Decentralisation & Country Essay Example for Free

Decentralisation Country Essay Decentralisation is one of the most popular and most proven ways to govern a country. In this respect the world practice knows many examples of decentralised countries where the social features and issues are likely to be solved more effectively owing to the dispersal of the state authority. The theme of decentralisation as the way to develop countries and lead them toward positive outcomes is recurring now. The paper suggests a scope of different important fields of state regulations which highlight the value of decentralisation. Insofar, the question is that this topic is based more on the examples of developing countries where the lack of constructive authority props up against the lack of follow up. It is meant here that the bottom-to-top approach is at stake, and it is a responsibility of a researcher to either prove the value of political and administrative (structural) decentralisation or not. Decentralisation is discussed in the paper through the evaluation of its impacts on public services in different Latin American countries and in some other countries of the world as well. Thereupon, a weighed position is determined in the research in order to constitute pros and cons of decentralisation supported by real facts gathered from peer-reviewed articles. Bringing to notice decades of developmental changes in different countries of the world, it is vital to state that decentralisation results in better development outcomes. Development planning is necessary for the strategy of further growth in a definite country. This is why it is no surprise that due to some sociological and political ideas stated by Marxists and, perhaps, constructivists long before most of the countries that accepted such ideals have reached out positive results in their overall performance. First of all, governmental reforms in turning the economy toward more reliance on the local governments are beyond disagreement. There are four types of decentralisation to be provided in a country: administrative (deconcentration and delegation), fiscal, political, and market decentralisation (Fritzen Lim, 2006). The discussion in the paper contemplates mostly the three of them, i. e. administrative, fiscal, and political. Administrative decentralisation is considered to be the most valued among a set of developing countries in terms of increasing the functionality and efficiency of public sector and enhancing capacity development as well (Furtado, 2001). This notion of strategic changes in the economies suffering from such negative effects as corruption and inapproachability of the central power at the local level is more than just significant. It goes without saying that the main prospects relied on while approaching decentralization of power in the developing countries are to reduce poverty and to improve public services. Such an influence on the development planning should be understood empirically based on the current world practice in this sector of political implementation. However, it may happen that the main aid from donor countries to developing countries comes down solely to supporting these countries materially. It is, of course, a possible solution, but it does not embrace the particularities of a country’s human and natural potential (resources). In this respect United Nations Development Program (UNDP) lays more emphasis on â€Å"the need to situate institutions and individuals within their appropriate systems and strategic management contexts† (Furtado, 2001, p. 3). Thus, a country’s capacity development should go hand in hand with the national perspectives for the current and the next fiscal year. To say more, both political and administrative decentralisation should take place in order to respond to local communities and officials. On the other hand, fiscal decentralisation should be taken into consideration. There is a direct link between political governance and local development as applied to the success of a fiscal decentralization. The report on such theme by UNDP (2005) presupposes the following: â€Å"A well-designed fiscal decentralization reform will fail (and the anticipated benefits and increased efficiency will fail to materialize) if the appropriate governance mechanisms are not in place for local accountability† (UNDP, 2005, p. 18). This is why it is vital to take a glance at concrete examples where political decentralisation is in evidence. Before responding to the examples of some countries, it is significant to highlight the main causes of poverty and inability of governments to solve this problem. First, it touches upon the educational development in the rural areas. Second, it contemplates the governmental investment into the most strategically important sectors of public (community) services. In this respect the remarkable examples of two Latin American countries, Bolivia and Colombia, take place. The four lessons which were taught on the example of both Bolivia and Colombia in their urge for decentralisation are as follows: 1. Local democracy must be free, fair, transparent and competitive; 2. Sub-national governments must face hard budget constraints; 3. Central government must be scaled back; 4. Significant tax-raising powers must be devolved to the periphery (Faguet, The Effects of Decentralisation on Public Investment: Evidence and Four Lessons from Bolivia and Colombia, 2005, p. 1). Bolivia was a very poor country after the revolution, and there was no concrete mechanism for governing the country. In this respect the administrative division into municipalities helped the officials take a look at how it was better to maintain a change. The racial attitudes toward indigenous population in the rural areas could not be solved pragmatically. Thus, the country was at the edge of strategic decision-making process coming from the highest echelons of power. The policy of decentralisation was an innovative breakthrough for Bolivia, but a highly centralised state with a weak national identity influenced by a diverse population blocked any attempts to grow rich (Faguet Sanchez, 2006). Due to the decentralisation in the governmental and administrative policies, the formerly neglected majority of municipalities took advantage of maintaining authority on the spot. In fact, Bolivia increased its benefits owing to making more politically weighed national public investment: â€Å"Before decentralization Bolivia’s three main cities took 86% of all devolved funds, while the remaining 308 municipalities divided amongst them a mere 14%. After decentralization the shares reversed to 27% and 73% respectively† (Faguet Sanchez, 2006, p. 9). That is the ostensive argument for stating the advantage of implementing decentralization policies in developing countries to stabilize the overall political and economical atmosphere inside the country. Decentralisation of education in Bolivia was possible due to the Popular Participation Law adopted in 1994, and which gave access for people living in municipalities to the basic education (Gropello, 1999). Colombia has its own history of making decentralisation the basic rule for the reformation of the state and administrative regulations at the local level up to the central bodies of state authority. Getting through a three-phase process of the national development, decentralisation in Colombia helped Colombians gain more verification of country’s fiscal funds and taxation, political instruments implementation, fiscal and administrative reforms based on the appropriate reference to the law and the Constitution among municipalities (Faguet