Definition and Meaning of Illiteracy

Definition and Meaning of Illiteracy Illiteracy is the quality or condition of being unable to read or write. Illiteracy is a major problem throughout the world. According to Anne-Marie Trammell, Worldwide, 880 million adults have been labeled as illiterate, and in the United States it is estimated that almost 90 million adults are functionally illiterate, that is to say that they do not have the minimal skills needed to function in society (Encyclopedia of Distance Learning, 2009). In England, says a report from the National Literacy Trust, Around 16 percent, or 5.2 million adults, can be described as functionally illiterate. They would not pass an English GCSE and have literacy levels at or below those expected of an 11-year-old (Literacy: State of the Nation, 2014).   Observations The subculture of illiteracy is larger than anyone on the outside would ever believe. The National Assessment of Adult Literacy (NAAL) conducted a study of illiteracy among adults in the United States in 2003, the results of which were released in December 2005. NAAL found that 43 percent of the total population aged 16 and older, or some 93 million people, ranked at the below-basic or basic level in their reading skills. Fourteen percent of the adult population had below-basic skills in reading and understanding prose texts, a percentage that was unchanged from 1992 when the first NAAL report was released.The gap between the 43 percent at below-basic and basic prose literacy and the 57 percent at intermediate and proficient raises the question: How can those at lower levels compete in a world that demands increasing literacy skills? Not surprisingly, the NAAL study found that among adults with below-basic prose literacy, 51 percent were not in the labor force.(John Corcoran, The Bri dge to Literacy. Kaplan, 2009) Illiteracy and the Internet As teenagers’ scores on standardized reading tests have declined or stagnated, some argue that the hours spent prowling the Internet are the enemy of reading, diminishing literacy, wrecking attention spans and destroying a precious common culture that exists only through the reading of books.But others say the Internet has created a new kind of reading, one that schools and society should not discount. The Web inspires a teenager who might otherwise spend most of her leisure time watching television, to read and write.(Motoko Rich, Literacy Debate: Online, R U Really Reading? The New York Times, July 27, 2008) Literacy as  a Continuum of Skills Illiteracy has fallen from one in five people to almost nonexistent over a century and a bit. But illiteracy clearly isn’t a single on-or-off switch. It’s not just you can read and write or you can’t. Literacy is a continuum of skills. Basic education now reaches virtually all Americans. But many among the poorest have the weakest skills in formal English.That combines with another fact: more people are writing than ever before. Even most of the poor today have cell phones and internet. When they text or scribble on Facebook, they’re writing. We easily forget that this is something that farmhands and the urban poor almost never did in centuries past. They lacked the time and means even if they had the education.(Robert Lane Greene, Schotts Vocab Guest Post: Robert Lane Greene on Language Sticklers. The New York Times, March 8, 2011)

Euphemisms for Job Loss

Euphemisms for Job Loss Euphemisms for Job Loss Euphemisms for Job Loss By Maeve Maddox The unfortunate occasion of being dismissed from employment can be expressed in numerous ways. Some of the more familiar expressions are: to be made redundant to receive a pink slip to be dismissed to be discharged to be laid off to be let go to lose one’s job to be fired to be got rid of to be booted out to be given the boot to get the sack to be sacked to be given one’s marching orders to get the ax/axe These homely expressions still appear in headlines: Pentagon gives pink slips to thousands of soldiers, including active-duty officers Digital strategy to axe tens of thousands of central government jobs Thousands of Woolworths staff face sack in Christmas week Thousands of Doctors Fired by United Healthcare However, when it comes to carefully worded announcements issued by people doing the firing, today’s reader must exercise advanced skills of textual interpretation. Here are some of the ways firing people is described by public relations officers: realigning the workforce reallocating resources focusing on involuntary attrition rightsizing the company offering unpaid leave with the option to pursue new employment eliminating redundancy smart-sizing the company redeploying workers rewiring for growth eliminating positions rethinking our future adjusting to shifts in demand rebalancing human capital re-engineering simplifying streamlining going in another direction And my personal favorite: decruiting. decruit (verb): to remove people working for an organization from their jobs because they are no longer needed. Clearly modeled on the word recruit, this poor little misshapen invention is already being used without scare quotes: the phenomenon of companies announcing their various intentions to decruit vast numbers of people.  Ã¢â‚¬â€œStanley Bing, Fortune. Teach leaders what they must know to decruit workers when necessary. –from a brochure for a business leader workshop sponsored by Penn State. Let go of the unalterable agents. If you can’t change their work habits, then change their work place. Decruit them. Let them go. –â€Å"Tips to Lead Your Company to Success,† Miami Association of Realtors. Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Expressions category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:50 Idioms About TalkingBody Parts as Tools of MeasurementArtist vs. Artisan

