Impact Of Green Architecture On Lebanon Environmental Sciences Essay

Since the Industrial Revolution, the universe has witnessed incalculable technological accomplishments, population growing, and matching additions in resource usage. As we enter a new century, we are acknowledging the â€Å" side effects † of our activities: pollution, landfills at capacity, toxic waste, planetary heating, resource and ozone depletion, and deforestation. These attempts are striving the bounds of the Earth ‘s â€Å" transporting capacity † -its ability to supply the resources required to prolong life while retaining the capacity to renew and stay feasible. As the universe ‘s population continues to spread out, execution of resource-efficient steps in all countries of human activity is imperative. The reinforced environment is one clear illustration of the impact of human activity on resources. Buildings have a important impact on the environment, accounting for one-sixth of the universe ‘s fresh water backdowns, one-fourth of its wood crop, and two-fifths of its stuff and energy flows. Structures besides impact countries beyond their immediate location, impacting the water partings, air quality, and transit forms of communities. That acknowledgment is taking to alterations in the manner the edifice industry and edifice proprietors approach the design, building, and operation of constructions. With the leading of diverse groups in the public and private sectors, the edifice industry is traveling toward a new value in its work: that of environmental public presentation. The industry ‘s turning sustainability moral principle is based on the rules of resource efficiency, wellness, and productiveness. Realization of these rules involves an integrated, multidisciplinary approach-one in which a edifice undertaking and its constituents are viewed on a full life-cycle footing. This â€Å" cradle-to-cradle † attack, known as â€Å" green † or â€Å" sustainable † edifice, considers a edifice ‘s entire economic and environmental impact and public presentation, from material extraction and merchandise industry to merchandise transit edifice design and building, operations and care, and edifice reuse or disposal. Ultimately, acceptance of sustainable edifice patterns will take to a displacement in the edifice industry, with sustainability exhaustively embedded in its pattern, merchandises, criterions, codifications, and ordinances. Understanding the particulars of sustainable edifice and finding effectual sustainable patterns can be confounding. Local authoritiess and private industry frequently do non hold the resources to execute the necessary research to assemble information on sustainable patterns, presuming such information is readily available. This thesis, by its parts, presents a full vision about green architecture, green edifices, and the chance to use this architecture in Lebanon. In Addition, it includes a full conceptual design for a proposed undertaking related to such architecture. In a brief presentation, the parts of the thesis are:Part 1: Green ArchitectureThis subdivision over viewaˆÂ ¦Part 2: Lebanon and Green ArchitectureLebanon and Green Architecture outlines the relation between Green Architecture and LebanonaˆÂ ¦Part 3: Lebanese Green Building CouncilThis is a subdivision which gives a full thought about the Lebanese Green Building CouncilaˆÂ ¦Part 4: Similar Projects & A ; Area ‘s AnalysisThis subdivision containsaˆÂ ¦Part 5: Site AnalysissSite Analyses chapters provide elaborate information on the proposed siteaˆÂ ¦Part 6: LGBC HeadquarterA subdivision which contains a full conceptual plansaˆÂ ¦Part 1: Green Architecture / Green BuildingsDefinitionSustainable development is the challenge of run intoing turning human demands for natural resources, industrial merchandises, energy, nutrient, transit, shelter, and effectual waste direction while conserving and protecting environmental quality and the natural resource b ase indispensable for future life and development. This construct recognizes that run intoing long-run human demands will be impossible unless we besides conserve the Earth ‘s natural physical, chemical, and biological systems. Sustainable development constructs, applied to the design, building, and operation of edifices, can heighten both the economic wellbeing and environmental wellness of communities around the universe. The Union Internationale des Architects/American Institute of Architects ( UIA/AIA ) World Congress of Architects recognized that in its 1993 Declaration of Interdependence, which acknowledges that edifices and the built environment drama a major function in the human impact on the natural environment and on the quality of life. If sustainable design rules are incorporated into edifice undertakings, benefits can include resource and energy efficiency, healthy edifices and stuffs, ecologically and socially sensitive land usage, transit efficiency, and strengthened local economic systems and communities. Embracing sustainability constructs, the ends aim to cut down energy, operation, and care costs ; cut down building-related unwellnesss ; increase the productiveness and comfort of edifice residents ; cut down waste and pollution ; and increase edifice and constituent lastingness and flexibleness. In the developed states, public and private leaders have realized the economic and environmental benefits of green edifice patterns and are establishing policies, developing edifice guidelines, and fabrication merchandises and systems that will accomplish sustainable development ends.Green edifices historyHistorical BuildingsHarmonizing to David Gissen, conservator of architecture and design and the National Building Museum in Washington DC, structures such as London ‘s Crystal Palace and Milan ‘s Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II used methods that decreased the impact of the construction on the environment. Systems such as roof ventilators and belowground air chilling Chamberss were used to modulate indoor air temperature. In the early 20th century, several skyscrapers such as the Flatiron Building and the New York Times Building in New York utilised deep-set Windowss and the Carson Pirie Scott section shop in Chicago had retractable sunshades. Both of these techniques were effectual in commanding interior temperature while lessoning the edifices ‘ impact on the environment. From the 1930 ‘s through the 1960 ‘s, the forward believing chilling methods mentioned above gave manner to some new edifice engineerings that would alter inner-city edifice building dramatically. The innovation of air conditioning, brooding glass, and structural steel popularized the enclosed glass and steel edifices that litter the American metropolis today. These edifices were able to be heated and cooled with monolithic HVAC systems that consumed immense sums of cheap and readily available fossil fuels. The monolithic ingestion of energy required to populate these edifices made their viability tenable and wholly dependent upon energy handiness and cost.The InfancyAround the clip that the â€Å" glass box † manner high rise had become the icon of the American metropolis ( circa 1970 ) , a frontward believing group of designers, conservationists, and ecologists were inspired by the turning environmental motion and the higher fuel costs that were prevailing during the 1970s. The generation of these two scenarios finally resulted in the modern physique green motion. The first Earth Day, celebrated in April 1970, gave some acceptance to this new edifice construct, but the OPEC oil trade stoppage of 1973 gave the burgeoning environmental motion, and later the green physique attempt, the kick start it needed. With gas lines stretching for blocks, some Americans began to oppugn the conventional wisdom that we should be so independently reliant upon fossil fuels for our energy. As a consequence of the oil trade stoppage, amongst other energy concerns, the American Institute of Architects ( AIA ) formed a Committee on Energy that was broken into two cantonments. â€Å" One group looked toward inactive, such as brooding roofing stuffs and environmentally good posing of edifices, to accomplish energy nest eggs, while the other concentrated more on technological solutions, such as the usage of triple-glazed Windowss. † As energy concerns subsided, impulse for green edifice and the environment, in general, slowed down, but a dedicated core-group of designers continued to force their green edifice construct frontward. A twosome of noteworthy edifices constructed during the 1970ss which utilised constructs of green design are: The Willis Faber and Dumas Headquarters in England, which utilized a grass roof, day-lighted atrium, and mirrored Windowss ; the Gregory Bateson Building in California, which used energy-sensitive photovoltaic ( solar cells ) , under-floor stone shop chilling systems, and country clime control devices. Through the late 1970ss, throughout the 1880ss, and into the early 1890ss, much research was commissioned on energy efficient procedures. This research resulted in more effectual solar panels, prefabricated efficient wall systems, H2O renewals systems, modular building units, and direct use of visible radiation through Windowss in order to diminish day-time energy ingestion.Green OrganizationsGreen consequence on edifices & A ; metropolissEnergy EfficiencyApproximately 50 per centum of the energy usage in edifices is devoted to bring forthing an unreal indoor clime through warming, chilling, airing, and illuming. A typical edifice ‘s energy measure constitutes about 25 per centum of the edifice ‘s entire operating costs. Estimates indicate that climate-sensitive design utilizing available engineerings could cut warming and chilling energy ingestion by 60 per centum and illuming energy demands by at least 50 per centum in U.S. edifices.Water EfficiencyWater preservation an d efficiency plans have begun to take to significant lessenings in the usage of H2O within edifices. Water-efficient contraptions and fixtures, behavioural alterations, and alterations in irrigation methods can cut down ingestion by up to 30 per centum or more. As demand on H2O additions with urban growing, the economic impact of H2O preservation and efficiency will increase proportionally. Water efficiency non merely can take to significant H2O nest eggs, it besides can cut down the demand for enlargement of H2O intervention installations. Non-residential H2O clients account for a little per centum of the entire figure of H2O clients, but use about 35 per centum or more of the entire H2O.Waste DecreaseGreen architecture besides seeks to cut down waste of energy, H2O and stuffs used during building. For illustration, in California about 60 % of the province ‘s waste comes from commercial edifices. During the building stage, one end should be to cut down the sum of stuff traveling to landfills. Well-designed edifices besides help cut down the sum of waste generated by the residents as good, by supplying on-site solutions such as compost bins to cut down affair traveling to landfills. To cut down the impact on Wellss or H2O intervention workss, several options exist. â€Å" Greywater † , effluent from beginnings such as dishwashing or rinsing machines, can be used for subsurface irrigation, or if treated, for non-potable intents, e.g. , to blush lavatories and wash autos. Rainwater aggregators are used for similar intents. Centralized effluent intervention systems can be dearly-won and utilize a batch of energy. An alternate to this procedure is change overing waste and effluent into fertiliser, which avoids these costs and shows other benefits. By roll uping human waste at the beginning and running it to a semi-centralized biogas works with other biological waste, liquid fertiliser can be produced. This construct was demonstrated by a colony in Lubeck Germany in the late ninetiess. Practices like these supply dirt with organic foods and make C sinks that remove C dioxide from the ambiance, countervailing nursery gas emanation. Producing unreal fertiliser is besides more dearly-won in energy than this procedure.Construction Cost ReductionApplication of green constructing constructs can give for nest eggs during the building procedure. Measures that are comparatively easy to implement can ensue in nest eggs to the contractor in the undermentioned countries: Lower energy costs, by supervising use, put ining energy-efficient lamps and fixtures, and utilizing tenancy detectors to command lighting fixtures ; Lower H2O costs, by supervising ingestion and recycling storm H2O and/or building effluent where possible ; Lower site-clearing costs, by minimising site break and motion of Earth and installing of unreal systems ; Lower landfill dumping fees and associated trucking charges, through reuse and recycling of building and destruction dust ; Lower stuffs costs, with more careful purchase and reuse of resources and stuffs ; Possible net incomes from gross revenues of reclaimable points removed during edifice destruction ; and Fewer employee wellness jobs ensuing from hapless indoor air quality. This listing suggests some possible countries for cost nest eggs ; the undertaking squad can place other possibilities through a concerted and incorporate squad attack. The contractor can besides better dealingss with the community and edifice proprietor by sing them as portion of the squad attempt to implement environmentally sound building steps.Building Operation and MaintenanceThe green edifice steps discussed in this manual can take non merely to take down edifice operating disbursals through reduced public-service corporation and waste disposal costs, but besides to lower on-going edifice care costs, runing from wages to supplies. For illustration, in many edifices, care staff collects recycled stuffs on each floor – or even at every employee ‘s desk – and transport the stuffs down to the cellar for manus screening. Recycling chutes, a feasible green option, let direct discarding of stuffs from any floor in the edifice to the cellar. The chute system, which ideally is installed during initial building or redevelopment, can screen stuffs automatically, salvaging labour costs by extinguishing the demand to roll up, conveyance, and kind recyclables. Other nest eggs come in the signifier of lower waste trucking fees ; reduced workers ‘ compensation insurance premiums due to take down claims for accidents from crisp glass and tins ; reduced lift care ; less frequent cleansing of spills on rugs and floors ; and less demand for pest control. Environmentally friendly housework merchandises can besides hold fiscal advantages. For illustration, cleaning merchandises that are purchased as dressed ores and utilize minimum packaging non merely advance waste decrease, but besides can cut down merchandise use by 30 to 60 per centum with dispensers that more accurately step and thin the cleansing merchandises for optimal effectivity. Building proprietors need to see the edifice director and staff as critical participants in environmentally sound and cost-efficient operations. Building directors, charged with the efficient operation and care of multi-million-dollar assets, have experience in all countries of operations and care over the life of a edifice. Once a edifice is operational, preparation of direction and care staff – including instruction on effectual green constructing steps such as constructing energy direction systems, new cleansing merchandises, and new edifice codifications and criterions – can assist them to keep the edifice in a resource-efficient and economically favourable mode.Insurance and LiabilityThe past decennaries ‘ conventional office design, building, and operational patterns have decreased the quality of the indoor office environment, ensuing in new wellness concerns and associated economic costs and liability. The debut of a battalion of new contaminant pollution b eginnings into the workplace, combined with tighter edifice building, has intensified air-quality jobs. For illustration, hapless indoor air quality can ensue from such factors as defective air-conditioning systems, occupant related pollutants, building stuffs that emit high degrees of volatile organic compounds, and hapless care patterns. The U.S. EPA ranks indoor air pollution among the top five environmental hazards to public wellness. Unhealthy indoor air is found in up to 30 per centum of new and renovated edifices. Sick Building Syndrome ( SBS ) and Building Related Illness ( BRI ) have become more common in the workplace, increasing edifice proprietor and employer costs due to sickness, absenteeism, and increased liability claims. It has been estimated that SBS and BRI cost approximately $ 60 billion each twelvemonth in medical disbursals and lost worker productiveness in the United States. Legal actions related to Sick Building Syndrome and other building-related jobs have increased. These actions against edifice interior decorators, proprietors, or employers may be initiated by residents who have short- or long-run jobs, runing from concerns and firing eyes to more serious complaints. Initial economic impact may come in the signifiers of higher wellness insurance premiums, increased workers ‘ compensation claims, and reduced productiveness. Expensive redress undertakings and environmental killings may follow, and edifice proprietors may seek to retrieve losingss from the original undertaking contractors and designers through judicial proceeding. By guaranting better indoor air quality, edifice proprietors, employers, and design professionals can take down their hazard of future judicial proceeding by constructing residents. Professional liability insurance companies have indicated a willingness to offer design professionals lower insurance premiums for higher operating-procedure criterions that lead to improved indoor air quality. Some national architectural houses are trying to rate edifice merchandises harmonizing to the degrees of volatile organic compounds they emit after installing, and to educate edifice proprietors and directors about healthier merchandise picks.Occupant Health and ProductivityThe intent of a edifice is non merely to supply shelter for its residents, but besides to supply an environment conducive to high public presentation of all intended resident activities. Recent surveies have shown that edifices with good overall environmental quality, including effectual airing, natural or proper degrees of ligh ting, indoor air quality, and good acoustics, can increase worker productiveness by six to 16 per centum. An organisation ‘s most important fiscal committedness is normally to its employees. Many employers spend at least every bit much on salary-related outgos as they do on building an full company edifice. In many organisations, wages and associated benefits consume the bulk of the one-year operating budget. For illustration ; based on the sample computations in Figure 2, a typical employer could pass $ 233 per square pes yearly for an employee. Building building costs by and large fall below this degree, frequently by 50 per centum. In add-on, one-year employee salary-related outgos, utilizing the Numberss in Figure 2, are about 130 times greater than energy costs. A productivity addition of six per centum equates to nest eggs to the employer of $ 14 per square pes – eight times the cost of the edifice ‘s one-year energy measure. Given this information, an employer can make up one's mind to maximise the public presentation and efficiency of forces resources through appraisal of, and betterment to, the indoor environmental quality of its edifice. The undermentioned history of a recent redevelopment undertaking illustrates this attack. Both edifice proprietors and edifice tenant/employers can profit in other ways by bettering indoor environmental quality. For proprietors, these betterments can ensue in higher belongings values, longer tenant tenancy and rental reclamations, reduced insurance and operating costs, reduced liability hazards, extended equipment life, and good promotion. For renters, benefits include reduced absenteeism and better employee morale, reduced insurance and operating costs, reduced liability hazards, and community acknowledgment. If the edifice proprietor is besides the employer, an organisation can countervail initial building design and systems costs with the decrease of long-run organisational and operational disbursals over the edifice ‘s life rhythm.Constructing ValueGreen edifices ‘ high efficiency and public presentation can ensue in higher belongings values and potentially lower loaners ‘ recognition hazard. Lower operating costs associated with more efficient syste ms can take to higher constructing net income. In add-on to increasing a edifice ‘s cyberspace runing income or value, green edifice steps may let edifice proprietors to bear down higher rents or accomplish higher rates of edifice tenancy, if renters view green belongingss as more desirable. Presently, voluntary edifice evaluation plans are under development for commercial edifices in the United States. As these plans are introduced into the market place and derive the credence of edifice proprietors and renters, they could impact the value of belongingss. Prospective renters will be able to rate edifices based on such mensurable characteristics as natural daytime, better indoor air quality, and lower energy, H2O, and waste costs. If adequate edifices are rated for environmental public presentation, those that perform better will get down to recognize market advantages.Local Economic Development OpportunitiesPromotion and execution of green edifice patterns within a community can bring forth new economic development chances . These chances can take a assortment of signifiers, including new concern development to run into the demand for green merchandises and services ; resource-efficiency betterment plans that enable bing concerns to take down operating costs ; development of environmentally oriented concern territories ; and occupation preparation related to new green concerns and merchandises.Appliance & A ; Ways of usingAppliancesChoosing environmentally and economically balanced edifice stuffs. Buildings significantly alter the environment. Harmonizing to Worldwatch Institute1, constructing building consumes 40 per centum of the natural rock, crushed rock, and sand used globally each twelvemonth, and 25 per centum of the virgin wood. Buildings besides account for 40 per centum of the energy and 16 per centum of the H2O used yearly world-wide. In the United States, approximately every bit much building and destruction waste is produced as municipal refuse. Finally, unhealthy indoor air is found in 30 per centum of new and renovated edifices worldwide. Negative environmental impacts flow from these activities. For illustration, natural stuffs extraction can take to resource depletion and biological diverseness losingss. Building stuffs industry and conveyance consumes energy, which generates emanations linked to planetary heating and acerb rain. Landfill jobs, such as leaching of heavy metals, may originate from waste coevals. All these activities can take to air and H2O pollution. Unhealthy indoor air may do increased morbidity and mortality. Choosing environmentally preferred edifice stuffs is one manner to better a edifice ‘s environmental public presentation. To be practical, nevertheless, environmental public presentation must be balanced against economic public presentation. Even the most environmentally witting constructing interior decorator or edifice stuffs maker will finally desire to weigh environmental benefits against economic costs. They want to place edifice stuffs that improve environmental public presentation with small or no addition in cost. The edifice community is doing determinations today that have environmental and economic effects. Its determinations are plagued by uncomplete and unsure informations every bit good as the deficiency of a standardised methodological analysis for measuring the information. The NIST/EPA squad seeks to back up these determinations by garnering environmental and economic public presentation informations and by structuring and computerising the decision-making procedure. The ensuing BEES tool will be publically available over the Internet. In the mean while, the USGBC has published a list of stuffs – certified from LEED – incorporating several green stuffs including: flooring, interior building, pigments & A ; movie, cloths, curtains, tack surfaces, ceiling systems, illuming, contraptions, millwork, furniture and plumping fixtures.Education of green architectureSince 1993, UIA released the â€Å" Declaration of Interdependence for a Sustainable Future † proposing that the architectural profession should seek â€Å" to accomplish ecological sustainability within the limited clip that is likely to be available † . And it ‘s been 14 old ages after the release of UIA / UNESCO â€Å" Charter For Architectural Education † that registries among educational ends â€Å" an ecologically balanced and sustainable development of the built environment † . Since so, many architecture schools have introduced or upgraded classs on proficient facets of sustainability, like â€Å" Energy Conscious Design † , â€Å" Sustainable Architecture † , â€Å" Beyond Green † or â€Å" Bioclimatic Architecture † and others more. The integrating of sustainability in design schools up to now has been reviewed by several studies. Most of them portion two decisions: – foremost, that non many schools have embraced the topic in a thorough mode, indicating at ‘the low degree at which sustainable design constructs have been incorporated into the regular course of study † and detecting that â€Å" environmental instruction in architecture has been done on an ad-hoc footing, aˆÂ ¦fragmented and deficient † ; – second, that sustainable design requires learning methods rather different than the long-established 1s. Environmental crisis and its foreseeable effects are still a fringy issue in the academic discourse at schools purportedly covering with the environment, possibly because crises are non an attractive topic in our ‘feel-good ‘ epoch. As a consequence, those who will hold to undertake the looming crisis in the close hereafter are non adequately prepared. Still, the demand to implement sustainable design is widely recognized by the educational community, at least in rule. A revealing illustration is a study among architectural pedagogues in more than 30 European states in 2001, where â€Å" about 90 % of the respondents are voting for a instead dramatic displacement from a presently instead low to a high consideration of ‘Sustainable Development ‘ in future architectural instruction † . Harmonizing to the study, â€Å" merely 19 % of those said that this construct is presently having a very/quite high degree of consideration, and 83 % said it should have a very/quite high degree of consideration in architectural instruction † , placing as an â€Å" facet of taking importance † the â€Å" integrating of sustainability-issues into all studio design † . In malice of such consensus, there is still a long route until sustainable design is steadfastly rooted in architectural acquisition. There are a figure of grounds for this, within and outside the academic margin:Academic obstructions_____________________In most schools that show environmental concern, related issues are normally confined in elected categories, detached from design studios. This creates a ‘fringe ‘ repute for sustainability, eschewing its rules from the chief design undertakings to the fringe of architectural acquisition. As a consequence, no practical experience is gained in how to present sustainable qualities in the ‘core ‘ design docket.______________________In many instances the accent is on quantitative instead than qualitative affairs. As a consequence figure crunching eclipses design, and pupils tend to tie in sustainable concerns with numerical public presentation merely, detached from issues like comfort, resources, or social moralss . In that mode, sustainability-related classs are considered similar to those on proficient Fieldss like structural or mechanical design, but non ‘real ‘ architecture.______________________Sustainable design is a instead recent subject, non really familiar to the old guard that administers schools. Most coachs have had limited or even nonexistent preparation in their yesteryear, and practical experience is even more rare. Consequently, â€Å" a deficiency of importance placed on sustainable design by many architectural pedagogues † is no surprise. As a consequence, it is hard to present ‘obscure ‘ , ‘uninteresting ‘ or ‘useless ‘ new subjects to the course of study, particularly in position of the fact that sustainable design challenges the preponderantly artistic stance of architecture.___________________Sustainable design is a complex architectural attack, embracing diverse Fieldss of cognition and necessitating multi-discipli ne teamwork. Therefore its instruction can non suit with the conventional additive attack where different proficient accomplishments are segregated in different sections, with rare chances to convey them all together through joint undertakings in a holistic mode. Furthermore, â€Å" sustainable architecture is a complex topic that should be covered throughout the course of study † , non merely in sporadic undertakings.____________________Furthermore, design undertakings are often detached from earthly world as if they refer to a infinite station, barely interrelated with nature or society. Social moralss or environmental consciousness are non embedded in the docket, restricting preparation in simply proficient accomplishments with major focal point on the aesthetic. â€Å" An architectural pupil all of a sudden transported to many of our architecture schools from 1900 Paris would experience right at place † ._____________________Environmental crisis is repeatedly under the spotlight of the media but, unusually, it is rarely included in the academic discourse. There is small systematic consciousness of the relationship of edifice and urban design with critical environmental issues like energy & A ; H2O deficits, air & A ; land pollution, urban heat island & A ; ecological footmark, or resources depletion. And surely such subjects are non included in undertaking Jockey shortss or ordinary pupil work._______________________Furthermore, there is deficient auxiliary input through proficient categories like constructing natural philosophies or environmental engineering that could back up sustainable design undertakings. When pupils do non understand the dynamic linkage between constructions, environmental conditions and users, it is non easy to distinguish, state, between â€Å" edifice in the landscape † and â€Å" edifice in interaction with the landscape † .Outside the schoolroomThe debut of sustainability in architecture schools encou nters farther troubles stemming from the outer side of the academic walls:____________________Sustainable design has yet to happen a clear individuality: – Is it a edifice technique, a blend of architecture and technology that can be applied on any architectural assortment merely like, say, fire safety or seismal proofing? – Is it merely one more architectural manner, possibly with excess consideration to the environment than the remainder, with its ain stylistic hallmarks like solar aggregators, conservatories, or green labels? – Beaver state is it a fresh design mentality, where nature & A ; society, today & A ; tomorrow are equal spouses in the design model?