Essay Summary Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Summary - Essay Example unconsciously mold society through these tools, wherein these tools also mold their values, beliefs, attitudes, and practices in their different fields and in their own homes and families (277). In â€Å"Authoritarian High Modernism,† James Scott agrees that architecture can respond to various social problems during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Like Le Corbusier, Scott believes that architecture rises to the challenge of social changes due to technological and economic progress. Scott also asserts that studying the origin of architecture was and is a modern activity because it fits the constant desire for social benefits and social solutions. His difference with Le Corbusier is his specific focus on high modernism that has its strengths of trying to improve the social fabric and enabling the social participation of modernist thinkers, while its weaknesses are ruthlessness in advancing modernist ideals and disastrous effects, when political controls are weak or defi cient. 2. In â€Å"Ornament and Crime,† Loos criticizes the use of ornament in architecture. Loos asserts that using ornaments buildings is a crime of the degenerate (20). In order to be culturally developed, he emphasizes that architects must remove ornaments from their buildings (Loos 20). Furthermore, Loose argues that ornamentation wastes time and energy. Architects must focus on function, not ornamental form, to create buildings that have true functions for users. Finally, Loos thinks that to vie for ornaments is not natural of higher intelligence. Ornaments are superficial and wasteful exercises for him. Semper feels differently in â€Å"The Textile Art† because he argues that textiles and buildings have the same origins- the need to turn invisible open space into visibly enclosed spaces. Whereas Loos finds ornament as unnatural, Semper asserts that ornamenting the body and the space through architecture is natural to people’s desire for art (254). Despite these differences, Semper and

