Gender and sexuality Essay Example for Free

Gender and sexuality Essay Gender and sexuality has permeated the character of Latin American nations throughout history. Latin America has demonstrated examples of the manipulation of gender as a means of a nations government asserting its political and social control, and the history of the Cuban Revolution shows that Cuba is among such nations. Since its infancy in 1959 and through the 1990s, the Cuban revolutionary government has managed to achieve a well-documented history of oppressive practices that has made the Cuban government the subject of much worldwide criticism and scrutiny over the years. Among the root of this oppression is a commitment to political and social control along gender lines for a greater nationalistic cause. Not unlike other Latin American nations, gender roles as they are recognized in Cuba have been constructed and forcefully prescribed by the government. The citizens of the nation have been socialized to discern between masculine and feminine traits, as well understand why certain traits are desirable while others are not. These determinations have had far-reaching consequences in the cultural realm of Cuban society. Social circles are designed partly upon a person’s recognition of and adherence to specific gender roles. A part of the Cuban revolutionary government’s use of gender for political and social control is its attitude toward and relationship with male homosexuality. The systematic persecution of homosexuals in Cuba has been used by the state in an insular fashion against its citizens for the purpose of controlling them, but also as an outward political maneuver of serves to uphold national dignity and honor as part of a Cuban national identity that is to be recognized and respected throughout the rest of the world. In addition to this paper’s thesis being based on the Cuban revolutionary government’s use of gender and sexuality as a tool of political and social control, the notion of patriarchy is a theory that is central to this thesis. Part of Cuba’s national identity is the patriarchal nature of its government, which not only applies to the relationship between the state and its citizens, but also applies to the relationship between Cuba and other nations. Dominance and strength, two factors upon which patriarchy is based, are what Cuba stands to project to larger, more powerful nations as a symbol of an exalted position in the world. As discussed in the paper, Cuba’s patriarchal government uses its rejection of homosexuality outwardly as a tactic of resisting and rejecting the systems and ideals of nations that the Cuban Revolution finds itself to be fundamentally at odds with. Evidence of this can be found in works such as Ian Lumsden’s Machos, Maricones, and Gays: Cuba and Homosexuality. The arguments made in this paper are written around various primary documents that not only support the central thesis, but also serve as a base for extended discussion of certain elements that have contributed to a greater part of a nation’s history. One such element is the notion of gender roles and norms being defined and prescribed by the state, which in turn affects its society’s views. This includes the legal and penal mechanisms through which the prescriptions are upheld. Legal enforcement leads to a second element, which is nationalism as the motive for the state’s manipulation of gender and sexuality. This control of the Cuban people is part of a greater political agenda: ensuring the success of the Cuban Revolution. A part of this political maneuver is maintaining the honor of the nation and defending its worldwide image. A third and final element is the concept of cultures and governments undergoing change over a period of time. Such changes include the state’s gender-based ideas and prescriptions, as well as the catalysts for such change. These changes are ultimtately reflected in the attitudes of a nation’s people. The film â€Å"Fresa y Chocolate† is one of the primary sources that this paper is written around. Set in Cuba circa 1979, â€Å"Fresa y Chocolate† reflects the attitudes toward homosexuality that were the norm in Cuba during the first couple of decades of the Cuban revolution, and also depicts the government’s use of gender and sexuality to advance its own political agenda. What qualities make or do not make the revolutionary? What place does a homosexual have in the Cuban revolution? What is homosexuality supposed to mean to the communist youth? These are questions that â€Å"Fresa y Chocolate† raises and helps answer. The other primary documents that this paper is written around are the writings of controversial gay Cuban writer Reinaldo Arenas. This paper discusses some examples of the persecution that Arenas endured as a homosexual coming up during the Cuban Revolution. From physical attacks and censorship to arrests and imprisonment, Arenas symbolized to the Cuban revolutionary government the classic threat to the patriarchal state that the government feared and aimed to neutralize. Although writings from a persecuted homosexual in Cuba stand to possibly reflect certain biases, it is important to look at alternate points of view with the purpose of still supporting the basic arguments conveyed herein. For that reason, this paper will also discuss the works of writers such as Rafael L. Ramirez and Rafael Ocasio, who did not emerge from a situation similar to that of Arenas’s. Ocasio explains that Reinaldo Arenas initially expressed interest in the Cuban Revolution, having left home at the age of fifteen to become a guerilla fighter for Fidel Castro. (14) Arenas was rejected due to his young age and the fact that he had no firearms. His enthusiasm for supporting Castro eventually waned, however, and it was the sexual repression that Arenas encountered at his boarding school that began his discontent with the Castro regime. (17) Ocasio cites the reprisal that students faced if caught committing homosexual acts. In addition to expulsion, school officials also went as far as detailing the nature of student’s transgression in school records, thereby barring these homosexual students from other state-run schools. According to Ocasio, Arenas stated that arrest and incarceration could also result from certain instances of such activity. (17) This made Arenas aware of politically-related persecution of homosexuals as an adolescent. Systematic, state-sanctioned persecution of homosexuals is further exemplified by the nighttime roundups of homosexuals organized by Cuban police, a practice that traces back to 1961. The earliest documented case of this is known as the Night of the Three Ps (prostitutes, pimps, y pederasts). Gay playwright Virgilio Pinera was among those who were arrested. (Ocasio 24) These raids were purely politically-motivated, for as Salas explains, police targeted anything they found in these raids that appeared to be antisocial or non-conformist, including clothing or hairstyles deemed inappropriate. In support of this, Salas cites an instance in which a Young Communist League leader was arrested in one of the raids despite not being involved in any homosexual activity. Police targeted him because of his long hair, which was cut by authorities. The man was released once he confirmed his identity. (155) Homosexuals targeted in these raids were considered part of a greater antisocial element that the government sought to