ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
In his narrative, My Secret Life as a Black Man, Anthony Walton writes about his thinking as a proud African American who finds it difficult to live up to the expectations of others with regards to his own. He feels that he is living two lives – his real life and the other as a black man, struggling with a history of his own racial identity and the expectations of the society around him. The author writes about racial prejudices that have been part of his life and gives examples of individual cases where racial profiling takes centre stage. He uses the example of an African American woman berating him for dating a white woman and a childhood friend and parents criticizing him for not conforming to certain racial prejudices. It is a form of racial profiling by blacks against blacks for not serving a specific black man’s prescribed way of life. On the other hand, Walton also talks about racial prejudices and stereotypes by white people against black men. His narrative is about racial discrimination of white people based on their colour and their perceptions towards them. These racial feelings have caused the writer to be at crossroads regarding his own identity and those of other blacks. He feels that the black man has lost his identity since he is constantly told how to act and behave by society. However, he has learned to deal with this feeling by working according to his needs and desires, speaking of multiple identities for the black man depending on the situation at hand. He is easily manipulated and subjected to the expectations of others without him having the power to free himself from such control.
Form The Temple of Dendur is a remarkable work of art and dates back from Nubia (15 BC) and is made primarily of sandstone blocks that have been carved by master craftsmen. It is formed into two separate pieces, the first one being the entrance portal about 19 feet high, and the second part being the temple that consists of an anteroom and rear chamber. The length of both the parts of the temple is about eighty feet from the entrance to the back portion. The structure of the temple is relatively simple and was designed to serve the purpose of being a permanent showcase of the medium of sculpture used during the time of its construction. The decorative style of the temple clearly indicates that it was not just designed as a prayer hall but to act as a conduit between the present world and the next where worshippers in this world could walk through the building and observe the gods portrayed in the artwork carved on its face. The impact of this building is of simplicity whereby the sculpture is visible to be composed of different elements, each of which has their own purpose of having been executed for relevant reasons. Researchers and historians are of the opinion that when this temple was built it was painted in vivid colors and with scenes that showed lifestyles and religious themes. The building in itself is a unique piece of art and architecture not because of one or two special characteristics but due to being a sum of what it stands for. Undoubtedly the temple is a work of religion that is long forgotten and there are not many such temples in the world now. The focus of the temple is seen in the rear room where the visitor is attracted into closely observing the art forms. The base of the external part of the temple is carved with images of grass as visible on the riverbed, and with papyrus depicting Hapy, who was God of the River Nile. The columns in the antechamber of the temple are presented decoratively as if
Synopsis or Summary The labour movement has gone through dramatic changes in Canada starting from the 1970s caused by immigration, deindustrialization and the expansion of service sector employment. The non-standard employment with the decline of the welfare state negatively affects the working poor and unemployed. Neo-liberal globalization has negatively affected the trade unions and their ability to organize the unorganized. The cause of contingent work or precarious employment, challenges traditional forms of trade unionism and has opened the way for new initiatives, including community unionism. Community unionism is the cooperation between a trade union and a community group so that they can fight for a common objective. Unlike the trade unions, community unions help in organizing the employed, the unemployed and the underemployed, so that if required they are in a position to change their workplace. The development of this model of community unionism relates to the conditions created by neo liberal globalization and the failure of the labour movement to adequately address these conditions including deregulation or flexiblization. The expansion of the informal sector including urban centers has put many workers outside the legal framework of unionization and collective bargaining. Also, it is not recognized or protected by law or regulated by public authorities and workers in this sector are mostly entrepreneurs, where collective bargaining legislation is of little use. The author imposes: What happens to the sense of solidarity fostered by union membership when a unionized worker loses his or her job? It implies that workers can experiences political isolation if adequate safeguards are not put in place. Therefore, political empowerment is important to community unions. The most interesting examples of