_____________________The sustainable design household includes fluctuations like ‘energy witting ‘ , ‘bioclimatic ‘ , ‘solar ‘ , ‘ecological ‘ , or ‘green ‘ , any of which could be applied in a non-sustainable mode. For case, an energy-saving strategy could use non-ecological stuffs ; bioclimatic skyscrapers use more resources than low rise, and the sustainability of a immense ‘green ‘ sign of the zodiac with merely two residents is questionable. It is clear that sustainable design in full graduated table is a complex enterprise that requires a holistic watchfulness on a wide array of topics, proficient every bit much as societal: â€Å" Although there is much involvement and wonder about the topic, no 1 would state it ‘s easy to larn or use in pattern † .______ ________________The architectural ‘haut couture ‘ of our epoch markets themes instead far from sustainability. As a consequence prudence and ‘I?I µI„I?I?I? ‘ ( metron = Greek for step ) are ostracized from the chief architectural values. Given that architecture is ever learned by illustration, many pupils – and many adults excessively – ringer the glamourous paradigms of the expansive maitres, endeavoring for ocular originality and manner above all. The calendered architectural imperativeness barely advertises the non-sustainable characteristics of the expansive works because that would botch the ware. Therefore attending is frequently focused on 2D thoughts instead than 3D infinite or 4D affairs, and hollow feelings count more than the stuff and social facets of the built environment. As manner outshines matter and clip, sustainability is a looser.__________________Students are the last to fault for that ; given the prevailing aesthetic values, there are non excessively many sustainable illustrations exciting adequate to animate pupils. On the contrary, a frequent claim is that sustainable edifices are per se unattractive, as if all other types of architecture have merely good illustrations to demo.___________________Another repeated averment is that â€Å" environmental edifices cost more † . Here, the cost comparison footing is instead obscure, ignoring the differentiation between constructing – and running – cost, or the fact that â€Å" seeking to shoot sustainable standards subsequently, alternatively of earlier, in the design procedure is the cause of any added disbursal † . Even when the ‘extra cost ‘ is true, it is besides true that clients are frequently ready to pay more for cosmetic elements but non for, say, a more efficient boiler.The societal contextSustainable design is non an architectural exercising ; it refers to the built environment and therefore it can n on boom without societal indorsement. Architecture has ever been repeating the dominant social values and forces, so the inquiry is whether today there is room for alteration: â€Å" To transform this activity from a alone one of counter-cultural rebellion into one of mainstream pattern requires merely a critical mass of people who take it for granted as the footing for technical/cultural virtue † . There are some marks that allow optimism, but the overall societal tendencies look instead black for a sustainable design flowering:_________________In our epoch of â€Å" consumo ergo amount † , sustainable design sounds out of melody as euphoric consumerism inhibits motive for restraint. Clients demanding glistening energy-guzzlers are more influential than those inquiring for reasonable designs. Which school can develop its professionals for the hereafter while society looks the other manner?_____________________About a century ago, Modernist thought was attesting extrem ist proposals, integrating both proficient and societal issues along with a distinguishable aesthetic idiom. Today, as ‘internationalism ‘ has been replaced by ‘globalization ‘ and ‘citizens ‘ by ‘consumers ‘ , most merchandises in the post-Modernist supermarket have short expire day of the months. Many current architectural theoretical accounts rest between show concern and practical world, and there is a deficit of real-life proposals offering an inspiring mentality for a future society and its architectural linguistic communication. Sustainability does hold the necessary ingredients and principle to go the footing of such thoughts, but it is still missing a plausible broadcast -and an watchful audience.___________________The apathy for the hereafter and the animadversion of sustainable proposals can possibly be explained: Alarming tendencies are all excessively apparent as jobs are swept under the ‘panem et circenses ‘ r ug. The intensifying bad intelligence about the environmental jeopardies, triggered by human activities, lead to the denial of facts and the replacing of painful pragmatism by baseless optimism. Cipher likes Cassandras, and sustainable architecture is associated with their warnings.______________________The human impact on the environment is relative to population size, ingestion per capita, and resources or waste per ingestion unit ; therefore these three factors should be reduced if we are to accomplish a sustainable balance between nature and us. So far, we focus chiefly on the 3rd one -and that with fringy success. Decreasing the other two implies rough steps that cipher truly likes to confront. Again, sustainable propositions are straitening arrows to a acrimonious mentality.Antagonizing lassitudeSo, even if architecture schools manage to short-circuit their obstructions and embed sustainability steadfastly in the course of study, and even if sustainable design overcomes its ai n failings, there is still the critical checkpoint of societal credence. ‘Green ‘ designers need ‘green ‘ clients, otherwise their accomplishments are useless. Peoples brainwashed to devour more can non appreciate an architecture that requires less and wastes less albeit offering more. Equally long as show concern is a powerful political tool used to beef up today ‘s position quo, it will be hard for sustainable design to be more effectual in its existent consequences than, state, ‘Live Aid ‘ or ‘Make Poverty History ‘ runs. It is true that people do alter their position about the necessity of sustainability, although it is unsure to what extent they are ready to accept the effects and modify their manner of life consequently. But the gait of that alteration might be excessively slow compared with that of the environmental crisis, and cipher knows whether the dislocation will come easy like a long unwellness, or all of a sudden like a shot, without adequate clip to respond swimmingly. Therefore it is non plenty merely to present sustainable design classs at universities, or to heighten the public presentation of sustainable edifices. Alongside those pressing demands, it is every bit imperative to edify the populace about the virtues of sustainability and the hazards of ‘architecture as usual ‘ . Architects are the 1s who shape up the phase of our corporate and private lives ; hence they have the responsibility to make that with societal duty every bit much as regard to our cherished biotope -planet Earth.DecisionSustainability is a turning necessity that has to impact a broad scope of our societal precedences and aims, get downing with the credence of facts and, following, by recognizing that it is chiefly a socio-political instead than a proficient subject necessitating an earnest alteration of mentality. In that regard, sustainable architecture is non one more manner, a technique to salvage money, or a manner to decrease our ecological compunction. It is no less than an desperately needed response to semisynthetic environ-mental menaces. So far it has been hard to modify the architectural course of study efficaciously due to academic inactiveness, but schools have to admit forthcoming worlds in order to set learning topics and methods, and to transfuse sustainable spirit in the design attitude of future designers. This is a difficult undertaking as the mercenary dependence supports turning in our society, but is at that place another manner? Or we honestly believe that after a coevals we will still be constructing like today?Green UndertakingsA sustainable edifice, or green edifice is an result of a design doctrine which focuses on increasing the efficiency of resource usage – energy, H2O, and stuffs – while cut downing constructing impacts on human wellness and the environment during the edifice ‘s lifecycle, through better posing, design, building, operation, care, and remotion.The Future of Green BuildingsTo many in the edifice industry, investing in green edifice patterns may be a spring of religion. Further research and successful illustrations of sustainable edifice will progress this developing engineering and supply direct cogent evidence of its economic and health-related benefits, promoting its greater acceptance. More research is needed in life-cycle cost analysi s over the full spectrum of edifice fiction, ownership, operation, and reuse/disposal. As the information become more widespread and the impacts – including external costs associated with pollution, waste, and environmental-resource ingestion – of conventional patterns become better known, green edifice patterns will go more widespread. The green edifice motion has started to derive impulse. Each twelvemonth yields extra presentation undertakings ; tonss of new efficient and healthy engineerings ; and expanded research, criterions, codifications, and ordinances. This includes evaluation systems to measure a edifice ‘s environmental public presentation, enfranchisement plans for green edifice merchandises, and the acceptance of green edifice criterions and patterns by recognized standard-setting organisations. The handiness of progressively sophisticated computing machine package plans besides fosters the growing of green edifice patterns by doing it easier to place and measure options for a edifice undertaking. Other new tendencies and emerging constructs impacting the edifice industry include performance-based contracts, remanufacturing and merchandise leasing, teleworking and â€Å" practical offices, † and attempts to extenuate natural-disaster losingss through improved edifice patterns.Green Buildin gs in LebanonCharles Hostler Student Center by VJAATwo Residential Undertakings by Arch. Atef TabetAAtef Tabet & A ; Associates Beirut-Lebanon merely completed the design and building of two separate big houses, 950 sq. metres each. Both houses are built on big sites around 12,000 sq. metre located in rural cragged countries one in Mount Lebanon, and the other to the South of Lebanon next to Mount Haramoun. 1stHouse at Remine Design Methodology: The landscape and the architecture are intertwined intentionally as a cohesive, none dissociable entity, intermixing the interior of the house with its immediate out-of-doorss and the natural milieus. A regional and a sustainable architecture design attack with program layout to suit the client ‘s modern-day life manner. The combination of unsmooth / saw cut rock cladding â€Å" Eclate † , The slanted ruddy roof tiles, Zinc Ti curved signifiers combination stand foring a slang of a Mediterranean small town. The insulated exterior dual walls, clay/wood lofts, deep recessed dual glazed cedar wood Windowss and wooden treillages utilized in order to shadow and anneal the house interior environment, and prolong it comfortably with a dateless design signifier friendly to its immediate vicinity. 2ndHouse at Jawzat The Interior Architecture i.e. material choice, coatings, and colour spectrum or palettes, every bit good as the furniture pieces that has been designed by the office and produced locally, were carefully applied and placed in order to implement the countryside Mediterranean ambiance. The construct for both houses is to hold a sustainable timeless manner, harmonious with the natural milieus and its immediate environment.Lebanese Green OrganizationsMAJALMAJAL is an Academic Urban Observatory, advancing sustainable be aftering schemes in Lebanon. Part of Urban Planning Institute of ALBA – Academie Libanaise des Beaux-Arts, Balamand University, MAJAL was established in the aftermath of the extremely destructive July 2006 war, in order to supply a scientific monitoring of the Reconstruction procedure direction. Since so, it expanded its mission and is carry oning undertakings related to urban planning and sustainability in general. We have achieved 3 studies on Reconstruction and carried out many expertness missions for municipalities and assorted local and international organisations.Mission: AMAJAL ‘s work today consists in three types of activities: Monitoring set of indexs on building procedure and sustainable planning Technical support to determination shapers in the signifier of adept missions, confer withing services, preparation, or other specific undertakings in urban planning and development undertakings. Advocacy, lobbying and consciousness elevation in the Fieldss of good administration, and sustainable planning.Lebanese Green Building CouncilThe Lebanon Green Building Council ( LGBC ) is an NGO that provides stewardship towards a sustainable built environment. It promotes, spreads and helps implement high public presentation building constructs that are environmentally responsible, healthy and profitable. LGBC acts on market, educational, and legislative issues to accomplish its ends. The LGBC is officially accredited as an â€Å" Emerging council † with the World Green Building Council. The LGBC aims to go a prima non-profit organisation working to advance the sustainable edifice industry of an international degree.AIts members will strongly recommend sustainable edifices in the purpose of planing a built environment that allows future coevalss to profit from the natural resources that will be available to them. The purpose of the organisation is to supply a Lebanese enfranchisement system for edifices that adopt environmental parametric quantities and to transform the manner edifices and communities are designed into a comfortable environment that improves the quality of life.Mission: AThe LGBC shall endeavour: Identifying and advancing processs, methods and solutions for the design, planning, building and use of both new edifices and major redevelopment of bing edifices that achieve the end of sustainability. Populating infinites shall be created in an environmentally-friendly, resource-saving and economic manner that enhances the wellness and comfort of their users. Attesting the edifices that achieve the fixed evaluation degrees and run into the demands of a sustainable built environment. Identifying, inventing and advancing processs, methods and solutions for the planning, design, building, redevelopment, use, care and public presentation appraisal of edifices that aim to accomplish the end of sustainability as per the enfranchisement system set by the LGBC. Developing & A ; advancing industry criterions, educational plans and design patterns, aiming professionals related to environmentally responsible edifices, persons and squads, and at all stages. Conducting research and educational activities and prosecuting in buttonholing attempts to advance green edifice patterns and statute law. Inventing and advancing tips and suggestions for sustainable life styles that enhance the proper usage, and continuing the unity of green edifices and detering â€Å" green lavation † .