Sanchez, 2006). It took few decades or so for Colombia to run the gamut of public services and take control of the periphery. Nonetheless, the process of decentralization provoked a wave of higher rates of enrolment to the educational establishments (Galiani Schargrodsky, 2001). Thus, there is a positive shift in the primary value of decentralization in supporting the national economy in terms of education. Decentralisation which took place in Bolivia proved its validity and feasibility in terms of not just using but distributing human resources across 311 municipalities (Faguet, Does decentralization increase government responsiveness to local needs? Evidence from Bolivia, 2004). In this respect one should be accurate in estimating the way of reforms in each among Latin American countries. Educational prospects were identified as a reaction on the implementation of a dispersal of the state initiatives in municipalities. Thus, when looking at this phenomenon logically, there is no wonder in assessing a positive effect of decentralisation. As it was mentioned before, decentralisation serves as the mechanism which gives population an access to public services. Providing a set of empirical and theoretical speculations on the case of Colombia, there is plenty to talk about. As a matter of fact, it is well known that the most needful public services for the population in any country and in Colombia, in particular, are health services and education. It was mentioned, however, that Colombian decentralisation fell into a holistic success in rates of enrolees willing to gain elementary or high education. By contrast, other studies have evidenced that financial support by local governments would gain more efficiency if local officials were more informed about the current extreme needs of communities in each among municipalities (Faguet Sanchez, DECENTRALIZATION AND ACCESS TO SOCIAL SERVICES IN COLOMBIA, 2009). In this respect the state power of Colombia was inclined to enlarge the share of budget financial resources increasing investment rates as opposed to running costs. The aforementioned approach as of Colombian local governments has been already imposed in Spain. In fact, this country suffered from its highly centralised political and administrative organization. The implications of decentralisation in Spain showed that the more autonomous communities isolated somehow from the influence of the central power gained more benefits in education and economic development as well (Pena, 2006). There were only two exceptions in the overall evaluation, but they make no difference in stating the positive effect of decentralisation as applied to educational improvements in Spain. The Spanish state power and its legislative branch, in particular, did a scope of renovations to legalize the authority of local communities in order to improve the educational standards as a result. One of the notions reckons with the constitutional norms which state the following definition of power dispersal in educational sphere: The Constitution keeps for the central government the definition of the structure of the educational system, the regulation of the requirements for obtaining, issue and standardization of academic degrees and professional qualifications and the establishment of basic rules to guarantee the unity of the Spanish educational system. The other educational competences, however, can be devolved to the regional governements (Pena, 2006, p. 8). Thus, there is no obstacle for Spanish communities related to specific administrative regions to provide educational policies which suit the preferences of the population at the localities. In turn it facilitates the overall process of decentralising the governmental approaches in the public sector with further improvements reflected on the progress level and enrolment rates. Once again, the case of Spain manifests positive outcomes of decentralisation as referred to the educational sector of public services. In Chile, education decentralisation invigorated the process of adjusting responsibilities between the central government and the local authorities (Parry, 1997). The balance had been achieved due to a constructive subordination and delegation of primary and secondary affairs relevant to each among the administrative units. However, the research gives grounds for stating the significance of the monitoring and financial support on the part of the central power, as a necessity which should be taken for granted (Parry, 1997). The question is that the case of Chile differs from that of Spain. Here the communities are not that independent autonomously from the central power. Thus, it is as if communities in Chile have to gain more devolution in order to sustain and improve public services at the periphery primordially established by the central power. Insofar, the concept of devolution is the central for measuring the tools for decentralisation. In other words, decentralisation relies on devolution. In Chile as well as in other developing countries there is a need for being more informed and educated. Talking about this theme, one should bear it in mind that contemporary humanity shares the main product of the post-industrial society, namely information. Chilean process of reformation was not that easy in driving education decentralisation to masses. There were detrimental consequences from the Pinochet’s regime. Nevertheless, as strange as it may seem, it is Pinochet who actively supported the implementation of decentralisation in education in 1980s, being even sympathetic to private education as an alternative for generally accepted public education (Parry, 1997). Further still, this dictator saw the value of inclusion of all among communities into the public life of the country when he called for â€Å"the need to decentralize responsibility, grant a greater degree of participation to the community, and to rationalize the use of public resources† (Cited in Parry, 1997, p. 214). Coming closer to 1990s Chile along with Bolivia Colombia, Argentina, and other Latin American countries joined the democratic incentives implied into the policy of decentralisation. Getting ahead in changing the state power from autocratic to democratic, Chile reaped the benefit of decentralisation, as schools in different municipalities became accessible and attractive to parents and students. The readings of growth in enrolment rates are as follows: â€Å"In 1990, the division of enrolment between private subsidized and public schools was 35. 86% for private and 64. 