ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Race, gender, and class dimensions of surrogacy vis-à-vis gestational surrogacy in the United States today Gestational surrogacy is a term used in reference to the practice of carrying and giving birth to a child that is not related to the birth mother. In Vitro fertilization (IVF) facilitates gestational surrogacy. The sperm of the father and the ovum of the mother are fused externally. The fused mass is then implanted in a surrogate. The baby born bears no biological, physical, or racial resemblance to the birth mother. In traditional surrogacy, the birth mother’s ovum is used in the making of a baby (Teman 1105). The baby therefore bears the genetic makeup of the surrogate and resembles her as well. In the United States, race, gender and class play a role in the choice between surrogacy and gestational surrogacy. This paper argues that taking into consideration these three factors, gestational surrogacy is the best method for all parties involved. Some critics argue that gestational surrogacy is risky due to the complications faced by the surrogates. Other critics argue that there are higher chances of giving birth to unwanted babies as fertility specialists implant more than one embryo. They may even point out that it is not a guaranteed investment, although they may be pointing out to the minor setbacks encountered in gestational surrogacy. Traditional surrogacy favors one particular gender. In traditional surrogacy, the female is never genetically represented. She ends up raising a child that resembles her partner and the surrogate. She is also not sure that the surrogate will allow her to keep the baby because the law gives them an allowance to keep the child. It is advisable for such a woman to hire a lawyer to protect her interests although by entering into a contract to carry a fertilized ovum, her legal claims are diminished (Ragone and Twine12). In the United States today, the law on gestational surrogacy differs from one state to another. Before these new technologies emerged, the birth mother was considered the lawful mother of the child (O’reilly 28). On the other hand, the sperm donor is not expected by law to be the father of the child. There is also little or no attention paid to the reproductive health of the birth father even though this is an important predictor to the child’s health (Anderson 41). This presents a gender double standard that needs to be looked into. With new technology, parents can choose the sex of their baby. The desire to control the sex of an offspring arose from agricultural field where there was a higher preference for more productive cows and hens over roosters and bulls. The male child was also considered to be strong and therefore important in tilling the land. With the rise in industri
Spanning’s recruitment plan was generally a recommendable move and advantageous. He had put up an elaborate process, which included a four-stage screening procedure and invitation of most promising respondents. After consultation, there was a detailed interview and ranking of the candidates. Thirdly, he had to interview the top ranked contender to gauge compatibility. The board did another check on the individual’s background and Spanning arranged for the council to meet, interview and confirm his appointment. This vetting procedure ensured that Spanning got the best candidate for the position. One of the advantages is that Spanning obtained a highly qualified and competitive candidate for the position due to the thorough vetting process he had put in place. The second advantage of Spanning recruitment process was that, during the process he had opportunities to meet and interact with top contenders. This interaction ensured compatibility between him and the contenders and minimised problematic relation during the course of work. Thirdly, due to the political and non-reforming nature of some of the council members, Spanning had another advantage of performing proper background vetting and presentation of the appointee to the council. This ensured that he never lost his appointees through political witch-hunting by his antagonists on the basis of a biased recruitment. However, Spanning recruitment plan had its risks such as his hiring plan, which was a one-man-idea hence not consultative. Spanning’s antagonists, being the majority felt not consulted and due to that, they too came up with an alternative candidate. Refusal to give in to their pressure posed a threat to his career and thus becoming subject to removal. Second risk was that the plan was long and expensive. Among Spanning’s priorities were an increase in municipal services and capital improvements. However, his recruitment plan was not in line with his priorities. He used a lot of resources and manpower in the process. The advertisement of the post as well as the recruitment process involved many procedures, consumed resources, time and manpower. His antagonist would translate this to misuse of funds and resources. Spanning had the good interest of Dover people at heart and Randy Redmond’s arrest was a major setback