Barriers to Communication Essay

The communication topic that I have chosen to write about is The Barriers to Communication in the in the workplace. My focus will be on the Apple Organization as well as other organizations that have had communications issues. My interest in this topic stems from the fact that I’ve encountered many barriers to effective communication while in the work place. I understand personally how ineffective communication by all levels of an organization can lead to the decrease work morals, productivity etc. I am also interested in this topic in that as a Business Management major I would like to be as affective in my communication with the organization I will join as well as with the individuals that will comprise the company. Based on a research done In July 2011, a Maritz Poll, an annual employee attitude survey conducted by Maritz Research, reported that 25 percent of employees indicated having less trust in their management than they did the previous year. Bad communication breaks down trust. Barriers to communication in the work place can be very detrimental to the sustainability, longevity and success to the organization. There are numerous barriers that effect communication in the work place. According to skillsyouneed.com, these barriers range from nonverbal communication, lack of feedback and cultural differences. These barriers to communication may and can occur at any stage in the communication process. Barriers may lead to your message becoming distorted and you therefore risk wasting both time and/or money by causing confusion and misunderstanding. Effective communication involves overcoming these barriers and conveying a clear and concise message. References Barriers to effective communication. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.skillsyouneed.com/ips/barriers-communication.html Duggan, T. (n.d.). Communication problems in a business. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/communication-problems-business-2828.html

The Pros and Cons of Modeling

It is undeniable that, modeling has become one of the most sought after career options for many youngsters as it is one of the most thrilling and lucrative profession. The tremendous changes taking place in the fashion industry have given a spurt of rise to the modeling jobs all over the world. Especially in today's world where fashion industry is succeeding and had made modeling an attractive career. This modeling can be classified into ramp modeling, television modeling and print modeling. As all of us knew, models are used to launch and promote a variety of branded products or show a garment to its best advantage. For instance, the image in the picture shows that models are used to advertise the Guess brand which is an America's clothing line brand. Models are required to appear sexy and seductive to make the brand popular. Hence; it is proven that models had played huge role in the success of Guess brand as well as other brands. But moving closer, have ever wondered how a life of a model would be? To start off with, there are several advantages of being a model. Whereby, fame and fortune can be gained easily. Especially, Models with pleasant personality and the right attitude or in other word, appealing intellectual qualities will be very well known in a short period of time in the modeling career. To explain further, ramp models gets the chance to work for famous designers or for reputated fashion companies will be known internationally. For example, Katrina Kaif a famous ex model and currently a Bollywood star started of her career as a model. Whereby she started modeling in the age of 14 in London by walking in the ramp with some top designers of the country. Since then, she is very successful and known worldwide for her appealing personality. In addition, if one signs with a reputable agency, he or she can make a good income. Normally a model is paid well if the first shoot succeeds. Besides wearing fabulous designers clothes, shoes and accessories for free they tend to live a luxurious life . For example, they tend to buy fancy cars, expensive clothes and mansions. This can be proven by the world's richest model; Gisele Bundchen that earns 33 million in a year, followed by Kate moss 9 million and Heidi Clum 8 million. For instance, Gisele Budchen currently stays in her mansion that is 20 million dollar. Undoubtedly, modeling a glamorous field also offers tremendous opportunities to travel and meet various class of people as it a part of their job. Models will get the opportunity to stay in exotic locations and even live abroad. They also get to shoot in beautiful locations in exotic places like Africa desserts, the North Pole, Australia and around the globe. They will also be placed with other models for several weeks, months or even as long as a year. which eventually increase their sociality level and get to know people from all walks of life. Basically,their assignments provide a diverse social life and opportunity to meet others from around the world. It is also believed that through modeling, one could gain and boost confidence . To explain further, even models themselves have admitted that seeing finished photos of them within the covers of a magazine is an incredible experience. By modeling, one's glamour aspect also tends to increase especially when there is professional shoot. Moreover, they will have to communicate and cooperate with photographers, art director and crew during shoots that eventually increases their self esteem. To prove, one of the top model in the world, Miranda Ker has become famous when she started of her career in the age of 13 for lingerie's. Since then her confidence boost. In other word, she was more confident in modeling for lingerie's that made her famous. She was also paid well for her standard body shape with sexy body measurement and brilliant face structure. However, there also a lot of negatives associated with this profession. Firstly, there are many model line agencies that take every cent of you. They just prey on the dreams of young girls in order to be rich and victims left with nothing. Worst still when porn agencies present themselves as legitimate modeling business. They sign girls up and then slowly brainwash them into thinking they have to be sexy to make it. Over time they use peer pressure to convince the girls that nudity is a part of the business and that this is the easy way to make lots of money. Of course there is nothing ‘easy' about a life involved with porn. Not to mention, porn is not modeling. With this model loses their dignity for the sake of money. There are also high chances of involving in unwanted relationship and lead to pre-marriage pregnancy. Especially, young models will abort and involve in scandals. Unwanted tapes are often released without consent of their subject and could potentially damage careers. For instance, the latest issues faced by the top model of world, Adriana Lima. Her sex tapes were widely spread. Some even mentioned that this occurred without her consent. Another dark side of modeling business is the rampant drug use. Models are given and have free access to all manner of illicit substances. Sometimes these are used to keep weight off. Sometimes they are used to stay awake and alert for shoots or shows that occur at all times of the day and night. Sometimes it is the social pressure to party and fit in that causes young models to try these damaging narcotics. The official party line from the industry is that this kind of behavior is not tolerated. However, models who are currently working within this business consistently tell a different story. Most crucial thing, eventhough a model's health condition is bad, there is no health coverage. For example the famous, British supermodel Kate Moss consumed alcohol and was a drug addict (cocaine addiction) and often checks into rehabilitation centers. Due to this revelation it had ruined all the reputation that she has earned all this while. Even when she was in critical condition, her modeling company didn't pay the medical expenses. Moreover, models will undergo emotional and physical pressures to maintain certain body types. In some critical conditions it can lead to anorexia. Most of the models are always obsessed with weight and very concern with their daily diets. As we knew, models are literally skinny and their bodies fading away to nothing. And it is not just the perception of the models but also the industry as a whole, which encourages destructive behavior. The problem is only the models get hurt and is suffering from huge amount of stress while some even dies in the name of â€Å"thin†. Recently, however, countries and organizations around the globe have started to take steps to change this attitude and actually ban the use of paper thin models. For example, Ana Carolina Reston a Brazilian model, who was 172cm tall and only weighed 40kg starved herself to death in 2006. She starved herself this much as she was one step nearer to her dream of becoming a supermodel. However,on 14 November last year she finally crossed over from being a successful catwalk model to appearing on the cover of every magazine and newspaper in Brazil, and making headlines around the globe. Not for her modeling, but for her agonizing death, due to anorexia. Besides all this, models will also feel pressured when they are forced to give certain poses with different gender together which will create uneasiness or comfortless. Especially, if the photographer prefers a nude poss. This would extremely be a challenge. It is also shown in the image provided that, both models are loving . But how sure are we that in reality they are in that way? The female might go through some pressure in holding the male's hand and seeing him half nude. Besides all this, models also face constant criticism and rejection when they attend fittings and this often requires a lot of stamina and patience. Tough competition throughout the career is also another difficulties faced in modeling field. Models will loss the freedom and have to continuously work hard to meet the demands of market. As all of us knew, modeling is an extremely competitive and ruthless business. You will need a thick skin and inner assurance that these negatives are not personal, but rather just the nature of the business. The phase you will have to go through to get to the top can be rather demanding but certainly not unachievable. You must expect to work hard and put in the time and effort both physically and mentally to achieve your goals. The rewards of reaching these goals far outweigh the struggle of reaching them. In short it can be said that modeling is highly competitive and short lived career or even a model is too old at the age of 24. In brief, Modeling can certainly be a rewarding experience in many ways. As long as you avoid the darker side to this profession and insist on putting your personal values first (before profit) then you can enjoy quite an interesting career path. It is a job where the hard work pays. Models should have the patience for long hours of work, jet lag, heavy makeup, weird haircuts and standing forever in awkward poses. In this field, it's really hard to make a living as there is only a handful of supermodels in the world who make good living off what they do.

