, these developments were the exact opposite of what Hitler had hoped for. His ambition to make Berlin the capital of the world was not realized, and the enormous buildings he started designing for it in the 1920s were never built. Hitler combined organizational and manipulative talents with great cunning. He was simultaneously obsessed with fantastic visions and blinded to reality by those very visions. However, many Germans shared at least a portion of those visions. This support made it possible for Hitler to use the resources of Europe's second largest population and most advanced economy to pursue his dreams.

My Kitchen, My Sanctuary Essay -- Descriptive Essay About A Place

Have you ever been at home and still didn’t feel safe? Well, that’s how I felt in my own home sweet home. That was of course until I found a place to rest and relax in my hectic life- my home’s very own kitchen. Shortly after we moved in, the kitchen grew in to a sanctuary for me with every memory I’ve had in it. I think the kitchen is a relaxing place, is because for me it represents a place of symbolic, spiritual cleansing. The kitchen is usually dirty, and every few days I have to clean it. When that happens, I view the event as a representation of my own inner, spiritual state. When the kitchen is out of order, my life is chaotic. When the kitchen is clean, my life has order. The reasons it’s a sanctuary is because it’s my family’s meeting place, it’s my families back up plan, and it’s our emergency entrance / exit. My kitchen is no ordinary nor extraordinary kitchen- instead is it a corner of the house that I feel sa fe in. My kitchen at home is a sanctuary for me because it’s my family’s meeting place. When anyone in our house has something to announce, an important event is upcoming, or we have to discuss anything- it’s done at the kitchen table. The smell of my mom cooking something, or something she had cooked always welcomes us. One very important discussion we had was when I received my high school application. We all sat around the table and discussed what choices I should put for two hours. All that was done at the kitchen table, and it was one of the most wonderful experiences in our family. The whole time my mom had been preparing chicken noodle soup, and the smell satisfied us all- it would definitely be scrumptious. We also, had time to talk about what I wanted to do in my future- and I have never before been... ...auses all the stress of your life to melt away. Along with the dopamine produced directly by the food, your body also makes dopamine when you have successfully created a dish. You reached a goal, and your mind rewarded you for all your hard work. Not only is the kitchen a great place to relax because it has food, but it's also a place of quite introspection. I usually go there, even when I'm not hungry, just to walk around and look out the window. I think. It's a place where I can let all my thoughts come together and I can sort things out. I love the kitchen for so many reasons but to me I feel really safe. The reasons it’s a sanctuary for me is because it’s my family’s meeting place, it’s my families back up plan, and it’s our emergency entrance / exit. Everyone has a favorite place to be, a place where new innovations begin, and for me it’s the kitchen at home.

Nothing Is Certain :: essays research papers fc

Theory of Knowledge Writing Assignment   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  “Nothing can be known with certainty'; Is this statement true? Are you certain? In this essay I plan to show that nothing can be known with certainty, I will examine the truth and certainty of life and of humans, and prove that nothing can be known for certain.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Sir Isaac Newton came up with many theories of time and space. Euclid said that there can be a concept of a straight line but Newton said nothing could ever travel in a straight line, see illustration below. It shows that in this spherical universe one can go straight but never for very long. If you are certain you are going in a straight line think again. But these facts are known, if not by the general public then at least by mathematicians. However Max Born states the theory only holds water if the exact sphere of reference is specified, if nothing is certain then the sphere of reference can never be known to a point where there is no question as to it being perfect, therefore a basic theory of motion is null and void. The statement “nothing can be known with certainty'; holds true to the vast unending universe all the way down to the tinniest subatomic particle. Everything is moving; nothing can be studied to so exactly that there is no question about the object, because the act of studying an object changes the object.  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   I am not saying that Newton’s and other theories like it are wrong, I am saying that we put too much faith in something that is not absolute, unfortunately we have no other choice. When I sat down to write this essay I decided to look for the easy way out. In Microsoft Word 97 there is a feature where you can ask the computer a question and it will answer it to the best of its knowledge. If computers are as powerful as man created them, then my state of the art machine with its state of the art word processor should have no problem answering the question, “Why is nothing ever certain?'; When I hit enter to ask the machine the question I was bombarded with a multitude of answers but none of which fit the question. The computer could show me how to print multiple copies of this essay, and how to get this essay on to the Internet where mathematicians and artists alike could see it.

