Business Cycle or Economic Growth in the UK Essay

Business Cycle or Economic Growth in the UK - Essay Example In the United Kingdom, economic growth has been driven by investment in infrastructure, investment in science and technology, increased access to business finance, increased exports and support for inward investment, reduction of corporation tax, simplification in business regulations, educating the workforce, tackling long term housing market issues and government support for local growth. This paper discusses economic growth in the United Kingdom with particular focus on the causes of economic growth, longstanding policies and their effect on balanced economic growth and gives recommendations on how the United Kingdom can promote further economic growth. For nations to succeed in the competitive global economy, the respective governments must take action. The government of the United Kingdom has not been left behind. It has taken initiatives to encourage economic growth and at the same time, it continues to support hardworking citizens who want to succeed in life. For stable and continuous economic growth, the initiatives taken by the United Kingdom government include: A nation cannot run effectively without economic infrastructure. For this reason, the government of the United Kingdom has placed economic infrastructure development at the heart of its economic growth policies. Economic infrastructure not only promotes economic growth but also creates employment. Examples of economic infrastructure include construction of power plants, airports, railways and roads, and provision of support services such as security systems and street lighting. Over the years, the United Kingdom has developed its infrastructure networks. According to a finding by OECD, â€Å"between 1970 and 2005, investment in UK roads, rail and electricity generating capacity had a stronger positive effect on the level of GDP per capita, and on short term growth, than other types of capital investment† (HM Treasury and Infrastructure UK, 2010). In 2009, the United Kingdom government created

Relationship between poverty and environment Term Paper

Relationship between poverty and environment - Term Paper Example A market for recycling of materials is shown to be a market opportunity because of bilateral trade agreements between US and Mexico. A conclusion is arrived saying that Mexico has to upgrade existing facilities to meet increasing demands of the population for safe waste and efficient disposal infrastructures. Your name here Subject Professor’s name Date submitted How does Mexico treat its hazardous wastes? Introduction Hazardous waste is a by-product of industrialization and the lifestyle changes of the people and higher standards of living. The lifestyle changes have changed the quality of life and it also means that we are creating more wastes than ever before. Wastes and how to correctly dispose of it has become both a big problem to the country. On the other hand, it has also opened a market of an income opportunity for recycling and disposal. Waste disposal has been the subject of interests and studies of international organizations, governments and professionals from uni versities on how to account for management of hazardous elements. Mexico, as a developing country is not exempted from the problem of hazardous waste disposal, and for purposes of this study, an insight of the waste management practices of Mexico will be reviewed. An exploratory research design will be applied in the study and the collection of data will be done through secondary sources that are published in the internet websites, books and literatures about the matter. Review of literature What is hazardous waste? The term refers to a substance, â€Å"solid, liquid, or gaseous waste materials, which if not improperly managed or disposed of, may pose substantial hazards to human health and the environment. According to the definition of economii.com., â€Å"a waste is considered hazardous if it exhibits one or more of the following characteristics: ignitability, corrosiveness, reactivity and toxicity†. Under certain conditions, wastes become hazardous because substances lik e liquids, solvents and friction sensitive substances easily ignite and create fires. Corrosive wastes such as tanks, containers, drums and barrels are acidic and capable of corroding metal. Reactive wastes are not stable under normal conditions and can create explosions, toxic fumes, gases, or vapors when mixed with water. The US Environment Protection Agency defines hazardous waste as â€Å"any of a number of solids, liquids, or contained gases generated by many modern industrial process† Examples of common hazardous wastes are spent auto batteries, spent solvents and sludges from industrial wastewater treatment units. Waste management practices Universally accepted procedure of waste management includes source reduction, recycling, treatment and disposal. Taken from economii, following processes are defined: Recycling is the use or reuse of hazardous waste as an effective substitute for a commercial product or an ingredient or feedstock in an industrial process. Treatment is any method, technique or process that changes the physical, chemical, or biological character of any hazardous waste so as to neutralize such waste; to recover energy or material resources from the

Ludwig Feuerbach The Essence Of Christianity Religion Essay