14% for public† (Parry, 1997, p. 217-218). That was a real breakthrough for the country. However, there are a number of researchers who admit problems after implementing decentralisation policies mostly among developing countries. It is quite fair to suppose that the decentralisation process is not linear or constant for countries where it serves as the main tool for reforms in public services. The main apprehensive is concerned with the fact that by decentralising the power at the local level there is a probability (and rather explicit, so to speak) of the emergence of corruption and inequity in sharing financial or human resources within communities. On the other side, problems of a political kind stimulate some aggravations in the process of democratically positive development in decentralised countries. All in all, a scope of negative consequences as a result of decentralisation counts for the following ones: â€Å"decentralizing corruption, increased inequalities between resource-rich and resource-poor regions, failure of the central government to successfully set and enforce minimum service standards in critical areas of national priority† (Fritzen Lim, 2006, p. 5). Along with such highly increased cases of negative execution of decentralization at local governments there is a threat to macroeconomic stability. It is all about the arrangement of and report on the expenditures and revenues in a definite municipality as referred to the central body of power (Fritzen Lim, 2006). This is why every bean has its black, as they say. In addition the central-to-local feedbacks can encounter â€Å"barriers† on the part of the elite circles in a definite municipality. It is another problem of decentralization dealing with a huge gap in stratification of the society: â€Å"However, decentralization can also degrade provision in the presence of positive spillovers, lack of technical capabilities by local governments, or capture of low-level administrators by local elites† (Galiani, Gertler, Schargrodsky, Helping the Good Get Better, but Leaving the Rest Behind: How Decentralization Affects School Performance, 2004). Thus, the educational prospects and problems along with fiscal and administrative features of decentralisation have been mentioned already. However, the focal point is that developing countries need more intrinsic governmental incentives in order to decrease the rates of poverty. This aspect of the discussion needs proper evaluation. To make it plain, decentralisation policies are largely considered with a decrease of negative impacts on the level of living in the society of a definite country. Poverty serves as an index of a country’s inability to shift the situation for better by means of appropriate reforms. In this respect it is fair to remark the increase of wages, giving more opportunities for farmers and croppers, etc. Crook and Sverrisson (1999) narrow down these initiatives to four main approaches for governments, namely: 1. Changes in the microeconomic features. There should be a substantial and felt support of the rural workers in what they can contribute into the country’s economy. 2. Social equity. Reducing the gap between different communities according to their history, ethnicity, and culture. 3. Human development. Increasing the rates of social comfortable circumstances by decreasing detrimental effects of poverty. 4. Spatial or inter-regional inequality. A rational distribution of the resources between economically more and less sufficient regions (Crook Sverrisson, 1999). However, even with some positive changes due to decentralisation, Bolivia is still suffering from poverty. UNDP keeps a strict eye on the human relationships and economical prospects for decreasing the poverty rates in Bolivia. Even with the highest tempos of capacity development, Bolivia needs another set of reforms to go the way of the developed countries of the world (UNDP, 2005). Thus, the democracy should make point of what has been done in Bolivia due to the timely constructive implementation of decentralization policies. The concept of planning development should serve as one of the basic approaches for maintaining social, economical, political, and fiscal equilibrium. Specialists from USAID as well as from UNDP work on dissecting new approaches to encourage the value of decentralization, as the way to cope with a genuinely democratic type of relationships between the central power and the periphery. The participation is necessary at all levels. Indeed, it is participation in different spheres of the state governance that makes planning development more efficient due to the cohesiveness of all branches. Notwithstanding the type of regime in a country, an extra-ordinary value of decentralization is beyond disagreement. USAID experts interpret decentralization as a necessary state of relationships â€Å"to increase the scope of decisions, and thus incentives, available to local participants, as well as to build institutions and to encourage, structure, focus, and stabilize such participation† (Rondinelli, 1981, p. 133). Nevertheless, based on the aforementioned examples of countries, decentralisation provides opportunities to step across new frontiers in planning development. Hence, it is about time to state that decentralization results in better development outcomes. Breaking the power down by means of its dispersal among municipalities gives more grounds for the central power to evaluate, make decisions, and verify the execution of the law, economic, and political prospects at the local level. Increasing governmental investment in public services served as an impulse for the growth of planning development in Bolivia, Colombia, Chile, and Spain as well. Decentralisation is widely practised in the world’s countries. Furthermore, its significance for maintaining stabilisation mechanisms in the developing countries cannot be underestimated. It is great that during some few decades many of the developing countries under the threat of dominated ideologies could change their course along with the policies of decentralisation as the paramount approach to start with. Humanity of the twenty-first century, therefore, has many points to acquire in social, economical, and political issues as pertaining to the policy of decentralisation. Reference Crook, R. C. , Sverrisson, A. S. (1999). TO WHAT EXTENT CAN DECENTRALISED FORMS OF GOVERNMENT ENHANCE THE DEVELOPMENT OF PRO-POOR POLICIES AND IMPROVE POVERTY-ALLEVIATION OUTCOMES? Unpublished manuscript , 1-61. Faguet, J. -P. (2004). Does decentralization increase government responsiveness to local needs? Evidence from Bolivia. Journal of Public Economics , 88, 867– 893. Faguet, J. -P. (2005). The Effects of Decentralisation on Public Investment: Evidence and Four Lessons from Bolivia and Colombia. Crisis States Program , 62, 1-21. Faguet, J. -P. , Sanchez, F. (2009, February 8). DECENTRALIZATION AND ACCESS TO SOCIAL SERVICES IN COLOMBIA. 1-35. Faguet, J. -P. , Sanchez, F. (2006). DECENTRALIZATION’S EFFECTS ON EDUCATIONAL OUTCOMES IN BOLIVIA AND COLOMBIA. DEDPS , 47, 1-42. Fritzen, S. A. , Lim, P. W. (2006). LKY School of Public Policy. PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS OF DECENTRALIZATION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES (pp. 1-9). Singapore: National University of Singapore. Furtado, X. (2001). DECENTRALIZATION AND CAPACITY DEVELOPMENT: UNDERSTANDING THE LINKS AND THE IMPLICATIONS FOR PROGRAMMING. CIDA Policy Branch , 4, 1-11. Galiani, S. , Schargrodsky, E. (2001, September 19). Evaluating the Impact of School Decentralisation on Education Quality. JEL , 1-37. Galiani, S. , Gertler, P. , Schargrodsky, E. (2004, March 11). Helping the Good Get Better, but Leaving the Rest Behind: How Decentralization Affects School Performance. JEL , 1-34. Gropello, E. D. (1999). Educational decentralization models in Latin America. Cepal Review , 68, 155-173. Parry, T. R. (1997). Achieving Balance in Decentralization: A Case Study of Education Decentralization in Chile. World Development , 25 (2), 21 l-225,. Pena, P. S. (2006). Evaluation of the ejffects of decentralization on educational outcomes in Spain. JEL , 1-32. Rondinelli, D. A. (1981). Government Decentralization in Comparative Perspective: Theory and Practice in Developing Countries. International Review of Administrative Sciences , 2, 133-145. UNDP. (2005). United Nations Development Programme. Fiscal Decentralization in Transition Economies: Case Studies from the Balkans and Caucasus (pp. 1-194). Bratislava: UNDP Publishings. UNDP. (2005). United Nations Development Programme: Oslo Governance Centre. Democratic decentralization and poverty reduction: Bolivian case (pp. 3-46). Oslo: UNDP.