1. Are social networking Web sites appropriate for teenagers Or should Essay

1. Are social networking Web sites appropriate for teenagers Or should their access to such Web sites be restricted - Essay Example It is even appropriate for teenagers if they use it wisely, and should not be restricted. One of the major concerns relating to social networking websites is that teenagers without realizing it a public domain, post personal information. Parents especially are concerned about teenagers posting personal information such as sexual behaviors, religious orientation, violent information and substance abuse for the public to read. They become prey to pedophiles and other adults who can direct them towards negative social behaviors and lifestyles. However, according to Dr. Moreno, an assistant professor of pediatrics at University of Wisconsin-Madison (Gordon), such information can be used by parents and others who are concerned about teenagers to communicate with them. They can email teenagers to inform and guide them how to remedy risky behaviors and substance abuse. Another major concern regarding teenage access to social networking web sites is its impact on the teenagers in the future. Around 90 percent of teenagers in the United States have access to the Internet (Gordon) among which 55 percent have used social networks with online profiles. The majority of the profiles belong to older teenage girls registered with sites like MySpace and Facebook (Madden). Since these teenagers use the web sites to connect with friends, make new friends and flirt around, they generally maintain a casual attitude towards their personal information. Parents are concerned about the impact such information lying in public domain have on their future careers and life. But such concerns are also baseless because Maddens survey indicates that teenagers today are wiser than before. They have restricted access to their profiles and only let those who they are acquainted with to view them. These aspects lead the author to conclude that social networking web sites are not such a threat to teenagers as adults believe them to be. With a wise approach and

Education Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Education - Research Paper Example Education’s vital role in molding humanity makes it necessarily be accessible for all. All governments of the world are compelled to make education affordable for everyone. It is the obligation of the state to take necessary measures to promote, protect and avail their citizens the right to education. However, despite of the fact that education as a right is acknowledged universally, millions of people throughout the world had yet to enjoy this right. According to Global Issues, nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or even just sign their names. Meanwhile, UNICEF data reveals that there are 121 M children out of education worldwide. In 2005, about 72 million primary school ages, wherein 57 percent were girls, were not able to study. Aside from these problems, education is perceived to become more marginalized in the years to come as governments all over the world tend to reduce if not cut-off their budget to education to cope up with the globa l economic crisis. Given this situation, this paper will delve on the current situation of the educational system. How far have the governments of the world gone in making education accessible for the people? Or are measures being taken by the governments only aggravate the already serious data of lack of education? Salient Features of Education According to the CESCR, there are four salient features of education namely: availability, accessibility, acceptability and adaptability. For this paper, two major features will be elaborated. Availability means that there should be adequate numbers of educational institutions and programs existing within the jurisdiction of the State. These educational institutions should follow sound technical requirements to function effectively, from sanitation facilities to trained and well-compensated teachers. Another important feature of education is accessibility which means that education must be enjoyed by all without discrimination. Accessibility was further described by the CESCR with three interrelated aspects: non-discrimination which means that education must be served above all to the most vulnerable sectors of the society; physical accessibility which ensures that education is within a safe and well-located; and economic accessibility which ensures that education should be free for all, this also requires the State gradually commence free secondary and higher education (Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights). Education in peril Despite of the numerous international conventions and obligations in securing education’s accessibility to all, state responsibility to education seems to have gradually diminished. Over the years, budget cut on education has been a world-wide phenomenon. In America, public school system is being assaulted with budget cuts. According to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, at least 43 states have cut assistance to public colleges and universities which reduced faculty and staff and consequently increased tuition fees. Budget cuts to K-12 education have also been implemented in at least 34 states plus the District of Columbia (Nicholas Johnson). To name a few: In Minnesota, around 9,400 students will lose

Item Analysis Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Item Analysis - Assignment Example This information needs to be interpreted in context to the principles on the basis of which the test was designed. A test that was given at the beginning of a course simply to assess which concepts a class was familiar with would be expected to have a positive skew; as there would be fewer items that students would be able to answer. On the other hand; if this test was given to assess mastery or proficiency; these scores would indicate that a number of course goals were not met. If the test were given in order to choose a few individuals who are proficient in very advanced concepts; it would be acceptable that a majority of scores are clustered towards the lower half; as only a few individuals would qualify by getting higher scores.It is also necessary to assess if these results are caused by a few erroneous or confusing items. This may be done by evaluating the trends seen for each item. A competency test typically contains a few simple items, a few difficult items and a few items w ith moderate difficulty. A speed test, on the other hand, requires all items to be similarly difficult. For a competency test; it is necessary that we choose items that not only have different levels of difficulty; but also discriminate between individuals who are able to solve it and those who are not. A good item would typically help us in understanding how well the individual test taker has mastered the individual concept while also helping us differentiate those who did master the concept from those who did not.... Also; the Alpha coefficient is affected by the length of the test; with the reliability being higher and more trusted for a longer test than a shorter one. The given test is only 10 items long; and this may compromise the reliability to some extent. The skewed scores also present other concerns. The Standard Error of Skewness for this test may be calculated by using the Tabachnick & Fidell’s (1996) formula . This provides us with a SES value of 0.245. If we define the acceptable limits within which the value of skewness may fall as being between 2 SES both sides of zero; then we may accept a value that falls between – 0.49 and + 0.49. the obtained value of + 0.78 is well outside these limits, indicating that there is a positive skew to the scores and a significant clustering of scores towards the lower side of the scale. This information needs to be interpreted in context to the principles on the basis of which the test was designed. A test that was given at the beginni ng of a course simply to assess which concepts a class was familiar with would be expected to have a positive skew; as there would be less items that students would be able to answer. On the other hand; if this test was given to assess mastery or proficiency; these scores would indicate that a number of course goals were not met. If the test were given in order to choose a few individuals who are proficient in very advanced concepts; it would be acceptable that a majority of scores are clustered towards the lower half; as only a few individuals would qualify by getting higher scores. It is also necessary to assess if these results are caused by a few erroneous or confusing items. This may be done by evaluating the trends seen for each item. A

Where I am going. My Personal Story as a Proud Mother of Two Essay

Where I am going. My Personal Story as a Proud Mother of Two - Essay Example I am a year into my thirties and a proud mother of two. As a teenager, I was an ambitious young girl with high academic records and had a passion for teaching. Unfortunately, my family's financial situation made it unfeasible for me to pursue college education. However, now that I am capable of sponsoring my education by myself, I will not let my parenthood or marital status keep me from achieving my life's goals because I finally have an opportunity to fulfill my academic pursuits and now that my children are grown up enough, I can comfortably divide my time between parenting and studying. I realize that it is a long way and the way is hard and that I will probably be old by the time I reach the end of it but the end will be better than the beginning. Now that I have a motivating factor, I am capable of giving my life a direction that I want. At the same time I will have to motivate my children and help them in organizing their lives and personalities. I hope to graduate proudly with an English Honors Degree in the year 2009 although I am prepared for the fact that it might take me a little longer than that owing to my domestic responsibilities. But nevertheless, it is "better to be late than never!" One of the major concerns of college going mothers is finding the money to finance their education. Because they work full-time, receive good salaries, or hold certain assets, they may find their financial aid award is not enough to meet their needs without taking out costly student loans. Truth be told, this is the closest I've ever gotten to a college graduation. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick but one should not let this shake one's faith. I'm convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did because my work is going to fill a large part of my life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. I am aware that life does not last forever, so I do not want to be trapped by dogma, which is living with the results of other people's thinking. I don't let the noise of others' opinions drown out your own inner voice. Most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become and everything else is secondary. Can today's working and mothers over 25 overcome the stress and anxiety they feel when they return to a big city University, in a degree program, after years of being out of the classroom I think the stress and anxiety involved is actually necessary for mothers like me to fuel our efficiency and pushes us, but too much of it should be avoided to enable us to be successful in our endeavors. Being in most households the mother is the backbone of the family and the burden of creating family structure is always on her. Similarly, I will need to constitute new boundaries, guidelines and roles with the family, so I can focus on academics. A mental preparation is necessary in order to deter some anxieties that may occur during this transition. One must learn how to stay focus on their goal and to think positively. Careful planning is essential for a working mom returning to school, otherwise she may find that she is overexerting herself and could begin to suffer from mental and emotional pr oblems including depression and chronic anxiety. I plan to set realistic goals for myself considering I may have an abundance of tasks to complete for work and college, so it's important to limit the disruptions at work so that I won't jeopardize my employment. I see myself making use of weekend courses and extra classes and accessing libraries

Photographers of the Mixed Media Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Photographers of the Mixed Media - Essay Example It can be stated, however, that the main genre of her photos, produced with a means of combined media, is a child’s portrait. Many researchers insist on rich theoretical and practical backgrounds of her production, widely ranged from Renaissance (Bronzino), Baroque (Velasquez), Romanticism (Ruge and Friedrich) to Victorian (Carroll) sources of her works. After the brief introduction into her working methodologies and using of mixed media (i.e. combination of painting, analogue photo, and digital manipulation), we need to discuss them on a more solid basis, long before the discussion of how this influenced her work in terms of narrative and perception. ... Then, as it were mentioned constantly by the researchers, she used to exploit in her works a combination of painting, analogue photo techniques, and digital manipulation.  «In fact, Ms. Lux has carefully costumed and photographed her subjects and, after scanning the image, dropped the figures into a separately scanned background often taken from one of her paintings ». (Tully, 2005) So, Lux used analogue technoque firstly, and, getting the figures, dropped them into a seprately scanned background secondly, (i.e. digital manipulation) which is taken from her own paintings. Specifically, her paintings and analogue photos become the main sources for an appropriation, gitting scanned and ultimately combined with a means of Photoshop (for example,  «... Levels control to give the children and their settings a distinctive pallor). (Woodward, 2004) Ultimately, from a point of narration and perception, it should be stated that works of Loretta Lux are organized very well in a classic m anner. Using many old masters as her citation field, she managed to create an atmosphere of mystery. Being mediated by a wide range of techniques, both analogue and digital, and assisted by using of mixed media, her surrealistic children sitting on a sofa of eternity provoke a reader to find an answer to a riddle of absolute in a broad set of interpretations. Paul Shambroom Describing the working methodologies of given photographers, we must begin from the biographical details, then going to a discussion of the chosen formats – analogue, digital or both. Afterwards, are to give our explanations on how this has influenced the works in terms of narrative and perception. Primarily,

The Progressive View and the Challenges of a Flawed Democracy Research Paper

The Progressive View and the Challenges of a Flawed Democracy - Research Paper Example Democracy as an American idealism for better services and transparency has been wanting in other sectors. The political party competition championed the spirit of democracy and the freedom of the people in the early 20th century. In 1912, the presidential contenders campaigned on a platform of respect for people’s right and democracy. They urged voters to consider electing people who agitated for the democratic right. Winston won the presidency because he had a progressive agenda. He won the election fighting for a progressive democracy given the country was undergoing difficulties brought by the Industrial Revolution (Milkis, 2012). The political party during the early 20th century were grappling with the threat of democracy. According to Tocqueville, the local government was the groundwork for democracy (Milkis, 2012). However, the federal government was flawed by the influence of large corporations. The corporations influence the day to day running of government because their candidates run over the government. It is these flaws that political parties viewed as a threat to democracy. They rallied their supporter on the promise of introducing trust laws that checked on their activities. The industrial revolution came with the emergence of prominent businessmen who were opulence and connected to political leaders. This period referred to as the ‘Gilded Age’ left the industrial workers and subsistence farmers vulnerable to exploitation. The businessmen corrupted the methods of government and neglected the plight of workers. This was a threat to democracy and Democrats leaders as well as Republicans were viewed to be irresponsible and pursuing their own interest (Milkis, 2012). Democracy has been practiced since the ancient Greeks.

