Magazines What They Mean to Us free essay sample

This paper discusses the importance of magazines in our society, and how magazines influence childrens reading. This essay is critical review of the magazines effect on the literacy among children and youth. Comparisons are made between magazines, newspapers, mass media, and electronic e-zine. In my opinion, magazines are the key to our nations youth becoming avid readers. When they are young, children are naturally more visual learners because this is the only way their minds are able to process information, as their vocabulary is not developed to an extent where merely words can convey an idea. This is the advantage magazines have over books of print. Magazines are littered with colorful pictures to accompany articles so as to provide a more vivid expression of the theme at hand.

Nike Essays - Nike, Inc., Employment Compensation, Labour Relations

Nike Essays - Nike, Inc., Employment Compensation, Labour Relations Nike The athletic apparel industry in which Nike is involved is a major money maker in the United States, but the fact that none of the factories are located in North America has brought some heat to the company. Nike controls more than 40 percent of the U.S. Market for sports related goods, but doesnt have a single sneaker factory in this country (Miller 1). Nike continues to make millions of dollars yet exploits workers overseas by paying them very little, while requiring long hours without overtime pay in factories that are not up to American standard. Nike subcontractors employ nearly 500,000 workers in plants in Indonesia, China and Vietnam (Saporito 1). The exploitation of workers in Third World counties, where the majority of Nikes labor is done sparks a controversial issue. People question why is it that Nike continues these practices. According to Just do it, Nike, Nike seems especially fond of doing business in undemocratic countries like China and Indonesia, where the military can be relied upon to crack heads if workers get out of line (Miller 2). The military monitoring has been a large controversy due to the fact that these are often Chinese working against other Chinese workers, or Vietnamese against their own people also. For Nike there are two benefits: it its a cheap way to monitor in an overseas factory and it creates a sheaper labor workforce. In turn making the labor cheaper for Nike. This makes it possible for Nike workers from the states to work on other things and only tour the factories when nessecary. While still assuming a stable workforce without good pay. The critics of Nikes labor practices have taken tours and witnessed the mistreatment firsthand. Time magazine reported saying, The plants were found to be modern and clean, well lighted and ventilated and paying a decent wage by local standard salthough by no means are they trouble free. Make no mistake: these are factories not amusement parks, and even in developing Asia, where jobs are scarce and getting scarcer, this is not the job of choice. (Saporito 1) The wages that the workers overseas are paid is nothing when compared to how much we pay for a pair of shoes or the profit that CEO Phil Knight is making off his sportswear giant he once operated out of the back of his car as a college student. A big issue that surrounds sweatshops is wage. The minimum wage often does not reflect the cost of living. (Hepner Online) Is the wage fair? There are many people who feel the wage is fair and the cost of living is taken into account when the wage is looked at, but studies show otherwise in many factories. Just recently, CNN reported a raise to entry level workers in Indonesia, Nike officials said the increase will raise the minimum monthly compensation packagewhich includes bonuses, housing, healthcare, transportation and meal allowances to approximately $37.14 a month.(Nike Establishes Labor Online) To many people living in the U.S., that package may sound good however the compensation package doesnt do away with the long hours, the poor conditions or the low rate of pay. Many of these workers are young children working to help support their families. The benefits do not make up for the low pay rates that keep them in the work force. The pay is only enough to get by where these children want to be saving in order to leave the factories and return home. In Taking a Look inside Nikes Factories, part of Bill Saporitos, Can Nike Get Unstuck? this is what was found. Americans pay $100 for a pair of shoes that a worker gets less than $3 a day to make. They pay Michael Jordan $40 million to endorse them. Cant they find more money to pay the workers? The short answer is no, because corporations pay the going rate for labor whereever they are. (Saporito 1) If this statement is true Nike pays the wage for the country the factory is in, then what is the controversy about? Much of it stems from the overtime that these workers are forced to work without over time compensation. Here in the United States there are regulations placed

