How do the writers present sexuality and gender in Tales Of Ovid?

Gender roles have been continually redefined throughout literary history. The evolution of sexuality and gender is presented in Behind The Scenes At The Museum, A Streetcar Named Desire and Tales Of Ovid as driven by context and in particular patriarchal society. From Hughes’ classical presentation of a ‘human passion in extremis’[1], so strong that it ‘combusts, levitates, or mutates into an experience of the supernatural’[2] to Streetcar’s ‘succes de scandale’[3], dealing with sex to an extent, and in a manner not yet encountered on the stage and then Museum’s sterile and comical view of sex, the mutability of sexuality and gender has transcended generations but has been subject to contrasting literary perspectives. The degree of fluidity of gender can be clearly seen to mirror the context of societal and historical change within which the three works were created. In the introduction of Ovid, Hughes describes the significance of the tales being written at ‘the moment of the birth of Christ within the Roman Empire. The Greek/ Roman pantheon had fallen in on men’s heads’[4] and Hughes makes a clear attempt to equate Adonis with Jesus Christ, describing him as ‘the miraculous baby’[5] and ‘perfection’[6]. For all its Augustean stability, Rome was at sea in hysteria and despair, caught in a tension between the sufferings of the gladiatorial arena and ‘a searching for spiritual transcendence’. This era of volatility is reflected in the marked fluidity of sexuality in Hughes’ Ovidian world, where men and women becomes birds and trees. As such, identity itself is problematic; gender can no longer be exclusively prescriptive. According to Leo Curran, Ovid recognised the ‘fluidity, the breaking down of boundaries, due to the uncontrollable variety of nature and the unruliness of human passion. ’[7] Hughes unsettlingly explores this in the story of Salmacis and Hermaphroditus, where the carnal nymph Salmacis rapes the bashful boy Hermaphroditus. You can read also  Similarities and Conflicts in † a Streetcar Named Desire† As he continues to struggle, she prays that ‘we never, never/ shall be separated, you and me’[8]. Her plea is hubristically answered and, ‘with a smile’, the gods look on as ‘the two bodies/ melted into a single body/ seamless as the water. ’[9] The conjunction of the two sexes seems incompatible as observed in the drowning of what a modern audience would recognise as a hermaphrodite. Hughes’ selection of this myth, with the same destructive conclusion as Ovid’s original, conveys the commingling of the two sexes as resulting in the debilitation of the male qualities, rather than their strengthening, thus presenting effeminacy pejoratively. The dissolution of gender boundaries is reiterated by Hughes in his story of Tiresias. Tiresias’ passage through femininity, ‘having lived and love in a woman’s body†¦and also in the body of a man’[10] leaves him with the unique experiences of both sexes. His knowledge about feminine pleasure, that women do, as Jupiter contends ‘end up with nine-tenths of the pleasure’, angers Jupiter and his revelation proves damaging as she blinds him. It takes only one man, formerly a woman, to destroy the reassuring view that placed wives beyond the influence of pleasure. Social upheaval was also explicit at the beginning of the 20th century. Two World Wars had, temporarily, shifted the gender power balance with women filling vacant male roles only for these to be reassumed in the 50’s. William’ Streetcar is an astute depiction of the continual metamorphosis gender roles were encountering in the struggle for supremacy, both at home and nationally between the Old South and the New America. In Streetcar, Blanche, as a manifestation of the antebellum, is taken away, leaving Stanley holding his new son. The new decedent acts as a symbol of the end of the decaying Du Bois line and a sort of victory for the new Kowalski family. As the Cambridge Companion To Tennessee Williams states ‘Theatregoers†¦ did not easily shake off lingering apprehensions that were born of the 1930’s depression and nurtured by the 1945 unleashing of nuclear weapons†¦ in this climate, the loose structure and morale ambiguities of Streetcar struck a chord of truth. ’[11] Furthermore, when Williams describes Stanley shouting ‘Sttellah! [12] in a ‘heaven splitting voice’, we see the further power of the Kowalskis, who have rocked the status quo to the same extent as Venus’ ‘doomed love’[13] in Ovid, that means she has ‘neglected even Olympus’[14]. Ted Hughes’ exploration of gender fluidity is a more progressive one, in that a 21st century audience is much more open to transgender and sexual deviance than Tennessee Williamsâ₠¬â„¢ contemporaries. Williams’ homosexuality was illegal for the greater part of his life, but he found ways, open or oblique, of speaking of them in his plays. There is, indeed, a real sense in which Williams is a product of his work. When he began to write he was plain Tom. The invention of ‘Tennessee' was not merely coterminous with the elaboration of theatrical fictions; it was of a piece with it. In that sense it is not entirely fanciful to suggest that he was the product of the discourse of his plays. Indeed he created female alter egos, such as Blanche in Streetcar, before he began, as he did in later life, to dress up as a woman[15]. Where did his work end and his life begin? The man who consigns Blanche to insanity later found himself in a straitjacket. As critic Hana Sambrook more explicitly notes ‘there are those who believe that the tragic figure of Blanche Dubois is a transsexual presentation of the promiscuity of Williams’ himself’[16]. Certainly, Blanche’s many ‘intimacies with strangers’[17], her unfeminine like licentiousness and charade of hypocrisy aligns Williams with his protagonist. For a man for whom the concealment of his true sexual identity was for long a necessity, the fragmentation of the self into multiple roles offered a possible refuge. Blanche enters the play an actress and Williams creates her character as a series of roles, by using structural techniques to focus the audience upon her even when off stage; heard bathing ‘serenely as a bell’[18] whilst singing obliviously in ‘contrapuntal’[19] contrast to the lurid revelations of her past being detailed by Stanley in the adjoining room. Blanche’s desire for disguise is a phony pretension, using the smoke and mirrors of her alcoholicism and fine clothing, to concoct an elaborate alternative reality she can abscond to, enabling her to ‘put on soft colours, the colours of butterfly wings, and glow’[20]. This indirect, dramatic language and vivid imagery is typical of her escapism and her view of herself as ‘delicate’[21] reinforces the image of Blanche as a fragile moth that pervades Williams’ stage directions. Despite this, Williams does not wholly present Blanche as a ‘faded Southern belle’[22] as some critics claim, but rather sheds a favourable light on Blanche’s attempts to protect and preserve the genteel values of the old Southern civilisation. Williams’ states that â€Å"Blanche was the most rational of all the characters [he’d] created†, evident in her contradictory wilful ignorance of the causes of the loss of Belle Reve, yet her understanding that the root cause was her family’s ‘epic fornications’. Williams also reveres Blanche as his ‘strongest character in many ways’[23] and her unique internal integrity of ‘Never inside, I didn’t lie in my heart’[24] has seen her resist the brutality and savagery of a relentless modern society. Thus, even to the very end of the play, Blanche has never yielded to any coarse violent actions and rude behaviour, crying â€Å"Fire! Fire! † during Mitch’s attempted rape and fighting Stanley to her physical limit with a broken bottle when eventually violated. When the big Matron tries to subdue her physically on the floor, she never stops resisting until the Doctor gently offers her his arm like a real gentleman. Blanche’s dignified leaving further indicates her spiritual integrity, as critic Robert James Cardullo[25] claims ‘Blanche’s ascension from crucifix pinioning on the floor and her spirited leading the way out of the hell of her sister’s home creates a moving tragic catharsis for the audience†¦ Blanche’s defeat has considerable aesthetic dignity’. Williams’ literature was strangely unmoved by the issue of gay rights and the issue of homosexuality that was so prominent in his private life, while clearly a strand in his work, was never a central theme and certainly never defended or promoted, neither publically nor politically. He seems to use Blanche as an expression of a conflict which clearly existed between his morality and sexuality, never to be resolved and never aired fully in his plays, despite its pertinence in the play’s political context. By contrast, in Behind The Scenes many aspects of life seem constant and the stability of gender roles seems to reflect this. In Museum, the past permeates the present and the present is doomed to replicate the past. The shop ghosts and objects such as the pink glass button that goes rolling down the years act as chronological touchstones and history repeats itself through the lives of successive women. Sophia, Alice, Nell and Bunty all lead lives marred by misery, disappointment and domestic drudgery. None of these women marry for love and all encounter marital strife. Alice, an impoverished widower marries Frederick in order to give up teaching, Nell marries Frank out of desperation, her two previous fiances having been killed in the war, and Bunty marries George when abandoned by her American fiance Bick. Thwarted in potential, trapped and unhappy, the women share a sense that they are ‘living the wrong life’[26]. Parallels between past and present create a sense of historical inevitability that is endorsed by a series of echoes between the lives of different women. Nell falls for Jack who has ‘high, sharp cheekbones†¦ like razor clam shells’[27] and by the end of the novel, Ruby has fallen for a strikingly similar Italian with cheeks ‘as sharp as knife blades’[28]. Bunty looks like Nell and Ruby looks like Alice. The latter pair both believe in ‘destiny’[29] and embrace it in the mistaken form of men. Alice, Bunty and Ruby have all ‘had enough’[30]. With typically perceptive narration for her tender age, Ruby accounts for this hereditarily as ‘one of those curious genetic whispers across time dictates that in moments of stress we will all (Nell, Bunty, my sisters, me) brush our hands across our foreheads in exactly the same way that Alice has just done’[31]. The reference to genes by Atkinson implies that behavioural patters are inherent and inescapable. Even Adrian, as the sole gay man in the novel, is presented in cliched terms as having an interest in hairdressing, his intimate conversation with a barman prompting a dramatically ironic exclamation of ‘that’s queer’[32] from the unwitting Uncle Clifford. Gender roles within all three texts are enforced through the sexual dominance of men over their female companions. Critic C. W. E Bigsby noted that ‘the shock of Streetcar†¦lay in the fact that this was the first American play in which sexuality was patently at the core of the lives of all its characters, a sexuality’[33]. Williams presents sex as having the power to redeem or destroy, to compound or negate the forces, which bore on those caught in a moment of great social change. The ‘gaudy seed bearer’[34] Stanley is a bestial representation of the new South and he uses his intense virility and sexual power to