Obamas budget plan Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Obamas budget plan - Essay Example Obama’s budget indicates that the country’s deficit will increase this year to its highest post-World War II level, and then gradually decrease over the decade. The article indicates, however, that it will remain at ‘troublesome levels’. Obama argues that his budget will save over $1 trillion by ending the previous administration’s tax cuts and by enacting a three year spending freeze. (the spending freeze won’t include spending on health programs, national security, and veteran’s programs) However, the article indicates that the savings are only, â€Å"one-fifth of the size of the debt that will pile up from now to 2020.† Major areas of change will occur in tax cuts. Large budget spending on military equipment will be supplanted by spending on education and civilian research. Taxes among oil companies and affluent citizens will rise. Small businesses, however, will see large amounts of tax reductions over the next decade. Spending will continue on the proposed health care system and energy infrastructure.. Food and drug research and biomedical technology will also receive increased funding. While NASA’s budget will be further reduced, spending on science will rise as the National Science Foundation will receive, â€Å"$7.4 billion, a nearly 8 percent increase from the budget last year.† While Republicans criticize Obama for the rising levels of debt, he argues that his administration will still maintain its goal of reducing the deficit in half before the end of his term in office. The article indicates that spending will necessarily rise as towards the end of the decade with large amounts of retiring baby boomers. Increasing health costs are greatly centered around the Department of Health and Human Services, and the National Institute of Health, both of which are receiving multi-billion dollar increases in funding. The article contends that a number of Obama’s proposed spending cuts may be difficult to enact in

Animism and Personification Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Animism and Personification - Term Paper Example These religions are given the term primal because of the animistic belief embodied in it (Super and Turley, p.18). Primal religions have a strong belief in animism and personification. Primal religions believe in the connection of all existence, whether it be humans, animals or even nature. In fact, nature is on the focal points of primal religion. Each being, each place, each object was reasoned to have a spirit, which is called anima. In such a manner, everything has a purpose, a reason for its existence. This is closely related to how people have lived centuries ago, in the time where hunting and gathering were the primary means of living. In primal religions, the distinction between good and bad is associated with misfortune and fortune. Long ago, people do not have the technology and knowledge that we have today that can explain illness, death and suffering. Although primal religions believe in a greater or supreme being, it also brings forth the belief in entities, deities and spirits that dwell among people and nature who can and may interfere with people’s lives when they desire to or when they are disturbed. With limited knowledge and the belief in animism and personification, the people do not have an explanation to the misfortunes they are experiencing except to use their primal religion as a way to understand their lives. With this, primal religion do not relate good and bad to natural or unnatural rather they relate good and bad to how they view their relation with the spirits and deities around them through their relation with other people and with nature. Nature has a very big impact in the way people lived. By taking care of their environment and essentially nature, people believed that they will be blessed by being given back plants, trees, fruits, crops and animals that will serve as their food, shelter and clothing. Good and bad became a distinction between taking care of the things around them versus destroying their environment. When something bad happens, such as a plague, people generally believe that they are being punished because they disturbed the balance or they believe that there was something they have done that offended the spirits, deities and other beings. With this, they try to turn things around through offerings and sacrifices, which are quite different from how we do it today. Another perspective of good and bad in the primal religion is the distinction between suffering and good fortune. When a person experiences suffering, it is related to something bad or evil. And when people, with this limited knowledge, no modern technology and with a belief in animism, look for a reason behind this suffering, they associate it with something bad or evil, which is related to the idea of the unknown. Anything that is unknown to them that causes misfortune, suffering or death is equated to bad or evil. But not all unknown is related to evil and not all known is related to good. The relation is based on their experience. For example, when there is an eclipse and something bad happens to them, like crops dying, they automatically associate this with something evil. When there is a shooting star, or in our knowledge now a meteor shower, and something good happens after it like animals migrating to their area, they automatically think that the meteor showers are something good. This association comes from the primal belief that all things are interrelated or intertwined. And this is because of the communitarian way the people of those ages lived (Sharma, p.4). The primal belief has another important characteristic, and that is the belief that people, animals and other things are held together by an ultimate nature and