Psycology of Diversity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Psycology of Diversity - Essay Example Usually their primary language is Spanish. Their daily life reflects Spanish heritage. The group ‘Hispanic’ was included in US census in the year 1970. A report in 2005 shows that hispanics form 14% and african american forms 13% in total US population. (USA Today, 2008) Ethnicity is very important to determine the psychological expressions of any individual or population. Ethnicity of a population can be discussed under many headings. But to understand the psychology of any race most important approaches the following traits are to be observed: (a) distinct similar behavior or attitude of individuals belonging to any particular race, (b) their feeling for their ethnicity or their feeling for their ethnic identity and (c) their adaptations through life experiences regarding their lesser power, social status, social discrimination etc. But one should keep it in mind that these approaches can be studied independently but to understand the population psychology all these approaches must be considered together. An African influence is vividly seen among the African-American families. Some of the very basic aspects of their culture can be traced back to that of the African people. Among them the worth mentioning ones are oral expression, perception of time, vitality of emotion and dependence on the inner members of a family. According to social anthropologist Jones, the African-American families show five elements in their lifestyle, and they are: improvisation, oral expression, spirituality, time and rhythm. These five elements are strong enough to define the whole black culture throughout the world, be it in the United States of America or in the dark continent of Africa itself. However, this kind of lifestyle has some factors in common with the Hispanic lifestyle as conformity, urge of sacrifice and interdependence are also the parts of the latter mentioned race. They have been noticed to stand by each other in times of personal

Corporate startegy Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Corporate startegy - Essay Example Cookson group plc notable has enhanced its strategic position which put the company forward as a competitive in the industry. The company business model and strategies takes into account the changing corporate environment and the systematic realization of the underlying positioning. The company has achieved this through devise of a desired position in the future based on the foreseeable and present developments as well as strategizing to realize this positioning. Focus and emphasis is laid on the company continuity and the determination of character and contents of the organization activities. The company strategic position is underpinned on several aspects including leading global markets positions in its industry and development of market exposure to increase revenue and profits. Others include enhanced technology, increased R&D capability, acquisitions, strong cash flow momentum and expansion into international markets. Cookson group plc has two main divisions in its business model which are Performance material section and Engineering Ceramics where it operates under Alent PLC and Vesuvious PLC respectively. These divisions facilitate in supplying specialist consumable materials and chemicals in industrial production processes. It is notable that both divisions have adopted the same business model and the way operations are carried out. The company notably sells its products based on added value as opposed to just price (Cookson Group Plc 2006). Cookson group plc also focuses on sustaining and maintaining strong financial position enhancing support on its businesses in the divisions. This business model strives to achieve this through enhanced long-term financing arrangements with ample liquidity and low leverage headroom. Cookson business model and strategy can be summarized as follows:- This analysis involves study on the corporate environment that the company operates so as to

Evaluate the contributions made by the chicago school to our Essay

Evaluate the contributions made by the chicago school to our understandings of crime and the urban environment - Essay Example The Chicago School of Sociology moved the study of crime away from the basic and overly-simplified Biological and Physiological explanations of the 19th century onwards, promulgated by such positivist theorists as Lombroso1 which sought to explain criminal behaviour through ‘body type’ arguing that pathology was located in the individual. Fortuitously we live in an age where the Human Genome Project has nullified once and for all the idea that criminal behaviour can be explained categorically by ‘body type’. Whilst law enforcers may discriminate against certain physical features, theoretical law does not. Theoretical law concerns itself with the intention (mens rea) of the defendant who must also have undertaken a prohibited action (actus rea)a. It was increasingly apparent that such Biological and Physiological theories did not offer a universal theory for the existence of crime or its perpetrators. For example, those theories had no explanation to offer for ‘white-collar crime’ – undertaken by persons who had – and have - no apparent genetic, social or educational deprivation excuses for their ‘criminal’ behaviour. Edwin Sutherland’s studies in the 1940s of ‘White Collar Crime’ argued that white collar crime was rarely detected or prosecuted, as it appeared to be victimless crime and was committed by high net worth individuals. However in recent years there has been considerable focus on white collar criminals. A pertinent example is the former media mogul Conrad Black who is currently awaiting his turn on the witness stand. Pictures of the defendant clearly indicate that he does not have a low forehead. Besides raising significant counter-arguments to previous universally accepted criminological theories, the Chicago School opened a whole new avenue of empirical sociology research as they examined the impact of environment on behaviour setting out to answer the following question: Why is there

