Assess the significance of religious conflicts in creating a Essay

Assess the significance of religious conflicts in creating a parliamentary challenge to royal authority in the years 1529-164 - Essay Example The open conflict that developed between the King and parliament in 1629 arose from a series of clashes that had begun when Charles I succeeded to the throne in 1625, but its root course laid much deeper intensions that had existed since 1603. James had inherited a monarch with conditions of a mixed inheritance from his predecessors. On one hand, he had inherited a very stable system of government where the royal power was accepted and also exercised through a legal system which drew from the common law in the kingdom. There were also areas where direct power was exercised through the royal prerogative. The society he inherited was relatively prosperous and well ordered with characteristics of increased education and able administrators (Noble, Strauss, Osheim, Nauschel and Accampo, 2010). During the same time, he was the head of the Church of England and so he had the responsibility of very contentious issues that could affect individuals in the society. He was also faced with major financial problems which were worsened by the war against Catholic Spain and the rebellion in Catholic Ireland. Most of Elizabeth’s subjects welcomed the accession of James I into power because being a male protestant king with several children; he offered the prospects of security and stable succession. Catholics hoped that the respect for his dead mother, Mary queen of Scots would make him ease the persecution they suffered. The puritans on the other hand hoped that his upbringing in the Presbyterian church of Scotland would actually favor their plans for reform. However in the long run, both were utterly disappointed because James suspended the collection of fines for recusancy. However he re- imposed them in 1604 when he was faced with complaints in his parliament and thus feared the loss of income (Noble et al, 2010). His move led an extremist minority

Women Maternity Clothing Store (Part 2 of Business Plan) Assignment

Women Maternity Clothing Store (Part 2 of Business Plan) - Assignment Example Majority of pregnant women are working class who require clean and appealing work attire. According to statistics the population between age 15- 19 years are at times jobless with few having successful careers hence need for product that would suit low, middle and high-income customers within the region. The region as described demands warm clothing owing to prevailing weather conditions. Weather is vital in this business and plays significant role in design of merchandises. The region experiences longer winter seasons and shorter summer seasons and is characterized by busy and low season, in this case the busy season for most stores starts during spring break ending around September. United States spring break starts around March influencing sales from maternity stores. This creates an advantage since most pregnant women would vacation away from their home states and would make whole new purchases of maternity clothing (Suttle 1). Those in the northern part require more protective clothing in form of coats and boots as compared to those within southern region due low temperatures, additionally the region is also characterized by storms and hurricane seasons which at times keep consumers away from town centers (Suttle 1). Therefore, the business needs to consider weather aspect in the planning process to avoid unnecessary losses. Despite an upward growth for maternity clothes in recent years, there is current demand for stylish maternity clothes at all pregnancy stages within the region to suit weather conditions (Ranson 1). The figure below shows the map of the target region and the level of unintended pregnancies. Majority are young expecting mothers who value trendy and stylish clothes. The United States is known to be one of the worlds largest countries, occupying an area of approximately 3,679,192 square miles (9,529,107 square

Market Opportunity Analysis Essay Example for Free

Market Opportunity Analysis Essay market opportunity Analysis. Market Equations offers Market Opportunity and Potential Analysis Services to organizations globally to help them expand and enter potential markets through new or existing products or services by exploring and exploiting the available opportunity. Market Opportunity Analysis services are customized and presented to companies who are aggressive and want to maintain the lead by exploiting every opportunity at hand before the competition gets to it. The business environment is changing rapidly and everybody wants a piece of the pie. Further, companies are fiercely competing for the greater piece of the pie by expanding aggressively beyond their current geographies, exploring virgin and new markets, forming joint ventures etc. You may discover that Global companies are offering better and cheaper products due to advantages of scale but on the other hand you may have built a level of dependence with your current market, you are losing on profit opportunities in other larger markets, you want to grow but your market is exhausted. Market Equations may have the answer to all these questions keeping you in touch with your market and helping you exploit any minute detail available. Our Approach: Plan The most important part of Research is planning. There is an objective and