Create a security policy - Please read instructions Essay

Create a security policy - Please read instructions - Essay Example Since Destin is mainly a tourist’s attraction, the company receives various small design jobs throughout the year and especially in the summer. Along with providing design services, the company also provides PR services and content writing services for some of its major clients. Rubric Company is mainly a service based company and this means employees have to be courteous to the clients as they are the face of the company. While the clients of the company are quickly expanding, so are the employees in the organization. Rubric began as a small advertising agency with only five employees but the need of the business required employees more business over the years. As of now, the company has 50 employees on its payroll. Thus, the organization evolved from a closely knit group to an organization that is considering expanding to new states within the US. The purpose and intent of this policy is to protect Rubric Company from premeditated or inadvertent unethical behavior. Moreover, this policy is designed to develop an open and trustworthy culture in the organization where the participation and support of each employee is valued.. The following strategy pertains to all entities working for or in association with the day to day business of Rubric Company. The policy is intended for all the people in the organization including the CEO, managers and Human resource in the organization. This includes both the employees and the upper management of the company. It is also specifically targeted to employees who have been found to be involved in certain unethical behavior. Once the ethics policy is approved, it is to be expected that the policy would be considered as part of the rules and regulations of the organization and would guide the management regarding the proper course of action regarding future issues of

Exam - 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Exam - 1 - Essay Example It is now possible for companies to share communication with their customers and partners, through interactive means such as the web browsers, while also combining technologies from different vendors without experiencing problems (Applegate, Austin & Soule, 2009:286). The cost involved in implementing better-performing technologies has drastically reduced, since there is now more competition among the vendors, thus reducing the prices of their products (Applegate, Austin & Soule, 2009:286). The drivers of those changes include global internet access. The immense growth in internet has made it possible and easier to access varied computer applications regardless of where they are hosted, thus making software access easier and inexpensive (Applegate, Austin & Soule, 2009:288). Additionally, reduced lead time to market and the norm of 24-hour operations for businesses have served to improve the accessibility of diverse technologies, since the competition between vendors has reduced the time involved in delivering such products to the market. Skills shortage has also served to drive the changes in IT service model, since the shortage of qualified IT experts has forced business to continuously demand improved capabilities from the professionals, which has in turn served to deliver new products (Applegate, Austin & Soule, 2009:288). The new service models are servers housed locally, which serves to enhance the physical proximity between the location of server machines and places where people are using the software, an aspect that has in itself, brought about more efficiency (Applegate, Austin & Soule, 2009:287). Further, the new service models entail software designed for high geographical distance operations, making it possible for the storage of files and documents in one geographical location, and the access and use of the same

Should Abortion Be Illegal or Legal Essay Example for Free

Should Abortion Be Illegal or Legal Essay Whether or not abortion should be illegal or not is a very controversial issue. Abortion is a very personal matter and people have many different opinions about it. Reasons for or against an abortion could be rape, money issues, religious views, and or young motherhood. An argument for the prolife side would be that life begins at conception. With that being said some people would consider it murder and an act of taking a life if abortion was chosen. On the contrary to that point would be that almost all abortions happen in the first trimester, when the fetus can’t exist and isn’t alive yet. Most women (88 percent) who get an abortion have it done in the first trimester. Some people would consider abortion a safe medical procedure. Studies have shown that there’s only a 0. 5 percent risk of any serious medical complications as well as any problems with future pregnancy. Some people would argue against that saying that having an abortion would cause depression and stress. Also it’s been said that having an abortion would lead to a greater risk of a miscarriage and pelvic inflammatory disease. For the cases of rape and incest, there’s the 72 hour pill that can be taken or other medical care that can be taken to ensure no pregnancy will happen. Some teenager’s though can’t get their hands on the pill because you have to be eighteen or older to get it. Most teens wouldn’t have been financially prepared for a child or be able to get their hands on contraceptives. People with religious views can be against abortion and argue that a child is god’s gift and shouldn’t be tampered with. Tampering with â€Å"A creation of God† would lead to unwanted memories. To argue with that statement, some people don’t believe in God and don’t have any religious views. Therefore, tampering with â€Å"God’s gift† by getting an abortion can’t be proven cause there’s no scientific evidence of a God. Another against abortion argument could also be that if abortion is illegal that means there would be more â€Å"back alley† abortions. Back alley abortions can kill the mother or cause plenty complications. The contrary to that point would be that there’s plenty of other ways to get rid of your baby. Also, people think abortion shouldn’t be used as a form of birth control. Its said to be better for society to have babies aborted instead of having them be raised poor, where the child will suffer and be put through problems, and do crimes. There are many couples in the world who want to adopt a child, and have been waiting for years. Those children who are adopted have a chance to do good in life and succeed. In conclusion, there are many different viewpoints on whether abortion should be legal or illegal. Some people think that it’s a woman’s body, and nobody should be able to tell her what to do with her baby. While others think that having an abortion is murder no matter what the circumstances are. One thing is for sure though, not everyone will agree on a decision one-hundred percent.

Visual Pleasure And Narrative Cinema

Visual Pleasure And Narrative Cinema In this paper we are going to discuss the position of Laura Malvey in her work Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. The psychoanalytic interpretation of the position of women viewers gets back to the famous essay by Laura Mulvey Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, the original thesis of which was that the film form is structured by the unconscious of the patriarchal society and that woman as a spectator is always imposed the rules of a foreign game getting of the male type of pleasure for example, inherently scopophilic pleasure from the examination of the female body. But the issue in this work is not only and not so much about the pleasure itself, but about more serious things how the vision is the instance of identification formation of the subject through the visual practices and how the power is incorporated into the play that is, the question is raised in the work about the ideological effects of the basic cinematic apparatus. Mulvey argued that ideology is involved in forming the subjectivity of the individual at the level of the unconscious and that is how a female spectator, through borrowing the male gaze, takes the ideology of a patriarchal society, which is imposed. Laura Mulvey (1975) in Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema explains how the traditional Hollywood film claims the scopophilic view: In a world ordered by sexual imbalance, pleasure in looking has been split between active/male and passive/female. The determining male gaze projects its phantasy on to the female form which is styled accordingly. In their traditional exhibitionist role women are simultaneously looked at and displayed, with their appearance coded for strong visual and erotic impact so that they can be said to connote to-be-looked-at-ness. The woman, demonstrated as a sexual object, acts as a leitmotif of erotic spectacle. The formulated problem in this context may be solved through a strong deconstruction of the vision machine, which constitutes a woman as an image, and a man as an owner of the sight. Mulvey proposes to destroy the voayeristic-scopophilic opinion, consistently destroying cinematic codes that postulate such view. Will this be the solution of the problem? Mulveys emphasis on the analysis of the specific of the cinematographic system, with all its radical and provocative judgements, seems to be legitimate. The real is the question of the discursive mediation properties. However, in general, the psychoanalytic criticism of visual representations may also have a profound methodologic effect. As we have alreqady stated, the main ideas of Mulveys research approach are formulated by her in the work Visual pleasure and narrative cinema. The impact of this approach extended not only to the tudy of movies but also to television, advertising and other forms of visual culture. The researcher begins her studies with the basic ideas of psychoanalysis a postulation of sexual differences as the axis of meaning and the center of the oedipal drama. Mulvey (1975) made the psychoanalytic theory as the basis for interpretation of the mystery of movie: The fascination of film is reinforced by pre-existing patterns of fascination already at work within the individual subject and the social formations that have moulded him. According to the researcher, the movie does not only stimulates and trains scopophilic bents (the pleasure of spying), but also satisfies the repressed desire to show off, the exhibitionism. Even so the movie does not only quenche the scopophilic thirst, but also brings it to the narcissism, satisfying the human need of identification with others, in this case with anyone or anything on the screen. On the one hand, the film is designed for the fact that the audience identifies itself with a particular character, his logic, so that for the audience everything could be clear. On the other hand, the viewer tends to present himself in a strange role. Just in time for psychodynamics occurring between these two processes, the phenomenon of narrative cinema, about which Laura Mulvey writes, is built. In this vein, it is appropriate to recall the ideas that the cinema performance actualizes and intensifies the processes of an affective internal projection-identification in the viewer, who has the ability to act and move. At the same time Laura Mulvey is developing a theory of the male look under which a woman appears as an image, and a man as the bearer of the look. That is, according to the researcher, in the movies women simultaneously function as erotic objects for the male audience, that gets a scopophilic pleasure from their presence, and as erotic objects for the male characters , with whom the male audience may identify itself. The third and decisive spectator, in addition to the male protagonist and the male audience, is a camera, which by means of choosing a particular angle, and a sequence of frames represents an opportunity to double the pleasure of scopophilia and identification. The researcher firmly binds the audience view with the function of the cinema in general. Hall (2003) stated that cinema is capable to control our mind, to make us identify with its images. It was originally created for the visual experience and for the viewers empathy. Therefore, the point of the location of view, its place and its direction, according to Mitchell (1995), are incredibly important and determine the film industry as such. Such a perfect ability to focus the mind distinguishes cinema from other shows. Laura Mulvey concludes that the codes involved in the movie and having a direct relation to the external structures (social and economic conditions), must be learnt for their transformation, for creation of other movies and critics of the effects and characteristics of visual pleasure, which is provided by the traditional movie plot. The attempt of L. Mulvey to show using psychoanalytic theory , how unconscious in a patriarchal society forms the film had a very important and significant impact on the further development of the feminist film criticism. Further, the theories of the female look in art are also actively appearing and developing As for the contemporary cultural and feminist theory, its main subject is an everyday life, where there is a specific articulation of social structures. Today there is a fundamental shift in the feminist studies in general. According to Evans and Hall (2005) we see that this is the transition from the deterministic explanations of womens subordination to the media to the analysis of the processes of symbolization and representation. In other words, the problem of studies of mass media moved from the determining of the reasons of situation for womens subordination in culture and society to the review of symbolic aspects of the functioning of cultural products and tools of mass communication in general. The advantage of the research approach Mulvey is that she is one of the first to articulate the existence of a gender specificity of modern movies, to draw attention to the presence of the third spectator which was not previously noticed a camera, on the position of sight of which further specifics of the construction and interaction of the images in the film depends. Her ideas had a strong influence on the avant-garde trend in the cinema. At the same time Mulvey was interested in the universal mechanisms of constructing a plot of the film, as well as the mechanism of influence of specific film image to the audience through the identification process. Laura Mulvey, the author of the article Visual pleasure and narrative cinema, says that in the movie the traditional division of labor is used: a woman serves as a subject for a look, a man serves as an examining person. The camera a cinema eye inherits the role of a man, who looks through the lens of cultural cliches. The product of this view is an active authoritativeness of the erotic gaze directed at the female body, and narrative patterns of the melodramatic cinema. An endless variety of genre roles for the calibration of all the shades of seduction, desire, flirting or classical coldness are available to the actresses. It goes without saying that the text of the work, with todays perspective, seems to be too radical, too provocative, tapering to limit the sex differences, abounding in bold (for the uninitiated in the mysteries of psychoanalysis) terminology and may be somewhat alien to our consciousness, but at the same time this is the most representative and the most authoritative work, which gives quite a clear idea about the specifics of feminist psychoanalytic cinema theory. In addition, this work is an explicit demonstration of how the feminist critique has expropriated and used the psychoanalytic discourse to overcome traditional psychoanalysis negativism against women dating back to Freud, with his own means. In our work we have to give two examples from visual culture and discuss how Mulveys thesis may be convincing in one instance but tested to its limitations in another. For this discussion I propose to take two films: Rare Window by Alfred Hitchcock and Juno by Jason Reitman. The film Rare Window by Alfred Hitchcock is convincing the thesis of Laura Malvey that Man is the bearer of the look while Woman connotes to-be-looked-at-ness. The main character of this film is put in such conditions that he has to be scopophilic. A photographer Jeffries has broken his leg and now he has to watch everything going outside through the window. The film reveals to us one of the main needs of men peep through the keyhole, figuratively speaking. It is really impossible to keep away from such a forbidden fruit. And the blame of everything is curiosity, namely it moves the main mechanisms in a man, allowing to forget about other equally important needs (food, rest, sex) and exciting the imagination at a time. In this film everything is concentrated around the man, Jeffries, women are just a phone here. As to the film that is tested to the limitations of Malveys thesis it should be noticed it is very hard to find such because such films began to appear not so long time ago. These are the films with a strong woman in the main role. For example I would like to propose the film Juno by Jason Reitman. The main heroine of this film is a young girl who is pregnant and who gets perfectly well with her problems. All the actions in the film are concentrated around this young lady Juno and in difference to the films in which everything is made for men, this film limits the thesis of Laura Malvey that Man is the bearer of the look while Woman connotes to-be-looked-at-ness by our vision of the main heroine.

