Freedom Writers Essay Sample free essay sample

Freedom Writers is set in the 1990s and tells the narrative of a novice teacher’s interactions with a group of pupils in a Long Beach high school two old ages following the Los Angeles Riots. The movie is based on the book The Freedom Writers Diaries: How a Teacher and 150 Teenss Used Writing to Change Themselves and the World Around Them. a aggregation of essays compiled from the existent experiences of Erin Gruwell ( 1999 ) and her pupils. known as the Freedom Writers. The instructor in the movie. Erin Gruwell. played by Academy Award winning actress Hilary Swank. begins her teaching calling at Wilson High School learning a remedial fresher English category. Early in the movie. Erin has trouble set uping a connexion with her pupils and turns to her male parent and hubby for support. Erin’s male parent. a former civil rights lawyer played by Scott Glenn. offers counsel. but non the support Erin seeks. We will write a custom essay sample on Freedom Writers Essay Sample or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Scott. Erin’s hubby played by Patrick Dempsey. distances himself from Erin’s work and finally their relationship. Erin dedicates herself to learning her pupils. go forthing small clip for her hubby. She takes on part-time occupations to purchase books for the pupils and spends late darks working in the schoolroom. This finally leads to the distancing between Erin and Scott. Erin merely realizes the consequence of her dedication to her work when Scott asks for a divorce. The module of Wilson High contributes little to assisting Erin in the schoolroom. They offer advice based on institutional criterions and past public presentation of the pupils. some staff proposing that the pupils merely â€Å"don’t want to larn. † At the centre of the movie. lie the narratives of the pupils. The pupils are disbelieving of Erin and her involvement in their lives. Initially. they resist her efforts and garbage to traverse the self-inflicted boundaries they have designated i n the schoolroom. Based on race. the pupils sit within self-segregated groups of Hispanics. African-Americans. and Asian-Americans. Erin attempts to interrupt up the division by delegating pupils seats outside of their preferable country. In an effort to link the civilization of the pupils with course of study. Erin uses a Tupac Shakur vocal for a lesson on analysing poesy. The pupils do non accept Erin’s usage of the vocal. At one point. a public violence breaks out on the lawn of school. Erin walks through the mix of pupils watching the force. She sees some of her pupils contending and one of her pupils transporting a gun. but Erin does nil and returns to the school the following twenty-four hours. During a lesson. Erin intercepts a paper that some of her pupils have circulated in the schoolroom. The paper contains a petroleum drawing of Jamal. an Afro-american pupil. Depicted with overdone characteristics. the pulling inspires Erin to link the events with those of the Nazis. She so begins to learn her pupils about the Holocaust and has them read The Diary of Anne Frank. Besides. she takes the pupils on a trip to the Simon Wiesenthal Museum of Tolerance and arranges a dinner at which the pupils meet with Holocaust subsisters. Eva. a Latina pupil. confronts Erin about the narrative of Anne Frank. After reading the novel. Eva is upset to larn that Anne dies. Early in the movie. Eva is shown contending with packs and throughout the movie she is placed in hard state of affairss. This penetration into Eva’s personal life is a technique repeated with other pupils in Erin’s category. The movie depicts the personal battles of some of the pupils. which is cardinal to the assignment Erin develops. Erin. recognizing the importance of the student’s lives outside of school. assigns personal diaries to her category. The pupils are instructed to compose daily in the diary. Erin tells the pupils that she will non read the entries unless the pupils have given her permission and that they are allowed to compose about whatever they choose. The diaries are kept in a locked cabinet in the schoolroom. Through these personal contemplations. Erin learns of the society within which the pupils live. These diaries serve as the foundation for the book published by Erin Gruwell. The Freedom Writers Diary URBAN AMERICA The old ages of industrial enlargement after the Civil War brought important alterations to American society. The state became progressively urban. and metropoliss grew non merely in footings of population but besides in size. with skyscrapers forcing metropoliss upward and new transit systems widening them outward. Part of the urban population growing was fueled by an unprecedented mass in-migration to the United States that continued unabated into the first two decennaries of the 20th century. The promise that America held for these new immigrants contrasted aggressively with the rise of legalized segregation of African-Americans in the South after Reconstruction. Meanwhile. ongoing industrialisation and urbanisation left their grade on how people spent their day-to-day lives and used their leisure clip. In 1870. there were merely two American metropoliss with a population of more than 500. 000 ; by 1900. there were six. and three of these — New York. Chicago. and Philadelphia — boasted over one million dwellers. Approximately 40 per centum of Americans lived in metropoliss and the figure was mounting. Although much of the urbanisation occurred in the industrial parts of the Northeast and Midwest. it was a national phenomenon that frequently corresponded to the presence of railwaies. For illustration. Atlanta experienced a rapid economic recovery in the last one-fourth of the century. and Los Angeles became a boomtown in the eightiess due to the Southern Pacific and Santa Fe railroads. Because the birth rate in the United States declined in the late 19th century. urban growing reflected an internal migration of Americans from farms and little towns to the larger metropoliss and the abroad migration that brought 1000000s of people to U. S. shores. The new in-migration. B efore the Civil War. in-migration to the United States mostly originated in Northern and Western European states. such as Great Britain ( peculiarly Ireland ) . Germany. and Scandinavia. with smaller Numberss of immigrants from China and Mexico subsiding in California and the Far West. In the 1880s. nevertheless. the beginning of immigrants