The Impact Of Organisational Structures

The Impact Of Organisational Structures This section discusses the influence and the impact that organizational and departmental structure and culture has generally and with special reference on the team working in the Haiti. The discussion covers first the overall structure of the Oxfam which is followed by the organization of the Oxfam team at Haiti for carrying out charitable work. The Oxfam has the Council as the governing body that meets seven times a year (International, 2010). It is made up of between 10 and 12 unpaid Trustees and is ultimately accountable for the overall management of Oxfam. Then there is the post of Director who is the Chief Executive and is responsible to the Trustees for the management of Oxfam. Then there are six Deputy Directors each is responsible for a Division. The Deputy Director of the Marketing Division is responsible for fundraising, communications and campaigns. The deputy Director International is responsible for developing and implementing Oxfams programmes in over 70 countries. The Deputy Director Trading is responsible for shops and recycling in Britain and the Fair Trade operations. The Deputy Director Finance and Information Systems is responsible for finance and IS throughout the organization. The deputy Director Corporate Human Resources is responsible for advising other divisions on Human Resource matters. The deputy Director Campaigns and Policy is responsible for advocating policies to promoting lasting change. Then each division has HR and Finance teams responsible for those matters. Oxfam is a charitable organization whose aim is to work with others to overcome poverty and suffering throughout the world. Its mission is to work directly for humanitarian relief to those hit by war, natural disasters or poverty. It also campaigns on behalf of poor people around the world who face issues such as debt, trade and the right to education. Its presence in the United Kingdom (UK) is visible through its charity shops run by volunteers, Page 5/17 selling donated items and handicrafts from overseas. Since it is a charitable organization, it has about 22,000 volunteer workers in over 800 Oxfam shops. The managers at these shops are given more authority to look into the needs of the local people where they are operating. The operations of these shops mostly include selling of books and music (International, 2010). Performances Dividing work -Vertical structure -Horizontal structure Structure Coordinating work Elements of Components Organisation Culture Types Figure showing structural and cultural elements of organization Page 6/17 Planning the work activities of the team, to ensure their commitment is gained. The biggest challenge for the team working in the Haiti was race with time to save the lives of the people. It is stated that it was a situation in which thousands of people were covered by the debris of the building; another thousands of people were dead which the figure has confirmed now to be more than two hundred thousands of people were killed; and millions of people became homeless (International, 2010). On top of that the communication system was substantially destroyed by the earthquake. Under such circumstances the planning activities of the Oxfam team demanded high challenge for those who carried out the humanitarian work with full devotion. The team was drawn upon the volunteers who were ready to sacrifice their comfortable life in order to carry out the charitable work in the harsh and challenging circumstances. One of the challenges of the team was to co-ordinate with the other governmental and non-governmental organization so that proper contribution was to be made in t he area. Then the other challenge was for the operational team which had to distribute the food and drinking water in the area where there were no communication. It is stated that the planning work element of the team ensures that the task of the team is carried out in a coherent manner. It discusses the tasks are divided, supervised and coordinated. The object of structure is to give clear idea what the people are going to do as forming part of the organization. This is often they know it when they join the organization. They know what is expected of them and the skills which are to be used by them for contributing the overall aim of the organization but the team working at Haiti had unprecedented challenges. The Oxfam team has effectively responded to the earthquake at Haiti. This is the biggest earthquake in the last 200 years at the Haiti. The Oxfam has responded quickly and effectively to help the victims of the earthquake. It has provided so far 60 tons of emergency supplies a nd equipment. This includes clean water, buckets, water treatment kids, and shelter and sanitation tools in the area. We have successfully operated in seven sites. Page 7/17 This means we have approached with our help and support to almost 85,000 people. It is planning to expand our network to 110,000 people (International, 2010). There were number of challenging tasks which were assigned to the operational team at the Haiti. One of the tasks has been to provide clean and safe water. The problem arises when water gets contaminated because of the virus in the atmosphere which has spread due to large number of deaths of people whose bodies were decomposed on the ground. Moreover, there were no infra structures for people to keep the water safe. The Oxfam has also launched a programme called cash for work so as to get hand of local people with the overall object of providing facilities to the people. The main task of this operation is to build our capacity so that we can help three millions of people who are in desperate need of assistance. The Oxfam is working to provide for the basic needs of these people. These include provision of clean water and latrines. The Oxfam team is also working on the long term projects of the disaster hit people. Its marketing team is campaigning for the cancellation of internationa l debts on Haiti. The Haiti owes $891 million in debts (International, 2010). These amounts include those loans which were taken by the Government prior to the earthquake for its developmental projects. Since almost everything is destroyed in the city, we are trying to persuade donors to cancel the debts. To this end, the Team contacting to the Head of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) Dominique Straus-Kahn to exert pressure so that the loans should be cancelled. It is stated that the IMF has offered  £100m loan to the Haiti for building infrastructure and other developmental activities. Our analysis reveal that owing to the huge destruction of the area combined with the fact that Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world; it will be sending tens of millions of dollars to the IMF and other international donors for paying off loan instalments. This will be huge burden