The Ideal Form Of Government Politics Essay

The Ideal Form Of Government Politics Essay In its most basic essence, democracy refers to a system of government whereby the people of a country place representatives into the role of national administration via the casting of a ballot. In this system, the role of majority rule is complete and unquestionable; Individuals who are selected to represent the country must be willed to do so by a majority of the population. Democracy has often been called the ideal form of government. Of all forms of government that have been utilized by human societies throughout history to organize and protect our kind, democracy is the only one that operates on consensus to create solutions to the problems society faces. In the past, government often operated through directives issued by a ruling elite, often composed of those of noble blood, heritage, or otherwise superior social status as opposed to those selected by the people. Forms of government that used this system include authoritarianism, monarchism, oligarchic government, and tyranny. All nations under the government of elites have proved unstable due to a striking disparity in power between the ruling class and the commoner. The rulers often had too much power, but did not always employ it in the proper channels, which often resulted in the wants of the people left unmet, and flagrant abuse of privilege all too common. This resulted in the dissatisfaction of the people, who existed in the plains, the fields, and in the castle walls, as opposed to the nonchalance of the ruler, who sat alone and vulnerable without their satisfaction. Security was often nonexistent under one-man rule, for small changes in circumstances could destabilize society, and no matter what that one man decided on, there would always be ten thousand others who would oppose him. Should we look at the circumstances under the proper light, government can be seen to be living, breathing, and evolving creature; In the burgeoning stages of its growth, it is not perfect. It is weak, and riddled with flaws. As the flaws are exposed to exploitation by fate over time, adaptation then takes place, and the organism changes in such a way as to better serve the purpose of eliminating, or accommodating these flaws. Monarchism, Authoritarianism, and so on can therefore be seen as neophytes in varying stages of evolution, changing through time to accommodate the necessity of appeasing the people, sometimes violently, sometimes slowly, through gradual, minute shifts in political power and ideals over the vicissitudes of time. Democracy, therefore, would be the apex of this evolution, created for the express purpose of appeasing the people. Though evolution occurs at different rates, evolution itself nonetheless remains inevitable given a change in circumstances. The Greeks, long hailed as the progenitors of Western civilization, were themselves proponents and beneficiaries of the qualities of democratic government, flourishing under its gaze, through fulfillment of wants and needs, which created relative happiness and a general lack of endogenous forces that would effect strife, save for corruption. Japan, America, The United Kingdom, and Australia are today democratic as well, a circumstance manifested by the actions of democratic countries themselves to spread democracy, and therefore what many deem civilization. In the words of Ronald Reagan, the 40th President of the United States, Democracy is worth dying for, because its the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man. Malaysia itself is an example of a democratic country. Every four years, we participate in General Elections to select the parties that will represent our country to the rest of the world, and who will assure our welfare, our health, and our collective happiness. What does it mean, however, to be a democratic country? Rather, what significance does this bear to us, its inhabitants? What is our role in the mechanism that governs the democracy we so enjoy? Is democracy indeed an umbrella form of government that will work with every country? This work will attempt to explore these issues. The significance of democracy Many people choose not to vote, vindicating themselves with the pathetic excuse that their one measly vote would not change anything anyway. Certainly, that is true. One vote will not change the result of an election, but that is precisely the point. The fact that there are millions of votes cast for differing parties during each general election is itself a feature of democracy; If one vote were indeed able to change an outcome, it would not in fact be a vote. It would be a decree, an order, and a directive. Rather than relying on the aggregate measure of societys desire, we would instead be looking at a result that reflects the will of a single person. This would defeat the purpose of democracy. Democracy is not simply a form of government; It is associated with many connotations. Democracy provides us freedom of choice. It empowers us to act, to make decisions to change our own fate, as opposed to remaining silent as if we were made of stone. The vote therefore is an incredibly powerful tool. It signifies liberty. It reflects the personal views and ideals of the voter. It reflects his leanings. Lastly, it reflects the fact that he cares about his country and the direction it will take in the future. People who do not vote therefore not only forfeit the use of this tool, but their own self-respect. Democracy is not simply freedom, or a form of government. Should all the appropriate measures and conditions be appropriate for democracy, democracy itself becomes a responsibility of the people towards themselves. To what greater power should a person heed but him or herself? While the vote may be unable to change anything itself, the synergy of many votes combining together to make a majority is what effects change, and what decides what will happen to the country, and therefore to oneself. If a large segment of the population is equipped with the mindset that voting is pointless, then they will all not vote. The wrong people would then be put in power, and actions taken would then not reflect the consensus of the people, leading to the setbacks embodied in other forms of government as outlined previously. On the other hand, should all parties in a democratic system(voters, political parties) fulfill their roles in the system of democracy correctly and fully, then optimum benefit to society will be rendered. As the government implemented and the actions taken as a result of that government would reflect the consensus of the people, there would be absolutely no reason for controversy, dispute, and fighting that would otherwise detract from the overall productivity and welfare of the population. In the real world, this is clearly not possible, due to the intervening forces of corruption and the sheer fallibility of human nature, which clearly applies to the representatives whom we ourselves place in seats of power. However, if more people are educated and aware of their role and significance in democracy, then we can minimize the effect of these hiccups in what would otherwise be an efficient administration. Democracy: Is it suitable for all? Democracy A political organization wherein the populace exercises control over the matters, which affect, concern, or interest them. Quite frankly, it is power to the people. Logically fair in most senses, democracy seems a far better option than a monarchic or dictatorial rule where a single person or few people hold the fate of the nation in their extravagantly ringed hands. Democracy gives voice to the hundreds, the thousands, and the millions who deserve an equal stake in how their country is run. It is they, after all, that make a nation. Nevertheless, as hard as democracy is to establish, it is harder to maintain. After implementation a successful democracy will have its ample plaudits, but not many nations are lucky enough to hit the nail on the head in terms of providing a democratic rule. Iraq, Congo, Sudan what if these dictatorial nations were suddenly to become democracies? We wouldnt see flourishing architecture, economic stability or social benevolence we would see anarchy. Some nations are just too large and have too much different ethnic diversity to be ruled by anything less than a staunch dictator. How can one hear the voice of the people when everyone shouts for different things? The reason behind why democracy would not work for some countries is often because the country has been artificially cobbled together. Democracy would be possible, but only if these countries are broken down into smaller units capable of supporting a democratic rule. A prime example would be Yugoslavia, once a large dictatorsh ip, now a cluster of individual, contented democratic states consisting the likes of Croatia, Serbia, and Macedonia. Stability is another factor that can be guaranteed by an established democracy. An elected leader has to take in consideration many views when acting upon something, as opposed to a sole view from a dictator that can be brought about my greed, anger, or resentment, and not by what he believes to be in the best choice of the populace. Lets face it; Churchill and Roosevelt made far less mistakes than the dictators Hitler, Mussolini and Stalin. However, democracy has some faults than can be seen far more clearly when in practical usage than when in its theoretical stage. The whole intention of democracy is to give everyone a voice, to make everyones opinion count. But in the end, it is the majority view that counts. And this is how it has to be; there can never be an action made that pleases everyone. The irony within democracy is that governing by majority will always form minorities minorities that are often unconsidered and brushed aside. Arent these the very minorities that democracy was supposed to aid? Democracy is all about giving power to individuals, but this also evokes the belief that self-gain is more important than issues such as patriotism or social problems. This is often the case when democracy mingles with capitalism. As the famous quote goes When you combine democracy with capitalism, the resulting governmental stew becomes an economy of haves and have-nots. As opposed to theories such as communism, when people are told that they must act in the good of the nation, democracy allows people to put what is best for solely themselves first, which can be seen in democratic capitalist nations where self-rivalry is high and not everyone can thrive. Economic success may be common in nations like this, but I assure you the wealth is not evenly spread. It is wrong to assume that democracy is the best option for a nation. There are many nations that are coping fine without bearing a democratic insignia on their mantelpiece. Economic-powerhouse China would be a prime example. And if one were to change to democracy, the act is far from instantaneous. Until today, Russia is still recovering from the economic backlash of their dramatic alteration to become democratic over twenty years ago in the 1990s. There have been many examples of success and failures in implementing democracy in nations across the globe. One successful example of this governing system can be seen in the United Kingdom. Due to the reason that the British previously conquered Malaysia prior to our independence, our democracy structure is also based on United Kingdoms successful democracy structure. The transfer of power after every election is carried out smoothly, without any riot and chaos, which proves the success of the system that has been implemented in the mentioned countries. However, there are also real life examples of the failure to implement the democratic system is some countries. For instance, the failure of democracy in India. Factors such as the parliamentary system of the government, corruption, and unorganized election arrangements and also the lack of democratic culture in the country itself contribute to the failure of the implementation of the system in those countries. The Role of the Citizen in A Democracy The key role of citizens in a democracy is to participate in public life. Citizens have an obligation to become informed about public issues, to watch carefully how their political leaders and representatives use their powers, and to express their own opinions and interests.   Voting in elections is another important civic duty of all citizens. But to vote wisely, each citizen should listen to the views of the different parties and candidates, and then make his or her own decision on whom to support. Participation can also involve campaigning for a political party or candidate, standing as a candidate for political office, debating public issues, attending community meetingsand membership civic meetings, bably best placed in Article 5 on the Judicial Authority.materials are.pecified.il. ency Council, petitioning the government, and even protesting.   A vital form of participation comes through active membership in independent, non-governmental organizations, what we call civil society. These organizations represent a variety of interests and beliefs: farmers, workers, doctors, teachers, business owners, religious believers, women, students, human rights activists. It is important that women participate fully both in politics and in civil society. This requires efforts by civil society organizations to educate women about their democratic rights and responsibilities, improve their political skills, represent their common interests, and involve them in political life. In a democracy, participation in civic groups should be voluntary. No one should be forced to join an organization against their will. Political parties are vital organizations in a democracy, and democracy is stronger when citizens become active members of political parties. However, no one should support a political party because he is pressured or threatened by others. In a democracy, citizens are free to choose which party to support. Democracy depends on citizen participation in all these ways. But participation must be peaceful, respectful of the law, and tolerant of the different views of other groups and individuals. In other forms of government: Form of government Citizens role Monarchy- A form of government in which all political power is passed down to an individual (usually hereditary) known as a monarch1 (single ruler), or king (male), queen (female). No role Oligarchy-A form of government that consists of rule by an elite group who rule in their own interests, especially the accumulation of wealth and privilege. Only certain members of society have a valid voice in the government. This can reflect (but is not limited to) economic interests, a particular religious tradition (theocracy), or familial rule (monarchy). Restricted to the laws, otherwise are counted as crime. Totalitarian-Rule by a single political party.   