Is the Destruction of the Amazon Rainforest a price Worth Paying for Brazil’s Economic development?

The tropical rainforest is undoubtly one of the most fascinating biomes located around the world. These ecosystems are located over eighty five countries near the equator and one of the most prominent rainforest is known the Amazonia. The Amazon Rainforest not only situated over many countries including Brazil, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, Guyana, Suriname, and French Guiana but it is also known to be home of over 50% of the Earth's species and approximately one third of the world's tree grows in Amazonia. The rainforest has been estimated to cover seven million square kilometres and at least forty thousand plant species have been classified, which makes the Amazon rainforest a resourceful bio diverse ecosystem. This biodiversity and large land has attracted potential companies, especially from Brazil to take advantage of the Amazon Rainforest. Although Brazil is one of the world's fastest developing countries and the richest country in South America, it is still considered as a middle income ‘LEDC' [Less Economically Developed Country] and its rapid population growth has increased the demand for natural resources. Brazil has remains to solve these problems by the deforestation of the precious Amazon Rainforest. Deforestation can be defined as the removal of the forest stands for human activities, such as agriculture and unfortunately, already 25% of the Amazon Rainforest has been cleared in 40 years and 40 hectares is being cleared per minute. At this rate, the Amazonia will be gone in 30 years! Is the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest a price worth paying for? The Amazonia is famous for being the largest and more diverse ecosystem on Earth. Almost everyday, there are new species being discovered and the rainforest is the habitat to some of the most essential plants to the medical world, for example, the rosy periwinkle which is known to provide drugs to help cure leukaemia. The diverse ecosystem is caused indirectly by the location of the rainforest. The centre of the Amazon Rainforest is located near and on the equatorial line. This means that the Amazonia receives concentrated amount of sun rays, making the rainforest very hot. The equatorial location means that the temperature of the climate is very high and constant with twelve hours of sunshine. Usually, the morning temperature can reach up to 32iC and in the evening, it rarely goes below 22iC. The high concentration of the sun rays absorbed by the Earth also encourages conventional rainfall daily. This is when the land gets real hot, that the warm air around it gets enough energy to rise. As the warm air rises, it gets cooled by the atmosphere because it is much colder the higher you travel. The cooled air then condenses into clouds and later heavy rainfalls. Due to daily conventional rainfalls, the Amazon rainforest is a wet, humid area as well as being hot. The Amazon rainforest has two seasons: the dry season between June to December and wet season from January to May, when May can have a rainfall of around 259 mm. The abiotic factors, the non living features of earth like the sun, cause the Amazon Rainforest to have a very warm and humid climate, also known as a tropical climate. The biotic factors, the living factors of an ecosystem like plants, are just as important as the climate in maintaining the tropical rainforest. The diagrams on the next page show how vital plant life is to support the other plants in the ecosystem. After a plant dies or leaves fall to the forest floor, decomposers in the soil break down the dead matter into humus. Humus is important to forest land chemically and physically. Humus can increase the amount of moisture a soil holds and can help the soil have a better structure. Humus also acts as a catalyst because it has actives sites that help produce nutrients. The more nutrients a soil has, the better a plant would be able to grow and survive. This also shows why deforestation endangers the ecosystem. The second cycle illustrates shows that when trees are cleared away, causing less leaves and dead organisms to decay onto the soil, less humus is produced. This cause there to be fewer nutrients because more was taken away from the plant than returned back to the soil as the tree was removed. Fewer nutrients means that the soil is less fertile than originally, so new plants grow with a weaker quality and less chance of surviving. This encourages soil erosion because there no trees to protect the soil from being moved away. Brazil has the eighth largest economy in world and is the wealthiest in its continent. Unfortunately, the country can only be considered as a NIC [newly developed country] or LEDC and is still located under the Brandt line. The Brandt line is a ‘socio-economic' line that divides the more economically developed countries, the north, from the less economically developed countries, the south. This is understandable