Discuss A Streetcar Named Desire Essay

Discuss A Streetcar Named Desire as a portrayal of a broken world. Hart Crane’s stanza, printed on the title-page of A Streetcar Named Desire, speaks of love’s voice as â€Å"an instant in the wind†. The last line goes on to allude to its transiency. Given that this is placed under the banner of a â€Å"broken world†, a play that otherwise boasts the subtlety of its imagery seems to get a rather blunt prefix. William’s intention was to create for Blanche a form of heroism. Here, on the first page, he pronounces love to be a dying entity. He tells us that it cannot be a permanent force within the vessel of human decision making. In the scenes that follow, he introduces a character positively wrestling with her internal nihilism, a character in contemplative turmoil about whether there is something more to her being-and her decisions. She quickly enters wholly hedonistic and materialistic surroundings, where her fading romanticism is contrasted with the apathetic humanism of Stanley. There is not, as the question suggests, a deep and deliberate flaw spanning the world of A Streetcar Named Desire. Indeed, such an assertion entirely misses the point. Perhaps it is a semantic difference, but the world depicted in the play is an entirely functional one; it is a world in which all the coherent parts play off each other, with both friction and cooperation. It is entirely incorrect to state that the lives of Stanley, Stella, Eunice, and Steve don’t continue from day-to-day with regularity and a certain degree of contentedness. That is not to say that Williams presents a situation that is either positive or, more crucially, hopeful. Instead, he examines twentieth century society as a great evolutionary mechanism: a fact, an absolute, in which Blanche constitutes an anomaly. Within this mechanism, base-line motivations act as stimuli for every moment of character action-and, as a reader, there is a temptation to focus on this. However, a more consequential realisation is that these hedonistic human pursuits-sex, monetary accumulation, power, and so on-also power the stasis of the play. Every moment of internal equilibrium is clamped in place by microcosm of personal economics and raw desire. The best illustrations of this come through Stella. Of course, her behaviour is often contrasted in blunt and unequal terms to Blanche’s melodrama. As a result of this, the passages between them exhibit a rather distorted sense of tension, whereby Stella’s consistency of view-point deflates the very conflict that Blanche is starting. Therefore, there is a tendency, particularly early in the play, to see Stella as a defeated character: there is aura of disconnection about her, as if the world has no effect on her: Blanche: And you are standing there smiling. Stella: What do you want me to do? B: Pull yourself together and face the facts. S: What are they, in your opinion? B: In my opinion? You’re married to a madman!

Culture and Hipster Central Dogma Essay

Hipster is a subculture of young (15 – 25), urban middle class adults and older teenagers that appeared in the 1990s.The subculture is associated with non-mainstream lifestyle. They value independent thinking, progressive politics, creativity, intelligence and non-mainstream fashion sensibility. Most of them can be found living in the big cities like New York, Chicago, and San Francisco. Also â€Å"hipsterism† is often intertwined with distinct fashion sensibilities .Hipsters reject the culturally-ignorant attitudes of mainstream consumers, and are often be seen wearing vintage, tight jeans, old-school sneakers, and often thick rimmed glasses. Men and women hipsters have similar androgynous hair styles that include combinations of dirty shag cuts and asymmetric side-swept bangs. Such styles are the work of creative stylists at urban salons, and are usually not mainstream. Despite the misconception made ​​on the external image, hipsters tend to be well educ ated in sciences, which require certain creative analytical thinking abilities. This leads to the fact that they find themselves in creative works, such as music, art, and fashion industries. It is a myth that most hipsters are unemployed and live off of their parent’s trust funds. Hipsters shun mainstream, It is part of the hipster central dogma not to be influenced by mainstream advertising and media. This is tends to only promote ethnocentric ideals of beauty, the concepts of androgyny and feminism have influenced hipster culture, where hipster men are often as thin as the women they date. Women view the muscular, athletic and other male ideals as symbols of their oppression, sexism, and misogyny. Likewise, culturally-vapid sorority-type girls with fake blond hair, overly tanned skin, and â€Å"Britney Spears tube-tops† are not seen as attractive by cultured hipster males who instead see them as symbols of female insecurity, low self-esteem, and lack of cultural intelligence and independent thinking. Likewise, girls with fake blond hair and overly tanned skin are not seen as attractive by cultured hipster males who instead see them as symbols of female insecurity, low self-esteem, and lack of cultural intelligence and independent thinking. There are many interracial couples in hipster subculture because they are very racially open-minded. Although hipsters are conformists within their own subculture, in comparison to the much larger mainstream mass they are pioneers latest cultural trends and ideals. For example many bands have become successful and known to mainstream audiences only because hipsters first found and listened to them as early-adopters of new culture. Once certain concepts of fashion and music have reached mainstream audiences, hipsters move on to something new and improved. Once something from fashion and music have reached mainstream audiences, hipsters move on to something new. Because of the rise of various online photo-blog and social networking sites, insights into urban hipster culture is reaching sheltered suburban audiences at an exponential rate. Cultural â€Å"norms† have been deconstructed by hipster culture as a whole.

Critically evaluate the influence of stakeholders on encouraging Essay

Critically evaluate the influence of stakeholders on encouraging responsible business practices - Essay Example For most businesses, there are values, responsibilities and sustainability issues that are in consideration. As a result of these factors, business management comes up with a variety of ways to ensure responsible business practices as seen in the research study by Olson (2009). The business world has come under criticism that it is to blame for global warming, carbon dioxide emissions, deforestation and pollution. To prove the critics wrong, Cohen (2010) states that the stakeholders having begun a fight to reduce global warming and carbon emissions. The green movement has come in to promote the growth of trees. It also helps in educating the public in regard to emission of carbons. The stakeholders meet annually in Rio de Janeiro for the earth summit. Worldwide campaigns regarding proper business ethics are underway to ensure that businesses reduce pollution and global warming. Apart from the green movement, the stakeholders have stipulated strict rules within their businesses to ens ure that there is proper waste disposal. The stakeholders came together in 1997 to sign the Kyoto protocol so as to control the rate of waste disposal as stated in the research study by Kotler & Lee (2005). Stakeholders are now forming various groups to promote responsible business practices. ... conduct of employees and behaviour expectation, the stakeholders have come up with the code of ethics through a voluntary statement that commits the business entity to its values, beliefs and actions together with setting appropriate behaviour for employees. These codes of ethics have become increasingly common in most organizations, which most stakeholders promote since they ensure responsibility in carrying on their business activities. The codes of ethics are vital than the legal requirements of a business since the code of ethics addresses the need to guide individuals and develop a workplace which has considerable ethics. Responsible business ethics are presented by stakeholders through a statement of rules, a statement of core values and statement dealing with corporate philosophy. To ensure business responsibility, the code of ethics promotes respect for individuals. Respect of individual entails speaking to customers with exceptional terms even when the customer is hostile, t he employee should remain respectful. Fair treatment is also in the code of ethics since the employees do not have to undermine other employees on grounds of sex, gender, age or race. Employees should treat all customers and individuals in the same way. Honesty is vital in every business to ensure that there are no losses arising from dishonest employees. According to Horrigan (2010) the stakeholders especially the management ensure that there are rules and guidelines to promote honesty within the businesses. Through the code of ethics, integrity gets incorporated in the running of the business. Integrity is necessary when dealing with many customers who require fast services since when dealing with many customers there is a lot of money flowing, and employees may face the integrity

Law Applicable to Contracts Under English Common Law, Rome Convention Essay

Law Applicable to Contracts Under English Common Law, Rome Convention on the Law Applicable to Contractual Obligations 1980 - Essay Example It also had to be enforceable otherwise the courts could ignore the parties’ choice of the law applicable to the contract.4 The courts would also refuse to uphold an express choice of law clause if it merely appointed an applicable law upon the occurrence of a specific event.5 Under the common law, the applicable law is applied or implied by the courts in cases where the parties have not expressly selected the proper law of the contract.6 In doing so, the courts will look for evidence of the intention of the parties by reference to the facts and circumstances of the case. Intention will be implied from facts such as the parties’ nationalities, the place where the contract was concluded, the monetary currency in the contract’s transaction, the place for payment and evidence of a forum preference.7 The fact that the common law looks first for an express choice, failing which, they then look for an implied choice is a manifestation of the significance of party auton omy in English contract law. It is only when both methods for determining the law applicable to the contract have failed that the English courts under the common law will attempt to determine the law applicable to the contract by reference to an objective view of the facts and the circumstances. Essentially, the courts will seek to identify the law that is most closely connected to the contract. As Singleton LJ noted: One must look at all the circumstances and seek to find what just and reasonable persons ought to have intended if they had thought about the matter at the time when they made the contract.8 It is important to note here, that even where the courts are taking an objective view of the facts and circumstances in determining the... The English common law has established a long tradition of contractual freedom and the freedom to choose pursuant to the concept of party autonomy. Certainly, the common law does not permit party autonomy to function at all costs. There are limitations and those limitations,however, were the exception rather than the rule. With the implementation of the Rome Convention 1980, the English common law was superseded by an approach to party autonomy that basically treated party autonomy as the exception rather than the role. Although the Article 3(1) of the Rome Convention 1980 purports to confer upon parties the freedom to choose the law applicable to their contracts, the 1980 Convention sets out constraining and abortive provisions such as the mandatory laws, consumer contracts, and employment contracts. Rome I Regulation forces, even more, changes on the English tradition of party autonomy calculated to erode the freedom of choice. In the final analysis, it would appear that party auto nomy is only relevant where the parties are either professionals or businessmen. Even then, the Rome I Regulation ensures that the law is chosen for the parties in so many different circumstances that arguably, party autonomy is not a part of the Rome I Regulation.

The Women of the Qing Dynasty Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

The Women of the Qing Dynasty - Essay Example Many women were abused verbally and physically by their in-laws and spouses. Women were expected to be obedient toward men in their birth and marriage families. Ethnic Han Chinese women belonging to the upper and middle classes would have their feet bound. This practice was implemented as a way of ensuring that their mobility is limited and they remain close to home. Besides, bound feet were also considered as a symbol of beauty and femininity particularly among the elite class. This is the reason why poor families often felt tempted to bind the feet of their daughters. They thought that doing so, their daughters would be identified with rich families and the chances of her getting married into a rich family would be optimized. The practice of foot binding was very painful as the girls had to go through a series of painful developments. First, foot binding broke their arch bones. Their feet were tied into the lotus position with a long cloth strip. Bound feet deterred these women fro m working in the fields, so the families used this practice to symbolize that they were too rich to have their daughters work in the fields. Many women painters and poets emerged during the early Qing dynasty. However, it was not until the 17th century that women were identified as professionals and their artwork’s sale was considered a respectful means of livelihood (Yuho, 1993). He Shuangqing was a famous poet of the Qing dynasty. Ropp (2002) describes her background, talents, and features in the book in these words, â€Å"He Shuangqing, style name Qiubi, came from Danyang (in the southwestern part of today’s Jiangsu Province) in the Qing dynasty. Born into a peasant family, she lived in the vicinity of Siping Shan. Very beautiful, multitalented, and a lover of literacy works, she was married in 1732 into a poor family of woodcutters surnamed Zhou† (Ropp, 2002, p. 219). Having a