an end result which needs to be linked at each step to achieve the desired results. Timetable With millions of available sources to choose from a researcher may get bombarded with a lot of information that may not be required. The plan needs to be finalized with the required timetable with milestones. Record and Validate Every bit of information collected needs to be recorded, evaluated and validated. This is the most important step ensuring credibility of the data collected and ensures the research is on track. Integrate All the information needs to be arranged and integrated to logically link topics together to ensure the research objective is met as per the plan document. Present The data needs to be presented in a format that is visually appealing to the end reader. Fonts, Content placement, Reading styles, Colors etc need special attention and confirmation before submission. Our Solutions backed by our tested approach to transform Business Objectives to decisions have helped many organizations stay ahead. Write to us and find out more. Techniques: The Right Search Strategy words, sentences, arrangements, rearrangements, Boolean logic etc The Choice of Search Engines Google may provide more relevant sources than Yahoo or vice versa Play with a Different Search Logic Continuously explore and try new search logic to reach the required result. Paid Databases Databases have a huge success ratio compared to freely available online sources. The accesses to databases such as Factiva, Hoovers, One source etc are highly recommended by expert desk researchers. Although subscriptions may add another cost element it is considered to be highly reliable and time saving compared to free sources. Monitor Progress Continuously monitor search strategies and links to results and combine successes to achieve desired results. Useful Sources of Information: Company Websites | Government Sources | Trade Associations | Academic Institutions | News Stands/Press | Specialized websites Expert Opinions | Online libraries/directories/encyclopedias | Databases | Blogs by topic/User

The Role Of Missionaries In Colonial African Education History Essay

The Role Of Missionaries In Colonial African Education History Essay The home page of Compassion Canada is that of a stereotypical Northern charity: showing pictures of suffering children alternating with those of post-intervention, happy children. Included on the website is information about the charitys programs, such as their Leadership Development Program in which participants earn a degree in their chosen field of study, and participate in Christian leadership training, enabling them to become a fully developed agent of change in their nation (Compassion Canada 2011). It is interesting to note that this project is not a new concept. As a member of the Church of England, it interests me to see echoes of Christian educational efforts by organizations such as Compassion Canada in the educational efforts of the missionary branch of the Anglican Church, the Church Missionary Society, or CMS. A member of the CMS, Henry Venn, boasted that the mission schools of Nigeria would produce an educated African elite that could form an intelligent and influentia l class of society and become the founders of a Kingdom which shall render incalculable benefits to Africa (Venn cited in Bassey 1991:37). That there are parallels between contemporary Christian organizations efforts and the missionary efforts of the mid-nineteenth to mid- twentieth centuries is a reason for concern, considering the similar impact of missionaries of all Christian denominations on the education of Africans in the British and Italian colonies in Africa. Although it can be said that Christian missionaries benefitted Africans by bringing in the more advanced Western education to the European colonies in Africa, it is believed that the mission schools in fact had a negative impact on the native peoples. Not only did mission education strengthen colonial rule, but it also weakened traditional societies and implemented poor standards of Western education. The missionary impact on education would have far-reaching consequences, as their creation of a weak basis of education would slow down the political and educational development of many former colonies in Africa. While missionaries could sometimes clash with colonial governments, for the most part missions were important tools for colonial governments. As Sir Henry Johnston, a key figure in the Scramble for Africa says, they [the mission stations] strengthen our hold over the country, they spread the use of the English language, they induct natives into the best kind of civilization, and in fact, each mission station is an essay in colonization (Johnston cited in Sheffield 1973:10). One of the missions most important contributions to the colonial regimes was their role in educating the native Africans. Mission schools provided a steady stream of educated Africans capable of filling the lower levels of the colonial administration and operated vocational and agricultural schools (Ayandele 1966: 295; Foster 1965: 90-91; Sheffield 1973: 10-11). The academic education purposely did not train Africans for the higher level positions of colonial administrations, which were mostly reserved for Europea ns (Ayandele 1966:295; Sheffield 1973:42), a practise which created dependency on the colonizers, as without them the colony did not have qualified administrators. In