“History and Topography of Ireland” written by Gerald of Wales around 1188 was a highly popular document of its time. The document speaks about the people of Ireland, their history, culture, traditions, clothes and typical behaviors and habits. Overall, the work and its key can be called biased because the author’s negative attitude towards the object of his research is quite obvious. Besides, the document was created after the Norman invasion of Ireland. Gerald of Wales admires king Henry the Second who conquered Ireland. At the end of the document, the author adds a lengthy complimentary passage designed to enumerate all the achievements of Henry the Second. Modern historians and researchers stick to the opinion that Gerald did not visit many places in Ireland and his work mainly was confirming a set of famous British stereotypes about the people of Ireland. Finally, one more important bias the author of this document reveals is his religious belief. Gerald of Wales states that the beginning of the Irish history happened with the arrival of Cesara, the daughter of Noah, to the shores of that land. Besides, the author keeps mentioning mythical giants that were viewed as the natural enemies of people inhabiting Ireland. According to Gerald of Wales, the history and topography of Ireland base on several periods of the occupation of this land. Groups of arrivers coming to Ireland kept starting new settlements and having offspring and multiplying, but at a certain point, all of the settlers together with their households were wiped out by various disasters such as diseases or wars. This way many different nations managed to visit Ireland and establish their cultures and settlements there. The constant threat for the newcomers were the mythical giants that, obviously, were aggressive towards the settlers and often started battles and wars with them. The cultures that were successful in the battles against giants still died because of smell and contagion that occurred after the bodies of dead giants started to decay. Gerald of Wales also mentions that nature changed along with the appearance of the new settlements, for example, lakes suddenly emerged from the underground. Besides, the civilizations of settlers kept eliminating forests and turning the areas covered with trees into plains and fields. This was done with the purpose of cultivation of various plants and breeding cattle such as sheep, horses, and cows. “History and Topography of Ireland” is a very famous document mostly because it is the only primary source that tells about the lifestyle and habits of medieval Ireland. This document is also very disputable because of its author’s clearly biased perceptions. Many historians have been trying to make a research and p
Policies for contracting prison services have generated a lot of controversial debates in the criminal justice systems for years in the USA. Supporters of the idea affirm that privatizing prisons is beneficial to the criminal justice system and the public and those who oppose the idea strongly affirm that it is a waste of resources. The demerits of contracting prison services are solidly founded on lack of accountability, state responsibility, and gaming while the benefits are based on innovation, cost reduction, and quality of services (Petersilia, 2008). Critics argue that private contractors lack accountability in the way they spend public resources to offer prison services because they need to keep commercial confidentiality. On the other hand, it is the state that is only entitled to deprive individuals of their liberty, making the profit motive of penal reformers unethical because penal reformers run prisons at low costs to maximize profits by using poorly trained and cheaply paid prison operators (Petersilia, 2008). However, those who oppose privatization are incorrect. Based on the contracting principle, private sector management has been shown that it offers high-quality prison services compared with the government (Belbot, 2004). Private organizations are highly innovative, operate free of red tape issues, offer high-quality services at lower costs, and operate with a profit motive that strengthens the accountability of the expenditure of public resources.
The beginning of twentieth century was marked by revolutionary changes in social life: the discoveries made by the science and the achievements of the technical process transformed the course of life once and for all. The tendency for mechanization and, inter alia, employment of automobiles unprecedentedly speeded up the life pace. The general enthusiasm for the future of mechanized planet could not be overlooked by the creative community. Poets, musicians, and artists involved into a major revision of creative principles underlying their work. Resulting from this attempt at comprehending the universal trends and employing them for the purposes of art were literary works that served as guidelines for creative activities. A characteristic feature of those writings is the ardent tone of their authors persuading the readers of the comprehensive righteousness of their theories and of their exclusive importance for the success of future art. Among the most observable projections of the art development course are Filippo Marinetti’s “Manifesto of Futurism” (1908), Naum Gabo’s “The Realistic Manifesto” (1920), and Piet Mondrian’s “Neo Plasticism: the General Principle of Plastic Equivalence” (1920). The ideas laid out in those works defined the framework for creative practices of many prominent artists, and connections can be drawn, inter alia, with the paintings by such masters as Gino Severini, Marcel Duchamp, and Marc Chagall. The Italian painter Gino Severini was among the artists who signed Marinetti’s “Manifesto of Futurism” in 1910, and his works naturally reflected the Futurists’ ideas ever since. Marinetti’s inspirational writing urges the artists to break away from the placid rationality of traditional art in order to overcome the mystic ideals of the past (Marinetti 1908, 284–285). He insists on the necessity to demonstrate a courageously daring attitude in painting and to depict the energy and the beauty of speed in an eternal movement to new findings (Marinetti 1908, 286). Dynamism is the key characteristics of Futuristic art, and this is perfectly reflected in Severini’s painting Dynamic Hieroglyphic of the Bal Tabarin (1912). The artist uses the setting of the dancehall as the most appropriate scene of dynamic motion and captures the sweeping movement of dance that involves not only the central image of a dancing woman, but the whole surrounding background (Severini 1912). In order to create the sensation of movement, Severini employs the method of dissecting the image into multiple parts of various geometric shapes and placing those parts in a chaotic collage making them as if dance in the air. This technique also helps to represent simultaneity of movements happening at the same time and creates a rhythm that in its kaleidoscope of overlapping transparent forms reminds of Mondrian’s idea of pure plastic: art is no longer description put rather plastic expression (Mondrian 288). Another idea of Mondrian’s is rendered in Severin