Case for servise marketing Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Case for servise marketing - Research Paper Example As discussed in the case study that APM grew due to its franchising strategy which not only involved direct franchising but also through Master Franchising. Thus the overall expansion strategy for the business has remained focused on the development of regional franchisees who can deliver the services according to the demand from a particular geographical area in which they can deliver them effectively. APM tend to advertise the franchising opportunities in the local newspapers and other media to attract the potential franchisee. This was achieved through advertisements as well as the word of mouth also. One of the key criteria used by APM to recruit new franchisee was to observe the behavior and attitude of the person willing to apply for the franchise. One of the tasks involved was to assess the willingness of the person to show closer association with dogs. Since APM was mobile services provider for dog washing therefore it was considered as essential that the persons must have so me degree of association with pets and specially dogs. This was also important because the PEOPLE element is considered as one of the key variables in the overall integrated services marketing mix. While recruiting the new franchisee, APM therefore gave a lot of weightage to the people element besides ensuring that processes are performed in accordance with the laid down criteria. This was also duly supported by the subsequent training and development of the franchisees in order to ensure that those who are hired have the requisite degree of knowledge and expertise in delivering the services. Having a relative degree of education, up to 10th grade, was another task involved in ensuring that the franchisee actually can handle the business aspects of delivering the services too. This task again can be considered as a focused approach to offer the franchise only to those individuals who can successfully carry out the task of business management also. One of the key similarities between recruiting new franchisee as well as attracting new customers was the use of advertisement. As discussed above that APM used word of mouth as well as the advertisement to attract the new franchisee therefore relatively same procedure was also applied to attract new customers. The use of colorful mobile vans served as strong advertisement vehicles also attracting the attention of the potential customers. This therefore not only provided APM and its franchisee a cost effective way to reach to new customers but also improve its overall image in the areas where they work. Another important similarity between the two is the use of word of mouth and incentives for attracting the new customers. The use of discounted services as well as the additional care tips provided to the customers ensured that the service providers develop a long term relationship with their customers. As discussed in the case that one of the strategies applied by the franchisees were to advise the dog owners to incr ease the frequency of dog washing so that they can save costs on other issues such health related issues with the dogs. The use of recommendations by the satisfied customers was another important task involved in retaining and attracting customers. This was however, not the case for recruiting the franchisee as they had to meet strict criteria before their applications can be accepted. One of the key contradictions between the two however,

Flexibility at work Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Flexibility at work - Essay Example Technology has changed the way the society works; thus many employees demand flexibility in order to become highly productive. Therefore, it is vital to offer work flexibility in the workplace because this will create organizational transformation; thus contributing to effective business performance. Spitznagel (1) attempts to reveal the way flexibility in the workplace has tremendously changed for the recent decades. The author reveals an example of an engineer who had already made significant transformation in his work process. Funaki who is an engineer skips his way into effective performance level and he carries a legacy from his former experience (Spitznagel 1). Transition from engineering to circus performing enabled Funaki to achieve better work related performance aspects because of flexibility in the workplace. Yost (para 5) argue that keeping updating innovation skills for work plus life flexibility strategy is vital in the current business world. Therefore, organisations w ill often implement a work or life flexibility policies to enable them improve business activities. Yost in his article provides varied ways of building flexibility in the future workplace; thus letting workers manage their time in the workplace can enable the company to improve their performance level (Yost para. 1). Many organisations have realized the significant of flexibility in the workplace; thus his has become one of the aspects of transforming the organisation towards achieving success. Therefore, many organisations have made significant efforts of avoiding the common traps by adopting new and flexible frameworks vital for creating effective organizational performance. One of the ways is making the goal work together with life well and this is through describing the flexible needs of employees so that this can reflect on the realities of professional services in the workplace. Recognizing that work plus life fit is an issue for every worker because it will enable employers to retain and manage workforce effectively. Creating a shared vision of work plus life flexibility is another aspect that can enable the business to accomplish their business goals successfully. Work flexibility can contribute to employee motivation and this is imperative because motivation in the workplace is one of the fundamental aspects for creating successful business performance. Many organisations such as General Mills organisation offer their employees options for flexible work situations such as working from home, support teamwork in specific areas and many other aspects. For instance, Chris Vocal, the general manager of General Mills Company talks about his work experience of working in an organisation where there is work flexibility (General Mills 2012). Moreover, Holmes (2011) argues that providing flexible work arrangements in the contemporary society is vital because this can contribute to success business performance. Holmes, the vice president of World of Work soluti ons at the Manpower Group believes that working from anywhere and the skills required to get work done have significantly changed because of technology advancement (Holmes (2011). Therefore, building a better future workplace demands flexibility where employers should trust their employees and employees should be flexible to accomplish business goals

Evelyn Hooker Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Evelyn Hooker - Essay Example was that gays and lesbians are essentially maladjusted persons who need the help of society to be re-integrated and to have normal lives like most people. Her personal and professional life was influenced to a big extent by her mentor with name of Prof. Karl Muenzinger who encouraged her to pursue further studies on behaviorism, in particular the sub-topic of homosexuality. Her interest in this particular subject was due to her making friends with one of her students (name was Mr. Sam From) who was homosexual and challenged her to study him and other homosexuals to disprove commonly-held notions. Her various experiments disproved homosexuals as socially maladjusted people; her studies in effect showed this group to be well adjusted socially no different from the general population. Her studies were used by the gay rights movement to promote their own advocacies. Her personal life starting from her high school years, through college, to the masters program and eventually, the doctorate program influenced her research work because she saw all these as a way to get out of poverty and the drudgery of house work. She was quite lucky to be acquainted with professors who encouraged her to do groundbreaking research work but by her own admission, she did the research more out of curiosity and empathy. Her anonymous fellowship for a year of study in Europe gave her valuable insights to the events happening there at that time, specifically the persecution of the Jewish people at the hands of Hitler and Nazi Germany. She further traveled to Russia at around this time also and saw with her own eyes and through direct experience social injustices such as the rampant and overt discrimination against certain ethnic minorities. This gave her impetus to focus her studies on clinical psychology which gave birth to her almost exclusive concentration on the study of homosexuality in which this group of people are discriminated against as deviants. A turning point in her career

LEADERSHIP Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

LEADERSHIP - Assignment Example Motivation can be viewed as a cycle where ideas control behaviors. Performance on the other hand is driven by behavior, and on the other hand performance influences thoughts, making the cycle to start again. Motivation may be subdivided into 2 different theories referred to as extrinsic (external) and intrinsic (internal) motivation (Beck, 2004). The key motivator in my job is the need to accomplish my set goals and objectives. The moment I am done doing my assigned tasks I usually feel satisfied and motivated. The fact that there is also the issue of salary at the end of the month makes me feel even more motivated and willing to work even harder. These two motivators cut across the board and they are the same for even for my colleagues. That it is not always prudent to interview leaders. The line-level followers could be better placed to know more what is happening on in campus safety department as well as what members look for in a leader. Thus most followers when it comes to life-and –death situations want their leaders to be competent. This means that a campus leader should be ready to learn, maintain and demonstrate a mastery of their field. Leaders, particularly campus safety leaders should also keep themselves informed by devoting some time daily reading about leadership, security and crisis management, security technology and emergency management. They should also keep physically fit by participating in physically demanding training, proficient in using security and emergency management communications technology (Piper, 2012). Campus leaders should be careful how they conduct themselves in a crisis and thus should be calm and make sure that they exert that much needed calming effect. They should also be outwardly focused and be more concerned about welfare and safety of the individuals on their teams. Finally leaders should be ready to put themselves on the line even when it means standing

Skills for Study 1 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Skills for Study 1 - Essay Example One of the social factors contributing to low health expectancy is the level of poverty. In developing countries, the general level of income is very low. Consequently, such people cannot buy adequate healthy food. Furthermore, such people cannot avail the facilities of clinics or doctors as they are unable to afford it, which leads to high levels of mortality. Sometimes, health facilities are located in places far away from poverty-stricken areas, thus making it even more difficult for poor people to reach them in time (Caldwell et al 1990). Another social factor is insufficient education of parents. It is observed that health expectancy is high when the previous generation has been educated, especially mothers. Mothers are the biggest role models for their children, especially in developing countries where mothers usually stay at home while fathers go out to work. Literate mothers are more responsible when it comes to their and their children’s health. However, illiterate mothers lack knowledge of which foods are healthy, what kind of water to drink, which habits are hygienic and similar aspects of a healthy life. Due to this, their children eat anything which ‘appears’ to be edible, drink non-mineral (and thus harmful) water and develop unhygienic activities such as urinating in rivers from where water is used for drinking or cooking. These unhealthy habits cause them to develop life-threatening diseases or such, which in turn lowers the health expectancy in those areas. This factor of low levels o f literacy can also be a cultural issue for those people in developing countries that condemn women from getting an education, as they believe that such practices are only meant for boys (Caldwell et al 1990). In many developing countries, there are certain cultures that prefer the birth of boys rather than girls. People with such beliefs dispose of female