shifted to Southern and Eastern Europe. A combination of deteriorating economic conditions. war. and religious/ethnic persecution compelled Jews ( from Austria-Hungary and the Russian Empire ) . Greeks. Italians. Poles. Russians. Serbs. and Turks to come to the â€Å"Golden Land† of America. Although historiographers distinguish between the â€Å"old† ( pre-1880 ) and â€Å"new† ( post-1880 ) in-migration in footings of the immigrants’ states of beginning. it is a slightly arbitrary differentiation ; immigrants from the Balkans and Russia were in the United States early in the century. and Irish and Germans continued to get after 1880. Another popular misconception is that all immigrants found lasting places in the United States. In fact. possibly every bit many as three out of every ten new reachings ( most of them individual immature work forces ) returned to their fatherland after they earned adequate money to purchase land or put up their ain concern. Immigrants moved into the poorer subdivi sions of the major metropoliss — New York’s Lower East Side. for illustration — and frequently into vicinities abandoned by upwards nomadic immigrant groups. Seeking familiar milieus. they tended to populate and work with people from their native state. Although their kids attended public schools and rapidly learned English. immigrant parents continued to utilize their native lingua. transfering a spot of the Old World into the new. Whether nicknamed Little Italy. Little Bohemia. or Chinatown. immigrant vicinities were rich with Old World languages. from the words printed in the newspapers and on the marks in shop Windowss to the voices heard on the streets. These vicinities. which helped ease the passage from cub ( as fledglings were frequently called ) to citizen. were awfully overcrowded. with upward of 4. 000 people housed on a individual block. Such overcrowding contributed to poverty. offense. and disease. Native-born Americans were troubled by the inflow of aliens. who seemed really different from earlier immigrants. because earlier immigrants spoke English ( for illustration. the Irish ) or followed the Protestant faith ( such as Germans or Scandinavians ) . Furthermore. new immigrants were frequently portrayed as unsafe gro ups ready to sabotage the American political system or as menaces to the occupations of American workers because of their willingness to settle for lower rewards. Given these attitudes toward aliens. it is non surprising that calls for limitations on in-migration began to sound. In 1882. Congress denied inmates. paupers. and the mentally ill the right to come in the United States and three old ages subsequently prohibited contract labourers ( immigrants whose transition was paid in return for working for a certain period of clip ) . Neither jurisprudence had much affect on what was basically an unfastened in-migration policy. The Chinese Exclusion Act ( 1882 ) . on the other manus. suspended in-migration from China for 10 old ages ; it was extended for another decennary in 1892 and so was made permanent in 1902. The jurisprudence was non repealed until 1943. Skyscrapers and mass theodolite. As more and more people crowded into the big metropoliss. the value of urban land increased. The solution to lifting costs of existent estate and the demand to maximise the usage of available infinite was to construct up. The handiness of inexpensive dramat is personae Fe and. subsequently. structural steel. improved fireproofing. and the electric lift allowed for the building of taller and taller edifices. The firstskyscraper was the ten-story Home Insurance Building in Chicago. completed in 1884. Chicago became the place of the skyscraper because of the black fire of 1871 that destroyed most of the cardinal concern territory. The edifice codifications that went into consequence after the fire required that all new building usage incombustible stuffs. Office edifices of 20 or more narratives were common in big metropoliss throughout the state by the terminal of the 19th century. The progresss in architecture and design that skyscrapers represented did non widen to residential lodging ; the high-rise flat house was a twentieth-century phenomenon. One effort at bettering lodging for the hapless really had the opposite consequence. The dumbbell tenement. which was introduced in New York in 1879. had four flats and two lavatories on each floor and was indented in the center. bring forthing its characteristic â€Å"dumbbell† form. When two tenements were built following to each other. the indentures created an airshaft that provided limited airing and visible radiation to the interior flats. Developers seized on the design. because it allowed them to do full usage of the little 25-x-100-foot metropolis e difice tonss. A block lined with dumbbell tenements housed more than 4. 000 people. significantly adding to overcrowding in hapless vicinities ; future building was banned in New York in 1901. Improved urban transit helped determine the modern metropolis. Early developments included elevated steam-driven trains ( 1870 ) and the debut of the overseas telegram auto in San Francisco ( 1873 ) . The usage of electricity in the 1880s led to inventions such as streetcars in many metropoliss. the first belowground trains ( Boston. 1897 ) . and New York’s famed metro system ( 1904 ) . Mass theodolite helped to alter life forms. As streetcar or metro lines extended beyond what used to be the metropolis bounds. the first suburbs were created. ensuing in residential segregation by income. While immigrants and the hapless remained in the cardinal metropolis. the in-between category could populate farther off from their occupations and commute to work. Bridges besides contributed to the outward enlargeme nt of metropoliss. Brooklyn Bridge. completed in 1883 and the longest suspension span in the universe at the clip. linked the so metropolis of Brooklyn with Manhattan. Urban political relations and reform. In the late 19th century. municipal authorities frequently failed to run into the demands of its components — citizen and immigrant alike. In many metropoliss across the state. power rested non in the custodies of elective functionaries but with the foreman who handpicked the campaigners for office and controlled the ballot through the political machine. or organisation. that he ran. Some of the foremans were New York’s William Marcy Tweed and George Washington Plunkitt. Kansas City’s â€Å"Big Jim† Pendergast. and Cincinnati’s