Ludwig Feuerbach The Essence Of Christianity Religion Essay Feuerbachs own introduction to the second print of his The Essence of Christianity is as good an exposà © as any of both his intentions and the content of his book. His own comments on the style of his writing are insightful both with regard to the content of the book as of the Young Hegelian movement as a whole. Forms, it seems, encapsulates the direction which Hegelian thought seem to have taken. This sense of style seems both as a device by which Feuerbach distances himself from the at times tiresome and elaborate musings of the German philosophical tradition and as a means by which to demonstrate the immediate and down-to-earth conclusion he himself has drawn from studying the Christian faith. In doing so Feuerbach claims to walk a path wholly of his own making, far removed from the obfuscation associated with Hegels work. Style, then, is as much content as it is on the surface of things. It tells us both to whom the message is addressed and the context in which it is written. F euerbach is, perhaps as a result of his awareness of the to be resolved Hegelian dichotomy between form and content, highly self-conscious of the form he is taking in addressing his audience: I have never held, surely, the scholars to be the measure of true learning and of the art of writing; not those abstract and particular academic philosophers, but universal man instead. (à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦) and I have made a law of the highest level of clarity, simplicity and determinacy to the extent to which the subject matter allows it. I have done so in all my writing, including this one, in order that every educated and thinking man can at the very least understand the main point of my work.  [2]   Feuerbachs style is inherently democratic and adverse to the prevalent mandarinism of the German intelligentsia. It is a statement in and by itself. The suggestion Feuerbach is making is that this is the language of science. These are not subjective utterances of a particular individual but irrefutable truth arrived at by virtue of strict application of a thoroughly rational methodology. Feuerbachs posture is one of a levelheaded thinker who aspires to the elementary truth. A truth that is, as we shall see, not shrouded in the abstract mysteries of abstract thought, but instead claims to be commonplace. One only needs to look clearly at the world in order for the ghosts of speculative idealism to dissipate. Feuerbach is practising the art of artlessness. Many of those influenced by Feuerbach have tried to emulate this posture and it is probable that a large part of the success of The Essence of Christianity is due to it tone. Its tone must have been seductive to an ever increasing contingent of thinkers barred from having a place within the established order. The author of The Essence, so it seems, took a certain pride in his lack of social stature. After all, such rogue thinkers might well be more inclined to think outside the box, not needing to adorn their truths in order to make them acceptable to all. This pathos is certainly recognizable in our present and practically an idiom in popular culture. At the time of its publication, however, the feeling was such that The Essence had cleared new grounds. It was frequently said that The Essence had a liberating effect. It expressed double entendre implied the spirit of the age. Or at least the very least the spirit of a particular segment within the 19th century German speaking coun tries of Central Europe. A segment of society that was repressed and excluded and had now, finally, found a voice to call its own. Feuerbachs aim was to clear away the alienating representations of Christianity in order to gain an empiricism that allowed to clearly state the nature of reality. Feuerbach: (à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦) weiter will meine Schrift nichts sein als eine sinngetreue ÃÅ"bersetzung bildlos ausgedrà ¼kt: eine empirisch- oder historisch-philosophische Analyse, Auflà ¶sung des Rà ¤tsels der christliche Religion.  [3]   (à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦) my book wants to nothing more than a translation that is true to the senses expressed without images: an empirical- or historical-philosophical analysis, resolution of the mystery of the Christian religion.  [4]   In the above Feuerbach makes clear his intent. He wants to strip bare the Hegelian dialectic into its most elementary form and overcome an idealism that is identified as being synonimous with the teachings of Christianity. The truth attained after decomposing Christianity will be immediate, sensual, and therefore without images. These words resemble those of an iconoclast, of someone wanting to empty the faith of all idolatry that stands in the way of truth. This is feeling is enhanced by Feuerbachs insistence that the Christianity which he shall tackle is not the same today as it was at the moment of its own genesis.  [5]  The original teachings of the Christian faith by Jesus have been steadily corrupted, according to Feuerbach, by subsequent interpretations and explanations of theologists. Theology has transformed Christianity into dogmas that are contradictory and unintelligible. The Essence is an attempt to retrieve the religion of Christianity from its theology, and Feuerbach makes a clear distinction between the two. Only after going back to this moment of authenticity within the Christian faith, that is, of the original myths surrounding the teachings of Jesus, can we hope to gain a new insight as to what these myths really imply. This explicit disapproval of theology in Feuerbachs writing is, as we shall see, consistent with a particular strand of anti-intellectualism expressed in The Essence. For Feuerbach believed that he had transcended not only the limitations of religion but those of philosophy as well. The Essence is itself therefore not a work of philosophy but of anthropology. In anthropology both religion and philosophy were superseded; it provided immediate, scientific, truths about human nature. By emphasizing that he was practicing another form of enquiry altogether Feuerbach tried to make more dramatic his break with both Christianity and the excesses of speculative philosophy as done by Hegel. Anthropology was believed to provide concrete results that could be empirically verified by basic human understanding, doing so in a commonsense language untainted by jargon. Anthropology dealt with humanity in general and had as a field of study, according to Feuerbach, something concrete and real. For humanity was undeniable since we ourselves were human. Feuerbach abhorred the tendency of idealist thought to reduce everything to the consciousness of the single mind. This, he thought, was an absurdity since much of what one calls ones own can be seen to be embodied by other human beings as well.  [6]  The human body was as a source of non-intellectual understanding, or feeling, shared by all members of the species.  [7]   So too was (historic) human culture a field for the creation of collective meaning by which those unalienable qualities of the human race could be represented. Feuerbach remained a Hegelian in seeing historical development of human culture in connection with the development of human consciousness. He too believed that the ideas and truths developed and represented in culture would, given time, be embodied by human consciousness. Feuerbach diverted from Hegel in seeing this development in terms of mans understanding of himself as member of a species. This understanding was expressed in highly naturalistic and empirical terms. With regard to Strauss, Feuerbach said not to be interested in the question of whether Jesus Christ had truly existed or not. Nor would Feuerbach critically interpret theology, a field in which he had no interest other than a feeling of disdain. What was of interest was the instantly recognizable myth told by the Biblical story of humanities redemption through Christ. This was the core around which the webs of mystification were spun. Just as the life and death of Christ was key in Hegels understanding of the Christian faith in being his philosophys other. So too was redemption, according to Feuerbach, the single most important event which had taken place in human history. Feuerbachs task was to take this myth and explain it in atheistic, anthropological, terms which directly reflected the hope and aspirations of humanity at large. This was not, however, to reduce or criticize the essence of faith. Rather, this methodology exhibited in The Essence was to scientifically explain the myth central to Christianity. In the understanding of the dialectic this meant that the content of the Bible, which was still marred by an excessive dependence on representation, could be brought on a higher plain of immediate understanding. In other words, although Christianity contained a truth, this truth was itself marred by Christianity. Christianity was in contradiction with itself, a contradiction that had to be resolved by its being superseded by anthropology. Feuerbach says of this: Ich (à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦) lasse die Religion sich selbst aussprechen; ich mache nur ihren Zuhà ¶rer und Dolmetscher, nicht ehren Souffleur.  [8]   I (à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦) let religion speak for it self; I am merely its audience and translator, not its critic.  [9]   Feuerbach, like Hegel, sees Christianity as a mirror of human consciousness. The qualities ascribed to Christianity are, in truth, the qualities of the human mind at a given time. Throughout The Essence the claim is repeated that faith is but an alienated manifestation of the self-as-species. The consciousness of God is the self-consciousness of mankind, the knowledge of God is the understanding of mankind. Religion is the first attempt towards self-consciousness. Yet it is in itself flawed; it remains an indirect self-consciousness through the manifestations of religion. Feuerbach writes in a sentence that could have been made by Hegel himself; Der Mensch verlegt sein Wesen zuerst außer sich, ehe er es in sich findet.  [10]   At first man misplaces his essence outside himself, before finding it within himself.  [11]   Everything that is to be found in religion can be found in actual human consciousness itself. Religion is constituted by reverence for alienated qualities of the self. Despite all its grandeur, religion has no content that is particular to its self. Religion is alienation itself and therefore made up around nothingness. This also explain the vague, indistinct, character of the omnipotent Christian God. God is said to embody all virtues of man, yet none in particular. God is everywhere, yet nowhere in particular. God knows everything, because he knows nothing in particular. According to Feuerbach the very notion of God is itself void: (à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦) weil alle Dinge, die der Vernunft imponieren, vor der Religion verschwinden, ihre Individualità ¤t verlieren, im Auge der gà ¶ttlichen Macht nichts sind. Die Nacht is die Mutter der Religion.  [12]   (à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦) because all things, that are impressive to the mind, vanish before religion, lose their individuality, are nothing in the eyes of God. The night is the mother of religion.  [13]   Religion is itself the very movement by which man loses his own essence. That which enriches our conception of God makes our understanding of ourselves all the more poorer.  [14]  The two are directly related in that what benefits one deprecates the other. In the mirror house of representation that is religion, a strange shift has occurred the puts the world upside-down. God, the representation, has replace man as representans, that is, as the very source from which the representation was brought forth. Der Mensch dies ist das Geheimnis der Religion vergegenstà ¤ndlicht sein Wesen und macht dann wieder sich zum Gegenstand dieses vergegenstà ¤ndlichten, in ein Subjekt, eine Person verwandelten Wesens; er denkt sich, ist sich Gegenstand, aber als Gegenstand eines Gegenstands, eines andern Wesens. So hier. Der Mensch ist ein Gegenstand Gottes.  [15]   Man this is the secret of religion objectifies his being and then again transforms himself into an object in relation to his own objectification, into a subject, a essence changed into a person; he thinks himself, is object to himself, but as object to an object, another being. There you have it. Man is an object of God.  [16]   As was hinted at in the above, however, Christianity carries within itself a contradiction. According to Feuerbach this contradiction means the end of Christianity itself and has to do with the notion of love. Love was crucial in the story of redemption. In this Biblical narrative man is redeemed in the eyes of God through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Jesus had died for our sins in the name of mankind in an act of love and so had brought us into union with God. A harmony had been restored. A new holy light shone upon mankind in which all men were henceforth assured of the love of God. Feuerbach that this was the message and myth central to Christianity; a myth that was still clearly visible after ages of theological corruption. But Feuerbach believed that love did not unify mankind but, instead, divided it into those having Gods grace and those lacking it. The notion of love, central to Christianity, narrowed the conception of who was man and who was not. In practice love had gained a negative meaning; it served to denote the faithful from the heathen.  [17]  Love, then, determined who was to be fought and annihilated. Im Glauben liegt ein bà ¶ses Prinzip, that is, in faith there rests an evil principle.  [18]  Love is, according to Feuerbach, an completely natural and distinctly human instinct. Love is one of the most compassionate, benign, qualities of man. Love serves to bridge the gap between subject and subject; it is by virtue of itself inter-personal. Yet Christianity had managed to pervert love and make it not into a unifying notion, but a dividing one. Christian love, then, furthered particularity and subjectiveness, preventing a higher dialectical union in universal objectivity. Feuerbach had granted love a moral dimension. To love mankind is a moral type of love, to love a single individual is a personal, subjective love.  [19]  The former unifies, the latter divides. For to love a single person is to excluse others from your love. Only universal love of man-as-species is moral. Since love of God is love that is particular it shows itself to be immoral. The love of God deprives mankind from the love of both other human beings and himself as a member of mankind. Christian love is therefore intricately connected not only with the image of those who do not receive it and are the enemy but also with the notion of self-hate. To love God is to alienate that which make you human and thus reduce oneself to something underserving of that very love. This is why the concept of sin in a post-Christian era would not make any sense. Sin exists by virtue of God, a God whom we have granted our most valuable and essential qualities. We are sinfull because we have alienated our essence unto God. To deny God is to reclaim those qualities. Since I cannot be in contradiction with myself, there is not higher authority, I cannot live in sin.  [20]   Christianity is essentailly intolerant and adverse to any true understanding of love. It denies that which it claims is its essence. Christianity, then, in the end, denies itself. This is what Feuerbach meant with the idea that to let Christainity speak for it self is to end it. It is a negativity that negates itself. Love has to be made universal. We should not say, as Feuerbach would have it, God is love, but Love is god.  [21]  God is our own universal nature that we have alienated through religion. Love is synonimous with universality itself. Feuerbach: Die wahre Liebe ist sich selbst genug; sie bedarf keiner besondern Titel, keiner Autorità ¤t. Die Liebe ist das universale Gesetz der Intelligenz und Natur sie ist nichts andres als die Verwirklichung der Einheit der Gattung auf dem Wege der Gesinnung.  [22]   True love is enough by virtue of itself; it needs not special titel, no authority. Love is the universal law of intelligence and nature it is nothing else but the realization of the unity of the species on the road of natural inclination.  [23]   Love is only free when it is universal, unrestrained by particularity. Only then can it serve as the means by which man recognizes himself-as-species. The notion of species is not a cold intellectual thought; the very energy of love, our most human of inclinations, is that which constitues our species-being.  [24]  The historical figure Jesus Christ is therefore nothing else but our species-being represented in a singular image. Since we are all human, and therefore part of humanity, so too are all of us Christ.  [25]   (The emperorss new clothes by Hans Christian Andersson as a metaphor for Stirners Ego and Its own; The Emperor (Feuerbach) is not wearing any clothes!)

Father Child Relationships in The Chosen, Dead Bodies Everywhere, and S

Father Child Relationships in The Chosen, Dead Bodies Everywhere, and Sherwood Anderson's Tandy      Ã‚  Ã‚   The novel The Chosen by Chaim Potok presents an important theme that is mirrored in other works of literature. The Chosen's portrayal of a dysfunctional father-child relationship is present in the song "Dead Bodies Everywhere" by the band Korn and in Sherwood Anderson's short story "Tandy". All three works depicted fathers who attempted to change their children into someone different. The works showed how this could hurt the children's relationship with their respective father. The pieces of literature also show how this type of dysfunctional father-child relationship can lead to the child finally disavowing their father and previous life. The Chosen, "Dead Bodies Everywhere", and "Tandy" all show Fathers that try to change their children, the damage caused by this effort, and finally the total renunciation by the child of their previous life.    In The Chosen, "Dead Bodies Everywhere", and "Tandy" the major factor in a dysfunctional father-child relationshi...