Geddes Garden City Essay Example for Free

Geddes Garden City Essay Introduction   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The American Political Economist who authored   the best read book titled Progress and Poverty (Lause) defined urbanization as â€Å"This life of great cities is not the natural life of man.   He must, under such conditions, deteriorate, physically, mentally, and morally â€Å".   To consider his point, the author view that life must be maintained in a serene atmosphere and not in a busy city just like those old good days that red beans or the cocoa is enough to send every household child to a good school.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Henry George began musing on this concept when the new railroad transport was developed in California that made an influence on high land values and influx of ordinary people to city life.   That development in one place brought about overcrowding and had wayward implications on the sustainability of the natural environment.   However, his idea provided economic reforms that made improvements of the life of the working classes possible.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Cities are indications of developments and of the visible civilizations of the history of man.   It takes a process of transformation that is unique and at the same time diverse.   This work is aimed at explaining the town concepts during the period of industrialization from the beginning of mass transportation and birth of new cities in particular on how Geddes observed and analyze these processes. Sustainability of the Man-built Environment   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It was concluded by Henry George that the man-built environment is something that will not last. However, Patrick Geddes the Leonardo da Vinci of the 20th century teaches and reaffirms that our world environment could be sustained provided that man cooperates in the process.   It has to be sustained in order that the life cycle of the young generation’s continues.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   His statement is not a contradiction to George’s philosophy but a possible solution to man’s current problems.   His reaffirmation brought to the world a new hope that even though life cycle is limited, this world is still something worthy to be cared for and it can endure. The positive attitude of George influences not only his neighbors but the human settlement at large during his time to the present.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   There are issues on industrialization which brings wealth but at the same time destroys the natural environment caused by pollutants. For this reason, Geddes made it clear that man do not live by the jingling of his coins.   There is always a chain effect if one resource is used in accordingly.   He provided a solution written in the Evergreen book that a sustainable world is as simple as making it comfortably green.   His conviction reminded even planners that if developments are unchecked it would create more disaster than improvements.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Globally, everyone breathe the same air that a poor or a developed nation breathes.   The current concern do not deals alone with affordability but also sustainability. With the pressing trend of modernization, comfortable living is expensive and value for money is usually a rare find. The problem of overcrowding in the cities and the lack of economic growth in the rural areas still remains to be a problem on poorly planned cities.   The increase of deteriorating cities will lead to the decline of the global sustainability.   The idea here is to provide developmental options that are definitely relevant to every cities of the world. His mottos â€Å"by creating we think and by living we learn was made to good use by educating people about their environment (Grewar).† The new housing design for workers, organizing his neighbors to renovate houses and build gardens made an indelible mark in his works which can still be seen in every postcard of the city’s Royal Mile that even Albert Einstein admired and has honored him (Grewar). The Garden City Movement Patrick Geddes three dimensional thinking (geography, economics and anthropology) places social sciences above math and logic, biology, chemistry and physics.   His belief that† the earth as a cooperative planet must teach people on how to treat properly their environment and is aimed specifically on educating children, improving the physical quality of life through biological knowledge by producing better medicines, and understanding human influence on ecology (Killiecrankie).† Geddes bridging social sciences with biology even influenced his biographer Lewis Mumford on the simple idea that man just like plants and animals thrived in healthy conditions which are expressed in one of the extracts of Geddes writings; â€Å"The world is mainly vast leaf-colony, growing on and forming a leafy soil, not a mere mineral mass, and we live not by the jingling of our coins, but by the fullness of our harvest. This is green world, with animals comparatively small, and all independent upon leaves.   By leaves we live (Grewar).†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Mumford an architectural critic and is particularly noted for his study on urbanization of the environment regarded technology as the destroyer of environment even if he qualifies that electricity could lead to the improvements of the social spheres (University).   His works are indications that technology must be regulated. During the late 18th century Garden Cities began to evolve through the works of city and town planners particularly the works of Ebenezer Howard in UK influenced by the philosophy of Geddes new approach in urban planning called the garden city movement.   Howard began to build self-sustaining towns that combines convenience and industries located on agricultural sites (Sir Ebenezer Howard).† Howard realizes that no matter from what nation a man belongs, there is but one social issue which is difficult to solve and that is problems on housing and labor. This propelled many to advocate the new movement and increases the awareness on the concept of â€Å"decency of surroundings† and that includes, ample spaces, clean housing with gardens, and preservation of landscapes (Letchworth). The First Garden City   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Letchworth City is founded by Howard and is the first garden city of the world; in 1905 the garden city movement became involved in the exhibits of new housing called the workers cottage or housing for the working class in which some of it still stood today. Those cheap but strong and functional residences can be affordable to workers.   Some of these cottages made of wood or concrete can still be found in Letchworth streets and is now being conserved.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Some of the prototype housing called the workers cottages influences the human settlement design of this century.   This new housing designed sprawled even to the west for instance the workers cottages of Architect Maybeck of California and to the whole world at least giving man an accommodation that he humanly deserves. Mass Transportation   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Fast developments are due to improved transportation and communications.   The streets affect the life of all its inhabitants and this vision is very much encouraged in order to serve a huge population.   This is indeed very necessary but at the same time may lead to a city decline.   This entails thorough planning on how to maintain a good life in a cellular metropolis.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Victor Gruen a planning practitioner, mentioned in his last publicized works that â€Å"auto sprawl would cripple the global ecosystem and brings about physical and psychological starvation of the urbanized man (Hill).†Ã‚   Today, some cities plants a good number of trees for every parking slots or spaces created.   Planning theories must be integrated to transit that is useful to automobile cities and providing more mass transit and more freeways.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Automobile cities, needs more spaces unlike the old horse tracks during the colonial times.   Human settlement today cannot tolerate a waste of space in places where living condition is dense.   Somehow, these dense spaces are capable of providing the maximum comfort for man by means of mechanical equipments in buildings. In this cities life is fast and expensive.   Technology is a provision for man’s comfort and not a means to enslave but more often than not it is the other way around.   However, there are many fast developing cities that is capable of coping with the new technology because work is valued in congruent with the dignity of man.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Gruen proposes a plan that could justify economic productivity of big cities and at the same time create sub cities that would adapt to what he calls â€Å"megalopolitan sprawl†.   However, globalization could also mean going beyond ones land area.   There is still vast area of lands wanting to be developed. There are many nations that are in need to cope with the present dynamics of the new world technology.   And while there are other places where overpopulation is a problem there are affluent cities in the second millennium that the inverted population growth also presupposes danger. Conclusion   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In the abstract written by Dr. Mervyn Miller, he mentioned the book written by the founder of Letchworth, â€Å"Tomorrow a Peaceful Path to Real Reform† written in 1898 is very much true to our society of today. He recalls that the garden city is a potent concept in the emergence of the 20th century cities.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Contemporary planners addressed the issue by following the course of people like Geddes.   However, due to the increase in the demand on the lease to life, those familiar workers cottages are considered mini-mansions of many career oriented people of today.   Ample spaces are defined as functional spaces due to the ever increasing cost per area of construction in square foot or in meters.   Coping with life that is becoming unsustainable is becoming a depressing problem even more than how George views it in his time. The internationalist who believes that nothing is gained by overcrowding still support the issue on the green environment that is very relevant today.   However, there are trends that are still needed to be discovered and be rediscovered especially within the new technology along on how this new ideas can be within the reach of everyone.   The key here is what kind of technology should be provided to sustain the ordinary man of the streets. The approach that Geddes concept has provided in his time is for the working class of the industrialized period.   That became the reason why today’s environmentalist regarded Geddes a steward in land use and its sustainability. Today, a number of men with the same aspirations of those Internationalist described is very much needed.   This fast growing old planet needs people who are a hundred percent human beings in the middle of the electro- mechanical world. Works Cited Grewar, Mindy. Vivendo Discimus: Everything in the Garden Is Magnifique for the Anniversary Celebrations of a Great Scot.   (2004). 11 April 2008 http://www.scotland.org/about/history-tradition-and-roots/features/education/geddes.html. Hill, David R. Sustainability, Victor Gruen, and the Cellular Metropolis.   (2008). 11 April 2008 http://www.questia.com/googleScholar.qst;jsessionid=H1TcfmZ4RRyJKG06dF94gjTT9hyHh99GrVvwdzytZzVnn6Lq771Y!-798756091?docId=5001677813. Killiecrankie. Patrick Geddes 1854-1932.   (2008). 11 April 2008 http://www.visitkilliecrankie.com/patrick-geddes.htm. Lause, Mark. Henry George. 11 April 2008 http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/Quad/6460/bio/G/eorge.html. Letchworth. Letchworth the First Garden City   (2007). 11 April 2008 http://lgc.amolad.net/heritage/index-3.htm. Sir Ebenezer Howard.   (2007). 11 April 2008 http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1E1-HowardEb.html. University, Regent. Lewis Mumford (1895-1988).   (2007). 11 April 2008 http://www.regent.edu/acad/schcom/rojc/mdic/mumford.html.

Life Cycle Assessment Of Laptops And Printed Notes Engineering Essay

Life Cycle Assessment Of Laptops And Printed Notes Engineering Essay For the last few years, the society had started to use electronic devices for reading instead of using printed paper especially for university students. However, the paper is still used for printing and other usage. Paper is one of the main causes of global warming as trees will be cut down and processed into wood as wood is the main ingredient of producing paper. Without trees, there will be less photosynthesis phenomena occurring to reduce carbon dioxide concentration in the atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is produced by human activities such as breathing, power generation, combustion etc. To reduce the cutting of trees, several electronic devices have been introduced to replace the paper used for several purposes. 1.2 Life Cycle Assessment Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a method used to analyze the impacts caused by products and services to the environment surrounding. It is used to study the life cycle from the extraction of raw materials, processing, transport, use, reuse, recycling or disposal of the products and services. There are four stages in LCA which includes goal identification, life cycle inventory, impact analysis and improvement analysis. LCA is used to identify and analyze the input and output of materials, energy and waste emissions in solid, liquid and gaseous state in order to make the improvement from the environmental impacts determined. (Life cycle assessment n.d) 2. Goal and scope definition 2.1 Goal of this study The goal of this study is to compare the Global Warming Potential (GWP) of the service between reading printed lecture notes and reading lecture notes on the laptop. Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) of printed and computer document as learning materials for an undergraduate engineering student of Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus is conducted. The LCA of this study is done by the undergraduate Civil Engineering students of Swinburne University of Technology Sarawak Campus. The results of this study is based on the two reports titled Scanning Life Cycle Assessment of Printed and E-paper Documents based on the iRex Digital Reader by Sebastiaan Deetman and Ingrid Odegard in March 2009 and Life Cycle Assessment of a Laptop Computer and its Contribution to Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Anh Hoang, Wei li Tseng, Shekar Viswanathan and Howard Evans. The study will compare the environment impacts of the printed paper and laptop. 2.2 Scope of this study Scope of this study consists of function and functional units. Function of the product will be analyzed and functional units will be included in this study is used to make comparison of the services and the LCA of the laptop. 2.2.1 Function Laptop can be useful in reading lecture notes and making notes in a document files. These are the functions that will be analyzed. However, laptop can also be used to read online newspaper, journals, magazine and for doing assignments. These functions will not be included in this study but they can definitely help in reducing the environment impacts. The use of Microsoft Office software in laptop enables students to make own notes and read lecture notes for e-paper and printed documents. This function has made the comparison between computer documents and printed paper viable. In this report, it is assumed that the time taken for a student to download lecture notes from the BlackBoard System used by Swinburne University of Technology into the computer is the same. Therefore, it can be excluded from this study because initially, both alternatives need to use this function. Besides, the wireless connection in Swinburne University should be neglected as both printed notes and e-notes require the wireless connection to download the lecture notes from the BlackBoard System. 2.2.2 Product System a. Manufacturing The manufacturing and assembly of components for the laptop including packaging result in releasing greenhouse gases. b. Distribution To distribute the laptop to retails, transportation of the laptop is included in this study. The greenhouse gases also will be released through the transports used. c. Use The usage of the laptop will be four years equivalent to the four years course. The total usage of laptop including lecture, tutorial and self-study per unit for one week is included in this study. So, the laptop usage for one year can be calculated. d. End of life End of life in this study is about recycling a laptop that can no longer be used or function anymore. The laptop will be recycled under the US recycling requirements. 2.2.3 Functional Unit The functional unit of LCA is to study the service of the paper used for printing notes for a student which is four years as the engineering courses for Swinburne University of Technology takes four years to complete. However, the laptop is assumed to replace all the printed notes in this study throughout the four years course. The assumptions of the laptop and printed paper that need to be taken into the consideration in this study are as shown as below. Assumptions: 1. The life span of the laptop and printer are four years as engineering courses take four years. 2. Plug is used for laptop for all the time instead of using battery. 3. Laser printer is used for printing. 4. Wooden uncoated paper is used for printing. 5. The printed paper is in greyscale. 2.2.4 Impact Categories In this study, the laptop usage and the printed paper are compared to analyze the data of greenhouse gas emission for both alternatives which contributes to Global Warming Potential (GWP). 3. Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) In this report, the data collected are the manufacturing, distribution, use and end-of-life of a standard laptop. The CO2-e emission of each stage are also calculated and included in the report. 3.1 Inventory of Laptop Computer 3.1.1 Manufacturing It includes the manufacturing and assembly of components as well as manufacturing and assembly of laptop which comes with packaging. On the whole, the greenhouse gas emission is approximately 160 kg CO2-e which is obtained from the graph on a report entitled Carbon Footprint of a Typical Business Laptop from Dell which is written by Markus Stutz (2010). 3.1.2 Distribution Transportation of laptop by all means to assembly locations and distributed to local retails, including transportation to customers themselves. For this report, the greenhouse gas emission of distribution of laptop is approximately 50 kg CO2-e (Stutz 2010) following the US region. However, the transportation may vary with region. So the emissions will vary as well but not much difference. 3.1.3 Use The life span of the laptop is estimated to be four years which is assumed to be used for the whole four years course of engineering students of Swinburne University Sarawak. One laptop is used by one student only. It is assumed that for one week, the total usage (hours) of laptop is 28 hours inclusive of 3 hours lecture, 2 hours tutorial and 2 hours of self-study per unit. There are four units altogether so 7 hours multiply by 4 equals to 28 hours. Assuming two semesters which consists of 32 weeks (inclusive of exam weeks) are equivalent to one year, the total hours is 896 hours. Hence, for four years, the total hour is 3584 hours. To calculate the power consumption and greenhouse gas emission, the mode taken into consideration is Active mode. Based on the report written by the students of National University entitled Life Cycle Assessment of a Laptop Computer and its Contribution to Greenhouse Gas Emissions, the electricity used for average Active mode is 0.032 kWh. The power consu mption is tabulated in the table below. Electricity Used (kWh) Hours for 4 Years Power consumed (kWh) Active (Average) 0.032 3584 114.69 Based on the report too, the formula is converted to kWh. Hence, the greenhouse gas emission for usage is equal to 45.88 kg CO2-e. 3.1.4 End-of-life Once the laptop can no longer be used or it is unable to function anymore, the laptop will be sent for recycling. Sometimes laptops can be reformatted but it will not perform as well as before. Hence, according to Stutz 2010, it is assumed that 75 percent of the laptop will be recycled under the US recycling requirements. So, the greenhouse gas emission of -30 kg CO2-e is obtained. Stages Kg CO2-e released Manufacturing 160 Distribution 50 Use 45.88 End of life -30 Total 225.88 Table 1: The CO2e emission for laptop 3.2 Print Alternative Other alternative is that, the lecture notes, tutorial sheet and solutions can be printed out for study. The significant part which manipulates the GWP value is the type of paper used for printing. In this inventory, woodfree uncoated paper will be used to print out the lecture notes as well as tutorial questions. The GWP of manufacturing, distribution, use, end-of-life stage was taken from the LCA done by the ecoinvent for the inventory of the print alternative. 3.2.1 The use of printer A laser printer is used to print all the lecture notes and tutorial exercises. According to the report of LCA done by the student of University of Technology in Delft, they are using the process description of Ecoinvent database, which includes the life-time of printer, energy use during 3 different operational modes(active, stand-by and off), the print speed and average paper consumption. These numbers were all converted to an average inventory for an hour of printer use, as summarized in Table 4 below [Lehmann, 2007]. Process/part description Amount (per hour of printer use) Unit Ecoinvent name Electricity use 0.0402 kWh Electricity, low voltage, production UCTE Printing paper 0.214 kg Paper, woodfree, uncoated, at regional storage [RER] Laser Printer Scenario 1: Scenario 2: piece piece Printer laserjet, b/w, at plant [GLO] Toner 0.0644 kg Toner, black, used for printing [RER] Transport 0.0215 tkm Transport, freight, rail[RER] Table 1: The usage of printer and papers per hour In table 4, the usage of printer, paper and toner was converted to per hour usage. This is because Ecoinvent database recorded the lifetime of a printer is about four years. However, the usage of the laserjet printer will not be operating twenty four hours per day for four years. Therefore, the inventory is converted to per hour determination. 3.2.2 Paper Uncoated woodfree paper is the type of paper that we used most for printing. The dataset of the production and distribution of the type of paper is based on the Ecoinvent database. And according to the database, the uncoated woodfree paper contains at least 90% of fibres in the form of chemical pulp. Calculation: The estimation of paper used in 4 years. The approximate number of paper used for 1 chapter=15 sheets There total chapters for 1 subject= 8 chapters Subjects in 1 semester= 4 Semesters in 1 year=2 There are approximately 960 sheets of paper used in one year. And one student will consumed approximately 3840 sheets of paper in four years time. Paper disposal There are three types of paper disposal flows are defined in Ecoinvent, they are: Â · [G139] disposal, paper, 11.2% water, to municipal incineration [CH] Â · [G449] disposal, paper, 11.2% water, to sanitary landfill [CH] Â · [G1984] paper, recycling, with deinking, at plant [RER] The first two processes, however, differ from the third. The disposal processes have economic outflow the service of the disposal of 1 kg of the paper, as what is expected. A physical mass of recycled paper is the output for the recycling flow. According to Ecoinvent, there isnt recycling paper service and recycling gives out recycled paper as output. This means that the printer not only provide service of printing, but also produce recycled paper. Part of the total process to the recycled paper and part of the total process to the use of printer were allocated. This means that the environmental impacts of recycling the paper as waste are taken into account. 4.0 Impact Assessment This stage is to assess the impacts will affect on human health and the environment associated with energy and raw material inputs and environmental releases quantified by the inventory. We have done the impact assessment for the category of global warming potential (GWP). From the result, we do a comparison of CO2-equivalent between the laptop and printed paper. 4.1 Break-even Point: GWP Break-even point is when the GWP of both alternatives is the same occur. This can determine which alternative is more sustainable to the environment. When the GWP of both alternatives meets at this point, their emission is equal. After that, based on different situation, which ever goes higher is considered as not sustainable. GWP (kg CO2 equivalents) Print Alternative Scenario 1 Printing 3840 pages for four years Printing with woodfree uncoated paper 13.53 Laptop 225.88 Table: GWP values (in CO2-eq) of printed notes and laptop usage. From the table above, the relationship between the print alternative and laptop computer between two scenarios was assumed. After that, it can generate the graph as seen in figure below. Figure: From the figure, the impact assigned to the laptop computer remains constant as it is used daily for reading and studying. The graph shows the GWP of print alternative is much lower than the laptop computer. The break-even point is too far that it is probably about 70000 prints for four years. 5.0 Improvement Analysis Based on the research done, the usage of e-paper (laptops) still releases quite a high amount of CO2e which leads to Global Warming Potential. Hence, a few improvements to reduce emissions should be done. Improvements that could be done are as follows: Optimization of electricity usage when manufacturing laptops Minimize the number of transportation of laptops by distributing as many laptops as possible delivery process Turn off laptop when it is not used (i.e when taking a break from studying lecture notes) Purchasing laptops which has Energy Star label. Energy Star is a program by US government which helps to protect environment using superior energy efficiency. (Energy Star n.d.) Public awareness give talks on managing electricity and power usage In order to reduce the effect of global warming potential for paper, improvement can be done in the ways of: Conserving paper by printing on the both sides of the paper. Select to print what is really needed. Print only a few pages that are needed instead of the whole book. Recycle the used paper and use sustainable paper too. Return the empty printing cartridges to the supplier for recycling. 6.0 Conclusion From the life cycle assessment, we have compared the carbon dioxide equivalent of a laptop and paper for four years. It is shown that the CO2-e of a laptop is higher than paper. In other words, print alternative is a better choice to reduce the environmental impacts. It is more environmental friendly to study the lecture slides by printing paper instead of using laptop as paper emits less CO2e. The results above can only be applied to study lecture notes, not for office use and others.