George Cox. Although reformists bitterly attacked the corruptness and inefficiency that went along with foreman political relations. the system did supply valuable services. In return for immigrants’ ballots and assist forming runs. foremans could set up occupations on the turning metropolis paysheets for them or their kids. Foremans besides provided the hapless with money and nutrient and helped them work out jobs with the constabulary or other metropolis bureaus. In amount. political machines ran a large-scale public assistance system at a clip when even the c onstruct of a societal safety cyberspace was unheard of. The strong late-nineteenth-century urge to assist the hapless and recent immigrant reachings frequently had a clearly Christian overtone. Groups like the Young Men’s Christian Association. whose North American subdivision was founded in 1851. grew quickly after the Civil War. and an American subdivision of the Salvation Army was established in 1880. Charitable aid was encouraged by the Social Gospel. a doctrine embraced by a figure of Protestant curates. which noted that personal redemption came through the improvement of society and that churches could assist convey this about by contending poorness. slum conditions. and inebriation. Churches built secondary schools. opened libraries. put up talks. and took on societal plans in the hope of pulling the working hapless. The colony house motion was a unsectarian attack to the same jobs addressed by the churches. Established in the poorest vicinities. colony houses served as community centres whose primary map was to assist immigrant households adjust to life in the United States. They offered a assortment of services. including babys rooms and kindergartens. categories on run uping. cookery. and English. and a scope of athleticss and diversion plans. The first colony house was the Neighborhood Guild in New York ( 1886 ) . but the most celebrated were the Hull House in Chicago. founded by Jane Addams in 1889. and the Henry Street Settlement on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. founded by Lillian Wald in 1893. College-educated middle-class adult females. who in consequence created the field of societal work. by and large ran the colony houses. As professionals. they were interested in garnering information on a broad scope of urban jobs. The information they collected helped convey about alterations in edifice codifications. improved wellness attention and mill safety. and highlighted the demand for new child labour Torahs.

Free Essays on To Spank Or Not To Spank

To Spank or Not to Spank â€Å"No, Valerie! You can’t play with me!† a bratty six-year-old screamed at his helpless three-year-old sister. â€Å"Give me the controller now,† he demanded as he ripped it from his sister’s tender hands and pushed her to the floor. Then the toddler started to cry in pain and called for her father. Today’s parents deal with the form of discipline in a much more liberal sense. Many parents nowadays would sit down and talk with their young child explaining to them that what they did was wrong, but not to worry because it’s not really their fault because they didn’t know any better. Then they send their child off on a 15-minute â€Å"timeout.† However, I feel that modern means of child discipline are far too liberal and ineffective and that sometimes children need to be disciplined. Cornell West and Sylvia Ann Hewlett’s A World Upside Down takes us deep inside the world of teen violence, murder, crime, and suicide. Mind boggling facts such as â€Å"Children are now responsible for a staggering 20 million crimes a year† fill the article. West and Hewlett also write, â€Å"The enormous surge in youth violence is perhaps the most crueland most costlymanifestation of our inability to nurture our young† (West 103). Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines â€Å"nurture† as: training, upbringing; to educate; to further the development of. In that sense of the word, â€Å"nurture† it is parents’ responsibility to â€Å"educate† their children. Educate them how? Educate your children not only in school aspects, but also in morality. To nurture is also to train. Parents must also train their children to act in appropriate ways. I support Barbara Lerner and her thinking when she says, â€Å"Consider spanking. Effective moral education teaches children to make critical moral distinctions† (Lerner 138). In my opinion the liberal approach to discipline that many of today’s pa... Free Essays on To Spank Or Not To Spank Free Essays on To Spank Or Not To Spank To Spank or Not to Spank â€Å"No, Valerie! You can’t play with me!† a bratty six-year-old screamed at his helpless three-year-old sister. â€Å"Give me the controller now,† he demanded as he ripped it from his sister’s tender hands and pushed her to the floor. Then the toddler started to cry in pain and called for her father. Today’s parents deal with the form of discipline in a much more liberal sense. Many parents nowadays would sit down and talk with their young child explaining to them that what they did was wrong, but not to worry because it’s not really their fault because they didn’t know any better. Then they send their child off on a 15-minute â€Å"timeout.† However, I feel that modern means of child discipline are far too liberal and ineffective and that sometimes children need to be disciplined. Cornell West and Sylvia Ann Hewlett’s A World Upside Down takes us deep inside the world of teen violence, murder, crime, and suicide. Mind boggling facts such as â€Å"Children are now responsible for a staggering 20 million crimes a year† fill the article. West and Hewlett also write, â€Å"The enormous surge in youth violence is perhaps the most crueland most costlymanifestation of our inability to nurture our young† (West 103). Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary defines â€Å"nurture† as: training, upbringing; to educate; to further the development of. In that sense of the word, â€Å"nurture† it is parents’ responsibility to â€Å"educate† their children. Educate them how? Educate your children not only in school aspects, but also in morality. To nurture is also to train. Parents must also train their children to act in appropriate ways. I support Barbara Lerner and her thinking when she says, â€Å"Consider spanking. Effective moral education teaches children to make critical moral distinctions† (Lerner 138). In my opinion the liberal approach to discipline that many of today’s pa...

