Analysis of internal and external efficiencies of the education system Research Paper

Analysis of internal and external efficiencies of the education system in DRC - Research Paper Example Research problem Being an African, born and schooled there in most of my elementary level, I therefore have an adequate understanding of the educational model used in the region and can therefore explain the discord between the increasing literacy level and the rising rates of unemployment. The African model of education is more theoretical and historical. This enlightens the students on previous facts most of which are of no relevance to the life in the modern day society. Anyone trying to make sense of policy research in education is likely to be struck by the numerous contractions and paradoxes that perplex the field. Even a brief consideration of these problems raises a number of important questions: What contributes to the frequency of contradictions and paradoxes in educational policy? To what extent researches might resolve these matters? Where research cannot provide clear answers, what should be our response to these problems? With ten years teaching experience, I have the audacity to criticize the educational model in Congo, a low income country in Africa. A lot of theories make students fantasize and do not therefore relate the information they obtain in school to solving the daily life challenges. The theoretical aspect of the African model of education begins in the types of examples that teachers give their students during lessons most of which are not drawn from the society. When teachers are not certain of the knowledge they pass to their students, the students handle the knowledge as a school affair which is completely irrelevant once out of school. Literature review Africa is a highly ethicized continent, through historical studies, schools become the first institutions to enlighten the population on the historical injustices thereby breeding or perpetuating the possible ethical tensions in the countries (McCloskey 12). Besides the historical aspect of the education system in the low income countr ies of Africa, the theoretical model of education results in fantasies. Furthermore, Congo is an unstable country with constant civil wars. Coupled with the weak economy, the education sector receives insufficient funds to sustain a constant curriculum upgrade and improvement of the educational model. The Japanese model of education fits the country. In addition, it will help the country produce relevant human resource to fast track the development process of the country. However, the lack of infrastructure and funds and the different level of development compel the implementation of the model to be in bits in the order of relevance (McCloskey 44). Methodology The research will be a qualitative comparison of the education system in the two countries; Japan is a developed country and it is not surprising to note the different educational model between the two countries. The country has an effective government, which invests heavily in the education sector. This implies that the Japan ese academic curriculum is reviewed constantly to keep it abreast with the changing technologies of the time. Constant curriculum review ensures that the knowledge is of relevance to the changes in the society. This is important feature lacks in the Congolese model of

European Union And Its Application In Zara Commerce Essay

European Union And Its Application In Zara Commerce Essay In todays competitive world, the organisations have to focus on the development of effective logistics and supply chain that will ensure that it is able to meet the demands of its customers at a consistent pace. With the advent of time and increased trend of globalisation across the world, the trade barriers are fading out and favourable trade policies are promoting fast and quick exchange of goods and services (European Commission, 2010). The latest trend in the market is creation of an integrated logistics and supply chain infrastructure that is supported by the technologically advanced systems such as SAP, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP), E-Retailing, Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) and many more (European Logistics Report, 2012). All leading corporations that are operating on international level have ensured that they have a well-coordinated Supply Chain Management and Logistics system that will employ the best systems for procurement, warehousing, inventory management, storage and inbound and outbound logistics (Johnson Turner, 2006). In order to gain competitive edge in the market especially European market, the logistics and supply chain system has to be developed after exploiting all available options so that the inventory is effectively managed and there is proper balance between the demand and supply of raw materials, inventory and goods (DeMeyer, Van Dierdanck Vercecke, 1996). There has been drastic shift in the European Logistics and Supply Chain Business operating systems as its market has been transformed into single market that allows the operating firms to take advantage of various economies of scale. European Logistics and Supply Chain System In the European economy, both logistics and transport are considered to be its primary means of support that have mean the contributing factor in the robust growth of economy. According to European Union (2012), there is strong relationship between the economic growth and level of transportation escalation. It is believed to be the fundamental part of every society that is the main factor for intensive growth of every countrys economy and creates ample opportunities of job for the citizens. In European Union, more than ten million people are employed in the transport and logistics industry which makes a significant contribution in GDP i.e. almost 5% (Evans, 2000). The European Commission (2011) highlighted in its annual report that a well-developed system of transportation