Ethical Issues Of The Three Gorges Dam

Ethical Issues Of The Three Gorges Dam The role of an engineer in modern day society to respond to the needs of the general public by applying science and modern day engineering methods to follow a certain set of guidelines or specifications to deliver the customer needs. Most importantly, that the device, plan or creation should work up to guidelines and function without fail, and reach its level of performance. Hence, the engineer must work hard to design in such a way to avoid failure which could result in damage to people and to the environment, loss of property, injury or even death, thats sometimes how dangerous engineering can be if safety precautions are taken and abided by to maintain the wellbeing of you and your fellow species. With every project taken upon by an engineer, they will learn more and more from past mistakes, every day so that they will come up with better designs which are more economical and beneficial in the long run. All engineers must accept their jobs involve a wider responsibility than simpl y application of their skills. Engineers must act in an ethical and morally responsible way if they are to be treated as professionals. All engineers should uphold normal standards of honesty and integrity. They should not use their skills and abilities to act in a dishonest or selfish way or in a way that will harm others. Confidentiality should also be respected by the engineer irrespective whether to a formal confidentiality agreement has been signed or not with the client. The code relates to the behaviour of the decisions made by professional engineers, it is their responsibility to point out flaws or errors to their fellow work mates and bosses to ensure projects are finished to the top possible standard. There will be situations when people have different views and objectives, so you are likely to be faced with an ethical dilemma. It is up to you as an engineer and a person to solve the problem and try to understand the other peoples views and come out with the correct solution. Most cases will be minor ethical dilemmas and can be solved without too much difficulty. Three Gorges Dam The three gorges dam and all the surrounding infrastructure is the largest civil engineering projects ever undertaken in history, but because of the ethics of the build , the project was under continuous scrutiny and controversy, due to the monumental economic, social and environmental impacts. In 2007 there was report released into the growing threats from landslides and flooding, on top of that the social and political unrest and discontent from having to move millions of people from where they were born and grew up. The project is so controversial that even some Chinese officials are beginning to be very frank on their opinions of the project. To be able to judge the significant cost and benefits on the projects cannot just get a price tag but if something went wrong it would cause never before unheard of chaos in that region and in china in general. The Project The project itself stretches across the 3rd largest river in the world by 2km the Yangtze river. The name of the dam three gorges comes from the massive canyons that are formed by the towering limestone cliffs. The idea of a dam in the Chinese province of hubei in a small town called Sandouping, was first proposed 80yrs ago by Sun Yat-sen, but because of the technology wasnt there 80yrs ago nothing went forward, but then again in the 1950s by chairman Mao Tse Yung proposed that the construction of the project would be speeded up but nothing significant happened till 36yrs later in 1986 when the Chinese government asked a syndicate of Canadian business to finance a feasibility study. In 1992 The Chinese government approved the construction of the dam two years later the build began and after 9 years hard work the first electricity was produced. The dam itself is 200m high with a volume of between 39-40 million cubic metres and the reservoir is 600km long with a capacity of 40 billion cubic metres, the dam is set to produce 10% of the electricity usage in china. In early 2008 the installation of the last generators was completed bringing the total capacity to 14,800 MWe in 2010 when the project is set to be completed it will have the capability of producing more than 22,000 MWe eight times more than Hoover dam in Colorado. Hydro Power Hydro power is a water powered phenomena which uses the force or energy of high speed or high energy water to harness its power to generate electricity. Gravity plays a big part in hydro power, as the water falls from a height it turns blades which are specially designed in the dam to catch the flow of the oncoming water which then turn a turbine to generate the power. wuhytypicalplant.gif In the image above, we are shown a typical hydro electricity dam. The dam holds back a large scale amount of water behind its walls, there is usually a reservoir behind the walls so that the water can be few through the gate in whatever quantity they desire. The water is then fed from the height it is at down through the intake pipe trough to the generator to turn the turbine which turns the generators and creates the electricity and then the electricity is directly fed to peoples homes and factories for use. The water then continues on down the river as it was before after generating green energy. It is a big advantage to use hydropower rather than coal. The three gorges dam is replacing a coal fired station which would consume 50 million tonnes of coal a year which is equivalent to what is now being produced by the dam. This reduces annual carbon dioxide emissions by 150 million tonnes a year. This is a great environmental achievement. Environmental effects The constructions of large scale hydroelectric dams often have a detrimental effect on the environment. The Three Gorges Dam is no exception. The three Gorges Dam areas is a very diverse region with many different animal and plant species some of whom are only found in this part of the world. The dam and the large reservoir it created behind it have had a damaging impact on the local environment. With the creation of the dam the probability of earthquakes in the area has increased due to the extra stress the weight of water puts on the two major fault lines in the region the Jiuwanxi and the Zigui-Badong. In the seven months after September 2006, there were 822 tremors recorded after the water level was raised. So far none have been strong enough to cause any significant damage. The local wildlife has suffered greatly due to the dam including many endangered species such as the Giant Panda, Baili Dolphin (Chinese River Dolphin) and the Chinese Tiger. In total there are 47 endangered species in the Three Gorges Dam area. With the flooding of the land behind the dam the wildlife is being forced to higher ground. This higher ground are being turned into small islands forcing the animals to compete for whatever little food there is on these small islands. Freshwater fish are affected most by the dam due to the fact that they cannot cross the dam therefore reducing their habitat and stop them from getting to their spawning grounds upstream. The change of the temperature of the water and the change of the flow regime have had a damaging effect on the fish population. Also with the reduced water flow downstream seawater has started to flow up the river resulting in jellyfish coming into the river and competing for food with the indigenous fish population. The Three Gorges Dam area is home to 20% of Chinas plants, about 6,400 different species of plants. 57% of these plants are endangering. Many of these are used in Chinese medicine. The reservoir created behind the dam is having an effect on the local climate. The reservoir is having a lake effect i.e. when already moist air picks up moisture as it crosses a warm body of water and rains it out when it gets to land. It is also reducing the temperature of the area with the increase in the cloud cover. three_gorges.jpg Social and Economic Impact The three Gorges Dam project has had a severe social effect of the people of the Hubei Provence of China. The dam has flooded 13 cities, 110 towns, 1350 villages and 100,000 acres of the most fertile land in all of China in total an area of 632 km2 was flooded. The farmland lost to the reservoir produced 40% of Chinas grain and 70% of their rice. All this flooding has resulted in more than 1.2 million people having to be relocated. Many priceless archeology and cultural symbols of China have been lost including the Ba civilisation that settled in the Three Gorges Area over 4,000 years ago. Relocation The number of people relocated by the dam varies from 1.2 million to 5 million. Many of them were forcibly evicted from their homes They come, like devils, to knock down our homes, said villager Fu. Why are they so hard on us Most of the people displaced were moved to urban centres around Chongqing with insufficient compensation to buy or build a new home, or were moved into new cities built for the displaced locals in the mountains on steep sloops. The farmers that were relocated and remained farmers were not able to produce enough crops on their new land because it is not fertile enough to survive, those who moved to the cities received no training for industrial job and found it hard to get work. Many of the resettled people feel that their basic human rights have been ignored and have started to speak out against the governments handling of the relocation. Corruption and embezzling accusations are rife, with 46% of the total budget for the project being spent of re-housing and compensating the local authorities have been accused of embezzling fund and not spending enough money on housing resulting in poor workmanship and unsafe construction of the new houses. Economic Benefits The economic benefits of the construction of the dam are huge. The dam will produce as much power as. The dam enables large cargo ships to travel further up the river. Hidden Truth Some recent reports concerning the dam that an increased amount of cracks was discovered in the concrete have been appearing which, is a worrying truth. The first crack was discovered in 1999 and even today there are cracks as large as from the top to the bottom which is 200m, when the waters start to rise to the max. In the largest dam in history, many towns and a lot more cultural treasures will be lost, but a much greater concerns that the dam might fail, unleashing a great mass of water for miles, possibly killing millions of people and causing billions of damage. The cracks in the dam are starting to become between 3 and 4 inches wide and 2m deep. Engineers also fear that the buildings built to relocate the millions of people affected by the project could also be at risk. The buildings where built on unstable ground where landslides are capable of occurring. There have also been fears of possible health hazards from the unrelated waste dumped into rivers every year. Discussion The three gorges dam is one of the worlds biggest gambles, the Chinese government have placed millions of lives on the line and millions of dollars. As well as putting endangered species at risk in their won environment, just because they thought it would save more lives from flood prevention and produce clean energy. Government official in charge, Wang Xiaofeng said during a meeting of Chinese scientists we simply cannot sacrifice the environment in exchange of temporary gain The long term implications of the three gorges dam will not be understood fully until over the next few decades when engineers and scientists recognise the implications, some of which are already appearing. The sheer size and importance of the dam in china is leaving it a prime target for a military strike, which was threatened by the U.S. pentagon in 2004. A blow to the three gorges dam would be catastrophic, it would kill millions of people, destroy homes and towns as a mass wall of water are unleashed out of the reservoir. The Chinese military guard the dam in case of such an attack. The issues faced today are far more than was previously predicted, despite efforts by the engineers and scientists it cannot be guaranteed that landslides can be controlled or when and where they might take place. In my opinion this project was put forward, not only for economic or environmental gain, but for china to be portrayed as a force to be reckoned with and for the three gorges dam to be recognised for its greatness in modern day engineering. The three gorges dam may well be the biggest and best engineering project ever undertaken in this lifetime but it may also get the title for the biggest engineering failure in history thanks to third world work. Conclusion The project deadline is 2010, starting in 1994, the project has spanned over 16 years and is nearly coming to completion. As one of the largest engineering projects in world the three gorges dam undoubtedly has its cost tag, among the most substantial costs were to re locate 1.2 million Chinese natives to the lands whose houses and land were flooded to build the dam. The most important factor of the hydro dam is the reduction of the greenhouse gases as hydroelectricity is a completely green energy, also it has potentially reduced risks of floods. Over the next few decades, the projects aim will become more obvious of the work it is doing for the environment but before these benefits are delivered, the environmental, social and economic costs are beginning to show. Some officials now in china are moving towards new massive projects in water energy, which could be costly and without having learned lessons from the three gorges, while other officials question the substantial human and environmental costs of the project. Chinese official said if a decision was undertaken on undemocratic and unscientific then the laws of nature will mercifully punish us and we will pay even more dearly