Belfast Travellers: Services and Policies

Belfast Travellers: Services and Policies Case Study – Belfast Travellers The case study examines the provision of accommodation and other services for the travelling community in the Belfast area over a 30 year time period. During this time many different agencies, including the Department of the Environment (DoE), the Belfast City Council (BCC), the Northern Ireland Housing Executive (NIHE) and a number of voluntary sector organizations, were involved in attempting to provide services to the travellers. This essay will examine the degree to which the travellers participated in specifying their needs and in designing policies to address them, and relate such consultation to different concepts of participation mentioned by Cornwall (2003). The concluding paragraph will evaluate the success, or otherwise, of such participation in delivering a sense of empowerment and self-reliance to the travelling community. Although community development has been a strategy of both statutory and voluntary sectors in Northern Ireland (NI) for many years[1], until relatively recently it does not seem to have been applied to the travelling community. This process works at a community level, through community groups and the appointment of local community development workers who â€Å"engage with the community to identify needs, raise issues, and develop programmes †¦ to address those needs†.[2] Although this strategy was no doubt consciously applied to the settled community, there is little evidence of it being used before 1992 with the travelling community. For example, the initial issues for providing accommodation for the travellers involved the provision of camping sites. At the Colin Glen site there were problems of overcrowding, compounded by the relocation to the site of families unrelated to those already there, which caused conflict between the groups. A contributing factor to this dete rioration was the lack of consultation with the travellers before moving additional families to the site. The entire site was eventually abandoned[3]. Initially the BCC provided sites, but these were often poorly serviced and were built without proper consultation. Responsibility for providing accommodation for travellers was later moved to the NIHE, and travellers were consulted about which families would be housed in group housing, developed through the use of housing associations.[4] However, they were not active in the running of the housing associations.[5] A report from 1980 titled Services for Travelling People in NI, issued by the Coordinating Committee for Social Problems, stated that the various voluntary sector agencies involved with the travelling community felt that they had effective policies, even though there had been no consultation with travellers.[6] More encouragingly, the Belfast Travellers Site Project (BTSP) was set up in 1985 with a committee consisting of 50 % travellers and 50% settled people. Its aims were to improve sites in Belfast and to have an input into policies regarding travellers in general.[7] In 1992 BTSP initiated a number of community-based activities, and one of their most important initiatives was that travellers were employed to work as community workers in their own communities. This initiative seems to fall within Cornwall’s description of â€Å"invited participation†.[8] Amongst the successes of the community development approach, the committee felt it had contributed to â€Å"an increase in the travellers’ sense of worth and the value of their particular culture†.[9] The state also played its part in trying to create an environment in which citizens could give input about issues affecting them. More attention was given to a rights-based approach to development, and in 1998 the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission was established, which gave the travellers an opportunity to make official complaints.[10] This resonates with what the study guide has to say about the â€Å"concept of citizenship† [11] as well as with Cornwall’s concept of an â€Å"aware citizenry†[12] Probably the most important improvement in the possibilities for participation came from the creation of An Munia Tober ((The Good Road) in 2005, from an amalgamation of a number of smaller community groups. Their objectives are â€Å"to provide services and act as an advocate for travellers, as well as offering opportunities for travellers to be involved in their own development† [13] In general, the voluntary sector has been consistent in trying to encourage the travellers to share in decision making and to participate in the management of projects, and several agencies have included representatives from travellers. However, travellers still feel