Argumentative Essay On Gambling - 730 Words

Gambling has been a major entertainment for people in Las Vegas since many years ago. Gambling is a form of excitement that by definition is putting a value at risk. Gambling usually takes place in casinos’ in Las Vegas, in different forms, for instance, poker, slot machines, blackjack and etc. Some of these games require skills and some is pure chance. However, the profit that customers make by participating in gambling significantly lower than the profit that casinos’ make. Due to the fact that casinos’ have a strictly controlled environment and gather data from each customer on a daily basis for their own profit. In my opinion, gambling can be fun, exciting and a good activity to amuse one. Nevertheless, if one becomes obsessive for†¦show more content†¦To begin with nowadays casinos’ control nearly all the behaviors of their customer so that based on the data they gather they can decide how to serve each customer in order to generate revenue. For instance, the Caesars Rewards Program contains data on nearly 45 million costumers (O’Keefe 2015). Additionally, they can track the behaviors of each machine, dealer, and costumer. Therefore, they can realize that if a customer is cheating or is playing against the rules, which in my opinion, drastically changes the whole aspect of gambling since many customers may be triggered to cheat in order to win more money which is understandable. Another method that casinos’ have to keep their costumers is that they provide many services for costumers as they enter the casino. for example, they ask if they’re staying at a hotel or need a ride to the airport. Which in my opinion it is just a simple method that many places use in order to keep their costumes. Finally, gambling is generally associated with taking risks. Hence, if one is fearless and takes more risks the chances of winning may increase for him/her. However, the idea that if one loses money by instinct one can argue, they may put more money in the game so that they can win back the amount of money they lost. Casinos’ may use this as a weakness therefore in some indirect ways they may push costumers towardsShow MoreRelatedPhl 320 Critical Thinking and Decision Making in Business Complete Class996 Words   |  4 Pageshelped you in your life. †¢ What do you expect to learn from this course? Write a paragraph summarizing the discussion. PHL 320 Week 1 Knowledge Check PHL 320 Week 2 Globalization Argumentative Paper Review the Writing Argumentative Essays section in Ch. 3 of Critical Thinking Write an argumentative paper of no more than 750 words that demonstrates why globalization is good or not good for a business. The paper should define the term good, and should identify the premises and conclusionsRead MoreThe Controversial Issues Of Young People Using Internet And Communication Technologies1680 Words   |  7 Pagesmobile media has been widely used. The consequences of them on young people are powerful, however it has been an argumentative issue throughout years as the impacts contain both positive and negative sides. Based on the data from American life Project, there is an increasing rate of young people using smartphones and online social networking site such as Facebook, Twitter. This essay focuses on the controversial issues of young people using internet and communication technologies, whether this shouldRead MoreWork: Scientific Method and Exploratory Research1888 Words   |  8 Pagessituations where prior analysis could be conducted instead. Argumentative topics †¢ Abortion – is it the best method for unwanted pregnancies. †¢ Plastic surgery – is it really necessary? And is it safe? †¢ Smoking Should be Banned †¢ The internet – the best thing since the invention of the television. †¢ Breast feeding should be a must for the first 6 months of a child. †¢ Should artistes be given special government subsidies? †¢ Gambling should be legal the world over. †¢ Is domestic violence increasingRead MoreA Typical Victorian Villian in The Speckled Band Essay2526 Words   |  11 PagesCoursework-The Speckled Band How does Conan Doyle present Dr. Grimesby Roylott as a typical Victorian Villain. Having now read this book I feel I am now able to complete this essay about Roylott. The main constituents of a typical classic murder mystery invariably consist of a body, a motive, a weapon, a suspect, an alibi and a detective. Conan Doyle’s,The Speckled Band demonstrates all those typical characteristics. I am now going to briefly summarise the story and identify each of the Read More Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Essay6669 Words   |  27 PagesPride and Prejudice by Jane Austen Pride and prejudice is a novel written by Jane Austen and is probably one of the most famous and best loved novels in the English language. In my essay I shall be comparing the proposals of Mr Collins and Mr Darcy to Elizabeth. A proposal is a declaration of love to one person involving powerful feelings where one cannot imagine going on in life without the other, it is also a great compliment. The central theme of the novel is marriage. As well asRead MoreTop 1 Cause for Project Failure65023 Words   |  261 Pagescases I am a stakeholder but in the latter I am an active stakeholder. The end user is ALWAYS a customer regardless their level of involvement. †¢ [pic] Robert Lewis President at IT Catalysts, Inc. Jim ... At the risk of sounding argumentative, I ll state two points with certainty: 1. End-users aren t customers. As a matter of definition (admittedly, our definition), customers are the people who make or influence buying decisions. They might or might not be the people who use theRead MoreDeveloping Management Skills404131 Words   |  1617 Pagessolvers and decision makers who prefer to deal with technical tasks and straightforward, prescribed problems rather than social or interpersonal issues. They excel at problems that have one correct answer. Multiple-choice exams are preferred over essay exams. Research has suggested that these individuals are inclined toward careers in technology, engineering, and law. In college, students with a knowing style tend to major in the physical sciences, engineering, law, and computers. In business, theyRead MoreStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 Pagesfriendly and close interpersonal relationships. McClelland and subsequent researchers focused most of their attention on nAch. High achievers perform best when they perceive their probability of success as 0.5—that is, a 50–50 chance. They dislike gambling with high odds because they get no achievement satisfaction from success that comes by pure chance. Similarly, they dislike low odds (high probability of success) because then there is no challenge to their skills. They like to set goals that require

Euthanasia And Physician Assisted Suicide Essay - 1465 Words

A person should have the right to choose what medical interventions he or she would or would not have implemented in a life threatening situation, but euthanasia and physician assisted suicide (PAS) does not align with the code of ethics that health care providers are sworn to and, therefore, should not be practiced. Research has shown that only a fraction of individuals who qualify for end-of-life (EOL) care options, such as hospice, have heard about what options are available to them. Patients who seek out interventions such as euthanasia and PAS only do so because they feel that it is the only thing that will end their suffering. If such individuals were well informed about just how comprehensive, individualized, and effective EOL services such as hospice can be, euthanasia and PAS would quickly move down on the list of possibilities. We must, as a society, strive to inform and encourage those suffering with terminal illness, not simply end suffering by ending life itself. Right to Die: Right or Wrong? Death has and will always be a very controversial topic. The United States (U.S.), often referred to as the ‘melting pot’ of the world, may be the most controversial nation of all in regards to this topic. There are so many different cultures represented in the U.S. and each culture has a very unique approach to death. Some cultures believe that death is the end of an individual’s existence while others believe it is the beginning of another life. According toShow MoreRelatedEuthanasia And Physician Assisted Suicide865 Words   |  4 Pagessubject for people; add in the idea of assisted suicides and there’s an uproar in society. Euthanasia or physician assisted suicide is a very controversial topic in our society today. Physician assisted suicide by definition is â€Å"suicide by a patient facilitated by means (as a drug prescription) or information (as an indication of a lethal dosage) provided by a physician aware of the pa tient’s intent (Merriam-Webster). 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With the pending status of the law, the question remains on whether or notRead MoreEuthanasia Or Physician Assisted Suicide961 Words   |  4 PagesEuthanasia or physician assisted suicide, is the painless killing of a patient, suffering from a painful or incurable disease, like cancer, or alzheimer s, the practice is illegal in most countries, incl uding the United States, although in the United States, it is a state decision, the only state in the United States that it is legal in is Oregon. Oregon passed the Death with Dignity Act in 1994, making euthanasia legal for chronically ill patients, the only caveat is that the doctor is allowedRead MoreEuthanasia, And Physician Assisted Suicide863 Words   |  4 Pagesare: euthanasia, and physician assisted suicide. Internationally, assisted suicide is a doctor prescribing drugs that end life. The patient is responsible for taking them. Euthanasia is the medication administered by doctors. Today, four countries have laws that allow euthanasia. (Ellis and Bronwyn) A few have laws for physician assisted suicide, and several countries have no laws against suicide. (Humphry) The United States of America have recently added a 5th state to offer assisted suicideRead MorePhysician Assisted Suicide And Euthanasia Essay1039 Words   |  5 PagesPhysician Assisted Suicide Is physician assisted suicide ethical? Physician assisted suicide is an up and coming ethical question that examines a person’s right to their own death. Many people support physician assisted suicide, citing that it can save a lot of pain and suffering. Others claim that the concept of physician assisted suicide is a slippery slope. A slippery slope in the sense that if society accepts euthanasia as a rightful death for the terminally ill, they will potentially acceptRead MoreEuthanasia And Physician Assisted Suicide1629 Words   |  7 Pagesproblems, assisted suicide creates options to reduce the amount of suffering the patient must enduring. Dying with dignity could be beneficial for not only the person who is dying, but also the person’s family and loved ones. This option, however, is often viewed as unethical and immoral throughout society. Physician-assisted suicide offers an option for those with health issues but poses various ethical and social issues. Assisted death is practiced in two different ways: euthanasia and physician-assistedRead MorePhysician Assisted Suicide And Euthanasia Essay1806 Words   |  8 PagesPuett WRIT 1401 12/06/16 Physician Assisted Suicide Beginning in the 1970s, terminally ill patients were given the right to refuse life-sustaining treatment to end their own life, a process commonly referred to as euthanasia. They would be taken off life support, and death would be allowed to take its natural course. This idea was controversial at first, but now a bigger issue has taken its place. Many patients claim that they reserve the right to physician assisted suicide—killing oneself with meansRead MoreEuthanasia And Physician Assisted Suicide997 Words   |  4 PagesEuthanasia and Physician Assisted Suicide: The Right to Die with Dignity (The Legalization, At Risk Groups, and Rebuttal) The possible legalization of voluntary euthanasia and physician assisted suicide brings concerns in regards to how well it will be accepted. There are contradictions that exists between government and church when it comes to the morals and values placed on human life. Although, society has concerns in regards to at risk community groups and the type of treatment availableRead MoreEuthanasia And Physician Assisted Suicide1504 Words   |  7 Pageslegalizing euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide, we would provide â€Å"vulnerable† patients with better overall protection and health care, give patients (who are excruciatingly suffering and have no chance of recovery) the option to end their lives before they ever needed to go through such an ordeal and giving them peace of mind, and spare the families of the patients the emotional pain of watching their loved one slowly and painfully passing away. For these reasons, I believe that euthanasia and Physician-AssistedRead More Euthanasia And Physician Assisted Suicide1249 Words   |  5 Pagesview euthanasia and physician-assisted suicide not as murder or suicide, but rather a release from the pain that holds down and a quicker, less painful way to get to the end that will happen anyways. Euthanasia is becoming much more of a hot topic in the news, both here at home in the US, as well as on the global stage with the new Prime Minister of Canada pushing for a law that would allow nationwide physician assisted death. As of now only a few states have legalized physician-assisted suicide