Interview Essay - David Redding -- Interview Essays

Interview Essay - David Redding David Redding was born on June 20, 1919, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from UCLA, and his Ph.D. from Columbia University. He has three sons who live in Northern California. David began his career as a researcher, and then became an accountant, working to help less developed countries. He was married 17 years to his first wife before it ended in a divorce. He is happily remarried and has been for the last 9 years. What is your definition of happiness? To enjoy the good aspects of people, enjoy living, family and friends. Don't get hung up on the bad things in life. You must get through the downfalls in life because if you don't they will just bring you down with them. How has your definition of happiness changed over the years? Over the years what makes you happy changes in subtle ways but you don't always know how they have changed or why different things make you happy that didn't before. How do you know when you are happy? When my wife and family are happy, because they are a reflection of me. Maybe a part of your soul? Who or what do you turn to when you are unhappy? As humans, we turn to those who are closest to us (friends and family); those that we love and in return love us. What activities are important for your sense of happiness? To be physically active, intellectually aware, and to have hobbies that keep me busy. What makes you unhappy? Differences among people, critical situations, and not a lack of environmental awareness. In addition, not being compassionate to other less developed countries. How do other people's attitudes affect your sense of happiness? It really depends on how they express their feelings and their... ...s does not come from social or political changes, but from relationships among those you love. How did you adjust to these changes? Rationalization, coming to terms with what is real and what is not. Are you pleased with yourself? Yes, I would like to be in better health, to continue in good health, and sometimes be younger, but not very often. Are you pleased with your interpersonal relationships? Yes, at the moment I am. Are you pleased with your religion? I accept the fact that we aren't always religious. In addition humans have control over what is going on today. If there is one piece of advice for achieving happiness what would it be? To develop your own self-confidence and do the best you can with what you have. Can you summarize your piece of advice with your philosophy on life? Yes, at this point in your life be happy with yourself. Interview Essay - David Redding -- Interview Essays Interview Essay - David Redding David Redding was born on June 20, 1919, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from UCLA, and his Ph.D. from Columbia University. He has three sons who live in Northern California. David began his career as a researcher, and then became an accountant, working to help less developed countries. He was married 17 years to his first wife before it ended in a divorce. He is happily remarried and has been for the last 9 years. What is your definition of happiness? To enjoy the good aspects of people, enjoy living, family and friends. Don't get hung up on the bad things in life. You must get through the downfalls in life because if you don't they will just bring you down with them. How has your definition of happiness changed over the years? Over the years what makes you happy changes in subtle ways but you don't always know how they have changed or why different things make you happy that didn't before. How do you know when you are happy? When my wife and family are happy, because they are a reflection of me. Maybe a part of your soul? Who or what do you turn to when you are unhappy? As humans, we turn to those who are closest to us (friends and family); those that we love and in return love us. What activities are important for your sense of happiness? To be physically active, intellectually aware, and to have hobbies that keep me busy. What makes you unhappy? Differences among people, critical situations, and not a lack of environmental awareness. In addition, not being compassionate to other less developed countries. How do other people's attitudes affect your sense of happiness? It really depends on how they express their feelings and their... ...s does not come from social or political changes, but from relationships among those you love. How did you adjust to these changes? Rationalization, coming to terms with what is real and what is not. Are you pleased with yourself? Yes, I would like to be in better health, to continue in good health, and sometimes be younger, but not very often. Are you pleased with your interpersonal relationships? Yes, at the moment I am. Are you pleased with your religion? I accept the fact that we aren't always religious. In addition humans have control over what is going on today. If there is one piece of advice for achieving happiness what would it be? To develop your own self-confidence and do the best you can with what you have. Can you summarize your piece of advice with your philosophy on life? Yes, at this point in your life be happy with yourself.

may 4th movement Essay examples -- essays research papers fc

Born on May Fourth: The New Culture Movement and its Influence on Early Communist Rhetoric "As long as there shall be stones, he seeds of fire will not die." Lu Xun, December 1935 On May Fourth 1919 over three thousand Beijing intellectuals met in Tiananmen Square to protest the results of the Paris Peace Treaty. The protesters disagreed with the Beijing government's decision to accept the lot given China in the post-war world. Over the next month students and workers from across China marched, held strikes, and boycott Japanese and western products, eventually causing the Chinese government to capitulate to their demands and make a stand on the world stage. This was the first mass protest in 20th century Chinese history and would serve as an example and inspiration for the next century of communist politics. By 1914, when the First World War began, the Chinese government was still extremely unstable. Only three years earlier, in 1911, Sun Yat-Sen and his Nationalist Party had toppled the Qing Dynasty and formed a new government. At the outbreak of World War One the government had dissolved into various warlord factions and was, in general, only operating in the larger cities and urban areas. By the time the war broke out various countries had taken advantage of China's weak government. In 1915, when Japan invaded Shandong, the German occupied area of China, they handed the Chinese government a list of twenty-one demands. Among these demands was the stationing of Japanese troops within China and the placement of Japanese officials in the Chinese government. These measures would have in effect made China a Japanese colony. When China joined the First World War in 1917 its main goal was to regain Shandong and have the Twenty-One Demands repealed. Yet despite China's donation of over ni ne hundred workers to the fronts of France, Africa, and Turkey, by the end of the war in 1918, China was given only a tertiary seat at the Versailles peace conference. During the peace talks at Versailles, China's demands were all but ignored. When the telegraph arrived bringing the news that the Paris Peace Treaty hadn't taken into account either of China's concerns, the people were und... ...rically necessary ... yet incomplete" and had a "lack of determination to merge with the masses." Mao took many approaches of the movement, the vernacularism, the antifeudalism and anticolonialism, and he gave them his own spin. Truly in this sense, the Chinese Communist Party is a child of the May Fourth and New Culture movements. Works Cited Barmà © Geremie. Seeds of Fire: Chinese Voices of Conscience. New York: Hill and Wang. 1988. Chang, Sylvia. "Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: Towards a 'Free' Literature" China Journal. Issues 19/20. Murphey, Rhodes. A History of Asia. New York: Longman. 2001. Schwarcz, Vera. The Chinese Enlightenment: Intellectuals and the Legacy of the May Fourth Movement of 1919. Berkeley: University of California Press. 1986 Siu, F, Helen. Mao's Harvest: Voices from China's new Generation. New York: Oxford University Press. 1983. Tse-Tsung, Chow. The May 4th Movement: Intellectual Revolution in Modern China. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. 1992.

Shakespeare is Important :: essays research papers

Shakespeare is Important William Shakespeare’s plays are being made into box office film hits at an incredible rate. Films such as Much Ado About Nothing with Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson, Hamlet with Mel Gibson and Glenn Close, Othello with Laurence Fishbourne and Henry V with Kenneth Branagh have been seen by a surprising number of teenagers. Often they have not understood it all, or even half of it, but they have been affected by the powerful characters and by the Shakespearean magic which has affected audiences around the world for centuries. They want to know more, they want to understand, and what better motvation can any teacher ask for than that students WANT ? That alone is sufficient reason for any English teacher to start a course in Shakespeare. The other reason is that Shakespeare is a man for our time. He may have been a man "for all times". He certainly speaks directly to the students in my charge. The passions and emotions which he describes find deep echoes in the hearts of the youngsters at the close of the 20th century. He probably was modern when he wrote his dramas. He has retained that modernity seemingly for three centuries. Thirdly, he is the father of all western playwrights. Everybody from Ibsen to O'Neil uses techniques and ideas which can be traced back to Shakespeare. Whatever dramatist in whatever language you are required to study, familiarity with Shakespeare can only be an advantage. Finally, it is fun to study drama. It is fun to dramatise and dress up and fall over dead behind improvised curtains and fence with blackboard pointers and cook up a witches brew and come to school with a spade over your shoulder for the Graveyard Scene. It is fun, and while all the fun is being enjoyed an incredible amount of language is pouring into these students' heads, through listening, reading, watching videos and learning lines off by heart.

