Poverty in Africa Essay

Poverty is an unfortunate condition that exists throughout Africa. It is a widespread condition that affects the entire populace, resulting in Africa being the poorest continent. Poverty in Africa is derived from the many existing problems, and continues to cause devastating effects. However, a number of reforms are being implemented to resolve the problem of poverty. There are a number of existing issues in Africa, which leads to the derivation of poverty. Whether there is a civil war or a quarrel among its countries, Africa constantly remains one of the top locations for conflicts (â€Å"Poverty in Africa†). The effects of warfare, including the shifting of the population, the destruction of fields, crops and infrastructures, and the immigration of people from their homelands contribute to the rise of poverty. The destruction of fields and crops weakens the economy, which results in poor agriculture. With poor lands and agriculture, the availability of food and resources are greatly reduced. The infrastructures are crucial to the prospering of a nation. The lack of infrastructure in Africa results to the low availability of potable, clean water. Also, Africa does not have railways and roads that connect in a significant way, hence any transportation to and within Africa is very difficult (â€Å"Poverty in Africa†). Warfare can also result to refugees, which increases the number of people who are living in destitution. A weak government is also a root of poverty, thus an inefficient government will eventually lead the fall of the economy. It is difficult for a corrupt and an unproductive government to obtain the supplies and provide the people with the basic necessities, such as a providing the people with a proper education, building required infrastructures, and providing the people with enough food and water. Without a productive government, the country will not thrive and as a result, more people in the country will live in poverty.