Threats Facing Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) Assignment

Threats Facing Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) - Assignment Example The unified economic agreement between the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council was signed on November 11, 1981 in Abu Dhabi. These countries are often referred to as The GCC States. This area has some of the fastest growing economies in the world, mostly due to a boom in oil and natural gas revenues coupled with a building and investment boom backed by decades of saved petroleum revenues. In an effort to build a tax base and economic foundation before the reserves run out, the UAE's investment arms, including Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, retain over $900 billion in assets. Other regional funds also have several hundred billion dollars. The region is also an emerging hotspot for events, including the 2006 Asian Games in Doha, Qatar. Doha also submitted an unsuccessful application for the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. However, Qatar was later chosen to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup. In 2006, its GDP (nominal) was $717.8 billion (IMF April 2007), led by spectacular growth in United Arab Emirates and Qatar. In 2007, its GDP (nominal) was $1,022.62 billion (IMF April 2008). IMF predicts its GDP to reach $1,112.076 billion at end of 2008 and $1,210.112 billion at end of 2009. ... Recovery plans have been criticized for crowding out the private sector, failing to set clear priorities for growth, failing to restore weak consumer and investor confidence, and undermining long-term stability. Threats being faced by GCC countries are numerous. These threats are both internal and external. Given the vast possession of natural resources like Oil and Gas, many internal and external forces are at work against these countries. Monarchs rule all the GCC countries, although all of them have provided more or less high degree of social welfare in their states there is a growing demand by public for democracy and basic human rights first being freedom of speech. (Web- The GCC in a turbulent world ) GCC states are facing several domestic challenges headed by demographic issues, which are to blame for political and economic problems as well as others associated with security and linked to the presence of a large proportion of foreign workers on GCC soil. The issues include agg ravation of the â€Å"growing fundamentalist Threat, effects of instability in Iraq, fallout of Iranian nuclear issue, over all security of Gulf, US and EU interests in the GCC area, presence of foreign troops in the area, US strategy in the area to â€Å"prevent any force from imposing its hegemony on the GCC area†, security of oil shipments, presence of US forces in consolidating the GCC regimes, Iranian role to undermining Iraq’s stability and Iranian nuclear issue presenting a serious challenge to the stability of the area. GCC countries remain unstable due to impact of host of issues on the region directly. Major challenges being security, economy and demography. These countries face internal conflicts with each other like GCC versus Iran and Iraq.