addition, while missionaries did run many academic primary schools, they provided little secondary education, a practice which prevented natives from becoming too educated (Ayandele 1966:286) and potentially subversive. Even if secondary education was provided, it was often reserved for the sons of local chiefs (Oliver 1952:212; Beck 1966: 120), an elite the colonial government could then call upon to help rule the colony, a common practice in colonial Africa. The latter, non-academic form of education provided by the missions has stimulated much interest among scholars, who are particularly interested in the failure of many of these schools and the hypocritical government support for the schools, seeing as the import of cheap goods from the mother countries caused many vocational school graduates, such as seamstresses, to be unemployed (Ayandele 1966:296; Foster 1965:134). However hypocritical, government support for the schools should not be surprising, considering the benefits the colonial governments stood to gain. Even when governments discouraged domestic industries, graduates of vocational schools contributed to the economy of the colonies -and therefore indirectly the mother countrys as well. Instead of needing to import skilled workers such as carpenters, the mission schools provided colonial governments with workers capable of building and maintaining the colonys infrastructure and basic technology, a contribution that kept the c olonies running smoothly. The agricultural schools the missions ran would have been even more advantageous to the colonial governments considering the discouragement of local industries that might have competed with the motherland. Agricultural school graduates did not compete with European industries or European farmers, as they mainly grew crops that could not be grown in European climates. Furthermore, they were skilled farmers that could grow cash crops to be consumed back in the mother country, such as cocoa from Ghana (Foster 1965: 153). Moreover, it was not in the colonial powers interest for the natives to become too educated, as they might become self-reliant and could conceivably demand independence from the colonial power, so encouraging the less intellectual agricultural schools was in the governments interest. The missions agricultural schools were especially beneficial for colonial governments considering that governments believed that manual labour was a means to prevent discontent and unrest i n the tribes (Hansen 1984:232). Thus by training Africans to fill only the lower levels of the colonial administration and providing skilled workers from the vocational and agricultural schools who contributed to the economy and were less likely to question colonial rule than more educated Africans, mission schools helped to strengthen colonial rule. Another negative impact of mission education was that it weakened traditional societies, which in many ways further served the colonial cause. The weakening of traditional societies was not simply a consequence of the efforts of missionaries but one of their main objectives, stemming from their belief in the civilizing mission. Supporters of the civilizing mission believed that European colonial enterprises were justified as the Europeans were imparting their superior Western culture and ideas to the ignorant heathens of Africa, Asia, the Americas and Australasia. For this reason, missionaries believed they were doing their students a favour by discouraging traditional practices and promoting Western ones. One method of discouraging traditional practices was to give students a fully Western education. As a mission school graduate noted, local history was almost totally ignored. We were expected to accept the European language as the superior one, and this was reinforced throughout my school career (Abu cited in Berman 1974:536). Being ignorant of ones history causes one to lose part of ones identity and pride in that identity, and one is therefore more vulnerable to attacks denouncing ones culture as inferior, especially if at the same time one is being taught the noble history of another culture. Furthermore, mission schools discouraged traditional ways of life outside of the classroom. One Liberian student recalls that we were taught to dress properly, to eat properly, to speak properly. Properly meant by Anglo-Saxon standards. In short, it was a very successful mission in making us little black Anglo-Saxon Protestants. Cultural deprivation is what many of us suffer from []. After a time the idea becomes ingrained -it is heathen and unchristian to be an African culturally (Awori cited in Berman 1974:536). Through academic lessons and lessons on Western etiquette and hygiene, mission students were isolated from their traditional cultures, a traumatic experienc e that would continue to trouble many students for the rest of their lives. It is interesting to note that while in many ways missionaries sought to isolate students from their cultures, missionaries often insisted in teaching in the native languages. Some earlier scholarship on mission education has taken this as a positive impact of the missionaries. For instance the scholar E.A. Ayandele (1966:283), writing in the 1960s, says, By their [the missions] efforts the main languages of Nigeria have been preserved as a lasting legacy to the Ibo, Yoruba, Efik, Nupe and Hausa. However, this practice was in fact probably more due to stereotypes of African ignorance