The Tale of Captain Bookbeard an Account of Book Piracy free essay sample

The Tale of Captain BookBeard: An account of Book Piracy A bibliophilic stroll in the streets and lanes of Kolkata is bound to get across the cries of Captain BookBeard coming from the Sea of Poppies1, The Sea of Monsters2 and The Ship of Stars3, and as one starts to wonder about the whereabouts of this ever present, as almost in every pavementbookstalls, yet elusive pirate lord, a tale starts to emerge as the tip of a stealthy ice-berg which dwells in the heart of the world of letters. Book piracy, a comparatively unknown and unfelt form of socio-economic cancer, is the common disease of every nation. But its effect is visible mostly in the developing ones, where the lack of proper implementation of law, huge disparityridden economy, rise in literacy rate and the growing cosmopolitan literary taste creates a perfect biome for the broadsides of pirate-ships to devastate the publishing houses and book-sellers selling un-pirated copies. No right to copy! Innovations require incentives this is the basic idea behind the idea of ‘copyright’ that protects a writer’s work from being copied, printed and distributed without his/her prior permission, through legal sanction. Book piracy comes under the broader spectrum of ‘copyright infringement’ which includes such creative fields like songs, films, software, etc. Though, it had existed from the end of the 15th century, when competing printers started to use unfair practices, thus far before anything even close to a copyright law has been adopted anywhere. Britain was the first nation to legally designate the issue of protecting the right over one’s own creativity, and in 1709 through the Statute of Anne (enforced on the next year) in Great Britain, the authors got some protection as far production of reprints of their works was concerned and through the gradual evolution in the successive years like Engravers Act of 1735 and Copyright 1 2 Fiction/novel by Amitabh Ghosh Fiction/novel by Rick Riordan 3 Fiction/novel y Arthur Thomas Quiller-Couch 2 Act of 1842 to name a few, in 1911 came the Imperial Copyright Act that became somewhat the benchmark of copyright laws all over the world and soon other nations followed suit. It’ll be imperative to note that copyright based industries helps both the economic and creative fronts of any society. The Indian scenario Print industry in India is one of the most well established and oldest media forms in the country. It is more than a century old and is one of the only two growing print industries in the whole world besides the USA4 with near about 19,000 publishers publishing 90,000 titles per year that, according to estimation of Shakti Malli, president of the Federation of Indian Publishers, is currently â€Å"worth Rs. 80 billion and it is growing by over 15 percent every year. †5 What was once a Rs. 330 crore export industry in 1991 has blossomed into Rs. 4. 6 billion global force post globalization of Indian economy and industry. Both the post-colonial status and the globalization of education, perception and media, factors behind 45 per cent of titles being published in India to be in English, placing the country behind only the U. S. and the U. K. as the third largest publisher of English books in the world. And this includes not only magazines, newspapers and textbooks, but fiction too (though its percentage is lower as compared to the other genres) that includes prose and poetry of foreign and Indian writers (both includes translated works too) ranging from classics to contemporary bestsellers. Thus this fruition of Indian publishing industry, taking a rather ironic tone, shows to be a brooding place for copyright infringement, ranging from minor violations to naked piracy. 1847 saw the British Governor-General Sir Henry Hardinge issuing the first copyright law in India that was replaced by the 1911’s Imperial Copyright Act which finally got transformed and developed into independent India’s first copyright act, the Act of 1957 (came into effect on 1958) which in turn, through many amendments, resulted into the present day laws being 4 â€Å"Business Profile of Print Industry†, by MICA, Ahmedabad (Sep 2009), www. echno-preneur. net/information-desk/sciencetech-magazine/2009/september09/print. pdf (accessed on 25/10/11) 5 â€Å"India’s Book Publishing Industry Booming†, Boulevard India blog archive, boulevardindia. com/2006/09/28/indias-book-publishing-industry-booming/ (accessed on 25/10/11) 3 enforced. In India, copyright on a literary wo rk is provided for the lifetime of the author plus sixty years. Though this has been changed upon special government rulings, as in the case of Rabindranath Tagore, the rule is to be strictly maintained by the publishing houses until any work comes into the public domain. The Buccaneers’ business Like the infamous cut-throats of the old, the new age buccaneers ravage the calm seas of publishing industry by incurring a loss of about 25 percent of their total business in India that in the fiction-genre alone is about 400 crores! R. Gopalan, the Director of Indian Institute of Publishing, Chennai says â€Å"Asian and Latin American countries, according to international book publishers, are the countries where book piracy has assumed alarming dimensions. The interAmerican Publishers Group estimates that globally about 50 billion book pages are illegally reprinted every year! †6 Their ships roam many lane and by-lanes of all of the major and minor metros of the nation and even in the domain of internet though the new-age malice of eBookpiracy. The crew of BookBeard are those who are neither the legal copyright holders, nor anyone authorized by them, but still carries on with the printing, binding and distribution of literary works that robs the publisher of legitimate money and the writer of his creative due and the money from royalty. The latter case becomes even more caustic when sometimes pirated books either carry no name of its true author, or carry a fake name along with a fake title, either just to make it harder to detect in the eyes of the vigilant authority or Lord knows why! A peep into the pavement-bookstalls of Gariahat in Kolkata, to the amazement of the beholder, found an edition of White Tiger7 with no mention of its author’s name and even a spurious book named Chatalogues of Detection, again without any author’s name mentioned, which turned out really to be a copy of Rushdie’s Luka and the Fire of Life upon being flipped through the pages! Gopalan, R. â€Å"The bane of book piracy† The Hindu, Jun 01, 2003 http://www. hindu. com/thehindu/lr/2003/06/01/stories/2003060100490700. htm (accessed on 26/10/11) 7 Fiction/novel by Arvind Adiga 4 In India, government is the largest publisher with the NCERT, different state board’s publishers, NBT, etc. taken together8, both in terms of titles published and number of copies being published and also in the value of production. Government publication is related mostly to educational textbooks. But, it simply cannot meet the huge rise in demand owing to population explosion and rise in literacy rate and this ultimately results in the shortage of text books every year; added to this comes the unscrupulous practice of book-traders who deliberately hoard many copies, later to be black-marketed in higher price than that’s printed, thus further widening the gulf between demand and supply. Here comes the pirate man-of-wars to fill that gulf by producing cheap but unauthorized editions that not only hampers the government publishing houses but also, as a curious surprise, sometimes leads to the curbing of the black-marketers. Rather an un-valorous duel between robbers and pirates! In Kolkata, the hoarding of NCERT text-books has received the full brunt of BookBeard’s sixteen-pounders by the rise in sell of pirated NCERT editions in College Street, RajpurSonarpur, etc. But, the quality of these pirated copies, as with other pirated works as well, is generally of very low quality, and the students have to bear with them on account of government’s failure to produce enough number of copies and also in regulating the increase of corruption in book-trade. On 29th April 2008 the Kolkata Police raided a warehouse at Amherst Street in north Kolkata and found over 4,500 pirated English and Environment Science text books of Classes V-X originally issued by the West Bengal Board of Secondary Education and arrested a man, but failed to arrest any of the kingpins, nor did they unearth the complete racket that ran the whole business. 9 Piracy in books has four main different forms: i) wholesale reprinting of trade text books, ii) unauthorized translations, iii) commercial photocopying of books and journals and iv) distribution of free eBooks. And while the first two are very difficult to track owing to their clandestine modus operandi, the third one happens so nakedly all over the country, mainly near big educational institutions, and in ways very scattered, that in spite of being open to the eyes of law, is prevalent due to lack of awareness in public and agents of law enforcement alike. The 8 â€Å"Study on copyright piracy in India†, Ministry of HRD, govt. of India, education. nic. in/cr_piracy_study/cpr. sp (accessed on 25/10/11) 9 â€Å"Raid nets cache of pirated textbooks† The Telegraph, Apr 30, 2008 http://www. telegraphindia. com/1080430/jsp/calcutta/story_9207036. jsp (accessed on 26/10/11) 5 problem with the last one is in the very porous nature of internet itself that makes it the most difficult of the four to track and prevent. Educational institutions turn blind eyes to reprography the method of obtaining copies of a book through photocopying, happening in their vicinities. Students of any developing country, like India, can ill-afford to buy all of the required books, so they either photocopy parts of books that they get from libraries or from a single copy bought, or get the whole codex copied and have them bound spirally to ultimately get an edition that’s generally less than half the price of the original book. The exact loss of publishing business that occurs through this is almost impossible to gauge owing to the vastness of the country and the sheer large number of photocopying parlours everywhere. Under section 63 of the Copyright Act of India it is a punishable offence. India’s economic parity vis-a-vis the demographic chart is very much misbalanced. The rise of inflation, rapid globalization and urbanization has led to the steep rise in the cost of books as compared to many other commodities. This is a major factor behind Captain BookBeard’s rise. The other being the demand of current bestsellers, text-books and classics alike due to the increase in education among people. The high demand of works by Amitabh Ghosh, Coelho, Rowling, Chetan Bhagat, Ryand, Sheldon, Dan Brown etc. ublished mainly by houses of Harper Collins, Penguin, Random House, Bloomsbury, etc. leads to high prices of the copies that vary between Rs. 300-800 depending on the edition. But in Park Street, Gariahat, College Street, Howrah, Rajpur-Sonarpur one can get pirated editions that are initially demanded for about Rs. 200 but, can be bought for Rs. 80-100 after lengthy and heated bargaining that involves cutlass salvoes and blunderbuss parries of verbal blow between the customer and stall-owner. Indeed some resurrected sea-battle of the far-west! As far as fictional bestsellers are concerned, right after a title, that is pegged to be a run-away bestseller (or even lesser known or scholarly works), is released in the market, agents of the pirates get their hand on few copies, and from