Teen Pregnancy

On average, 700 girls are impregnated each year in The Bahamas. Twenty percent of these teen mothers have another child while they are still in their teens according to the president of the PACE Foundation, Sonia Brown. We are urging citizens to take a stand and educate our children about contraceptives and the irresponsibility and lack of knowledge that leads to teenage pregnancy. Most teens that have children find it harder to become a part of the work force because their time is more focused on their child.They are less prepared to enter the working world because they are ill prepared due to being forced to be adults at a young age. Thus, not completing school in most instances. When they enter the Job market these teens need assistance with day care and other services that they are often unable to afford due to their minimum wage Jobs that they barely qualify for. Unplanned teenage pregnancies can lead to higher high school dropout rates, higher rates of single parenthood, and lo wering scores in math and reading.Stopping teenage pregnancy requires a hands-on connection between parents and hildren, a good educational foundation, and unbiased resources. The COB Gazette is campaigning for: *Teaching Sex Education to Stop Teenage Pregnancy Government officials claim that their efforts to fght teenage pregnancy is that they already have parenthood sessions in government schools but those are not effective enough because we still have a large number of teenage pregnancies in The Bahamas today. Sex education starts in the home as well.Parents should begin introducing the subject of puberty and sex with their children at around age 5. At irst these discussions are more based on the relationships between the sexes. Schools also teach teens about the chances and effects of teenage pregnancies, though the approach will depend on each school. Teens have hormones raging through their bodies and often misunderstand how these hormones affect their choices about safe sex. Implementing a parenting class to become a part of the curriculum in Bahamian schools will help teach girls about the dedication and time it takes to be a teenage mother.The class should also include lessons on different ypes of contraceptives and birth control methods. *Providing Resources to Prevent In addition to teaching teens about teenage pregnancy, parents and school systems should provide a list of resources for teens that are contemplating having sex. These resources often include phone numbers to local support groups and locations where teens can pick up free condoms. Some school systems can even choose to hand out condoms as part of their safe sex services. *Birth Control and Teen Pregnancies Teenage girls can be placed on birth control to stop teenage pregnancies.This does not mean sexual education is no longer needed. Birth control and condoms may prevent teenage pregnancies but they will not stop the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases like HIV, syphilis and gonorrhea. When choosing birth control, parents and teens have options. There are daily, monthly and tri-monthly birth control solutions. Daily birth control pills are the most common utilized by teen girls trying to prevent pregnancy. The pills need to be taken at the same time every day, however, which can be difficult for some teen girls to remember.Parents can discuss birth control options with the family physician or gynecologist. The solutions proposed should be greatly considered by the government and schools, as they would pose to be great options in helping our teenage girls. Although the pregnancy rate amongst teens has decreased by two percent over the last ten years, PACE still enrolls 100 to 150 pregnant teens a year. The age group mostly affected by this epidemic are girls ages 14 to 15. We should be making moves to encourage our young girls to make smarter choices. Teen Pregnancy On average, 700 girls are impregnated each year in The Bahamas. Twenty percent of these teen mothers have another child while they are still in their teens according to the president of the PACE Foundation, Sonia Brown. We are urging citizens to take a stand and educate our children about contraceptives and the irresponsibility and lack of knowledge that leads to teenage pregnancy. Most teens that have children find it harder to become a part of the work force because their time is more focused on their child.They are less prepared to enter the working world because they are ill prepared due to being forced to be adults at a young age. Thus, not completing school in most instances. When they enter the Job market these teens need assistance with day care and other services that they are often unable to afford due to their minimum wage Jobs that they barely qualify for. Unplanned teenage pregnancies can lead to higher high school dropout rates, higher rates of single parenthood, and lo wering scores in math and reading.Stopping teenage pregnancy requires a hands-on connection between parents and hildren, a good educational foundation, and unbiased resources. The COB Gazette is campaigning for: *Teaching Sex Education to Stop Teenage Pregnancy Government officials claim that their efforts to fght teenage pregnancy is that they already have parenthood sessions in government schools but those are not effective enough because we still have a large number of teenage pregnancies in The Bahamas today. Sex education starts in the home as well.Parents should begin introducing the subject of puberty and sex with their children at around age 5. At irst these discussions are more based on the relationships between the sexes. Schools also teach teens about the chances and effects of teenage pregnancies, though the approach will depend on each school. Teens have hormones raging through their bodies and often misunderstand how these hormones affect their choices about safe sex. Implementing a parenting class to become a part of the curriculum in Bahamian schools will help teach girls about the dedication and time it takes to be a teenage mother.The class should also include lessons on different ypes of contraceptives and birth control methods. *Providing Resources to Prevent In addition to teaching teens about teenage pregnancy, parents and school systems should provide a list of resources for teens that are contemplating having sex. These resources often include phone numbers to local support groups and locations where teens can pick up free condoms. Some school systems can even choose to hand out condoms as part of their safe sex services. *Birth Control and Teen Pregnancies Teenage girls can be placed on birth control to stop teenage pregnancies.This does not mean sexual education is no longer needed. Birth