on the poor country (International, 2010). Page 8/17 Providing opportunities to meet the identified developmental needs of the team and individuals working within the team. This section of the report discusses about the provision of opportunities to meet the identified developmental needs of the team and individuals working within the team. The report covers the overall developmental needs of the team in terms of the control and the individual developments in terms of his skills and progression in the company. It is stated that when the operations of an organization grow then it needs to divide the work vertically (Boddy, 2005). This means there needs to be more and more delegation to allow for those who are working at lower level to cater for the needs of their specific circumstances (Templar, 2004). It is also pointed out that with the growth of the business the hierarchy becomes more complex but even then there are three levels that always exist. These levels are corporate divisional and operating (International, 2010). The corporate activities in the Oxfam are the Board of Trustees. This is the most senior group which is responsible for managing the overall direction of the organization. This includes not only guiding and monitoring the performance of subordinate levels of the organization but also maintain links with significant external institutions such as banks and political bodies. The other level of the Oxfam is the divisional. There are broadly six divisions which are responsible to the Director who is also the chief executive. These divisions are headed by deputy Director. This is responsible for implementing broad areas of policy and for securing and allocating budgets and other resources. The Finance department which is headed by the deputy Director in the Oxfam is responsible for working on fund raising and collecting donations (see appendix about how to donate for Haiti earthquake victims). Then there comes an operational level. This level is responsible for doing the technical work of the organization. This includes in case of the Oxfam implementing the policy in practice such as supplying food, water and sanitary services to the earthquake victims in the Haiti. Page 9/17 So, the key issue that arises in establishing what decisions should be taken at each level of the organization. It will be considered to be centralization when those at the top make most of the decisions. In such circumstances the management at the divisional level ensures that the decisions of the Trustees are implemented by those working at the operational levels. On the other hand, if the system is based upon decentralized organization then there is clear demarcation of the span of authority for making decisions according to their specific needs. However, these decisions are taken in consonance with the broad policy of the organization. The operational work at the Haiti was carried out by the team which was given more power to decide the operational aspect of the relief services. It set units in the Haiti in co-ordination with other governmental and non-governmental organizations so that it can carry out overall co-ordin ated work with all charitable work carried out in the area. This enabled the team to focus on those areas where it undertook its responsibility to look after the particular section of the people. It operated at eleven units initially which covered almost 86,000 people. Then the relief operations were extended towards more people the figure which was raised up to 110,000 (International, 2010). It is stated that the Oxfam motivated local people at Haiti to work either voluntarily or to work for money (Templar, The Rules of Work A Definitive Guide to Personal Success , 2002). The members of the Oxfam team provided short training to the local people regarding their motivation to work. The motivation was either to appeal their humanitarian mind or to provide them money so that the aid can be provided to all the people. The team members consulted with the local workers regarding how the humanitarian aid could be distributed effectively. The rewards for this work were both psychological as well as financial (Owen, 2009). It was psychological because the nature of work appealed humanity which is part of value structure of our human beings. It also produced monitory benefits for the team. The team members were also taken on board by asking them to make proposals for Page 10/17 carrying out these services effectively. It was according to the flat tall and flat charts of the organi zational developments. The figure below describes how individuals can develop itself in an organization which either follows the tall structure of the organization or the flat structure (Owen, 2009). A tall structure, with narrow spans of supervision A flat structure, with wide spans of supervision Figure showing Tall and flat organization structures The structure of the organization is key indicator of the development of the members of the team. Page 11/17 Involving the Team in fairly and objectively assessing work activity progress against task performance objectives and individual developmental objectives. The managements use teams as a way of organizing work for the purposes of more flexibility, lower costs and faster response (Cole, 2009). This technique is applied by the Oxfam in its operations at Haiti. This is because the task at Haiti needs more powers to make decisions on the ground. There is also involvement of humanitarian issue involved in the operations which needs decisions to be made on the spot. This technique is also applied by other organizations such as Johnsons or Philips with the same object of getting flexible and lower costs and faster responses. In such structure the team is drawn from various divisions which are given authority to decide the view of their individual division (Owen, How to Manage: The Art of Making Things Happen , 2009). The members of the team are mutually accountable for results. They are sometimes called self-managing teams to emphasise the relative absence of hierarchical relationships. But there are also many potential disadvantages such as t endency to take on their own purpose and to spend time in debate rather than action. It is stated that the Oxfam has joined hands with fourteen other organization in its common cause of helping out the sufferings of the people of Haiti (International, 2010). It is stated that this is also growing practice of the organizations to remain independent but agree to work together to deliver product or services (Bacal, 2004). It happens when managers of the organizations arrange for other companies to undertake certain activities on their behalf, usually those that they do not use as being core to the business. The remaining organization concentrates on setting strategy direction and managing the core units. There has also practice in the business world in which the managers sell one of their