Rhetorical Question Essay

In the story â€Å"Nineteen Thirty-Seven† Edwidge Danticat presents Josephine, a Haitian girl who often visits her mother at the Port Au Prince prison. In the process of Josephine’s visits the reader comes to understand that pain surrounds her life. Not only does it surround her life, however, pain is a prominent factor in all of her contemporaries’ existence. The oppressed nature of Josephine, her mom, and the woman of the river cause them to create an artificial sense of hope for their life full of suffering. Suffering seems to be a common component inherent of all Haitian women. This can be seen when Manman states â€Å"We were saved from the tomb of this river when she was still in my womb. You spared us both, her and me, from this river where I lost my mother† (Danticat, 40). Josephine was born on the day of the massacre by El Generalissimo’s soldiers representing that she is birthed from pain, as a lot of Haitians died that day. One of those who died was Manman’s mother, in an effort to alleviate her pain Manman takes Josephine as a replacement of the existence of her mother. Not only does Josephine emanate from suffering yet she carries the connation of false hope, as life can’t be replaced. The effect of suffering is once again seen when Manman mentions â€Å"Keep the Madonna when I am gone†¦Maybe you will have some flesh to console you. But if you don’t, you will always have the Madonna† (Danticat, 43). Once again Josephine’s mom creates hope for her daughter. Given that pain surrounds her life, her mother hopes that Josephine can deal with her suffering in the same way that she dealt with her mom’s death. The aforementioned quotes emphasize the repetitive occurrence of yet different pain Haitian women particularly experience. Danticat, Edwidge. â€Å"Nineteen Thirty-Seven.† Krik? Krak! New York: Vintage, 1996. 33-49. Print.

Explore the theme of escapism in Peter Pan Essay

The theme of escapism is prominent in much children’s literature. Frances Hodgson-Burnett’s The Secret Garden is, like Peter Pan, an example of Edwardian children’s literature. Both these novels are tales of escapism from real life into another world. There are also more recent examples of escapism in children’s literature. In the 1950s C. S. Lewis invented Narnia, and in even more recent literature, Harry Potter escapes his everyday life to go to school at Hogwarts. J. M. Barrie’s Peter Pan, an early Edwardian novel, is one of the great classics of British children’s literature and is, on the surface, a tale about a boy who refused to grow up. There is however, an underlying plot concerning a girl who must grow up. It is from this obligation that Barrie’s Neverland acts as a form of escape. Throughout Peter Pan, there is little focus on the female characters. It is almost assumed that Wendy will grow up and become a Mother, as all daughters do. Although Neverland allows Wendy to escape from her home and from the domestic world she knows, she does not escape domesticity altogether. She almost becomes mother to the Lost Boys, and is given a number of domestic duties such as ironing Peter’s shadow. However, Wendy’s relationship with Peter is not entirely conventional. She appears to be the closest thing Peter has to a girlfriend, as he rejects the sexual advances of both Tinkerbell and Tiger Lily. However, Wendy also appears to be acting as his mother, something Peter has been deprived of his whole life. It is the childish energy of Barrie’s imagination filled with such a â€Å"splendid jumble of pirates, redskins, fairies and mermaids† that enthrals so many children (Carpenter p172). Through this manipulation of other people’s minds and emotions, Barrie â€Å"carries them off from the real world †¦ to a country of his own invention† (Carpenter p179). Barrie seems to be presenting his readers with a substitute faith, to act as a form of escape from the Christian teachings of the Victorian era. It has even been suggested that Peter Pan is in fact an alternative religion. Humphrey Carpenter suggests that in many respects Peter is Christ-like. Possibly the most obvious example of this is when he takes Wendy and her brothers on a flight of fantasy to â€Å"his own heavenly land† (Carpenter p182). The Lost Boys who live there seem to represent the souls of the dead as Peter asserts, â€Å"They are the children who fall out of their prams when the nurse is looking the other way†, therefore further increasing Neverland’s resemblance of heaven. The concept of escaping to heaven was extremely important to Barrie. He lost his brother David at a young age and subsequently spent much of his life trying to become a living version of the boy â€Å"who by dying †¦ remained ever young† (Wallshli ger p120). To observe Peter and Hook as the Christ and Satan of Barrie’s religion, the reader must have faith in the novel. The theme of belief is interesting throughout Peter Pan as the reader is, like the Darling children, constantly being asked, â€Å"Do you believe? † In order to fly, the Darling children must have faith, and â€Å"think lovely wonderful thoughts†, as Peter’s fairy dust is, in itself not enough. In turn the reader or audience must have faith and believe in the fact that a child can fly. Similarly, in order to escape to Neverland, a reader must have faith that there is such a place â€Å"somewhere past the second star to the right and straight on until morning†. The theme of belief is particularly important at the end of Barrie’s story when the darling children lose their faith and no longer believe in Peter, and so cannot see him. Though faith and belief are important in Peter Pan, the dream of escaping to another world seems to be almost self-sufficient. Barrie implies there is little need to grow up or awaken from this dream as it is in fact already framed by the Edwardian domesticity of the â€Å"real† world where wealth and relationships are important. Carpenter in fact goes further than this by asserting that children must not grow up and claims that to visit Neverland â€Å"requires an act of belief that children cannot sustain as they grow up† (Carpenter p180). Peter himself seems to be of the opinion that it is only children, who can escape the drudgery of everyday life and claims, â€Å"I want always to be a little boy, and to have fun†. Barrie’s adventure story and his creation of such a magical hero seems to have achieved what so much children’s literature had previously tried to do. Peter represents the shift from the Victorian perception of the child as a â€Å"moral icon† to â€Å"a craze for the child as a fun-loving playboy hero† (Wallshli ger p111). Peter has no memory or emotion, and so â€Å"can live only for the moment† and experiences ecstasies that other children can never know (Wallshli ger p117). Peter is an asexual child rather than a young man. Barrie himself was also somewhat sexless, and it is doubtful whether his marriage was ever consummated. This lack of sexuality and romantic relationship is represented well on stage as Peter is often played by an actress, and is therefore viewed as an androgynous figure. Another interesting aspect of the casting of Peter Pan is that of Mr. Darling and Hook, who traditionally, are played by the same actor. This becomes particularly significant when considering the theme of masculinity in Peter Pan. There is much evidence of male competitiveness in the novel. The most obvious example of this is Peter’s dual with Hook, which appears to be an assertion of masculinity by Peter. It is particularly interesting that it is Peter and the lost boys who triumph over Hook who is a mature villain. This youthful triumph acts as another form of escape for a young reader. Traditionally in Victorian society adults were in control and would have power over children. In Barrie’s Children’s fantasy, it is youth and sexual immaturity that enable Peter to triumph over his adult rivals. It has been suggested by many critics that Peter, â€Å"The boy who wouldn’t grow up†, is a representation of Barrie himself. Barrie was a short man and despite a moustache â€Å"retained a markedly boyish look until old age† (Carpenter p173). He was in a physical respect, quite literally, a boy who couldn’t grow up. This figure of a man in a child’s body is undoubtedly the principle model for Peter, who is â€Å"neither child nor adult† (Carpenter p177).

6 Sources of Leadership Power

Job Description – Accounting Officer Job Details Title Department Reporting to Accounting Officer Finance Management Accountant Direct Reports Authorities Last updated Nil Refer Delegations April 2012 Job Purpose The Accounting Officer is accountable to the Management Accountant and is responsible for ensuring that all development contribution and sundry debtors are invoiced, and that these debts are collected when due. The position is also responsible for all aspects of payroll for staff and elected members. These services include: Control of debtors sub ledger Debtor invoicing and reconciliationsDebt collection Fortnightly and monthly payroll processing General ledger reconciliations Assistance with general accounting My Team CEO Deputy CEO / General Manager Finance Accounting Manager Management Accountant Accounting Officer Finance Administrator – Accounts Payable Key relationships External ? Debtors ? Lakes Environmental ? Payroll Software Provider ? Inland Revenue ? Trails and Youth Trusts ? Auditors Internal ? Chief Executive Officer ? Deputy CEO / Finance Manager ? Accounting Manager ? Management Accountant ? Activity managers ? Staff Key accountabilities Responsibility/objectivePayroll Administration: Coordination and Management of payroll function Maintain the Council’s Debtors system. Outcome ? Liaison with staff and councillors on all payroll matters. ? Collation, input, checking and processing of fortnightly payroll data, including expense claims and other one-off transactions. ? Processing of monthly Councillor payroll. ? Processing and administration of IRD and other payroll deductions. ? Distribution of payslips and various payroll reports. ? Administration and reconciliation of Annual and Sick leave entitlements. ? Input of payroll journals to the general ledger. Reconciliation of all payroll related general ledger accounts to the payroll. ? Completion of quarterly and annual statistical payroll returns by requested deadline s. ? Maintain confidentiality of all payroll information. ? ? ? ? ? ? ? ? Debt Recovery ? ? ? Ensure Control accounts are in balance at all times. Generate invoices and credit notes as required/requested (this includes Development Contributions, Lakes Environmental, Private Plan Change charges, Section Clearance & other Sundry debtors). Ensure debtor receipts are allocated correctly. Distribute monthly statements. Reconcile the debtors’ and parking ledgers monthly to nsure they are accurate and fully updated. Perform month end roll over within 5 working days of the end of the month. Compile monthly aged debtor’s reports and other detailed debtor reports. Prepare Debtor reports for FACC committee by agenda deadlines. Debt reminder letters sent out on a regular basis, and email and phone contact when necessary. Liaise with relevant council personnel to assist with collection of outstanding debt. Ensure all correspondence logged in Debt Management ? ? system. Negotiate pa yment programmes where appropriate and monitor for performance and ensure up to date.All queries are responded to within 7 days of receipt. Training of all managers and staff on the use of the invoicing system ? Ensure that all staff are adequately trained with a high skill level and understanding of the QLDC invoicing system. Ensure that all processing is performed in a timely and accurate manner ? ? ? Checking all input for accuracy before processing. Input of data including invoices & credit notes is timely. Ensure back charging required is performed on a regular monthly basis. Ensure all credit notes are property authorised. Invoices for Development Contributions and ResourceContributions are issued on time. ? ? General Accounting ? ? ? ? Processing journals and general ledger maintenance as necessary, accurately and in a timely manner. Street Front Bonds detailed schedule maintained and reconciled. Subdivision Bonds schedule maintained and reconciled. Year End Audit reconciliat ions. Provide assistance with the following: ? Assisting the Management Accountant to ensure integrity of the General Ledger (coding accuracy). ? Assisting the Management Accountant with preparation of monthly management reports. ? Assisting the Management Accountant with budget input and monitoring. Assist with allocation of overheads to departments. ? Production of all financial reports in accordance with published timetables. Manages Health and Safety ? Ensure compliance to all legal/statutory and company requirements for health and safety. Maintain professionalism ? ? ? Adhere to company policies. Keeping abreast with technology. Maintain and update oneself with knowledge required for job. Other duties, consistent with the role, as required from time to time by Manager and CEO. ? Key behavioural competencies Competency Excellent Service Description We get it done and do it wellRespect We value and respect others Inspiration We lead by example Collaboration We succeed by working together Accountability We are open and honest Qualifications/Experience Qualifications ? Experience ? ? ? Skills ? ? ? ? ? ? Agreed by: Team member: Manager: Essential A sound level of numerical, written and spoken English skills. At least two years of clerical experience with Accounts Receivable and Payroll. Proven history of management of large scale debtors ledger. Must be capable of interpreting information, with a competent level of problem solving ability. Must be solution focused.Windows and Microsoft Office applications (Outlook, Word, Excel). Must be a team player and keep their eyes focussed on the wider goals of the organisation. Must be capable of operating with a minimal level of supervision, making appropriate decisions within authorities delegated. A high level of accuracy and the ability to keep detailed file notes. Strong communication, written and verbal. Signature: Desirable ? ? ? Date: An up to date knowledge of payroll legislation would be an advantage but not essential. Some general accounting experience or an understanding of accounting principles would be useful.