this original piece many copies are printed in multiple small rotary and offset presses, after being scanned, in a rash and hastily bound to hit the market merely a week or so after the first release. Slowly the time lag in between is decreasing, and that is increasing the amplitude of alarm that the publishers are facing. These batches of pirated copies that appear when the book is still in hot demand are inferior in quality of pages, printing, proper alignment of impression, binding, cover, etc. due to the haste in 6 capturing the market as soon as possible. But the pirate batches that gradually come out from presses after the heat of demand has mellowed down are of much superior quality, but still Rs. 0-50 lesser than the first batch copies, and sometimes it becomes very hard to tell the difference between such a copy of pirated edition and a legal edition as not only the text is well printed, the cover, layout, barcodes everything echoes in ditto to the genuine edition. This is done because many publishers like Penguin, Rupa, Macmillan, etc. bring out low-priced editions of previously high-priced works gradually. But, even these low-priced editions are hit hard by piracy and c ontinue to lose business worth crores of rupees annually. And ironically, pirated books also have the warning, reproduction of this work is forbidden! Labyrinth of the Pirate Cave When contacted, most of the shop-owners selling pirated editions refused blatantly to shed any light upon the mysterious whereabouts of captain BookBeard. Of course, the fear of police loomed large as from time to time the police have successfully arrested many pirated dealers, seized and destroyed many pirated copies and even raided such presses that produce illegal works. On Nov 18, 2005, the Economic Offenses Wing of the Delhi Police busted a book piracy racket, seized and destroyed over 23,000 books and arrested a person10. They found that the most pirated titles are international booksellers and educational books of such publishers like Oxford and Cambridge University Presses, The Publishers Association, Penguin, etc. Another very important incident happened on Sept 25, 2009 that shed much light on the organization and working of book-piracy rackets in India when the Bangalore City Crime Branch sleuths unearthed a huge inter-state racket of piracy and arrested three persons11; they also raided two places in Mahalakshmi Layout and Laggere where illegal printing of books was being done. The police found that more than 150 titles were illegally printed there and later distributed to sellers and footpath vendors. Police recovered copies of The Lost Symbol12, Jinnah: India, Partition, 10 â€Å"Book piracy racket busted, RS. 1-cr haul† The Times of India, Nov 19, 2005 articles. timesofindia. indiatimes. com/2005-11-19/delhi/27864288_1_book-piracy-racket-akash-chittranshi-penguinbooks-india (accessed on 27/10/11) 11 â€Å"Major book piracy racket busted† The Times of India, Sep 25, 2009 articles. timesofindia. indiatimes. om/2009-09-25/bangalore/28059890_1_book-piracy-harry-potter-series-versions (accessed on 27/10/11) 12 Fiction/novel by Dan Brown 7 Independence13, the Harry Potter14 series, and many other books. The police recovered over 7,300 books and wrappers, text sheets and papers and offset plates, mobile phones and vehicles used to transport the books. But from a shop-owner in Sonarpur and another in Gariahat partial information has been successful ly collected upon their conditions that they will be disclosing no names and mention no specific locations. Still this much is clear that around 8-10 years ago the production of pirated books took place mainly in south-east Asia, places in Maharasthra-Gujarat area and also some near Karachi in Pakistan; it was from those places that the unbound pages were smuggled either through the Western sea-board or Bangladesh-Paschim Banga borders and then bound in local warehouses. But now with the widespread use of computer-scanner technology, fast development of technological and ergonomic infrastructure in India and the rise in use of small rotary presses and small offset presses has almost reversed the entire modus operandi. Thus, now almost all of pirated books sold in India are printed, bound and distributed here, and they are even smuggled out to reach the nations of Bangladesh and Nepal. The books are printed in warehouse-complexes in and around major and minor metros, reflecting maybe conditions that harks back the early ages of printing, but albeit now with cutting-edge tech, cut and bound inside the same godowns, covers are made by superior laser printing and then they come out of the pirate cave’s labyrinth of secrecy and reach the stalls in many odd corners of our cities and suburbs. Tale of Two Cities Before old man Dickens gets a heart attack in his grave, this isn’t about London and Paris, but about Kolkata and Dhaka, the twin daughters of Bengali tongue! It may be of very little surprise that it’s this language of Bengali that has become the corridor of huge trans-border piracy, because the commonality of language and rise in urban-educated population in both the cities makes them an easily profitable hunting ground for BookBeard’s Jolly Rogers. According to a 13 14 Fiction/novel by Jaswant Singh Fiction/novel series by J. K. Rowling 8 PTI article in Times of India (Feb 08,2002)15, the director of Bangladesh’s National Book Centre said â€Å"piracy of Bangladeshi books in India is not uncommon. We take action as per law whenever we received any specific complaints. † But he failed to even roughly quantify the losses incurred by Bangladeshi publishers, based mostly in and around Dhaka and other major cities, due to the lack of substantial evidence and successive statistical data. But one thing was clear, the language being same in Bangladesh and Paschim Banga, the Bangladeshi pirates were selling their wares not only in their home-market, but also ‘exporting’ them across the extremely porous border to be sold in places like Kolkata, its suburbs, Asansol, etc. Quite an example of international business in a parallel economy! Upon being asked regarding this, that stall-owner in Sonarpur, mentioned previously, provided the facts that the return of profit from selling such books is generally higher than those pirated books that are printed in India, owing perhaps to the fact that both manufacturing and labour cost in Bangladesh, related to piracy, are significantly lower than what is here in India. A very interesting information to say the least when the bribes paid during smuggling the batches across the border are taken into account! He also gave the important information that of the authors whose books are pirated in from Bangladesh are Taslima Nasrin, Alfred Khokon, Humayun Ahmed, etc. and that transborder pirated books are only fictional novels and poetry collections. A strange book available in his shop was an unauthorized English-translation of Taslima Nasrin’s novel Forashi Premik under the title French Lover, without Nasrin’s name or the translators name being mentioned, for just Rs. 120 (surely would have been cheaper upon bargaining! whereas the legally translated version of the work as published by Penguin Books India would have cost Rs. 299! But this is not the only dimension of the problem as rampant book piracy in Bangladesh had led to monumental losses to Indian (mainly Kolkata-based) publishers to the tune of crores of rupees, as many spurious publication syndicates centering in Dhaka publishes illegal copies of books originally published in Paschim Banga and also stories, novellas, p oetries published in magazines. Bestselling Bengali popular riters like Sunil Gangopadhyay, Buddhadeb Guha, Sirshendu Mukhopadhyay, Mahashweta Devi, Shankar, Sanjeev Chattopadhyay have suffered huge losses in royalty. â€Å"Piracy has become a major problem for us. Five years ago, we used to 15 â€Å"Bangladeshi books being pirated in Bengal† The Times of India, articles. timesofindia. indiatimes. com/2002-02-08/india/27108730_1_bangladeshi-books-piracy (accessed on 27/10/11) 9 export books worth Rs 1. 5 crore annually to Bangladesh. This has now come down to just Rs 25 lakh,† says Badal Basu, chief of Ananda Publishers (Kolkata) in a 2001 report in Outlook India titled The Printer Devils16. Even Probir Majumder, owner of Deb Sahitya Kutir said that his firm’s exports to Bangladesh have dropped by 75 per cent during the years 1995-2000 because of piracy. Some of the reasons being that Indian publishers generally hike the price of bestselling items around 30 percent in successive editions, the looseness of legal structure in Bangladesh, porosity of the border. And last, but far from being the least, are the Indian pirate lords who too print large quantities of Bengali books and ‘export’ them ‘abroad’ into the rising bibliophilic markets of Bangladesh. All in all, Bengali book exports to Bangladesh have dropped a worrisome 80 per cent due to piracy during 2000-2001 alone. Even novellas published in festival-editions are put between covers and unauthorizedly printed and sold in Kolkata and Dhaka. An incident mentioned in the aforesaid article will illustrate this quite well: â€Å"popular Bengali author Sunil Gangopadhyay wrote a novella for the festival issue of a leading Bengali magazine. A few weeks later, he chanced upon a bound copy of the same novella in a Calcutta bookshop. Gangopadhyay was vexed: he had not given the novella’s copyright to any publisher. Then friends told him that the pirated copies had been published from Bangladesh and had already sold a few thousand copies in that country. † The story is similar in Bangladesh too where such copies arrive from India. Many other contemporary Bengali writers both from Paschim Banga and across the border share the same plight, for e. g. the legalized sale of Sirshendu Mukhopadhyay books have dropped by 10 per cent because of the exploits of captain BookBeard and his bengalicized crew. The ‘leafy’ Web More than 500 years have passed since the days of Gutenberg, but were he alive today he would have been shocked to see the newest avatar of the book that isn’t an inanimate object anymore but is supposed to sing, show video clippings, slide in and out and even be a chameleon in changing colours! It’s of course the eBook. Meant to be read in computers or hand-held varieties 16 Dubey, Sujoy â€Å"The Printer Devils†, www. outlookindia. com/article. aspx? 211183 (accessed on 28/10/11) 10 of eBook readers, its popularity is growing by the turns of the clock and in the last quarter of 2010 alone, Amazon. om sold more eBooks than their physical version. The sale of eBooks in USA alone was USD 119,700,000 for the third quarter of 2010. That’s up from USD 4,900,000 for the same quarter in 2006, a jump of almost 25%17 and despite facing the challenges of rupee appreciation, talent crunch and emergence of newer media, Indian e-publishing industry is estimated to gro w annually by 35 percent and offer a USD 1. 46 billion outsourcing opportunity by 201018. IDPF (International Digital Publishing Forum) statistics showed that the US e-book sales revenues have shot to $60 million in the first quarter of 2010. 