services to another company, but still deliver the service to customers under their own name (Stettinius, 2007). The humanitarian work at Haiti needs to be coordinated to achieve the intended results without it wills there be confusion and poor performance. The direct supervision is provided where a manager ensures coordination by directly supervising his Page 12/17 or her staff to ensure they work together in line with company policy. The differences in t his situation lie in the idea of the span of control and the number of people whom a manager can effectively supervise directly. It is also stated that the rules of business provide hierarchy of command if the problem arises in terms of any kind of dispute between the members of the team. In such circumstances, the dispute is taken to the common boss in the hierarchy. It is the bosss responsibility to reach a solution (Maginn, 2004). The Oxfam team also make sure that what goes into the system and what managers expect it to produce are standardised. So, if the operational cost of one unit Haiti can be minimized by involving people by requesting them to become volunteers can be obtained then those savings can be used for obtaining more aid in terms of water and other things can be obtained. The team makes sure that the suppliers meet the specification and coordination between those who use the parts will be easier. The other method applied for ensuring effective team work is the rule s and procedures are prepared or guidelines are published on how to perform the work (Burns, 1978). As discussed above this technique at Haiti is hardly applied where lot of local workers are volunteers and the demand of the supply of humanitarian aid is really high. Finally, the technique of keeping up-to-date information systems help to co-ordinate effectively from team level management to the top level management and vice versa. Information systems help to ensure that people who need to work in a consistent way have common information about what is happening (Edwards, 2006). The communication between the management of the Oxfam is carried out by telephonic system as much of communication systems are already damaged. There is also personal contact methods applied to communicate between the team members operating at Haiti (Edwards, 2006). Page 13/17 Modify plans to ensure that performance objectives are met. This section of the report discusses the circumstances in which the plans may be modified in order to achieve the performance objectives (Egerton, 2007). The performance objectives of the operation at Haiti were to carry out relief services in co-ordination with other governmental and non-governmental organizations. It was observed that there was challenge of race with the time to save the lives of the people. There was need of trained people who could provide health facilities to the people. There were needs of not only food but also shelter and medicines. Some of the organizations were carrying out the relief activities by providing tents. Some of them carried out medical and health services to the affected people (International, 2010). In such circumstances the Oxfam team needed to work on those areas in which either the relief operations were not reached or there were inadequate provision of the services in such areas. By analysing the ground realities the plans were modified and the operations of the Oxfam were focused on providing safe water and sanitary services. The Oxfam identified that the inadequate provision of relief services to address sanitary issues resulted in spread of viral diseases. So, the Oxfam team set 11 units initially which provided safe drinking water and sanitary services spread in the area which benefited population of about 86,000 people. The network of the services was then further spread to cover more than hundred thousand people in the area. So, the plans were modified after observing the ground realities. But this didnt mean that the overall objective of the Oxfam was sacrificed. Another feature of the operations was to build pressures on the international donors to provide non-returnable loan rather than giving Haiti loan for restructuring which will be paid by it over the years. This aspect was carried out by taking into account the factual position that Haiti is one of the poorest countries in the world. Its economy is not d eveloped enough to pay back loan which will be used for saving life of people or providing them basic necessities of the life such as food and shelter (International, 2010). Page 14/17 Conclusion The report has taken into account the operational and organizational work of the Oxfam which is charitable organization. The report has focussed upon the current operations of the Oxfam at Haiti. The report discusses the practical aspects of the charitable operation at Haiti by linking it with the theory. It is revealed that organizational activities of the Oxfam were team based work that allowed convenience to carry out the relief operations. It discussed the motivational factors of the team and the influence of organizational culture on its workers. It was found that the Oxfam being itself a charitable organization with thousands of people working as volunteers the motivation of its workers was to carry out the relief work with high motivation. The Oxfam has culture of helping people as the motivating factor itself. Every member of the team is focussed upon high standard of providing humanitarian services to the people suffering from poverty, war or natural calamities. The discussi on also covered the relief activities carried out by the team by employing local workers. It also covered the circumstances in which the plans were modified in order to cope up with the practical aspects faced by the team operating at Haiti. The report with its main focus on highlighting the organization plan and management of the Oxfam at Haiti also sensitizes the humanitarian work carried out by the Oxfam for Haiti earthquake victims. Recommendations The report recommends that when charitable organizations perform relief operations they need more autonomy to operate in the area. This is because as discussion revealed that they know the ground realities because they are operating on the ground under circumstances which involve not only financial aspect but also humanitarian aspect. Although there is successful operation carried out by the Oxfam team at Haiti yet the organizational structure of the Oxfam which is mix of functional and hierarchical needs more decentralization of authority. This will not only serve as an effective motivation for the workers operating in the field but also achieve the overall objective of the charitable organization such as the Oxfam. Page 15/17 Appendices The information about how to donate for Haiti earthquake victims is available at http://www.oxfam.org/en/haitidonate .

What can neuropsychologists learn by studying individuals with damaged brains?