great effect. His sexual magnetism is exemplified by the symbolic package of meat thrown to a visibly delighted Stella in the opening scene. The connotations of his sexual proprietorship over Stella and her sexual infatuation with him are not lost on the watching Negro woman. In stark contrast, Bunty feigns deafness at the butcher’s ‘innuendo laced conversations’[35], exposing him as a ‘bluff parody of himself’[36]. Her caustic description of him as ‘a pig†¦smooth shiny skin stretched tightly over his buttery flesh’[37] is both comical and telling in her uptight rejection of his smutty behaviour. This mordant tone continues into the awkwardly comical depictions of male sexual supremacy in Behind The Scenes’ fornications. Ruby’s conception by a typically tipsy George and equally typically stoic Bunty who is ‘pretending to be asleep’[38], summarises well Atkinson’s presentation of a tired female submission to male virility in the repressed society of 40’s England. George’s demise is with his trouser round his ankles, a less than dignified ‘epileptic penguin[39]’, as the World Cup final ‘carries on regardless’[40] in another typically callous death of Behind The Scenes. This dominance leads to a trapping sexual dependence of women upon men, symbolically reflected by Williams in the eponymous streetcar, ‘bound for Desire, and then for the Cemeteries’[41]. The streetcar stands for Blanche’s headlong descent into disaster at the hands of her lust. Like the streetcar’s destination, Desire, the stop called Elysian Fields is an obvious symbol; an ironic fantasy however, as the Elysian Fields – the abode of the blessed dead in Greek mythology – turns out to be a rundown street in New Orleans. The very same symbol of the ‘rattle trap streetcar’[42] is used by both sisters in scene 4, as a euphemism for sexual experience. They speak explicitly of the ‘blunt desire’[43] that decides their choice. In answer to Stella’s question ‘haven’t you ever ridden on that street-car? [44] Blanche’s bitter riposte of ‘it brought me here’[45] displays both self-knowledge and self-condemnation of her current destitution. Ominously the matter-of-fact Stella offers no words of self-criticism prior to the only fleeting moment that she confronts her guilt; ‘oh god, what have I done to my sister? ’[46]. Moments later, in the middle of her ‘luxurious’[47] sobbing, she yields to Stanley’s lovemaking, compounding her guilt. This dependence is echoed in ‘Tiresias’ from Ted Hughes’ Ovid where women are said to take â€Å"nine tenths of the pleasure†[48] during sex. Men are vital for women to experience any sexual satisfaction and female desire ultimately renders them reliant and weakened. Their dependence is compounded by a financial reliance. Marxist feminist theory argues an economic dependence on men deprives women of the right to dominate their own fate, reducing them to existence by male affiliation. On â€Å"a teacher’s salary†¦barely sufficient for her living expenses†[49], Blanche ‘had to come [to New Orleans] for the summer’ as ‘[she] didn’t save a penny last year’[50]. In the wake of her husband’s suicide and the ‘epic fornications’[51] of her ‘grandfathers and father and uncles and brothers’[52], she is forced again to turn to men for financial support, depending, as is her mantra ‘on the kindness of strangers’[53]. Her attempted allurement of Stanley is based on the recognition that ‘maybe he is what we need to mix with our blood now that we’ve lost Belle Reve’[54]. Her spiral of desperation turns to Mitch and finally the nebulous millionaire Shep Huntleigh who comes to stand as a symbol of material strength of dependence and guarantee for women, more exactly for Blanche. Blanche recognises that Stella could be happier without her physically abusive husband, Stanley, yet her alternative of Shep still involves complete dependence on men. When Stella chooses to remain with Stanley, she chooses to rely on, love, and believe in a man instead of her sister. Williams does not necessarily criticise Stella—he makes it quite clear that Stanley represents a much more secure future than Blanche does. That Shep never materialises strongly suggests that if women place their hope and fortune on men, their oppressed and subordinate status can never be changed. Bunty, like Stella, who has to request that her husband â€Å"better give [her] some money†[55], confirms her reliance on George in having â€Å"no intention of working after her marriage†[56]. Bunty’s quest for stardom and self-discovery conflicts with a mode of motherhood that requires service, sacrifice, and selflessness. As she moves into adulthood during World War II, Bunty tries out a series of different quixotic identities in the search for selfhood; Deanna Durbin[57], Scarlett O’Hara[58] and Greer Garson[59]. However, as her family grows, her dreams diminish, and Bunty is forced to forgo a self she has not yet fully realised. The erosion of self is symbolised by the abbreviation of her name for Bernice, to Bunty, which George truncates to ‘Bunt’[60]. Ironically, George marries Bunty only because ‘he thinks she will be a big help in the shop’[61] and thus Bunty is comically presented as trapped in the role of the ‘Martyred wife’[62] despite her belief that marriage to George would free her from the graft that she imagines herself to be ‘above’. Ruby’s mock expression of pity in her narrative gives an account of Bunty’s woes in a sardonic tone; her tranquilisers are ‘Bunty’s little helpers’[63] and Atkinson’s pathetic portrayal of Bunty as put out but ultimately accepting of her role as a married woman contrasts with Williams’ poignant subdual of Blanche and Stella. Sexual and financial dominance coalesces in another tool for the subjugation of women; rape. Hughes presents his women in terms of capital value; Philomena is a ‘priceless gift’, available to ‘cash in your whole kingdom for’[64]. As a result of rape in Streetcar and Ovid, the victimised females are presented as devalued and diminished in ‘worth’ in the views of patriarchal society. Myrrha, ‘utterly disgusted with her life’[65] is described as ‘polluted’[66] and ‘contaminated’[67] in the wake of her incestuous act, which ‘removes [her] from life and death†¦ in some nerveless limbo’[68]. Male exploitation of Blanche’s sexuality has left her with an equally poor reputation. This notoriety makes Blanche an unattractive marriage prospect, but, because she is destitute, Blanche sees marriage as her only possibility for survival, trapping her in the cycle of submission to men. It is telling that Blanche’s rape is not condemned, and it can be argued that Williams portrays her violation as inevitable in patriarchal culture and also self-inflicted by her provocative behaviour, a controversial thought for a modern audience. In her ingratiation of Mitch, she uses all kinds of strategies to â€Å"deceive him enough to make him-want†[69] and conceals her true age, because â€Å"Men don’t want anything they get too easy. But men lose interest quickly†¦ when the girl is over-thirty†[70]. This represents the internalisation of patriarchal society that her behaviour has precipitated. Her trunk, symbolic of her own displaced and materialistic identity, is full of the flashy pretension of fake finery that she perceives men to desire, and the Chinese lampshade softens the glare of the Mitch’s gaze on her fading beauty and adds to the ‘magic’ Blanche desires; the dressing up of ugly reality. However, both are ultimately violated with a strong sense of dramatic irony. When first Mitch and then Stanley tear off the paper lantern, she cries out as in pain. The opening of the trunk becomes a divesture of interiority – Stanley’s question ‘what is them underneath? ’[71] becomes a central one as the trunk functions as a metonymy for some unchartered territory about to be fundamentally disrupted, but to no condemnation from the playwright. Similarly, even when the male hunter Actaeon is punished upon inadvertently offending the nakedly bathing goddess Diana with his sight, Hughes suggests that Actaeon’s crime was one of fortune: ‘Destiny, not guilt, was enough/For Actaeon. It is no crime/To lose your way in a dark wood’[72]. Hughes suggests here that Actaeon’s death is the necessary ordeal to lead him through hell to paradise. When sexual aggression or rape is exhibited by females however, the result and portrayal are markedly different. Salmacis and Blanche are remarkably alike in this respect. Salmacis is a naiad (a nymph who presided over springs and brooks) and as such is described in typically natural imagery as ‘perfect / as among damselflies’[73], ‘gathering lilies for a garland’[74]. This peaceful language of the natural world is tinged however with a more foreboding aggression in the ‘viper’[75] like elegance of her ‘sinewy otter’[76] like body, which portends her sexual experience in contrast to the innocent young boy Hermaphroditus, who blushes at the naming of love. Hughes places the emphasis on the feminine snares of the lascivious water nymph, who is aggressively sexual in a very Blanche like manner. She knows ‘she had to have [Hermaphroditus]’[77] and proceeds to unashamedly flirt, ‘checking her girdle†¦ her cleavage’[78]. Her sensual language is heightened by its inference of a taboo love with the incestuous reference of ‘what a lucky sister! As for the mother/ Who held you, and pushed her nipple between your lips/ I am already sick with envy’[79], exemplifying her sexual command over the boy, who refuses her advances without really knowing what she wants. He desires only to bathe and his obliviousness to her advances are indicative of his youth and inexperience but also his male gender precluding him from the experience of passion, as echoed in the ‘nine tenths of the pleasure’[80] that the female takes in Tiresias. Thus he becomes an easy prey and ‘Like a snake’[81] she ‘flings and locks her coils/ around him’[82], a ‘tangle of constrictors, nippled with suckers’[83] – the disturbing organic metaphors further exemplifying her atypical literary position as the female aggressor of rape. Throughout this scene however, Salmacis is never rendered as in sexual control; Hermaphroditus ‘will not surrender/ or yield the least kindness/ of the pleasure she longs for/ and rages for, and pleads for’[84]. Hughes’ implication of their demise as a result of their unnatural union is clear – the only way in which a woman can rape a man is if he is not clearly male. To conclude, in the words of an anonymous critic ‘gender roles figure so prominently in literature that they begin to take on a life of their own, whereas to become fluid in the mind of the writer and reader alike†¦ it is evident that when working with ambiguity, man and woman, whose boundaries are few and far between, become locked in a dimension of transmutation’. These words said of Ovid, offer a concise summary of the three works, applicable mainly to Hughes’ characters such as Salmacis and Tiresias, and Williams’ Blanche. Ultimately however, despite the differing time periods in which they were written the role of gender is an inextricable fibre in ancient, southern and modern literature. The three writers posit sexuality and gender contrastingly; Williams’ uncompromising ‘personally and socially powerful’[85] play, Hughes’ matter-of-fact narration and Atkinson’s comically cliched bildungsroman. A prominent similarity in the treatment of gender by all three authors is the ability of each to manipulate and intertwine not only their ideas of the gender line but also those of their contextual popular culture in order to effectively and complexly examine its role.