Votes for alternative candidates and parties are simply not allowed. Citizens are allowed and encouraged to vote, but only for the governments chosen candidates. Capitalism In a capitalist or free-market economy, people own their own businesses and property and must buy services for private use, such as healthcare.   Earn and spend money. 1: Monarchy, From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarch How Malaysia achieved democracy The act of democracy first started off in 11th of May 1946 when the idea of Malayan Union first came about. The aim of the Malayan Union was to combine all scattered administration into one ruling system, assist administration, save expenditure, prepare the locals for their independence, boost economic recovery and progress, however this plan was later abolished in July 1946 by the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) led by Datuk Onn bin Jafar. This was done because Malays were unhappy about the fact that their ruler will lose power which will compensate for loss of Malay power, this was unwanted as the Malays rely on Malaya alone as their mother country however the non-Malay are considered immigrants from other region. After the Malayan Union was abolished a rise of a new system came about; The Federation of Malaya proposal, compiled by the Malay elites, the various sultans and the British. States involved would be the same as in the Malayan Union however there were new conditions proposed, the new conditions are, Malay cultural domination would be established, Malays would wield political power and the following five principles The need for strong central government, the need to maintain individuality of each Malay state, the need for new arrangements leading to self-government, common citizenship for those who regarded Malaya as their home and were loyal to her, recognition of the special position of Malays and their rights, which must be safeguarded Soon, we will learn that the legislation of democracy will began, as what was being recognized in the past was simply steps towards democracy, however they are merely just different political party fighting for their ethnic rights democratically however they have yet to elect any legislative council members. Until, 27th of July 1955, the first national election for legislative council members was held, which resulted the Alliance which is compromised with the UMNO and MCA to win 51 out of 52 seats and consequently became the government that led the country to independence. The following page will show you the result of the election from democracy.   Summary of the 27 July 1955  Legislative Council  election results Votes % of vote Seats % of seats Alliance 818,013 79.6 51 98.1 Parti Negara 78,909 7.6 0 0.0 Pan-Malayan Islamic Party  (PMIP) 40,667 3.9 1 1.9 National Association of Perak  (Parti Kebangsaan Perak, NAP) 20,996 2.0 0 0.0 Perak Malay League (Perikatan Melayu Perak) 5,433 0.5 0 0.0 Perak Progressive Party  (PPP) 1,081 0.1 0 0.0 Labour Party 4,786 0.4 0 0.0 Independents 31,642 3.0 0 0.0 Overall total 1,001,527 100.0 52 100.0 Source:  The Malayan Elections, Francis G. Carnell. One Alliance candidate won unopposed. Democracy In Malaysia Democracy is a form of government in which the policy is decided by the preference of the majority in a decision-making process, usually elections. Democracy as a form of government always has the following characteristics: There is a demos, a group which makes political decisions by some form of collective procedure. In modern democracies the demos is the nation, and citizenship is usually equivalent to membership. There is a territory where the decisions apply, and where the demos are resident. In modern democracies, the territory is the nation-state. There is a decision-making procedure, which is either direct (for instance a referendum) or indirect (for instance election of a parliament). General Election An important aspect of the democratic system is elections. Elections in the practice of democracy constitute a social contract between the people and the candidate or party (that succeeds to form a government). The party that wins the election and forms the government should fulfill the partys promises proclaimed in the election campaign. At the state level, elected representatives of the people sit in the State Legislative Assembly of each state. At the federal or national level, elected Members of Parliament sit in the Dewan Rakyat or House of Representatives. There are two types of general election. First, the general election for the whole country, held once in every five years. The next is the by-elections, also considered a general election because the concept of the election itself constitutes the choosing of a representative by the public citizens for the Parliament and the State Legislative Assembly. There are clear differences between the two types of election. The first type is only held after Parliament or the State Legislative Assembly is dissolved. The by-elections do not involve the dissolution of any of the assembly nor do they follow a fixed schedule. The general election is usually held every 5 years. Prior to carrying out the election, the Yang di-Pertuan Agung must dissolve the Parliament on the advice or at the request of the Prime Minister. This occurs at the federal level. At the State level, a general election is held after the State Legislative Assembly is dissolved by the Ruler or Yang Dipertua Negeri at the request of the Menteri Besar or Chief Minister. As soon as Parliament is dissolved, the elections must be held within 60 days in West Malaysia and within 90 days in Sabah and Sarawak. The time specified is reasonable for the Election Commission, to prepare the election arrangements and the contesting parties to get ready, hold campaigns and construct definite strategies following the regulations or laws that have been fixed from time to time. For a general election, after the Yang di-Pertuan Agung dissolves Parliament at the request of the Prime Minister, the Election Commission will issue an order to the Managing Officer to organize the balloting process (election). The responsibility of the Managing Officer is to issue a statement, through the Government Gazette or newspaper, on the date of nomination of candidate for the said election, the place and the time of election for every electoral constituency. The Election Commission also determines the date and place of balloting. Any candidate who wishes to contest must obtain a nominator, a seconder and at least four other people, whose names are recorded in the nomination paper. They must also be registered voters in the voters register of the constituency where the candidate is contesting. The balloting day can be held after 3 weeks from the date of nomination but cannot exceed 8 weeks. On the balloting day, all voters who qualify to vote can carry out their responsibility by casting their votes in balloting places provided. Before the balloting day arrives, the contesting parties are allowed to carry out election campaigns through political talks. The freedom of speech and assembly during the campaigns also show that the basic freedom as embodied in Article 10 of the Federal Constitution are protected in the country which practices a democratic system of government. However, to ensure public security all political talks whether by the party that had held the reins of the government or the opposition, it is necessary to get police approval or permit. For a general election, every voter is given two sheets of ballot papers of different colours; one for the State Legislative Assembly constituency and the other for the Parliamentary constituency. On each ballot paper are symbols representing the contesting candidates and the space for the voter to make his choice. The responsibility of voting is completed with the voter marking X in the space provided against the symbol representing the candidate of the voters choice. The ballot papers are put into separate ballot boxes for the Parliamentary constituency and the State Legislative Constituency. Media in the democracy of Malaysia Society plays a crucial and the most important role in a democratic system, as they are the ones that hold most power in electing new leaders or political bodies. In Malaysia, there are thousands of self-help groups, society, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and so on which actively pursue the enforcement of fundamental rights in todays society which is the foundation for social, economical and cultural activities. Their duty and responsibility is to maintain the balance between politician and citizens. To do so, they would conduct the formal opposition in raising social consciousness of key public issues. However, these self-appointed organizations are often threatened with punishments due to the Internal Security Act and/or other repressive regulations and law. They have thus not yet carved out their own democratic space in the public sphere. Journalists are encountering the same pressure from the same existing repressive acts as other actors of the civil society. Therefore, any printing, newspaper or any other publication firms must have a permit and/or license issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs in order to conduct media, tabloids and news activities. However these permits are valid for only a year and require renewal and they are only granted, if the minister does not consider the publication to be prejudicial and offensive to public order. Generally, licenses can be awarded and even obtained by very critical periodicals of the political opposition and human rights organizations. Examples include, Aliran Monthly. However, in 1987, permits of four newspapers were suspended due to breaking of regulation and in 1991; the minister forced the party-affiliated periodicals The Rocket (DAP) and Harakah (DAP) to restrict circulation to only party members. This case did not get any better but even until the beginning of the 21st century. Harakah saw its permit renewed but its output frequency was reduced from eight per month to two. The permit of the weekly tabloid Eksklusif, which reported mostly on opposition parties, was suspended when its publication permit expired. The ministry explained the suspensions are due to imbalanced reporting and non-compliance with publication rules. During the same year, the privately-financed youth magazine Al-Wasilah, as well as its sister publication Detik had their permits cancelled for giving too much coverage on opposition parties. Furthermore, the ministrys committee in charge of monitoring publications issued warnings to the Malay language daily Utusan Malaysia for its coverage on the Suqiu election appeals and to the entertainment magazine FHM for a saucy interview with singer Ning Baizura. In October 2000, 14-member Coalition of Independent Media activists petitioned to the Human Rights Commission of Malaysia (SUHAKAM) for a repeal of the Printing Presses and Publications Ac t and the abolishment of the practice of awarding permits. Besides these direct and indirect controls, the government promotes the conduct of development journalism which subordinates the media to the concerted efforts of government agencies fostering social stability and economic development. Malaysian newspapers are not uniform in their reporting nor do they express only a single point of view. But they usually abstain from reporting about activities of the political opposition. If they do, then they present these activities in an unfavorable light. Furthermore, there is little critical commentary and analysis of political and economic developments. ANFREL expressed in its observation mission report its concerns about the biased media coverage of the election campaigns before the general elections in 1999: ANFREL observers were struck by the blatant bias seen in both in the print and electronic media, in favor of the ruling coalition. Both Bahasa and English-language newspapers ran full-page ads, some of which used reworked or faked photos, aimed at showing the opposition in a bad light. As well, stories alleging corruption and sexual impropriety were widely circulated in the government- controlled press. Man of these newspapers refused to publish opposition advertisements, or run coverage of its campaign. Similarly, television advertisements and coverage were BN exclusive. The members of the Malaysian middle class especially, are increasingly disappointed with this lack of critical commentary and political analysis. They turn to foreign media as well as the alternative press within Malaysia. Conclusion In summary, a democracy is a political system where the people are placed at utmost importance, and with this being a key factor to drive the country, there is a stronger potential for economic growth and the opportunities for political uprisings are reduced as the people are deciding what happens. Most modern countries are democracies; the prime example is the United States, which has a fixed election system every 4 years and a reigning democratic party. Other countries such as China and India do follow democratic policy, however due to large populations and mixed voting procedures, the reigning party is said to be more controlling and less democratic. In this aspect, whilst most of the world today is democratic (albeit the communist and semi communist countries of North Korea and Chile) still do have some control by the government, which is influenced and selected by the people. In Malaysia, the reigning party is Barisan Nasional, which is considered the more democratic party of the few. Again, there is a general election every 4 years, where the party is elected. Unlike other countries, however, the people do not choose the individual person to win, but the political party. In recent years there has been an increase in support for the republic party, but this is being held of at present. Either way, the fact that there is a general election held every 4 years, unlike in India and China, this proves a democratic government is significant.