9 The country has long been a destination for publishing outsourcing as Indians were sought for their superior grasp of the language, and availability of low-cost talent. Sadly, the same applies to the rampant rise in eBook piracy too. Piracy, along with the temporal world has gone digital. Unlike the world of poor mortals, the virtual world is limitless, too labyrinthian in codes to be properly mapped and with the galactic rise in the number of servers around the world, showing a future of infinite bytes of capacity. Due to the inherent nature of the internet, the amount of digital piracy has been difficult to chart properly, thus publishers aren’t aware of the exact losses that they are incurring for the wrath of e-BookBeard. Consumers, wanting to find free copies of eBooks, have switched from P2P networking technologies to file sharing sites, also known as Cyberlockers which allow anyone with a browser to upload and share content and are very difficult to track and virtually impossible to block, owing to the migrant nature of server-shifting. One can search for the pirated and free eBooks via search engines leading to the cyberlockers and download the files to the reading device of one’s choice and through such piracy platforms one can download a few thousand books in less than an hour. Added to that there had been the digital nemesis of copyright, the ‘Kraken’ of copyright infringement – called ‘Torrents’. A form of client sharing system, where one can download, seed, distribute data, including movies, songs, eBooks, etc. without any fear 17 Pratap, â€Å"Ebook piracy- do publishers need to be worried? Bookgenie Blog, Published Apr 15, 2011 www. bookgenie. in/blog/ebook-piracy. htm (accessed on 28/10/11) 18 â€Å"Indian E publishing industry poised for huge growth†, Offshoring Times 2008, www. offshoringtimes. com/Pages/2008/BPO_news2012. html (accessed on 28/10/11) 19 Varanasi, Madhabi â€Å"Online Treat† The Times of India, Bangalore May 17, 2010 Section: ‘Te ch A Tete’ Pg. 20 epaper. timesofindia. com/Repository/ml. asp? Ref=VE9JQkcvMjAxMC8wNS8xNyNBcjAyMDAw (accessed on 28/10/11) 11 of digitally being sniped by the authorities. Thus, amassing thousands of eBooks. A comparable print library would have taken years to build; and to buy legally would be perhaps impossible for any third world citizen with average income – thus making pirated eBooks definitely a huge temptation for any bibliophile! Firms, under the e-publishing houses or independently, are developing DRM (Digital Rights Management) technologies, sort of digitized signatures in products, to protect their content, limit the usage online and prevent unauthorized duplication. But, DRM can easily be decrypted and roken into by a pirate hacker, and in fact, most of the pirated versions of eBooks available right now on the internet once had DRM encryption tags. Since the arrival of the iPad, demand for both legal and pirated eBooks has increased by about 20%20. And the only weapon, though inherently blunt, available for e-publishers is ‘Attributor’ which is an online service that helps news websites and book publishers track illegal or pirated copies of their content on other sites by digitally ‘inking’ the occurrence of all the links for a particular eBook on piracy platforms like Rapidshare, Piratebay, etc. And that’s where the flaw lies; just because there’s a link on Piratebay that does not mean that the users are downloading it, and also it can’t count the exact number of downloads from a link posted in all cyberlockers, nor can it effectively break the seed-peering system of torrent data-sharing. Hence, it results in flawed and inconclusive data. Charting the Digital Seas To map the whereabouts of the digitized fleet of BookBeard has been the most difficult and the best available work done in this field had been done by the Attributor web-group in their study: The State of Online Book Piracy Q2 2011. 1 It involved a compilation of a list of top 25 file hosting website from where anyone can download eBooks without having to pay any share to the book publisher and the list also included popular sites like Scribd. com, DocStoc and WattPad. 20 Lardinois, Frederic â€Å"Study: E-Book Piracy is on the Rise† www. readwriteweb. com/archives/study_pirated_e-books_ on_the_rise. php (accesed 30/10/11) 21 â€Å"The State of Online Book Piracy Q2 2011†, Attributor. com www. attributor. om/research/books/235-the-state-of-online-book-piracy-q2-2011 (accessed on 30/10/11) 12 Heres a that list of websites that offer pirated eBooks and their respective share in the piracy pie calculated based upon more than 53,000 book takedown notices sent. Pirated eBook Websites rapidshare. com 4shared. com esnips. com uploading. com mediafire. com hotfile. com megaupload. com scribd. com depositfiles. com filefactory. com ifile. it wattpad. com easy-share. com ziddu. com ioffer. com sharingmatrix. com letitbit. et docstoc. com kewlshare. com badongo. com midupload. com truly-free. org bitroad. net rapidshare. de box. net Share of book piracy 35. 6% 32. 7% 7. 4% 3. 7% 2. 4% 2. 1% 2. 1% 2. 0% 1. 5% 1. 2% 1. 1% 1. 1% 1. 0% 0. 8% 0. 6% 0. 6% 0. 6% 0. 6% 0. 5% 0. 4% 0. 4% 0. 4% 0. 4% 0. 4% 0. 4% But, this study doesn’t attempt to address the issue of deter mining to what degree pirated books represent financial loss to the industry as it does not estimate how many free downloads might 13 have otherwise resulted in a sale. 2 Still it did managed to find some key information that: i) The bestsellers are not always the most pirated, ii) eBook piracy occurs at all price points, so the most expensive books are not the only ones that are pirated, iii) The top cyberlockers, like Rapidshare, host less than 50% of the pirated content, iv) There are thousands of feeder pages that link to pirated content and it is increasing daily, v) While the USA has the highest number of infringements, it is clear that digital book piracy is a global issue and also prevalent in India, China, etc. nd, vi) The number of pages that link to pirated content increased 25% in just six months to reach a million pages – just for eBooks. And if torrent sites are included, like thepiratebay. org, btjunkie. org, seedpeer. com, newtorrents. info, monova. org, etc. then even the comprehension of the amount of e-piracy goes out of hand. Yo-ho-ho and a Bundle o’ Books! So, all in all eBook piracy is virtually unquantifiable. But, what about their real-world counterparts? Upon being asked, both the pavement pirates in Gariahat and Sonarpur told that their weekly business on pirated books anges from 100-200 pieces on an average. Of the types of books sold, the most belong to the genres of text-books, guide books, fiction, computer applications manuals, poetry, etc. And what about the sort of people who buy such books? Mostly students, young people, people for whom the material quality and ethicality comes after the textuality. Earlier, and in many cases even now, in general the bulk of pirated books are marred with low quality print and pages, inferior scan-and-print of the covers, blots of ink and misalignment roaming around pages here and there. But on one hand it must be admitted that even legalized publications come out with printing and binding defects, and on the other it is to be seen that book pirates have gradually but steadily been increasing the quality of their malicious products, helped by huge increase in trade and fast dissemination of technology in the developing nations. 22 Agarwal, Amit â€Å"List of Websites That Host Pirated eBooks†, Digital Inspiration labnol. org www. labnol. org/internet/pirated-ebook-websites/12620/ (accessed on 30/10/11) 4 Even to begin imagining a complete picture of book n eBook piracy will result in dizziness and nausea, and perhaps innovation, awareness and strict laws are the only medicines available to it. Awareness against reprography and book piracy (both in soft and hard copies) is needed in a widespread way, and these attempts to develop customer ethics must come in harmony with strict trade regulations and law enforcement on the part of government. Pirates thrive on publishers’ error. If publishers can make their books and eBooks available to a larger sphere of readers instantly, it can and will encourage readers to go for the authentic version. For example, releasing a bestseller first in the USA or UK and then releasing it worldwide after few weeks gives the pirates a healthy head-start in the meantime. Also releasing only the English version of eBooks and then waiting for a couple of years to release them in other languages isn’t smart and can only result in spurious ranslated versions on the net that are not only bad for the revenue and the authors’ royalty but also to the intellectual and educational appeal of that particular work. On the same line, the governmental publications must meet the demand of public and not create a huge demand-supply gap; and this may help to curb copyright infringement more than busting few piracy rackets here and there and burning a few thousands illegal books. Second is the issue of price. It’s common knowledge that most home users use pirated Microsoft Windows and other software products because of their hefty price tags. That leads to a big chunk of revenue lost for software industries. Instead, if they could bring the price of its products down, users would be encouraged to buy authentic products more and in the long run would be immensely profitable. The same goes for books and eBooks for which the publishers terrorize the readers with the notoriously exuberant, and increasing ever on with subsequent editions, price tag. Thus, there are and will be no Lieutenant Robert Maynard for this captain BookBeard, and unless awareness and reduction in corporate greed comes into play, the book buccaneers’ Jolly Roger will continue to flutter in every shadowy book-stall one meets in the mazes of city-lanes and their battle-cries will dissolve into all the urban eyes watching the sun go down, printed in haze and enigma. 15 Bibliography â€Å"Business Profile of Print Industry†, by MICA, Ahmedabad (Sep 2009), http://www. techno-preneur. et/information-desk/sciencetechmagazine/2009/september09/print. pdf (accessed on 25/10/11) â€Å"India’s Book Publishing Industry Booming†, Boulevard India blog archive, boulevardindia. com/2006/09/28/indias-book-publishing-industry-booming/ (accessed on 25/10/11) Gopalan, R. â€Å"The bane of book piracy† The Hindu, Jun 01, 2003 http://www. hindu. com/thehindu/lr/2003/06/01/stories/2003060100490700. htm (accessed on 26/10/11) â€Å"Study on copy right piracy in India†, sponsored by Ministry of HRD, govt. f India 1999, http://education. nic. in/cr_piracy_study/cpr. asp (accessed on 25/10/11) â€Å"Raid nets cache of pirated textbooks† The Telegraph, Apr 30, 2008 http://www. telegraphindia. com/1080430/jsp/calcutta/story_9207036. jsp (accessed on 26/10/11) â€Å"Book piracy racket busted, RS. 1-cr haul† The Times of India, Nov 19, 2005 http://articles. timesofindia. indiatimes. com/2005-11-19/delhi/27864288_1_book-piracyracket-akash-chittranshi-penguin-books-india (accessed on 27/10/11) Major book piracy racket busted† The Times of India, Sep 25, 2009 http://articles. timesofindia. indiatimes. com/2009-09-25/bangalore/28059890_1_book- 16 piracy-harry-potter-series-versions (accessed on 27/10/11) â€Å"Bangladeshi books being pirated in Bengal† The Times of India, http://articles. timesofindia. indiatimes. com/2002-02-08/india/27108730_1_bangladeshibooks-piracy (accessed on 27/10/11) Dubey, Suj oy â€Å"The Printer Devils†, Outlook India Web Magazine, http://www. outlookindia. om/article. aspx? 211183 (accessed on 28/10/11) Pratap, â€Å"Ebook piracy- do publishers need to be worried? † Bookgenie Blog, Published Apr 15, 2011 http://www. bookgenie. in/blog/ebook-piracy. htm (accessed on 28/10/11) â€Å"Indian E publishing industry poised for huge growth†, Offshoring Times 2008, http://www. offshoringtimes. com/Pages/2008/BPO_news2012. html (accessed on 28/10/11) Varanasi, Madhabi â€Å"Online Treat† The Times of India, Bangalore May 17, 2010 Section: ‘Tech A Tete’ Pg. 20