American civil rights movements, why do they form refer to different Essay

American civil rights movements, why do they form refer to different perspectives and use examples to illustrate your points - Essay Example It was able to institute that any form of discrimination was unjust and cannot be put up with, in any place within the country. This also set out a clear example to the oppressed groups around the county and other nations. The black people needed to have the same opportunities in education and working places. They also needed to have equal rights to vote and choose the leaders of their own like (Jarrett 2011). For a long time, it has been not easy for them to get a possibility to move away from the ghetto and be able to get decent jobs. Many of the schools were also segregated, and this made it difficult for the blacks to get good and better education. Moreover, the police forces mostly treated the blacks with contempt and violent behaviour. African Americans and other races that were being oppressed refused this form of rule and decided to defend themselves against it. They sought chances through lawsuits, political redress and other organisations that would fight and stand for thei r rights. The Reasons why the American civil rights Movements were Formed American civil rights movements were protests that were brought out by a group of many people who were against racial inequity in the United States of America. These movements were taken to be organised activities, which worked with an objective to achieve a better end in terms of the relations within the society. These movements took place during a period when the African American rights in the United States of America were being undermined by the whites. The African Americans decided to rally for the legal, political and cultural changes that do prohibits the discrimination of any race (Feinstein 2012). Different groups of citizens have been fighting for the fundamental rights in the American constitution. Because of their skin colour, the black people were not able to receive the same rights and privileges as the whites did. The social unrest that led to the civil rights movements was brought about by these injustices. Over the years in the American history, some courageous African American individuals decided to stand up and lead thousands of the oppressed people against the discrimination they were facing. Rosa Parks After she left the Maxwell Air Force Base, Rosa Parks worked for a couple named Clifford and Virginia Durr. After getting along with them, the couple sponsored her studies at Highlander Folk School in 1955. In essence, the school was a center designed to educate the black community about racial equality and the rights of the workers. Rosa’s quench for fight against racial discrimination was triggered by the murder of Emmett Till, a 14 year old black male, who was murdered by white men who suspected that he had flirted with a white woman (Eagles et al 1986). In addition, after Rosa took a job at the Montgomery Fair Department store, she witnessed a series of racial discrimination especially in buses, which she used to travel in to and from work. At that time, Blac ks were not allowed to sit at the front row seats. These were reserved for whites. To make the situation worse, if the whites bonded the bus and found that the bus was full, and the blacks were discriminated. With such deliberations, Rosa and other activists in

Old Messages Brought To Life Essay -- essays research papers

Old Messages Brought to Life Today's world needs to be taught the old messages of life. We have so many different religions that preach the same things. All are of one or more supreme beings and their teachings. Across this world it is the same messages and yet we fight one another, because my god of love is better then your god of love. The basic human problems are even the same we all call these situations sin. Is it possible to change the world and it beliefs? One must start with their self and realize that the basic rules for life. Laws condition the manifest universe and life on earth. There are inviolable laws of life that govern all aspects of earthly life and determine the destiny of each individual. Understanding the first three or four help you to understand the rest. They cannot be ignored without inviting negative consequences. It is therefore important that one understands these laws and observes them. The whole universe is permeated with divine presence. Therefore one should deal with every object in it as if one is dealing with oneself or with "God". Everyone's god is omnipresent and omniscient in each religious person's eyes. Everything in this universe is sacred because it is filled with the presence of this Supreme Being. Everything in this universe is therefore a divine entity and should be treated as such. Those who seek harmony and peace in life understand this principle very well and treat every thing in the worl...

