ShantanuT01/DACTYL-Pretraining huggingface dataset:
Introduction George Orwell is best known for his allegorical novella Animal Farm and a dystopian novel Nineteen Eighty-Four . His realistic short stories that date back to his days as an imperial police officer in Burma often elude readers’ attention. The early years spent in a country colonized by the British Empire had a lasting impression on the writer and inspired him to explore the themes of morals, personal principles, and power dynamics in his works. In Shooting an Elephant, Orwell’s character is an imperialist police officer in colonized Burma. As he hears about an elephant rampaging through a bazaar, he has nothing left to do than to slander the animal. The incident gives rise to strong feelings of grief and discomfort and impacts the fragile relationships with both his compatriots and Burmans. The short story Shooting an Elephant is significant to colonialism studies due to its structure, quality, and applicability. Structure George Orwell gives a panoramic view of the ambiguous power dynamics between the British Empire and its colony, Burma, through the perspective of one character. The writer does not show this relationship as strictly black-and-white as he does not label either of the sides as good or evil. Instead, by making the main character reflective and conscientious, Orwell lets the reader understand what motivates both parties. The story is structured in a way that showcases the main conflict three times throughout the narrative. The first example of the subverted power dynamic is at the very beginning of the story. Orwell writes: “In Moulmein, in Lower Burma, I was hated by large numbers of people (1).” Then the author notes that this hatred came from being “important enough for this to happen to [him]” for the first time in his life (Orwell, 1). The writer shows that power comes at a certain price, and in the case of the main character, he has to suffer hostility and isolation. The second time that the topic of the flipped power dynamic resurfaces is when the main character gets a rifle for self-defense. The locals practically force him into killing the animal: “They had seen the rifle and were all shouting excitedly that I was going to shoot the elephant (Orwell, 3).” This scene is particularly interesting as it is placed in the very heart of the story. The main character is supposed to be the most influential among all since he is of British descent and armed. However, the crowd has its own interests and can overpower him in case he does not oblige. At the end of the story, the main character does not gain any more respect from the locals. They feast on the elephant’s dead body while the animal’s owner is furious. Thus, the conflict in Shooting an Elephant never comes to any satisfying resolution. Quality Dynamic narration, believable characters, and the presence of complex topics such as power and colonialism attest to the high quality of Shooting an Elephant . It is not only easy to follow the events but also quite thrilling. Orwell accomplishes this effect by controlling the sentence length and contrasting short and long sentences by putting them back-to-back within the same paragraph.
Abstract Family laws are laws that govern operations within the family. They consider the welfare and rights of children when parents divorce. These laws stipulate the actions, rights and responsibilities of parents concerning custody and access to children. Hong Kong has two laws that state what the courts should do when parents divorce, the family law and the joint parental model of action. These laws affect the issues of custody and parental access to children in the event of a divorce. The government of Hong Kong came up with the joint parental responsibility model to help improve the current provisions of child custody and access as stated in the family law. Introduction Every country has rules and ordinances that govern family practices. These similar laws extend to marital practices within the family. The regulations require members of the family, especially the parents, to behave in a manner that promotes care and child welfare. These laws consider the rights of parents towards children, and the rights of children towards parents, as stated in the parents and child ordinance (cap4) (LCR, 2005). They enable parents to carry out their duties accordingly, while at the same time ensuring that children receive proper care from their parents or guardians. The rates of divorce in developed countries, such as the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, prompted their respective jurisdiction to come up with laws that govern the rights and welfare of children in the event of a divorce. As research has indicated, the percentage of divorce in Hong Kong has been increasing since the 1990s. Lau (2014) states that this rise is yet to continue as many people have become aware of their individual and parental rights within the marriage. Consequently, the government of Hong Kong, just like in the developed countries, decided to come up with laws and regulations that govern the interest of children in the process of a divorce between the parents. For a long time, Hon Kong relied on family laws, which look at the rights of children based on custody and access. The rules seem to award full custody to one parent, while the remaining non-custodial parent only has access to the child at given periods as stipulated by the court when passing custody rulings (LCR, 2005). According to family law, the custodial parent determines the rights and other aspects of the child’s life, while the non-custodial parent has no say on such an issue. As such, in 2005, the country came up with the joint parental responsibility model. This law aims at improving the nature of the family law and parental involvement in matters of raising children upon divorce. This paper, therefore, seeks to investigate the effects of the legislative implementation of the joint parental responsibility model with the family law. The Family Law in Hong Kong According to the LCR of Hong Kong (2005), the current family law only provides for child access and custody to one parent and ignores the existence of the other parent. The law