Sender and Receiver Communication

Sender and Receiver Communication Communication is a procedure which includes sender and receiver to convey a message. Effective communications skills are the skills we assume every worker picks up along the way. The type of communication that we use at home, friends and other normal places which is known as slang can never be used at workplace. Sometimes people may get dismissed because of using such sort of language. To get success at work we need know what sort of communications skill we should at work. Communication is a process in which message is send by a sender to a receiver. The message could be simple information and it can be verbal or non- verbal. This includes determining the meaning that the sender intends to express the other person. The person (listener) receives the message through both verbal chatting and non verbal gestures. The receiver interprets the meaning of the message. To follow on to the message receiver uses education, attitudes, experience and emotions. Effective communication is communication which exists between two persons and the receiver interprets the same way as the sender intended it. Communication is essential for achieving managerial and organizational effectiveness. Without communication, employees will not be able to aware of what their co-workers are doing, will not have any idea about what their goal are, and will not be able to assess their performance. In absence of channels of communication, supervisors will not be able to give instruction to their subordinates and management will not receive the information it requires to develop plans and take decision. Good communication always helps employees become more involve in their work and helps them to develop a better understanding of their jobs. Clear, precise and timely communication of information also prevents the occurrence of organizational problems. Effective communication is essential for achieving organizational goals, but ensuring such communication has been a major problem for most organization. Although the word communication is often used, there has been no consensus among communication experts regarding the definition of communication. In general, communication may be defined as the process by which the information is exchanged between individuals. There are many components to communication. Consider verbal communication skills, listening skills, written memorandums/email, telephone skills and non-verbal communication. Also, reflect upon all the people we communicate to: subordinates, peers, supervisors, customers, and groups of people. In addition, ponder some of the reasons, why we communicate: to get and give information, to discipline subordinates, to make assignments, and so on. We already know that communication is a big part of our daily existence. Even when we dont want to communicate, the very actions we take not to communicate such as being quiet in meetings, avoiding people, declining to respond to emails or give feedback, communicate something about us. In a survey of 480 companies and organizations conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers and published in the Wall Street Journal, effective communication ability ranked first among the desirable personal qualities of future employees. Reference: December 29, 1998. Wall Street Journal, Work Week, p. A1. In a national survey of 1000 human resource managers, oral communication skills are identified as valuable for both obtaining employment and successful job performance. Reference: Winsor, et al., 1997    In yet another survey, executives in Fortune 500 companies indicate that college students need better communication skills, as well as the ability to work in teams and with people from diverse backgrounds (Association Trends, 1997). The point of these examples is that honing your communication skills should be a priority for you as you seek to advance in the workplace. Although many articles and books have dealt with interpersonal and organizational communication, most of them are not based on systematic research findings. However, the Real Managers Study (conducted by Fed Luthan, Richard M. Hodgetts and Stuart A.Rosenkrantz) is based on original research in communication. The researches observe managers at work in various organizational setting and also studies the self reports submitted by them to understand the process of communication in organization. They developed the managerial communication model to explain the different style of communication used by the managers and to provide a framework for understanding how managers communicate in organization. In formal organizations, the design of communication channels is based on the assumption that all the divisions and departments are self contained and do not facilitate communication among employees at the same level. This poses the serious problem when circumstances demand such communication. If an individual wants to convey some message to an individual from another department, the message has to be passed up to the highest managerial level and then down to the individual. The reply from that individual is also received in a similar way, leading to huge delays. Chester Barnard felt that communication played an important role in shaping organizations. According to him, Communication forms one of the three primary elements of an organization, the common goals and willingness to serve customers beings the other two elements. Communication links the number of the members of an organization with organizations goal and facilitates and enhances cooperative action among the individual and department of the organization. Communication whether written or oral, helps an organization attain its goals, but it can also give rise to problems. For instance, if a particular message is misinterpreted, an inappropriate decision may be taken. This decision may be taken. This decision may result in losses to the organization in long-run. Barnard related communication to the concept of authority. According to him, for authority to be delegated from a manager to sub ordinate, all communication originating from the manager must be clearly understood by the subordinate. He believed that a manager should try to understand the meaning of the message before communicating it to his subordinates. Barnards indentifies seven communication factors that helps establish and maintain objectives authority in an organization. The member of an organization should be aware of all the available channels of communication. Every member of organization must have access to specific formal channel of communication. Communication with an organization must follow the shortest and most direct path. All communication should involve the use of entire, formal line of communication. Competent persons should serve an s communication centers. There should be no interruption in the time of communication during the functioning of an organization, and All communication should be authenticated. Managers share the responsibility in communicating effectively with the individual employees themselves. The manager is 100% responsible for communicating effectively with their employees. This includes establishing an open and trusting climate for communication, as well as demonstrating good communication techniques to their employees. The employee is 100% responsible for taking advantage of the climate for communication to express what is important and relevant. For example, it is expected that a manager will ask are there any questions? after giving an employee an assignment, but it is also expected that an employee will say, I have a question, if one should occur to the employee, without waiting for the manager to ask.   The following communication is useful for organizational communication. Non verbal communication Downwards communication Upward communication Lateral communication Interactive communication Barriers to Effective Communication A number of obstacles may occur on the way of the receiver to understand the message. These interruptions could lead to barriers to communications. The reason could be anything listener doesnt under the language or sometimes it may convey the wrong meaning. Some of the barriers are discussed below. Language: An organization has different kind of people from different cultures. In such cases language is one of the important factors for communication towards different cultural people. So inability to understand the language from either even one side of communication could lead to barrier. Even when sender uses unsuitable words while describing, it may increase misunderstanding between sender and listener. Physical barriers: Physical barriers are one of the major barriers of effective communication in the workplace. This could be background noises and disturbances in the environment. For example roadwork, loud music, some family functions going on around etc. Emotional barriers: Emotion could be one of the barriers to effective communication. Men are a social animal we all know about that statement and emotions play an important role in social life. It could be any personal or professional. It includes frustration, anger and fear. In such cases it may lead to trouble listening to others. Attitudinal barriers: Attitude problem is big problem that we face everywhere now. The personal attitudes of the employees which may be dissatisfaction in workplace such as wages or the placement and comparing themselves to others could be the reason of attitudinal barriers. Bibliography: Aamodt, Michael G. And Bobbiel L. Raynes. Human Relations in business: developing Interpersonal and Leadership skills. USA: Wadsworth, a division of Thomas Learning Inc, 2001. Bartol, Kathryn M. And David C Martin. Management. 3rd Edition. USA: Irwin McGraw-Hill, 1998.