Black Men and Public Spaces Essay

1. In â€Å"Black Men and Public Spaces,† Brent Staples the author, claims how he uncomfortable and bothered of how others view him, due to the fact he is African American. I believe the purpose of this essay is for the readers to realize that stereotypes don’t always have to be real. What I mean by this is that, if you are black you are not always going to be dangerous, wearing baggy clothes, and a gun inside your jacket. He is accused of many things that he doesn’t do just due to the fact he is a young black man, which white people are terrified off. He is an educated according to the reading and he doesn’t believe in violence. The purpose of this is to people to recognize that innocent lives are ending due to these stereotypes of discrimination and fake accusations. â€Å"Altering Public Space in Ugly Ways,† I believe that he uses his experiences and others that people are scared of people are assuming black men are potentially violent. An example in the book is with the young white lady, which he describes in the book as his first victim. This lady in front of Brent Staples was walking and he says she was not comfortable with the space he gave to her. She started walking faster and faster until, she eventually ran, and went away. She thought something bad was going to happen, but as Staples says he enjoys talking walks during the night due to his insomnia. He has never felt comfortable around people as they’re mind is basically survival of the fittest they will stay away to any possible harm, Brent Staples wants to avoid invading personal space. As he states, â€Å" I now take precautions to make myself less threating.† She is writing that during the nights of late evening he is walking with care around people. Questions on Writing Strategy: 1. The concept of Altering Public Space is abstract, but Brent Staples really convinces the reader that it occurs due to all this encounters he has in his essay. As it is formatted in 1st person, it grabs your attention that this all really occurred. He starts off with the woman at the beginning that ran from him, the one she describes as the first victim, then when he moved to New York he describes how people look at him in the subway after he changes from a suit to informal clothes, and how the women will hold their bags tightly as if he was there to rob them. This essay is sad, and he writes gloomy, the writer is expressing how it’s a shame that he is always viewed as a criminal. 2. In Staples essay he gives many examples, but in a great way, he avoided the piece sounding like a list of events. He talks in great detail about an event that occurred, than he changes his setting. For example when he used to live in Chicago then he uses transitions like â€Å" that was more than a decade ago.† And as well how changes the topic and explains his new role in that new city. He uses a lot of adjectives, and doesn’t write like a list.

Effect of Mandated Testing on Education Research Paper

Effect of Mandated Testing on Education - Research Paper Example The consequences or sanctions vary in level of severity, but the implication is clear. They send vivid indications that the method gives a crystal picture of the student’s performance. However, some of the implemented tests may not offer a fair platform to pass judgment on the teachers or students using their performance results. In that, the tests may not offer full and fair credibility on the performers or the tutors. The following paper will show an elaborate analysis of articles touching on mandated testing and its effect in schools. Susan Ohanian, in her article, â€Å"Constraining Elementary Teachers' Work: Dilemmas and Paradoxes Created by State Mandated Testing,† scrutinizes this mode of testing in an elaborate manner. In her work, Susan is keen to provide the resultant effects of mandate testing on the affected individuals, who are teachers and students. She argues that teachers are pressured to act in ways that seem unprofessional to them. In turn, this forms a leading disadvantage of the program in schools. Subsequently, the teachers believe that their behavior will not yield fruits of success in the affected students. Moreover, they feel that they are acting in unprofessional ways as mandated testing seem to focus on Mathematics and English language arts more than the science-related disciplines (Ohanian, web). In addition, according to Susan’s article, the teachers do feel that the test pressure them to work the things the tests demands of the students instead of improving the student’s general performance. In relation to this, when the mandated test turns to asking the student for something previously not familiarized to the student, need to refocus ruptures. There is a need to refocus on things to feed the students’ minds, as the mandated tests requires. However, the article claim a more pressing matter is forcing the teachers to lose their professionalism. The teachers find themselves between helping the studen ts in elementary school and being loyal to their professional field. They feel that their professional training does not concur with the requirements of the mandated test. In order for a student to succeed in the mandated tests the teachers, have to comply with the requirements, which they feel they are not in line with their professional understanding of the curriculum. In turn, they end up ignoring their professional feelings and instead assist the students conform to the requirements of the mandated tests. On the other hand, within the same article, Susan reports of teachers who embraced the ideology of mandated tests and their effects. The teachers believe that the tests offer a comprehensive way of developing the writing, listening and reading skills of students. Moreover, these tests enable students to develop their thinking from a lower level to higher one. Within yet another article, by GreatSchools’ Staff, they record of reasons behind the tests from federal and stat e governments. They believe that the government offers these tests as a way of ensuring all students meet the standard level of the expected grades. As a way of encouraging students to pass in their tests, the government introduced mandated tests. In addition, they publish the results of the mandated tests giving everyone, including teachers, parents and students, an opportunity to view them and contemplate on the way

Strategic decision making mechanisms available to deal with airport Essay

Strategic decision making mechanisms available to deal with airport development at the national and local levels - Essay Example It seems that in the area of strategic planning, the British airline industry needs several alterations and improvements in order to meet the challenges set within the global market. The delays in the application of the relevant projects as described above could affect the performance of the industry towards its competitors and for this reason appropriate plans of action should be designed in order to support the improvement of the particular industry in the long term. Current paper refers to the strategic decision making options/ methods that can be used in the airport development in Britain. Towards this direction, general principles and schemes of strategic decision making procedure will be presented while the current trends that characterize airport development in Britain are also going to be analyzed. On the other hand, a comparison with the conditions that apply in the relevant sector of Ireland has been considered to be necessary in order to understand the elements of airport development and their role within different markets. In this way, any possible differentiation among the British and the Irish market regarding the airport development will be revealed offering valuable information on the formulation and application of strategic decision making mechanisms in both the above countries. The main aspects of the airport development in Britain are presented in the White Paper â€Å"The Future of Air Transport† which published by the British government in December 2003. In accordance with this paper, current efforts in UK regarding the airport development in the various regions across the country focus on the following issues: ‘a) A new runway at Stansted, to be operational by 2011/12; b) A third runway at Heathrow, as long as legal air quality limits are not breached. If this is not possible, Gatwick will have the runway instead, to be operational by 2020; c) A new runway in Birmingham; d) Also, existing airports

Human Resource Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words - 2

Human Resource Management - Essay Example In a holistic picture, performance management strives to improve overall processes; achieve continually improving results; and continuously develop resources and effective leadership; it also aims at sustaining employee motivation and commitment. As Cooper (2004) explains, performance measurement can help organisations to demonstrate their value to many types of stakeholders, including the clients and customers, employees and shareholders. The results from performance measurement can help in improving performance further, thereby meeting and even exceeding customer expectations, generating more revenue and profit for the organisation, improving employee satisfaction and morale. However, Colbran Medical Institute does not seem to emphasize customer satisfaction or employee motivation in the real sense. A few effective performance management practices based on theory have been evaluated with respect to situation at Colbran Medical Institute. Benchmarking: Performance measurement is a r ecurring activity, and an essential aspect of performance management. ... The performance appraisal forms at Colbran do not give much evidence of work on benchmarking performance metrics, which further rules out possibilities of effective performance measurement. If performance measurement is only internally focused, then such measurement cannot produce competitive position for the organisation irrespective of its level of performance. Therefore, benchmarking ensures that performance establishes competitiveness and best practice through doing the right things, right first time in the eyes of the end customer (Zaiiri & Leonard, 1994; 81). Performance indicators: At Colbran Medical Institute, performance seems to be measured based on number of goods produced. This is a very generalized approach and tends to ignore many issues that could have occurred during the production process. This process needs to be streamlined in order to provide accurate performance measurement as well as address the issues so that overall productivity can also be improvised. All goa ls that have been benchmarked need to be measurable. For this, the goals need to be converted to measurable indicators. Hatry (2006) asserts that measurement and improvement can be gauged based on specific indicators, and not based on the outcomes. Production units cannot wait until the output is achieved in order to assess performance; in doing so, significant time, effort and money will be lost. Moreover, performance measurement based on outcomes will not consider the gaps or issues that had risen during the production. Therefore, to address these issues, specific outcome indicators or performance indicators need to be assigned to every intended outcome or goal. Performance appraisal system: Performance

Reflect on and analyse feedback on own teaching (educational review, Essay

Reflect on and analyse feedback on own teaching (educational review, 3000 words) - Essay Example The reflection on these actions allows the engaged individual to employ continuous learning methods (Schon, 1983). The individual tends to learn from his actions in order to continuously improve and the resulting improvements are then used as future learning material. This makes the reflective practice method both dynamic and continuous. This is not to indicate that professionals relying on reflective practice tend to use their own experiences to learn but it serves to indicate that the reliance on personal experiences for learning is greater. Though reflective practice has been around for a few decades now but its wide scale application to professional practice has emerged in the last few years. A number of different models have been brought forward to delineate reflective practice including (but not limited to) models by Argyris and Schon (1978), Kolb (1984), Gibbs (1988), Johns (1995) and Rolfe (2001). Among these models of reflective practice, the model presented by Kolb (1984) h as gained widespread attention and acclaim. This paper will rely on the model presented by Kolb (1984) in order to advance arguments for reflective practice in a clinical setting aimed at learning. ... One key aspect of the model is the transformation of information into knowledge after a particular situation has occurred.16* Figure 1 – Kolb’s Reflective Practice Model (1984) extracted from (Schugurensky, 2002) Reflection on the Subject Teaching Session A teaching session was held in order to disseminate information and knowledge gathered through a continual and dynamic reflective practice run. The attendants for the session ranged from registrars to senior health officers (SHOs) so a widely differing audience was worked with using the teaching session. A key assumption before the teaching session was that members of the audience would be able to assimilate the provided information at the same rates or nearly at the same rates (Boss & Krauss, 2007). However, the teaching session proved beyond doubt that personal learning issues were far overtaken by learning issues based on position in the organisation. The learning styles for registrars and SHOs tended to differ wide ly so that certain concepts had to be repeated in order to ensure that all members of the audience were on the same page. Based on this observation, it would be relevant to utilise different teaching sessions or a wide variety of different teaching techniques to capture the differences in knowledge of such an audience. One method employed to keep the attention of the audience was to utilise quizzes that were presented at intermittent intervals during the teaching session (Darzi, 2008). It could be noticed that the audience seemed more involved in solving the problems presented by the quizzes rather than concentrating on slides one after the other. This observation also had another significant undertone. The subject teaching session