Jesus Camp is a documentary movie originally produced in the United States of America. Both Heidi Ewing and Rachel Grady directed the production of this film in 2006. It features a fascinating and compelling Christian summer camp. In this camp, attendees are taken through a learning process and thought-provoking session of understanding the fact that they have hidden prophetic gifts that can turn around the society. In other words, the latent gifts are capable of “taking back America for Christ.” The Tribeca Film Festival distributed the film immediately it was ready after production. It has also been nominated as among exclusive documentary films by a number of academy awards. The camp was later closed owing to myriads of controversy surrounding the film. The essay offers a synopsis and summary of the film as well as its primary goal and purpose. The paper wraps up by examining what the filmmakers intended to achieve in the movie. To begin with, it is crucial to mention that this charismatic Christian Summer camp was organized and presented by the school of a ministry known as Kids on Fire. Three children who took part in the camp have been featured in the film. Through the roles played by Tory, Rachael and Levi, the audience is in a position to understand events in the camp, the learning process and purported gifts that children can use to draw America back into serving God. The participants featured in the film are devout Christians. For instance, Levi has been preaching in his backyard home church several times. According to his mother, homeschooling is the best approach to raise a child in a Godly manner. It is parental responsibility to raise a child closely instead of abandoning the responsibility to other people. During the congress at the camp, Levi preaches about the ability of his generation to revamp Christ in society. Earlier in the movie, Rachael is also featured as a prayerful person when she prays at the bowling ball. She also shares tracts containing Christian messages to strangers as a way of evangelizing to them. In regards to non-charismatic churches, Rachael does not regard them highly. In fact, she refers to them as “dead churches.” The Christ Triumphant Church hosts a children’s praise and dance of which Tory is part and parcel of the team. She likes dancing to Christian music but assures his audience that she can never allow herself to “dancing for the flesh.” On the overall, the film documents the lives of Pentecostal-charismatic young people who attend summer church camps located in Missouri and North Dakota. The producer of the film is seeking to address Christian aspects such as speaking in tongues, prayer, emotions, embodied worship, politics, and morality and how the American society has withdrawn the true worship of God. In the article by Swatos, “religion began in earnest a scant century ago” (par. 1). However, this has gradually changed. The zeal towards serious pursuit for religious matters is no longer witnessed in contemporary American society. This is the same concern being
The ‘Tuareg problem’ is an ongoing socio-political issue in Mali, Africa. The problem started several decades ago. According to Atallah (2012), it is erroneous to assume that the crisis started with the 2012 revolt. The uprising involved the Tuareg people engaging in activities meant to oppose the Mali government. According to Atallah (2012), the conflagration is a consequence of conflicts that have been going on for half a century now. In the current paper, the author will analyze a number of elements revolving around what has come to be commonly referred to as the ‘Tuareg problem’. The historical background of this issue, together with its possible solutions, will be reviewed in this paper. A brief history of the rebellions, the reasons for the uprisings, and the grievances voiced by the Tuareg people will be examined. The Tuareg is a semi-nomadic ethnic group found in the Sahelian and Saharan regions of Africa. Some of the areas where these people are found include northern Mali, western Libya, southern Algeria, northeast Burkina Faso, and northern Niger (Atallah 2012). According to Worley (2012a), the Tuaregs are divided into three social classes. The clusters include the nobles, the vassals, and the black African slaves. The nobles are camel herders, while the vassals are involved in raising goats. Atallah (2012) advances three historical causes of the Tuareg rebellions. The uprisings can be traced back to 1962, two years after Mali attained independence. One of the causes of the problem is related to discriminations against these people by the southern ethnic groups. The southern communities, which mainly consist of black Africans, are in control of the Malian government (Jean-Pierre 2012). Worley (2012b) echoes the sentiments held by Jean-Pierre and Atallah by stating that splits in regional identities between the north and the south constitute a major factor behind the development of the Tuareg problem. The Tuaregs are the dominant ethnic group in northern Mali. However, they feel that the southerners propagate ‘racialized’ hostilities towards them. The southerners, on their part, harbor hard feelings of historical oppressions by the Tuaregs. The reason is that they were previously subjected to slavery by this ethnic group (Stoller 2002). According to Jean-Pierre (2012), the Tuaregs established the city of