Introduction One of the best ways to learn about the normal functioning of the brain is to study how it functions when it is damaged (Rosvold, Mirsky, Sarason, Bransome et al., 1956). This paradigm for research in neuroscience involves comparing the neural functioning and performance on cognitive tasks of normal controls to that of patients with brain damage (for example, Fellows and Farah, 2003). Studies of localised brain damage can have especially important implications, since the impaired functional area is likely to be associated with that location in the brain containing the lesion. Though this is just one paradigm used in mapping the functional areas of the brain, other methods involve using only healthy participants and studying the pattern of neural activation during specific tasks designed to stimulate different cognitive faculties. But by comparing the functioning of healthy individuals to patients with brain damage it has been possible to distinguish very specific areas of the brain b ased on their functional purpose. Purpose of specific areas is either based around sensation and perception, information processing, memory or executive decision-making. This essay will examine some of the most pertinent findings gleaned from studies of brain damaged patients and elaborate on the avenues for future research in this context. The review of literature will proceed in a systematic manner evaluating the function of various brain areas through examination of the effects of lesions in these areas, as well as elaborating on the limitations of the methodologies employed. There are many ways in which the brain can be damaged, but the factor that seems more important in determining the effects of brain damage rather than how the brain damage occurred is the location of the damage. Evidence for this comes from reviews such as Ommaya and Genarelli (1974) who correlated clinical and experimental observations with the location of lesions in the brain. This essay will now proceed by analysing the effects of brain damage in different functional areas and the neural correlates of these effects. Brain damage can have a diverse range of effects depending on the region that is damaged, including disturbances in emotion, attention, memory and executive decision-making (Brewer and Perret, 1971). Prominent in this field of research are studies such as that of Robinson, Kubos, Starr, Rao and Price (1984) who studied patients with stroke lesions in various locations in the brain. Their findings showed a greater incidence of depression in individuals with anterior lesions on the left cerebral hemisphere. The inverse was true of right cerebral lesions, with posterior lesions leading to more depressed mood. This suggests that the location of lesions has an effect on the form that mood change takes following a stroke. To generalise further from this, different areas of the brain are differently responsible for emotional regulation and the cerebral hemispheres are oppositely arranged with regard to the operation of emotion. This research however was purely correlational, and therefore s uggests nothing of the mechanism behind the effect, and in fact cannot imply cause and effect at all between observations. Also, only depression was taken into account, measured with standard instruments for gauging levels of the disorder. This methodology misses a potential wealth of nuanced information on the subtle temperament changes that surely accompany mood disorders following stroke, qualitative methods could perhaps have uncovered more, and future research is needed to investigate other aspects of mood effects of brain damage. Brain damage can also profoundly affect memory in various ways as well as affecting mood and demeanour (Graham and Hodges, 1997). The effects of brain damage on memory are as variable as the forms of memory itself. The empirical research into this area has elucidated not only the effects of brain damage but also the processes by which different kinds of memory are encoded, stored and retrieved and the structures primarily involved. This is possible through deduction based on the pattern of impairment in a particular patient in relation to their specific lesion (Graham and Hodges, 1997). In the case of working memory, research has shown that even patients with mild brain damage show a tendency towards enhanced activation of circuitry associated with information-processing when tested on the same working memory tests as controls (McAllister, Sparling, Flashman, Guerin, Mamourian and Saykin, 2001). This kind of research has elucidated the structures and pathways associated with working memory, but it cannot rule out the possibility that these areas of the brain are involved in multiple pathways necessary for other cognitive processes. This is perhaps only a fraction of the information which could be extracted by study of working memory circuitry and how it functions in conjunction with the rest of the brain. Although this research has highlighted areas relevant to working memory it says little about the processes involved or how the brain functions as a whole in this function. In addition to working memory, damage in different areas has been shown to affect long-term memory which will now be explored. Research into dementia and Alzheimer’s disease as well as patients with frontal lobe damage has uncovered information about the encoding and storage of long-term memory (Graham and Hodges, 1997). Graham and Hodges (1997) investigated the role of subcortical structures in the formation of new memories through the study of patients with degradation of hippocampal structures (Alzheimer’s patients) as compared to those with comparably spared hippocampal structures but atrophy in neocortical areas (patients with semantic dementia). Their findings show that patients with spared hippocampal structures had greater recall for recent memory than more distant memory, whereas patients with Alzheimer’s disease showed the opposite pattern. These observations have helped to establish the pathway via which short-term memory passes into long-term memory, and thus has important implications of our understanding of the storage of memory in the brain. This study does provide strong evidence for the proposed conclusion, although the specific mechanisms by which short-term memory is transferred and stored between regions remains mysterious. Indeed, the actual location of long-term memory storage itself remains mysterious. It seems likely then that this process is not as simple as is proposed here. Of course not all stimuli are represented the same way in memory, some are emotionally charged. This essay will now explore how research into brain damage has