Written assignment 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Written assignment 3 - Essay Example b. Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park, is 14,259 feet in elevation. Can you see Cheyenne, Wyoming (about 74 miles away at an elevation of 6,062 feet, so youll have to subtract to get the height to use in the equation) from its summit? Use part a! Explain your answer. (I—your facilitator—used to live pretty close to Longs Peak; I could see it out my office window, and my brother lives in Wyoming. Ive been able to test this by looking for Longs Peak from Cheyenne since being able to see Longs Peak from Cheyenne is equivalent to being able to see Cheyenne from Longs Peak. Ive also climbed Longs Peak, but I didnt look for Cheyenne when I was there. If you do the algebra correctly, you do in fact get the same answer that Ive observed. So, D = 1.32 * = 119.51 miles ïÆ'   this is the distance from the summit that an observer can view to the horizon and 74 miles is within this range, therefore, I would be able to see Cheyenne, Wyoming from the top of Longs

Memo regarding gun violence and illegal use of narcotics Assignment

Memo regarding gun violence and illegal use of narcotics - Assignment Example However, their use should be solely after a doctor’s or professional pharmacist’s prescription. Nevertheless, many people tend to ignore this fact and go ahead to abuse these substances. The most common manner through which the abuse takes place is by taking these drugs in high dosages and, thus, altering their reception by the human body system. By modifying the reception, the brain fails to co-ordinate and function normally, and this leads to the users engaging in acts of violence. As in this case, the acts of violence often involve the purchase of firearms in an effort to settle old scores. In the normal and sober condition of these people, they may have had a misunderstanding with someone. The misunderstanding might have been negligible, but after the intoxication of the brain, all these emotions get heightened, thus resulting in the purchase of these weapons to commit acts of revenge or associated self-gratification tactics (Decker and Alarid 37). The other relation between gun violence and the illegal use of narcotics is concerning the economic environment. Over the last couple of years, the economy has been unstable with inflation hitting the market often. This has made it difficult for people that live under the poverty line and at times, even middle-income earners to survive these conditions. This leads to the indulgence in additional activities such as the sale of firearms in an effort to obtain additional money for the fulfillment of personal needs. For the addicts, these personal needs may even involve the purchase of more drugs. Another connection found between the illegal use of narcotics and gun violence is the systematic link (Decker and Alarid 47). Common to all countries in the world, the use of narcotics is a crime. This, therefore, makes it rather impossible for any peaceful drug business to take part legally. As widely perceived, any illegal activity is usually associated with violence. The narcotics environment is rather concealed

The Threat Of Natural Disasters To Cambodia Environmental Sciences Essay

The Threat Of Natural Disasters To Cambodia Environmental Sciences Essay A Discussion on Building Resilient Communities, A Case Study of Cambodia. All through the 20th century, cities of the world have grown in size and importance, with an estimate of about half of all people living in urban areas and their numbers are expected to rise to at least 60 per cent by 2030 (UNHSP, 2002). Ironically, while cities are of vital importance as economic engines, hubs for transportation and communications, cultural centers and homes to the majority of the earths people, they are particularly vulnerable to natural and environmental hazard impacts. During the 1990s, losses from natural disasters were more than four times greater than during the 1950s, with more than 500,000 fatalities and over $1 trillion in damages (Walter, 2003). The existence of multifaceted and cascading hazards in Cambodia has occurred in time past causing large destructions. These hazards that occur are most times unavoidable but their impact could be reduced if the necessary circumstances are put in place. Managing natural and environmental hazards is essential because they pose significant threat to the human populace, carrying the potential to disrupt economic and social activities, cause substantial damage to property and even kill people. The best form of addressing such situations is to make the necessary investigations and preparations for emergency response when (before and after) these hazards occur. Basically, building resilient cities are an act of preparation for the inevitable natural hazards. Cambodia is located in the tropical zone, Southeast Asia, about 10-13 degrees north of the equator. Its climate is dominated by the annual monsoon cycle with its alternating wet and dry seasons, making it warm to hot throughout the year. It covers an area of about 181,035 square kilometres and is divided into 24 provinces as seen in figure 1. It is bordered to the North by Thailand and Laos, to the East and South by Vietnam, and to the South and Southwest by the Gulf of Thailand. Most of Cambodias land is relatively flat with vast tracts of land given over to rice production. Annual rainy season commences in July, with flooding occurring between September and December. During the monsoon season, Cambodia experiences flash floods usually after heavy rainfall. The provinces of Battambang, Kampong Chnang, Kampong Speu, Kampong Thom, Kampot, Kandal, Pursat and Rattanakiri are regularly hit by flash flooding. The second type of flood, the much slower but prolonged flooding, is caused by the overflow of Tonle Sap River and Mekong tributaries, inundating the provinces of Kampong Cham, Kratie, Kandal, Prey Veng, Stung Treng, Svay Rieng and Takeo. In 2000, Cambodia saw the worst flooding in recent history, with a total estimated damage of USD150 million. It affected more than three million people in 22 of the 24 provinces of the country, displacing 85,000 families and killing 182 (ECHO, 2008). Drought in Cambodia is characterized by loss of water sources caused by the early end or delays in expected seasonal rainfall. The traditional drought/lean season is between the months of August and November. Although not as severe as floods in terms of impact, it severely affects farming productivity especially among rice growing communities who rely solely on rain or river-fed irrigation. Low agricultural yield due to extended drought has increased indebtedness of families and contributed to widespread food shortages. The worst drought incident in 2002 had affected two million people and incurred a total damage of USD 38 million, (ECHO, 2008). No