eliminate. Ocasio explains that while officials assigned prostitutes to schools where they could supposedly be rehabilitated, Castro stated that homosexuals would be barred from the possibility of having any influence in cultural life, schools, or the arts. (24) The aforementioned roundups of homosexuals organized by Cuban police had an affect on Cuba’s intellectual community, and was only one example of the Castro regime’s politically-inspired oppression. Various official statements were made by the Cuban government against homosexuals as part of a nationwide campaign promoting proper ethical policies that fostered acceptable revolutionary behavior. It was clear that writers such as Arenas and artists such as Pinera were not seen by the new regime as conducive to the political achievement to which the Cuban revolutionary government aspired. This is supported by Castro’s famous â€Å"Words to Intellectuals† speech, which Ocasio cites as the first official statement made by the Cuban revolutionary government that determined the boundaries within which revolutionary writers and artists were to operate: â€Å"What are the rights of writers and artists, revolutionary or not? In support of the Revolution, every right; against the Revolution, no rights. Homosexual persecution rooted in the Cuban revolutionary cause is indicative of the revolutionary government’s concept of what it referred to as the New Man. In Social Control and Deviance in Cuba, author Luis Salas discusses the state’s concept of the New Man as Cuba’s ideal revolutionary, which allows no place for a homosexual in the revolution. (166) According to Salas, such a question was clearly answered by Fidel Castro with the following statement: â€Å"Nothing prevents a homosexual from professing revolutionary ideology and consequently, exhibiting a correct political position. In this case he should not be considered politically negative. And yet we would never come to believe that a homosexual could embody the conditions and requirements of conduct that would enable us to consider him a true revolutionary, a true Communist militant. A deviation of that nature clashes with the concept we have of what a militant Communist must be. † Salas contends that to the Cuban revolutionary, the New Man represents strength, honor, and â€Å"connotes maleness and virility. †(166) Conversely, homosexuality is considered to represent weakness, a classically feminine trait. The strength needed to be a true revolutionary is something that the Cuban revolutionary government saw in the uncorrupted youth of Cuba. The youth of the nation was regarded by the state as â€Å"one of the most treasured possessions of the nation† that was expected contribute to the success of the revolution, and as such, was to be protected from â€Å"a group viewed as seducers of small children. †(167) This aforementioned political attitude with regards to homosexuals in relation to the communist youth of Cuba was reflected in the film â€Å"Fresa y Chocolate. † In the film, David is a young communist university student who initially views an older homosexual artist named Diego as someone who is to be avoided and not to be trusted. David’s roommate Miguel is even more militant in his revolutionary, homophobic stance, and resorts to using David to spy on Diego due to his belief that Diego is a danger to the revolutionary cause and thus cannot be trusted. Although Diego eventually befriends David, there is a mutual understanding between both characters of the dangers that such a friendship can pose to a young communist like David, and David makes it clear to Diego that they are not to be seen together in public. This depiction is indicative of the state’s effort to socialize its youth towards anti-homosexual sentiment by portraying homosexuals as political obstacles and enemies of the state in order to influence public opinion and sway political action in the government’s favor. As Leiner explains, homosexuality played a role in Cubas prerevolutionary tourism economy, for the widespread solicitation of male prostitutes by gay tourists contributed to the economy. Furthermore, the stratification of prerevolutionary Cuba also lured many heterosexual working-class men into the underworld of homosexual prostitution in order to earn a living. According to Leiner, the homosexual bourgeoisie largely controlled this underworld as did American organized crime, which managed the lucrative, but seedy occupational sector based on prostitution, drugs, and gambling. Such an aspect of prerevolutionary Cuban history is indicative of fears present among state officials in revolutionary Cuba, who perceived homosexuality as fertile ground for the re-emergence of American imperialism, the bourgeoisie, and classism in Cuban society. This is consistent with Lumsdens contention of revolutionary Cubas regulation of gender and sexuality in Cuba being a part of the state’s willingness to overcome underdevelopment and resist American efforts to prevent the revolution from succeeding. (xxi) According to Salas, gays were a remnant of capitalism in the eyes of the militant Cuban revolutionary. According to the Cuban government, the New Man was not motivated by the decadence and wanton lusts that characterize homosexuality, which the government believe was associated with the selfishness that marked capitalist societies. In a speech given on July 26, 1968, Fidel Castro characterized the revolution’s ideal New Man as possessing an altruistic and humanistic nature: â€Å"In a communist society, man will have succeeded in achieving just as much understanding, closeness, and brotherhood as he has on occasion achieved within the narrow circle of his own family. To live in a communist society is to live without selfishness, to live among the people, as if every one of our fellow citizens were really our dearest brother. † In addition to the idealism of Castro’s statement, there is also the character of the language behind his statement that is undoubtedly male as well as overwhelmingly exclusionary. The ideals promoted by Castro in the above excerpt can just as easily be prescribed to women for them to live by such ideals, but the â€Å"macho/socialist amalgam questioned whether male homosexuals could. †(Leiner 27) Leiner explains a study conducted by esteemed commentator Lourdes Casal, who analyzed the influence that the Cuban revolution had on Cuban literature. According to Leiner, Casal discovered a general disdain for homosexuals reflected in over 100 novels. Casal contended that the rejection of homosexuality was the rejection of femininity. Accusing a man of being a homosexual was to be considered an assault on that mans masculinity, and was considered synonymous with deeming that man a female who is devoid of strength and unworthy of holding power. (23) Such a meaning prescribed to the title â€Å"homosexual† underscores the nature of the Cuban governments patriarchal structure, in which power is directly associated with being a man both physically and sexually. Leiner also explains that in revolutionary Cuban society, the perception of homosexuality – and therefore, femininity – went beyond mere sexual preference. Physical weakness and lack of muscularity, a lack of interest in physical competition, the display of a quiet demeanor, or a gentle, nurturing or sensitive nature were enough to raise suspicion of homosexuality. According to Leiner, such qualities were perceived as weak and