Foucauldian Studies and HRM Essay

When considering about human resource management (HRM) being understood as discourse, it is necessary to connect Foucault’ s theory on discourse with employee selection as a crucial part of human resource management. Though Foucault himself not a specialist in HRM, it appears that numerous organization studies scholars tend to drawn on Foucault’s ideas for the purpose of re-analyzing and re-understanding HRM. (Barrantt, 2001) The reason is that Foucault’s understanding of the relationship between discourse, truth and power implies how we should regard HRM from different perspective and put it into re-consideration. Generally, discourse could be understand as ‘ a set of concepts, expressions and statements that constitutes a way of talking or writing about an aspect of the world, thus framing the way people understand and act with regard to that aspect of the world’ (Watson, 2002: 118). And in Foucault’s view, discourse is a flexible term. In one of Foucault’ s book, The Archaeology of Knowledge, published in 1969, was an outstanding work of post-structuralism example. He believes that discourse is a statement unity. It talks about the statement (enonce), which is a rule for the discursive expression to become meaningful. In Foucault’ s view, the statement has some special archeological meanings. The rules give the meaning of its existence. The meaning of the statement is dependent on the context where it presents. So discursive framing provide a language to representing a topic (Foucault, 1969). So discourse is more than language. It is the way we understand or interpret the world. Due to discourse is shaped or unshaped by society and culture, there are various discourses. The same as for HRM, it can be understand and interpreted from a different perspective. There is no doubt that Foucaultdian studies give new understanding of HRM. This paper will analyze and critically think of three contributions of reframing HRM Foucaultdian studies give. The first part will analyze human resource management as discourse. It focuses on how Foucualtdiansm understand HRM in different perspectives. The second part will discuss the relationship between HRM and power, which includes how Foucault decodes power, its relationship with knowledge or truth, and how HRM associated with power. The third part will focus on one important aspect of HRM, employee selection, to explore how employee selection can be understood and interpret in different ways. Finally, a conclusion will be drawn based on previous discussion. HRM as Discourse Generally, HRM are treated as a set of practices that regard human as resource to achieve companies’ targets or interests. It is a product of modern society. From managerial perspective, human resource management featured with ‘rationality, optimism and authoritarianism’ (Legge, 1995). Numerous scholars have explored human resource management from Foucualdian perspective. Generally, the discourse in HRM is associated with power. Poole (1999) argued that it is probably happened that the discursive analysis contains the description of the HRM discourse related occasion. It will provoke the issue between the subjects who have the right to speak and its influence on employees. When it comes to Foucault, he did not study in HRM but attracts a number of scholars of HRM. Townley (1993) was a representative who put the relation between HRM and Foucault’ s disciplinary power into consideration. She argued that HRM could be best comprehended as a discourse and provides Foucauldian analyses of distinctive feature of HRM. Because Foucault provided a hint that there are interconnections between discourse, power and truth. So Foucault gave HRM discourse much place to be considered from new perspective (Du Gay et al, 1996). From Foucauldian perspective, HRM is to ‘impose order on the inherently undecidable-the employment contract’ (Legge, 2005:345). It is excising of power that allow managers to manage. Following Foucault’s theory, it is argued here that the subject plays a critical role in HRM. To support this, Foucauldian studies lay emphasis on the influence of the subject in HRM. In human resource management, ‘the subject plays a more active role’ (Barratt, 2003). The process of HR management witnessed examination and identification of the subject. Foucualt (1988) himself argued that individuals are influenced and influence others by their certain means. All aspects of HRM including employee selection, company’s culture and performance appraisal are the product of subjectivity. Take performance appraisal for example, employees have to subject to an authoritative appraisal system to confess their performance at work (Townley, 1993). It can be regarded as an action of subjective power. Emphasizing on subject gives space for diverse understandings and interpretations of HRM. Despite of the dominant understanding of HRM from managerial perspective, HRM can be something else because post-structuralism and Foucaudian studies propose that there is no definite understanding of a topic. For example, Nayab (2011) argued that HRM could be interpreted in five ways. The fist is normative perspective, which separates HRM as personnel management and strategic human resource management. The second is to consider HRM in a critical way. It is believed that the reality showed the contradiction between traditional HRM and the new one. The ‘behavioral Perspective’ is different from others. It put more emphasis on their performance. The purpose of HRM is to guide and manage employees in order to ‘attain the desired performance’ (Nayab, 2011). Seen from the systems perspective, HRM concerns about the outcome of human resource. It is a factory that using employees as material and producing organizational turnover. The last one is ‘agency or transaction cost perspective’ (Nayab, 2011). This understanding is putting HRM as a mediator of conflicts for the purpose of minimizing the cost. The