Platos Allegory Of The Cave: Importance Today

Platos Allegory Of The Cave: Importance Today Our society so values education that sociologists have recognized the problem of over-education (Hadjicostandi). Many people are spending years pursuing degrees which they simply do not need for the jobs they perform. It is therefore prudent for students to question whether pursuing a liberal education is really as important as our society believes. What is the point of a college education? Does it have any purpose beyond its material benefits. Are these benefits worth their cost? These are important questions that need answering. In the end, we may see that there is far more to this debate than simple accounting. Perhaps what makes education worth pursuing is that it gives us the freedom to makes these kinds of decisions about what is best for us. In many ways, this debate over education has its roots in the writings of Plato (Jowett). In Book VII of The Republic, Plato discusses such topics as enlightenment, epistemology, forms, and the duties of philosophers Allegory of the Cave vs The Matrix: Imagine living through life completely bound and facing a reality that doesnt even exist. The prisoners in Platos Allegory of the Cave are blind from true reality as well as the people in the movie The Matrix written and directed by the Wachowski brothers. They are given false images and they accept what their senses are telling them, and they believe what they are experiencing is all that really exists. Plato the ancient Greek philosopher wrote The Allegory of the Cave, to explain the process of enlightenment and what true reality may be. In the movie The Matrix, Neo (the main character) was born into a world of illusions called the matrix. His true reality is being controlled by the puppet- handlers called the machines who use the human body as a source of energy. In the movie, Neo, finds and alternate reality and he has to go on a journey to discover himself and what is around him. Much like The Allegory of the Cave the prisoners in a dark underground cave, who are chained to the wall, have a view of reality solely based upon this limited view of the cave which is but a poor copy of the real world. Both the prisoners of the cave, and Neo from the Matrix, have to transcend on the path of enlightenment to know the truth of their own worlds. The Allegory of the Cave in Different Perspectives The Allegory of the Cave, written by Plato, is an interpretation of a conversation between Socrates, Platos mentor, and Glaucon, one of Socrates students.  ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ §The Allegory of the Cave ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¨ can be interpreted several different ways. Imagine men in a cave chained up by their necks and legs, forcing them to only look forward at a wall. An opening behind them lets the light in. Above the burning fire and chains, there is a road. Have these chained men ever seen anything else of themselves or others beyond the cave ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦s shadows made by the fire? Some people would say the truth is only perceived by the shadows seen on the walls of the cave. What if one of these men ¡Ãƒâ€šÃ‚ ¦s chains were taken off and he was free to leave? Would the man feel pain when seeing the real world? Would he be confused on believing what is real? Would it make a difference if the chained man was briefly educated about what he was going to see first? Perhaps he would understand and not be confused about what is real. Will the man think what he saw before was much more real than what he sees now? Questions like these will bring different opinions and meaning to The Allegory of the Cave. ¨ Whose interpretation, if any, is correct when explaining the meaning of The Allegory of the Cave? Does it have mathematical meaning, explain a vision of the whole world, or is it just a comparison to the field of social work? Similarities between Platos and Descartes Epistemologies Summary Philosophy is a subject that can take many twists and turns before it finds an answer to a general question. Sometimes, an answer is still left unfound. Philosophy, in its broadest terms, can be described as the systematic pursuit of knowledge and human excellence. What we are concerned with is knowledge. Many people have theories of knowledge. Amongst them, there are two we will be looking at, Descartes and Plato. We will examine Descartes epistemology in Meditations on First Philosophy and Platos in The Republic. Descartes epistemology is known as foundationalism. In the Meditations, Descartes doubts everything he was taught to believe because it is human tendency to believe what is false. In the first, he claims that most of what he believes is from his senses and that those senses are sometimes deceived. His solution to doubting everything is compared to a basket of apples. You fear that some apples have gone bad and you dont want the others to rot, so you throw all the apples out of the basket. Once this is done, you examine each one and return the good apples to the basket. This is what he does with his beliefs. He keeps only those he is certain of. We must discard our beliefs as a whole and then examine each one individually. We must build on the good beliefs. Descartes, however, does realize we cant throw every belief out because they are a part of us, unlike the apples. We would have no basis for recovering any of our beliefs. We would be unable to justify anything. No belief based on sense-perception is free from doubt. He said it is possible that his life is all a dream and he is being deceived into thinking it is reality. He also holds false anything that is physical exists, including his own body. The only things we should trust are those beliefs that are subject to rational scrutiny. We must also declare our mathematical judgments to be false also because an evil demon might be deceiving us. Now, Descartes has cast doubt on all his beliefs about everything but himself. He cannot be deceived about himself. It is on himself that he will be able to rebuild his knowledge of other things. If he had no knowledge of himself, then nothing can be certain. If he doubts, he must be an existing self which is engaged in doubting. If he doubts, he must also be thinking and Descartes said I think, therefore I am. He must also exist so that he can be deceived. If he is dreaming, then he is also thinking, thus he still exists. This is the first step to acquiring knowledge, to Descartes. You must build on what you know is certain, starting with yourself as the foundation. In the second meditation, Descartes tries to show we know bodies through reason and not through senses. He uses a piece of wax to demonstrate. Over a period of time, a freshly produced piece of wax placed by the fire loses or changes all its specific properties, yet it is known to be the same object. Its taste and odor disappear. Its color, size, and shape are completely transformed. It loses its hardness and coldness to liquidity and warmth. To know the wax, you must be able to anticipate its changes. Descartes argues, though, that the imagination could not possibly figure out all conditions, for they are infinite. One can only know an object through understanding, rather than through images, sensation or imagination. He now has knowledge about himself and any object that he has thought about through reason. We are now moving along nicely in rebuilding our house of knowledge. In the third meditation, we move into another building block of knowledge, God. We look at the example of two plus three equaling five. We see this to be clear and distinct, but it is possible that we are being deceived. He tries to dispel the doubt about propositions of mathematics by claiming that God exists and would not allow such a deception. He makes an argument for Gods existence. Premise one states that we have an idea of God. Premise two states that the only way to have an idea of God is if God exists. Therefore, the conclusion is that God exists. Us having an idea of God means us having an understanding of the infinite. We cant understand the infinite through the finite, but only through the infinite, thus God must also be the cause of the idea of God. We as finite substances cannot cause the existence of an infinite substance. The idea is also an objective reality, thus it can be held as true. God is not deceiving us and now we have added the final building block to our ho use of knowledge. In The Republic, Plato has his own epistemology. His is more along the lines of idealism. The ascent to knowledge is not based upon understanding an object, but understanding the idea of that object. The highest idea or form is the idea of the Good itself. Socrates is the main character of this section of The Republic. He engages in a conversation with Glaucon about knowledge. Socrates gives two images of the ascent from chaotic opinion to orderly knowledge, the image of the divided line and of the Cave. Knowledge is what is certain and true and opinion is what is fallible. This is where we may see a connection between Plato and Descartes. They both agree that knowledge must be certain and all