because the social and economics indicators are considerably low, especially compared to the UK. Economic Social Country GNP Per Capita ($) Birth Rate Death Rate Natural Increase Life Expectancy Population Per Doctor Brazil 3 640 22 7 15 68 1 000 UK 18 700 12 11 1 77 300 Figure 2: This table shows the measure of development in the year 2000. Figure 2 expands on Brazil and UK's indicators of development. It shows that in the year 2000 that the natural increase of the population of Brazil, which the government has to support the demands of, was fifteen times larger than the UK. The NIC also has quite a low life expectancy and the people in England are likely to live approximately 9 years longer than Brazilians. This may be due to the fact that Brazil's education system is quite low for an NIC; its adult literacy rate is 84%, compared to the UK's 99%. This means that there are fewer professional workers such as doctors and engineers, which causes of there being only one doctor per thousand people. The chart also shows the Gross Nation Product [GNP] per Capita [per person]. The value of GNP per Capita can be described as the total value of services and goods produced by a country in a year divided by the residents of the country. The GNP includes the residents of the country living abroad and excludes non-residents of a country. Another common measure of economical wealth is the Gross National Product [per capita], which can be defined as the total value of services and goods produced divided the people in the country that year. The GNP and GDP are similar, the only difference they have is who they think the ‘capita' is, which means that the value of GNP and GDP are very similar. Figure 2 shows that the GNP is significantly low as it is nearly five times smaller than the value of UK's GNP. However, Brazil has shown a rapid increase of GNP and GDP. In the year 2006, Brazil's GDP per capita was $8,800, and then it increased by $900 to $9,700. This is evidence that Brazil's economy is growing. The United Nation uses the Human Development Index [HDI] to measure development. It was created in 1990, but was initially used three years later, because it combines social and wealth indicators to produce a more insightful measure of development. The HDI looks at the three factors of human progress: ==> A long healthy life [measured by life expectancy] => Education and Knowledge [measured by adult literacy and years spent in school] ==> Standard of living [measured by GDP per capita] Each of the three factors are given a ‘score' from 0. 000 [worst] to 1. 000 [best], which can be worked out through calculations according to each factor, then the average of the three scores gives the country its HDI. The countries can be also ranked according to their HDI. Figure 3 shows that there has been, although small, change in Brazil's HDI. In the data published in 2005, Brazil was ranked 63rd with a HDI of 0. 92 and then in the data published in 2007, it was awarded with a HDI of 0. 800 even though it moved down 7 ranks. A HDI value is just about considered as ‘high' and it shows that Brazil has reasonable standard of living. The data also shows that Brazil is in competition for other countries for better human development because it is going down in ranks although it is becoming more industrialised. Brazil must continue developing both socially and economically to be considered as an average MEDC. Brazil's rapid advancement is all due to trade. In 2006, Brazil had import value was $91. 4 billion while it had exported $137. 8 billion worth of goods. The country had gained approximately 150. 8% of its import and means that Brazil experiences trade surpluses, which is when the money from exports is greater than money from imports. The government can spend the extra money on education, medical health care and building the citizens of Brazil. Brazil has plantations that produce vegetation that are able to grow in tropical climates. These exported crops include soy beans, coffee, cocoa and sugar cane. The industries of Brazil have grown noticeably well and 74% of Brazil's goods are [semi] manufactured such as transport equipment, footwear, coffee, autos. There are also quite a few cattle ranches in Brazil which provide beef in MEDC, especially USA. Figure 4 shows that 23% of all occupations are primary jobs, work that deals with collection or producing natural resource from the earth, 24% are secondary activities, work to do with manufacturing and 53% have tertiary jobs that deal with providing services. Approximately one quarter of Brazilians have primary sector careers because they do not require a lot of skills, so majority of the population can do it, and Brazil has excellent resources for land and wood. However, a majority of jobs are in the tertiary sector because Brazil has a rising population, so there must be enough services to satisfy the demanding population, and Brazil is a popular tourist spot, so some jobs are created by tourism such as tour guides. One third of Brazil's GDP comes from the countries assorted range of industries. 