Individual Research Repor Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Individual Research Repor - Essay Example It achieves that by various cost cutting strategies that hinders the human resource practices in Wal-Mart. It tries to builds its low cost on the employment policies by achieving extraordinarily low costs on the employment. In order to maintain its competitive advantage Wal-Mart incorporates various low cost HR practices. It has tried to cut down cost right from the time of hiring by recruiting large number of employees and not only that by violating cheap child labour and the minors. The cheap price of acquiring such labours give them more of cost competitiveness than its competitors. Wal-Mart has even been seen showing discrimination towards employees who has certain disabilities, though such people may have the appropriate skills but they would be more costly for the firm. Wal-Mart has set high demand standards which have forced the workers to work beyond their normal working hours. They even show discrimination towards women working in their organization by denying them promotion s, and at times even paying them less compared to men. They are even demoted if they complain just for the reason that Wal-Mart has to maintain cost reduction than its competitor. There is not an effective pay and reward model followed by Wal-Mart that would in turn help the employees to remain motivated. Wal-Mart follows its low cost strategy by cutting down the cost on wages every year. It pays very less wages to its Chinese labours. Wal-Mart maintains very low employee relation by not even providing them with proper healthcare facilities. The works have to pay 36% of the premium cost for the health insurance as the company does not bear any additional cost in order to follow its low cost strategy. Wal-Mart has down the line exploited its workers which in turn will reduce the dedication and loyalty of these employees towards the company. A less satisfied employee will not perform above the mark to deliver appropriate profits for the company. As Wal-Mart is on

Family Business Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Family Business - Research Paper Example This can foster a feeling of resentment among family members who are not qualified enough to do the necessary work, but share the name of the company’s founder. In such cases, the heads of family-run organizations have to deal with the uneasiness of other family members at the thought of hiring outsiders to be privy to the long-held family secrets. According to a survey conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers to determine how family-run businesses achieve success, a number of the heads of such corporations choose not to involve extended family members in the making o important decisions even if the said members are considered as part-owners. In this survey, 15% of the surveyed family business leaders said that relatives such as in-laws do not have to be involved in decision-making (Miller and Le Breton-Miller 38). In a different survey conducted by the Egon Zehnder International organization among 720 family business executives and owners from Asia-Pacific, the Americas and Europe , over 60% of business managers felt that the lack of professional procedures and administrative structures is the biggest shortcoming of family-run businesses (Brun de Pontet and Aronoff 45). In addition, 55% of executives surveyed indicated that divergences among family members, due to a lack of accountability are another big problem. 60% of the respondents in this survey confirmed that family quarrels often get in the way of making good business decisions such as hiring external experts to deal with recurring problems (Brun de Pontet and Aronoff 46). From these two surveys, it appears that family conflict can result in the wrong decision being made due to the absence of an objective perspective. According to the KPMG and Family Business Australia’s biennial survey, which was conducted with 658 family-run businesses based in Australia, 57% of participants indicated that as family business leaders, they were concerned about the intentions of their potential successors, wheth er their children, or other relatives. In addition, 63% of the polled family business leaders indicated that they were not impressed by the abilities of their potential successors (KPMG and Family Business Australia Survey of Family Businesses 3). This corresponds with the findings of the Egon Zehnder International organization survey which also established that 60 % of the family business leaders had doubts about the proficiency of family members. According to these leaders, this was a common cause of conflicts among the family members (Brun de Pontet and Aronoff 46). It would seem that the biggest problem that family business leaders have to grapple with is the refusal of family members to accept the fact that they may not have the necessary skills to function in specialized operations. This can be a particularly difficult problem to solve because any skilled outsiders who are hired are likely to be met with hostility and subversive acts from disgruntled family members. Another pr oblem often faced by family business leaders has to do with making decision on strategic planning. Today, the family that is successful in progressing at a steady rise from generation to

Operations & Logistics Management Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Operations & Logistics Management - Essay Example Despite the fact that ISO standards are developed with the government support, certification on ISO 9000 is a completely voluntary matter. Pressure, constraining enterprise to carry out a certification, occur by users, but not legislative organs. Almost the most important fact, which is concerned this standard, is the fact that many companies, especially in Europe, require registration on ISO 9000 from their suppliers of goods and services. To cut the long story short we should say if there is no registration on ISO 9000 there is no concluded contract. In the USA, for example, NASA and Ministry of Defense now require certification on ISO 9000 from its suppliers. Let us consider the example of corporation DuPont, which is an example of enterprise, which corresponds to ISO. The activity of corporation is connected with world sales to the production of chemical industry. DuPont is one of the biggest chemical companies in the world. It was established in 1802 as manufacture for the production of powder. Nowadays DuPont produces a wide range of chemical products and conducts great innovational researches in this area. The company is an inventor of variety unique polymeric and other materials, such as neoprene, nylon, teflon, kevlar and other. The company was also developer and basic producer of the freon, utilized in the production of refrigerator devices. According to version of Fortune 500, the company occupies 66th place among the largest corporations of the USA. At present time DuPont is a multinational corporation that has 18 majo r businesses, operations in 70 countries and more than 60,000 employees. The gain of company in 2005 composed $26,6 billion. After the DuPont's certification in accordance with the requirements of the standards ISO 9000 it has began the stage of its implementation. Standards' implementation have not been so easy, since in comparison with the previous version (1994) serious changes underwent these standards, they now requires the reconsideration of approaches of management of quality and mastery of the new requirements, which are based on TQM philosophy and principles of the quality rewards models. Together with the unconditional progressiveness of the standards ISO 9000, especially new version, there is a potential danger of standards formal implementation. In the process of ISO standards implementation in DuPont there have appeared a range of complex problems, caused by the need of the systematic guarantee of realization of positions and requirements of these renovated standards, training of specialists and experts, and also by the lack of preparation of many certification organs for the work regarding c orrespondence of the systems of quality to new requirements.The main task, which have stood before the management of company was to avoid formal implementation into of ISO 9000 standards, since formal approach to this matter can bring only loss of time and expenses, and disappointment in standards themselves. Actually, under specific conditions ISO 9000 standards can not only prove to be

Human resources Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Human resources - Assignment Example He also stated that he often interacted with HR whenever he had a problem with another employee or wanted a bonus or a leave. My brother stated that his HR department recorded all information about employees starting from recruitment, selection, performance appraisal, leaves, increase in salaries, promotions, and the like. He stated that his HR mainly focused on administrative role which included recruitment and selection of employees. He did not have to interact with the HR much too often but planned to in case of any problem in future. My neighbor asserted that his HR not only kept all record of employees but also focused on assigning tasks and responsibilities to individual employees by considering the scope of project, deadline and the competency of employees. I agree with all three participants in positively perceiving about HR and its roles because HR is the most important department in a company that works to increase job satisfaction. I believe that a company should have a strong HR management system if it wants its employees to be stress free, happy and satisfied with their job status. Employees frequently enter into troubles and even if not, still they constantly need motivation to work harder while knowing that their needs will be fulfilled properly. HR takes care of that employees do not have to suffer from any prejudice (racial or gender) during and after selection; they receive rewards when they perform well; they receive enough vacations; they get enough benefits and allowances that they require; they are not bullied; and, the like. As for me, I believe that I can be a good employee advocate because I am very much interested in understanding the nature of conflicts that happen at workplace and resolving them through mediation strategies. I am also interested in assigning project tasks to individual employees since I like to learn about employees’ skills and

Soft Drinks Essay Example for Free

Soft Drinks Essay Soft drink consumption has increased substantially over the last 50 years and it has been established that using large amounts of soft drinks regularly can be detrimental to your health. If used in moderation soft drinks can have some beneficial effects on your body. Caffeine Benefits Caffeine is a stimulant that is found in soft drinks. It large amounts can have detrimental effects on your health but it also has numerous benefits. Caffeine stimulates your central nervous system, helps breakdown fatty acids in your liver, boost your mood and alleviate headaches. People who regularly ingest caffeine are less likely to develop Parkinsons disease, colon cancer, gallstones, and cirrhosis of the liver. Sponsored Links 5 Foods you must not eat: Cut down a bit of stomach fat every day by never eating these 5 foods. Trimdownclub. com Carbonated Water Carbonated water is a primary ingredient of soft drinks. Carbonated water was created by Joseph Priestly in the year 1767 and has since proven to have many benefits for the gastrointestinal tract. Carbonated water eases stomachaches, quells nausea and has been proven to alleviate constipation. Sodium Benefits Sodium is another product found in soft drinks. Sodium is an important mineral found in almost all natural foods. Sodium helps your body retain water, helps avoid and treat muscle cramps, keeps electrolyte balance, prevents the effects of aging of your skin and prevents your the drop of your blood pressure. Sponsored Links Read more: http://www. livestrong. com/article/260283-what-are-the-benefits-of-soft-drinks.