community unionism today are the Ontario Coalition Against Poverty (OCAP), in Toronto and the National Mobilization Against Sweatshops (NMASS), in New York. OCAP helps with the struggles for decent work, housing and social assistance. Its purpose is to build a mass organization that empowers the unemployed, precarious workers and the working people. MASS helps to organize the injured workers, students, mothers and care-givers working in the home, retirees and unemployed people. It focuses on the struggle to eliminate the sweatshop system. Reflection In this article, I learned how community unionism plays an important part in the labour relationship to help the workers in creating benefits and fight for their rights in their workplace. I also learned how the changes in labour movement and globalization are causing dramatic changes for the community unionism. The useful terms and concepts that the author used to explain his point made t
Introduction Scarcity is the problem that the vast majority of citizens of practically every country in the world suffer from. Such issues as pressing needs, financial obstacles, and absence of support tend to have a substantial impact on one’s personal development and an overall way of living. The inability to concentrate on a particular task due to distractive thoughts about an ill parent/child or the need to make provision for a family usually plays a huge disservice in the matters of general work performance. It is evident that the person facing no serious financial hardships appears to be a more productive worker than the one having those. Regarding the nature of scarcity, Liodakis points out that it arrives as a direct reflection of various political, economic, and socio-ecological crises that humanity has been encountering throughout its history (221). Many people today become caught by a debt pit, which empties all the available savings and leaves no room for a trouble-free existence. Effect of Scarcity on “Bandwidth” To begin with, the term “bandwidth” was first introduced by Sendhil Mullainathan and Eldar Shafir to define human ability to manage various activities. As stated in their book, “bandwidth refers to our cognitive capacity and our ability to pay attention, make good decisions, stick with our plans, and resist temptations” (Mullainathan and Shafir 60). The researchers point out that a person’s ability to make judgments and decisions can be seriously influenced by such a concept as scarcity. The experiment that the scholars have conducted on farmers in India has shown that the same individuals demonstrate different results of brain activity depending on their financial/material situation. Thus, the bandwidth was measured twice: before and after harvest. In the period before harvest farmers were exposed to higher irritation and showed poorer intellectual abilities. However, the situation changed to the direct opposite after the harvest had been gathered. People could solve more complex tasks and easily coped with the tests based on Raven’s matrices. The experiment has proven that scarcity does affect the human ability to think rationally. Regarding my educational goals, scarcity was a crucial factor to determine my vision of the future and help with the choice of profession. I clearly realized that I needed higher education to succeed financially. While still being a student of a high school I made a strict decision to study business and economics to alleviate the hardships our family had to deal with as long as I ha
Background to the war Immigration Up to today, many Americans look back to the effects of the Vietnam War with much disappointment and disgust for the terrible pain performed to ‘protect’ the people of the South Vietnam from the dictatorial government. While many might still argue that the war was a matter of necessity led by outstanding intentions, others certainly consider it as a sin and a blunder that can never be justified. The war remains the most detested and the most prolonged war that the Americans have ever engaged. It resulted to the demise of more than 200000 Vietnamese and to the deaths of over 60,000 Americans (Gibson 67). The first mistake that the Americans made before launching the war was to underestimate the potential of the North Vietnamese. The North Vietnamese had a long and strong experience in war through the prolonged resistance to the French. They had a stronger advantage to utilize their strong rebellions against the South who were viewed as the representatives of the French. The North Vietnamese had a strong bond and unity to rebel against the South Vietnam Catholic Leaders who were viewed as representatives of the west (Shelby 69). First, among the major inspiration and the motivation of the Americans to launch the Vietnam War, was the strong fear during the cold war that the crossover of South Vietnam to the Communist ideologies would lead to a weaker United State and a down fall of key US leaders such as President Kennedy and Johnson. To President Kennedy and Johnson, their chances of winning the next term in office depended on the successful launch of US capitalist ideologies in South Vietnam. In addition to the overconfidence in the US military capacity in preventing the North from taking over the South, there was a misguided belief that North Vietnam was a hock belonging to Moscow. Still, other factors such as the massive destruction of Cuba and Soviet’s leader Nikita Khrushchev threat to