is the primary driving force for dynamic performance of the member states. For all European companies, their logistics are the vital areas of concern as the storage and transport cost accounts for about 10-15% of the total cost of a product that is completed and finished. Almost every corporation is spending certain percentage of the budget on effective transportation system for its goods and services which is usually about 13.2% (European Commission, 2011). The market of European Union can work smoothly only when there is a well-integrated transport system which provides assistance in free movement of the goods within its territory; it is mandatory for the cohesion of territories and long-term economic growth. The pre-requisite for an effective logistics and supply chain system is the transport system that has interoperability of networks and harmonisation among rules. European Transport Policy In order to develop an excellent and well-defined European Transport Policy for the entire European Union region, the European Commission has undertaken various steps to address the obstacles that are hampering the creation of an effective transport system. It is reported by European Commission (2012) and Harps (2002) that the region is the central hub for manufacturing of products for various leading companies and they are looking for accurate logistics and supply chain system that can boost their performance in the market. The key mediums of transportation used are air, sea, road and rail but the latest trend is of intermodality. Intermodality is defined as the mechanism in which different modes of transportation are used along the entire chain of transportation to ensure that the overall supply chain system is effective and promotes the attainment of desired efficient logistics system objectives (Tseng, Yue Taylor, 2005). The European Transport Policy has been developed to provide guidance to the companies about developing an appropriate and highly efficient logistics and supply chain system so that they can supply goods and services with precision worldwide (Cooper, Browne Peters, 1994). Since there are many companies that are operating in European Union region, both markets and European Transport Policy have been modified to a greater extent to incorporate all the requirements of the players of the diversified industries (). Changes in European Market for enhanced growth of Logistics and Supply Chain system Up till now, the market of European Union has evolved from national emphasis to regional and finally to pan-European but now it is moving more towards customer-oriented. With the advent of Single Market which is also known as Common Market, the logistics networks of all companies have evolved and they have been developed to ensure compliance with the latest market trends (EIU, 1999). The organisations are restructuring their strategies of distribution in Europe and even revisiting their networks so that they can move closer to internationalisation by sourcing the products from other fields and ensure supply of products from one central location (). The developmental phases of the single market can be broken down into three parts i.e. pre-1993 period, 1993-present period and future period. In pre-1993 period, there was no specific European logistics strategy has European Union was not established at that time. All companies had a single national setup along with a distribution centre that was located in every major country of their operation. Every organisation used to do sourcing directly from the plants of manufacturing present in Europe and the logistics strategy differed among every country as it was developed in accordance to the respective country. Most of the offerings for supply chain services were similar as the suppliers followed the one-size-fits-all concept. The domestic carriers were the main source of transportation and majority of the third-party logistics providers were either regional or local companies (Harps, 2002). Larsen (2000) has stated that after the formation of European Union, all member states have been able to achieve robust growth in their economic performance and they have exploited all benefits for doing expansion globally at an accelerating rate. After the era of 1993, European Union opened its borders internally because global outsourcing was heavily demanded by the companies and factories of the manufacturers were starting to become focussed on global level. As a result of shift in the logistics strategy, the organisations revamped their supply chain management structures so that they were consistent with the European Logistics and Supply Chain Business Operations System. In major countries across Europe, the Pan-European Distribution Centres marked their developments in the region and they extended their importance by incorporating all processes required in the effectiveness of logistics and supply chain system. These centres postponed the role of manufacturing and combined some value-added activities to various traditional activities such as receiving of raw materials, transportation of inventory and shipment of the finished goods. In fact, Pan-European Distribution Centres allowed the companies to transfer their transport needs to the integrators who had the facilities of doing direct shipment from one central location (McDonald Deardsen, 1994). With the help of the centralised and Pan-European networks of distribution the products were easily shipped to the customers living in far off distant places and they helped the companies in saving huge amount of time and money. However, the companies are changing their logistics and supply chain systems to develop a perfect blend of both decentralised and centralised facilities for distribution so that they can strategically fulfil all their business objectives. With the developments taking place at an accelerating pace in the market, the entire logistics and supply chain system will get extraordinary efficient and competent for the organisations (Cousins, Lawson Squire, 2006). Key Drivers of change in European Transport Policy Since transport is the crucial element of logistics and supply chain system, the European Transport Policy has been developed by the European Commission so that the companies can abide by the laws related to the transportation policy. According to Walker and Jones (2012), the main driving forces that are impacting the European Transport Policy are as follows: Political Developments The liberalisation in the transport sector like US-EU Open Skies Initiative has a significant impact on Europe as it is expected to increase the traffic and create competition within the region. The international liberalisation of the trade has even boosted the transport as there is an increase in need of transportation of goods and services because of growing trend of outsourcing. There has been a rise in the environmental concerns which is leading immense pressure on sustainability within the environment. Economic Developments There are many economic drivers that are impacting the development of Europes economy on the targeted level. The key economic factor impacting the economy is the rising oil prices along with an increase in the transportation level that is closely linked to the economic growth level. As the income of people is increasing, there is an increase in the number of car ownerships and there is an increase in the GDP of the country as a whole. Environmental Issues The environment is one of the main areas of concern for any country and the transport sector has responsibility of about 28% of the Carbon dioxide emissions in European Union. The policymakers are identifying the alternatives that control the emission of Carbon dioxide by investigation various options for the road transport. As a result of growth in transport, the routes have become congested that have been hampering the transportation at both commercial and passenger level. Technological Drivers Since both increase in prices of fuel and environmental issues are primary areas of apprehension, there is an increase in the work of researchers to indentify excellent alternatives for the transport technologies. However, an enhanced level of efficiency is expected in the transportation of all goods by adoption of latest technologies such as RFID. Socio-demographic Changes The European workforce is getting older now and there is a huge reduction in the labour force. The companies are forced to recruit women in the manufacturing and logistics sector. The organisations are even compelled to provide additional training to the workforce so that their skills are enhanced and they have to incur more cost for recruiting new workers who are more competent and skilled. ZARA Leading Fashion Retailer in Europe ZARA is a top-ranked Spanish retailer of clothing and accessories that is headquartered in Artexio, Galicio. It was founded by Rosalia Mera and Amancio Ortega in 1975 and it is the leading flagship chain store of the Inditex group. ZARA has been successfully meeting the demands of its customers by employing an entirely different strategy from its competitors. According to Zhelyazkov (2011), ZARA follows a differentiation strategy of Porters generic strategies and focuses on enhancing the value chain by developing highly efficient and effective logistics, distribution and supply chain system. According to Cook, Heiser and Sengupta (2011), ZARA used to follow time-to-market strategy i.e. competing on the basis of time before the formation of European Union. After 1993, it shifted its policy to agile supply chain which meant that every step in logistics and supply chain was visible and well-coordinated. It is believed that the company needs only two weeks of time to develop the unique products and deliver them to the stores and it has made a reputation of launching more than ten thousand new designs on yearly basis (About US, 2012). The three key success factors of ZARA are short lead times, limited number of products and extensive range of styles. Agile supply chain of ZARA In order to get competitive edge in the market, ZARA is employing an agile supply chain which allows it to make the best use of Quick-Response System. Agile supply chain is described as the supply chain in which all elements work together in the form of a cross-functional team with the aim of eliminating unnecessary steps and predicting the demands of customers beforehand so that the products are available in advance in the market (Zhelyazkov, 2011). ZARA has been successful in the market because of its focus on designing of an excellent and efficient logistics and supply chain system. The entire process of supplying the goods to ZARA stores is started at the cross-functional teams who are working in the design department located at the headquarters of company in La Coruna. Almost all the designs are contemporary and inspiration for them is drawn from conducting various researches in the market by visiting university campuses, pubs, fashion shows, competitors offerings and cafes in addition to other places where the target customers can be found. Further data about the customers is gathered from EPOS data and online sources from across the websites. When the design that has been proposed is accepted, the specialists of commercial department move ahead with their tasks and do negotiation with the suppliers, decide about the purchasing price, carefully analyse the cost and margins and then fix price position of cross-currency for garments. It has a global sourcing policy which is organised by the buying offices present in the Netherlands, China and UK; the wide supplier base ensures that the best fabric is selected and there is less risk of dependence on one supplier. More than 40% of the garments which have the least transitory appeal are mainly imported in the form of finished goods from various low-cost centres of manufacturing located in the Far East, while, the rest are produced on quick responses in Spain by using the automated