Topshop Background Topshop was launched in 1964 and has continued growing and extending its operations to become very successful in the fashion industry. Topshop is renowned for its superb performance which has indeed enabled it to win the Fashion Retailer of the year two times consecutively, which is a rare occurrence in Europe. Topshop success is attributed to its ability to consistently predict upcoming fashion trends and being the first company to bring them into the market and especially in European high streets. The company is known to lead in introducing the latest catwalk styles for young people at affordable prices, as well as in a well fashioned manner. It offers products such as fashion jewelry, alloy jewelry, handbags, wallets, shoes, leather handbags, designer shoes, ladies wallets among others. Topshop started as a small fashion shop in the basement of Peter Robinson department store as early as in 1964. Since then, the company’s performance has been very impressive and within its first decade of instigation, it had managed to transform its humble beginning to become a stand-alone retailer. In 1994, the corporation adopted the brand Topshop and it extended its operations to take over the entire 90,000 sq feat space located at London Oxford Circus. In addition, its great performance within the European high streets has enabled the company to extend its business beyond the high streets which has enabled it to intensively augment its revenues. Topshop is considered as a part of Arcadia Group that owns a number of other retail shops that include Dorothy and Perkins, Topman and Miss Selfridge. The Arcadia Group has greatly boosted the sales of Topshop and Topman to enable it reach a high of 2.78 billion (Williamson 2000). In order to augment its revenue through international ventures Topshop Corporation aspires to extend its operation in either France, China as well as in Egypt in accordance to its growth strategy (Paliwoda; Ryan 2008). Topshop management anticipates that by expanding its operation in either one of these destination, it will increase its market share considerably, as well as help it to generate more revenue and especially at this moment, it is recovering from the aftermath of the recent economical recession. This move is expected to increase the corporation performance as well as to maximize the shareholders’ investments considerably. How France was selected as the Best Destination Topshop management opted to extend its operations to France instead of China or Egypt. The management decided not to consider expanding their operations to Egypt because of the stiff competition that Topshop is likely to face from textile products from Egyptian companies. Although Egypt was one of the strategic locations that Topshop management had selected to extend its operations to, they opted not to expand their operations there. Egypt was a strategic choice si
Potlatch is a tradition that goes far back in history. This ceremony was usually held in the period from October to May and was of great public importance. The study of the etymology of this tradition indicates that the Indians related their ideas about wealth to this concept. The essence of this festive event was to disclose the generosity of the Indian family or member by which they could achieve respect and recognition. The Custom and Its Significance Potlatch used to be a ceremony, which could last for several days and included the essential distribution of gifts to the people invited, ritual dances, and a variety of foods. Potlatch could be organized for various reasons, but it was always a significant event in the life of the people. For instance, potlatch could be arranged to celebrate the birth of a child, to praise the leader inauguration, to rejoice the first hunting of the son in the family, to feast a marriage and so on. Thus, all of the most crucial changes in the life of an Indian were commemorated by this ceremony. In general, the purpose of the tradition was to notify the tribespeople of the new stage of life and to attain social recognition through bringing gifts. Despite the diversity of reasons for the celebration, there were three main occasions for the potlatch, which were a wake, building a new home, and honoring of the child. The funeral was a ceremony, which was of great importance in the life of the Indians; in fact, many researchers believe that the funeral ceremony laid the foundation for this tradition. In this type of potlatch, the religious beliefs of people and their ideas about the property were manifested. During the ceremony, everything that belonged to the Indian was buried with him or her (jewelry, weapons, clothing). Another important reason for potlatch was connected to the building of a new home. In addition, this type of holiday has also been linked with the installation of the totem pole or a tombstone. The Indians tried to invite to this festivity as many visitors from the remote villages as possible and to give them generous gifts. Another important reason to celebrate, as mentioned above, was the birth of a child and the construction of the house in connection with this event. The construction of dwellings was justified by the fact that children were born with no social status, and they could attain it through the distribution of a large amount of wealth. At present, there are still tribes that practice this ceremony. For instance, Kwakiutl are among those who honor this old tradition and follow the main rituals of it. Although the potlatch that is held today is different from that of its historical form, it is still celebrated. The tribe, in its turn, has enriched it with the customs of Kwakiutl. Conclusion This cultural custom reveals the religiousness of the peoples and tribes and the way of express