other things false. Plato held that all knowledge can be derived from a single set of principles. Knowledge rests on the Good as its foundation, unlike Descartes, where ones self is the foundation. Plato compares the power of the Good to the power of the sun. The sun illuminates things and makes them visible to the eye. The absolute good illuminates things of the mind and makes them intelligible. According to Plato, the idea of the Good is too much for humans to understand, but can be thought of as the idea of absolute order. The sun is the cause of generation, nourishment, growth, and visibility. The Good is the cause of essences, structures, forms, and knowledge. This is somewhat similar to Descartes because God is the cause of the idea of Himself, thus the cause of everything else also. There are four levels of knowledge. First, there are two ruling powers though. The good is set over the intellectual world and the sun over the visible world. We start with two lines, one for knowledge and one for opinion. Now we cut them once more and now there are four sections, two belonging to the intelligible world and two belonging to the visible world, two belonging to knowledge and two belonging to opinion. The first section is that of images such as shadows and reflections. The second deals with us seeing actual things, sense-perception. Unlike Descartes, we will not discard this, but use it to build on our knowledge. Descartes believes sense-perception to be false, but Plato uses it as a stepping stone towards knowledge. Now we have the two subdivisions of the intellectual. The third section is where the soul has understanding through its assumptions based on images. The fourth section is where the soul moves past the use of any images and strictly reasons things out. One d oes not use objects, but ideas to reason. Next is the Allegory of the Cave. Platos allegory is a copy of the reality of the divided line. Plato realizes people can think and speak without being aware of the Forms. Plato treats these people as prisoners chained in a cave, unable to turn their heads. All they are able to see is the wall of the cave and a fire burns behind them. There is a place to walk between the prisoners and the fire. There are others in that place that hold up objects to cast shadows on the wall of the cave. The prisoners are unable to see these objects behind them. They see and hear only the shadows and echoes cast by these objects. Prisoners like these would mistake appearance for reality. They would think the shadows are real, but would be unaware of the causes. Plato points out that they would refer to the shadow rather than the real object. The only way for the prisoner to see what he is talking about is to turn his head around. We actually name things we can not see, but things that we can only grasp in the mind. When the prisoners are released, they can see the real objects and realize their error. The way we can see the causes of our shadows is by grasping the Forms with our minds. The prisoners now ascend upwards out of the cave( into the intellectual world). When they first leave the cave, their eyes feel pain the same way the jury that convicted Socrates felt pain. They were not used to the light just like the jury was not used to Socrates manner of speaking. The prisoners would, at first, react violently as the jury did and try to descend back into the cave. This is similar to when the jury sentenced Socrates to death. But the prisoners must go on. Once they adjust, they are able to see the objects and what they must possess in itself. This takes us back to Descartes again. Descartes also believed we must look for an objects uniqueness without relying on sense-perception. The light shows them what the external conditions must be and then they finally see the sun, the sour ce of the external condition. Plato and Descartes have their own epistemologies. Platos is that of Idealism and Descartes is Foundationalism. They differ somewhat while they also share similarities. Plato says what we see are shadows, not the real objects. A philosopher is one who strives to see the object and what makes the object unique. Finally, the philosopher will be able to see the idea of the object. Descartes also aims to find the uniqueness of an object and the idea of it through reason, but his approach differs. He casts doubt on what he feels isnt certain and starts to rebuild his house of knowledge on what is, himself being the foundation. Plato is not necessarily looking to cast doubts on ones beliefs, but is trying to expand ones knowledge of it. Their ends are the same, try to reach the Good or God, but their means are different.

Hawthorne :: Essays Papers

Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne, an American novelist lived from 1804 to 1864. Hawthorne’s works are deeply concerned with the ethical problems of sin, punishment, and atonement. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1825 and returned to his Salem home living in semi-seclusion and writing. Hawthorne’s exploration of these themes were related to the sense of guilt he felt about the roles of his ancestors in the 17th-century persecution of Quakers and in the 1692 witchcraft trials of Salem, Massachusetts. Hawthorne’s views on women in male dominated roles were portrayed as the weaker sex. Allegory and symbolism are combined in Hawthorne’s work to create sarcasm and deep thought to his novels. Allegory is a narrative, either in verse or prose, in which characters, action, and setting represent abstract concepts apart from the literal meaning of a story. Symbolism is used to designate an abstract quality or concept. Through both of these concepts Hawthorne revealed the irony in his writings. These elements helped Hawthorne become a leader in the development of the short story. â€Å"Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment† contained mostly romantic symbolism. Dr. Heidegger is the perfect example of the scientific world gone mad. Medbourne is mostly interested in the economy and is a corrupted businessman. Killigrien is basically interested only in himself. Gascorgin is a corrupt politician. Wycherly is an example of social scandal and vanity. The allegory is that Hawthorne is concerned with women’s roles in a male dominant society and the dangers of applied science. â€Å"Rappaccini’s Daughter† is assembled with Romantic and Anti-Transcendentalist elements. Light is one of the main components of symbolism in the story. Dr. Rappaccini is evil and cares more for science than mankind. Professor Baglioni is basically good and practices â€Å"apt† science. Giovanni is Anti-Transcendentalist and Beatrice is Transcendentalist and are both victims of corrupt science. Hawthorne’s use of nature in â€Å"Rappaccini’s Daughter† is used in the allusion to the Garden of Eden. Beatrice was poison and forbidden like the apple in the Garden of Eden. An antidote will destroy poison, therefore when Beatrice drank it, she died. Hawthorne :: Essays Papers Hawthorne Nathaniel Hawthorne, an American novelist lived from 1804 to 1864. Hawthorne’s works are deeply concerned with the ethical problems of sin, punishment, and atonement. He graduated from Bowdoin College in 1825 and returned to his Salem home living in semi-seclusion and writing. Hawthorne’s exploration of these themes were related to the sense of guilt he felt about the roles of his ancestors in the 17th-century persecution of Quakers and in the 1692 witchcraft trials of Salem, Massachusetts. Hawthorne’s views on women in male dominated roles were portrayed as the weaker sex. Allegory and symbolism are combined in Hawthorne’s work to create sarcasm and deep thought to his novels. Allegory is a narrative, either in verse or prose, in which characters, action, and setting represent abstract concepts apart from the literal meaning of a story. Symbolism is used to designate an abstract quality or concept. Through both of these concepts Hawthorne revealed the irony in his writings. These elements helped Hawthorne become a leader in the development of the short story. â€Å"Dr. Heidegger’s Experiment† contained mostly romantic symbolism. Dr. Heidegger is the perfect example of the scientific world gone mad. Medbourne is mostly interested in the economy and is a corrupted businessman. Killigrien is basically interested only in himself. Gascorgin is a corrupt politician. Wycherly is an example of social scandal and vanity. The allegory is that Hawthorne is concerned with women’s roles in a male dominant society and the dangers of applied science. â€Å"Rappaccini’s Daughter† is assembled with Romantic and Anti-Transcendentalist elements. Light is one of the main components of symbolism in the story. Dr. Rappaccini is evil and cares more for science than mankind. Professor Baglioni is basically good and practices â€Å"apt† science. Giovanni is Anti-Transcendentalist and Beatrice is Transcendentalist and are both victims of corrupt science. Hawthorne’s use of nature in â€Å"Rappaccini’s Daughter† is used in the allusion to the Garden of Eden. Beatrice was poison and forbidden like the apple in the Garden of Eden. An antidote will destroy poison, therefore when Beatrice drank it, she died.