4% of workers are employed in the manufacturing sector and these people work in automobile, air craft, steel, petrochemicals other durable good factories. The LEDC has to import goods such as machinery, electrical and transport equipment, chemical products, oil, automotive parts, and electronics for its industries. The Amazon rainforest is under threat from the increasing rate of deforestation. Most of the land deforested is being used by Brazil's industries. Trees in the rainforest, such as mahogany, have been cut down so they can be exported or used for construction or furniture making. Not all the plants cleared are used in the industries; some are wasted to make land for cattle ranches. These large cattle ranches usually have contracts with American fast food chains, so the restaurants can buy the beef cheaply. The Amazon rainforest also has the perfect temperature for growing tropical crops, so farmers use the forest land as pasture to grow sugar canes, soy beans, and coffee beans. The beef and crops can be exported to MEDCs as trade goods. The Amazonia is also rich in bauxite, rock containing aluminium, so there have been large mining operations. The aluminium are then extracted from the bauxite and then used in industries. Mr. Enriquez, Chief of the Trombetas Bauxite Mine explained that ‘the bauxite [they] mine is used in Brazil and sold to rich countries around the globe. It is used to make aluminium, which is used in aircrafts, production, soft drink cans and hundreds of other products. ‘ However, mining involves digging up the land and changing its landscape; it is to be expected that mining would ruin the soil and the plants in the Amazon. Mr Enriquez also said ‘However, it is inevitable that some rainforest will be destroyed in large scale extraction of raw materials. Mining of this kind is of vital national importance to the Brazilian economy. The sale pf bauxite and iron core brings billions into Brazil and creates hundreds of thousands of jobs. ‘ Although Mr. Enriquez is defending his organization, it is true that mining creates jobs, especially for unskilled people, and that it brings money into the country. Brazil is the fifth most populous country. Its growing population and those suffering under poverty are forced to live in favela, which are small, cramped houses with limited sewage and electricity made from scrap building materials. The government has made a new policy to provide land for homeless Brazilians to prevent shanty town conditions. The land provided comes from the clearings of Amazon rainforest. The people are expected to live in the forest and have deal with their own farm. Pedro, a pioneer settler, participated in the scheme because he was destitute. Although he was hoping for a reasonable life, Pedro was unable to continue living in the forest. He said â€Å"It is very remote in the forest and once I had cleared my land the soil fertility declined so growing crops is not easy. † Pedro was considering moving to the city like most work seekers. This shows that the government scheme was not success for everyone and that clearing away the land for homes was not a good idea because people had no knowledge on farming and trade. Amerindians are known as the first people who have used the Amazon Rainforest's raw materials. They live in houses called ‘malocas' and they are dependent on the rainforest resources. Amerindians use the method of shifting cultivation as a way of farming and living in the Amazon Rainforest, they live in one area of the forest and farm there until the fertility and production of the soil has declined, which can last for five years. The Amerindians then leave the area for another and continue farming there so the previous area can recover its fertility. Unfortunately, when the Europeans discovered the Amazon Rainforest and its resources, the Amerindians were in danger. A Tukano Indian explained that when the ‘outsides begun to destroy' the forest, their tribe had to go deeper into the forest for their own safety or give up their lifestyle to live on reservations. It is unethical to sacrifice the life of a whole community for land and profit, especially of a community that helped the forest as well depending on it, unlike companies which just extract resources. If the rate of deforestation continues, Amerindians would have to give up their way of life by either being killed in the process or by being forced to move. Brazil's organizations have to understand that deforestation comes with consequences. All ecosystems are delicate and each species of plant and animals depend on each other for food, shelter, reproduction and if one species is harmed than others will be harmed too like a water ripple. Deforestation directly affects trees in the Amazon rainforest. Cutting down and exporting trees can make some species of hardwood plants to be vulnerable to extinction, for example, mahogany is a popular timber used for furniture however if the deforestation continues, mahogany