factories of ZARA that has a small network of contractors (Godsell et al., 2011). Value Chain Analysis of ZARA ZARA ensures that there is a proper balance between in-house and outsourcing operations. The operations that enhance the cost-efficiency of the company via economies of scale are done in-house such as packaging, labelling, cutting and dyeing. The labour-intensive tasks required at the finishing stages are usually done by the subcontractors network that comprises of more than 300 firms and each one of them has specialisation in specific garment type or process of production. In order to respond quickly to the demands of the customers, the process is flexible and the production level is always kept slightly less that the expected level of sales so that the stock is always moving. It believes in having under-supply of stock as opposed to stocking huge amount of inventory. When the finished goods have been labelled, packaged and price-tagged, they are then transported by the third-party contractor either by road or air to their destinations. There is only one distribution centre that is located in the companys headquarters i.e. La Coruna. Every store of ZARA gets fresh stock twice a week that has been pre-determined by the design department of the company (Zhelyazkov, 2011). Figure : Designing, production and marketing cycle of ZARA (Source: Godsell et al., 2011) The entire cycle of designing, production and marketing has declined to 22-30 days that is too less when compared to the industry average of nine months as the lead time. The main factor that has supported such an efficient logistics and supply chain system is the investment in Information technology. The 500,000 sq m. and five storey centre of logistics comprises of about 200 kilometres of moving rails along with an automated routing system that delivers all electronically tagged garments at the proper bays of loading for dispersal through the third party distributors. Almost all the products can be dispatched within eight hours of their arrival and it has been found that almost 98.9% perfect and the shrinkage level is even less than 0.5%. Implications of changes in EU Policy With the changes in EU Policy especially transport policy, ZARA has been able to develop a highly competent logistics and supply chain system. It has been able to utilise all available options within European countries to a maximum level. With the help of development of a good logistics system within the region, the transportation of goods, materials and inventory has become quick and responding to the customer changes on fast pace has become convenient for the companies. The biggest advantage for ZARA has been that it has been able to expand into European countries strategically and has even exploited all available opportunities so that it can maintain its core competencies in the production and operations area. Future of Logistics and Supply Chain System in European Union Since European Union is continuously striving to develop a good transportation system for development of an effective logistics and supply chain, there are huge chances that the countries are able to take advantage of developments in the transport and logistics sector. In years ahead, there kind of revolutions are expected in this sector i.e. increased trade globalisation, development of the information era and continuously changing preferences and demands of customers. In order to provide excellent logistics and transport sector to the companies, the concerned authorities will have to take certain steps to develop the best logistics and supply chain system for the business operations. Some of the suggestions made by the European Commission (2012) are: Improve interoperability by standardising the processes of loading units. Set up an entire network of transfer of nodes across Europe. Eradicating all differences found in the national regulations that are the barriers for achievement of flexible and smooth interoperability around Europe. Using Information Technology to boost the performance of key players and define a single most authentic and worthwhile ICT system that can meet all requirements of the participants. Ensuring harmonisation of paperwork and reducing and simplifying the number of the documents required for transportation. Review the current regulations at both international and European levels for development of an approach that is integrated for implementation of the measures required for security related to the transportation along with the assessment of risk along the entire chain. Enhance the co-operation among the players among the supply chain that can result in improved competitiveness via the reduced costs, high service quality and smaller lead times. Conclusion All organisations that are competing in todays dynamic and ever changing environment have to ensure that they have a well-coordinated and highly integrated transport and logistics system that will allow them to meet the requirements of their customers. E-commerce and RFID are gaining immense popularity in the market and it is expected that the every supply chain will have to employ these technologies in their systems to have an efficient inventory management system along with warehousing facilities, cordial relations with suppliers and enhanced production locations that assist in appropriate deployment of finished goods. Third party logistics service providers have become an integral part of the entire logistics and supply chain systems and it is vital for the companies to implement an appropriate policy of logistics management. All the companies in Europe have huge potential of growth as the trade barriers have faded and there are ample opportunities available for them to enhance their production and operations within the region. Hence, European Union offers immense range of options to the organisations for development of a cost-effective and flexible logistics and supply chain system for efficient management of their business operations.