helped the understanding of emotional activation in the brain. Emotional memory and functioning is another area in which study of brain damage can supplement valuable information. It is well known that the amygdala plays a large role in the experience of emotion, so it follows that Cahill, Babinsky, Markowitsch and McGaugh (1995) found that memory for emotionally charged stimuli and events was impaired in patients with damage to the amygdala, whereas memory for neutral autobiographical events and experimental stimuli was within the normal range. The benefits of research on brain damaged patients can perhaps best be seen in this area because of the rarity of patients with selective lesions localised in the amygdala (Adolphs, Tranel, Damasio and Damasio, 1994). Although research into the function of the amygdala in healthy participants successfully revealed that it is involved broadly in emotion (for example, LeDoux, 2003) research into the rare cases of localised damage to the amygdala (with normal functioning elsewhere) have enabled researchers to add clarity and specificity to this statement. Adolphs et al. (1994) discovered that the amygdala functions with a social dimension as well as an emotional one. Specifically, it is essential for the recognition of emotion (especially fear) in other people, but it is not necessary to discern individual identity from faces. This shows a clear contribution to the knowledge base from studies of brain damage; the constraints were added to the general statement that the amygdala is simply involved in emotion. It would have been difficult to discern this information from examining only the activation patterns in the brain and behavioural functioning of healthy participants, as the lone influence of the amygdala could not easily be isolated from the rest of the brain without it being removed. Necessarily though, such studies lack a certain ecological validity because the observations are naturally limited to such a low number of cases due to the rarity of localised amygdala damage. Anoth er important functional area brain damage can influence is cognition and executive decision-making. By studying patients with frontal lobe damage it has been possible to determine the role it plays in cognition, problem-solving and decision-making. In procedures such as the Wisconsin card-sorting test, participants can be accurately assessed for frontal lobe damage based on how well they can sort the cards into categories and their flexibility in doing so with shifting classification criteria (Stuss, Levine, Alexander, Hong, Palumbo, Hamer and Izukawa 2000). This task can even be used to distinguish the location of the damage within the frontal lobe by varying the amount of specificity in external direction. The fact that cognitive functioning can so accurately reflect the location of damage in the brain shows again the opportunity for mapping brain functions based on data collected from patients with impaired functioning in specific areas. This kind of test has particularly good reliability since the test thoroughly assesses cognitive decision-making with the absence of activation in only one very specific area. A criticism must be that the task is probably quite dissimilar from anything the participants are likely to perform in their daily life; it is contrived to be carried out under experimental conditions, and therefore the results may not be as valid as they appear in naturalistic situations. Although the accuracy with which the test can distinguish the specific location of damage gives it criterion validity. This concludes the review of research into the influence of brain damage on functional ability and demeanour. This essay has presented research on the effects of damage in various locations within the brain on behaviour, sensation, memory and cognitive processing. The contribution to knowledge of the purpose and integration of various regions in the brain have been discussed, the general conclusion being that it would be difficult to gain the same insight into the specific role of structures and the form of neural pathways without the study of patients with localised brain damage. Other paradigms exist in neuroscience, but studying the pattern of impairment in patients with localised brain damage compared to controls provides perhaps one of the best ways to assess the function and contribution of that particular damaged area. There are of course confounding variables though such as the way the damage occurred, and individual differences in participants. References Adolphs, R., Tranel, D., Damasio, H., & Damasio, A. (1994). Impaired recognition of emotion in facial expressions following bilateral damage to the human amygdala. Nature, 372(6507), 669-672. Brewer, C., & Perrett, L. (1971). Brain Damage due to Alcohol Consumption: An Air?encephalographic, Psychometric and Electroencephalographic Study. British Journal of Addiction to Alcohol & Other Drugs, 66(3), 170-182. Cahill, L., Babinsky, R., Markowitsch, H. J., & McGaugh, J. L. (1995). The amygdala and emotional memory. Nature, 377(6547), 295-296. Fellows, L. K., & Farah, M. J. (2003). Ventromedial frontal cortex mediates affective shifting in humans: evidence from a reversal learning paradigm. Brain,126(8), 1830-1837. Graham, K. S., & Hodges, J. R. (1997). Differentiating the roles of the hippocampus complex and the neocortex in long-term memory storage: Evidence from the study of semantic dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Neuropsychology, 11(1), 77. LeDoux, J. (2003). The emotional brain, fear, and the amygdala. Cellular and molecular neurobiology, 23(4-5), 727-738. McAllister, T. W., Sparling, M. B., Flashman, L. A., Guerin, S. J., Mamourian, A. C., & Saykin, A. J. (2001). Differential working memory load effects after mild traumatic brain injury. Neuroimage, 14(5), 1004-1012. Ommaya, A. K., & Gennarelli, T. A. (1974). Cerebral concussion and traumatic unconsciousness correlation of experimental and clinical observations on blunt head injuries. Brain, 97(4), 633-654. Robinson, R. G., Kubos, K. L., Starr, L. B., Rao, K., & Price, T. R. (1984). Mood disorders in stroke patients: importance of location of lesion. Brain, 107(1), 81-93. Rosvold, H. E., Mirsky, A. F., Sarason, I., Bransome Jr, E. D., & Beck, L. H. (1956). A continuous performance test of brain damage. Journal of consulting psychology, 20(5), 343. Stuss, D. T., Levine, B., Alexander, M. P., Hong, J., Palumbo, C., Hamer, L.., †¦ & Izukawa, D. (2000). Wisconsin Card Sorting Test performance in patients with focal frontal and posterior brain damage: effects of lesion location and test structure on separable cognitive processes. Neuropsychologia, 38(4), 388-402.

