Civic engagement experiences Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Civic engagement experiences - Essay Example Some challenges of public concern can only be addressed when people volunteer to serve the community (Sherrod, Purta and Flanagan 368). After finishing my secondary education, I joined a community group of twenty youths and was appointed the chairman. The agenda for the group was to make an effort of solving some of the challenges faced by members of the community. The community was ignorant about HIV/AIDS and the overall hygiene level was below average. As a group we volunteered to organize seminars to educate fellow youths and parents on the causes, effects had how to prevent HIV/ AIDS. We rallied the members of the community to donate funds for supporting the infected persons and the orphaned children.   The donated funds helped the orphans to continue with studies and the infected to afford better. Through this campaign, many people learnt the dangers of the diseases. The community acknowledged that AIDS has no cure and it prevention is abstaining from immorality and being fait hful in marriage. As a result, the spread for the disease declined.As a team, we volunteered to sensitize the community on the importance of maintaining proper hygiene. We donated laundry products and clothes to the poor members of the community. We conducted general cleaning in the neighboring towns regularly. Our campaign on proper hygiene, helped to reduce the number of ailments caused by dirty environment such as malaria and typhoid.   Ã‚  According to Sherrod, Purta and Flanagan (221), Civic engagement has a lot of benefits to the public.

Analyze Movie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Analyze - Movie Review Example The setting of this book spans the time before and during the colonization of Nigeria. Things Fall Apart demonstrates how the colonizer conquers the colonized through hegemonic apparatuses, particularly, appropriating natural resources and political systems, feeding inter- and intra-tribal cultural conflicts, promoting the colonizer’s ideology as morally superior, and subverting African ideology by rewriting African history and identity. The colonizers are the European Christians who use hegemonic measures to conquer Nigerians, the colonized, one of which is through appropriating the latter’s natural resources and political systems. Hegemony refers to ideological domination wherein one worldview dominates or represses another ideology (Said 7). Stuart Hall defines ideology as the images, concepts, and principles that build the worldview by which people represents, understand, and make sense of one aspect of their social existence (271). The colonizer refers to a social group that dominates the colonized because of economic and political advantages in controlling the people and the resources of the latter. Gramsci talks about a social class that dominates others by force and consent because of political and economic outcomes (211), and the Europeans in Nigeria are examples of a dominating social class. The colonized suffers from the appropriation of their economic, political, and social resources and systems f rom colonizers who use them and their resources as means to self-serving ends. In Things Fall Apart, the Christians appropriate the natural resources of the tribes by taking away their lands, either by violence or through their missionaries. The Umuofia clan, for instance, has an Evil Forest that people fear and where the Christian missionaries build their church to prove that the former’s gods and goddesses are false. In other tribes, the novel narrates how the Europeans simply

Future Of Software Engineering In The 21st Century. White Paper Essay

Future Of Software Engineering In The 21st Century. White Paper - Essay Example If that is the case than this century will be the time period the computer will grow up. So the same can be said about its heart, the software. Software engineering has only been around for a little more than forty years and definitely has some growing to accomplish. After all, those four decades have seen a â€Å"software crisis† materialize and some would say it has declined or disappeared. Yet Dianna Mullet (2007) writes that the crisis lies with the difference between software development and engineering. Developers are thought of as skilled craftsmen and normally the development cycle is a play it by ear or â€Å"ad hoc† process and new software is beset with cost and time overruns. This also results in increased maintenance and update costs. Unfortunately she also points most universities teach the â€Å"Craft mentality†. Differentially, software engineers approach the task as a scientific discipline. This is important to consider now that the software prod uced for businesses constitutes ninety per cent of all software and the average â€Å"large† software consists of over 50,000 lines of code (Ibid). The time of some teenager making workable software in his spare time (think Mark Zuckerberg) is probably all but over. So then with twelve years almost finished, where does software engineering proceed in this century? ... Ian Summerville of Lancaster University (2002) compares the work of Lord Kelvin when trying to envision the future of software engineering. What he calls the â€Å"human activity†, is that from which traditional science attains results, using standard mathematical equations to determine a practical solution, Although there has to be something of a human element in software, software engineering cannot be measured in the â€Å"normal† way, for the software as an abstract thing only supports the human activity and is not truly a physical part of the equation. That being said, a lab is not the place to conduct experiments in software engineering. True, the development process can be started in the lab but the environment where the software is actually is to be utilized is the only true place where it can be determined as to whether the new software is feasible. He also states that â€Å"There is no technical solution to software complexity†. However, Boehm brings an interesting and hopeful point that the future should hold. Currently there is no software for checking software. Perhaps in the near future even the hardware chip, in conjunction with a program, can check the code to verify its authenticity, to cut down on the astronomical maintenance costs. Summerville agrees with Mullet that finding a way for â€Å"traditional† scientists to recognize software engineering as another discipline in their field is tantamount for the process to succeed in this century. He uses a quote from Kelvin that is dated and sexist, is also relevant in the subject â€Å"Large increases in cost with questionable increases in performance can only be tolerated in race horses and women!† In other words, the accepted way of huge