The Most Appealing Ideas Expressed by the Author In the book entitled “A Disability History of the United States (ReVisioning American History)”, Kim Nielsen presents a detailed overview of the attitudes and perceptions of disability that were dominant in different periods of the United States history. In particular, the author begins with focusing on the ideas about disability that used to be in place in the Indigenous North America and then moves on to the colonial and progressive eras. Reading this book, it is possible to notice that such practices as understanding of disability as a part of society, as well as its acceptance, existed in some Indigenous cultures but were ignored completely by colonists who came to settle in the territory of North America. It was also interesting, and, at the same time, disheartening, to read about an extremely lengthy period of ignorance towards disability that often was combined with utter cruelty and violence. Having lived through centuries of abuse, disability in the United States finally began to receive some forms of understanding and acceptance only in the 20th century when activists and protestors started to organize campaigns all around the country demanding fair treatment and civil rights. These demands, however, still were met with negativity and frequently rejected. One of the most interesting ideas expressed by the author is the isolated existence of the concept of disability and its evolution throughout history that was unraveling alongside the presence of disability in the society. The author notes that attitudes towards and perceptions of disability and people affected by it are tightly connected to the dominant interpretations of the concept of disability. The Implications of the Ideas in the Book for Me as an Educator Reading the book by Nielsen from the perspective of an educator, it was impossible to miss the major idea of the author – the tight connection between the official and popular interpretation of disability as a concept and the effect it produces on the masses forming their attitudes towards people with disabilities. Specifically, educators tend to w
Limited amounts of ultra violet radiation are essential to human beings. UV radiation assists in the making of vitamin D in the body, and in the treatment of various diseases like rickets and jaundice. However, prolonged exposures of ultra violet radiation are a threat to human health. The mostly affected areas of human body by the UV radiation are the skin, eyes and weakening of the immune system. The effects of excessive UV radiation may be acute or chronic (Attwood, 2000). For instance, sunburns are categorized among the acute impacts, while skin cancer and cataracts are among the chronic effects. Other effects of UV radiation include premature aging of the skin due to adverse changes of skin cells and blood vessels. More than 70000 cases of skin cancer were reported in 2000, according to the research on skin cancer from UK. This research proofs that over 2500 people die from skin cancer annually. The exposure to UV radiation may be either from natural or the artificial source. The natural source of ultra violet radiation is sun only, and is the common source. The artificial sources that may affect a person at work or at home include, radiation from medical therapy, tanning booth, and welding areas among others (Attwood, 2000). The sun emits different types of electromagnetic radiation among them, ultra violet A radiation, ultra violet B radiation, and ultra violet C radiation. They vary in strength UVC having the weakest wavelength, thus its only UVA and UVB that reach the earth surface. Before these radiations reach the earth surface, the harmful ones are absorbed by the ozone layer. However, the radiations with high frequencies pass the ozone layer and impose their effects to the human skins. Ozone layer is considered to be essential to the human health. Despite the fact that strong ultra violet radiation are emitted by both natural and artificial sources, people should not expose themselves carelessly. Some measures should be taken to reduce the degree of exposure to prevent risky consequences. To begin with, the public should limit their time in the midday sun (Attwood, 2000). The strongest UV radiation from the sun is between 10 am and 4pm, and any person should avoid these rays. Secondly, the public should make use of UV index that is provided by the National Weather Service. The UV index would help one to understand sun safety practices. Thirdly, while using shade to prevent UV rays, one should choose wisely, as not all of them offer complete protection. For instance, trees and umbrellas should not be used as a protection from UV rays. Other protection measures include, making use of broad-spectrum sunscreens that can absorb more than 85% of both UVA and UVB rays from the sun (Attwood, 2000). This should be applied regularly approximately after every two hours. All the exposed body parts like the back of the neck should be applied sunscreen liberally few minutes before exposure. After exposure, those areas shou
Introduction The case of The West Indies Yacht club resort shows that the cultural diversity problem is one of the most important in HRM as it influences the organization and its clientele. The UK is a nation founded on principles that affirm the supreme worth of each human being. From this idea comes the basis for the common bond of all citizens. Even so, relatively few people live by such egalitarian tenets. Cross-cultural differences and multicultural conflicts are convoluted because of the multiple identities found within cultures. To deliver human services, the organization should be well aware of cultural problems and conflicts that affected its target population. Also, cross-cultural differences due to geographic location may have little to do with race. Symptoms The main symptoms of problems and complications are poor communication and inadequate relations with employees, customers’ dissatisfaction, and low motivation of foreign staff. Yacht club resort considers its workforce purely as an economic asset, expendable at any time. Idea