How Does Williams Explore the Theme of Entrapment in the Glass Menagerie Essay

Tennessee Williams explores the theme of entrapment and flight through symbolism and motifs that depict a want for escape, relationships that portray entrapment of each other and conventions of a play, such as scenery, stage directions, narrative and dialogue that heighten these ideas as a whole. The opening scene sketches out the scenery and initial symbol of entrapment for all the characters – the flat which is ‘always burning with the slow implacable fires of human depression’. As Williams describes, the flat is a symbol of depression, formulated by the era the play was set in, the 1930s – just after the Wall St. Crash, in which America suffered great economic depression. The words â€Å"burning† and ‘fires’ link into the main symbol that literally attaches itself to the flat: the fire escape. Williams describes it as ‘accidental poetic truth’, telling us that this is not only an escape from tangible fire, but also an escape from the ‘fires of human depression’ – not only the economic depression of society, but in many ways the depression of the Wingfield family themselves. As it is the only entrance into the Wingfield apartment, it is in essence, their only escape. Williams explores this symbol further through his character Tom, who frequently goes out to smoke on the fire escape in an attempt to escape the reality of his home. For example, in Scene 5, Tom goes outside to smoke and talks to the audience about how the â€Å"world was waiting for bombardments† – showing Tom’s desire for adventure – foreshadowing his flight in Scene 7. Opposite to this, showing the difference in character, Laura trips up on the fire escape in Scene 4. This shows how Laura is unable to truly escape the flat and, in many ways, does not seek flight, but is more, hurt when attempting to seek flight. This links into the symbolism of the broken glass unicorn in Scene 7, in which Jim attempts to free Laura from her shyness and peculiarity; however, in the end, Jim shatters Laura emotionally, breaking off the horn of the unicorn. Relating back to the era of depression and the idea of ‘escapism’, Tom, as Williams’ protagonist, explores the concept of escape in various forms, such as books, the cinema and his own poetry. For example, in Scene 3, Amanda takes away Tom’s book by D. H. Lawrence, who was a contemporary writer of the time, that allowed Tom to escape into his stories. When Amanda took this away, it led to an argument between the two, emphasising the importance of escapism to Tom and how, without it, he could not entirely cope with the reality of his situation. The idea of escaping to the cinema links into the want for adventure, this is also highlighted in Scene 3, when Tom talks of going to ‘opium dens’ and joining the ‘Hogan Gang’ whilst ‘leading a double-life’ and occasionally being called ‘El Diablo’ – all of these ideas are inspired by films and through sarcastically describing how he is all these, outlines the fact he feels his lifestyle is dull and without adventure – against, showing Tom seeking flight. However, Tom wanting to seek flight conflicts with his awareness that he will disrupt Amanda and Laura’s life by abandoning them. This is evident in scene, through Williams’ use of the ‘magic coffin trick’ as a symbol of how Tom wishes to be. Whilst the magician is able to escape from the coffin without removing the nails, Tom is aware of how he is unable to escape from his family without disrupting Laura or Amanda’s lives. Here, the coffin in symbolic of Tom’s family and the warehouse – how he finds it to entrap him as though he were in a coffin, giving negative connotations of being suppressed and without choice. In many ways, however, this scene also explores how Tom is trapped emotionally by his care for his family, particularly Laura. Tom confides in her his feelings and thoughts of wanting to escape like the magician, showing a degree of closeness and trust; whilst, in general, it is his care for his family, the fact that he will disrupt the nails of the coffin, that prevents him from immediately taking flight. In terms of Laura herself, the glass menagerie in the central symbol to the play and represents, not only the different aspects of Laura, that is delicate and fragile, but also how Laura is trapped within a cabinet – within the fantasy world of glass figures. This links into the phrase ‘left on the shelf’, the idea that Laura, being part of the glass collections, has been left away from leading the normal life of romance which she fantasises about with Jim, showing how she has trapped herself on the shelf by being out of touch with reality, trapped within the cabinet. Linking on from the glass figures being symbolic of Laura, the delicacy could be seen as symbolic of her disability, something Laura also believes traps her from being ‘normal’. However, this links onto the next aspect of exploring relationships, and in many ways Amanda is responsible for Laura’s belief that her disability entraps her. In Scene 2, Amanda’s entrapment of Laura becomes evident in three different lights, Laura’s fear of disappointing Amanda, Amanda’s overbearingness as a parent and the idea planted in Laura’s head by Amanda that her disability my hinder her in life. This becomes more apparent when Laura states to her mothers ‘I couldn’t face it’, referring to the fact the disappointment that would received if Laura had told Amanda that she ad quite the typewriting course. This shows how Laura feels there is a strong expectation from Amanda that she has to fulfill and this prevents her from performing her best. This expectation from Amanda links into her being overbearing rather than empathetic with Laura. The clear example in Scene 2 is that Amanda tried to send Laura to the typewriting course, and when that failed, pushed even further for Laura to find a husband. This lack of empathy is demonstrated when Amanda refers to Laura throwing up at the typewriting course as ‘nervous indigestion’. Referring to throwing up due to nerves as ‘indigestion’ underplays how Laura would have felt, suggesting it to be ridiculous. This also shows how Amanda’s lack of empathy would lead to her disappointment in Laura that Laura ‘couldn’t face’, showing how Amanda traps Laura through expectation. This idea that Laura is too embarrassed to even tell her mother is emphasised when the legend ‘The Crust of Humility’ appears on the screen – adding a dramatic effect showing Laura’s humility she feels in confessing to her mother that she threw up. The last idea relates to Laura having a cripple and how Laura feels this might hinder here in finding a husband – ‘Laura [in a tone of frightened apology]: I’m – crippled! ’. The ‘frightened apology’ suggests that being ‘crippled’ is something Laura is ashamed of and damages her, not just in the physical sense of being crippled, but in the emotional sense. Being emotionally crippled links back to throwing up at the typewriting course due to nerves; Laura is under the impression that her cripple leads her to be at a disadvantage and not ‘normal’, evoking a shyness in groups and ‘nervous indigestion’ – showing how Laura is, in many ways, trapped by her own ‘disability’ in more than one sense. However, this idea that Laura is crippled is overplayed by Amanda, who ironically highlights Laura’s cripple whilst trying to desperately avoid it, ‘you’re not crippled (†¦ ) hardly noticeable, even! ’. Through turning this into an exclamatory phrase does the opposite of what Amanda is trying to achieve; by pointing out Laura does have a cripple she highlights the fact it exists. For Laura, this would highlight the fact that she crippled and furthermore, add to her shyness which prevents her from truly taking flight. Overall, despite Laura partly trapping herself by her own emotional disabilities, it is Amanda that enhances this and, in essence, traps Laura. Amanda being overbearing plays out in scene 3, when Tom confronts her with the frustration he has felt from Amanda’s lack of empathy for him that leads to her overbearingness. For example, Amanda refuses to let Tom go to the movies: ‘You’re going to listen! No more insolence from you! I’m at the end of my patience! ’ showing how not only Amanda tries to restrain Tom, but also talks down to him like a child, with the use of constant exclamatory phrases that give the impression of shouting. Tom wanting to go to the cinema, as previously stated, is a symbol of his escapism, therefore, Amanda wanting him to stay is her attempt to entrap him – talking to him like a child shows the want and need to control him from seeking flight. This could be due to the fact Amanda sees Mr. Wingfield in Tom and suspects that Tom will soon take his own flight as well. Amanda further traps top by placing upon him the burden of the family, ‘Jeopardize the security of us all? ’, which is what Tom was possibly trying to escape from in the first place. Although being the ‘man of the family’ creates a natural role of responsibility that in many ways traps Tom from leaving, Amanda emphasises this more by telling Tom that he will end their security if he leaves. By highlighting this point, although it is intended to keep Tom at home, in many ways, may push him further away as it increases the burden placed on him to look after the family. Furthermore, by stopping Tom from going to the cinemas, Amanda is denying Tom of escapism in movies and this could be what also led to his eventual flight, along with the want to escape the dwelling of the Wingfields all together. Overall, Tennessee Williams explores the idea of flight and entrapment through not only symbols, but the relationships between each character, showing how they are entrapped, not only by society, but by each other and themselves.