than an interest in being culturally respectful: missionaries may have believed that it would take too long to teach a superior European language to the unintelligent natives when the natives souls were in such desperate need of saving. Indeed, once the souls had been saved and since the students must have been considered clever enough, European languages were almost universally the languages of instruct ion in the later primary years and in secondary schools (Beck 1966: 120; Foster 1965: 159; Miran 2002:127). Teaching in the vernacular had an additional use as it further strengthened colonial rule, of which missionaries were often agents, for as the Kikuyu people of Kenya were aware, [the] inability to communicate in English would be a crucial factor in the perpetuation of their subordinate status in the colony (Berman 1974:531). It is much easier to interact on an equal basis or even challenge the authority of another group when one is able to communicate in that groups language, instead of having to rely on an interpreter or non-verbal gestures, which undermine ones ability to show authority or express ones beliefs. In short, the impact of teaching in the vernacular was more negative than positive, as it reinforced colonial rule and no doubt did very little to preserve native cultural identities, seeing as missionaries promoted European languages as superior and only used the ver nacular because conversion and religious instruction were such high priorities. That missionaries used the vernacular illustrates the fact that missionaries were principally evangelists, and that they considered their other roles, including their role as educators, as less important. Given their priorities, it should thus come as little surprise that missions often provided poor education to the African pupils. There were several reasons for this poor education, some intentional and some not. First, missions saw education foremost as a means of conversion (Ayandele 1966: 286; Bassey 1991: 36; Berman 1974:527; Foster 1965:85; Sheffield 1973:11). The missionaries believed that in order to stabilize the faith of converts and to assist in character development, it was necessary that they should be able to read the scriptures or other books of religious instruction, translated by the missions. This involved learning to read in the vernacular (Hadfield cited in Bone 1969:7). Missionaries were no doubt also aware that Africans came to associate European technological a chievement with Western education (Bassey 1991:45) and therefore offered Western education as a means to attract Africans of this belief and then convert them. However, the motivation behind teaching Africans basic literacy and mathematics might not have been a cause for concern if not for the fact that the religious motivation curtailed education. As Ayandele points out (1966:285), the ideal of many of the missions was to make their converts live literally as the unlearned and ignorant apostles of old. This ideal, combined with the fact that many missionaries discovered that Africans with only basic education were best at spreading the Gospel, meant that missionaries were reluctant to provide higher primary or secondary education (Ayandele 1966:286). Seeing as missions in the British and Italian colonies had monopolies on education for the nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries, this reluctance meant that there were few secondary schools at all (Ayandele 1966:287; Beck 1966: 120). A s long as the Africans could read the Bible, the missionaries were satisfied that they had had enough academic education. A second reason for the poor education of the mission schools was that in many cases the teachers in mission schools were unqualified as teachers, but were instead preachers by training. For instance, in the Salisbury region of Rhodesia, it was reported in 1924 that no male teachers had educational qualifications (Bone 1969:28). Third, rivalry between the various Christian denominations also contributed to the poor standards of education. Edward Berman notes that contemporary critics of the missionaries felt that missionaries were more interested in increasing enrolments in their respective churches than in pooling their resources for the benefit of African education (Berman 1974:533). Because of rivalry, instead of building one common, multi-denominational school in a village that really only needed the one school, missionaries each built a school for their particular denomination and competed for students (Berman 1974:533). Furthermore, each denomination had differing policies on education, so standards in education fluctuated across each colony, depending on what denomination had schools in each area. For instance, in southern Nigeria, the CMS policy was to teach in the vernacular at the primary level, while the Roman Catholic Missions policy was to teach in English (Bassey 1991:42). In addition to contri buting to fluctuating educational standards across the colony, inter-denominational rivalry caused a disparity in access to education. In regions where a denomination felt threatened by another denomination, the denominations were more likely to establish more schools in an attempt to gain more converts than their rival, while in regions such as northern Nigeria, where colonial policy prevented too much rivalry, schools were scarce (Bassey 1991:45). Thus, because of the motive of proselytization, unqualified teachers, and