No Class Pets!

Imagine that you are a soft and adorable Guiana pig that was born in a pet store from your captured parents. There, shoppers are banging on the cage window, trying to wake you up and see you running on your hamster wheel, and are screaming â€Å"Look! Cute piggy! † When you are purchased, you are transported to a tight, compact cage, believing thou will finally have some peace and quiet, but instead, every day you must endure even more despicable kindergà ¤rtners. Now, when you were busy imagining that you were that poor Guiana pig, you felt angry and mistreated, right?It s obvious that whether we should have classroom pets or not is a complex issue. While some may believe that class pets are beneficial In some ways, I feel that after researching both sides, It Is clear that there should not be any class pets. There are many disadvantages of having a classroom pet. They will waste too much money and demand a lot of attention. One disadvantage of having a class pet is that pet s aren't for free. In fact, they're very expensive! Guiana pigs may be small, but still have all the characteristics to be worthy of being called a â€Å"living thing.So if one died, its death cannot be called â€Å"smaller† than a human death. Humans cannot underestimate animals because of size. Therefore, they must be fed and given all basic necessities dally, and need to be raised properly. According to â€Å"Does a Guiana Pig Belong In the Classroom? â€Å": â€Å"A teacher must be very involved and dedicated to proper cavy care before the opposite becomes true. † A lack of these needs may result in a free, one- way trip into the void. Also, sick pets must visit the vet, like humans must go see the doctor. Pets die when they become very ill; we can't overestimate them either!But then again, pet go to vet = $$$$$ = not very fun! Reproduction Is also a problem. Andrea Milder-Slater states In the ‘Cons' section: â€Å"If you have a male and female hamster, r abbit, or fish, are you prepared for babies? Will you spay or neuter your larger pets? † Spay or neuter = Spend even more of your dear green paper and metal coins on more class pets! 6 pets= 6 times more resources= 6 times more money! While some may say that yes, there is one more solution, it is no better than spaying r neutering: let them have the babies, and then support them all. But if Bob and Gabrielle the Guiana pigs have 6 babies, uh Oh!Will the class even be able to afford to keep all 9 Guiana pigs alive? Or will they enjoy the prospect of using more money on this? In addition to large costs, class pets need a lot of attention. Can at least one pair of eyes be provided to watch the class pets at every second? They must be supervised at all times. This includes all breaks, weekends and holidays. What would the pets be doing when the students had summer vacation? They might starve to death because no one fed them while their owner was having a nice relaxing trip to Lass Vegas, gambling and sightseeing, totally forgetting about them?After all, if there actually was someone there, would any crimes have happened to the pets? Additionally, â€Å"Does a Guiana Pig Belong in the Classroom† tells us that a Guiana pig class pet â€Å"cannot simply be a decoration. A Guiana pig needs petting and interaction every single day. She also needs daily â€Å"floor time† to run around and explore. This includes weekends†¦ † Also, class pets must be safe at school overnight. You must take mom your class pet at these times to ensure their safety, since there might not be students when they are interacting with the class pet.Children might be too rough with it, or be frightened and drop it. These things might result in the class pet's demise. Numerous crimes have occurred to pets when nobody was with them. For example, â€Å"Say ‘No' to Class ‘Pets† states: â€Å"A snake was stolen from his classroom enclosure and cooked alive inside a school's microwave,† and â€Å"a lamb was stolen from a school agriculture building, spray-pained, duct-taped to the outside of the building, ND left alone overnight in freezing temperatures. † This means that those ‘pets' didn't receive the attention that they required.In addition, article â€Å"Say ‘No' to Class ‘Pets† says : â€Å"Once at a student's home, may classroom â€Å"pets† are ignored and deprived of both human contact and appropriate companions of their own species. Students who do not understand the responsibility and time that animal companions require may neglect to fill water bottles, provide food, or clean cages. † While some may think that bringing the pet home is very easy to do, the parents or families of the students, Hough, may find the pet extremely annoying or may refuse to accept or take care of them.After reviewing the provided sources, I believe that it is clear we shouldn't have class pet s. It is clear that banning them is the best option. In the future, we should really think about whether we should make another life suffer Just for students' â€Å"education† Really, it would Just be better not to have a class pet, as the famous class pet equation is: â€Å"Class pets = money = more money = much more money + make another life suffer! †

Gandhi and Family essays

Gandhi and Family essays Mahatma Gandhi is well known and recognized for the leadership he provided for the Indian state to peacefully relinquish English oversight by withdrawing from British institutions, denying British awards, and, most important, by learning the art of self-reliance. Yet Gandhis thoughts on family, although not as well known, are none the less historically pertinent. His concepts about family as an institution and national symbol of support were a central point to his overall political and social stance. From the nuclear family, to the entire community and nation of India to the world at large, Gandhi strived for one family of mankind. It is important to understand that when Gandhi uses the word family he does not only mean the nuclear family as is the common definition. Family is also a metaphor for a group of people who are concerned about the same things as in a national family or the global family of humankind. In his autobiography The Story of My Experiments with Truth, 1Gandhis understanding of this term was stated clearly as When we come to think of it, the distinction between heterogeneous and homogeneous is discovered to be merely imaginary. We are all one family. Such a statement showed Gandhis early Utopian ideals about the concept of what the term family can mean at such destructive times as he saw taking place around him. The family was the keystone of Gandhi's notion of swaraj or "self-rule." To Gandhi, family was equated with the entire Indian society or family, who had to join together to stand on its own without the foundation of British rule. As he notes in Experiments with Truth, I may note in this connection that Gokhale used to laugh at some of my ideas in Hind Swaraj or Indian Home Rule and say: 'After you have stayed a year in India, your views will correct themselves'2 Gandhi's main emphasis was on the continuous effort to reject the British...