one can stop natural disasters. However, we can reduce the impact of natural disasters on the physical and the socio-economic losses in society. It is notable that victims of disasters mainly come from the least wealthy and influential; those in unsafe houses and engaged in more dangerous activities, who have limited options and entitlements. In any case, university students killed in school annual graduation or new born babies in health care facilities are especially disturbing aspects of the aftermath of disasters. Surely, these places should put safety issues first. Due to environmental degradation and human activities, natural hazards have been persistent. The Mekong flood in 2000 gave Cambodia the most terrible incident in the last 70 years, causing both socio-economic and physical damages. According to the official report of the National Committee for Disaster Management (NCDM) (2006), the floods affected about 3.4 million people with 347 fatalities, 80 percent of which were children. Moreover, schools and other infrastructures such as hospitals, houses, and pagodas were seriously damaged, with a total estimated loss of US$161 million. Again, floods hit Cambodia in 2001 and 2002, damaging approximately US$36 million and US$12 million respectively. In 2001, the floods killed 62 people while in 2002 the floods killed 26 (40 percent of whom were children), and many schools were destroyed. Figure 1.Map of Cambodia with Provinces cambodia-map-provinces.jpg Because many Cambodians depend upon subsistence agriculture for their source of revenue, they are particularly vulnerable to suffering hunger, poverty, or even the loss of life, when such disasters hit. This vulnerability has increased in recent years because of a series of almost consecutive annual disasters that have not allowed people the opportunity to recover from previous floods or droughts. The Royal Government of Cambodia and other stakeholders, including NGOs and the donor communities, have been increasing cooperation to allow for joint responses to the needs of the affected population when disasters strike. The overall goal is to ascertain and address the root causes of vulnerability to disasters. There is thus a need to identify and prioritize areas that are prone to natural disasters, and areas in which the population suffers most when disasters strike. Flood affected areas, rice dependency, and food security are considered when determining areas that should be prioritised for flood related interventions. The extent to which each an area is affected by flood waters, depends on rice production, and incapability to manufacture enough food to feed itself during flood years are taken together to classify areas into different levels of precedence. Two major types of flood were identified in Cambodia: Flash floods which result from heavy downpours upstream on the Mekong River which affect the provinces along the Mekong River and in the southern areas of the country. Central area floods are large floods that result from a combination of runoff from the Mekong and heavy rains around the Tonle Sap Lake. The waters affect the areas around the lake, but also flow heavily down the Tonle Sap River and the lower portion of the Mekong to flood the southern provinces. The first priority area is rigorously affected by any type of flood, the second a rea is only affected by the big central area floods, and the third area is only affected by flash flooding of the Mekong. These three priority areas are shown in figure 2. Figure 2: Flood Prone Communes image7_02.png The method applied to define areas vulnerable to drought is similar to that discussed ealier. The concern evaluate include: drought affected areas, rice dependency, and food security. Areas were defined as highly rice dependent if more than 80 percent of households are fully engaged in rice production. Food insecurity was measured as above for the drought year of 1998. Definitions for three levels of priority were again developed. First priority areas are defined as those with low precipitation and NDVI, high rice dependence, and food insecurity in 1998. These are areas where droughts are likely, and where they will have the most terrible consequences. Second priority areas have the same criteria as the first priority communes, but were not food insecure during the 1998 drought year. Third priority communes have low precipitation and NDVI, and are thus drought prone, but are neither highly rice dependent nor food insecure. The three levels of priority communes are presented in figure 3. Figure 3 Drought Prone Communes image7_03.png Vulnerability well-meant is the exposure and sensitivity to livelihood shocks and risks. Risks are the combination of the probability or frequency of occurrence of a defined hazard and the magnitude of the consequences. Natural hazards often cannot be prevented, and if they materialize, can generate a shock that affects households and communities in both predictable and unpredictable ways. Vulnerability is only to some extent determined by the type of hazard, while it is mainly determined by social systems and power (Wisner et al. 2006). The degree of vulnerability depends on the nature of the risk and a householdà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s resilience, or ability to recover after shocks. Vulnerability can be lessened by reducing exposure to risks of shocks that affect many people (e.g., frequent droughts) or shocks that affect individuals or households (e.g., the death of the household head) and increasing the householdà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s ability to manage sho cks. However, chronically food-insecure households often are not resilient to shocks and are continuously vulnerable. The government in Cambodia has initiated poverty reduction policies that attempts to reduce poverty, increase food security and thus reduce vulnerability of poor households. The concept of vulnerability links the relationship that people have with their environment to social forces and institutions and the cultural values that sustain or contest them. Vulnerability refers to the totality of relationships in a given social situation producing the formation of a condition that, in combination with environmental forces, produces a disaster. Disaster, risks and outcomes are socially produced at the intersection of a complex and dynamic range of hazard and vulnerability patterns, associated with underlying social, economic, territorial and political processes operating in specific locales. The concept of vulnerability links general political economic conditions to very particular environmental forces to understand how basic conditions such as poverty or racism produce susceptibilities to very specific environmental hazards. Vulnerability, thus, integrates not only political economic, but environmental forces, defined in terms of both biophysical and socially constructed