Challenges Library Management System Essay

n 1981, UNESCO published a study prepared by Jean Lunn1 from Canada, Guidelines for Legal Deposit Legislation. His study is now 30 years old since its publication. Many countries have amended or significantly rewritten their legal deposit laws (Germany, Indonesia, and Norway in 1990; France in 1992, Sweden in 1994, Canada in 1995, South Africa in 1997, Denmark in 1998 and Japan & Finland in 2000). Others are in the process of doing so (Australia, India, Slovenia, Spain, Switzerland and United Kingdom). The forms of intellectual and artistic expressions have grown in different dimensions. New published media have been developed and electronic publications are now an integral part of many national publishing heritages. UNESCO was under pressure to bring out a revised edition of the Guideline in order to review the impact of it on other countries and to incorporate new forms of publishing, such as, electronic publications. The new revised and updated edition of the Guidelines of Legal 2 Deposit Legislation (2000, UNESCO) by Jules Lariviere is found to be a useful tool. The Indian relevant act, Delivery of Books Act 1954 (rev. 1956 to include newspapers and periodicals) has been under the scanner shortly after it was put into application and over the last five decades the National Library, Kolkata and the three other recipient regional public libraries, Connemara Pubic Library, Chennai, Central Library, Town Hall, Mumbai and Delhi Public Library, Delhi, and especially the publishing world directly involved with it, expressed concern and drew attention of the Government of India, of its limitations and ineffectiveness. The National Library, Federation of Indian Publishers (FIP) and several professional library organizations discussed its drawbacks and recommended revision or specific amendments of the act at various seminars, conferences and other forums. Ministry of Culture, the concerned agency of the government of India, set up several committees to deal with the National Library. The Recommendations of the National Knowledge Commission3 and its Working Group on Libraries (NKC-WGL, 2006) is completely silent on this and other national library related issues. It would be appropriate to draw attention to an article by 3. Challenges in Library Management System (CLMS 2012) Bandopadhyay (2000) former Director of the National Library, is exhaustive enough with a complete set of plan of action for the concerned Ministry to initiate the revision process at the earliest. As a follow up, the Ministry took some steps to obtain the views, of other stakeholders, including academics, library users group and senior library professionals. Based on these suggestions / recommendations a revised draft bill on this issue was prepared that is awaiting final clearance of the Ministry since 2006. Role of Legal Deposit Act: In simple terms Legal Deposit is a statutory obligation which requires that any organization, commercial or public, and any individual producing any type of documentation in multiple copies, be obliged to deposit one or more copies with some recognised national institution/s. It is important to make sure that legal deposit legislation covers all kinds of published material, that is, material generally produced in multiple copies and â€Å"offered to the public regardless of the means of transmission. † Public distribution could mean â€Å"performance† or â€Å"display† e.g. radio or television programme could be considered as â€Å"published† for legal deposit purposes when it has been broadcast. Within the electronic publications environment, it should be noted that a â€Å"one copy item† such as, a database , stored on one server, could be subject to legal deposit requirement since it is made available to the public through a technology enabling the public to read, hear or view the material. 5 (Lariviere ). Most countries rely on a legal instrument of some sort in order to ensure the comprehensiveness of their national deposit collection. In all countries with legal deposit system, â€Å"published material† would naturally include books, periodicals, newspapers, microforms, sheet music, maps, brochures, pamphlets, etc. In some countries audio-visual material (sound recordings, films, videos, etc. ) is also subject to legal deposit and there are several countries where electronic publications are also included into the legislation, but they have done this in different way; some have excluded on-line electronic publications because of the numerous unsolved technical problems related to their acquisition and preservation problems related to ever changing technological scenarios. Legal deposit legislation serves a clear national public policy interest by ensuring comprehensive acquisition, recording, preservation and access of a nation’s published heritage. The role of a legal deposit system is to ensure the development of a national collection of published material in various formats. It should also support the compilation and publication of national bibliography in order to ensure bibliographic control over a comprehensive deposit collection. In addition, an effective legal deposit legislation guarantees to citizens and researchers within the country and abroad, access to research collection of  the national published material. Countries are developing many different models, but are clearly unable to keep pace with the massive changes and challenges related to the deposit of intangible publications. Department of National Heritage6, UK (1997) brought out a consultative paper on current legal deposit of publication issues based on a questionnaire which identified several pertinent issues and posed a number of specific questions to which sought responses from individuals and organizations. This document could also help Indian group and the government agencies in formulating the revised DB Act. Profile of Indian book publishing Before we deal with Indian Delivery of Books Act let us first look at the present trends in book publishing in India. Over the last four decades a large majority of English language publishing has concentrated in and around the capital, Delhi. The city is also a major centre of Hindi publishing industry. With the rapid growth of higher education from 1960s and the pressure built-up within the faculties due to UGC’s policy of ‘publish or perish’ resulted in the increase of publications of research monograph. India is one of the few countries where 4 4. Invited Lectures theses and dissertations submitted for Ph. D. and other similar higher postgraduate degrees in humanities and social sciences particularly, get published as a routine matter, whereas in science and technology this would be a rare phenomenon. There is no reliable source of annual book publishing data in India or any comprehensive list of Indian publishers in different languages. D. N. Malhotra7 (2010), former President of FIP and an established publisher in English and Hindi claimed of having 15,000 20,000 publishing houses, mostly run by individuals or as single family business. According to Vinutha Mallay8 Senior Editor of Mapin Publishing, India is the sixth largest publishing industry in the world with annual growth of 15-20%; third largest publishers of books in English, around 90,000 to 100,000 books are published annually, there are about 19,000 publishers in the country; in addition sixty per cent of global publishing outsourcing is based in India. This growth trend is noticeable only from the 70s onwards when book trade turnover increased gradually due to numerical growth of educational and research institutions at every level. As we look back a few decades, the demand of English books grew fast in libraries of newly established universities, research institutions and other academic centres. Individual buyers of books constitute only a small percentage. Bulk of the titles was imported from the English speaking countries, mostly from the UK and USA based publishing houses. This book import business is largely handled by a few Delhi based book importers and distributors. To accelerate the book supply process from the shelves and warehouses the importers / distributers devised a practice of sending books on credit to academic staff and libraries, through local vendors or jobbers (newcomers in book trade to supply books ‘on approval’ basis). They were allowed to take back books â€Å"not selected† within a credit limit of six months only. Within a few years these jobbers turned into legitimate vendors with book stock of their own which could not be returned to the wholesalers within the stipulated six months credit limit. They start bookshops with the ‘dead stock’ of their own and continue to supply books to the institutions on prevailing terms and conditions. These vendors, having direct contacts with the researchers and faculty members on day to day basis, being the actual selectors in all educational institutions, get offers to publish research monographs of academics. Many of them grabbed these offers on their own terms thereby joining the exclusive club of publishers. We now find several of these vendors are retail bookshop owners, library suppliers and also publishers, all in one. Perhaps it would not be out of place to add a few words of Iain Stevenson9 on the recent trends in British publishing keeping in mind that India is claimed to be the third largest English language publishing country. ‘Since the beginning of this century, there have been strong trends in British publishing in the increase in concentration of publishing and book selling ownership balanced by healthy specialization and the second is an increasing awareness and impact of electronic media and delivery across sectors that have created a large impact across the book trade. In 2004 over 161,000 individual book titles were published in the U.K. as compared to 119,000 in 2001 and over 2. 5 times the number in 1990. Consumers spending on books reach 2436 m. sterling pounds (in 2000 it was 2000 million) out of which 30% was from the export sales. Individual buyers comprised the largest market share, about 70% of total book sale and 20% to academic institutions and corporate bodies’. Indian Legal Deposit Legislation or Delivery of Books Act 1954 and its aftermath The act, commonly referred to as DB Act10 was amended in 1956 to include newspapers and serials under its purview. Annual publishing of books in India during 1950s was small 5. Challenges in Library Management System (CLMS 2012) and below 30,000 titles, whereas by 2010 it is claimed to have exceeded 100,000 [estimated figure obtained from FIP in the absence of any official data from any reliable source] with substantial increase in the coverage of subjects, such as, science and technology. In a recent 11 Annual Report of the Ministry of Culture the National Library claimed to have received 29,875 publications under the DB Act which happens to be only 30% of the estimated total publications as indicated by senior executives of the Library in several professional forums. It was also being pointed out in such gatherings that the other three recipient libraries under this Act, in Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai received even less during the same period. It is worth noting that this was claimed to be the highest figure ever reached by the library ‘due to a special drive’12Intellectual resource (NACONAL 2006). UNESCO Statistical Yearbook is silent on the number of books published annually or the number of libraries in India over the last several decades, although India is one of the major contributors and active member of this international body. This sad state of affaire obviously reached, and continue to be, due to simple negligence of all concern. In most other countries annual publication figures were being provided by organizations declared as recipient/s under the legal deposit or copyright legislation of the country. There must be several reasons for the Library to reach in such a state and to argue, we guess, the limitations of DB Act cannot be the primary cause of it. Rigid administrative and fiscal rules and regulations adopted by the Library to operate under the guidance of the Ministry, is surely to my mind, a major factor but not the main one. The crux of the matter is National Library never received a large number of recent Indian publications under the DB Act. We do not know who all are claimed to be Indian publishers. A sizable number of them are ignorant of DB Act obligations. It is also a fact that number of ‘one time authorpublishers’ is also very high (15% – 20%) especially in vernacular languages. The National Library together with the Central Reference Library committed to bring out Indian National Bibliography(INB) based on the books received under the DB Act, similar in format of the British National Bibliography (BNB). However, neither the British Library (formerly British Museum Library) nor the Indian National Library is in any obligation under their respective legal deposit acts to bring out national bibliographies of books thus received under their respective legal deposit acts. . Bandhopadhyay13 points out,’rules and policy adopted are working smoothly for the British Library but similar regulations unexpectedly, failed to work in our case. One has to keep in mind the fact that default in U. K. is an exception rather than general rule unlike in India’. The provision of penalty for default in DB Act of Rs. 50. 00 sounds just notional. Either revise it to a figure e. g. , Rs. 1000. 00 or 4-5 times of the actual market price of single copy, whichever is higher or just make it voluntary, and hope for the best. The reason of suggesting the latter provision is to avoid the highly cumbersome and built-in procedural delay within our legal system. Since 1958 National Library did not take any legal action against one single defaulter till date. In UK and USA penalty clause is not mentioned as the legal deposit provision is covered under the country’s copyright acts. It is because of this factor legal deposit provision is genuinely more effective and acceptable to authors and publishers of these countries. It would be more realistic to suggest that National Library shall receive one copy of every Indian ‘publication’ and the three other regional repository libraries in Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai shall have the right to claim any current publication in their respective regional languages only, delivered free of cost under the revised provisions of the DB Act. The current practice of demanding four copies of every publication to be delivered free of cost to each of 6. Invited Lectures these four libraries (including National Library) failed to meet our expectations. This is in addition to what publishers have to comply with the demands of different state central libraries under the Press and Book Registration Act of 1867. Moreover, a large volume of these books and other publications, thus received, especially language publications that are not so commonly used in some regions are usually being ‘dumped’ or just temporarily stored as these are of ‘no use’ to the library. This is a colossal wastage of national resource. On the other hand it would not be cost effective to make these so to say, ‘unused books’ (four copies of each) routinely processed, provide costly storage space as well as maintaining them for the posterity in four regional libraries. The National Library shall receive one copy for preservation and access only; create bibliographic records for the benefit of all stakeholders. There are several categories of publications e. g. in English, Hindi, Sanskrit and Urdu (EHSU) languages shall find users in other three regional libraries. Let us accept the real time scenario in terms of availability and accessibility for application of information and communication technologies (ICT) within library systems. Bibliographic data of publications received by the National Library under legal deposit legislation will be accessible to others from INB and National Library catalogue / database online. These three libraries shall buy one copy of all selected books in EHSU languages, from any local vendor / publishers. Additional fund annually spend by three libraries on this account shall be reimbursed from a special annual central government grant. The proposed module is based on