inferior, and therefore effeminate. The strong, abrasive, and competitive male was above suspicion of homosexuality. (22) The question of why homosexuals were perceived by the state as counter to the revolution remains partly unanswered. In addition to the Cuban government’s belief that homosexuals possessed undesirable qualities such as weakness, cowardice, and perversion, the state’s view of homosexuals as a danger to the institution that is the traditional family further compelled the state and the society it influenced to write homosexuals off as â€Å"antithetical to a socialist society. †(Leiner 25) Lesbian playwright Ana Maria Simo was jailed for four-and-a-half months in 1965 and also suffered shock treatment to correct her simply due to her associating with people who were suspected of being homosexual. She was not a lesbian at the time. She states that she and her friends were political individualists and anarchistic, and that is what bothered the government, not their being gay. (Ocasio 30) According to Leiner, lesbians were no cause of concern for the revolutionary government. Leiner states that Lourdes Casal found no mention, or even the vaguest hint of evidence of concern over lesbianism in either the pre- or post-revolutionary literary works that she analyzed. This is a manifestation of the Cuban government’s patriarchal structure in that the government’s complete absence of concern over the lesbianism in Cuba is indicative of the government’s â€Å"relegation of women as secondary, lesser others. (Leiner 23) Unlike homosexuals, lesbians posed no threat to the Cuban revolutionary cause, for the revolution never looked to women for signs of strength or power upon which the government could rely in order to ensure the success of the revolution. However, lesbians, even those who displayed overly masculine qualities, were still considered women just as homosexual males were, and both were deemed unqualified for revolutionary status by the state. Standards of gender and sexuality were prescribed and legitimized by the revolutionary state, thus criminalizing homosexuality. The government’s enforcement of its prescriptions has been carried out via formal as well as informal means. A prime example of a formal method of this enforcement is penal legislation. Such legislation involving homosexuality can be found in two sections of the Cuban statutes. In one section of the statutes, legislation involves the relation between homosexuality and the state’s concept of social dangerousness. Article 73 of the Cuban Penal Code regulates social dangerousness, and cites behavior deemed antisocial as its target. In Cuba, homosexuality has been legally deemed antisocial. (Salas 151) Lumsden cites the use of the word antisocial as a code to describe displays of homosexuality deemed ostentatious. (83) According to Salas, anti-homosexual legislation was considered a preventive measure, for the display of so much as even an attitude that authorities perceived as antisocial justified police intervention. (Salas 153) These laws stem from government fears, such as the fear of the threat that homosexuality poses to the traditional family structure. There is also the government’s fear of homosexuality hindering the success of the revolution, of which the fear of homosexuals corrupting the nation’s youth is a part. (Salas 154) The latter fear can explain homosexual males receiving much harsher punishments for having sex with underage boys compared to the punishments that males faced for having sex with underage females. (Lumsden 82) The fact that laws pertaining to homosexuality are in a section of the Penal Code that pertains to violations against sexual development and sexual relations that are considered normal is indicative of the state’s perception of homosexuality as a condition that is contagious and leads to pedophilia. For this reason, Article 317 also includes the act of propositioning an adult for homosexual sex in its permanent barring of convicted sex offenders from the teaching profession and any other field in which such an adult stands to have authority or potential influence over children. (Lumsden 84) Aside from the Cuban revolutionary government’s fears related to the issue of homosexuality, the eagerness of some government officials to enforce anti-homosexual law is also indicative of their determination to remain above suspicion of being homosexual for their own fear of legal and social reprisal at the hands of the government. Examples of this are provided by Reinaldo Arenas in his highly acclaimed autobiography Before Night Falls, in which he discusses various sexual encounters he had with homosexual government officials in Cuba. Arenas cited an incident in which a police officer with whom he had just had sexual intercourse actually arrested Arenas â€Å"for being queer. † â€Å"Perhaps he thought that by being the active partner he had not done anything wrong,† Arenas stated. This statement by Arenas is a clear reference to the commonly held perception of the active, penetrating partner in a sexual act between two men not being a homosexual because his dominant position is considered a product of masculinity and power. This perception is diametrically opposed to the perception of the penetrated partner, for this partner assumes a role that is subordinate to the dominant penetrator, thus representing the role of a woman. In Arenas’s aforementioned discussion of his arrest, he stated that at the police station, the arresting officer attempted to explain his arresting Arenas by falsely accusing Arenas of groping him. However, Arenas managed to prove the officer’s involvement in the homosexual act by quickly admitting to the other officers that he still had the officer’s semen on his body, thus making the officer the subject of much surprise and scorn from his colleagues and work superiors. As part of his account of this incident, Arenas alluded to the revolutionary government’s belief that it is not possible for a homosexual male to possess the qualities that makes a true revolutionary. At the same time, Arenas also made a reference to the belief of a homosexual male being equivalent to a woman: â€Å"They ended up saying it was a shame that a member of the police force would engage in such acts, because I, after all, had my weakness, but for him, being a man, there was no excuse for getting involved with a queer. † Because he managed to achieve a position as a police officer in the Cuban revolutionary government, which included a convincing display of the masculine traits that the Cuban government believed were instrumental to the composition of a true revolutionary, the police officer was undoubtedly a â€Å"man† in the eyes of the state, whereas Arenas was not. The engendering of the passive and active partner in homosexual intercourse is not exclusive to Cuban revolutionary society, however. In What It Means to Be a Man, Casper and Ramirez cite the bugarron, a term used in Puerto Rican society to describe a male who is always the one to penetrate the male partner, yet always considers himself heterosexual. The bugarron blatantly dismisses the notion of his partner’s masculinity, and confirms his partner as the â€Å"woman† of the situation by calling his partner names such as mujer, mami, mamita, or loca. (96) Furthermore, the bugarron’s â€Å"usage of sexuality is highly ritualized to conserve his manhood and avoid being questioned about