sponsor National Liberation Movements everywhere in the world put the US under pressure to launch a war in Vietnam. While the Vietnam War was accelerated by deep rooted political meanness and cruelty, the fact remains that its consequences were destructive and led to lifelong hatred towards the American government. For many Vietnamese, their lifelong experiences and struggle as immigrants in the American soil is an as a result of the selfishness and the over calculated pride of the American people. In addition to broken families and ties, the war launched in 1961 has led many desperate lives today in a foreign land with barely anywhere to call home. Vietnamese Immigrant experience While speaking as an outsider can never bring out the real picture of what the Vietnamese experienced during and after the war, their narrations still linger from the foreign land that they can never truly call their own (Coleman 47). America remains their land of escape, the land where after all turmoil and trauma, much rest, survival and a source of livelihood for them was found. On
Introduction: Use of value chain analysis for cost-saving The firm separates fare costs from other cost. It uses fuel efficient aircrafts which are fewer in number (inbound logistics). It builds its own terminals to reduce gate collection fees or simply, passengers alight next to the main road (outbound logistics) (Grant & Jordan, 2012 Lecture5 slide 12). There is a connection between AirAsia terminals and AirAsia X such that passengers can use both airlines to reach specific destinations. Marketing of the brand accounts for 30% of the communication expenditure The airline is loyal to its suppliers since it utilizes particularly the Airbus models. This makes cooperation between the two companies more integrated as it can be realized from AirAsia X purchasing the first Airbus A350 model (Jeffs, 2008 p. 62). PEST analysis Grant & Jordan (2012) describe a business environment as an array of external factors that influences the decisions and performance of a business entity. A PEST analysis for AirAsia X include a favorable political influence in Malaysia and Singapore. It is noted that the Kuala Lumpur International Airport had most modern terminals but their gate fees were so high that it made AirAsia to build its own low cost terminal. This was possible from a strong local political support (Forrey, B et al. 2012 p.7). AirAsia X’s strategy was to have most of tickets sold online. Its application of information technology was challenged by the vast number of customers trying to buy tickets through the internet that sometimes its operations were slowed to several hours. AirAsia X first used AirAsia.com for sales, and later adopted KoolRed to ease internet traffic for its clientele (Forrey, B et al. 2012 p. 8). AirAsia X utilizes social networking to the fullest. Porter’s Five Forces Grant & Jordan (2012, Lecture2 slide 14) consider the use of Porter’s Five Forces to analyze the competitiveness of an industry. AirAsia X strategy to pursue a different market segment reduces industry rivalry effects. This is because the other service providers target high income middle class onwards while it targeted the marginalized low income groups. AirAsia X minimizes threats of entry by its low cost model. AirAsia X was offering fares at a cost that was about 25% compared to competitors. A comparison rate of $0.02 a mile per seat while low
Introduction For the past few centuries, the rise of various movements have marked a certain change in the ideas and philosophies of man regarding the true nature of his existence, the pronounced inequalities of not only wealth and power that has become the likely course of civilizations. Core Objectives Much of the inequality of power also exists in a very broad and much-debated area of man: the gender. Studies in psychology, sociology, anthropology have revealed interesting and conflicted debates on the ‘weaker sex’ and the patriarchal system of the world. A great example of that, presented in many other works of art, music and even fiction, is Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It is my argument that Hamlet, one of the most significant works of fiction to be ever written in English Literature, has a similar position. Created as works of high complexity and psychological trepidation, Shakespeare’s much celebrated characters of Hamlet, Gertrude and Ophelia share an obvious position: a representation that exists only on Hamlet’s behalf. Gertrude’s personal outlook, her own reasons for marrying the brother of her husband after the death of her husband, is a conflict of interest for Hamlet. Thus his statements to the audience: “Must I remember? Why, she would hang on him/As if increase of appetite had grown/By what it fed on; and yet, within a month/Let me not think don’t: Frailty, thy name is woman! /A little month; or ere those shoes were old/with which she followed my poor father’s body,” (Shakespeare, p. 26) must be looked at with a point of view which can give equal weightage to Gertrude’s plight as well. We are unaware of many dimensions of Gertrude’s character as well as Ophelia’s. It is even further interesting to note that in the majority of the course of the play, Gertrude is either asked to follow, come, go or be heard by the King himself (Shakespeare, p. 109, 110, 120, 122, 133, 146, 156). At several places, the Gertrude is not a character of her own choice or will; she is rather