Keys to Recovery and Success of Simmons Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Keys to Recovery and Success of Simmons - Essay Example Taking the Simmons example, the sales department of the company was making redundant phone calls to large retail and furniture stores while the retail vogue had changed to customers preferring local stores. But the company following past trends had missed this development and had not analyzed the situation in its proper context to avail and keep abreast of the situation and change accordingly. Moreover, taking into perspective the marketing strategy, the firm was still focused on the 4 P's of marketing and the communication was complicated and unfocused, making sense only to the company and its marketers. Therefore, the company had to revisit its communication strategy to make it more effective for receivers and the target was shifted from the conventional 4 P's of marketing to the four basic drivers of sales:   positioning, purchase and post-purchase satisfaction and product trials. Along with these issues arrogance with success also led to the downfall of the organization when the company failed to listen to its employees and the CEO was neglected to be informed of inconsistencies in the implementation of the new vision and the culture of change and learning. As the Executive Leadership Team was not ‘walking-the-talk’ in terms of following and believing in the organizational culture, feedback from internal and external sources was not forthcoming depriving the organization of valuable insight into the situation and making the organization’s employees and customers feel that the ideas were being ‘thrust’ upon them. This led to discord and a feeling of disassociation with organizational values among employees. Hence, it is imperative for an organization to have a firm base in terms of strategy, organizational structure and culture and keep on learning and focus on constant improvement. Some may argue that strategy is more importa nt than structure or that culture is the most prevalent factor in success. But the verified truth is that all three are important components in building upon a company’s success.  

Asia Pacific Business Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Asia Pacific Business - Essay Example Here we look at the relations with the two countries post 9/11 attacks and then we try to mention how relations affect the policy makers of Australia. Before making a SWOT and PEST analysis on the whole scenario leading to US and China relations and subsequent impact on Australia, lets give a brief introduction the present day scenario of relations between US and China. Here one thing to note is that the relations between these countries post September 11 attack on World Trade Center is significant (Christensen Thomas, 2003). It is known that the relations between these countries were not in bright terms when the Bush Jr took over the office in 2000 and from 9/11 till his re-term in 2004; situation was not that great to make an impact over the bilateral relations between the countries. Later in 2002 and 2003, we see that both USA and china work closely on various international issues like North Korean Crisis and Taiwan issue (Friedberg Aaron 2002). This shift in the whole scenario and so called honeymoon period has started from September 2002 and has continued to flow even during the re-term. There is deeper understanding of socia l, political factors which we will discuss now. One thing is that it the whole honeymoon relationship between US and China can be real benefit to Australia. ... Major relationship improvement between two countriesOne important thing, which can benefit USA from the relationship, is the renewed improvement in relations between two countries. Even though Beijing has been reticent and hesitant regarding its relationship with USA post 9/11, its cooperation with USA in matters dealing with International Terrorism has been remarkable. This can be attributed by the fact that Beijing has started giving out information to Washington regarding Islamic activities, it thus initiated intelligence sharing activities, it allowed FBI to set up an office in Beijing and allowed itself to participate in rehabilitation of Afghanistan. These actions are enough to give an idea that relations between the two countries could go in the history as an important event and that these relations could help both the countries (Christensen Thomas, 2003). 2. Chinese attempts to improve the ties between the countries One significant advantage that USA has in order to gain foothold in business relationship with China is the Chinese attempt to continue friendship with USA even though the ideologies of the two countries are vastly different. China did not like the USA invasion of Iraq but at the same it did not oppose to the situation. It was Beijing long term plan to keep the friendship between the two countries.3 North Korean crises Korean Crisis actually brings these nations on the same plane as both the nations are apprehensive of nuclear program of North Korea. China because of the regional implications and USA because of the global shift which the program can cause and hence the relations between them can improve and thus Korean crisis could prove as a major strength in the whole analysis. Weakness 1 Difference in ideologies The major