risk. The working definition provided by Blaikie et al. is currently among the most utilized: By vulnerability we mean the characteristics of a person or group in terms of their capacity to anticipate, cope with, resist, and recover from the impact of a natural hazard. It involves a combination of factors that determine the degree to which someones life and livelihood is put at risk by a discrete and identifiable event in nature or in society(1994:9). The DIPECHO project was implemented in partnership with three local NGOs for the period of 15 months (from 15/02/2007 to 14/05/2008) in three operating provinces. The project activities centre of attention primarily is on the poorest and most excluded community members, identified as being particularly vulnerable to disaster, including women and children, poor farmers, fishery communities, landless people, ex-Khmer rouge soldiers, displaced people, wage labourers, people living with or at risk from HIV and AIDS, Vietnamese minority groups, and people with disability. The total number of direct beneficiaries identified through the project was recorded as 15153, (ActionAid International, 2006). The project aim is to build the capacity of community members and local authorities in 48 target villages in the project areas in the three provinces to better understand and prepare for recurring flood and drought by implementing the following strategies: Organise and build competence of the local community Create and strengthen institutional systems at the village and commune level Working in alliance with other actors and government on disaster risk reduction programmes Advocating on Disaster Risk Management (DRM) issues and influencing the concerned officials and institutions Capacity building of the existing institutions, communes and the various organs of the National committee on disaster management at commune, district, province level Conducting a detailed vulnerability analysis, developing village level disaster plans and formulating commune disaster risk management plans The following were the outcomes on the completion of the project: The capacity of Commune Committees for Disasters Management and Village Development Committees was enhanced to analyse their vulnerability and actively prepare their communities for the risks of flood and drought. Increased availability of Disaster Preparedness knowledge and skills across community members in target villages. Reduced vulnerability to disaster through small-scale disaster preparedness and mitigation initiatives carried out at the village community level. Formal structures and network of partnerships for community-based disaster risk management in Cambodia (CBDRM) comprise of an approach that builds upon existing capacities and coping systems of communities to jointly plan and apply appropriate and durable reduction and disaster preparedness plans. The strategy involves the participation of local actors, particularly vulnerable communities, who actively work to identify causes of vulnerability and actions to mitigate the impact of vulnerability from these natural disasters. Furthermore, the strategy aids communities towards long term capacity to adapt. With recurring drought and flooding and threats from other natural disasters in Cambodia, CBDRM is seen as a pacesetter in reducing massive loss of life, property and livelihood. The Cambodian government considers CBDRM as an essential part of its rural development program to alleviate poverty (ActionAid International, 2006). The major purpose of sustainable development is to generate and preserve flourishing ecological, social and economic systems. There exists an intimate link between these systems as humans can transform the ecological system and they also depend on it for food, wealth and security. Human actions can severely affect the ability of the ecosystem to perform its natural functions with adverse consequences for vulnerability, human life and security. Several case studies have helped shed more light on the connection between resilience, sustainability of social ecological systems and diversity (Berkes and Folke, 1998). Resilience basically refers to the degree of shock that concerned system can endure and stay within a given state. It can also be the degree to which the system concerned can organize itself or build capacity for learning and adaptation. It has been argued that two components of any given system affect its resilience, one being its adaptive capacity which is directly related to its heterogeneity and broadly equivalent t the diversity of its institutions and assets available in social systems. The second is its robustness and this refers to the properties of a given system that allow it accommodate disturbance without additional adaptation. Resilience and robustness refer to the capacity of the system to accommodate disturbance without losing functionality. Disaster management style or procedure can destroy or build resilience depending on how the community concerned organises itself in response to management actions. Building societal resilience requires understanding of ecosystems that incorporates knowledge of local users (Olsson and Folke, 2001). Structured Scenarios and active adaptive management have been recognized as fundamental to building resilience. Circumstances are used to envisage option future scenarios. Applying this action, resilience building strategies can be acknowledged and applied within the framework of sustainable development. The probability of sustainable development is improved by management for resilience in a dynamic world full of astonishments. Sustainable development is a pattern of resource use aimed at meeting human needs while preserving the environment so that these needs can be met not only in the present but also for future generations. It brings together the concern for carrying capacity of natural systems and social challenges faced by humanity. It is now clear that sustainable development that regard the impact of manà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢s activities on the natural environment and attempts to reduce damage to the natural environment is the key to poverty reduction, environmental security and management and mitigation of weather and water related hazards. It basically targets resource poor and landless communities especially in the coastal regions because of population density, rapidly declining natural resources, work and income security and a high level of vulnerability to these hazards. With the understanding that environmental degradation can be tackled by knowledge and technological empowerment of the resource poor, illiterate rural man and women, the major aim of these programmes is to blend technological frontier with local knowledge in order to provide an integrated orientation to technological development and dissemination. As local communities confront the impacts of glacial