it. †(Casper, Ramirez 97) The desire to only be a penetrator and never a recipient of penetration serves as a political metaphor. The perception of a penetrator as heterosexual and undeniably male is underscored by masculine traits such as strength and dominance. Pingueros, a name given to male prostitutes in Cuba who only penetrate and refuse to be penetrated, represent the conquering of foreign bodies when solicited by gay tourists. (Chant, Kraske 139) This representation mirrors the notion of Cuba not just fending off but successfully invading and â€Å"screwing back† the imperialist, capitalist nation that has – or might wish to – exploit Cuba for its own self-interests. Just like the concept of prescribing gender to an active and passive partner in sexual intercourse between two men was reached over time by way of changing attitudes, beliefs, and perceptions, attitudes and behaviors toward homosexuality in general changing over time is also to be considered. Cultures are not static; they change over time, as do the notions of gender and sexuality in a culture. (Casper, Ramirez 27) Over the past decades, Cuba has witnessed a certain degree of change in attitudes and actions toward homosexuality on behalf of Cuban society at large as well as on behalf of the state.

Study On A Skills And Learning Statement

Study On A Skills And Learning Statement The purpose of this statement is to summarize and reveal what I have learnt from working on this project and the skills gained from it. This statement is to conduct a self assessment of my research work and to show my strengths and weakness on my findings. The skills and learning statement is also important because it shows how RAP is prepared and it is necessary in order to achieve BSc. (Hons) graduate degree. The SLS is based on four questions: What I learned from the meetings with my Project Mentor, including the presentation that I gave to my Project Mentor. Before I made the decision to work on the research and analysis project, I made sure that I went through the other topics carefully. The main reason for my decision was because, I found that, the research and analysis project was straightforward. I learnt several things from the meetings with my mentor but the most positive of them all was that I realised I am a self-directed learner. The First Meeting Before walking into the first meeting with my project mentor, I made sure that I had with me a pen and a journal. The benefits of a journal are countless but the main reasons that I decided to keep one at hand were so I could write down any questions I may have to ask my mentor and jot down brief notes from discussions or conversations that we would have. From the very first meeting, my mentor introduced and emphasised on self-directed learning. He explained the impact it would have on my development, knowledge and skills and because of this; I decided to find out what my learning style is. Throughout all the meetings, I worked alongside other students; we discussed the importance of time and different ways in which we could use the time we had in meetings usefully. The discussions I had with my mentor were mainly based on my thoughts and ideas. He asked me how I felt about my ideas, how would I incorporate my ideas into my project and if I thought they were of a high-quality. One important issue that I learnt about was time. When I walked in for my first meeting I was a few minutes late and because of this, my mentor started working with another student. I realised from this incident that I would have to manage my ACCA studies. My mentor made clear the importance of time management and how it would affect my report if I did not allocate my time correctly. Because I was not always punctual, I lost a lot of time and a lot of my research ended up being conducted in a small space of time. Another point that my mentor constantly stressed upon throughout the meetings was critical evaluation and critical analysis. To give myself an idea about critical evaluation, I took it upon myself to read material that was critical. Once I had read the material, I read through my own report and found that it needed critical analysis aspects. I found myself modifying it on countless times and was very aggravated when I realised I hadnt referenced it accurately either. I decided to read up on some research books and began adjusting my report. The Second Meeting The second meeting consisted of discussions about my ideas and research. Throughout the meeting my mentor encouraged me talk about my ideas and this helped me make informed judgements. I believe researching information is a lot more beneficial because I felt like I was doing everything myself instead of having handouts and websites in front of me. The Third Meeting By this meeting, I had almost finished my project. I approached my mentor to organize the third meeting. In that meeting, the mentor identified my mistakes and other weaknesses in the report. I asked him how I could remove those mistakes and improve on the weaknesses. When he explained those to me, I noted down the points to ensure my projects was perfect. This helped me to improve the RAP further. The Fourth Meeting The Fourth meeting consisted of a PowerPoint presentation; I was excited about it as I had not done a presentation like that in the past. Before I started preparing the presentation, I checked up online how to use Microsoft PowerPoint and prepared a practise presentation. Overall, I feel like I learned a substantial amount of information from the meetings with my mentor. They provided me with different opportunities to discuss my ideas and thoughts and let me experience something new. The fourth and final meeting ended with my mentor asking me what I would say to prospective students about the research and analysis project. What I would say to prospective students would be that when I started this project, I wasnt very eager about independent learning but by the end of it I found myself appreciating it more and more. I value learning new things and like discussing new ideas with others and from the meetings, I feel a lot more confident and ready to take on other projects. How well I felt I answered the research question? I believe I answered the research question very well however it is important to understand that because I only had secondary data and no primary data, my analysis and evaluation was solely based on that. I do believe though that if I had access to Morrisons intranet and was able to evaluate both customer and employee opinions then my answer would have been in more depth and my data would have also been more reliable. It is important to take into account that if I did have approval to access the companies intranet, to collect primary data, that it would have taken me a lot more time, time that I could not really lose. Moreover, I believe that at the moment my skills of acquiring primary data and conducting primary research are not quite satisfactory. The main source of information that my data was based upon was Morrisons and J Sainsburys plc Annual reports of 2008, 2009 and 2010. In order for me to have answered the question in more depth, I would have needed multiple sources of data from one particular source that would have established my findings to be correct. I believe that with time I will improve my skills however it is important to remember that there will always be limitations when it comes to collecting