Case study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 94

Case Study Example Reason being; they possess the following advantages: they have unlimited access to information; agents on the ground; and direct contacts with factories. However, the sad thing is that importers have to incur the high costs of permits, shipments and inventory taking before selling. As a merchant/retailer, he will be able to get supplies from the local companies, brand them and even improve the quality of the products. Thereafter, she would sell them at higher prices both locally and internationally. However, the disadvantage associated with this is that there will be minimal control of exports; more companies will join the market; this will lead to enhanced policies and restrictions thus reducing profit margins.(The Chinese Fireworks Industry-Revised: page215 ) 2. The suitable point for jerry to enter into the industry is like a merchant. Because the Chinese products are of inferior quality compared to those from Japan and Korea, as a merchant he will obtain supplies from various local factories. Subsequently, brand them and improve on their quality (The Chinese Fireworks Industry-Revised: pg 219). He could then setup wholesale booths in the countryside. Thereafter, peddlers and other small-scale dealers would source the commodities from the market and sell in the surrounding communities. Consequently, he would avoid the low-profit margins as a manufacturer and brand identity loss. Given the reasonably good quality of Chinese product and cheapness, branding and better quality fuse replacement of the same products would render them at higher sale prices (The Chinese Fireworks Industry-Revised: pg

PESTEL analysis for Bank Barclays Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

PESTEL analysis for Bank Barclays - Essay Example History of the Barclays Bank The history of the bank can be tracked down to the year 1690 when two persons named John Feame and Thomas Gould commenced trading in Lombard Street of London basically as goldsmith bankers. In the year 1736, James Barclay became a part of the operation and since then the name Barclays has been related with the bank, however, only in the year 1896 the company got its name as Barclays Bank. Barclays expanded it’s tentacles in business by acquiring a number of smaller operations in all these years and expanded its business all over the UK and worldwide (Financial Advice, n.d.). In the year 1925, the international operations of the bank gained acceleration after the mergers with Colonial Bank, National Bank of South Africa and Anglo Egyptian Bank. The year 1961 saw the opening of the bank’s first computer operated branch in London on Drummond Street. In 1966, the UK got its first credit card which was launched by the Barclays Bank. The first ban k to make use of advertising in the television was also the Barclays in 1972. The bank has also tied up with Post Office Ltd. to spread out its services in personal banking, particularly in the sector of unsecured and secured loans. The Barclays Bank is spread over 50 countries and attends to 27 million customers (The Origin of, 2008). PESTEL Analysis of the Banking Industry Political Analysis Banks in the UK are trying to draw on research performed by Pricewaterhouse Coopers and the study shows that rigid rules in the banking industry will drain a sum of ?1tn from the financial system. As a result of which the businesses and the households would be deprived of any form of credit and loans. The regulatory changes that are being made in 2011 would require the banks to keep larger capital cushions (Treanor, 2010). The â€Å"Big Four† banks in the UK that have resisted radical shake-up calls in their business after the announcement of the bank reform report are Royal Bank of Sco tland, Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group and HSBC. The expected subsidiarisation model states that allocation of capital has to be made to different country operations and units by the bank. This would eventually pressurise the top lenders of the UK for new capital requirements (Reuters, 2011). Economic Analysis Banking sectors are the basic providers of financial services. Therefore, the factors such as tax, inflation rate and interest rates have strong influence. According to the latest information it has been discovered that the banks in the UK that deals in loan primarily would be discussing about the prospects of expected investments by the tax payers, with the concerned authorities (Economy Watch, 2011). The UK is within the top 30 rich countries with the UK’s GDP per capita being $37,400. Out of which the contribution of the financial sector remains to be the highest being 76.2% of GDP (Economy Watch, 2011). Social Analysis Demographics influence the banking industry to a great extent. The factors that are having a significant impact in relation to banking sector are mortgage, living standard, total