melting, rainfall fluctuation, flooding and drought, they will need support to strengthen their capacity to withstand these changes and increase their resilience to the effects of a changing climate on international waters. Rivers, lakes and coastal ecosystems are increasingly being impacted by deforestation, land degradation, poor water management, and aquatic species loss as well as changes in fisheries habitats, water scarcity and floods or droughts precipitated or exacerbated by climate change, making communities more socially, economically and physically vulnerable. Local communities have shown, through ecosystem restoration, integrated water resources and coastal management and development that these activities can help communities associated with international waters increase their resilience to climatic variability and future effects of climate change. While in some cases it may be too early to gauge the adaptation success of local projects since it may entail preparing for future climate events and impacts, this publication provides some examples of how communities have successfully conserved their resources, restored their ecosystems, reduced their vulnerability and improved their livelihoods and increased their resilience to environmental threats and climate change in international waters. Resilient communities are far less vulnerable to hazards and disasters than less resilient places. For this assumption to be validated and useful, knowledge of how resilience is determined, measured, enhanced, maintained, and reduced is vital (Klein et al., 2003). It is not obvious what leads to resilience within coupled humanà ¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ¬environment systems or what variables should be utilized to measure it. Because of the multidimensional nature of resilience and its different component parts, a broad model of resilience has yet to be empirically tested at the community level (Cumming et al., 2005). CONCLUSION The existence of a growing incidence in the occurrence of natural hazards can be accredited to a multifaceted world where increase in population is present. Vulnerability are ever-increasing in communities due to human activities. However, climate change and sea level rise may be accountable for augmented occurrence of some of these hazards. Globalization also spreads the cost of natural hazards going beyond the borders of the country directly affected. Technological and science based progress in our pursuit to understand natural hazards, applications and technological responses have clearly been insufficient. Response to disaster happen mostly after the event and so much is required to be put in place to sustain research and draw up programmes for risk assessment, recommend countermeasures, build and strengthen resilience in communities at risk. Researchers and disaster managers need to work hard to ensure vigorous knowledge takes a essential role in policy development. In this, loc al communities will be more resilient to natural and environmental hazards

Government Gave Too Much Power

The issues involving the Virginia plan gave too much power to the national government have been a popular topic amongst scholars for many years. The Virginia plan was a proposal by Virginia delegates for a bicameral legislative branch. The plan was drafted by James Madison while he waited for a quorum to assemble at the Constitutional Convention of 1787. There are many factors which influenced the development of the Virginia plan that gave too much power to the national government.The Virginia plan gave too much power to the national government by all the plans James Madison formed to create a new form of government plan which are the Executive Branch, Judicial Branch, and Legislative Branch. I plan to examine each of these factors in detail and asses their importance. One major factor that influenced the development plan to give too much power to the national government is the Executive Branch that James Madison formed. The executive Branch would include the president and his cabine t.A quote that proves the Executive Branch that James Madison formed gave too much power to the national government is in the â€Å"A more perfect union† reading is â€Å"he studied different types of government to create a plan for a new form of federal government†¦ According to Madison’s plan, the Executive Branch would include the president and his cabinet. † This quote shows me that the branches James Madison formed were very powerful since it would include the present. Since including the present in the branch of course the Virginia plan gave too much power to the national government with the president involved.Another factor that influenced the development plan to give a lot of power to the national government is the Judicial Branch that James Madison created. The Judicial Branch was a branch that included the federal court systems. A quote that convinces me that the Judicial Branch created by James Madison was another factor that gave national govern ment a lot of power is in the reading â€Å"A more perfect union† when written â€Å"the judicial branch would include the federal court systems. This quote convinces me that the Judicial Branch created by James Madison was compelling because the branch included the federal court systems.With the Judicial Branch the Virginia plan gave a lot of power to the national government because the federal court systems have power when it is the system of adjudication authorized by the US Constitution and established by Congress. The last factor that influenced the development plan to give a majority of power to the national government is the Legislative Branch that James Madison established. The Legislative Branch would be made up of two congressional houses and representations would be raised on each state population.A quote that declares that the Legislative Branch established by James Madison gave too much power to national governments is in the reading â€Å"A more perfect unionà ¢â‚¬  when said â€Å"The Legislative Branch would be made up of two congressional houses and representation would be based on each state’s population. This quote shows evidence that the Legislative Branch established by James Madison was very supreme. Since they had people from the congressional houses on there side obviously the Virginia plan gave a majority of there power to the national government because of the Legislative Branch established by James Madison.You can conclude that the Virginia plan gave to much power to the national governments. The Virginia Plan that was drafted by James Madison at the Constitutional Convention in 1787 gave power to the national government by three branches of government established by James Madison. The Executive Branch, Judicial Branch, and Legislative Branch are the three branches created by James Madison that I believe gave too much power to the national government.