Poverty And Environmental Degradation In Ghana Environmental Sciences Essay

Poverty And Environmental Degradation In Ghana Environmental Sciences Essay The relation between poverty levels and environmental degradation has been widely debated inside academic circles. The theoretical linkage between poverty and environmental degradation has for some time been shroud in ambiguity. Environment degradation and poverty are closely interrelated and inseparable, particularly in developing countries. Awareness and concern about environmental degradation have grown around the world over the last few decades; these concerns are shared by people of different nations, cultures, religions and social classes. In recent years economic researchers have become increasingly aware of the important implications that the state of the environment has for the success of development effort. .(Michael P Todaro, Stephen C Smith, Economic Development) it has been asserted that the interaction between poverty and environmental degradation can lead to a self perpetuating process in which ,as a result of ignorance or economic necessity, communities may in advertently destroy or exhaust the resources on which they depend for survival.(Michael P Todaro, Stephen C Smith, Economic Development) According to Michael P Todaro and Stephen C Smith, environmental degradation can have severe consequences on the poor in developing countries. They further conclude that since the solution to environmental problems involve enhancing the productivity of resources and improving living conditions among the poor, achieving environmentally sustainable growth is synonymous with achieving economic growth. Poverty is considered a great influence on environmental degradation. In many regions of the developing countries, regional overgrazing has resulted in destruction of grazing lands, forest and soil. In addition air and water have been degraded . It has been hypothesized that as people become poorer, they destroy the resources faster . By so doing tend to overuse the natural resources because they dont have any means of survival except through the natural resources. They therefore tend to depend more on natural resources. An increase in poverty gives rise to an equal increase in environmental degradation thereby necessitating the need to improve the quality of living. Ghana is located on the west coast of Africa bordering the Gulf of Guinea with a 539-kilometer stretch of coastline. The capital, Accra, is situated along the coast. The country shares borders with Togo to the east, Cote dIvoire on the west and Burkina Faso to the north. Ghana covers a total area of 238,537 square km (92,100 square miles). Ghana is well endowed with natural resources gold, timber, and cocoa the major sources of foreign exchange, and recently discovered oil in commercial quantities. The domestic economy continues to revolve around subsistence agriculture, which accounts for 34.7 percent of GDP and employs 56 percent of the work force, mainly smallholders. The country has a total of 170 metropolitan, municipal and district assemblies within its ten administrative regions and has approximately 22 million people. Most of the population is concentrated in the southern part of the country, with highest densities occurring in urban and cocoa-producing areas.(USAID) . Ghana is rapidly urbanizing. Despite this, most of Ghanas poor live in rural areas without basic services such as health care and clean water. Small-scale farmers, who are affected most by rural poverty in Ghana, depend on outdated farming tools and lack access to improved seeds and fertilizers to increase crop yields. Since independence Ghana has had a long fight with poverty. There have been six development plans implemented in Ghana since 1951. They have all generally sought to improve upon the growth of GDP and ensuring an acceptable level of social and political life for the country. The most recent and significant have been the Vision 2020 and The Ghana Poverty Reduction Strategy.( Eugene Eluerkeh,2004) Environmental degradation is difficult to define. In simple terms environmental degradation can be said to be the deterioration of the environment through depletion of resources such as air, water and soil, the destruction of the ecosystems and the extinction of wildlife. Poverty is the state of having inadequate access to ones survival needs and basic social amenities which include food, clothing, shelter, education, good health, employment, transport, communication and other basic social services. Poverty breeds frustration, depression, helplessness, carelessness, insecurity, indiscipline, crime and struggle to meet immediate survival needs at the expense of long-term environmental benefits. This struggle for survival has been the major linkage of the poor to environmental degradation such as deforestation, land degradation of coastal habitats and poor urban sanitation that keep perpetual poverty. Poverty can be assessed at the individual, household, community, district, regional and national levels in which case a nations capability to provide the social needs of its people is used as a measure of its poverty status. One out of five people on earth still live with $1 a day, and many coordinated effort and commitment have been targeted to reduce the number of poor people including the socalled Millennium Development Goals: halving extreme poverty by the year 2015 (World Bank, DFID, EC, UNDP, 2002). As part of the conditions to be met for the realization of (HIPC) relief package, Ghana, like its counterpart countries, was to develop a Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP) to indicate how monies accrued from joining (HIPC) would be used to alleviate poverty among Ghanaians. The broad strategies outlined in the document included good governance, macro-economic stability, production, employment, vulnerability and exclusion, and human resource development. Unfortunately, however, the environment, which is the primary ingredient for survival, growth and development was not streamlined in the document. Environmental degradation is a result of the dynamic inter play of socio-economic, institutional and technological activities. Environmental changes may be driven by many factors including economic growth, population growth, urbanization, intensification of agriculture, rising energy use and transportation. Poverty still remains a problem at the root of several environmental problems. Poverty is said to be both cause and effect of environmental degradation. The circular link between poverty and environment is an extremely complex phenomenon. Inequality may foster unsustainability because the poor, who rely on natural resources more than the rich, deplete natural resources faster as they have no real prospects of gaining access to other types of resources. Moreover, degraded environment can accelerate the process of impoverishment, again because the poor depend directly on natural assets Environmental sustainability should thus, be a key priority area in our strategic plans towards poverty alleviation. Within this context therefore, the right linkage between the various specific environmental degradation and poverty must be well established to the appreciation of all stakeholders. In search of an explanation of the poverty- environmental degradation linkage, many studies have been done in this regard. In terms of urban poverty, it is suggested that there is little evidence of it being a significant contributor to environmental degradation but strong evidence that urban environ-mental hazards are major contributors to urban poverty (David Satterthwaite). Most of the studies on the poverty-environment linkage have used panel data studies and hence have not been country specific. This study thus aims to explore in detail the poverty-environment linkage with specific reference to the Ghanaian situation. It will thus review the existing literature on the poverty-environment linkage, provide an overview of the poverty and environment profile in Ghana and attempt to provide policy recommendations suitable for the Ghanaian situation. Statement of Problem Poverty in Ghana has for a long been considered an economic problem. Hence economic policies that have been developed haved not considered the environment. It is however useful to consider the interplay between the environment and poverty in formulating policies designed to alleviate poverty. Various studies have established that there exists some kind of dynamic interplay between the state of the environment and poverty levels. Hence it is useful to consider the impact of the various economic policies designed to reduce poverty on the environment. Significance of the study The study will be of immense significance to the economy of Ghana. It will attempt to explain the poverty-environment linkage in Ghana. The study will review the literature on the poverty and environmental profile of Ghana. It will then explore the impact that policy reforms that have been designed to alleviate poverty have had on the environment. Objectives of the study The main objective of the study will be to: explore the poverty-environmental degradation linkage in Ghana. Explore the determinants of environmental degradation im Ghana. Elaborate on steps taken to reduce environmental degradation in Ghana Evaluate the existing economic policies designed to reduce poverty Data and Methodology The study will use macro data on poverty levels and measures on environmental degradation. To achieve the above objectives the study will adopt and modify the model used by Shaista Alam in the study Globalization, Poverty and Environmental Degradation: Sustainable Development in Pakistan . The model is given as: lnEGt= ÃŽÂ ²0+ÃŽÂ ²1lnPVRTt+ÃŽÂ ²2lnFRTt+ÃŽÂ ²3lnURBNt+ÃŽÂ ²4lnPOPt+ÃŽÂ ²5lnEDUt+ÃŽÂ µ where the variables are defined as follows: EG is environmental degradation,FRT is fertilizer consumption (in metric tons), URBN is the rate of urbanization, POP is the population growth, PVRT represents poverty, EDU is the education.