Legal Aspects in Health Care Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Legal Aspects in Health Care - Assignment Example For instance, the contract may be annulled if it is determined that the buyer was non compos mentis at the time of entering the contract. The legal intent of selling the CT scan is fulfilled in it being bought to serve its rightful purpose, such as carrying out diagnoses or archaeological investigations. Finally, the contract is sealed in the relevant parties receiving value from the agreement. It is obvious that the vendor will get his money for the CT scan, from the buyer on one hand. On the other hand, the buyer expects the CT scan to work well, thereby helping him meet his objectives. Apart from the four components, it would help greatly to insist on the token of the contract, which is the permit. The gravity behind this is that it is in the permit where the terms and conditions of the contract are enshrined. Terms of guarantee are divulged here, apart from the permit just showing legitimate possession. This is serious since in the absence of a permit, if the CT scan stalls after a week, the buyer may not be guaranteed of any reimbursement or free repairs. In this case, the patient through his absence undermines the capacity of the hospital to fulfill its obligation in the contract. The time-specific aspect of the contract is also undermined by the patient’s absence. Nevertheless, it cannot be aptly said that the patient’s voluntary and informed absence amounts to a contravention of the part of the contract, since he is acting out of an illness. Addiction is an illness that should have warranted more specialized attention from the healthcare institution. On the contrary, the healthcare institution is the entity that is liable since part of the patient-hospital contract is good care. The patient being away for four hours means clearly that the hospital is not taking good care of its patients, if at all (Becker, 2012). The fact that the

No Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

No - Essay Example Understanding the time value of money is of utmost importance to investing. Time value of money is a series of concepts that allows you to compare different options: Is it better to receive $40,000 today or $50,000 one year from today? If you understand the concept of discounted values, you can easily perform a calculation and come up with the right decision. The DDM model is based on the basic valuation technique and discounting principle. It combines the time value of money and future discounted cash flows considering time preference and rationality of the investors. This method indicates to you that if you buy at $60, the $3 annual dividend will ensure you receive a 5% return on your investment. If Stock ABC is trading below $60 right now, its a buy. If its trading above $60, we should wait for the price to come down. Considering, if Stock XYZ has the probability to grow its dividend? This isnt an unreasonable assumption at all. As long as a company can grow its margins, it should be able to grow its dividend. Lets assume we think Company ABC can grow its dividend by 2% every year. To calculate the dividend at year 1, all we need to do is multiply the current dividend ($3) by the dividend growth rate (2%): D1 = $3* (1 + 0.02) = $3.06. Now we can plug it into the formula with the rest of our assumptions:- The P/E ratio is the rock star of valuation ratios and gets most of the attention. The P/E ratio is popular because it’s easy to understand. Imagine a stock price is $30 a share, and the company earned $1.50 a share. That means investors are paying a price that’s 20 times higher than the company’s earnings. If the price of earnings, or P/E, is high, it means that the earnings are very valuable to other people, usually because they expect the company to grow

Is our election process fair Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Is our election process fair - Essay Example This paper will highlight the unfairness that exists in the election process citing examples. The college vote is one of the critical aspects that determine whether a presidential candidate clinches the top seat or not. Contrary to many emerging democratic nations that rely on the popular vote, the American nation decides the president using the college vote. Apparently, all citizens participate in the popular vote of the president and vice president, but also elect a representative of each state to the Electoral College (Ryden 56). Usually, the individuals chosen as electors in the college are people who express allegiance to a certain party. In other cases, they operate under state laws that vary from state to state. It is worth noting that each of the 52 states has a different number of representatives in the Electoral College depending on their population. The Electoral College then determines who wins the presidential race. The candidate who secures a majority of the 538 college votes becomes the designated president. There is limited fairness in this process as will be discussed below. The popular vote is of little regard in the United States. However, it is of essence to highlight that the popular vote represents the opinion of each American who is eligible and chooses to vote. Despite the fact that the popular vote represents the voice of the majority, the elections system disregards it and relies on the college votes to determine the president. This is an indirect implication that an individual’s vote is irrelevant. Considering the 2000 presidential elections where Gore and Bush were competing for the top seat and Gore won the popular vote. However, the popular vote decided that Bush had won. The irony in this is that the majority voice represented by the popular vote had proved less significant. For the many people who voted in this election, this was unfair (Ryden 56). The Electoral College does not adequately represent the voice of the majori ty of the Americans. The electors are highly partial, and their opinion does not have to reflect the pledges they made to parties. This leaves them with the opportunity to vote according to individual preference. This compromises the level of democracy because 538 people shoulder the responsibility of electing a president for everyone. With the advancing level of understanding and participation in presidential debates, the defense that the electoral colleges serves as a fair opinion because of the level of information that the electors have is no longer valid. Majority of Americans exhibit the potential to hold an independent opinion contrary to buying the opinion of the national media. Although the media expresses its opinion on the preferred candidates, Americans know better than blindly buying the waves on popular media. This explains why the opinion expressed in the popular vote when electing the president needs consideration. The popular vote represents the opinion of 315,000,0 00 votes. Each of the electors in the college does not necessarily vote in conformity to the popular vote in their state (Rush, and Engstrom 66). It would be fair if the United States scrapped off the Electoral College. This would leave the popular vote to determine the candidate who wins the presidential race. The Electoral College superiority denies the people the free will of choice expected in a nation that claims to be a mature