information. In general, I believe that my answer was reasonable and that my research report was informative. How I demonstrated interpersonal and communication skills during the project work. I demonstrated my interpersonal and communication skills in many different ways during the project work. When writing my report, I made sure that it was clear and concise. I read through it to take care that it had a rational flow of arguments and that it was logical. One important point that I kept it mind was that I only included relevant facts as there was a word count that needed to be adhered to. I found this a little difficult as I had a tendency to write on about unrelated facts that didnt answer the question. When speaking in front of my mentor and fellow students I felt that no-one had any difficulties understanding me and I had no trouble understanding the feedback given by my mentor to me. One problem that I found was that, when asked about my feelings and ideas, I wouldnt express myself effectively, to resolve this issue I started writing questions in my journal so that I could ask my mentor and get the answer that I needed. By doing this, I got the answer that I needed and my ideas and thoughts were cleared as well. From the discussions with my mentor and students, I realised that it is very important to ask the right question as this helps obtain more information for both the other students and myself and helps the mentor understand that everyone understands. Another way in which I demonstrated my interpersonal and communication skills was by showing that I was listening to both my mentor and other students. I believe that by listening and giving everyone a chance to voice their opinions helps build good relationships with others. Listening is all about decoding and receiving information. Through my mentor meetings, I learnt that effective listening not only helps reduce the effect of noise distortion, but it resolve problem by encouraging understanding from someone elses view point. However I did realise that by not showing that I understood verbally may have gave my mentor the idea that I did not understand the answer he gave me, in order to prevent this I started to give him eye contact and replies rather than nodding my head. The PowerPoint presentation was the next stage, I was very excited about it however as it was my first I practised it many a times in front of friends, family and also by myself as I decided to memorise the whole presentation. I realised that this was very difficult later on as I started to forget some points, however I remembered that when I looked through the websites for help that they had recommended speaker notes for referencing. This helped a lot and I was able to give an informative presentation to my mentor. I believe that the other students had no trouble understanding me as I had no trouble understanding them. If any of the students had a problem then we were able to discuss our concerns and help each other. I demonstrated my interpersonal skills by showing respect to the other students and to my mentor. I know I can further improve my skills and by doing this it will benefit my academic studies and employment position. How has undertaking the RAP helped me in my accountancy studies and my employment role? I have found many differences in the reflective and analysis project and my ACCA studies. ACCA is formerly based on lectures and giving an exam which is based on the knowledge acquired on a particular subject. RAP on the other hand only required me to use the knowledge and skills that I had and use them accordingly. By becoming an independent learner I have realised that I can obtain information without attending lectures. As my mentor never instructed me to do anything I was forced to research and use my already acquired skills and knowledge. In my past ACCA studies I was to memorise concepts and ideas and then apply them where necessary but now that I have completed this report I am able to combine my own knowledge and skills with it. This is very important and also a very useful to skill to behold, one which I will be using in future exams. Finally, I believe that the knowledge and skills I have acquired from completing this report will not only help improve my career prospects by opening avenues which were previously outside my realm of opportunity but will also help in my personal life.

Ella Baker :: essays research papers

Ella Baker Ella Josephine Baker was born in Virginia, and at the age of seven Ella Baker moved with her family to Littleton, South Carolina, where they settled on her grandparent's farmland her grandparents had worked as slaves. Ella Baker's early life was steeped in Southern black culture. Her most vivid childhood memories were of the strong traditions of self-help, mutual cooperation, and sharing of economic resources that encompassed her entire community. Because there was no local secondary school, in 1918, when Ella was fifteen years old, her parents sent her to Shaw boarding school in Raleigh, the high school academy of Shaw University. Ella excelled academically at Shaw, graduating as valedictorian of her college class from Shaw University in Raleigh in 1927. After her graduation from Shaw University, Baker migrated to New York City on the eve of the Great Depression, determined to find an outlet for her intellectual curiosity and growing compassion for social justice. She was deeply moved by the terrible conditions she witnessed on the streets of Harlem during the 1930s; scenes of poverty, hunger, and desperation. The first political organization she joined after moving to Harlem was the Young Negroes Cooperative League (YNCL), founded by writer George Schuyler in December 1930. The expressed purpose of the group was to gain economic power through consumer cooperation. The YNCL was headquartered in New York City. In 1931 Baker was elected to serve as the group's first national director. Another important experience that helped to shape Baker's evolving political consciousness during the Depression was her employment with the Workers Education Project (WEP) of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a program designed to equip workers with basic literacy skills and to educate them about topics of concern to members of the work force. During the 1930s, Baker also began to grapple with the issue of women's equality and her own identity as an African-American woman. She supported and worked with various women's groups, such as the Women's Day Workers and Industrial League, a union for domestic wo rkers; the Harlem Housewives Cooperative; and the Harlem YWCA. Baker refused to be relegated to a separate "woman's sphere," either personally or politically. She often participated, without reservation, in meetings where she was the only woman present, and many of her closest political allies over the years were men. Similarly, in her personal life Baker refused to comply with prevailing social norms about women's place or women's behavior. Ella Baker :: essays research papers Ella Baker Ella Josephine Baker was born in Virginia, and at the age of seven Ella Baker moved with her family to Littleton, South Carolina, where they settled on her grandparent's farmland her grandparents had worked as slaves. Ella Baker's early life was steeped in Southern black culture. Her most vivid childhood memories were of the strong traditions of self-help, mutual