control and condoms may prevent teenage pregnancies but they will not stop the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases like HIV, syphilis and gonorrhea. When choosing birth control, parents and teens have options. There are daily, monthly and tri-monthly birth control solutions. Daily birth control pills are the most common utilized by teen girls trying to prevent pregnancy. The pills need to be taken at the same time every day, however, which can be difficult for some teen girls to remember.Parents can discuss birth control options with the family physician or gynecologist. The solutions proposed should be greatly considered by the government and schools, as they would pose to be great options in helping our teenage girls. Although the pregnancy rate amongst teens has decreased by two percent over the last ten years, PACE still enrolls 100 to 150 pregnant teens a year. The age group mostly affected by this epidemic are girls ages 14 to 15. We should be making moves to encourage our young girls to make smarter choices. Teen Pregnancy Teen pregnancy is a growing epidemic in the United States. Teen girls are becoming pregnant at an alarming rate, with a lot of the pregnancies planned. With television shows broadcasting shows such as â€Å"16 and Pregnant† and â€Å"Teen Mom†, it is giving teenage girls the idea that it is alright to have premarital sex and become pregnant. It is in a way condoning teen pregnancy. I am interested in discussing teen pregnancy and the options that are out there for the teens who find themselves in this situation. I don’t think enough is being done to educate or prepare these teens about how their lives will change in the event of pregnancy. I am especially interested in this issue, because I found myself in this very situation when I was just seventeen years old. I made the decision that was best for me at the time, but wasn’t given all the support I think I needed. I didn’t have anyone to talk to who was going through what I was at the time. I think that teenagers wanting to grow up too fast, peer pressure and television, both reality and fiction, all play a huge role in this problem. I think the answer to probably not solving this problem, but hopefully lowering the number of teen pregnancies is to better educate our teenage population. All in all, I would like to see teens better educated on teen pregnancy. Also to let them know if that is the situation they find themselves in, that there are options out there for them to choose from. There is someone for them to talk to and confide in about what they are feeling and how they want to proceed. There have been numerous surveys of adolescent sexual behavior, but their results have often been inconsistent. There is, however, general agreement about one point: Young people are having sex at an earlier age than they did a century ago. Although this change is just one part of an overall trend toward more liberal sexual attitudes and behaviors, it poses some special problems. In the erotically charged atmosphere of today’s society, young people are often confused about how to deal with their own sexuality. They see the overwhelming importance given to sexual attractiveness in the media-one study estimated that the average teenager ahs witnessed nearly 14,000 sexual encounters on television- yet they also hear their parents and religious advisers telling them that sex is wrong. As a result, many young people begin having sex without really intending to and without taking precautions against pregnancy. In the last decade or so, however, the growing awareness of the dangers of AIDS does appear to have contributed to a decline in the rates of sexual intercourse among teens. The Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that between 1991 and 2005 the percentage of teenagers who are sexually active dropped from 57. 4 percent to 46. 3 percent among males and from 50. 8 percent to 44. 9 percent among females. The rates of pregnancy, abortion, and sexually transmitted disease among teens have actually dropped even faster than the rate of sexual activity. So it appears that, in addition to postponing sex, teens are also becoming more responsible in their sexual activities. For example, the Youth Risk Behavior Survey found that 87. percent of teens were either abstinent or used condoms. Of course, that means that 12. 5 percent of teens were still having unprotected sex, but that is a significant improvement over past decades. Similarly, although the rate of teen pregnancy has declined, more than 11 percent of the babies born in the United States are still born to teenage mothers. Of sexually active teens, 63 percent reported using a condom during their last intercourse, and 17 percent say they used oral contraceptives, but that still means that 20 percent of sexually active teens had no effective protection against pregnancy. Why don’t more sexually active teenagers use contraceptives? In some cases, they may actually want to have a child, but most teenage pregnancies are accidental. Many teenagers are simply ignorant about sexual matters and believe such myths as â€Å"You can’t get pregnant the first time† or â€Å"You won’t get pregnant if you only have sex once in a while. † Teenagers are also influenced by parents and religious leaders who tell them to abstain not only from having sex but also from using birth control. Although birth control requires planning and forethought, it is easy to be swept into an unplanned sexual encounter in the heat of passion. Moreover, some teenagers feel that planning a sexual encounter is immoral but that if they are caught up in the heat of the moment and unable to stop, they can’t be blamed for their actions. Finally, teenagers often do not know how to get birth control devices or are afraid that their parents will get angry if they do. Teen Pregnancy Subject:Argumentative Synthesis Research Paper Sheltering the youth from birth control does not decrease the percentage of teen pregnancy but it fact helps initiate unprotected sex. The increase in teen pregnancy is due to, inadequate sexual education available to adolescents, lack of knowledge and resources for birth control, and the environment the individual grew up around. Research Questions Does providing adolescents with birth control increase teen pregnancy 1 Is there enough information on the consequences of unprotected sex easily accessible to today’s youth 2 Is the environment a teen lives in a factor of getting pregnant at a young age 3 Are parents willing to inform their child(ren) about the consequences about unprotected sex 4 Are parents more excepting about their child having sex if they know they are using protection 5 How does having condoms at easy access for teens