Kudler Fine Food was established in 1998 by Kathy Kudler whose vision was to create a store with all the necessary products for a gourmet cook. The vision and mission of the organization is to support customers with the freshest ingredients for reasonable prices gathered from different parts of the world for passionate gourmet cooking. Kudler Fine Food is located in three parts of the USA and offers the services of the home delivery. One of the most important marketing strategies the organization implements is its specialization in both food and cooking tools (Kudler Fine Food, 2011). This advantageous strategy helps Kudler Fine Food remain a leader in the niche, however, additional marketing research is necessary to remain successful participants in the sphere of gourmet cooking. The Areas for Additional Marketing Research for Kudler Fine Food Basing on the Perner’s research (2008), it is possible to conclude that food industry is a highly competitive sphere of business. To remain a leader, much information should be considered and thorough research conducted with the purpose to use the gathered information for creating a strategic plan for furt
Introduction Barry Eichengreen, commenting in his article titled, ‘Will global imbalances return?’ notes that, “future history books, depending on where they are written, will take one of two approaches to assigning blame for the world’s current financial and economic crisis” (Eichengreen 2009). According to the author, one of the two approaches will put a lot of blame on sloppy regulation, compliant monetary policy and derisory savings in the United States. The second approach which is being pushed by former and current USA officials will boldly heap much blame on the enormous pool of liquidity generated by high-savings nations specifically in East Asia and also the Middle East (Eichengreen 2009). To this second group, their argument will rest on the fact that the massive liquidity would have been channeled somewhere and that the place for such liquidity would have been in the country with the deepest financial markets and that is USA, which unfortunately accelerated its asset prices to unsound heights (Eichengreen 2009). Peter Morici observes that there is a serious dissatisfaction on the part of governments starting from Berlin to Bangkok and the reason for dissatisfaction is that, the dollar is falling since there is no assurance or reliance on American consumers who have been vital in powering the economies of many countries (Morici 2009). According to the author, “deregulation and new technologies powered USA growth, and Americans flush with success bought whatever the world had to sell; however, when the imports substantially exceed exports, Americans must consume more than they earn producing good and services, or demand for what they make is inadequate, inventories pile up and layoffs and recession follow” (Morici, 2009). The observation made is that the global savings imbalance which has witnessed low savings in the USA and high savings in China and in other growing markets has greatly contributed to the crisis where it resulted in Americans spending more by living beyond their means, while at the same time encouraging desperate financiers to earn return on massive funds by putting them largely on speculative use. Nevertheless, other discussions especially emanating from Washington have framed China as villain whereby, through its policy of holding its exchange rate unnaturally low, China has been seen as stealing jobs and in the process forcing USA to run a huge trade deficit. Indeed, it is from such observations that Washington operatives are convinced that China should be forced to revalue its currency, the Yuan (Ktetaichinh, 2009). Therefore, the current debate ove
Introduction The UN is variably rated as the world’s most powerful and prominent organization that has continued to play a significant role in shaping the world’s events. The United Nations is an international organization that traces its origins from the Second World War. The name United Nations was first used by the US President Franklin Roosevelt during the whole period of the Second World War to refer to their wartime alliances. The UN as an international organization emerged from the declarations that were signed at the war time alliance conference in Moscow and Tehran in 1943. In 1944, representatives from China, France, UK, USSR and the US met for a conference in Washington, and the conference was directed for proposing the purpose of the organization, its membership, the organs and the plans for the organization to promote international peace, security as well as the international economic and social cooperation. The proposals gave the name of the new international body as the UN and stated that its purpose would be to maintain international peace and security. The organization was also to develop friendly relations amongst the nations and solve the economic, social and humanitarian problems. The UN was also to act as a centralized body where all the nations would direct their actions for the benefit of the whole world (Murphy, 2006). Main body The UN has various administrative bodies, including the General Assembly, the Security Council, the Economic and Social council, the Secretariat and the International Court of Justice. The UN has its basis on the General Assembly, which is its main deliberative body. The General Assembly is where representatives of all states sit together and address various pertinent issues affecting and shaping world events and pass resolutions. It holds several meetings annually under a leader, who is selected from all the member states. All the member states have the opportunity to address meetings during the first two weeks of the conference after the Secretary-General makes the first statement. Important issues, such as issues related to peace and security, admission/suspension/expulsion of members or budgetary matters, are discussed and voted. Votes require two-thirds majority for the election to the Security Council. The main role