may become scarce. Logging also takes away the habitats of Amazon's animals, giving them a less chance of survival and killing them. Majority of Amazon's plants have not been discovered, so there may be a species of plant out there that can made into drugs to cure feared illnesses, such as Aids and cancer. Deforestation contributes directly and indirectly to extinction of thousands of unknown species. Deforestation also stops the humus/ nutrient cycle from continuing. Since the tree is taken down before it can die or shed leaves to decay, the decomposers do not have any dead matter to break down the so the nutrients taken from tree cannot be returned. As there will be fewer nutrients in the soil than before, the soil will become less fertile and the tree plants in the soil after will develop weaker than the initial tree. The weaker tree would then be broken down, and the process will repeat until the soil is too infertile to produce any vegetation. There would be no roots or plants to hold the roots together, which would cause increase in soil erosion. Soil erosion is the movement of soil, and deforestation can cause excessive erosion, because there are no plants or trees to protect the soil, and this process may cause flooding and then difficulty in farming as the landscape has changed and the water will be too saturated for some vegetation. Deforestation can also cause a more dramatic change, like desertification, if trees are being cut in a rapid rate. Like animals and humans, trees also respire as well as photosynthesize, so the pores of the leaves give out water vapour to the atmosphere, so with the decreasing number of trees, the lack of water vapour in the atmosphere can encourage desertification. Another effect of deforestation is global warming. Trees are the number one source of reducing carbon dioxide because they take it in for photosynthesis and produce less carbon dioxide for the reactions than they took in. Burning trees not stops the reduction of carbon dioxide, but it also contributes because some of the plants cut are burned. Burning trees release more carbon dioxide and contribute to global warming. Also, Amazonia is considered to be the source of over 20% of the world's oxygen, as product of photosynthesis, and the forest has been described as ‘lungs of the earth'. Therefore, deforestation indirectly causes an increase in pollution and decrease in oxygen. The problem of deforestation can be solved by using sustainable methods of extracting and educating both the companies and people about how delicate the ecosystem is. A sustainable method is one that satisfies the needs of the present population without compromising the need of the future generation. A common technique used to preserve ecosystems is by establishing National Parks and Forest Reserves to protect untouched part of the forest. These reserves may depend on both the government and charity and will make sure that the protected areas are kept as natural as possible while educating people about the importance of foliage in the rainforest. Laws on companies extracting raw materials from the Amazon rainforest must be made stricter than before. Logging grants should only be available to those who plant the same number of trees they cut down, which is a sustainable method, so there no loss in the number of trees. The timber trade companies should also be restricted by reducing trades of endangered plants. Also, any organizations that burn a large amount of trees should be warned that they must reduce the mass burnings so they do not contribute to global warming. Any companies that do not obey the law and does not help preserve the Amazon Rainforest should be heavily fined. If the government wants to continue their scheme to send dispossessed Brazilians to the forest, they should educate them about how to keep their soil fertile by keeping foliage and natural compost, so they will be able to manage a small farm. In conclusion, Amazon rainforest's location has caused to have a constantly hot climate with a wet and dry season. The rainforest is densely population with trees and other plants species and is home to around 50% of the world's animals and plants. The rainforest is a vital resource for plants that are used as drugs for serious illness like leukaemia. However, Brazil has been using the rainforest to extract raw materials for export, land for cattle ranch and to provide land for homeless Brazilians. These exports have caused Brazil to experience trade surpluses that help develop the country. Unfortunately, deforestation is affecting more than just Brazil. The rate of deforestation is contributing to global warming and taking away a huge source of oxygen and potential medical plants. The destruction of the Amazon Rainforest is not a price worth paying for Brazil's economic development because it is putting the earth in danger too. The only way to slow down the results deforestation is by sustainable methods such as planting back the trees and teaching people the importance of foliage.