The Pressures of Being a Teenager in Todays Society free essay sample

The Pressures of being a teenager in today’s society Jennifer: head cheerleader, and captain of the football team’s girlfriend. She has perfect hair, perfect skin, and there is no possible way to deny her beauty. I try to tell myself that on the inside she is ugly. I know I’m simply jealous, but I cannot help but detest her. She has everything. As for myself, I have nothing compared to her. I don’t understand why I feel sorry for myself. I spend all my time wishing I was someone else. I’ve always been extremely insecure throughout my life, and it has lead to depression. It runs in my family. My mother had terrible problems ith it. I remember her doctor constantly changing her medication in the hopes of finding the cure that would work for her. â€Å"Melissa? Melissa? Are you even paying attention? † My teacher demanded. â€Å"Yes miss. † I replied, although, I was drifting off into space. Today our lecture was about the many pressures of being a teenager in society today. All this talk about being in or out made me think of the social changes now occurring in the educational system. I then remembered a conversation I had with my guidance counsellor. I was feeling lonely and rejected, and this teacher told me that other kids, even the popular nes, also felt as miserable as I was at times. Of course, I didn’t believe him. How could all those girls, all those girls who had everything be unhappy? I would most definitely be happy with all those cute clothes and better yet, cute boys. I would never be miserable if I could change places with one of them. After school that day, I went home, did my homework, watched some television, had supper, and went to flip through magazines, the usual. I wondered how all those girls were so thin. How did they manage to stay on such str ict diets? I envied them. That night before bed, I looked myself in the mirror, and broke into choked sobs. I try to keep it together, but I cannot. I barely slept. The same question repeated itself over and over in my head†¦ How could any one person be so ugly, and so fat. It was plain disgusting so to speak. The next day I noticed an advertisement on the front of one of my magazines. It was an add about a modeling agency coming to my hometown holding auditions. The entire week I debated attending the audition. I was aware that I would be out of my league completely compared to all the pretty girls in my town. I was also aware of the possibility of getting laughed at. A lost puppy, they’d say. No I couldn’t go. I would make a complete fool out of myself. Of course that was the norm for me, and I began to ask myself what was there to lose? My dignity, perhaps. It was Friday and my day went on as usual. I woke up, washed my face, got dressed, went to school, and finally the last bell rang. The hallways were scattered with girls chattering excitedly about the modeling auditions. I simply ignored them and headed towards my bus. But then something hit me. Why not? Why not go to the audition? So I went, not taking in anymore thought. When I arrived I was completely right about the environment surrounding me. The prettiest girls in town were there, already laughing at me. Exclusion hurts. Discrimination and rejection are painful at any age. The line up seemed never ending. It took almost two hours to get in and audition. The auditors asked me various questions such as: Are you healthy? What does modeling mean to you? And so forth. They asked me about my weight, and if I had participated in any fitness programs. At the end of the audition they suggested toning up, loosing some weight, and would call in a few days if I made it onto the next stage. I knew exactly what that meant. â€Å"Sorry but your too fat to be a model, thanks for trying out and iving us a good laugh. † I went home that night, and decided to take in what they said as constructive criticism. I decided that I was going to do something about my weight. I was sick and tired of being fat and frumpy. I made a schedule for myself in order to balance school, work, and exercise. If they called, that would be great and if th ey didn’t, well I was doing this for me. I scaled in at 184 pounds today. My goal is to weigh 130 at the end of this little experiment. In just one month alone, I managed to loose twenty pounds. I was feeling great. This was an incredible accomplishment for me. I wasn’t satisfied ust yet, and I had some more pounds to lose until I reached my goal. It almost seemed too easy. I wanted to lose more. Skinny obsession here I come. I believed that my hopes of becoming a model were officially over. It was a little over a month later when the phone rang, and my mom called me from upstairs. â€Å"Melissa dear, a modeling agency is on the phone for you? Do you know what this is about? † â€Å"Yes mom, I’ll take it, I’ll explain later. † I replied. Apparently I was what the model agency was looking for. Who would have guessed? They asked if I took their advice, and when they saw me they thought I was the erfect candidate. Although they had strict rules about dieting, they didn’t want any of the girls to have eating disorders and whatnot. They were aiming for healthy looking girls who could be role models for young adolescents. My first day for casting was the next night. I was so excited and I stayed up all night debating what to wear. I needed something hip and in, but also sophisticated. This way they would know I was taking this industry seriously. When I got there it was everything I expected: lighting, wardrobes, and the photographers. It was incredible, and I was finally going to be apart of it. The following week at school, my fellow students were beginning to take notice of me. â€Å"Hello, how are you today Melissa† They politely greeted me. Or asked me. â€Å"Did you loose weight? You look great! † Emily Baldwin the most popular girl in the entire school, asked me to sit with her at lunch. Obviously, I took her up on that offer. After seventeen years of my life, people were finally noticing me, and I loved it. I finally had a group to sit with at lunch, people acknowledged me in the hallways, and I was popular. Hallelujah. However, being in the â€Å"in† group was beginning to get to me. My teachers were oncerned about my grades, and I was falling asleep in class. I had no energy. I know I sometimes took it too far with my dieting and exercise, but it was an addiction. I could not get enough of this â€Å"in† fix. For most overweight girls, it is hard to stick with a diet, but it was almost natural for me. I wanted to fit in so bad that I woul d risk anything to get it. I barely noticed the pains in my stomach from hunger. The model agency called today, they told me I was taking the dieting too seriously, and if I didn’t gain some more weight I would be removed from the industry. I didn’t even care. It didn’t dawn on me at all. I was thin, and popular. I no longer cared about being a model. I wanted to be noticed, and I was. Maybe even more so than I imagined. Eventually everything went back downhill. My one teacher called home. I failed to hand in my assignment. My parents were not only furious but concerned. This wasn’t like their little Melissa. Then my parents were beginning to really worry. I was eating less and less each day. To top it all off, I passed out in the bathroom the one day. My friend Jennifer even told my mom and dad I was skipping lunch and taking excessive pills to stay skinny. Once my parents were informed of this it was off to the doctors for me. Seeing the doctor didn’t really help me. I was cooperative and agreed with everything the doctor told me to satisfy him. When I arrived back home I followed the same eating habits as before. That night my mom came into my room, with a late night snack, so we could talk about everything that just happened. I told her I wasn’t hungry and that didn’t fly so well with her. It is now three months later and I am sitting in a hospital bed. I’m being fed from tubes. I couldn’t be fed me solid foods because my stomach has shrank so much over the ast year, and I can’t keep it down. I guess I took this dieting thing way too far. Apparently I have a disease called anorexia. Waking up in this hospital bed everyday for the past two weeks has made me realize that my extreme dieting was dangerous, stupid, and also hurt the people around me. I am now paying the consequence of such actions . My guidance counsellor explained to me that everyone feels like an outsider. Everyone has moments of loneliness. Everyone worries whether she or he fits in, or whether he or she is odd. â€Å"In† and â€Å"out† are simply illusions. Instead of looking for â€Å"in† nd â€Å"out†, we should try to see ourselves as we are. We are all different. Yet we are all the same. I wish this would have been clear to me a year ago before anorexia took over my life. At the same time however, I would say it was all worth it. Call me crazy, but everything happens for a reason. I know what it is like to be an outcast, popular, over weight and underweight. You are still the same person on the inside, whatever that might be. This experience has been the best and worst thing to ever happen to me. All my questions have relevant and simple answers. Be yourself. Life is way too short to be living someone else’s life.