result in unprotected sex Sources ttp://www. solutionsforamerica. org/healthyfam/teenage-pregna ncy. html http://www. escrh. eu/about-esc/news/young-people-report-high-levels-unprotected-sex-and-barriers-affecting-their-right-ob http://healthpsych. psy. vanderbilt. edu/condomConumdrum. htm * Write a brief paragraph here Three Supports for Thesis Statement * Teenage pregnancy and birth rates both dropped in the 1990s among all racial and ethnic groups.Increased use of contraceptives and increased abstinence * Teenage pregnancy is linked to several risk factors including: being poor, living in a single-parent household, child abuse, and risky behaviors such as drug abuse and early or unprotected sex * On average, only half of young people surveyed across Europe (55%) receive sex education in school compared to three quarters across Latin America (78%), Asia Pacific (76%) and the USA (74%) Arguments and Rebuttals * With the easy access of condoms there is more risk for teen pregnancy * Some positive aspects of providing condoms included that providing ondoms could reduce incidenc e of unwanted, teenage pregnancy and the spread of STDs. Secondly, a comprehensive sex education program including condom provision accepts the inevitability of adolescent sex and encourages students to make wise, â€Å"safe† decisions if they do have sex. * There is enough sexual education available to the adolescents in our society * Comprehensive health education or sexuality education that includes information on contraception; this may delay sexual initiation and increase contraceptive use.Youth development programs that include sex education along with other activities such as, volunteering, mentoring, and job training are associated with delayed first sex and lower teenage pregnancy rates * The environment that an adolescent is exposed to has nothing to do with the outcome of teen pregnancy * It was found in a study by the American Medical Association that â€Å"Teens who live in neighborhoods that have high levels of poverty, low levels of education, and high residen tial turnover are at a higher risk for teen pregnancy†(AMA,7).A similar study found that family factors also contribute to the rising rate of teen pregnancy. These include the income level of the family, as well as the family structure. Teens that were born to teenage parents are also more likely to become teenage parents themselves Reference Page Reising, Michelle. â€Å"Condom Conundrum: Should Condoms be Available in Schools?. † Health Psychology Home Page. Ed. David Schlundt. Vanderbilt University, n. . Web. 15 Nov. 2011. . â€Å"Teenage Pregnancy Prevention. † Solutions For America. Healthy Families and Children, n. d. Web. 15 Nov. 2011. . â€Å"Young people report high levels of unprotected sex and barriers affecting their right to obtain trustworthy information about sex and Teen Pregnancy On average, 700 girls are impregnated each year in The Bahamas. Twenty percent of these teen mothers have another child while they are still in their teens according to the president of the PACE Foundation, Sonia Brown. We are urging citizens to take a stand and educate our children about contraceptives and the irresponsibility and lack of knowledge that leads to teenage pregnancy. Most teens that have children find it harder to become a part of the work force because their time is more focused on their child.They are less prepared to enter the working world because they are ill prepared due to being forced to be adults at a young age. Thus, not completing school in most instances. When they enter the Job market these teens need assistance with day care and other services that they are often unable to afford due to their minimum wage Jobs that they barely qualify for. Unplanned teenage pregnancies can lead to higher high school dropout rates, higher rates of single parenthood, and lo wering scores in math and reading.Stopping teenage pregnancy requires a hands-on connection between parents and hildren, a good educational foundation, and unbiased resources. The COB Gazette is campaigning for: *Teaching Sex Education to Stop Teenage Pregnancy Government officials claim that their efforts to fght teenage pregnancy is that they already have parenthood sessions in government schools but those are not effective enough because we still have a large number of teenage pregnancies in The Bahamas today. Sex education starts in the home as well.Parents should begin introducing the subject of puberty and sex with their children at around age 5. At irst these discussions are more based on the relationships between the sexes. Schools also teach teens about the chances and effects of teenage pregnancies, though the approach will depend on each school. Teens have hormones raging through their bodies and often misunderstand how these hormones affect their choices about safe sex. Implementing a parenting class to become a part of the curriculum in Bahamian schools will help teach girls about the dedication and time it takes to be a teenage mother.The class should also include lessons on different ypes of contraceptives and birth control methods. *Providing Resources to Prevent In addition to teaching teens about teenage pregnancy, parents and school systems should provide a list of resources for teens that are contemplating having sex. These resources often include phone numbers to local support groups and locations where teens can pick up free condoms. Some school systems can even choose to hand out condoms as part of their safe sex services. *Birth Control and Teen Pregnancies Teenage girls can be placed on birth control to stop teenage pregnancies.This does not mean sexual education is no longer needed. Birth control and condoms may prevent teenage pregnancies but they will not stop the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases like HIV, syphilis and gonorrhea. When choosing birth control, parents and teens have options. There are daily, monthly and tri-monthly birth control solutions. Daily birth control pills are the most common utilized by teen girls trying to prevent pregnancy. The pills need to be taken at the same time every day, however, which can be difficult for some teen girls to remember.Parents can discuss birth control options with the family physician or gynecologist. The solutions proposed should be greatly considered by the government and schools, as they would pose to be great options in helping our teenage girls. Although the pregnancy rate amongst teens has decreased by two percent over the last ten years, PACE still enrolls 100 to 150 pregnant teens a year. The age group mostly affected by this epidemic are girls ages 14 to 15. We should be making moves to encourage our young girls to make smarter choices.