five understandings of HRM are thinking HRM from different perspective, which inspire the new understandings or some changes against the dominant way of managing human resource. However, the most important stakeholder in HRM may be employee, because it is the opposite poison against managers also the employee’s voice is increasingly needed in modern HRM. The dominant understanding of HRM is hinking and defining from a managerial perspective. Actually, the employee’s view on HRM varied based on the HRM models (Whitener, 2001) Fiona Edgar and Alan J. Geare (2005) did some research on exploring employee’s voice on HRM. The result showed that employees tend to keep a positive attitude towards soft HRM model and resist the traditional and hard one. However, the current HRM needs so me change in order to meet employee’s need for self-development. It is possible that the different understandings of HRM push the revolution in both theoretical and practical field. HRM and power Michel Foucault is famous for his critical studies on power, knowledge and discourse. However, according to Foucault (1980), discourse has no definitive explanation. It could be understood in various perspectives. There is no definite truth in the world. People always impose their subjective consciousness upon the truth. So it is hard to keep the right way to the truth seeking. (Wetherall, 2001) Classical theory represented by Marx implied the traditional understanding the relationship between knowledge and power (Barratt, 2003). Ideology is regarded as a tool for power. It covers the truth so that people who are governed subject to managing without resistance (Braverman, 1976). However, one main defect of his theory is that he neglects the subject. He defined individuals at work as representation of economic or employment relations (Knights and Willmott, 1985, 1989). In Foucault’s theory, the connection between power and knowledge is complex. Power is everywhere. Also, we have to put human subject into consideration. The reason why discourse is important is that the point of Foucault’s theory not only lies in how the language expresses meanings but also in what is the relationship between the discourse and the objective behind, or what kind of power imposed (Luke, 1999). In the Order of Discourse, Foucault (1971) claimed that the notion of exclusion is well known in our society, but the most obvious one is prohibition. In other words, not all the topic is allowed in a certain occasion and not everyone is given the right to speak out everything. Discourse itself is not an important issue. However, the prohibition behind the discourse surprised us due to its connection with the desire and power. In addition, there is another kind of exclusion principle, which is the opposition between reason and madness. On one hand, the discourse of a madman no doubt will be regarded as invalid and unreliable. On the other hand, the madman is given the gift of predicting and revealing the truth. So in fact, there is no definite so-called â€Å"madness†(Foucault, 1971). The abnormal itself presents the control from a certain group of people. Or in other words, power defines the truth the madness to convince people. In terms of knowledge, Foucault (1971) argued that power create knowledge, they are connected with each other. Also, knowledge is only available to the public only when stated within discourse. He claimed that knowledge and truth are not independent and objective. They are connected closely with power and become the legitimate protection for power operating. As Foucault stated it in The History of Sexuality ‘Discourses are not once and for all subservient to power or raised up against it, and more than silences are. We must make allowances for the complex and unstable process whereby discourse can both an instrument and an effect of power, but also a hindrance, a stumbling-block, a point of resistance and a starting point for an opposing strategy. Discourse transmits and produces power: it reinforces it, but also undermines and exposes it, renders it fragile and makes it possible to thwart it. ’ (Foucault, 1980) Also, the power displayed in Discipline and Punish helps us to critically think about the self-regulation, which can be applied into workplace. It mentioned the disciplinary power. As Foucault (1977) observed, the prison designed by Jeremy Bentham is a technique of the panoptic gaze. The central tower makes prisoners to discipline themselves. So when it comes to the workplace, the panoptic gaze also normalizing individuals’ behavior. In 1950, Elton Mayo and Fritz Roethlisberger put forwarded the Hawthorne effect (French, 1953). They observed the performance of labors in an electric factory. They found that when the lights become brighter, workers tend to discipline themselves and the production will increase. This kind of self-regulation also can be seen in modern workplaces where CCTVs and call centers are facilitated. It is a sort of ‘info-normative control’ (Frenkel et al, 1995) that evaluates employees’ performance objectively. But also the monitoring may damage the culture of leaning form each other and lay too much stress on workers (Knights & McCabe, 2003). However, it seems that power is everywhere but it does not mean power is everything. Knights and McCabe also argued that power is not possessed by certain group of people, even the disciplinary power cannot decide the individual’s behavior. Foucault (1980) supposed that when individuals put power into action, they are given their own identity and meaning. Subjects are getting gradually split from the collective class, but it is neither individualism nor collectivism (Knights, 1994). It should be treated dialectically. So the power has its influence on knowledge and discourse. Or even the disciplinary power promotes self-regulation and make employees subject to the power. However, the impact of the subject cannot be neglected. It interacts with power and discourse.