After colonialism Nigeria had greater potential and advantage than other African countries to make progress on the road to industrialization but only made limited progress. The WritePass Journal

After colonialism Nigeria had greater potential and advantage than other African countries to make progress on the road to industrialization but only made limited progress. Abstract After colonialism Nigeria had greater potential and advantage than other African countries to make progress on the road to industrialization but only made limited progress. ) Chamberlain, S., (2010).50 years in making [online] Available from: Nigeriaworld http://nigeriaworld.com/feature/publication/peterside/081110.html (Accessed on 2/04/2012) Chapin, H., (1991).Nigeria: A country study. Washington: GPO Ighoavodha, F., (2002), Political stability in Africa. Nigeria’s post-colonial experience, Lagos: Obaroh Ogbinaka Publishers International Monetary Fund, (2010). Regional Economic Outlook. Sub-Saharan Africa. Washington: International Monetary Fund Kinnan, , et.al., (2011). Failed state 2030. Nigeria – a case study. Alabama: Centre for Strategy and Technology Lovejoy, P., al., (2008). A country study. Nigeria. Washington: Federal Research Division Odejide, A., (1998). The Quest for Economic Development Through Industrialization. A Historical Review of Nigeria’s Import Substitution Strategy. NJEH, 1, 147-161 The World Factbook, (2011) [online] Available from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/ (Accessed on 2/04/2012) Udoh, E. and Udeaja, E., (2011). Ten Years of Industrial Policies under Democratic Governance in Nigeria: â€Å"New Wine in Old Bottle†. European Journal of Social Science, 20(2), 248-258 Watts, M., (2009). Has globalization failed in Nigeria? [online]Available from: http://qn.som.yale.edu/content/has-globalization-failed-nigeria (Accessed on 2/04/2012)

Using the 2 Simple Past Tenses of Spanish

Using the 2 Simple Past Tenses of Spanish English has one simple past tense, but Spanish has two: the preterite and the imperfect. The two past tenses refer in different ways to what has happened. They are called the simple past tenses to distinguish them from verb forms that use an auxiliary verb, such as has left in English and ha salido in Spanish. In other words, the simple past tenses use a single word. Although the English past in a sentence such as he ate can be conveyed in Spanish using either the preterite (comià ³) or the imperfect indicative (comà ­a), the two tenses dont mean the same thing. In general, the preterite is used when speaking of completed action, indicating the verbs action had a clear end. The imperfect is used to refer to an action that doesnt have a specific ending. Here are some more specific uses to clarify the differences between the two tenses. Note that the imperfect is frequently translated in ways other than the English simple past. Key Takeaways: Spanish Simple Past Tense Although English has one simple (single-word) past tense, Spanish has two, and they usually arent interchangeable.In general, the preterite tense is used for actions that took place over a clear period of time.In general, the imperfect tense is used for actions whose conclusion isnt irrelevant or unspecified. Uses for the Preterite Tense The preterite (often spelled preterite) is used to tell of something that happened once: Fuimos ayer a la playa. (We went to the beach yesterday.)Escribà ­ la carta. (I wrote the letter.)Compramos un coche azul.  (We bought a blue car.) It can also tell of something that happened more than once but with a specific end: Fui ayer seis veces a la tienda. (I went to the store six times yesterday.)Leyà ³ el libro cinco veces. (He read the book five times.) Finally, the preterite can indicate the beginning or end of a process: Tuvo frà ­o. (He got cold.)El huracn se terminà ³ a las ocho. (The hurricane was finished at 8.) Uses for the Imperfect Tense On the other hand, the imperfect tells of past habitual or repeated actions where theres no definite end specified. It is often translated as used to verb, would verb, or was/were verb -ing. Iba a la tienda. (I used to go to the store. Note that it is possible that the verbs action continues today.)Leà ­amos los libros. (We would read the books. The English would is sometimes used for the imperfect, as it is here, but it also is sometimes used for the conditional tense.)Lavaban las manos. (They were washing their hands.)Escribà ­a muchas cartas. (I wrote many letters.) The imperfect can describe a condition, mental state, or state of being from the past: Habà ­a una casa aquà ­. (There used to be a house here.)Era està ºpido. (He was stupid.)No te conocà ­a. (I didnt know you.)Querà ­a estar feliz. (He wanted to be happy.)Tenà ­a frà ­o. (He was cold.) To describe an action that occurred over an unspecified time: Se pondrà ­a la ropa de deporte. (She was putting on her athletic clothing.)Cuando Josà © tocaba el piano, Marà ­a comà ­a. (While Josà © was playing the piano, Marà ­a was eating.) To indicate time or age in the past: Era la una de la tarde. (It was 1 p.m.)Tenà ­a 43 aà ±os. (She was 43 years old.) Other Distinctions Between the Past Tenses The imperfect is frequently used to provide the background for an event that is described using the preterite. Era [imperfect] la una de la tarde cuando comià ³ [preterite]. (It was 1 p.m. when she ate.)Yo escribà ­a [imperfect] cuando llegaste [preterite]. (I was writing when you arrived.) Because of the way the two tenses are used, some verbs can be translated using differing words in English depending on the tense in Spanish. This is especially true when the preterite is used to indicate the beginning or end of a process. Conocà ­ [preterite] al presidente. (I met the president.) Conocà ­a [imperfect] al presidente. (I knew the president.)Tuvo [preterite]  frà ­o. (He got cold.) Tenà ­a [imperfect] frà ­o. (He was cold.)Supe [preterite] escuchar. (I found out how to listen.) Sabà ­a [imperfect] escuchar. (I knew how to listen.) Some of the sentences in this lesson could be stated in either tense with a slight change of meaning. For example, while Escribà ­a muchas cartas would be the typical way of saying I wrote many letters, as that is something that typically would take place over an unspecified period of time, one also might say Escribà ­ muchas cartas. But the meaning of the sentence, not readily translatable without a context to English, would change to indicate that the speaker was referring to a specific point in time. For example, if you were talking about writing many letters while you were on a particular trip, you might use the preterite form.

An Enemy of the People Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

An Enemy of the People - Essay Example Besides, the play portrays different interpretations of the same truth. When one tries to prove that his/her ideas or viewpoints is the ultimate truth, the scope of compromise become limited. In the play, difference in opinion due to individual difference leads to conflict and eventually to never-ending hatred in the family. Thesis statement: An investigation to unearth Ibsen’s view of Human Nature, critique of ideas, values, and features of democratic community, and its strengths and weaknesses. The setting of the play is a Norwegian town which is governed by Peter Stockmann. The main plot of the play is the conflict between two brothers, Dr. Peter Stockmann and Dr. Thomas Stockmann. Besides, the play related to a man who happens to be against a town in which he lives in. The conflict between Dr. Peter and Dr. Thomas extends beyond the private domain of their family and spreads to their community. Dr. Thomas, who is public-minded, discovers that the water supply did undergo pollution. As a public minded citizen, he tries to trace the reason behind pollution. In addition, he meets politicians, journalists and economists and other citizens in his locality, but for vain. But Dr. Thomas’ idealism leads to further issues in the society and the people began to consider him as an enemy. For instance, the annoyed mass forced Dr. Thomas and his family to leave the same town which he tries to save from health issues due to water pollution. But Dr. Thomas Stockmann was not ready to part with his idealistic view of social responsibility of a citizen towards his/her community. But his idealism leads him to suffer a lot. For instance, his family life, career as a doctor, his private property etc is totally ruined. The character of Dr. Thomas reminds an exceptional character who is ready to face risks in one’s life but not ready to part with one’s belief/ideology. Ibsen’s characters acts the role of a mouthpiece which helps one have

Formal Report Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Formal Report - Essay Example In purchasing equipments like laptops and desktops, it is feasible and good to pick leasing, as it is cost effective. It is good to examine the management of information and technology process of an agency, determine the business needs of the institution concerning information technology and acquit an analysis based on the benefit of cost choice of leasing and purchasing, in the decision whether to purchase or lease equipments. If the decision is made in the correct way and for a good reason, it is effective in terms of cost and efficient to lease than purchasing equipments. It can be harder to manage and expensive to lease than an instant purchase of equipments, if the decisions are handled in the wrong way. Introduction Present value It is hard to compare the same amount of cost between the option of purchasing and leasing in the concept of present value. The cost of the future currency in today’s value of the currency is what referred to as the present value. Money availabl e for future worth less at this time than the money you can use at that particular time. The future money one should use in leasing or purchasing is be converted to the current price to equate the actual cost of each one, when equating the alternative of leasing and purchasing. Information Technology Acquisition The first option of getting information technology in companies and institutions is by the outright purchase, which is gotten through the fund or revenue of any agency. This can only happen if restrictions are applied on the funds. Capital leasing is the second option, which is an accord that spreads the payment terms of equipments. After payment, the person who has bought the equipment, obtains a title to the equipment, but still he has been able to get access of the equipments. The buyer is able to spread the payment of the equipments in a given time to reduce the financial burden due to its acquisition. In an operating lease, one does not get ownership of the equipments. The seller retains ownership of the equipments and the person who has leased the equipments uses the technology for a given period (Taylor, 2003). Management issues The budget of information and technology has changed in all sectors, due to the fast development of information systems. This drastic change has led to the evaluation of the management issues of information technology. To control and understand the environment based on computers, full ownership cost and asset management, is required. Asset management binds the whole information technology ownership. It provides the environment control of computers to allow the director to purchase information technology equipments and price for the maximum cost efficiency. Lease terms should not be over 75 percent of the equipment. If the institution wishes to buy an item after a leasing period, the organization must pay the required price. The value at the starting point of the lease is not equal or greater than 90 percent. At the end o f the lease, the lease cannot give the buyer the ownership of the

Soft Drinks in Rural Market in India Essay Example for Free

Soft Drinks in Rural Market in India Essay In India, the Coca-Cola and Pepsi soft drink brands suffered a setback in August of last year due to a product contamination scare. Both have cut profit margins to the bone in order to fend off competition from low-priced local fruit drinks. Indian consumers are accustomed to drinking a variety of locally-produced soft drinks that are sold in small stands throughout the country. Rural India is still a highly price-sensitive marketplace, so the major soft drink companies are forced to cut profit margins in order to compete there. Indias purchasing power parity per capita of US$2,850 is representative of a nation in which the average consumer has insufficient income to engage in discretionary spending. Nevertheless, during the hot season, spur-of-the-moment beverage sales are commonplace. In order to position themselves for sales growth, the major soft drink companies priced a 200-milliliter bottle at the equivalent of 11 U.S. cents. Although that price is not sustainable beyond the short term, management hopes that it will be enough to wrest market share away from local products and substantially increase sales volume in 2004. Beverage companies cannot afford to ignore Indias rural consumers if they wish to expand market share. According to data release by the PRB, only 28 percent of Indias population lived in urban areas in 2003. On average, rural consumers have a lower income level than their urban counterparts and demand lower-cost beverage options. In order to remain cost competitive, soft drink companies have to contain the transportation costs involved in expanding their distribution network into widespread towns and villages. Faced with high fuel and vehicle costs, companies are turning to less expensive means of transportation including ox carts and rickshaws. Another challenge facing the major soft drink companies is regaining consumer confidence in the aftermath of a well- publicized scandal over the presence of pesticides in some soft-drink products. A major publicity campaign aimed at regaining consumer confidence seems to be working, but bottlers need to avoid any more issues that would throw product safety into doubt. Recovering and maintaining an image of quality will be a key weapon in the struggle to take market share away from locally produced fruit beverages. Indian consumers are ready to opt for soft drinks, but not at a premium price.