Case study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 94

Case Study Example Reason being; they possess the following advantages: they have unlimited access to information; agents on the ground; and direct contacts with factories. However, the sad thing is that importers have to incur the high costs of permits, shipments and inventory taking before selling. As a merchant/retailer, he will be able to get supplies from the local companies, brand them and even improve the quality of the products. Thereafter, she would sell them at higher prices both locally and internationally. However, the disadvantage associated with this is that there will be minimal control of exports; more companies will join the market; this will lead to enhanced policies and restrictions thus reducing profit margins.(The Chinese Fireworks Industry-Revised: page215 ) 2. The suitable point for jerry to enter into the industry is like a merchant. Because the Chinese products are of inferior quality compared to those from Japan and Korea, as a merchant he will obtain supplies from various local factories. Subsequently, brand them and improve on their quality (The Chinese Fireworks Industry-Revised: pg 219). He could then setup wholesale booths in the countryside. Thereafter, peddlers and other small-scale dealers would source the commodities from the market and sell in the surrounding communities. Consequently, he would avoid the low-profit margins as a manufacturer and brand identity loss. Given the reasonably good quality of Chinese product and cheapness, branding and better quality fuse replacement of the same products would render them at higher sale prices (The Chinese Fireworks Industry-Revised: pg

Contemporary Issues in Food and Nutrition for Adolescents Essay Example for Free

Contemporary Issues in Food and Nutrition for Adolescents Essay Contemporary Issues in Food and Nutrition for Adolescents The importance of establishing health promoting practices during childhood and adolescence has long been recognized by nutritionists and other health professionals. The purpose of this paper is to investigate further the issues relating to adolescents diets and contributing factors. Contributing factors include the increase of fast food consumption, unconventional meal patterns and lack of exercise. During adolescence, the influences on eating habits are numerous. The growing independence of adolescents, increased participation in social life and a generally busy schedule of activities have a great impact on food intake. ? In the September 2007 issue of Health Promotion International, a survey of 18,486 secondary school students at 322 schools across all Australian states (except Western Australia) has found that a significant proportion of students fall short of current, national dietary and physical activity recommendations for teenagers. A new study suggests that as teens enter adulthood, they are more likely to skip meals, resulting in a very unconventional meal pattern. Breakfast is frequently neglected and omitted more often by teenagers as they enter high school as they see it as an unnecessary hassle. These diets are likely to be bizarre and unbalanced. Though appetite is great, meal times tend to be irregular due to pre-occupation with school, other social activities or even a part time job. Therefore snacking in between meals is common. Skipping breakfast, for example, can lead to greater levels of hunger later in the day, causing overeating, or the choosing of heavy foods that fill you up faster, but may lack nutritional values. For teenage girls, lunch is usually skipped as a way of controlling weight. As adolescents go through puberty, they are bound to feel more pressured by their peers about the shape and size of their body, sexual development, and their general appearance. Due to this pressure, they are more likely to be self-conscious, resulting in unstable diets. These diets are usually also caused by the increasing amount of junk food consumption. The increase in junk food consumption is an important factor in a teens diet. This could be due to the increased independence and responsibility for food preparation that adolescents face during this developmental transition. Fast food, such as McDonalds, is a quick, easy and tasty option for aging adolescents who may have a busy day-to-day schedule and who may be used to relying on parents to prepare their meals. Also published in the September issue of Health Promotion International, a survey indicates that secondary school students between the ages of 12 and 17 are consuming far too much junk food and not enough vegetables and fruit. The survey found that only 20% of students were meeting the daily requirement of four serves of vegetables while 39% were eating the recommended three daily serves of fruit. Our survey found consumption of unhealthy/non-core foods was high, with 46% of students having fast food meals at least twice a week, 51% eating snack foods four or more times per week, and 44% having high-energy drinks four or more times per week, states Dr Victoria White, from the Centre of Behavioural Research in Victoria. The survey findings also highlight the need for secondary students to spend more time being physically active and less time in front of the television and computer. The problem of childhood obesity has recently skyrocketed, mainly in the Western nations. Established in an online article on the website For Parents, By Parents, approximately 16-33% of children and teens are considered obese. While obesity is one of the easiest medical conditions to diagnosis, it can be one of the most difficult to treat. The same online article also states that poor diet and lack of exercise results in over 300,000 deaths every year. We found that only 14% of students engaged in recommended levels of physical activity and about 70% exceeded recommended levels of sedentary behaviour, Dr Victoria White once again states. Current recommendations state teenagers should do at least 60 minutes of moderate intensity physical activity every day and spend no more than 2 hours per day using electronic media for entertainment. Unhealthy weight increases during adolescence have been associated with fasting insulin, increased levels of cholesterol and risk factors for heart disease and systolic blood pressure in young adulthood. Since adolescent obesity is a significant predictor of overweight status in adulthood, it is important to identify dietary behaviours early on that are associated with unhealthy weight gain in order to create effective interventions. It has been investigated that the three of the largest factors in adolescents diets include their unconventional meal pattern, increasing of junk food consumption and lack of exercise. The increased snack food intake and lack of required exercise result in a very disproportioned and unbalanced diet, which eventually leads to other fatal diseases such as risk of heart failure. Therefore, adolescents diet should be observed carefully to avoid an unhealthy epidemic.