buy custom Korean Peninsula essay

buy custom Korean Peninsula essay The KoreanPeninsula has been an area of great controversy and a source of conflict for many countries. The KoreanPeninsula was possessed by Japan between the years 1910-1945. The Second World War ended in the year 1945, and the USSR (United Soviet States of Russia) facilitated the surrendering of the Japanese forces while the United States facilitated the surrendering in the South. The two allies worked together in the establishment of a joint commission in a bid to form a Korean provisional government. The Americans and Soviets later fell out, concerning the issue of legitimizing of the existing competing political groups that had an intention of governing Korea, this later led to the emergent of mutual suspicion. In the year 1947, a through directive from the United States attempted to unify the two halves of the country: the Northern and the Southern Korea. The Korean DMZ (Korean Demilitarized Zone) conflict was among the low-level clashes that included the usage of arms between the South Korea forces and the North Korea forces, which also included the United States. These clashes existed for three years, between 1966 and 1969. Other incidences occurred between the two Koreas. The existence of war in Korea was extremely devastating for both South and North Korea. This resulted to both countries renouncing the war with claims of trying to reunify Korea. The problem with this claim was that neither of these sides was able to make reunification a reality. The removal of Peoples Liberation Army in North Korea in 1958, gave room for Kim 2-Sung to put his power base together and continue with the Chollima Movement, of improving industries and agriculture in developing a base for reunification of Korea forcefully. North Korea was dependent on USSR for technological supplies and China for their assistance in agriculture. The Split of Sino-Soviet made the Soviet to suspend its aid to North Korea in the year 1962, claiming that DPRK (Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea) was in support of China. On the other hand, the economic aid that South Korea was receiving from United States and numerous western nations enabled a rapid development of South Korea. This helped South Korea to achieve an annual growth of 5.5% in the 1950s.in the year 1962, the economy and population of South Korea had nearly doubled that of North Korea. Kim2-Sung became conversant with the fact that, the raising economic ability evidenced in South Korea would eventually increase with time, enabling the South to force reunification through dictating their own terms. Again, the economic advanage and the existing autocratic form of the administration of the Park had resulted to widespread dissent. In the absence of Soviet, support attacking South Korea through conventional means was not a possibility; therefore, Kim saw an opportunity of achieving reunification by means of unconventional warfare. He later came up with a new military strategy in regards to the Workers Party of Koreas Central Committee. He enhanced this through placing emphasis on agitation, irregular warfare, and propaganda, which had to be accomplished in a span of seven years by the year 1967. In June 1965 a treaty, normalizing its relationship with Japan was signed by President Park. The treaty involved reparations payment and securing of loans given by Japan. In the year 1966, the United States and South Korea signed an agreement of Status of Force that gave room for an even relationship amongst the two countries. Hostilities emerged in 1966, from a speech delivered by Kim 2-Sung at a conference of Workers Party of Korea where he challenged the Armistice Agreements status quo. They argued that the existing effort division by the forces of South Korea and the U.S, role in Vietnam resulted to creation of an environment where conventional warfare would not succeed, as would the irregular warfare. He did all this in bid to split the U.S for South Korea, which would give room for incitement from North Korea aimed at toppling the administration of Park. Beginning from the year 1964, North Koreans amplified the access of spies and propagandists into the South. North Korea had ill motives for doing this since in October 1966, they had killed at least 10 civilians and over 30 soldiers from South Korea. The infiltrators from North Korea were executing these attacks. In the year 1966, South Korea felt obligated to retaliate, but they did so without General Bonesteels approval. This move brought tension between the South Koreans who had occurred massive losses from the attack and the U.S command who advocated for avoidance of armistice violation. The borders that were set were responsible for splitting the peninsula both economically and politically into a primarily agricultural South and the Communist industrial Northern Korea, which highly depended on U.S aid. In the year 1949, both the United States the USSR withdrew a bigger percentage of their troops, but left a small group that had the responsibility of advising the government. The increase of hostility between the two halves contributed to clashes at the border between South and NNorthern Korea between the year 1949 and 1950. Since the withdrawal of USSR and 1990, there has been a declination of North Korean economy. The case is not the same with South Korea where the economy has been self-sufficiency.the main tool of North Koreas strength in maintaining the regime of communism is in the usage of weapons, which has been developed to gain aid, concession acquire favorable treaties against their possible enemies. The behaviors of North Korea suggestive of the fact that they are making threats in their bid to intimidate and disrupt their relationship with the United States, South Korea and the surrounding neighbors. North Koreas threats have always worked to