Teen Smoking :: essays research papers

Teen Smoking Teen smoking. Those two words mean a lot of things to a lot of different people. To some it means nothing. They are just two meaningless words found under T and S in the dictionary. To others it is as if these words symbolize some sort of treason or crime against society. Yet to others it is just another stereotype to be placed under. And to some it is a salvation. An escape. Unfortunately I am writing this paper so you will get my positions on teen smoking rather than other peoples. Teen smoking gathers a lot of emotions when I think about it. It makes me very angry sometimes. My first draft of this was good but I saw myself getting angry and lashing out on everyone, so I revised it. But enough of that, I find teen smoking to be a very controversial subject. To be completely honest with you I am smoking right now as I am writing this. Obviously I am a smoker. I am 17 years old and I am a smoker. In the late 1990’s, the statistics showed that approximately 25% of teens smoke. That’s one out of every four teenagers. High school is a tough time for teens. These years are critical to a teens future. This explains why a vast majority of smokers start at 16 years or younger with the most common age being 14 years old(freshman). It has also been proven also that teens who score lower in school smoke more than higher scoring students do. It seems that everyone smokes in our school. Our school is overrun with smokers. It is right now at least 50% smokers and 65% if you count the people who will smoke before their high school career is up. We practically encourage it. I mean Fireman’s Field practically condones teen smoking. Teen smoking is defiantly a problem in our school, as well as schools all over the United States. I feel that teen smoking is a huge problem. I feel that too many teenagers smoke cigarettes. It is something that needs to get dealt with. But before I get into that I should probably start with the causes of teen smoki ng. There are several factors that start teens on smoking cigarettes. There has to be considering that over 1 million new teenagers will start smoking annually. The most common is peer pressure. Teen Smoking :: essays research papers Teen Smoking Teen smoking. Those two words mean a lot of things to a lot of different people. To some it means nothing. They are just two meaningless words found under T and S in the dictionary. To others it is as if these words symbolize some sort of treason or crime against society. Yet to others it is just another stereotype to be placed under. And to some it is a salvation. An escape. Unfortunately I am writing this paper so you will get my positions on teen smoking rather than other peoples. Teen smoking gathers a lot of emotions when I think about it. It makes me very angry sometimes. My first draft of this was good but I saw myself getting angry and lashing out on everyone, so I revised it. But enough of that, I find teen smoking to be a very controversial subject. To be completely honest with you I am smoking right now as I am writing this. Obviously I am a smoker. I am 17 years old and I am a smoker. In the late 1990’s, the statistics showed that approximately 25% of teens smoke. That’s one out of every four teenagers. High school is a tough time for teens. These years are critical to a teens future. This explains why a vast majority of smokers start at 16 years or younger with the most common age being 14 years old(freshman). It has also been proven also that teens who score lower in school smoke more than higher scoring students do. It seems that everyone smokes in our school. Our school is overrun with smokers. It is right now at least 50% smokers and 65% if you count the people who will smoke before their high school career is up. We practically encourage it. I mean Fireman’s Field practically condones teen smoking. Teen smoking is defiantly a problem in our school, as well as schools all over the United States. I feel that teen smoking is a huge problem. I feel that too many teenagers smoke cigarettes. It is something that needs to get dealt with. But before I get into that I should probably start with the causes of teen smoki ng. There are several factors that start teens on smoking cigarettes. There has to be considering that over 1 million new teenagers will start smoking annually. The most common is peer pressure.

KFC Holding Malaysia Essay

KFC began with Colonel Harland Sanders who discovered his penchant for cooking when he was only 9 years old. Through the years he grew up to become a personage the world knows as Colonel Sanders, founder of KFC. He reached celebrity status in 1952, when he decided to franchise his famous Kentucky Fried Chicken recipe blends of 11 herbs and spices to the rest of America. By the early 70’s, that special recipe reached Malaysia. KFC Holdings (Malaysia) Bhd is a branded chicken retail chain operator. KFC Holding Malaysia continues to serve finger lickin’ good, succulent pieces of chicken. The flavourful blends of 11 herbs and spices give KFC’s delicious aroma. With the chicken’s natural juices sealed-in, leaving a special mouth watering taste that cannot be replaced. KFC prides itself as a fast-food restaurant that give customers great tasting chicken with a selection of home-styled side dishes and desserts to make a wholesome, complete and satisfying meal. KFC chain of restaurants in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei, KFCH operates the home-grown Rasamas chain of restaurants, the Ayamas kiosks, and the Kedai Ayamas chain of convenience stores. We are also active in poultry production and processing and a variety of ancillary business. KFC Holding operates chain of restaurants in Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei (532 restaurants) and the new Rasamas chain of restaurants in Malaysia (about 37 outlets).The Group also owns approximately 27 Kedai Ayamas and 4 Ayamas Depots, making us the nation’s first branded chicken and chicken-based retail chain. The company also is a part of QSR Brands Bhd (QSR Brand) where is a leading, fully-integrated quick-service restaurant enterprise and the local franchisee and operator of the KFC and Pizza Hut restaurants.QSR Brands is in turn a subsidiary of Kulim (Malaysia) Berhad, a conglomerate focusing mainly on palm oil operations, oleochemicals, biodiesel production and quick service restaurants and also is engaged in the business of poultry processing, restaurant and property holding. After a successful restructuring exercise, KFC Holding has emerged as a strong player in the Malaysian corporate world with a high reputation for excellent products, efficient friendly service and financial strength. Indeed, KFC Holding is the only KFC restaurant operator in the world whose Western Quick Service Restaurant market share is greater than that of McDonald’s.

Difference between Anarchism and Socialism

Both anarchists and socialists aim to overthrow capitalism, to create a society where oppression no longer exists. The main difference between them is the strategy how to get there. Anarchism is a political theory that regards government and other forms of central authority as harmful and unnecessary. Although anarchism is often linked with violence and chaos, advocates of pure anarchism claim that it is the opposite. They believe that power corrupts and that those in power eventually place their own interests before those of the people they are supposed to serve.According to anarchists, a free and just society is possible only when government is abolished and individuals freely cooperate as equals. Further, anarchism is a belief that every form of regulation or government is immoral, and that restraint of one person by another is an evil which must be destroyed. Later anarchism proposed a social organization that was based on common ownership and free agreements, but its disciples d iffered themselves in methods and forms. Pierre Joseph Proudhon of France, often called the father of Anarchism, became the first to make anarchism a mass movement.Anarchism enjoys a complex relationship with ideologies such as Marxism, communism and capitalism. Anarchists may be motivated by humanism, divine authority, enlightened self-interest or any number of alternative ethical doctrines. Meanwhile, socialism refers to economic and political arrangements that emphasize public or community ownership of productive property. This is in contrast with the belief in the ownership of production by private individuals. Productive property includes land, factories, and other property used to produce goods and services.There are many types of socialism. They vary in the amount of public ownership desired and in their methods of operation. In some countries, the government controls all forms of production. In others, state control over the economy is less complete, usually involving owners hip of banks, transportation, and public utilities. Many countries adopted socialist policies that included government control of the economy and the establishment of vast social programs to the needy. The early socialist saw community ownership as an answer to poverty, great inequalities of wealth, and social unrest.The main difference of anarchism and socialism is that, anarchism promotes the ownership of production by individuals, while socialism promotes the ownership of production by the government. Anarchists believe that each individual have their own capacity to govern themselves and achieve progress and development in their own way. They oppose the government’s rule over the lives of each individual. Socialists, on the other hand, believe that the government can make the lives of the people better by equally governing their properties.Furthermore, anarchism believes in the right of the Individual to govern himself. Anarchists believe that man is manifestly destined t o be master of himself and his surroundings, individually free. His capacity for achievement has shown itself practically boundless, whenever and wherever it has been permitted the opportunity of expansion; and no less an ideal than equal and unfettered opportunity -that is to say, individual freedom–should satisfy him. On the other hand, socialism believes that one must be governed by others, specifically the government in order to attain progress.Socialists believe that the government has the means to govern its people and they have the capability to make decisions that will make the life of its people easier. They believe that they need a leadership not only to instruct them but to govern them and channel their energies in the right direction. Also, anarchists believe that the methods use to do something will affect the result. That is what they mean when they say means and ends are linked. Obviously, the manner in which they organize is influenced by the society they want to create.Anarchists want, not only to abolish capitalism but they also want to abolish all relationships that involve subordination and domination. Their aim is a truly classless society that isn’t divided into bosses and workers, or order givers and order takers. Anarchism opposes hierarchy. On the other hand, socialists believe that in a community, somebody in authority should dominate the people to lead them to the path where they should go in order to attain progress. They claims that society is graded into classes and all life’s business conducted by people are orders issued by the superior or dominating group.Moreover, Anarchists believe that after the revolution the people should immediately â€Å"smash the state† because any form of government is oppressive. They view government as a corrupt and fraudulent entity that will just destroy and hamper the freedom of the people comprising a certain community. They believe that the people themselves can be ab le to make progress in their own capacities and they needed to be free from all forms of government or any authority in order to do what they want for their own selves.Anarchists hate the State because they believe that it deprives men of their personal responsibility, robs them of their natural virility, takes out of their hands the conduct of their own lives, thereby reduces them to helplessness, and thus insures the final collapse of the whole social structure. On the contrary, socialists argue that the state is a product of class divisions and exists to maintain the dominance of a particular class. A revolution will not abolish classes overnight and therefore a state is necessary to reorganize society in the interests of the majority.Socialists believe that the people comprising the community cannot be able to attain progress without the aid of the government or without somebody who will govern and lead them to the right path towards unity and progress. Basically, socialists are interested in the welfare of the majority. They think of the community as one entity whose properties and well-being should be governed and directed because the community alone cannot stand without anybody leading the people. In addition, anarchists believe on private ownership or capitalism.However, socialists oppose capitalism, which is based on private ownership of the means of production and allows individual choices in a free market to determine how goods and services are distributed. As a summary, anarchism and socialism are two ideologies with the same goal but have different strategies in dealing with solving problems of the state and attaining progress. Anarchism believes that it is the right of the Individual to govern himself, while socialism believes that he must be governed by others.