The Arguments For Privatization

The Arguments For Privatization Privatization is transfer of state owned enterprises to private ownership. William Megginson and Jeffrey M. Netter(2000) defined privatization politically and economically, as the deliberate sale by a government of state owned enterprises(SOEs) of assets to private economic agents. According to Charles A Ntiri (2010); Privatization has been defined by economic scholars and jurists to encompass a wide range of options for involvement of private capital and management in the running and operations of public enterprises It may involve the total transfer of public ownership and assets structures to private companies or conversion of public enterprises to private entities or incorporation of new private entities in place of public enterprises which can be by management transfers etc. He also quote Heydare Kord-Zanganeh (2001) on privatization to refer to all initiatives designed to increase the role of private entities for applying society resources to produce products and services by dec reasing and restricting government or official roles. Lumbini Kulasekera (2001) in his article on Restructuring stated-owned enterprises through privatization explain that, the system of state enterprises was established to provide support. Support for consumers in form of better products and services at less cost. Support for workers in form of rewarding and meaningful employment .Support for the government in form of revenues. Many state enterprises can no longer provide this support .In fact they are in need of support themselves .These institutions in fact, should be productive national assets, making a contribution to the progress and welfare of the country. But years of politicization, corruption, mismanagement, inadequate investment, lack of vision and discipline have stripped them of their potential making them colossal liabilities.Over the years enormous amounts of money have been spent to sustain ailing state enterprises. Governments borrow heavily from the state banks and from foreign financial institutions. Aid donors will n o longer support wasteful expenditure .Therefore either unproductive state enterprises will have to be shut down or the entire economy will go bankrupt. Privatization therefore is inevitable and necessary. This essay explain the arguments for privatization of state owned enterprises in emerging markets and why state owned banks in emerging markets have not been privatized. The essay comprises of three sections; Introductory part, arguments for privatization of state owned enterprises and why state owned banks have not been privatized in emerging markets, conclusion has been done respectively in each of the second and third section respectively. Arguments for privatization There are different arguments for privatization of state owned enterprises in emerging market in support of different researches done earlier concerning the privatization in emerging economies. William L. Megginson Jeffry M.Netter(2000) argue that, Contracting ability impacts the efficiency of state and private ownership. Government ownership of firms results in problems in defining the goals of the firm. He also quote Hansmann and Kraakman(2000), While the shareholder-wealth maximizing model of corporate organization is becoming increasingly dominant in part because of the advantages of having a well-defined corporate goal, he continued that governments have many objectives other than profit or shareholder-wealth maximization. Further, government objectives can change from one administration to the next. The inability of the government to credibly commit to a policy can significantly reduce the efficiency of a firms operations and governance. Even if the government does attempt to maximize social welfare, for example, welfare is a difficult thing to measure and use in guiding policy. In addition, the governments goals can be inconsistent with efficiency, inconsistent with maximizing social welfare, or even malevolent (he quoted Laffont and Tirole, 1993 and Shleifer, 1999).In addition, even if the government and the nations citizens agree that profit maximizing is the goal of the firm, it is difficult to write complete contracts that adequately tie managers incentives to that goal. Shleifer (1999) argues that the owners of public firms (the nations citizens) are less able to write complete contracts with their managers because of their diffuse nature, making it difficult to tie the managers incentives to the returns from their decisions. This is a subset of the broader arguments based in property rights and agency costs that there will be differences in performance between government and privately held firms because there are a broader range of monitoring devices under private ownership. William L. Megginson Jeffry M. Netter (2000) argue that, Ownership structure affects the ease with which government can intervene in the operations of a firm. Of course, governments can intervene in the operations of any firm, either public or private. However, the governments transaction costs of intervening in production arrangements and other decisions of the firm are greater when firms are privately owned. Thus, to the extent that government intervention has greater costs than benefits, private ownership is preferred to public ownership (Sappington and Stiglitz, 1987). William L. Megginson Jeffry M. Netter (2000) also argue that, a major source of inefficiency in public firms stems from less-prosperous firms being allowed to rely on the government for funding, leading to soft budget constraints. The state is unlikely to allow a large SOE to face bankruptcy. Thus, the discipline enforced on private firms by the capital markets and the threat of financial distress is less important for state-owned firms. Kornai (1998, 1993), Berglof and Roland (1998), and Frydman, Gray, Hessel, and Rapaczynski (2000) all suggest that soft budget constraints were a major source of inefficiency in Communist firms. They also note that supposedly hard budget constraints imposed by a government on SOEs are not very effective either. William L. Megginson Jeffry M. Netter (2000) also argue that, Privatization can impact efficiency through its effect on government fiscal conditions. As noted in Section 1, governments have raised huge amounts of money by selling SOEs. Such sales have helped reduce the fiscal deficit in many countries. Though important, examining the efficiency effects of reducing government deficits is beyond the scope of this paper. Davis, Ossowski, Richardson and Barnett (2000) show that privatization has significant positive effects on governments fiscal conditions. William L. Megginson Jeffry M. Netter (2000) also argue that, At a macroeconomic level, privatization can help develop product and security markets. One important motivation for privatization is to help develop factor and product markets, as well as security markets. As discussed above, welfare economics argues that efficiency is achieved through competitive markets. Thus, to the extent that privatization promotes competition, privatization can have important efficiency effects. Inevitably, the effectiveness of privatization programs and markets themselves are simultaneously determined. It has been clear in the transition economies that the success of the privatization program depends on the strength of the markets within the same country, and vice versa. Thus, the impact of privatization will differ across countries depending on the strength of the existing private sector. The empirical evidence shows that this is the case. Market Socialism: The opponents of privatization argue that neoclassical economics welfare theorems should also work in an economy with public ownership .Instead of a soviet type economy with public ownership and planning, one can imagine a market socialism (Barone 1908; Lange 1936) system where firms are publicly owned, but exchange occurs in competitive markets, and SOE managers are incentivized via performance contracts. Some adherents of market socialism argue this is exactly what has been successfully implemented in China ( Critics of this idea argue that is very hard for the government to commit not to intervene in markets .Under market socialism, the government is omnipotent and can directly control all the prices. Therefore ,it is hard to protect market competition from the government monopoly , which would not only expropriate the consumer surplus but would also undermine efficiency .It is also hard for the government to commit to the strict antitrust policy that weakens the market power of state-owned firms. Even in an open economy which imports product market competition ,the government still wields a monopoly in the labor market and in markets for nontradeables.The government is also unable to commit to abstain from political pursuit s while designing and enforcing managements contracts. Another problem of government ownership is the liability to ensure the exit of failing firms. Governments (or government banks) often bail out firms, private or public, in order to preserve employment. This problem is especially severe in the case of public firms .It is essentially impossible for the state to commit to not bailing out its own firms. The resulting soft budget constraints further aggravate the incentives problem for state owned enterprises. Yet another argument in favor of private ownership is the importance of innovation; Shleifer 1998 argues that innovation can only prosper under private ownership .While inventors can come up with great ideas independently of the predominant ownership forms; further development commercialization of innovative ideas is certainly more likely under private ownership. Government revenue: Privatization helps to raise revenues for Government. State owned enterprises comprises of multiplicity of goals, they wants to maximize profit but they focus more on social security for the citizen, increase of employment might lead to overstaffing hence increase more cost on operations, Insufficient quality of facilities like machines for production ,leads to poor and incompetent products which cannot lead to generation of more profit. According to Sergei Guriev and William Megginson (2005) comments that private ownership strengthens the incentives for profit maximazion and therefore should lead to increased productive and allocative efficiency. Market failures. SOEs (State owned Enterprises) lack innovation that leads failure in the market. This is due to the fact that government aids compensate them even when they make losses so that they continue to operate and avoid the large number of unemployment. Sergei Guriev and William Megginson (2005) said that market failure even when they exist, do not have to be collected through public ownership. Much can be achieved through regulation, taxation, and private provision of public goods (through profit maximizing firms or nonprofit organizations. They also say that Public ownership may not resolve all the relevant issues both in democrat and in non regimes politicians are often concerned with issues other than economic efficient and social welfare; they may be either driven by political motives or simply corrupt.Privatisation reduces the ability to pursue political objectives. Megginson and natter (2000) argue that, Privatization tends to help the greatest positive impact in those cases where the role for the government in licensing the market failure is the weakest. By conclusion, There is growing body of empirical evidence on all aspects of privatization that uses detailed datasets and up-to-date methodology this empirical evidence provides solid evidence that privatization generally works both for the firms that are privatized and for privatizing economies as a whole. While privatization usually results both in increased productivity and reduced employment in privatized firms, fears of negative overall effects at the economy level are not justified. An important caveat here of those benefits of privatization depends on market institutions being in place. The countries that manage to ensure property rights protection and the rule of law, impose hard budget, increase competition, and improve corporate governance reap the largest benefits. If appropriate institutions are not in place, privatization often fails to improve performance at the firm level and for the economy as a whole. Empirical evidence provides a strong case for openness in privatization .Virtually all point to a positive role of foreign investors. Firms privatized to foreign owners exhibit the highest productivity increases .Moreover, as foreign owners usually buy the assets in a more competitive biddings process, they are likely to pay a high price for privatize assets and the threat of competition from foreign bidders also tends to raise the bids of domestic investors. Receiving a high net privatization price is important, not only for fiscal reasons but also for the political legitimacy of emerging private property rights and the sustainability of reforms. Why have State-Owned Banks not been Privatized in Emerging Markets? Many emerging markets have not privatized their banking systems or face some challenges after privatization. Panicos Demetriades et al (2010) argue that, governments should not feel pressured to re-privatize the banks. Once the black sheep of high finance, government owned banks can reassure depositors about the safety of their savings and can help maintain a focus on productive investment in a world in which effective financial regulation remains more of an aspiration than a reality. Privatization of banks has been done in some of emerging markets for example Mexico, India and China. Mexico face banking crisis in 1994, India face some challenges as private owned banks could not meet their pre-privatization objectives, while China face crisis but were able to maintain. Privatization can cause banking crisis. Times of India, article on Privatization can cause banking crisis of by TNN, 16 November 2001; Prof V.S. Vyas, chairman of the governing board of institute of development studies, Jaipur, has given a call for preventing banking crisis through reckless privatization. He was delivering the valedictory address at the recently held national seminar on `privatization of banks at Mangalagangothri, organized by corporation bank chair in bank management. Vyas, also a member of the central board of directors of the reserve bank of India and Nabard, said the content and phase of the economic reforms are different in different countries. Therefore, any sweeping measures to privatize banks would cause a severe banking crisis. On the banking crises in south-east Asian countries, he said the government should not give absolute freedom to the private financial institutions and foreign banks. Any move to give market orientation to ownership of financial instit utions like banks must be judged by applying three criteria; better initiative and transparency, better efficiency, better capital accumulation and growth. There is no conclusive proof to show private banks is better than the public sector banks when these criteria are applied, he said. Mexico has been cited as having to privatize its banks and face financial Crisis. Haluk,Unal Miguel Navarro (1999) said that shortly after their privatization, Banco Union (BCH), Cremi, Grupo Havre, and Banpa is failed. Following the peso devaluation of December 20, 1994, the entire banking system needed to be re-privatized at great cost to the tax payer. What went wrong? It is safe to argue that the lack of a previously enhanced legal and regulatory framework was a major obstacle in the full achievement of objectives relating to bank privatization in general. Although several attempts were made to overhaul the banking system, efforts were insufficient at the beginning of the bank privatization process to increase supervision. Changes in the legal and regulatory framework of the financial sector should have begun long before the privatization process started, as they usually are a slow and gradual process. The newly privatized banking system in Mexico operated under an outdated regu latory environment and with a set of supervisory agencies unable to implement new regulations or enforce existing rules. Performance of private owned banks could not outweigh the performance of government owned banks. Times of India, article on Privatization can cause banking crisis of by TNN, 16 November 2001, Prof Vyas lauded the achievements of the public sector banks in India in the last 36 years, particularly in reaching out to the masses in the hither to neglected villages. Even in china, the banks could not reach the level of rural penetration which the Indian public sector banks have been able to. The solution to the stagnation of banks is minimizing bureaucratic control, not hasty privatization, he argued. Former syndicate bank chairman and Thingalaya alleged the government made the proposal to privatize banks to satisfy the international monetary foundation (IMF) and the World Bank. Thingalaya, also a member of the Karnataka state planning board, said while the private sector banks in India account for just 6 per cent of the rural lending, it is the public sector banks which have been helping the rural masses in a big way. P.V. Subbarao, Chief General Manager, reserve bank of India, Mumbai, said while the private sector banks in India operate only in limited areas with very little staff, these banks are serving numerous villages and towns. The new generation private sector banks, the old private sector banks and foreign banks have yet to develop the mass participation approach, he observed. According to D. Beim and C. Calomiris (2001) If banks are privatized before SOEs, bank owners may engage in buying more companies and become industrial empires. Foreign banks may out-complete domestic banks and leave them seriously weakened. D. Beim and C. Calomiris (2001) added that Capital inflows (short term loans and portfolio flows) can easily go into reverse (e.g. outflow) and create liquidity crisis. In conclusion we cite Panicos Demetriades et al (2010), at the moment, there is calm among bank depositors but premature privatization of government owned banks could change that. The empirical evidence suggests that the very existence of government owned banks has its roots in bad regulation. Privatizing banks without fixing the underlying cause could result in greater financial instability, not less. Moreover, as experience and other research shows, privatizing banks can only increase the power of bankers which can create fertile ground for more bad regulation. And if you thought that government owned banks are bad for long run growth, you need to think again. The empirical evidence suggests that government ownership of banks during 1995-2007 has, if anything, been associated with higher growth rates.