Resolving Ethical Business Challenges

1. What are the potential ethical issues faced by ACME Corp? Frank from ACME corp. is leveraging his personal relationship and offering bribes and kickbacks to Otis of Thermocare to increase purchase contracts. This could potentially be a large problem if Thermocare becomes aware of such practices. The purchase of product should be warranted w/ quality of products and price structures, not because it gets you tickets to baseball games and Cancun. If ACME is competitive, there is nothing wrong with these kick-backs. If there is a better option for Thermocare, however, and Otis is choosing ACME for kickbacks alone, this becomes an ethical problem. If other customers of ACME or general public discovered these practices, they could damage their infrastructure thru lost revenue or hurt their public image. Related reading: Disadvantages of Ethics in the Workplace 2.What should ACME do if there is a desire to make ethics a part of its core organizational values? If ACME wanted to adapt Ethics as part of its core organizational values, they should start in the same approach as the structure of the business, top-down. Amber may be Frank’s boss but does business no more ethical than Frank does. Instead of warning of ethical issues, she re-enforces the practice of bribing the client. Therefore, Amber requires ethical training as much as Frank does. Her manager likely needs Ethical training as well as anyone up the chain. 3.Identify the ethical issues of which Frank needs to be aware. Frank needs to be aware of ethical issues of bribery. He should understand that his personal reputation as well as ACME’s is at risk when conducting business in this manner. Frank should start by asking himself if Thermocare would be as interested in ACME’s product if Otis was not able to squeeze kick-backs out of Frank and Amber. Frank should also be aware that Amber, despite being his manager, is as un-ethical as Frank is. She specifically tells Frank that no one will find out about the funding for season tickets as well as the trip to Cancun. 4.Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each decision that Frank could make. The easiest thing Frank could do is continue the bribery, say by funding Otis’s night at the Adult Entertainment venue. This would keep Otis happy and coming back for more kick-backs. Otis, Frank, Amber and the rest of ACME corp. would materialistically benefit from this continued business practice. It is unknown whether or not Thermocare is benefitting from this relationship. It is clear, however, that someone is paying for this. The disadvantage of continuing this bribery is clear. If the kick-backs become exposed to the rest of Thermocare, the client may terminate Otis and further sales with ACME Corp. If the rest of ACME Corp. found out about Amber and Frank’s methods, there would likely be disciplinary action. Additionally, if this matter became public, Frank and Amber could have jeopardized ACME’s reputation and severely hurt future sales with anyone.

Vanguardia movement in cuba essays

Vanguardia movement in cuba essays The art of the Cuban culture goes back to prehistoric times, when the first traces where found in caves. This type of art was later labeled as folk art because of their nature and craftsmanship. During the 15th and 16th centuries the island was full of poverty and not much art streamed out. Painters from foreign countries flooded into Cuba saying it was the key to the new world. The Cubans came back in the 17th and 18th centuries when artists flourished and art became prominent, mainly through Francisco Javier Baez. In modern times there are 3 artists that are believed to be the most influential: Wifredo Lam, Victor Manuel Garcia, and Amelia Pelaez. Wifredo Lam was born in Havana, Cuba in 1887. In his early days as an artist his subject matter revolved around still lifes and landscapes of the places he traveled to with the Association of Painters and Sculptures of Havana. When he moved to Spain in 1923 his style shifted from realism to cubism and then to surrealism. He had his first exposition in 1939. His style in that exposition consisted of simplified shapes influenced by cubism and African sculpture. From the 1950s on he started focusing his art on graphic design and ceramics. The major features of his mature art are refined and bold designs, with a sensual violence and a personal vision of the primitive poet. In his last 30 years Lam has been the focus of a lot of retrospective expositions and his work is framed in tons of art galleries around the world. Once he moved to Paris, his focal points changed and he started painting women and women with their children, hinting into the era of feminism. Eventually, his art was u sed influence the practitioners of Santeria. Once he had been painting for many years, he started using dark, bold colors and his painting turned more erotic than before and more abstract. Victor Manuel Garcia was born in Havana, Cuba in 1897. Although he first started work...