that there is insufficient consultation. Those that do participate often feel that their views are not given due weight. For this reason, groups that work with travellers continue to promote their active participation, and try to help them to obtain the skills they need to contribute effectively. A proposed â€Å"All Ireland study on Travellers†, due to have started in 2007, intended to train travellers as researchers. The intention was not only to teach new skills, but also to impart increased ownership, improve confidence, and thereby reduce any inhibitions against forcefully arguing their case. [14] The success or failure of the various interventions in obtaining participation from the travelling community, and thereby imbuing them with a sense of empowerment and self-reliance, is difficult to judge. Certainly, the failures to obtain input and participation resulted in notable disasters, such as at Colin Glen. The Traveller Movement (NI) concluded that there had been â€Å"a policy failure of staggering proportions† in the treatment of travellers in general.[15] However, the success of the NIHE in accommodating over 50% of the travellers in group housing, consulting with them about which families to house together, demonstrates that a participative approach can produce good results. The policies of the BTSP in employing travellers as community workers, and in involving greater numbers of travellers in educational and health related activities, have contributed to an improvement in their sense of worth. On balance, both the negative consequences of non-participation, and t he positive results from consultative approaches, tend to indicate that participation does contribute to a sense of empowerment and self-reliance. Bibliography Course Book Cornwall, A. (2003) Looking back to move forward in Cornwall, A. Beneficiary, Consumer, Citizen: Perspectives on Participation for Poverty Reduction, Stockholm, SIDA. Le Mare, A (2006) Belfast travellers: a case study of the provision of housing and services for the travelling community in Belfast Word Count: With footnotes:1065 Without footnotes:1006 1 Footnotes [1] Belfast Travellers, 2006: 7 [2] Belfast Travellers, 2006: 7 [3] Belfast Travellers, 2006: 9 [4] Belfast Travellers, 2006: 10 [5] Belfast Travellers, 2006: 15 [6] Belfast Travellers, 2006: 11 [7] Belfast Travellers, 2006: 11 [8] Cornwall, A. 2003: 76-7 [9] Belfast Travellers, 2006 12/13 [10] Belfast Travellers, 2006 14 [11] Course Book: 65 [12] Cornwall, A. 2003: 76 [13] Belfast Travellers, 2006: 16 [14] Belfast Travellers, 2006: 17 [15] Belfast Travellers, 2006: 13 Should The Governments Regulate The Internet? Should The Governments Regulate The Internet? In 20th centuries, number of net citizen is growing fast around the World. Survey conducted by Internet Usage Statistics shows that over twenty-five percent of world population are internet users [11]. Because of the internet popularizing trend, the importance of Internet censorship has also risen. As a result, I believe that the Internet should be regulated by the Governments. This article is going to discuss mainly three areas. They are social, economical and political. Exploring the advantages and disadvantages on implementing regulation on the Internet, by reviewing current situations between United States, China and Hong Kong, what regulation have been done on the Internet. I picked Hong Kong as my studied area, as it is my living place, it is necessary to be concerned. While Hong Kong is executing One Country Two System, my motherland China, carrying out one system only, is also reviewed in this article. United States, which is claimed to be a model country of advocate peoples freedom, is chosen for comparison as a role of foreign country. There would be different aspects and outcomes of regulating the Internet within these three countries. Followed by, my reason on supporting Government should regulate the Internet. Firstly, I am going to discuss social issue. Public health is one reason supporting regulation on the Internet. Nowadays, many pornography sites can be accessed easily by just clicking Im above 18.. Children would get sex and harmful information from these sites easily without parent guidance. Thus, Internet control has become important to protect children. In United States, Communications Decency Act (CDA), established in 1996, regulates on offensive and obscenity content [23]. For Hong Kong, there is also law for obscene and violence control. It is called Control of Obscene and Indecent Articles Ordinance (Chapter 390) [14]. According to South Sina News (2007), a Hong Kong netizen, Mr. Woo, was sentenced as he published obscene links on the Internet [13]. When compare to Chinese Government, they only have some agreements on Internet control, there is no a concrete law that the internet censorship should follows. Thus, internet censorship in China is mainly held by filtering systems , or firewall. A common blocking system in China would be Green Dam Youth Escort (Green Dam) [20]. It is designed to filter illegal contents. Start from May, 2009, the software is required to pre-install in personal computers produced by China. The system protects children from violence and pornography. Problem of cyber-bullying is also one factor affecting public health. It causes