Youth Justice Policy in the UK

Youth Justice Policy in the UK Youth Justice Policy In order to evaluate why developments in youth justice policy and practice since 1997 are a cause for celebration and concern, the ideological motivations and the wider social and political context will be identified. The Crime and Disorder Act 1998; the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act, 1999 and the Anti Social Behaviour Act 2003 will be discussed in terms of the motivating ideology and rational underpinning. The practical implications of the acts and their social consequences will be evaluated in order to demonstrate what the acts achieve and where they fail to serve the rights of the individual in the youth justice system. Developments in youth justice policy and practice in the previous decade have been rooted in an ideological context that incorporates both neo-liberal approaches of responsibility and risk management (Muncie, 2006) and neo-conservative ideologies that entail an authoritarian realisation of policy (Muncie Hughes, 2002). However, cultural elements cannot be undermined when considering factors that motivate the formation of youth justice policy. Increasingly, a culture of fear and intimidation has arisen in the UK around societys youth. Muncie and Hughes (2002) point to cases such as the murder of 2 year old James Bulger by two 10 year olds as contributing factors to this fear culture. The manifestation of this cultural consciousness of fear is demonstrated in the coining of the term hoody to represent an intimidating youth in a hooded jumper (Sanders, 2005). Thus youth justice policy must be seen to appease these societal concerns. A result of this is that youth are at risk of crimina lisation and marginalisation (Scraton, Haydon, 2002). The risk is of a presumption that members of youth culture are likely to, or already have committed a criminal act. To understand whether developments in youth justice policy should be celebrated or be regarded with concern, it is important to understand the aims of the wider context of New Labour Reform. Policy has been motivated by a desire to form a transition from penal to restorative justice (Gelsthorpe Morris, 2002). This is motivated by a culture of increasing understanding and engaging the offender with the implications of their actions and is reflective of the New Labour political stance to be tough on crime and the causes of it. The resulting revolution in youth justice policy has been criticised for its failure to maintain a consistent ideology throughout (Goldson Muncie, 2006). The resultant risk is a confused, or muddled ideological approach to youth justice, and a contradictory experience between liberalism and conservatism for the offender passing through the reform system. However, this mixture of ideological approach is increasingly difficult to unify in a diverse multi-cultural society (Newburn, 2002; Fergusson, 2007). It is against this cultural and political backdrop that three significant pieces of youth justice legislation have emerged. These are the Crime and Disorder Act 1998, the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 and the Anti Social Behaviour Act 2003. The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 employs principles of actuarial risk management by imposing local authorities with the duty to implement risk reduction measures within a constituency (Moss, 2001; Farrington, 2002). These Community Safety Strategies are required to specifically address the prevention of youth crime. The practical outcomes of these strategies include the implementation of parenting and child safety orders, local curfews and action plan, detention and training orders (Scanlan, 1998). The Act brought into use the Anti-Social Behaviour Order (ASBO) and refuted the previous assumption that individuals under the age of ten should not be criminalised for committing an offence. The ASBO is administered to individuals who are deemed to be behaving in a manner that may cause harm or distress to others. The use of risk management strategies to form Community Safety Strategies has been both supported and challenged. Rooted in quantitative analysis, they explicitly identify predictor variables for youth criminal activity providing a target area for interventions and preventative measures (Farrington, 1997). Such identified risk factors have frequently included impoverished socio-economic backgrounds, harsh and erratic discipline cultures and peer group influences (Loeber, Farrington Waschbusch, 1999). Clearly, successful prevention strategies aimed at improving the conditions surrounding these risk factors are of benefit to the juvenile offender and to society as both enjoy improved welfare conditions. However, there are problems inherent in the decentralised approach to Community Safety Strategies. The quantitative approach dictates that concepts are generalised, and the actuarial assessment strategies focus upon efficiency and streamlining through youth justice process (Kempf-Leona rd Peterson, 2000). What is lost is a qualitative, individual approach to youth justice reform, and the individualistic consideration of the most beneficial (if not most efficient) process is absent. Case (2007) argues that this approach neglects to account for the experience of stakeholders such as youth workers and juvenile offenders. A combination of the quantitative and qualitative approaches would improve the ecological validity of risk analysis interpretations. The Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 amends details of prevention strategies such as parenting contracts and ASBO administration. Inherent in the motivations contributing to the policy is the desire to appease public fear of juvenile offenders by re-establishing a notion of respect within British community culture (Squires, 2008). Rooted in social inclusion discourse, the act predominantly aims in part to improve the educational and social bonds between the youth, parents and the school establishment. This is evident in the parenting contracts which require an insurance of a childs attendance at school. According to the social development model (Catalano Hawkins, 1996), factors of poverty and poor education jointly interact to promote the likelihood of delinquent behaviour. By ensuring parental and childhood engagement with education, this link can be broken. Furthermore, parents may be required to attend parenting courses if their childs behaviour is not deemed to improve. The act st ates that local education authorities are able to engage with parents of children excluded from school in order to establish the contractual process. The Act also puts in place powers for police to disperse groups of more than two individuals in public spaces if they appear to be causing nuisance. There are problems inherent in these new powers allocated to the police. Research has demonstrated that groups of youths are more readily perceived as threatening than congregated groups of other age groups (Mille, Jacobson, McDonald, Hough, 2005). Furthermore, local agencies present conflict in how to deal with individuals deemed to be engaging in anti-social practice. There appears to be a difficulty in balancing neo-liberal and neo-conservative approaches and the favoured approach may vary regionally. Mille et al (2005) also demonstrated a discrepancy between national perceptions and local implementations of ASBO administration. A national consensus that there should be an emphasis on enforcement contrasts with the local implementation of social inclusion policies. While parenting courses have been deemed as successful in the short-term (Kazdin, 1997), concerns have been raised about the long-term efficacy and the cost effectiveness of national implementation. It has also been de monstrated that the notion of responsibility has been centralised in governmental youth justice reform and that the rights of the parent and the child have not been sufficiently conceptualised to deal with this (Hollingsworth, 2007). The failure to do this has resulted in a social stigmatisation and criminalisation of families with low socio-economic status (Goldson, 2002) which negates the desired effects of social inclusion. The overall result of the Act is the social penalisation and discrimination of young individuals and working class parents. The Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 was also borne out of a desire to effectively manage youth crime issues in a manner that was economically efficient. The focus on crime prevention and intervention is borne out of this motivation for efficiency. It has been deemed that prevention of crime is more cost effective than punitive measures once the act has been committed (Winter, 2007). Furthermore, concepts of diagnosis, rehabilitation and reformation are considered too individualistic and are more efficiently managed by employing applications of resource management (Muncie, 1999). In order to improve efficiency, the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 orders the referral of first time youth offenders to panels as opposed to serving a custodial sentence. The resource of the panel which is allocated to the youth offender is deemed to be an early solution to re-offending, ensuring that the individual does not become a habitual criminal. This will ensure that the indi vidual requires less resources overall from the penal system. The practical outcome of the Youth Justice and Criminal Act 1999 is that the juvenile offender is referred to a panel upon the first offence if they plead guilty. The individual confers with the panel to produce an action plan that the youth will adhere too. Action plans are aimed at improving the social circumstances of the child and negating risk factors. On the outset this appears positive. The offending individual is consulted and if able to work co-operatively, is theoretically able to engage in a rehabilitative process that will deter future offending behaviour. While this approach has deemed to initially appear as an effective measure, further research is required to fully determine the effectiveness of the approach (Anand, 1999). Muncie (1999) argues that the re-conceptualisation of rehabilitative issues into resource management rhetoric results in a depoliticised issue where youth justice problems are viewed as requiring efficient management as opposed to resolution. Therefo re, while the alternative to custodial sentences may prove beneficial, it is important that the emphasis on rehabilitation is still prominent. It has been determined that youth justice policy is rooted in a conflicting ideological basis centred upon neo-liberal and neo-conservative ideals. This occurs against a backdrop of a social context of a mass cultural fear of the young individual. The Crime and Disorder Act 1998 and the Youth Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999 are borne out of political motivations to govern public services with economic efficiency. What results is a process that manages youth justice as a resource issue. Any focus upon individual needs and rehabilitative process is threatened. Actuarial concepts do favour preventative measures which can work to improve the circumstances of the individual. The Anti-Social Behaviour Act 2003 aims to improve social inclusion by re-conceptualising notions of social responsibility. However, the administration of parenting contacts; and the power to move on groups of individuals, results in a criminalisation of young individuals and families of lower socio-economic st atus. References Anand, S.S. (1999). Youth Crime: What Works, What Doesnt, and What it Means for Canadian Criminal Justice Policy. Queens Law Journal, 25,177-189. Anti Social Behaviour Act 2003.(c. 38): HMSO. Case, S. (2007). Questioning the Evidence of Risk that Under-pins Evidence Led Youth Justice Interventions. Youth Justice, 7(2),91-105. Catalano, R.F., Hawkins, J.D. (1996). Social Development Model: A Theory of Antisocial Behaviour.Rockville, MD: National Institute of Justice. Crime and Disorder Act 1998. (c. 37): HMSO. Farrington, D. (1997). Evaluating a Community Crime Prevention Programme. Evaluation, 3(2),157-173. Farrington, D. (2002). Understanding and preventing youth crime. In J. Muncie, E. McLaughlin, (Eds.). Youth Justice: Critical Readings.London: Sage Publications Ltd. Fergusson, R. (2007). Making sense of the Melting Pot: Multiple Discourses in Youth Justice Policy. Youth Justice, 7(3),179-194. Gelsthorpe, L., Morris, A. (2002). Restorative youth justice: The last vestiges of welfare? In J. Muncie, E. McLaughlin, (Eds.). Youth Justice: Critical Readings.London: Sage Publications Ltd. Goldson, B. (2002). Youth Crime, the Parenting Deficit, and State Intervention: A Contextual Critique. Youth Justice, 2(2),82-99. Goldson, B., Muncie, J. (2006). Rethinking youth justice: Comparative analysis, international human rights and research evidence. Youth Justice, 6(2),91-95. Hollingsworth, K. (2007). Responsibility and Rights: Children and their Parents in the Youth Justice System. International Journal of Law, Policy and the Family, 21(2),210-219. Justice and Criminal Evidence Act 1999.(c. 23): HMSO. Kazdin, A. (1997). Parent Management Training: Evidence, Outcomes, Issues. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 36(10),1349-1356. Kempf-Leonard, K., Peterson, E. (2000). Expanding the realms of the New Penology. Punishment Society, 2(1),66-97. Loeber,R., Farrington, D., Waschbusch, D. (1999). Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders. In R. Loeber D. Farrington (Eds.) Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders: Risk Factors and Succesful Interventions.London: Sage Publications. Mille, A., Jacobson, J., McDonald, E., Hough, M. (2005). Anti-Social Behaviour Strategies: Finding a Balance.Bristol: Policy Press. Moss, K. (2001). Crime Prevention v Planning: Section 17 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998. Is it a Material Consideration? Crime Prevention and Community Safety: An International Journal, 3,43-48. Muncie, J. (1999). Institutionalized Intolerance: Youth Justice and the 1998 Crime and Disorder Act. Critical Social Policy, 19(2),147-175. Muncie, J. (2006). Governing young people: Coherence and contradiction in contemporary youth justice. Critical Social Policy, 26(4),770-793. Muncie, J., Hughes, G. (2002). Modes of governance: Political rationalities, criminalization and resistance. In J. Muncie, E. McLaughlin, (Eds.). Youth Justice: Critical Readings.London: Sage Publications Ltd. Newburn, T. (2002). The contemporary politics of youth crime prevention. ? In J. Muncie, E. McLaughlin, (Eds.). Youth Justice: Critical Readings.London: Sage Publications Ltd. Sanders, B. (2005). Youth Crime and Youth Culture in the Inner City.London: Routledge. Scanlan, D. (1998). The Crime and Disorder Act 1998: A Guide for Practitioners.London: Callow Publishing. Scraton, P., Haydon, D. (2002). Challenging the criminalisation of children and young people: securing a rights based agenda. In J. Muncie, E. McLaughlin, (Eds.). Youth Justice: Critical Readings.London: Sage Publications Ltd. Squires, P. (2008). ASBO Nation: The Criminalisation of Nuisance.Bristol: Policy Press. Winter, H. (2007). The Economics of Crime: An Introduction to Rational Crime Analysis.London: Routledge.