Changing the World Through Education :: Teaching Teachers Essays

Changing the World Through Education My philosophy on teaching involves changing the world through my students. I want to enable my students, through education and motivation, to leave the world better than they have hound it. Like many social reconstructionists, I feel that we as teachers owe it to the future generations to instruct them how to handle the problems they will encounter in hopes that they will pass on fewer problems to their children. I will work every minute of everyday to ensure my students’ successful futures. I believe that students need a routine to help them think clearly and freely, such as that suggest by the Perennialist approach. Upon graduating from Concord College, I will attend graduate school and receive my Master’s degree in Education. I will be teaching at different places around the country, as I will be moving frequently. My future occupational plans include working with the Department of Defense school systems. I will use my educational background and my life experiences to enlighten and teach my students. Issues that I feel are crucial to address which also pertain to my particular philosophy are increasing political awareness, raising racial tolerance and acceptance, reducing child abuse and violence against women, and recycling and appreciation for our natural resources. Methods I would use in my classroom to get students involved would include community service projects, recycling drives, field trips to shelters and centers, and food and clothing drives within the class. Activities such as these, where students can see the changes they are making, get them motivated in a way that no general lessons can. Children need to feel the selfless satisfaction that comes from helping their fellow man. I have had many excellent teachers throughout my educational experience, some of these have been wonderful teachers that have set lessons to life. Others have been boring, overly strict, unapproachable, and at times unknowledgeable. I have learned valuable lessons from both. A positive and fun learning environment makes students want to be in the classroom. The first step in learning is that the children must want to be there.

Project Management Life Cycle Essay

Four Steps of Project Management Life Cycle Project Management Life Cycle is a separation for a project. According to Ms. Cui’s research, managers can separate a whole project to some steps and connect those steps with project operation; the sum of all those steps are project management life cycle (Cui, 2011). There are four components in project management life cycle, which are time requirement, project stages, project task and project result. Generally, because the unpredictability of project, project management life cycle often uses time dimension to control and evaluate the project (Cui, 2011). There are many ways to separate project life cycle into steps. Project Management Institute in United States (PMI) separates the project life cycle into three steps: beginning stage, medium stage and final stage (Cui, 2011). Chinese Project Management Body of Knowledge (C-PMBOK) separates the project life cycle into four steps: Conception Phase, Development Phase, Implementation Phase and Final Phase. Though those two standards have some differences, both of them separate a project into many steps in order to survey and control the operation of project. In my opinion, the standard of C-PMBOK is better than the standard of PMI. C-PMBOK’s standard is not only based on time dimension but also based on activity dimension. C-PMBOK demonstrates the important aim for each stage. However, the standard of PMI is only based on time dimension and fails to demonstrate aims of stages. (1) Conception Phase In this step, the project practitioner should try his or her best to clarify the core mission, the clients’ demand, the aim and the definition of his or her project. In business, project practitioners may send a Request for Proposal (RFP) to customers. According to the feedback of RFP, project practitioner will make a basic concept for his or her project. Feasibility report and project design are two necessary documents in this step. (2) Development Phase In this step, project practitioner should make the detail plan for the whole project and discuss this plan with customers. This step is the last step before the project will be put into practice. Not only a plan, a scheduling duration should be set up for next stage. In addition, project practitioner should organize the team and arrange works. (3) Implementation Phase In this step, the project is implemented. Project team should works as the project plan and ensure all phased aims achieved. (4) Final Phase After Implementation Phase, the work of the project is finished. However, finishing all works does not means that the whole project finishes. In this step, some important work still should be done. For example, in trading business project, project practitioner should check out whether the goods are delivered to correct client and whether all invoices are paid in time. In addition, the feedback from clients and the lesson learned are both should be done in this step. People should understand that those steps above are a general method to separate the project life cycle. Both standards of C-PMBOK and PMI are guides rather than practical ways. In different industries, most of managers will use those ways to separate manage their projects. However, according to the different characters of industries, managers separate their project based on their different needs. For Instance, in urban construction industry, Morris Model is widely used in project management life cycle (Dong & Wang, 2010). Morris Model separates the project life cycle into four steps, which is same as general method. However, steps in Morris Model demonstrate the characters of urban construction industry: Feasibility step, urban planning and designing, building step and putting into use step (Dong & Wang, 2010). The Ways to Evaluate and Control the Project To ensure the project operating well and on time, the ways to evaluate and control are important. In current project management life cycle theory, three concepts are introduced to managers, which are used to evaluate the project operation. (1) Checkpoint Checkpoint is a specific time point. Managers will set up many checkpoints in each steps of project life cycle. Every checkpoint will have a specific time span with another one. Manager will compare the situation of project operation with project plan to check whether or not the project is on track. For example, when China Merchants Bank designed their new system, the manager of IT department set a checkpoint every two week to evaluate whether this employees finished their work as project plan that is 1000 lines computer programs per week. (2) Milestone Milestone is a specific time point, too. However, different with checkpoint, the project will be evaluated not only whether the time schedule is okay but also whether the quality and goal requirements are achieved on milestone. Milestone will be set after a stage work finish. In a step of project life cycle, there will be many checkpoints but only few milestones. (3) Baseline Baseline is a kind of special milestone. The stage work before a baseline will be the basis of the stage work after this baseline. For example, when airplane company designs a new plane, engine design and tuning will be a stage work followed by a baseline because of three reasons. First, the engine design and tuning should be finish in time because the fly test cannot be done without engine. Second, the quality of engine design and tune is the core element of the safety of test. Third, the engine design will be one of basics of next stage work – plane tuning. When manager set checkpoint, milestone and baseline, they need to consider carefully. If the time spans between them are too short, the evaluation will be meaningless. However, if time spans are too long, mistakes will accumulate too many and serious to be fixed and rescued. Managers should try to ensure the project is operating as schedule. If missing the checkpoint, milestone or baseline, managers need to fix their plan to chase the time expected schedule, or the project might be delay or failed on quality. Reference Gray, C. F., & Larson, E. W. (2000). Project Management: The Managerial Process. Boston: Irwin/McGraw-Hill, c2000. Project Life Cycle. (2010). Retrieved from http://wiki.mbalib.com/wiki/%E9%A1%B9%E7%9B%AE%E7%94%9F%E5%91%BD%E5%91%A8%E6%9C%9F Dong, W., & Wang, J. (2010). The Project Management Life Cycle of Urban Construction Based on Parallel Engineering. Urban Construction. 4(69). 161-162. Retrieved from http://doc.mbalib.com/view/72774efdf93f3360debc6fa5f66edfd8.html Miao, Z. (2012). The Management of Core Stage of PDM Project Life Cycle. E-Work. Retrieved from http://doc.mbalib.com/view/d1b58b855dd0dc9998b3ee7d4899a771.html Cui, L. (2011). The Optimization Research of Project Management of â€Å"Graduate Student Research Project†. Journal of Guangxi University. Retrieved from http://doc.mbalib.com/view/c6c150395dca43e5a5755d199261d8b5.html