psychological harm to netizens. In America, Megan Taylor Meier was committed suicide because a friends mother, Lori Drew. She humiliated Megan. Drew created a male account named Josh Evans, and bully Megan on the Internet. After investigation, Lori Drew was caught. This is not the only case that would cause psychological harm. In Hong Kong, net citizens would post persons data on the internet when they think the person is misconducted. Privacy like phone numbers, address, working place, etc., is exposed. Daily lives of many victims are badly affected. They are afraid to be recognized outside home. Tsui Yu Hin [5] is one of victims in Hong Kong. He was insulted by netizens pushing his pregnant girlfriend down elevator. Netizens setup a facebook group blaming his misbehavior. This affair was interrupting Tsuis living, he kept receiving disturbing phone calls. Cyber-bullying would cause victims more depressi on, negative impact on working or academic performance, extreme violent behavior such as murder or committed suicide. To prevent cyber-bullying, American has established the Megan Meier Cyber-bullying Prevention Act, this is one of the first cyber-bullying laws that protects children and adults from disturbs. This is a case that showing netizens are needed to take consequences for what they have done on the internet. I believe it is a good way to lighten the problem of cyber-bullying. Chinese and Hong Kong Government should follow the actions taken of U.S. Secondly, the economy issue is discussed. Foreign-invested enterprise, such as Google, Yahoo, Facebook, etc., that are widely-used, has potential to strengthen the links between countries and global economy. Businesses such as mobile phones connecting Google, are being popular. Besides, companies can gain from owning the copyright. Protecting copyright would help providing a fair competition environment. As a result, Governments establish laws to accuse infringing on Copyrights currently, including film industry, music industry, etc., mainly related to creativity. One law in United States, Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) of 1999, [21], legislate the registration of domain names with trademarks. Though Hong Kong does not have same law, there is another potential law for protecting rights of trademark owners. The Intellectual Property Department [7] is set up to handle copyright, designs, personal intellectual properties and trademarks. Rules correlated to Trade Mark s Ordinance, Patents Ordinance, and Personal Data (Privacy) Ordinance are introduced to protect creativity and balance the interest of the right owners and society. CHAN Nai Ming, a Hong Kong citizen, was jailed as he uploaded Hollywood films onto the Internet, while it is violating the copyright. While in China, there is also copyright registry on the website of National Copyright Administration of the Peoples Republic of China [12]. It is clear that regulating internet by the Government could be beneficial to economy factor. Lastly, political issue is discussed. Sensitive contents, mainly related to religion and politics, are usually filtered. In United States, Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) was introduced on May 18, 1977. [22]. It limits foreign governments, groups, or individuals (e.g. spies), that would cause international terrorism, and attacks. It prevents citizens to perform illegal activities. In China, filtering is required for protecting citizen from misconduct contents. MySpace China is one of the samples applied filtering. [2]. Sensitive topics are filtered, for example, Taiwan independence. In MySpace China, there is an abused report function for users. Abused account would be block when found that the abuse is true. This could help catching illegal netizens. Chinese Government would even interfere in administration of company or limit individuals freedom. Huang Qi [10][18], a website owner criticized the role of government in the student massacre June 4th 1989 in his website. G overnment considered his website content as illegal, as a result, Huang Qi was arrested on 3 June 2000, and facts stated on his website were blocked. In 2009, thousands of protesters took to the streets in Xinjiang Riot. Officials reported that protesters made use of Twitter/Facebook to gather themselves in Xinjiang Province. Many unauthorized postings on local sites and Google were limited by censors during and after the riots. Based on BBC News, search engine Google was blocked by China [1][3]. It was because China requested Google to filter controversial materials but Google denied. As a result, there is no Google.cn found on the internet. This shows that, when filtering or blocking is carried out, information transmission is limited. This would be beneficial to the Government. By controlling the access right, negative information about the government can be blocked. By looking at the cases in China and America, they show that filtering and setting up laws can help protecting national security, keeping netizens away from getting offending information. However, on the Internet users point of view, filtering would have an impact on getting updated news because filtering may block more than expected. Lots of useful information may be blocked. The regulation is far from perfect. Though