the British legal deposit act where the British Library, London receives one copy of every book / publication and the other five libraries (Wales National Library, Aberystwyth, Scottish National Library, Edinburgh, Oxford University, Cambridge University and Trinity College, Dublin) obtain direct from the publishers, one copy of every book of their choice, selected from the weekly list of books received in the British Library under the legal deposit act. We made an attempt to get some estimation of the annual cost of books published under these four (EHSU) ‘common languages’ from INB and the National library that would give an idea of the total fund required for the three regional libraries under the revised provision of the Act. All the three libraries receive some annual grant from the central government. The revised provision in the act will also bring some savings in terms of time and resources, as lesser number of books are to be dealt with by the libraries. Sooner than later, it  will be a reality (within a decade or so) of making available a digital copy of an Indian publication by the National Library online, that was not originally selected or received earlier to a library or an individual from its own stock within or outside the country. The technology is already in experimental stage at various levels. Slowly and gradually a large part of Indian publications will be brought out in e-format only, which will also change our current perception of borrowing or consulting a ‘book’ from a conventional library. Till we reach that stage in India and the transitional period of overlap (20 years? ) we shall carry on with both the systems as we are now have both bullock carts as well as a BMW 7e series cars on our roads for transportation. Indian library systems shall take a longer path and time to switch over to reach this goal. Moreover, any change in our library ‘modernization’ programme shall be fully dependent on application of technological innovations resulting in inevitable 14 acceptance of a never ending process. Thomas Abhram in a recent article expressed, â€Å"ebooks will be hugely cheaper with the removal of paper and inventory costs†¦. All things taken into account, books in print format are not certainly going away ever from circulation. And e-books, from a publishing point of view, are a ‘consummation devoutly to be wished’. We in India, specially the National Library are to continue dealing with print copies of books for several decades together with information resources available in e-books and or in any other format. 7 Challenges in Library Management System (CLMS 2012) Table 1: Books in Indian Languages Received in National Library LANGUAGE 2007 08 Assamese Bengali English Gujarati Hindi Kannada Malayalam Marathi Oriya Punjabi Sanskrit Tamil Telugu Urdu Total 97 991 5756 127 2370 687 1500 1400 2661 602 112 3685 248 521 20757 NL/DB Act 2008 – 09 35 1463 5385 348 1722 600 1200 1351 52 576 287 2526 145 304 15994 337 2189 5530 476 1237 877 866 1341 750 000 111 1186 406 292 15598 300 350 450 830 INB (2010) AVERAGE COST. The figures quoted above (Table-1) under Books received by the National Library under DB Act during 2007-08 and 2008-09 and those listed in INB for 2010 (CRL) were obtained from the respective libraries on personal requests. In a paper presented at the NACONAL 2006 by Mandal & Syed Abuzar15 (2006) indicated National Library received about 20,000 books annually during 1990 2002. They claimed the Library received about 30,000 during 2005-06 due to some special drive and about similar number of volumes during 2010-11as recorded in the Annual Report of the Ministry of Culture. Unfortunately we could not get breakdown of figures under each language of 29,875 books received during 2005-06 nor of INB listed figures for 2009 and 2011. The significant gap of Oriya books received during 2007-08 and 2008-09 was due to some special efforts put by the concerned language specialist during 2007. [Note:Average cost of recently published books in English, Hindi, Sanskrit and Urdu (EHSU) languages has been worked out from a sample of books procured by University of Delhi, Central Library, Central Secretariat Library and the U. S. Library of Congress, Book Procurement Centre in Delhi. We made here an estimation of annual additional grant amount to be provided by central government to support the three regional libraries (in Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai) under the proposed revised legal deposit legislation. The National Library shall receive one copy only of every Indian publication free of cost delivered by the publishers, and the three regional public libraries are to purchase one copy of any book (in EHSU languages) selected by a library from open market. The three libraries are entitled, under the law, to receive free of cost, one copy of a book published in respective regional languages. It is estimated that each library shall selectively acquire per year about 30,000 new Indian publications (10,000 EHSU + 20,000 in respective regional languages) out of about 90,000 books published annually. It means, central government shall reimburse annually the cost of 30,000 books in EHSU languages where average cost of a set of four EHSU books is Rs. 2000 or Rs. 60 million (30,000 x2000 = 60,000,000). In addition, another 10m (Rs. 10,000,000) would be required to cover annual subscription cost of EHSU periodicals and newspapers. Thus we reach an estimated figure of Rs. 70m or 7crore (add another 10% 8 Invited Lectures annually for inflation). These figures are being presented to get some idea of the extra cost we propose to pass on to the central government exchequer. ] If this revised guidelines are adopted in our legal deposit act (now under revision) by taking over the extra burden of book fund of the three regional libraries by the central exchequer then we could surely expect of getting better cooperation from the publishing fraternity in fulfilling their responsibilities towards the provisions of the revised act. Group of publishers bringing out EHSU language publications are to supply only TWO free copies, like all other publishers, one to the National Library and the other to Parliament Library. The only sensible expectation of the publishers from the CRL / National Library is to bring out a comprehensive, up to date online INB, listing all currently published titles thus received under the act and provide facilities of easy access to the readers within a reasonable time frame. Under the revised provision of the act, there is a strong opinion that Chennai based Connemara Public Library shall receive one copy free of cost, of every publication in Dravidian languages (e. g. Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil and Telugu). Similarly Central Library, Mumbai shall receive books in all western Indian languages, such as Marathi, Konkani, Gujarati, etc. , and Delhi Public Library shall get publications in Punjabi, Kashmiri, etc. as commonly spoken in the three respective regions. National Library is to receive one copy of all the publications. In addition to the respective regional languages publications these three libraries shall purchase one copy of publications of their choice, in English, Hindi, Sanskrit and Urdu (EHSU), from publishers / local vendors. Total annual cost of this category of publications shall be reimbursed from central exchequer. With the introduction of advanced network technologies, libraries shall be benefitted for not to process (Catalogue / classify highest cost factor) these books as relevant data can be downloaded from INB. The second alternative is to incorporate legal deposit provision within the revised copyright legislation as done in the USA and UK. It is possible to reduce the number of defaulting Indian publishers to bare minimum. Only very recently the National Library claimed to have increased intake of publications under the Act by extensive promotional work through the media and sending direct appeal to publishers that have helped it in bringing more and more publishers within the DB Act net. Secondly, if the total number of copies of each title (an average of seven copies) under both PR and DB Acts could be drastically reduced to minimum two only, there is a hope of getting full support and cooperation of Indian publishers to go by the rule book. Third and the most important factor is to make INB up to date and bring it out at regular frequency (monthly! ) with the target of putting it online within a scheduled time frame. What we need is determination and political will to make the India’s National Library the effective hub of Indian library systems. Similarly, there are several other issues, listed below, which also require attention by both the National Library and appropriate government agencies that shall help in making India proud of its National Library. Central Reference Library (CRL): In 1971 administration of the CRL was separated from the National Library by making it a subordinate office under the Department of Culture. This was an ideal opportunity we missed, for shifting the CRL to Delhi. In the middle of 1970s Central Government created a new wing of the Central Secretariat Library (CSL) and named it as Tulsi Sadan Library to collect and provide access exclusively to all Indian language (excluding English) publications, to commemorate the 400th year of Tulsidasa (of Ramcharitmanas fame). CSL could have been merged with CRL and allowed it to operate from some temporary location till a permanent ‘home’ could be found or built at the proposed site opposite to the National Museum on 9 Challenges in Library Management System (CLMS 2012) Janpath, originally proposed by Edwin Lutyens. CRL would have been the natural choice of declaring it as the fourth recipient public library in Delhi, under the DBAct (instead of making the Delhi Public Library with reluctance, during the 1970s). Ministry of Culture is now under heavy pressure for shifting the Central Secretariat Library out of Shastri Bhavan complex due to severe space crunch and security issues. It is a fact that CSL has lost its original objective of serving information needs of all central secretariat units. Today all the ministries are having their own libraries with specialized collections to cater their respective information needs. It now serves as a general reading room for Shastri Bhavan employees. Reading for pleasure is not so common with the government employees. Central Secretariat Library is administratively a subordinate office of the Ministry of Culture. A large section of its regular visitors, viz. postgraduate students and research scholars have stopped visiting the library due to overwhelming security checks involved in getting through Shastri Bhavan. Recently several thousand volumes of its rich older collections were being disposed under executive orders to make room for babus of the Ministry. It could have been easier to find a suitable location for CRL (incorporating CSL) in Delhi during 1970s. Attempts were also being made during the 1970s and 1980s to merge the CRL with the National Library but these were also stalled by staff associations of the two libraries. During this period, management of the National Library was weak as a result, library service also suffered considerably. Central government in Delhi continued to be indecisive in taking appropriate steps while local library administration in Kolkata failed to deal with the day to day issues in any effective manner. It was more of a failure of the management both at the operational as well as policy making levels. The government allowed the National Library to drift away in the absence of any suitable action plan in place to overcome the crisis. Nor there was any move or pressure from any other corner – library professionals, media or library users’ group. This long drawn uncertainty and lack of effective management control within the National Library campus directly affected services and administration of Central Reference Library thereby putting publication of INB also on the back burner. Indian National Bibliography (INB): It started in 1958 following the British National Bibliography (BNB) format. To overcome the complexity of multi-script languages it adopted Romanization of all scripts with the descriptive part of each entry in English. This has created problems for many who are not familiar with Roman script or English language. The job of printing INB monthly issues was given exclusively to the Government of India Press in Kolkata that failed to realise, from the beginning, the importance of maintaining the production and delivery schedule. After years of persuasion by CRL the Ministry allowed printing of INB through private press. Cataloguing of every title, received by the National Library under BD Act, is first to be acknowledged by the Library then sent to CRL on record, where it will be catalogued once according to INB practices and then books shall be sent back to the National Library for re-cataloguing according to its own specified rules followed by due processing for storage. This long drawn administrative procedural factors and duplication of cataloguing  process have claimed to be a major cause of delay from the date of receipt of the publication to the time its record is found in INB followed by making it available to readers of National Library This delay factor has also indirectly discouraged publishers to follow the DB Act guidelines strictly on the pretext of not finding INB to be a regular and up to date periodical either as a reliable check list of current Indian publications or a selection tool for libraries and other stakeholders; nor their publications are found in any bibliographic record of the National Library on time. National Library takes its own time, sometime nearly two years, to allow access to the books received under the DB Act. Importance of promotion and marketing of INB did never get much support from the concerned authorities. Adoption of appropriate technologies at 10 Invited Lectures different levels of administration and access to resources has been continuously lagged behind. Most national libraries of the world are having full responsibilities of preserving and allowing access to their collections by providing adequate indexing and other access tools, e.  g. national bibliographies, subject bibliographies, annotated catalogues of special collections, many of these are now accessible online on their respective websites. We must allow the National Library for setting up National Bibliographic Division with full control of bringing out INB and to provide other bibliographic services covering pan-India in appropriate standardized formats, as required from time to time. By taking full advantage of technological advances supported by a group of committed well qualified staff the Library would be able to help in both improving and widening the scope of services to individuals as well as to provide back-up services to a large number of academic and public libraries in and outside the country. For example, the day Indian libraries in general adopt the same processing format for all new titles listed in INB,India can claim to have won half the battle in modernizing our library services and systems. Without going into details one can only highlight the fact of centralized processing initiated and applied in most national libraries which have directly and indirectly helped respective library systems of these countries. We are well aware of the fact that both the CRL and INB are as if, linked with the DB Act by an umbilical cord that needs to be focused and dealt with separately for a drastic revision. Proposals l l Title of the revised act may be â€Å"Delivery of Publications (National Library) Act. Definition of Publications shall include – all printed documents, such as, books, periodicals, serials, newspapers, e-publications including audio books, CD books, DVDs and digital online publications and /or any other reformatted or original document produced for commercial distribution, e. g. microform documents. Only one copy of all publications shall be delivered free of charge, direct to the National Library of India (or at an address specified by the Library). The act shall also make adequate provision for the three regional libraries based in Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai to receive on.