Dove vs. Bebe Advertisements :: essays research papers

Advertising Advertising is a multi billion-dollar business that keeps our economy growing. That’s why we are constantly bombarded with hundreds of ads every single day. Anywhere we look ads will always be around us, in magazines on billboards, radio and t.v. Advertising agents use different types of strategies to get us to buy their products. They also use different tactics to appeal to our senses that make us more vulnerable to their products. There are several categories of basic appeals that are used in advertising. They range from the need for attention to the need of guidance. Advertising has now changed how regular people see the real world. We are constantly looking at picture perfect women and big and buff men in ads. This puts a lot of pressure on us and makes us believe this is the way we should look like, or what we would look like if we bought the product that’s being advertised. The Bebe brand add is advertising clothes. On the top left corner there is a phone number and web address so that I can immediately buy these items. This ad has an attractive young woman. She has a slender figure, blue eyes and perfectly long staright blond hair. Her hair and make up are perfect and she has flawless taned skin. She is wearing a sexy blouse with coordinating pants and earings. She is looking forward and sitting on a couch. This add works because it is modern and up to date. This add instantly grabbed my attention because the woman is just so beautiful, she almost looks like a doll. The appeals used in this are, the need for attention, need to achieve and the need to escape. The add implies to me that if I wear these clothes I will get attention because they are designer brand. I also feel the need to achieve because I can’t afford these clothes, so it makes me want to save money just to buy that outfit. Then since am not as skinny as the model the ad makes me want to loose weight so I can look like her. The ad also makes me want to escape because if I had these clothes and looked like the model I would definitely want to go out and show off to everyone. In the Dove brand ad there is a woman that in our society would be considered plus size.

Our Nation’s Hidden Problems †Hate Crimes Essay

It happens every day, people are made fun of, people are bullied and the bully-ers, and some people are just flat out victims of straight hate crimes that lead to death. â€Å"A Hate Crime is a criminal offense committed against persons, property or society that is motivated , in whole or in part, by an offenders bias against an individual’s or a group’s race, religion, ethnic/national origin, gender, age, disability or sexual orientation.† -IACP Definition. With the definition of a hate crime explained, hate crimes are offenses against society. The perpetrators have their eyes on not only a primary victim, yet everyone in the victims group – everyone perceived as different. The perpetrators impact not only the victims, group but society as a whole, breaking the bond that holds its people together. Victims are seen as different from what the â€Å"norm† of society needs in its everyday life. Actions from the perpetrator doesn’t happen very randomly, yet happens all around the world. What is an extremely interesting topic is hate crimes on the college campuses. I was somewhat surprised to see just how many incidents actually happen. According to Justice Department data, 12 percent of hate crimes take place on college or school campuses but the numbers don’t show how much occurs on university campuses. Officials also say that many of the racial or sexual incidents are commonly not reported. The most common hate crimes committed on a college campuses are racial bias, religious bias, and sexual orientation bias. Now with a racial bias hate crime has many examples of people hating each other for being black, or brown, or even white. However with college kids, its not as simple as saying something like â€Å"You’re a Nigger,† or â€Å"You’re Cracker.† They have to put things to the extreme. Simple things are never good enough. At the University of Missouri-Columbia, there were cotton balls scattered outside the black cultural center. This might seem like a harmless joke to some people, yet to others it is one of the most hateful and devastating thing someone could do. As early as 1560’s slavery was brought into America from Spain. Blacks were treated as animals, were forced to do things that White people didn’t want to do because they thought that they were to good for it. One task that is commonly known that blacks did as they were slaves was â€Å"cotton pickers.