there is such disadvantage, I believe internet should still be regulated by the government. When compared the level of internet censorship between Hong Kong and China, it is less strict in Hong Kong. Net citizens in Hong Kong have rooms to criticize the Government on the Internet, which would help monitoring the Government. When Hong Kong Government was introducing 2012 Act Now, net citizens were teasing by creating similar slogan and logo 2012 All Wrong. Though the censorship level is lower, there are still laws managing the disciplines on the internet. According to Ming Pao Newspaper (2008), netizen spread the message Hong Kong will become a city of SARS [4][6]. Large numbers of people were frightened and thus bought and stored rice bulkily. The netizen was sentenced Access to computer with criminal or dishonest intent [9][24]. It shows that net citizens are still required to take responsibilities. To summarize, internet censorship would be beneficial on social, economical and political areas, protecting privacy and intelligence property, keeping social order and public health. It is clear that Internet-censorship is necessary as Governments in different countries are already taking actions to control the Internet. Despite the advantages, in my point of view, Governments should regulate the Internet because it is more effective to carry out the disciplines from top-down strategy. Followed by, having the cooperation from other roles, such as webmaster. To me, an effective regulation should extend to set up laws only. Citizens would know that he/she need to take consequence even on virtual world. Person violating laws would be arrested, where there is room for the freedom of speech on the Internet. In conclusion, regulation is beneficial on many aspects. It could help protecting privacy and intelligence property, keeping social order and public health. Though Internet censorship is a difficult task to perform, it is a necessary action taken.

life after 9/11 :: essays research papers

or most of us, airports are the only places where life has really changed since 9/11. The terminal has become a vast theater of the absurd where aspiring passengers line up halfway back to town. The shoes of little old ladies are gravely removed and inspected. Men in suits take their cell phones out of the bag and put their laptop computers into the bag—no, wait, cell phones in and computers out. Random passengers stand spread-eagled while strangers say to them softly, "Now I'm going to run my hands around your waist. Is that all right?" Somewhere unseen, a food-service worker is assembling plastic knives but metal forks in meals headed for first class. And all the while the public-address system hectors us to "report any suspicious activity." Many people, understandably skeptical about these quasi-religious rituals, have stopped flying instead. Others are thinking about moving out of New York and other big cities, and some have done so. These are responses more in keeping with the scale and drama of the episode that provoked them, but they may not make any more sense. David G. Myers of Hope College in Holland, Mich., calculated that terrorists would have to hijack 50 planes a year and kill everyone aboard before flying would be more dangerous than driving an equal distance. The steps we have taken to protect ourselves from terrorism (not counting the military effort to stop it at the source) seem either farcically trivial or farcically excessive. Is there a rational middle ground? Dealing rationally with the risks of terrorism is hard for several reasons. First, human beings are bad at assessing small risks of large catastrophes. And Americans are especially bad at this because we are Americans, and catastrophes are not supposed to happen to us. Our legal culture, our political culture and our media culture all push us toward excessive caution by guaranteeing that any large disaster will produce an orgy of hindsight. Lawyers will sue, politicians will hold hearings, newspapers and newsmagazines will publish overexcited revelations about secret memos that could be interpreted as having warned of this if held up to the light at a certain angle. Second, the actual risk of being a terror victim is not merely small—it is unknown and unknowable. Economists make a distinction between "risk" and "uncertainty." Risk refers to hard mathematical odds. Uncertainty refers to situations in which the odds are anybody's guess

Despite Their Cultural Differences Essay

Despite Their Cultural Differences, Do Jeanette From ‘Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit’ & Celie From ‘The Colour Purple’ Both Share The Same Struggle?  The cultural differences of the two characters are numerous and the implications far reaching. The austere but comfortable working class security of ‘Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit’, contrasts greatly with the urban squalor of ‘The Colour Purple.’ Even though there is such a massive social divide the two women share many similar struggles. Both women are struggling against the imposition and enforcement of belief systems and intolerant judgements upon them. In Jeanette’s life her mother mainly imposes her controlling and stifling religious views upon her. She feels press – ganged to the extent that ‘I had been brought in to join her in a tag match against the Rest of the World.’ The entirety of Jeanette’s early life is a moulding process, where she is forced to endure the influence of ‘enemies’ including ‘The Devil (in his many forms), Next Door, Sex (in its many forms), and slugs.’ Celie’s initial struggle takes on a much more chilling and darker tone. Her perspective comes from her being made to accept the role of a victim. Her stepfather tears away her basic human rights as he abuses her, ‘He start to choke me, saying you better shut up and git used to it.’ It is a constant challenge to achieve the recognition by others that she has nothing in her present, miserable existence.  Ã¢â‚¬ËœWhy don’t you look decent? Put on something! But what I’m sposed to put on? I don’t have nothing.’ One challenge faced by Celie is how to access a decent education, and further her basic skills. As she is seen as little more than a servant, her family believes that there is little need for her to further herself and grow.  Ã¢â‚¬ËœThe first time I got big Pa, took me out of school, He never care that I love it.’ In the initial section of ‘Colour Purple,’ the writing skills of Celie are very poor and reflect the poor education she has received. The entire opening diary entries are littered with colloquialisms and miss spellings, ‘Left me to see after the others. He never have a kine word to say to me.’ This often leads to the impression that the words of Celie are coming from an intelligent mind that does not quite have the tools to express itself properly. Later on in the novel, influenced by reading her sister’s letters and her own determination to succeed, she develops a much more fluid and sharper style, ‘Even thought you had the trees with you, the whole Earth. The stars. But look at you. When Shug left, happiness desert.’ It is still not writing of an educated woman, but a woman who is beginning to analyse her situation. The struggle of Jeanette’s education is never one that is based on literary or language deficiencies. From a young age she is encouraged to have a firm grasp of The Bible. Jeanette’s initial keeping away from school limits her to her mother for a source of information. This leads to Jeanette having a bizarre view on the world from a young age.  Ã¢â‚¬ËœMy favourite was Number 16, the Buzule of Carpathian.’  As Celie has been at the mercy of such extreme sexist views for the beginning of her life, and Jeanette at the mercy of religious ones, they both struggle not pass their misguided views on to others. When Celie is not successful in refraining from doing so, it has a profound impact upon Sofia. The insecurity and inadequacy of Celie forces her to offer advice to Harpo, which leads to domestic violence. Celie has become so use to ritualised violence that the promotion of it actually becomes a strange form of advice. Only the pathetic nature of her advice save s her friendship with Sofia. ‘She stood their a long time, like what I said took the wind out of her sails. She mad before sad now.’  Jeanette struggles not to pass on her misguided and often inappropriate religious views while at school. Her teachers are alarmed by religious maturity and obsessive views, ‘That’s not the point you have been talking about Hell to young minds.’ Her unintentional preaching of her mothers dogma scares the children, and marks her out for abuse, ‘And why, and this is perhaps more serious, do you terrorize, yes, terrorize the other children. This criticism eventually leads to the developing of awareness that she not teach her mother’s dogma.

Anti-discriminatory practices Essay

The purpose of this essay is to evaluate the impact of discriminatory practice on work with children and investigate the ways in which the needs of children can be met through a range of anti-discriminatory practices. What is discriminatory and Anti-discriminatory Practice? There are many different definitions of the above that can be used: â€Å"Any prejudice view or diverse treatment because of race, colour, creed, or national origin† (www. surestart. gov. uk) is seen as discriminatory practice along withAccording to Lindon (2004 p128) â€Å"Discrimination means behaving in an unfair way towards a person because of the way we have judged them. † There are two types of discrimination: Direct discrimination: This is treating someone unfairly compared to someone else in the same or similar circumstances; it could be as a result of their sex, race, marital status, disability, or age for example. Indirect discrimination: This when you are discriminated against in general because of a generalization that has been made without taking in each person’s situation into account. In order to challenge discrimination several laws, code of conducts and policies are in place. Discriminating against someone can be in the forms of labelling, stereotyping and oppression and all must be challenged immediately. (Miche. V 2004:128) Anti-discriminatory practice will ensure that â€Å"everyone has the same rights regardless of things such as family background, appearance, lifestyle, gender, race or medical history. † (Tassoni et al. 2000:11) In order to promote equality and anti discrimination early educators must follow relevant legislation, curriculum frameworks and official guidance.