Scope of Religion in Australia

Scope of Religion in Australia Diversity in Australia Australia is home to increased religious diversity and religious pluralism. Its current religious landscape is shaped through the dramatic effect of immigration, the movements to and from religions or denominations, the exploration of new religious movements and the acknowledgement of no religion. These many reasons have created an increase and decrease of many religious traditions, as well as ethnic and cultural diversity in Australia. Post war immigration is directly linked to the emergence of Australia’s new wave of migration. This helped greatly in reshaping Australia’s religious connections with many religions and denominations in terms of ethnic diversity. Many religions existed elsewhere in the world but only appeared in Australia as migration and refugee patterns changed. When Indigenous Australians were counted in Census forms in 1960, a vast majority were Christian whilst some still had a desire to integrate Aboriginal spirituality and customs into Christian expression. Migrants whom entered after World War 1 were simply those who chose to assimilate and not change the British-European culture. This was because the ‘White Australia Policy’ was in place and it was racially prejudice, religiously intolerant and only accepted whites. However, by World War 2 Australia had to ‘Populate or Perish’, thus they were desperate to increase population for national security reaso ns and economic growth. This ultimately led to a huge population increase, as Australia accepted over 3 million migrants who had arrived from over 60 countries. With Christianity dominating the 19th century, a large majority of the migrants were from South-East Asia, the Middle East and Pacific nations. This however, had not significantly introduced a wide range of religious traditions until the White Australia Policy was abolished. The removal was a sign of recognition and acceptability of religious diversity, this beginning was a door to expanded immigration and rapid growth of religions. From the 2006 Census data on Religions in Australia, there was a changing pattern of religious adherence happening. Buddhism is one the fastest growing religions, making 0.5% of the population in 1986 and 2.1% in 2006. They mainly come from Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Laos, Thailand, Japan and China. Islam is also one of the few religions that are growing at a fast rate, after Christianity and Buddhism, with 1.7%. Most Muslims come from Lebanon, Turkey, Indonesia, Iran and Iraq. Hinduism grew by 0.6% since 1986, making 0.7% of the population and most coming from India and Fiji. Based on today’s numbers and the past decades, Christianity and most of its denominations are still dominating Australia, despite the large percentages of decline in total. A steady rate with the Orthodox Christian tradition had significant numbers in affiliates of Orthodox churches, growing through the Greek, Cyprus and Eastern European migrations. The Roman Catholics have increased to 27% and the Pro testant Christians have gradually dropped to 35%, however the Catholics do outnumber the largest single Protestant group, the Anglicans by 8%. Most Protestants switch denominations to a high degree and a National Church Life survey showed that 29% of respondents had switched denominations in the past 5 years and the majority to Pentecostals, which grew by 16%. Today in Australia, all religions or denominations within them are ethnically and culturally diverse. Anglicans no longer represent the British and Buddhists are not only Chinese and Vietnamese; Christianity clearly exemplifies this idea of diversity. Christianity and its many denominations have followers of different ethnicity and nationalities, which may all believe in the same God but might carry out their practices or way of life differently depending on their culture. Migration, religious conversion and denominational switching are the few forces that shape the Australian religious landscape today. The huge expansion in Australian population has caused increases and decreases in some groups. But most importantly the reasons for these changing patterns are because of the rapid growth of New Age religions and many conversions within religion. New Age religions are a free-flowing spiritual movement with a network of believers and practitioners that have their own similar beliefs and practices that they extend onto a formal religion. Its teachings became popular during the 1970s in response to the failure of Christianity and secular humanism, in providing spiritual and ethical guidance. New Age religions can be referred to as para-religous, as they work alongside a religious tradition sharing their features, developing something new that is merely an extension of what is already introduced. However, they do contrast with many religions such as Christianity, Islam and Judaism in terms of ideas and practices. Rather than the idea of salvation and redemption by God, they focus and pla ce greater emphasis on â€Å"individual fulfilment, perfection of higher states of consciousness†. For example, many Australians or non-Australians voluntarily choose to become a follower of Buddhism or New Age religions that follows its beliefs and practices, because of the attraction to achieving a sense of inner peace. Buddhism isn’t a faith nor a religion but more of a psychology or philosophy of moral code, that doesn’t preach a god or any dogma. â€Å"Buddhism is in large measure an ‘atheistic’ system. We liberate ourselves only through detachment from the world. The fullness of such a detachment is not union with God, but what is called nirvana, a state of perfect indifference with regard to the world. The idea of mixing meditation, aromatherapy, yoga or psychology as a way to escape such limits. The New Age seeks to consume and cross-over traditions such as Buddhism as resources for personal experience and thus Buddhism is a huge influence of New Age attitudes and understandings. This also shows why Buddhism and New Age religions are high on pop ularity and rapidly increasing. People who choose to explore New Age or alternate spiritualities may feel uncomfortable within their own and they haven’t got that spiritual connection and special relationship with God and the religion. There is no doubt people are still seeking for answers to the age-old questions that have not been answered in the religion tradition they are part of, thus seeking for answers in new places. As for those who choose to take up New Age spiritualities, their reasons for conversions to or from may be to search for personal fulfillment, finding that the method of transcendental mediation might be able to heal and raise people. To seek ethical guidelines, by believing that the inner body, mind and soul has the great potential to guide them through life and obstacles. It is them, themselves that they should trust and rely on to become a stronger, better and healthier person. These are the main reasons for religious conversions and to seek for new religious expressions and spirituali ty. It was not until 1933 that the Australian census form clearly stated that the religion question was optional. In 1947, 10.9% of Australians did not state their religion and this remained pretty constant until 1971 when the instructions of ‘if no religion, write none’ was introduced. In the census, 6.7% declared themselves as having no religion and agnostics, atheists, humanists and rationalists consisted within this category. In the 2001 Australian census, 15.5% declared themselves as having no religion whilst 11.7% had not stated it, and within those 15.5%, 17565 were agnostics and 24466 were atheists. The huge increase was due to several personal reasons. People had stated themselves of ‘non-religion’ because they feel there is no need to identify one’s private religion to the government. By not answering the question, it does not mean in any way one’s rejection to religious traditions. How religious one feels is also another impact on these statistical figures. People may be spiritual or have such connections yet they don’t feel they particularly belong to a certain group and for others who are exploring other traditions may find it difficult to classify their religion as well. Other reasons for the growth of ‘no religion’ was because many people no longer accepted an inherited religious identification without a question being asked and answering ‘no religion’ had begun to be more socially acceptable. Materialism also had an effect, as it meant that many had very little interest in religion at all thus most probably ticked the obvious box of simplest words. Through these statistical figures in the Census, it is very hard to define Australia’s religious landscape, but merely what Australians see themselves as. A vast majority, who have defined themselves as belonging to a certain faith, may say they are Christians yet may have completely no religious profession or practice at all. This then expands on the idea of religiosity, where we tend to question how religious or how often should believers do their practices to be considered as a follower. For example, would those whom go to church on Easter Sunday and Christmas be considered less of a Catholic, compared to those whom go every Sunday for mass as well as the important events? Nonetheless, the religious scope in Australia continues to be dynamic and expansive. It has given Australia a richer variety of beliefs and values that may give us a broader understanding of many other cultures, religions and their way of practice. â€Å"It has given people the chance to become the measures of faith able to exercise their right of choice in being part of a religious community because they want to and not that they are†. Today, Australia stands as a multicultural multifaith society having a huge ethnic, cultural and religious diversity, promoting harmony and unity. Bibliography Living Religion textbook Macquarie studies of religion guide http://www.geocities.com/Heartland/Hills/5977/newage.html http://www.religioustolerance.org/newage.htm