Business And Management Personal Statement Essay

Creativity is what drove me to pursue in Business and Management at University of Westminster. Business has always fascinated me. During my time growing up, I have seen the global economy change rapidly. The European Union has faced many atrocious crisis, making Europe unstable. As a result to prevent the instability, small businesses created jobs to improve the European Union’s economy, and one day I want my business to be a part of that improvement. I came across a quote from Henry Ford, the founder of Ford Motor Company which stated â€Å"A business that makes nothing but money is poor business† Ford Motor Company is a hugely successful company which all probably started with creativity and ambition to actually create something that fulfils peoples need. This further encouraged me to produce a few ideas of my own. Two ideas in particular have stood out to me; firstly: Expand my current company. When I was in my last year in High school, I started my first youth enterprise with my classmate. We noticed that there was a huge request for thin jewelleries among young women. So we created a business plan and named our business Tropical Jewellery UF. Our company took great success and received a lot of positive response. My next idea for this company is to expand it internationally. I still want to develop the business and be as creative as I can, since I have put my whole in this idea. Secondly I have studied a lot about the global poverty. My main idea is to increase the education equivalent in countries who suffers from poverty by creating schools in these affecting areas. I know in particular that I will be facing difficulty whilst establishing the idea, however I will be fighting this struggle in order to create education. Through studying three different math courses, I have gained the ability to interpret data and successfully solve the task and draw conclusion from it. Beside studying math, I have also studied three business courses, marketing and a lot of other courses. I am a very well rounded person with skills and knowledge in many fields. I believe this is an important feature of a business person as they need to be able to deal with many different varieties of challenges. In and out of school I have a big interest in languages. I speak fluent Arabic and of course Swedish. I have studied Spanish for seven years, and I can almost speak it fluently. During my last year in school I studied a French course. I spent two weeks of my summer in  France. I continued to develop my French skills in Paris. During my third year, I studied Cambridge Advanced English and did the exam and got a certificate at the beginning of the summer. A business degree is exceptionally various and can lead to many opportu nities. At present I have recently entered the business world and I am already eager to learn more.