the garden variety female who is simply the bone of content for protagonists. What we know about Ophelia’s character is through her rants of madness and raves for Hamlet. In some way or the other, we see, Ophelia is connected to the central male character as a reflection on him, rather than her own reasons for being so. At one point she speaks to her father regarding Hamlet, “He hath, my lord, of late made many tenders of his affection to me,” to which Polonius replies, “You speak like a green girl, unsifted in such perilous circumstance?” Her reply is, “I do not know, my lord, what I should think” (Shakespeare, p. 35). It is strange to find an echo of De Beauvoir’s plight in the confusion of today’s heroine. “Not only do I not know what kind of person I am but also I do not know what kind of person I ought to be. Black and white merge into one another, the world is an amorphous mass and I no longer have any clear outlines” (De Beauvoir, p. 219). These are lines taken from twenty first century feminist Simone De Beauvoir’s work, “The Woman D
Introduction Democracy is a type of governance where people participate in making laws and rules; “it is the political regime where people will become the law of the country” (Lane and Erson 2). This article will give a description of what is democracy, types of democracy, systems of democracy and its benefits in public administration. Overview Democracy can be viewed as a majority rule. When democracy is implemented, there is no favor given to any person or a group of people. All people are treated equally while assigning positions and only consensus determines if a person qualifies for a position or not (Lane and Erson 2). Characteristics of democracy are based on “separation of powers i.e. legislative power, executive power and judicative power, the constitution, laws, decrees, elections, political parties and referendums” (Democracy 1). Democracy is beneficial in that it enhances economic growth, good health, and environmental conservation. It also promotes peace in a country. This makes it important in formulating policies and public administration. Systems of Democracy There are three major systems of democracy namely, direct democracy, presidential democracy and parliamentary democracy. Direct democracy gives equal rights to its members where the head of state is elected from the people in the government periodically. All parties are included in the government and laws are made through a special procedure which finalizes with a referendum e.g. in Switzerland. Presidential democracy is where the president is elected by the citizens and is given a lot of power in the government and can oppose a proposed law e.g. USA and France. Parliamentary democracy is whereby the head of state is either a king or a queen. The government is made by members of parliament who have the power to dismiss it. Their laws are made by the government which is composed of the leaders of different parties e.g. Germany, UK and Spain (Democracy 1). Types of Democracy There are five types of democracy. The liberal democracy came up from the West after people had suffered in the Western countries because of unfair policies which were being applied. The citizens were seeking freedom when they decided to unite and decide what laws were going to guide them in their country. It came into action through reaching citizens at their places of wo
Tonga is an archipelago kingdom in South Pacific Ocean with the population of about 106,479 people (CIA, n.d). The country is prone to cyclones, but Gita is the strongest Tropical Depression experienced by the country so far. It hit Tonga on February 12 as a Category 4 cyclone and proceeded to move towards Fiji (UNFPA PSRO, 2018). While it caused more devastation in Tonga than in Fiji (Reuters Staff, 2018), the investigation of Tonga response to the disaster can be of use for Fiji and other countries that experience the problem of cyclones. The key activities that were undertaken included coordination and warning system restoration, as well as the planning and actions pertinent to the cluster-based response. Acknowledging the significance of coordination (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, 2000; Queensland Government, 2003), the government of Tonga took the lead in the response and recovery effort. Furthermore, it ensured the cooperation of multiple humanitarian, religious, and other organisations (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, 2018). The collaboration enabled the quick establishment of shelters for the displaced population and reconstruction of destroyed and damaged housing and infrastructure. Educational facilities restoration was paid special attention (National Emergency Management Committee, 2018). In the process, the health, nutrition, water, sanitation, and health concerns were also addressed. Given that Gita damaged many sources of food, their recovery was also managed. Furthermore, the government of Tonga paid attention to the issues of safety. Most telecommunications were promptly repaired (National Emergency Management Office, 2018); those that were not, required the restoration of electricity. Tonga needs to proceed with its plans and monitoring to ensure a successful recovery. For the time being, Fiji and other communities can use this case study to review the practices that can be employed in similar situations, including the cluster approach and the coordination of efforts.