cooperation, and sharing of economic resources that encompassed her entire community. Because there was no local secondary school, in 1918, when Ella was fifteen years old, her parents sent her to Shaw boarding school in Raleigh, the high school academy of Shaw University. Ella excelled academically at Shaw, graduating as valedictorian of her college class from Shaw University in Raleigh in 1927. After her graduation from Shaw University, Baker migrated to New York City on the eve of the Great Depression, determined to find an outlet for her intellectual curiosity and growing compassion for social justice. She was deeply moved by the terrible conditions she witnessed on the streets of Harlem during the 1930s; scenes of poverty, hunger, and desperation. The first political organization she joined after moving to Harlem was the Young Negroes Cooperative League (YNCL), founded by writer George Schuyler in December 1930. The expressed purpose of the group was to gain economic power through consumer cooperation. The YNCL was headquartered in New York City. In 1931 Baker was elected to serve as the group's first national director. Another important experience that helped to shape Baker's evolving political consciousness during the Depression was her employment with the Workers Education Project (WEP) of the Works Progress Administration (WPA), a program designed to equip workers with basic literacy skills and to educate them about topics of concern to members of the work force. During the 1930s, Baker also began to grapple with the issue of women's equality and her own identity as an African-American woman. She supported and worked with various women's groups, such as the Women's Day Workers and Industrial League, a union for domestic wo rkers; the Harlem Housewives Cooperative; and the Harlem YWCA. Baker refused to be relegated to a separate "woman's sphere," either personally or politically. She often participated, without reservation, in meetings where she was the only woman present, and many of her closest political allies over the years were men. Similarly, in her personal life Baker refused to comply with prevailing social norms about women's place or women's behavior.

Ancient Near East :: World History

Ancient Near East Millions of years ago the procreant low lands in the river basins of Euphrates and Tigris was probably the home of some animal life, but no great civilizations. However, things change over time, and just a few thousand years ago the same fertile low lands in the river basins of Euphrates and Tigris became the home of a very rich and complex society. This first high society of man was located in what some still call "Mesopotamia". The word "Mesopotamia" is in origin a Greek name meaning "land between the rivers." The name is used for the area watered by the Euphrates and Tigris and its tributaries, roughly comprising modern Iraq and part of Syria. South of modern Bagdad, this alluvial plain was called the land of Sumer and Akkad. Sumer is the most southern part, while the land of Akkad is the area around modern Bagdad, where the Euphrates and Tigris are closest to each other. This first high, Mesopotamian society arose as a combined result of various historical, institutional, and rel igious factors. The reality of these factors occurring at a specific place within the fabric of space / time indeed established the basis for this first high civilization. Items like irrigation, topography, and bronze-age technical innovations played a big part along with the advent of writing and the practice of social conditioning (through the use of organized religion) in this relatively early achievement of man. The factors of irrigation, inherent topography, and useful bronze-age technical innovations paved the way for the agricultural revolution to occur in the land of Sumer and Akkad. The people of the Tigris and the Euphrates basin, the ancient Sumerians, using the fertile land and the abundant water supply of the area, developed sophisticated irrigation systems and created what was probably the first cereal agriculture. This historical factor resulted in an excess of production of cereals, dates, and other commodities. The consequence of excess is the emergence of a productive peasant agricultural system and a redistributive economy that fuels the progress of civilization. Without a doubt, the Sumerians were highly innovative people who responded creatively to the challenges of the both the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Not just any spot on the planet is a good prospect for irrigation, and it is the topography of the land and the intelligence of the people that allowed efficient irrigation systems to develop.

Dangers Behavior Exposed in Death of a Salesman Essay -- Death Salesma

Dangers Behavior Exposed in Death of a Salesman      Ã‚   Everyone has personal problems that they must face. In the play, Death of a Salesman, the author, Arthur Miller, explores the ways in which some people deal with these problems. Miller reveals Willy Lowman’s tendency to ignore problems as long as possible.   Willy never really does anything to help his situation; he just uses flashbacks to escape into the past.  Ã‚   Through his flashbacks he returns to happier times when problems were scarce. He uses this escape mechanism as if it were a harmless drug that allowed him to cope with living. As the play progresses, the reader learns that even a harmless drug can be dangerous because of the potential for addiction. The first time Willy is seen lapsing off into the past is when he encounters Biff after arriving home. The conversation between Willy and Linda reflects Willy's disappointment in Biff and what he has become - a bum. After failing to deal adequately with his feelings, he escapes back into a time when things were better for his family. It is not uncommon for someone experiencing a low point in life to reminisce about better times.   This enables him to rouse himself so that he can deal with the problems he encounters in the present. Willy Lowman takes it one step further. His refusal to accept reality is so strong that, in his mind, he is transported back in time to relive the happier days of his life. It was a time when Willy and Linda were younger, no one argued, the financial situation was less of a burden, and Biff and Happy enthusiastically welcomed their father back home from long road trips. After a flashback, Willy's need for the "drug" is satiated and he is reassured that ev erything will turn out okay, and th... ...and disillusioned sons. Works Cited Field, B.S.   â€Å"Death of a Salesman† Twentieth Century Literature.   January, 1972. 19-24.   Rpt. in World Literary Criticism.   Ed. Frank Magill.    â€Å"Arthur Miller† Detroit: Gale Research, 1992.   2366-2368. Hoeveler, D. J.   â€Å"Ben’s Influence.†Ã‚   Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman: Modern Critical Interpretations.   Ed. Harold Blum.   Philadelphia: Chelsea House, 1988. 72-81. Magill, Frank.   â€Å"Death of a Salesman.†Ã‚   Master Plots.   Englewood Cliffs: Salem, 1976.   1365-1368. Miller, Arthur.   Death of a Salesman.   New York: Penguin, 1969. ---.   Conversations With Arthur Miller.   Jackson: Mississippi UP, 1987. Parker, Brian.   â€Å"Point of View in Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.†Ã‚   Arthur Miller: A Collection of Critical Essays.   Ed. Robert Corrigan.   Englewood Cliffs:   Prentice Hall, 1969.   98-107.