Buddhism Essay -- essays research papers

The followers of the Buddha believe life goes on and on in many reincarnations or rebirths. The eternal hope for all followers of Buddha is that through reincarnation one comes back into successively better lives - until one achieves the goal of being free from pain and suffering and not having to come back again. This wheel of rebirth, known as samsara, goes on forever or until one achieves Nirvana. The Buddhist definition of Nirvana is "the highest state of spiritual bliss, as absolute immortality through absorption of the soul into itself, but preserving individuality" (Head1 57). Birth is not the beginning and death is not the end. This cycle of life has no beginning and can go on forever without an end. The ultimate goal for every Buddhist, Nirvana, represents total enlightenment and liberation. Only through achieving this goal is one liberated from the never ending round of birth, death, and rebirth (Head3 73). Transmigration, the Buddhist cycle of birth, death, a nd rebirth, involves not the reincarnation of a spirit but the rebirth of a consciousness containing the seeds of good and evil deeds. Buddhism's world of transmigration encompasses three stages. The first stage in concerned with desire, which goes against the teachings of Buddha, is the lowest form and involves a rebirth into any number of hells. The second stage is one in which animals dominate. But after many reincarnations in this stage the spirit becomes more and mo... Buddhism Essay -- essays research papers The followers of the Buddha believe life goes on and on in many reincarnations or rebirths. The eternal hope for all followers of Buddha is that through reincarnation one comes back into successively better lives - until one achieves the goal of being free from pain and suffering and not having to come back again. This wheel of rebirth, known as samsara, goes on forever or until one achieves Nirvana. The Buddhist definition of Nirvana is "the highest state of spiritual bliss, as absolute immortality through absorption of the soul into itself, but preserving individuality" (Head1 57). Birth is not the beginning and death is not the end. This cycle of life has no beginning and can go on forever without an end. The ultimate goal for every Buddhist, Nirvana, represents total enlightenment and liberation. Only through achieving this goal is one liberated from the never ending round of birth, death, and rebirth (Head3 73). Transmigration, the Buddhist cycle of birth, death, a nd rebirth, involves not the reincarnation of a spirit but the rebirth of a consciousness containing the seeds of good and evil deeds. Buddhism's world of transmigration encompasses three stages. The first stage in concerned with desire, which goes against the teachings of Buddha, is the lowest form and involves a rebirth into any number of hells. The second stage is one in which animals dominate. But after many reincarnations in this stage the spirit becomes more and mo...

Discussion of Abortion Essay -- Social Issues Abortion Teen Pregnancy

Discussion of Abortion   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Abortion is the surgical termination of a pregnancy. How odd that people are able to define something, that is such a controversial issue, so easily. There are hundreds, thousands, and even millions of things to say about abortion. When it comes to abortion, I find myself thinking like a symbolic interactionist. Abortion is a personal social issue and it needs to be seen on a micro level first. Although abortion can also be seen on a macro level, seeing abortion on a micro level lets people see the different symbols of abortion. No social condition creates the same symbol. If abortion is seen on a macro level, all the myths and stereotypes of abortion seem more realistic. For example, some of those myths and stereotypes being, most abortions are from minorities and most people who have abortions are teen girls. If abortion were seen on a micro level it would be evident that these myths and stereotypes are simply not true. Every abortion that occurs has a story beh ind it or a reason behind it. Many of us automatically assume that the person who had the abortion is immoral without even knowing the reason for why the abortion took place in the fist place. And this brings up a series of questions. When is an abortion considered moral or immoral? What should the legal status of abortion be? Should the father have a say if one should have an abortion or not? The answer to these questions are within a persons own mind and how they view this social condition. My answers to these questions are as follows.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  I believe that when an abortion is considered moral or immoral all depends on the symbol. For instance, one of my family members had an abortion and I found her decision to have an abortion moral. The symbol behind my family members abortion is as follows. For the purpose of privacy I will refer to my family member as Kate and her first love as Sam. When Kate was fourteen years old, she met her first love. They both went to the same high school but Sam was two years older than Kate. Sam and Kate went out for the next two months and got closer with each passing date. Sam was one of the popular guys in school and could have any girl he wanted so Kate didn’t understand why he was setting his eyes on her. Kate was extremely flattered that Sam even considered going out with her. So as one of the popular guys in school and being... ... in our society for a long long time, maybe even forever. One to two percent of women who have had an abortion will have another one. Twenty percent of abortions are still back ally abortions and thirty nine percent of women that have back ally abortions become infernal. It is really hard for me to believe that there are one point five million abortions every year and that’s only counting the legal abortions. The number one thing that divides moral from immoral when it comes to abortion is the symbol. The symbol basically decides all opinions on abortion. If the symbol is of a woman with a life threatening pregnancy then people would consider this woman’s abortion moral. On the other hand, if the symbol is of a woman that just doesn’t feel like having a baby and wants to get an abortion then people would consider this woman’s abortion as immoral. Like I said before it all depends on the symbol. This is why, when it comes to abortion, I find myself thin king like a symbolic interactionist. There are just too many different symbols of abortion to think of it in a macro level. Symbolic interactionists are completely right when talking about abortion, well at least that’s my opinion.