Indigenous cultures are characterized by the focus on the development of close ties within the family, with others as well as the environment. In British Columbia, First Nations people have practiced a number of ceremonies to celebrate various important stages and milestones in their lives (Heinberg 2014). It is necessary to note that colonizers tried to ban services and make indigenous people forget about their roots. Nonetheless, First Nations people still follow their traditions, and they even have various implications in the modern community. This paper explores ways people employ rites in the present-day society. To address this issue, the present paper provides a brief account of principal rituals of indigenous populations. The paper will also include particular examples of ceremonies used in the contemporary communities. The Most Well-Known Ceremonies It is necessary to note that all rituals differ from community to community. At the same time, the ceremonies have major components that are similar to all the communities. Richardson (2012: 75) notes that one of the primary goals of the ritual is to “reduce isolation” and help an individual to find his/her place in the world. It is possible to trace major themes uniting these ceremonies. These themes are the purification, sharing, commemorating the nature, finding one’s path and getting ready for some milestone in a human’s life. Potlatch Ceremony Potlatch ceremony is one of the well-known rites. It appeared centuries ago, and it is deeply rooted in the culture and even identity of indigenous people. Notably, colonizers banned potlatch, and it was illegal until the second part of the 20th century (Blue et al. 2015). Potlatch is a giveaway festivity that was usually commemorated to such events as birth, wedding, death and so on (Markstrom 2008). Puberty was also a reason to hold potlatch. For instance, a father of a girl gave food and some gifts to the members of the community. Apparently, the more presents the father gave, the more respected he was in the community. Wealthy individuals gave generous gifts while the poor could give away small presents. Notably, First Nations people who pertained to different kinship groups held potlatch ceremonies. In such cases, the entire group could collect things so that the member of their group revealed his/her high status (Warburton and Scott 1985). This ceremony is still present, and indigenous people see it as an important part of their culture. The Sundance Ceremony The Sundance ceremony is another tradition that survived until now. This spectacular ceremony focuses on the unity of a human and nature. Colonizers also banned this tradition, but First Nations populations practiced it covertly (Waugh 2013). It is noteworthy that researchers, as well as indigenous people, do not often
Dan Pink makes a very interesting proposal on how employees should be motivated. His argument basically seeks to show that the kind of jobs done in the 21 st century require a new approach to answering the question on how employees are to be maximally motivated to do these jobs. The theme of his talk is that there is a disagreement between what science advocates for in the management of business and how business management should be undertaken. The talk significantly shows that the carrot-stick approach is increasingly losing significance in today’s workplace. The speaker starts off his argument by examining the candle problem – an experiment created in 1945 by Karl Duncker. The speaker argues that solving the candle problem requires overcoming functional fixedness. The speaker further notes that creativity is also important in solving the problem. When the experiment was undertaken, the results showed that incentives did not help to solve problems that required cognitive performance. Actually, the results showed that giving incentives in cognitive based problems reduced productivity of workers. These results and the argument of the speaker seem illogical at first. But as he continues to offer more evidence to his argument, a lot of sense emerges out of his talk. I find the talk convincing. Pink uses ample evidence to pass across his argument. I am in agreement with him about the dynamics of the 21 st century workplace. It is true that people are becoming more interested in doing what they enjoy doing rather than doing what earns them more cash. Pink argues that the carrot-stick approach works in environments where there is a routine schedule to be followed. He goes ahead to note that few workplaces have fixed routines to be followed. I find this to be true. This is because even in workplaces which seem to have fixed routines, there is always a room for creativity – it cannot be said that there are routine jobs per se. For instance, take the work done by a receptionist. This work may be perceived to be of a fixed nature. But the truth is, a receptionist has plenty of room for creativity and thus can avoid doing his or her work routinely. This is possible if the ROWE (Result Oriented Workplace Environment) approach proposed by Pink is applied to thi