Persuasive Advertising Essay

Advertising plays an important role in our diverse, media-saturated world. It surrounds our everyday lives. It is in everything we do, whether we are looking for a number in the phone directory, taking a ride down a road, or watching TV. According to Jamie Beckett’s article in San Francisco Chronicle, â€Å"The average U. S. adult is bombarded by 255 advertisements every day–100 on TV, 60 in magazines, 50 on the radio, and 45 in newspapers† (Beckett). More recently, Advertising Age estimated that the average American sees, hears, or reads more than 5,000 persuasive ads a day, which means that there is almost nowhere we can avoid their presence. Today, ad agencies spend more than $300 billion in the United States and $500 billion worldwide on advertising. Therefore, we can acknowledge that advertising is created in a results-oriented perspective that will increase companies’ and organizations’ profits in the forms of purchases, donations, votes, joinings, etc. This perspective can be achieved by using manipulative and persuasive techniques in advertising that would get people’s attention. These messages appear in many formats–print and electronic, verbal and visual, logical and emotional. As Stuart Hirschberg wrote in his essay â€Å"The Rhetoric of Advertising†, â€Å"The most common manipulative techniques are designed to make consumers want to consume to satisfy deep-seated human drives. In purchasing a certain product, we are offered to create ourselves, our personality, and our relationships through consumption† (Hirschberg 229). Thus, we all become the targets of this form of persuasion that uses pathos, positive images, and/or deceptive language to influence our needs, interests, and decisions. The ad from Martha Stewart Living magazine shows its readers a new Honda CR-V automobile. Also, the company at the same time introduces its new campaign called the â€Å"Leap List† to the magazine’s primary audience that mostly consists of women ages 25 to 45. This campaign encourages people to make a list of the desired things they want to accomplish before the major event happens in their lives, such as the birth of their children. As we see, the ad is mostly aimed at younger consumers of the magazine who are looking for a better appearance of the car and new opportunities in their lives. The company offers to achieve these things with its new CR-V automobiles by using some of the aforementioned influential techniques, such as pathos, visual arts, deceptive claims, and weasel words in order to get viewers’ attention, establish credibility and trust, stimulate desires for the product, and the most important, motivate the audience to buy it. Pathos is the most powerful and effective tool in advertising. As stated by Hirschberg, â€Å"The emotional appeals in ads function exactly the way assumptions about value do in the written arguments. They supply the unstated major premise that supplies a rationale to persuade an audience that a particular product will meet one or another of several different kinds of needs† (Hirschberg 229). Due to the fact that human beings are initially emotional creatures who are more likely to be persuaded by emotions and feelings, and then rational by thinking and reacting, advertisers use both positive and negative emotional appeals to force and influence our minds. One of the ubiquitous emotional appeals in advertising is the use of the â€Å"you† word, which is supposed to address the message to each individual. In its ad, Honda uses the â€Å"you† word five times by making the ad more personalized and stressing consumers’ personal benefits from purchasing the company’s new car. In my opinion, Honda evokes positive as well as negative emotional appeals in its ad. There is an orange, bold title in the ad that says Before I have kids I want to and then there is an illustrated list of ten goals. It includes flying a plane, rock climbing, skyaking, sailing, running a marathon, learning to scuba, mountain-cycling, learning to pick the banjo, marching in a Mardi Gras parade, and taking up archery. As the viewer, I can say that this list catches my eyes because the goals in the ad are interesting and they make me feel enthusiastic and excited. In my opinion, Honda demonstrates our freedom and variety of opportunities that we can achieve by doing the things that we enjoy and like. After reading and seeing these examples, the audience starts to visualize its own desires and the ways of achieving their personal goals. The ad makes us feel motivated and excited about pursuing our dreams and wishes. On the other hand, the company persuades its readers to think and feel guilty of wasting their time and not achieving the things they want the most. That is why the company offers its all-new, 31-mpg-highway Honda CR-V that would deliver the potential buyers to wherever they want to go and whatever things they want to accomplish. In our modern world of technologies and computers, advertisers have recourse to artistic design, computer graphics, high-tech artistry, special effects, digital sounds, and computer animation that can help them to get various kinds of viewers’ attention. A study made by the University of Georgia has found that exposure to visual art in advertising, even if the exposure is fleeting, makes consumers evaluate products more positively. According to Henrik Hagtvedt, the artist and one of the researchers of this study, â€Å"Visual arts have historically been used as a tool for persuasion. It has been used to sell everything from religion to politics to spaghetti sauce to the artist’s image† (Hagtvedt). The same strategy can be observed in the Honda CR-V automobile ad that consists of many bright, positive images and bright colors. The color of the presented car is shiny Metallic Silver that typifies elegance, patience, modesty, and reliability. According to Pat Bertram’s article â€Å"What the Color of Your Car Says About You†, â€Å"People who drive silver vehicles have above average confidence about the course of their lives, and they also have consistent mood† (Bertram). Besides, this color is unisex and suits both females and males. Another visual attention-getting feature in the ad is tinted car windows. What is this for? In my opinion, advertisers make our eyes focused on the car itself rather than the interior or background and they try to accentuate the look of the vehicle. The tinted car implies the feeling of security and privacy that is becoming very popular in the modern society. Also, the direction of the car heading towards the illustrations of the goals from the Leap List emphasizes the company’s statement of helping viewers to achieve their aspirations. Another widespread