History and Eradication of Smallpox Essay -- Biology Medical Biomedica

History and Eradication of Smallpox The smallpox virus has affected the human species for centuries. It has been recorded as early as 1350 BC in ancient Egypt.The smallpox disease is caused by the Variola virus which only inhabits the human organism. There are two forms of the disease major and minor. The major has a mortality rate of 20-40% of untreated individuals. Though major and minor eventually run the same course and the outcome is the same, the major has symptoms that are distinct from the minor form, including hemorrhaging both internally and externally. Early treatment of the disease was variolation, and was the only method of treatment until the vaccine was discovered by Edward Jenner. The World Health Organization (WHO) eradicated smallpox in 1979. There is still no effective treatment for the disease after contraction. The speckled monster, the killer of both kings and peasants, once considered the most terrible minister of death; smallpox had ravaged the world for centuries. The virus emerged from an unknown source, however there is belief that it originated in Africa and then eventually spread to India and China. The first documented case of smallpox was dated in 1350 BC during the Egyptian-Hittite war.(Emedmag,2002) The course of the pandemic turned towards Europe in the 5th to 7th century and begun it destruction in major European cities in the 18th century. Classified as a pandemic during the 18th century, smallpox was located on almost the entire world save Australia and a few isolated islands. Smallpox did not only impact medical history, but also was a great influence in politics as well. Smallpox was known as the killer of peasants and kings, showing no biasness in its selection of victims. Skin lesions ... ...n stopped for almost 15 years. If terrorists were to use the Variola virus, the world would be virtually at the mercy of the smallpox disease. History and Eradication of Smallpox 9 References: Barquet, N. Smallpox: The Triumph over the Most Terrible of the Ministers of Death. Volume 127, Issue 8, Pages 635-642. Brannon, H. 2005. History of Smallpox: The Rise and Fall of a Disease. About Dermatology. July 26,2005 http://dermatology.about.com/cs/smallpox/a/smallpoxhx.htm Brilliant, L. B. 1985. The Management of Smallpox Eradication in India. Ann Arbor, MI:University of Michigan Press. Fenner, F., D. A. Henderson, I. Arita, Z. Jezek, & I. D. Ladnyi. 1988. Smallpox and Its Eradication. Geneva: World Health Organization. Hopkins, J. W. 1989. The Eradication of Smallpox: Organizational Learning and Innovation in International Health. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

The role of the community worker is fraught with tensions and dilemmas

In Britain in the 21st century, community workers are often linked with economic regeneration and consultation, empowerment and capacity building. This is in total contrast with the 1970's when community work was very closely associated with social work. (Twelvetrees, 2003.) Twelvetrees suggests that at its simplest community work is the ‘process of assisting people to improve their communities by undertaking collective action.' (Twelvetrees, 2003.) Community work though is not just carried out by community workers, community leaders, support workers and many others may choose to call themselves community workers. The majority of community work is carried out by paid workers and they undertake a wide range of functions. Community workers are classically seen as a guide or catalyst, enabler or maybe a facilitator. Community workers ‘go' to the place of the group and can advise its members on how they can do what they want to do. They can also cover roles such as secretary or chair, broker or advocate, but most important being clear about the fact that they must be clear about the role which they are playing at a certain particular time. Twelvetrees, (2003) suggests that community workers should be a ‘Jack of all trades' who can take on different roles and approaches and are willing to bring them into play in different situations. Community work therefore has a wide skill base with a great emphasis placed on the ability to make judgements and build relationships with others. Community workers must be able to adapt to each new situation and be able to listen, understand and act in an appropriate way to the situation that they are involved with. Butcher, (in Butcher et al, 1993) suggests that on the most basic principles community stands for the idea that community is a network of people who share a common interest. For many, community is where they can both have a sociological and psychological link to others. Sociologically they can ‘be part' of the community and can ‘identify with' it psychologically. These two factors greatly strengthens the idea that community workers work with groups of people who have a common interest and reason for being together. Summarising the above Community work can therefore be best described as both a set of values and as a set of techniques, skills and approaches which are linked to these values. Twelvetrees (2003) suggests that these values are to do with justices, democracy, love and empowering, and ‘getting a better deal' for those who are in some way disadvantaged. Primarily community workers must be able to establish relationships with others see the world through the community's eyes and find ways to assist them to help themselves. The theory behind most community work is basically about helping people to get a better deal, primarily by making this happen themselves, by being a facilitator and empowering the community groups in which one is working. Derrricourt and Dale, (in Jacobs et al, 1994) suggests that no one can work in community work long before realising that even ‘the simplest thing is difficult'. Community work it's self is a task of working with groups of people who may have different ideas but empowering them to come to a mutual agreement and find common ground in order to make the ‘project' work. In any real life situation within community and youth work there will be pressures and constraints on a worker to operate in some ways rather than others. Whatever the ideology, the worker must select actions which seem most likely to help the members of the particular community to get a better deal for themselves and become more confident and skilled. Twelvetrees (2003) suggests that while the values of community workers will quite legitimately influence their priorities, they also have to be pragmatic about choosing which approach is likely to work best. One of the major sources of tension within community work is that some workers can sometimes go into a new project with the agenda already clear in their head, with no room for changing it. By having this approach community workers produce a great deal of tension simply because they are meant to be helping the community it's self get a better deal through empowerment but by coming in with a fixed agenda it suggests that they have it all worked out. This leaves no room for any sort of consultation or community group meetings and can take away nearly all the interest by the residents. By not using community consultation the residents can very easily loose interest and involvement in a project if they are suspicious of the fact that it is not what they want to see happening. Community workers must be careful to go into a project with an open agenda and the ability to mould the agenda to what the residents want or face tension and the possibility of the lack of support of the community that they are working in. This happened in my local community. A substantial grant was won to improve the town. The council decided to create a community centre that would house a cyber-cafà ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ and open access hall for a variety of activities. It seemed like a good idea to the council yet the local community just wanted the money to be spent on tidying up the council estate, a new set of playground equipment and a new layer of paint in the church hall that the community had always used. Unfortunately the community worker and the council did not listen to what the residents wanted, and 5 years down the line the community centre is un-used except by a mothers and toddler group, with the rest of the community groups preferring to use their old hall. This project has tarred the council with a stereotype that they do not listen anyway so the local community has lost any belief in the fact that they are in it for their interests, even 5 years later this still is a lasting view. Community work often involves inter-agency working. Inter-agency work brings together a range of individuals, organisations and interest groups. By working with these agencies it can bring about tensions between the different managers, and can bring about competition and misunderstandings. Working with different agencies can seem like a good idea but there are many issues that can be raised and these can have a big effect on the overall ‘community; formed by the worker. Because each agency comes with its own agenda then their will be differences in the organisational systems. Banks et al (2003) states that different agencies have different systems for allocating work and recording and sharing information, this can cause many internal issues surrounding the smooth running of the project. When trying to work as a community worker to bring about change these issues must be carefully addressed. The tension will always be there because of the different agencies involved with their own interests but the role of the community worker here is to make sure that the project does not suffer and that the issues are dealt with in a open arena. Take for example a youth action project may include the police, youth workers and nurses. All these come with different agendas, youth workers looking at informal education and welfare, nurses on health and police officers on law enforcement and crime prevention. (Banks et all 2003) All of these different agenda have to be carefully managed in order for the project to be successful. Each agency must understand the importance of the project as a whole and be able to communicate any issues that it has with the other agencies. This is where the community worker can get stuck in the middle, between the different agencies and stuck in with inter-agency politics instead of being out in the community. Dilemmas also form part of the daily planning for community workers. Take for example the planning of a new project, does the worker go for a big and high profile project that will involve the whole community but may not be very effective due to the fact that it may never reach its goals. Or does the worker settle for the small project that will enable him/her to achieve the desired outcome and be able to address a certain issue that the community has raises like youth ‘hanging about on the streets'. This causes the community worker to face the fact that he either has to work with all the community, which he is likely to get more funding and support for, or just to focus on an achievable project like talking the youth ‘boredom' that is happening. Dilemmas surrounding confidentiality is always a difficult to decide the ‘right' course of action. Although community workers are not seen as a counselling service, many see workers as a trusted person in the community to talk to. In this situation confidentiality becomes important, but also the rules of breaking confidentiality have to be addressed as well. Confidentiality has its limitations to be enforced and this can cause the dilemma to the worker as to what is ethically right. Should the worker pass the information on or keep the confidentiality that he promised. (Roche, 2004) This issue was brought up when I was working as a youth worker in the local youth club setting. A young woman approached me saying that she needed to talk. Due to the fact that I had time to spare and she seemed distressed I let her talk and told her everything that she said would be confidential. She then told me that she was getting beaten up at home but did not want to it get out as she did to want her and her siblings to be spilt up. I spent a whole supervisory session talking to my supervisor about confidentiality. In the end I had to break it as a way of helping that young person to escape the endless circle but it was not a light hearted decision. My trust had been broken and since then the young girl has not come back to the youth club, but I know that she is now safe and living with a foster family and her siblings. One dilemma that community workers often face is the fact of accountability and who are they actually accountable to. Many workers would suggest that they are accountable to the community groups as they are working for what they need but others may suggest that they are accountable to the state and their employer. Community workers are employed by a wide range of bodies, including local authorities, primary care trusts, regeneration partnerships, charities, housing committees, the list is endless. All of these bodies have their own organisational and departmental aims for the community worker's role, and the worker is accountable to in a legal/employment sense to their employer. (Henderson and Thomas, 1992) In any community work there is the potential for a complex layering system of accountability, as managers may be employed by some agency to mange work funded by their agency. (Banks, 2003) this is where community workers can find them selves pulled in different directions and must always be careful about what they do. In some cases they may have to balance contradictory and compelling demands and attempt to make sense and achieve them in order to carry out the desired aim. This may be where they community project has been given a set of money from the Church of England for a youth project, this project has then started to deal with people from all religions coming to the project. In order to retain the centres success the worker does not want to ban the youth from the centre due to the fact that they are benefiting from it. Yet the worker is going against the aims of the funding application. In this case the worker has to be accountable to both the Church of England and the youth who are attending the project. In order to attempt to solve this situation then the worker must talk to the Church and attempt to re-structure the funding application so that it can be used across the project and not just on the youth of the Church. (Adapted from Brierley, 2002.) Bryants, (1982, cited in Jacobs et al) suggests that a community worker acts as a catalyst and has nine skills: 1. relational 2. communication 3. organisational 4. mediating 5. bargaining 6. entrepreneur 7. researcher 8. political 9. tactical. In order to be all these then at some point there will always be conflicting ideas and dilemmas to be addressed. One can not attempt to fill all theses roles of a community worker and still be able to work on a level ground with others. Although all of these are very important the fact that a community worker can relate to others within the community is essential and the skill of being able to accept differences and be able to address these is a skill which is learnt and will always be important in our world of work. There will always be tensions and dilemmas to address but these must not get us down. We must learn to take everything in our stride and learn from our mistakes, being able to see where we went wrong and be able to apply these lessons learnt to our future practise. Our strategy must be based on a clear awareness of what we as workers are aiming to achieve by our intervention and use negotiation and communication to overcome any difficulties that we encounter.