† The thirteenth amendment, abolishing slavery, was passed by the Senate in April 1864, and by the House of Representatives in January 1865, however feelings that the white people had for blacks still did not go away. Another example of a racial hate crime was done by a white fraternity sparked an uproar at the University of California San Diego when it sponsored a ghetto-themed â€Å"Compton Cookout† to mock Black History Month. There is a very fine line between hate crimes and stereotyping someone/many people. Almost every member of a stereotyped group is seen as an equal opportunity of everyone else in the group. A stereotype usually cannot be modified by contradictory evidence, meaning that no argument or evidence is compelling enough to change a hate mongers mind. Also, the the perpetrator is emotionally invested in believing the worst about the members of stigmatized group. Finally, the person who accepts the validity of a nasty stereotype isn’t simply trying to make sense of his world. More likely, he is looking for a convenient excuse to express hostility, to attack and victimize the people he despises. Stereotyping is more â€Å"accepted in society† because every sing le person has stereotyped before. Religious based hate crimes are second most common in all of the hate crimes all over the world. More often than not Religious discrimination are usually acts of vandalism although personal attacks do occur. Of the religiously based hate crimes, attacks against Jews rose from 64% in 2006 to 68% in 2007. Anti-Muslim hate crimes, meanwhile, decreased from 12% in 2006 to 9% in 2007. This surprises me because hate crimes against Jews went up, yet I feel like the hate towards the Muslims has gone up and their hate crime attacks has gone down. After the terrorist attacks the United States suffered from on the Twin Towers in New York City 2001, the FBI found that while attacks against Muslims had previously been the least common hate crime against a religious group–just 28 in 2000–the number of incidents surged to 481 in 2001, an increase of 1,600%. Even the hate crimes against peoples religions occurred college campuses. For examples, there was a swastika scrawled on a bathroom wall near a Jewish studies center at the University of Miami. Miami-Dade County, the eleventh largest Jewish community in the country, consists of 121,300 persons living in 54,000 Jewish households. Of these 121,300 persons, 113,000 are Jewish. Which is obviously a huge population of Jewish members, the perpetrators knew that it would be completely offensive. It is again just another college student who lacks in self-discipline. The question that I have been wondering is â€Å"Why possesses you to do such a thing like this?† Why do people think its alright to put all of their hatred out into the open and hurt other people. What people do is not hurt people emotionally, but they also sometimes hurt them physically. It might not be a physical act by the person committing the crime, it could be done by the victim of the hate crime, meaning self-infliction. Another example that hits closer to home here in Massachusetts. A young man names James Samar was a college student who attended a small Massachusetts college was indicted on three counts of using threats of force to interfere with the rights of three other students. He used anti-Semitic slurs and threatened to actually kill one of the three other students. What James did was sent photographs of holocaust victims and said â€Å"A reminder of what happened to your relatives because they too mad a mockery of Christianity.† To go as far as this someone must thing that there is something wrong with Samar. People should not have this much hatred towards people or a certain group that they belong to. There is no right or wrong when it comes into what you believe. People need to take a step back, they don’t need to agree with other people, it just has to be understood that opinions are opinions and everyone can have theirs. The third more common hate crime committed on a college campus is sexual orientation. Meaning the preferences on whether you like boys or girls, homosexual or heterosexual. Two main cases that stand out on a college campus, are two young men Matthew Shepard who was a student at the University of Wyoming and Tyler Clementi a student at Rutgers University. Matthew Shepard was a 21 year old man who was attacked by two other men because he was gay. Aaron McKinney and Russell Henderson were the two men who attacked Shepard with a pistol-whip, and tortured him, tying him to a fence and leaving him to die. Eighteen hours later a cyclist Aaron Kreifels, discovered Shepard and thought he was a scarecrow because he was alive but in coma. This however wasn’t the first time Shepard was attacked for being gay. In 1995 during a high school trip, he was beaten, robbed, and raped, causing him to withdraw from school and experience depression and panic attacks. However, Henderson and McKinney were not charged with a hate crime, because no Wyoming criminal statute provided for such a charge. The nature of Shepard’s murder led to requests for new legislation addressing hate crime, urged particularly by those who believed that Shepard was targeted on the basis of his sexual orientation. As for Tyler Clementi, he was an 18 year old man who was a student at Rutgers University in New Jersey. What happened here to cause him to commit suicide was his roommate, Dharum Ravi, video tapes him with another man doing sexual acts. Clementi was video taped without his knowledge, and Ravi was charged with invasion or privacy and bias intimidation. It was at this point where Clementi had talked about his problems to his RA and also made his complaints public putting them up online on Yahoo! and a message board website called â€Å"Just Us Boys.