The Relationship Between Emergency Management and Higher Education Essa

Emergency management has been in the process of transforming itself into a recognized profession over the past several decades. During the last quarter of the 20th century, training and experience in preparing for, responding to and recovering from disasters and hazardous incidents were considered the path to becoming an emergency manager; the title was not always there but the responsibilities were shouldered by someone who took responsibility for those functions. Since the late 1990’s, the field of emergency management has expanded to include programs of higher education which have added a much needed third dimension to that progression. What was once considered the domain of civil protection specialists, such as retired military personnel and fire fighters, is now just as likely to be filled by a graduate of a university emergency management (EM) program or one of the intensive credentialing programs offered in the United States. The shift towards the professionalization of emergency management can be credited to that added educational dimension as well as to the concurrent shift from primarily a reactive role, response and recovery, to a proactive role of managing the processes of the whole disaster cycle, i.e. mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery. In other words, the emphasis is now on â€Å"management† and not just on the â€Å"emergency† (Britton, 2001, p.46). By addressing the management of the disaster cycle and not focusing on just the emergency, the realm of the emergency manager has expanded to include a diverse yet connected set of skills and knowledge. Implementation of successful mitigations projects for example, require a scientifically sound hazard and vulnerability analysis which should be based on applica... ...0B96C927794AF1031D9395C5C20)~A_new_emergency_management_for_the_new_millennium.pdf/$file/A_new_emergency_management_for_the_new_millennium.pdf Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). (2007). Principles of Emergency Management Supplement. Accessed at http://training.fema.gov/.../edu/docs/emprinciples/Principles%20of%20Emergency%20Management%20Brochure.doc FEMA Emergency Management Institute. (2012). The College List. Accessed at http://www.training.fema.gov/emiweb/edu/collegelist/ Goss, K. (2011). Foundation for Higher Education Accreditation in Emergency Management. History and Benefits. Accessed at http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu/docs/Foundation%20of%20EM%20-%20FFHEA%20-%20History%20and%20Benefits.pdf Schneider, R.O. (2003). A Strategic overview of the â€Å"New† Emergency Manager. Accessed on 4/26/2012 at http://training.fema.gov/EMIWeb/edu/pracpaper.asp