their advantage since through these threats North Korea is gaining possible concession and attention from the negotiating partners. The tension between North and southern Korea continues to heat up to date. Russia has already commented of a possible escalating aggression. Recently, the clashes between South and North Korea were aggravated by the claims that both countries raised accusing finger on claims that there was firing of artillery on the maritime border that has always been the cause of disagreement. South Korea has admitted to the fact that they were the first in firing the shells. They went further in explaining that their firing had nothing to do with attacking the North Koreas, but rather it was part of their military drill. Seoul had their share of pass blame by retorting that the North was shelling their island. The Pyongyang stated that the South were in violation of conducting their military drills in their maritime border. In conclusion, the existing conflict between South and North Korea is not a conflict of class but rather that of power struggle amongst states, which have been characterized by the Northern resistance and the existing efforts of peace making from the South. Although these two countries are constantly embroiled in conflicts, they depend on each other. For instance, South Korea has more resources than North Korea, and the latter is the most undeveloped compared to two. South Korea befits from North Koreas through accessing of natural resources, normally in the agricultural sector. South Korea intends to gain from North Korea as far as accessibility of trade routes is concerned. Once this route is open, South Korea will access Asian countries and China. North Korea is a beneficiary of annual food rations direct from the national budget of South Korea. Buy custom Korean Peninsula essay

Wheat Field with Cypresses Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Wheat Field with Cypresses - Essay Example A lot of the correspondences were descriptive of life in London and Netherlands. Theo was not the only person he corresponded with; there were other people such as Johanna van Gogh-Bonger (Theo’s wife), Wil (his sister), Emile Bernard and others. Vincent van Gogh would include a lot of sketches in his letters to anyone. He always made sure he added a sketch to complement the letters. Apparently, his correspondences would never be complete without a sketch illustrating the subject of his letters. That was out of pure love for both literature and art. He strongly believed in art and literature as powerful tools for communication. He perceived the society and everything around him using artistic lenses, which is why he drew and painted pictures a lot. At the time he wrote the letters, he was a young man who had started to believe that his destiny lay in art. Any art and literature lover would not want to stop reading van Gogh’s letters. Wheat Field with Cypresses is van Gogh’s painting work, in which he used an oil paint to draw complete picture of a typical wheat field with cypress trees, clouds, the horizon and a lot of other environmental components. This and his other painting works are an upgrade from the letters and sketches he was concentrating in earlier on. Wheat Field with Cypresses is able to communicate without any words used to describe it. His use of different colors to illustrate the different elements within the picture eliminates the need for a literary description. One may question the relationship that exists between van Gogh’s several letters and the Wheat Field with Cypresses. The relationship may not be as direct as one would expect, but there is a big connection. Both are depictions of a shrewd artist who used art to communicate and to paint a picture of the society. The letters were numerous and various. The themes of the letters were different. That was art. The good relationship between Vincent

Mother by amy tan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Mother by amy tan - Essay Example The use of English however must be put in context just like Amy Tan narrated when she was delivering a speech as well as communicating with her mother. In everyday communication where we converse with people close to us, there is really no standard of right and wrong English in academic standard. Grammars are not observed and proper syntax can be ignored. Probably the standard of propriety in the use of English language in this context is the degree of respectability and consideration to the person we are communicating with by not using offensive language that could hurt or offend the other person. It is different however when we go out of the comfort of our homes and social circles. Especially in school when we are graded and at work where part of our professionalism depends on how we communicate. There, the standard of proper English becomes stringent and the student and/or professional must be able to communicate it well in accordance to the proper use of the English language. The comfort of the mode of communicating intimate language at home should not be made an excuse for communicating poorly in academic and professional setting. Just like in the case of Amy Tan where she forced herself to learn good English to the point of being a writer, a student must also strive to improve his or her command of English. Understandably, this would not be easy especially if English is not the person’s mother tongue just like the case of Amy Tan’s mother. One must however not pass harshly to Amy Tan’s mother just because she cannot speak straight or proper English. Her inability to speak straight English does not reflect her aptitude. As what Amy Tan has said, she can read and comprehend complex text more than Amy Tan could. And as Amy Tan narrated beautifully at the end of her essay, her language ability â€Å"does not reveal her intent, her passion, her imagery, the rhythms of her