† No one listened to him, and thats when he took matters into his own hands and committed suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge. All of these cases that have been discussed in the paper are considered to be in some way or form of a hate crime. Hate crimes can be committed by everyone and anyone. It happens every day, people are made fun of, people are bullied and the bully-ers, and some people are just flat out victims of straight hate crimes that lead to death. The most common hate crimes committed on a college campuses are racial bias, religious bias, and sexual orientation bias. Websites used: Ashcroft, John. 2001. â€Å"Hate Crimes on Campus: The Problems and Efforts to Confront it.†. Retrieved February 2012 (https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/bja/187249.pdf) Associated Press. 2009. â€Å"Attorney General urges new hate crimes law.† Retrieved February 2012 (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31392054/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/#.Tz0Q75iLFSU) Barker, Tim. 2010 â€Å"Racial campus hate crimes surge across America† Retrieved February 2012 (http://www.cisternyard.com/article/racial-campus-hate-crimes-surge-across-america) Brandou, Collen. 2010 â€Å"Hate Crimes Increase on College Campuses† Retrieved February 2012. (http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/education/2010/april/Hate-Crimes-Increase-on-College-Campuses.html) FBI. 2009. UCR. â€Å"Hate Crime Statistics.† Retrieved February 2012. http://www2.fbi.gov/ucr/hc2009/index.html Gipson, Ashley, 2008. â€Å"Religious hate crimes down overall, up against Jews.† Retrieved February 2012. (http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2008-10-28-hate-crimes_N.htm) Jones, Lawrence, 2008. â€Å"FBI: Religious Hate Crimes Down in 2007.† Retrieved February 2012. (http://www.christianpost.com/news/fbi-religious-hate-crimes-down-in-2007-35238/) Levin, Brian. 2010. â€Å"Stone Cold Jew-Baiting.† Retrieved February 2012. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brian-levin-jd/stone-cold-jew-baiting_b_659335.html Martindale, Gayla. 2009 â€Å"Hate Crimes on Campus† Retrieved February 2012 (http://www.stateuniversity.com/blog/permalink/College-Hate-Crimes.html) Putnam, Robert and David Campbell. 2010. â€Å"American Grace. How Religion divides and unites us.† New York, New York, United States: Simon & Schuster. Serrano, Richard. 2002. â€Å"Hate Crimes Against Muslims Soar, Report says.† Retrieved February 2012. Hate Crimes Against Muslims Soar, Report Says – Los Angeles Times Statemaster. 2010. â€Å"Religion Hate Crime Statistics.† Retrieved February 2012. http://www.statemaster.com/graph/cri_hat_cri_rel_rel-crime-hate-crimes-religion-related) Wax, Heather. 2010. â€Å"Breakdown of Hate Crimes, Based on Religion.† Retrieved February 2012. http://www.scienceandreligiontoday.com/2010/11/23/breakdown-of-hate-crimes-based-on-religion/ (

Are Our Lives Governed by Fate or Free Will Essay

Our lives are governed by free will. In the books Chinese Cinderella and Twisted the main characters use their free will to make choices that have consequences on their lives. Chinese Cinderella, by Adeline Yen Mah Chinese Cinderella is a story of a Chinese girl growing up Shanghai and Hong Kong in the 1940’s. Adeline was made to feel that her birth was the reason her mother died. Her siblings blamed her and her father and stepmother had no interest in her. She spent most her childhood at boarding schools. Although Adeline was sent to boarding school she still used her own free will to chose to study hard and excel in school. Adeline chose to continue to do well in school with the hope of gaining her parent’s attention. Despite all of the bad things that happened to Adeline she continued to strive to be the best in school. She chose to spend her time reading and doing homework. She received many awards. She used her free will to enter an international playwriting contest and she won. The result was that her name was published in the newspaper and this got her father’s attention. Adeline used this as an opportunity to ask to go to college. Her father agreed. Although her father selected her career as a doctor she was so happy to have the opportunity. Twisted, by Laurie Halse Anderson Tyler used his free will to spray paint on the school property. There were consequences for his actions. He had to do community service to pay for the damage, he got a probation officer and got his license taken away. Tyler spent alot of time being the victim. His father blamed him for most of the bad things that happened. He let things happen to him until one day he realized he could take control of his life. Tyler used his free will when he dropped out of the AP classes, started attending all of his classes, returned the stolen keys to the custodian and apologized for stealing them, stood up to Chip, spoke with his probation officer about the consequences of attending the party when he was on probation and stood up to father when he blamed Tyler for getting fired. The result of Tyler’s action to take control of these aspects of his life is it provides him with self-esteem. This new confidence gets rid of the bad thoughts he had (like killing himself). Tyler chose to spend his time playing a video game Tophet. The point of the game was to make his demon (Gormley) powerful enough to make it thru 66 levels of torment. In the end he succeeds and is given a choice to become the new lord of darkness or be reincarnated. He realizes the importance of choosing wisely.