The War of Regulation Professor Ramos Blog

The War of Regulation In a world where rules and laws seem to outline a direct image of morality and logic, all while shaping our view of the world and the best ways to regulate it. What if I were to tell you some of these laws where hindering the progress of the problems they were trying to fix, and unnecessarily spending tons of money while doing it. Here I will discuss with you a war that was officially declared by the 37th president of the United States, Richard Nixon. We as a nation have been fighting this â€Å"war† for over four decades and has been a wrongful use of our taxes in many different ways. This state of affairs and our decisions along the way not only affect us, but affect other people and their livelihoods continents over. In June of 1971 this war was officially coined â€Å"The War on Drugs.† This war has been a burden on us and causes major problems for the people involved. These are, but not limited to, racial injustice, causing big problems for Central and Southern American countries, and the fact that it’s not working. The prohibition of drugs has gone back further than the official declaration of the war. It actually has its roots deeply seeded in racial affairs. According to an article called â€Å"A Brief History of the War on Drugs† on drugpolicy.org, (Author and Date unknown) the first anti-opium laws in the 1870s were directed at Chinese immigrants. The first anti-cocaine laws in the early 1900s were directed at black men in the South. The first anti-marijuana laws, in the Midwest and the Southwest in the 1910s and 20s, were directed at Mexican migrants and Mexican Americans. Each of these situations are examples of the use of fear and xenophobic tendencies used to sway a populations view on a political standing, of a few and not the people. As stated by an article found on alternet.com called â€Å"Race and the Drug War,† (Desiree Evans, 2002) in the town of Tulia Texas, 12% of the African American community was arrested and prosecuted in 1999 on drug charges. This was solely based on the word of one undercover cop that was later exposed as corrupt. In accordance with a paper called â€Å"A Brief Review of the System of The New Jim Crow† authored by Laura Branca (Dorothy Cotton Institute 2017) nearly 80% of people in federal prison and almost 60% of people that are in state prison for drug offenses are black or Latino. Central and Southern American countries are among the most directly affected countries in the wake of all this. According to an article on worldpress.com, authored by Joshua Pringle in 2015, Otto Perez Molina, the late president of Guatemala, said that the crusade is costing Central American countries hundreds of millions of dollars and tens of thousands of lives every year. The bulk of these losses come from groups like the drug cartels. On the report of an article on bbc.com called â€Å"Mexicos most wanted: A guide to the drug cartels,† authored by Duncan Tucker in 2018, the government in Mexico succeed in capturing/and or killing some of the biggest names at the time. Things were quiet for a while, up until around 2012 where organized crime related violence started to skyrocket. It was said that the governments’ previous efforts merely broke the cartels up into smaller often more violent gangs. The last problem I will discuss is the wars non effectiveness. As stated by vox.com in a article called â€Å"The War on Drugs Explained† by German Lopez (2016), The US has spent over $1 trillion dollars on this effort alone. All this money, but to no avail. Much of this money spent on law enforcement cracking down on drug prohibition where to this day, 40 years later, drug addiction is still a serious problem. The US also has some of the highest rates of drug related deaths around the world. As stated by a segment titled â€Å"The Highest Overdose and Drug Related Death Rates in the World,† on worldatlas.com written by Jessica Dillinger (2018), the US holds a staggering rate of 245.8 overdoses per million. These numbers lie right above Iceland with 221.2 and El Salvador with 160.1. Its a lot to take in at first glance, but there is a way to help level the situation and address all the issues stated earlier. This solution comes in the form of drug legalization. This means you would be able to acquire and use without criminal prosecution and the government would be able to regulate and tax the commodities. Alcohol or tobacco would be good comparisons. We need something that works, and with legalization it has the chance to significantly reduce the rate of deaths related to drug usage. According to the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction, since Portugal decriminalized the use of all drugs they now hold the second lowest rate of drug overdoses in the European Union at 3 overdoes per million. In no way would drug legalization be a fix all remedy, but done correctly and with the right amount of public education, it would be a far better solution for the many currently affected by this mess that it is today. Also, the money that we would save could be better spent on much needed areas of society. Id like to end by paraphrasing Jeffery Miron. (Economist, Harvard) as he states, â€Å"So what are these consequences of attempting to prohibit drugs? To begin with, we don’t eliminate drugs, we drive the market underground. And the underground market for drugs is violent, corrupt, has poor quality control, and in the attempt to enforce it we have to infringe civil liberties by basically shredding the 4th Amendment to the Constitution. We reduce the ability of people to get the medicine they need freely to reduce pain, to relieve nausea from chemotherapy, and among other symptoms. We interfere in other countries like Mexico and Afghanistan. All resulting from the fact that weve driven drug markets underground, and so terrorist groups make a profit by selling their protection services to the drug traffickers, the drug traffickers get the protection and the terrorists get profits.† â€Å"A Brief History of the Drug War.† Drug Policy Alliance, www.drugpolicy.org/issues/brief-history-drug-war. As the title en-tales, its a brief history of the concept of the war on drugs. This includes the facts such as the year it was officially announced, who announced it and where the concepts had stemmed from. I chose this article because it points out that the history of this subject isnt shrouded in just laws and drive, it brushes over the racial ties to the â€Å"war.† â€Å"Criminal Justice Facts.† The Sentencing Project, www.sentencingproject.org/criminal-justice-facts/. This article is on one of the sites main pages that shows general data surrounding the issue of the prison system and wrongful incarceration. The whole site and team is dedicated to achieving data to show the problem with the way we are handling our incarcerations in America. I chose this article because it brings up an interesting statistic on how much incarceration rate have gone up since the declaration of the â€Å"war.† Dillinger, Jessica. â€Å"Highest Overdose Drug Related Death Rates In The World.† WorldAtlas, 2 Nov. 2015, www.worldatlas.com/articles/10-highest-overdose-and-drug-related-death-rates-in-the-world.html. In this article lies a list of the top ten countries in the world with the highest rate of over doses. Since this article does cover world events I would assume there would be less room for bias. I chose this one for the interesting fact the pointed to the US with some of the highest numbers of overdoses. Pringle, Joshua. â€Å"Rethinking the Drug War in the Americas.† WorldPress, www.worldpress.org/americas/3912.cfm. This article reviews the drug war but from the eyes of some of the South American countries like Guatemala and Mexico. It talks about what kind of drugs dealt in the trade and how much money is being spent to fight this effort. I chose this article because it give some insight of a different perspective of the situation. Tucker, Duncan. â€Å"Mexicos Most-Wanted: A Guide to the Drug Cartels.† BBC News, BBC, 27 Mar. 2018, www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-40480405. This article breaks down the drug cartels with helpful graphs, arranging the numerous factions by region and size. It goes over how Mexicos been dealing with the problem and the effects of doing so. I chose this article because it shows how that trying to deal with these issues on the surface doesnt work and can make the problem worse.

Tips to Improve Your French Pronunciation

Tips to Improve Your French Pronunciation Speaking French is more than just knowing the vocabulary and grammar rules. You also need to pronounce the letters correctly. Unless you started learning French as a child, youre unlikely to ever sound like a native speaker, but its certainly not impossible for adults to speak with a decent French accent. Here are some ideas to help you improve your French pronunciation. Learn French Sounds Basic French PronunciationThe first thing you need to do is understand how each letter is usually pronounced in French.Letters in DetailAs in English, some letters have two or more sounds, and letter combinations often make completely new sounds.French AccentsAccents dont show up on certain letters just for decoration - they often give clues about how to pronounce those letters.International Phonetic AlphabetFamiliarize yourself with the pronunciation symbols used in French dictionaries. Get a Decent Dictionary When you see a new word, you can look it up to find out how its pronounced. But if youre using a little pocket dictionary, youll find that many words arent there. When it comes to French dictionaries, bigger really is better. Some French dictionary software even includes sound files. Pronunciation Preparation and Practice Once youve learned how to pronounce everything, you need to practice it. The more you speak, the easier it will be to make all of those sounds. Here are some techniques that can help you in your French accent improvement project. Listen to FrenchThe more you listen to French, the better youll get at hearing and distinguishing between unfamiliar sounds, and the easier it will be for you to produce them yourself.Listen and RepeatSure, this isnt something youd do in real life, but mimicking words or phrases over and over is an excellent way to develop your pronunciation skills. My French audio dictionary has 2,500 sound files of words and short phrases.Listen to YourselfRecord yourself speaking French and then listen carefully to the playback - you might discover pronunciation mistakes that youre not aware of when you speak. Read Out LoudIf youre still stumbling over words with tricky letter combinations or lots of syllables, you definitely need more practice. Try reading out loud to get used to making all of those new sounds. Pronunciation Problems Depending on your native language, certain French sounds and pronunciation concepts are more difficult than others. Take a look at my page on pronunciation difficulties for lessons (with sound files) on some typical trouble spots for English speakers (and possibly others as well). Speak Like the Natives When you learn French, you learn the correct way to say everything, not necessarily the way the French actually say it. Check out my lessons on informal French to learn how to sound more like native speakers: Informal negationInformal pronounsInformal questions Pronunciation Tools Unlike grammar and vocabulary, pronunciation is something that you cant learn by reading (although there are some excellent French pronunciation books). But you really do need to interact with native speakers. Ideally, you would do this face to face, such as by going to France or another French-speaking country, taking a class, working with a tutor, or joining the Alliance franà §aise.If those truly are not an option, at the very least you need to listen to French, such as with these tools: French listening onlineFrench audio booksFrench audio magazinesFrench audio tapes and CDsFrench radioFrench softwareFrench TV The Bottom Line Getting a good French accent is all about practice - both passive (listening) and active (speaking). Practice really does make perfect. Improve Your French Improve your French listening comprehensionImprove your French pronunciationImprove your French reading comprehensionImprove your French verb conjugationsImprove your French vocabulary