Essay --

Mara Salvatrucha Mara Salvatrucha, otherwise known as â€Å"MS-13,† is quite possibly one of the most well known and most notorious street gangs in the world. Beginning in the poor immigrant streets of Los Angeles in the 1980’s, the gang has spread like wild fire across not only the United States, but across the world, from Alaska to Spain (Tkach & Parker, 2006). Originating in Los Angeles, California, MS-13 was founded by refugees from El Salvador. â€Å"Mara† is a Central American term for gang; â€Å"salva† refers to El Salvador, â€Å"trucha,† meaning â€Å"trout† in English, for something that is clever, or sharp. MS-13 is also known as the â€Å"Salvadoran Army Ants.† After MS-13 spread from their birthplace in Los Angeles across countries, their activities helped make the infamous Northern Triangle: Guatemala, El Salvador, and Honduras, as the most violent place in the world that is not at war (Dudley, 2013). Mara Salvatrucha has been named one of the world’s most dangerous gangs due to their origins, growing population of the gang, the brutality of their crimes, the signs and famous tattoos Mara Salvatrucha is known for, the prison life hiding the leaders, and the evolution into organized crime. Starting with civil wars of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Nicaragua, refugees traveled northbound to Los Angeles. In 2012, the United States Treasury Department named MS-13 as a transnational criminal organization. The Treasury Department gave insight on details about how truly powerful MS-13 is, including that the gang is involved with â€Å"drug trafficking, kidnapping, human smuggling, sex trafficking, murder, assassinations, racketeering, blackmail, extortion, and immigration offenses† (Dudley, 2013). Mara Salvatrucha has been placed with the Zetas from Mexico, ... ... from Mexico, Italy’s Camorra, and the Japanese Yakuza, confirming that Mara Salvatrucha is one of the most dangerous gangs. When a member is sentenced to prison, it is beneficial for the member because they learn criminal and gang knowledge by the veterans of MS-13 that reside in prison. Learning the graffiti, the hand signals and stacking, the tattoos and their meanings, obtaining information from different cliques can all be obtained due to members of MS-13 going to prison. While America sits and continuously deports MS-13 gang members away from the States, they are spreading the terror to other countries. Now, in El Salvador, this country is seeing more violence now due to the gang violence than they did when they were going through civil war. Ironically, the civil war is what drove refugees up to Los Angeles and what became the birth place of Mara Salvatrucha.

Reaction Paper Related on Business Communication Essay

Further, to fully use new pedagogical possibilities offered by ICT, profound changes in managers’ conceptions of learning and knowledge are required. Technical expertise alone is not sufficient for exploiting new pedagogical possibilities provided by ICT; insofar as ICT is used in the educational system as a purely technical innovation, it is not likely that significant pedagogical progress will be achieved. Several cognitive researchers (e. g. , Salomon, 1997; Salomon ; Perkins, 1996; Scardamalia ; Bereiter, 1994) have pointed out that many applications of educational technology support only lower-level processing of knowledge. Yet new pedagogical models of using educational technology, and particularly computer-supported collaborative learning environments, promise to provide new opportunities for solving pedagogical problems in the schools. Scardamalia and Bereiter (1994; in press), and others, have proposed that to meet the future challenges, schools be transformed into communities where productive working for advancing communal knowledge is a primary goal of both students and managers. Knowledge building refers to a process of advancing understanding by setting up, articulating, and answering research questions, searching and exploring information, and generating and evaluating explanations. In the present study, the sustained processes of advancing and building of knowledge characteristic of scientific inquiry and knowledge-creating organizations are called â€Å"progressive inquiry. † Several, concurrent, cognitive research projects share a common goal of fostering such research-like processes of inquiry in education.