Dominant Position of a Company

According to the European competition case law, a dominant position is defined as â€Å"the power of a firm to behave to an appreciable extent independently of its competitors, customers and consumers†. It is obvious that a firm or several firms which hold a dominant position can determine price, the amount of production, supply and this is because these firms can act independently of their competitors and customers.As a result, dominant position can lead to the market power and in this situation a firm or several firms have an ability to individually make a big influence on the price and total quantity produced which could result to the market failure. But does this definition make an economic sense and how it should be interpreted in monopoly and oligopoly? Firstly, we need to understand exactly the actual meaning of a dominant position.It is a situation when a firm has an ability to behave independently of its competitors, customers and ultimately the final consumer. A well known example of monopolistic dominance is Microsoft’s market in PC operating systems. In monopoly some members in a market can gain market power allowing them to stop other important gains from trades and this can make the allocation of recourses inefficient due to imperfect competition. As going back to my example, Microsoft illegally used its market power by bundling its web browser with its operating system.In economics, market power is the ability of a firm to independently determine the market price and the production of a good or a service, of course, in perfectly competitive markets – market power vanishes. From this example we actually see that Microsoft has an ability to make a big influence on the price or other outcomes in the market by using its dominant position because that kind of a firm can raise price, outcomes without worrying of losing its customers.On the other hand, not only one firm can hold a dominant position, but also a dominant position can be held among several firms and this is called oligopolistic dominance. For example: in 2008 Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, Nextel and T-Mobile together controlled approximately 89 % of the United States cellular phone market. In this situation sometimes firms can decide to make some secret agreements in order, for example, to raise prices of cellular phones leading to the profit maximization, knowing that they still are not going to lose their costumers.Of course, there is opinion that oligopoly is better than monopoly, because oligopolistic dominance (several firms who have a dominant position) could help to stabilize unstable markets, for example dominant firms could set some kind of prices which could help other producers to survive in the certain market and this is called a price leadership, however the welfare of economics in oligopoly is not easy to analyze and to determine if it is going to have a positive reaction.Furthermore, now we know that the definition of dominant position ma kes an economic sense, because when a firm has a power to behave independently and can make a big influence on the welfare of the economics (prices, total quantity produced, efficiency in allocating the resources), market power and later market failure could occur. We also know that a market failure is a situation when the allocation of recourses is inefficient due to imperfect competition when not all sellers and buyers can be satisfied.In order to prevent market failure, each government imposes some policies such as subsidies, taxes, minimum wage, some price controls, however sometimes happens that these policies also create inefficiency in allocating the recourses and it is called government failure. Going back to the original topic, dominant position is not an exception.According to the European competition case law, dominant positions are not forbidden but in order for firms not to abuse that position they have a special responsibility: dominant firms must not allow their strat egic decisions to make a negative influence on competition in the market, in other words, dominant firms cannot intentionally prevent or eliminate competition. Moreover, in order to determine the definition of dominant position in monopoly, at first we need to understand the basic aspects of it.Monopoly is a situation when a certain agent is the only one who supplies a particular good, of course, it is obvious that this market has a lack of economic competition. In monopoly a company has a much bigger profit than it could expect in competitive market, because that only firm regulates all the prices and services for that certain good. As a result, it can raise the price and maximize its profit without worrying of losing its customers. So, the dominant position in monopoly is a market with a single agent which has a power to operate independently and has an ability to make a big influence on the prices and production.Finally, to do the same in oligopoly we also need to understand the basic aspects of it. Oligopoly is the market share of several firms which together make a big influence to the price or other outcomes of a certain market, however the difference between monopoly and oligopoly is that in oligopoly firms do not operate independently, because then they could lose some of their customers to their competitors. That is why several dominant firms always try to cooperate together and sometimes they even make some secret agreements in order to maximize their profits.So, the dominant position in oligopoly is the market share of several dominant firms who have an ability to make big influence on the prices and production. To sum up, we actually see that a dominant position can be defined variously in different areas but still all definitions will have the same meaning: a dominant position creates a market power which evidence to the inefficiency of allocating the resources in economic markets and sometimes leading to the market failure, but in some cases domi nant position is the key of stabilizing unstable markets.