element of reaching and influencing the audience is the use of weasel words and ambiguous language. Asking personal questions in ads shows us one of the deceptive techniques in language used in advertising. The question used in the Honda CR-V ad leaves its readers wondering about the answer. â€Å"What are you waiting for? † asks the ad, the question that viewers usually cannot answer. The tactic of asking the rhetorical question provokes curiosity and creates interests that make people think, desire, and visualize themselves having the product. Another kind of common deception in ads is the use of weasel words. The frequency of using the weasel words can be observed not only in politics but in advertising as well. According to Hirschberg, â€Å"Of all the techniques advertisers use to influence what people believe and how they spend their money, none is more basic than the use of so-called weasel words that retract the meaning of the words they are next to just as a weasel sucks the meat out of egg† (Hirschberg 232). As the target audience, we repeatedly see, read, or hear such weasel words as helps, free, virtually, like, new, as much as, faster, or better. These ambiguous words allow persuaders to say something without really saying anything and make us believe in the importance of purchasing their products. The ad in Martha Stewart Living magazine states that the company’s new technologically advanced, up-for-almost-anything new Honda CR-V automobile was built to help us check off every last item from our leap lists. By using the word â€Å"helps†, Honda offers a solution and aid to the consumers’ problems, but in reality the company promises nothing really concrete. So the word â€Å"helps† lets the companies escape from its supposed promises. At first sight, advertising seems to be relatively simple in structure, format, and availability, but its content and depth is complex. Hirschberg said, â€Å"Whether ads are presented as sources of information enabling the consumer to make educated choices between products or aim at offering memorable images or witty, thoughtful, or poetic copy, the underlying intent of all advertising is to persuade the specific audience† (Hirschberg 227). After reading â€Å"The Rhetoric of Advertising†, I learned that pathos is a very powerful and influential approach in advertising. I also started to analyze the details used in ads because all of them have different purposes. It is very helpful to know the techniques advertisers use to get our attention as well as the ways they apply the language and visualization. Personally, I started to pay more attention to colors that advertisers use in ads because each of these colors has its own definition and characteristic that can influence our perceptions of the images. As we may observe, advertisers do not waste any inch of the ad space on adding unnecessary information, but they also do not provide all specifics and features about their products. That is why, as the primary audience, we should be more skeptical and questionable of what we see and want to buy. In the ad created by Honda, we can see pathos, bright images, and claims that can attract the potential buyers’ attention. John O’Toole, the former president of the American Association of Advertising Agencies, believed that the consumers should be at the center of the process, and that the only kind of language either verbal or nonverbal effectively persuades the consumers as an individual. As discussed earlier, disclosing people’s desires and making the personalized ad makes this Honda ad from Martha Stewart Living magazine more attractive and memorable to the viewers. Advertisers also used the persuasive language that we can observe in the ad in the forms of weasel words and question claims. Overall, I found this ad well made and interesting to analyze because it consists of different influential and persuasive techniques that we can determine after reading Stuart Hirschberg’s essay â€Å"The Rhetoric of Advertising. †

Computerized Teachers Evaluation System

With the long history of Chinese civilization and education, formal teacher practice is quite new because for century’s teachers’ authority and power over their students cannot be challenged. Historically, learning was the major concern of education, but during the past decades, teaching quality has become an added concern of education. There are three reasons for evaluating teachers: to diagnose and help teacher improve teaching, to help students get better teaching quality and to provide a criteria for research on teaching itself. Efforts have been made by government and educators to improve teaching quality in theory and practice. Verities of book have introduced foreign evaluation theories and many articles have contributed to the theoretical and practical improvement of Chinese teacher evaluation system. However, there is no systematic record of the development of teacher evaluation process. Therefore, exploration into the development of teacher evaluation, its reform and problem become necessary and significant. In common, teachers are evaluated by students and administrators synthetically. The students’ evaluations are used as formation to help teachers improve their classroom training and activities, in–service students complete these evaluations at the end of their program, while pre-service students complete these evaluations each semester. With both single-choice and open-end questions, these evaluations are similar to all colleges. These evaluations by students are analyzed, and teachers are given a copy of the analysis, if several students make similar complaints about a teacher or about the way of course in taught, the teacher in question gets immediate feedback from his or her supervisor. The administrative evaluations are completed by the supervisor who is the training manager. These evaluations are done every semester. Statement of the Problem This study of the proposed â€Å"Computerized Teachers Evaluation System† (CTES) covers method, procedures and problems which correlate to the teacher’s evaluation. The main problem of this study is how to design, develop and implement a Computerized Teachers Evaluation System. The current system is not efficient to ensure its validity because these CTES are done manually. Specifically this study aims to answer the following common problems encountered during and after the evaluation: 1. Is there a need for computerized teachers evaluation system? 2. What are the common problems encountered during and after the evaluation? 3. What are the users expectation regarding computerized teachers evaluation? 4. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using computerized teachers evaluation system?