Drexel University Dining

James Kirwan and Joey Mannarino John Borczon English 102 2/28/13 Drexel Dining Not Meeting Basic Needs As any college student knows, the quality of a school’s dining hall is extremely important. To be successful as students, it is an absolute must that a student is strong and healthy. One of the keys to being strong and healthy is a healthy and balanced diet, filled with a variety of foods. At Drexel, we are being deprived of this necessity. While we do have a dining hall that is open for most of our day, actually eating there is an issue. For all freshmen at Drexel, a dining plan is required.There are three different traditional meal plans, ranging from a hefty $1,830 to $1,915. All three traditional plans revolve around the Handshumacher Dining Center. The custom meal plans also provide various options, but in the end, focus around the Handshumacher Dining Center as well. The meal plans are outrageously expensive; however, considering the tuition most students are paying, th is is not the issue. The issue is the quality of food in the dining hall. It is one matter for students not to enjoy the food that they eat, but even more of a concern when the food they are eating is unsafe to be eaten.Just in the last few weeks, at least 10 people have been bed ridden for days due to, what they believe, to be food poisoning from the Handshumacher Dining Center. This is a major problem. Once a person has contracted a food-borne illness, participating in academics and/or extracurricular activities becomes nearly impossible, affecting students’ lives and grades severely. With students potentially in danger of becoming sick and being affected in their academics, this is more than just disliking the dining hall. The Handschumacher Dining Center is not clean by any means at all.After eating there a few times, occurrences such as finding a single black hair in our mashed potatoes and flakes of crude in our drinks became a regular ordeal. When trying to get soda fr om the soda machine there would be various particles coming from the machine itself. Once it comes out of the dirty machine, it will then go into one of the glass cups provided by the dining center. These are rarely cleaned properly and there always spots and other residue on them (see below). [pic] This is also a major problem with the utensils and even the plates.There is simply no excuse for this, as we are paying a good amount of money for the dining hall. The entire dining hall environment is a disgrace. Upon entering the dining hall, you are lead down a flight of stairs into a dull gray basement with next to no natural lighting. The area where the food is prepared for the student’s is not visible, and based on the food that is served, probably for good reason. Once our tray is filled with whatever sub-par food they have prepared for us, we are to go into a very poorly designed seating area. The eating environment is far from pleasant.Half the challenge is finding a tabl e that is clean enough to eat at, as the tables are not regularly cleaned off when students leave them. One could argue that it is the students’ responsibility to keep the tables clean, but this is simply illogical. If there are people being paid to clean the tables, a student is not going to go out of their way in making sure their area is cleaned. The lack of cleanliness of the dining center extends beyond the seating area. If what we see out in the seating area is bad, what goes on behind the scenes is even worse.In a December 2010 Pennsylvania Food Code inspection, there were â€Å"mouse feces found in the kitchens and storage areas, fruit flies observed underneath a self-serve beverage station and lack of a dedicated sink for mop-water disposal, among other violations† (Strauss). The Triangle, Drexel’s newspaper, has various accounts recorded about the Handschumacher Dining Center, one of which includes a student seeing a live mouse running around. In these conditions, it is just about impossible for any food prepared to possibly be sanitary.This January, The Triangle published another article that discusses students receiving food poisoning and even the norovirus from the Handschumacher Dining Terrace. Norovirus is a highly contagious virus usually transmitted through undercooked food and occasionally direct contact with an infected person. The student who contracted the norovirus ended up being sent to the ER. In the Drexel Facebook group there are posts weekly that complain about food poisoning or stomach aches caused from this dining hall. One of those students is Maggie Heath-Bourne.She â€Å"personally know[s] a good deal of people who have gotten sick† from this dining center. She was unable to attend her Wednesday classes. Maggie also positive that the dining center caused her illness â€Å"because [she] had been really rushed at the beginning of the week and only had time to go [to the Hans] on Monday and Tuesday, [an d she] got sick on Wednesday. † Since the university basically requires its freshman to eat at this dining hall, something needs to be done. There is no reason students should be scared for their health by eating at their own dining hall.The issues above are absolutely unacceptable for our dining hall, but in actuality, these are issues faced by quite a few dining halls around the country. In examining the various dining halls that have had problems there seems to be one common thread- the food production company Sodexo. We asked friends of ours how satisfied they were with their dining halls. Those who were happy with their dining halls went to schools that did not have Sodexo. Most of these students’ dining halls were controlled by Aramark. In further research, it became apparent that Sodexo is the root of our problems at Drexel.The same types of problems that we had at Drexel were faced by students at Fordham University, who also contracts Sodexo. An excerpt of the i nspection read: â€Å"The inspections unearthed evidence of mice, roaches and improper storage of food, shortcomings that placed Fordham eateries in the lowest grade bracket† (Ram Online). This is concerning not only for Fordham students but for any school that allows Sodexo to control its dining environment. The case at Fordham got so out of hand that the dining hall was required to be shut down for a little while. Once it was finally opened back up, the tudents decided to hold a protest. However, this protest got them absolutely nowhere. At Drexel, there has to be a solution that we can execute to get a decent selection of food in our dining hall. At Fordham University, the method of a protest failed, as Sodexo still stayed as the school’s main food supplier. Sodexo claims on its website that it has a board of students that overview it’s dining services. This board of students does not have a representative from Drexel University on it. If we had some input ab out our dining hall through this board, maybe there would be some action taken.Another solution we could execute is introducing a board of various students that oversees and works with the kitchen staff to make sure the meals are both well prepared and well varied. These students would need to be Drexel students who frequent the dining hall. By being on this board, they will receive no benefits towards their dining hall plans or anything of the sorts. It would be a totally transparent board also. This way, students would have an outlet to go to to complain about the problems in this dining hall. The way it is set up now, it is extremely hard to get a meeting with anyone in the dining hall.For the purpose of this paper we attempted to set up a meeting with the director of residential living on campus. It took us about an entire month to schedule a meeting with this man. For a campus environment that can be fair to all, the food staff needs to be much more accessible. It is ridiculous that we have to wait so long for a meeting with someone who can make a change for us. This student board could supervise Sodexo until its contract with Drexel University is over. However, as soon as possible getting Sodexo out of Drexel’s dining hall would be ideal.This company has proven time and time again throughout the country that it cannot maintain a dining environment. Sure, it can provide food, but not good or safe food. This student leadership board could take a look at other food companies that are doing a better job satisfying both students’ needs and also pass health inspections. Drexel has decent dining options outside of the dining hall. There is a second dining option, accessible only through our dining dollars which is kept fairly clean. The food choices are from chains across the country. The election of food is not the best, but at least it is kept clean. This would probably not be the direction for our dining hall to go in. Drexel has a faculty dini ng hall, run by Sodexo, which is treated in a different manner entirely then the Handschumacher Dining Center. Why should the students be getting second rate food when they are paying for a meal plan? Also, Drexel just received a large scale grant that is going to a renovation project for the area outside of the main building. With this money, Drexel could have begun production on a dining hall run by the 12th Street Caterers, also a Drexel company.With so many possible solutions why do we allow Drexel to continue to feed us the same dirty and poorly made food? We have to find some sort of way to make sure that Drexel implements the student’s opinions into choosing a new plan and direction for its dining hall. To start, we must set up some sort of board for students to voice their opinions directly to Sodexo. From there, we must see what we can do to get Sodexo out, and using this same board of students, create a new solution that pleases all students and also follows health standards. No matter what we do, we cannot keep going in the manner that we are going.