South Sudan - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 3 Words: 908 Downloads: 5 Date added: 2018/12/17 Category Politics Essay Type Critical essay Level High school Tags: United States Essay Did you like this example? Southern Sudan was part of the Sudan country from which it seceded itself in the year 2011 with the help of United States. It is a country that is rich in mineral like oil, and it has a fertile land that can support farming to help its large population. This paper will be investigating the humanitarian intervention in South Sudan. Towards the end of the year 2013, there has been a brutal civil war between the ruling leaders that is President Salva Kiir who is from Dinka ethnic group and also Riek Machar from the Nuer group. They are have made the current government to be dysfunctional and have made the country to move towards genocide kind of just like their neighbour Rwanda. Negotiations between the two leaders to stop fighting over each other has not yet born fruits. The two leaders started fighting when Machar was fired from the government by Kiir because he was kind of wanted to overthrow the government. And since then a lot of civil war has been in the country. Around 2 million people out of 11.6 million of the people in the country have fled from their homes. This has disrupted the agricultural production in the country as well as the accessibility of the people to the local market is a problem. Food shortage has increased at rate and health needs has been scarce. The economic growth and rate of the de velopment in the country are at very low rate despite the fact that the country is rich in oil. Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "South Sudan" essay for you Create order The United Nations has been sending its troops to South Sudan to protect the life of the civilian from the mass killing. Their effort has not yet helped the country to get out of the crisis that it is in. This has contributed the other countries like the United States of America to get in. The doctrine of the responsibility that usually for dealing with the cases of crime against humanity or genocides has been put forward has not born fruits. Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has is one of the diplomat actors that has to threaten the Southern Sudanese political parties to enforce sanctions on them for not abiding with the terms of keeping the peace. But has never put sanctions on them and that is why they are continuing with the civil war. The dry season of the country together with the civil war is leading to the killing of thousands of people. This fighting seems to continue, and hence it will subject the civilians to violence and even genocide. This is predictions also states that the drought and loss of agricultural workforce will lower food supply in South Sudan. The cause of the conflict in southern Sudan is political and ethnic conflict, general underdevelopment as well as the struggle for the resources. The main cause of the humanitarian crisis in southern Sudan was the political-military conflict that arose between Kiir and Machar after having a lot of rivalries. Kiir has tried to uphold his power, but Machar weakened the southern Sudan government. The rebel leader Machar had called for reforms, and this loosens the Kiirs power. This political conflict has led to exploitation of ethnic affiliations. General underdevelopment due to southern Sudan being unable to control its resources together with foreign aids since it is a new country. It was unable to manage its resources to bring development. The two main resources in southern Sudan had fuelled to civil war; oil and agriculture. Each party was fighting to get its resources which fuelled the war. The state at which south Sudan is forcing United States to face a significant pressure of acting. Various interventions are trying to be put in place to affect the political dynamics that in line with the humanitarian crisis. They include the following; use of the o direct military intervention. The U.S government by doing will be able to save its troops together with its aid workers from being harmed by the civilians who are fighting. U.S also needs to provide intervention so that it can provide humanitarian aid in the neighbouring countries. Since thousands of the southern Sudanese refugees have moved to the border countries, such as Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan and Uganda. If U.S isin the position of adding some more aid to them, they will be able to accommodate the refugees in a better way after adding what comes from the UN. The United Statesneeds to intervene in South Sudan by itself. Ifit does this, it will be able to assist the civilians who have been displaced by giving them food and shelter. They will do this by use of helicopters to reach the no gone zones due to poor roads. It is important to note that the United States needs to use humanitarian with peace enforcement; this is the most ambitious option to bring a lot of peace. The aim of this will be to look into the cause of the human tragedy, the conflict that is existing and the alleviating human suffering. This will be accompanied by coming up with aid for the citizens and then set up delivering stations. To bring peace in South Sudan, U.S needs to separate the two warring parties. In case one party breaches the agreements then U.S will be forced to open fire so that it cans p-prevent further conflict. By doing this U.S will cool the war in the south Sudan.