inter-denominational rivalry, missions frequently provided poor education. Indeed, the quality of the education could be so poor that the colonial governments complained, as in the case of the Nigerian government, which complained that the secondary school graduates provided by the missions were illiterate and ignorant and therefore poorly suited to fill the lower levels of the administration (Ayandele 1966:294-5). However, as Jonathan Miran (2002) argues in his work on the roles of missionaries and the Italian state in Eritrean education, missionaries should not be held solely accountable for the poor standards of education. As much as the governments liked to assign blame to the missions, they were also accountable for the poor education through their educational policies. As one Eritrean student remarks, Our sisters [the Italian Sisters] would have undoubtedly taught better and more, but the Italian government in the colony did not permit Eritreans to get good instruction (T.T. cited in Miran 2002:128). The colonial Eritrean government ensured that nativ e Eritreans received poor education by permitting them to only attend school up to the fourth grade (Miran 2002:127). Governments are also not free from blame even if they had a laissez-faire educational policy, as in Ghana, where until 1944 the registration of schools was not required and no attempt was made to exert detailed control even over the activities of grant-aided [by the government] institutions except for a series of minimal registrations (Foster 1965:114). If a government fails to regulate schools at all, they have no right to complain that the education in their colony is poor. Therefore, whether through their rigid educational polices or lack thereof, colonial governments contributed to the poor education, though there is no denying that missionaries also contributed to the quality of education to a great extent. In conclusion, the educational enterprise of the Christian missionaries in the British and Italian colonies of Africa during the mid-nineteenth to mid-twentieth centuries was primarily negative for the African pupils. Both the academic and vocational forms of education the missions provided served to strengthen the rule of the colonial powers, so that the native inhabitants were second-class citizens in their own land. Furthermore, missionaries, believing in the civilizing mission, attempted to disintegrate traditional society through education by choosing academic subjects, such as the histories of the Western colonial powers, that illustrated the superiority of the Western culture, as well as by teaching about the superiority of the West in non-academic matters such as hygiene. These attempts were traumatic for the students and threatened the survival of unique cultures. Last, missionaries provided a very poor education, causing their students to be ill-equipped for social or mater ial success, as they believed education to simply be a means for proselytization, were unqualified teachers, and allowed inter-denominational rivalries to interfere. As negative as all these impacts of the missionaries undoubtedly were for the African pupils, the long-term consequences are arguably as serious. The reservation of high-level positions in the colonial administrations for Europeans and the corresponding mission education that provided education fit only for lower positions meant that the withdrawal of European rule could cause serious political instability in the newly independent colonies. While colonial administration in colonies such as Kenya attempted to some degree to provide training for Kenyans to fill the high-level positions (Sheffield 1973:86), the attempts in many cases fell short, and when the European administration left, Kenya, for instance, had few sufficiently educated replacements (Sheffield 1973:88). Thus missionaries, by imparting education that promo ted dependence on colonial rule, arguably contributed to the political instability that continues in the present day in many former African colonies, such as Kenya and Eritrea. Moreover, mission education formed a poor foundation for future educational conditions in the former colonies. Given the fluctuating standards between schools and regions and the lack of qualified teachers in the mission schools which had monopolies in well into the mid-twentieth century, it should come as little surprise that the quality of education continues to be a concern in many former colonies. For instance, in Nigeria in 2006, approximately only 51.2% of primary school teachers of either gender were trained as teachers, and the enrolment rate in primary education for both genders in 2000 stood at about 62.7%, compared to 99.5% in Canada (UN Data 2010). Therefore, considering that the impact of mission education continues to have serious repercussions today, one must question whether the First World sh ould continue to interfere in African education. Volunteers and donors to organizations such as Compassion Canada believe that they are being humanitarian when they build schools in Africa, volunteer as teachers or help in other ways to improve the quality of education in African nations, yet missionaries and colonial governments were similarly lauded as performing a great work of humanity (Beck 1966:117) and likewise believed that they were helping their African pupils. However the superficial motivations and ideologies have changed, at the most basic level both contemporary Northern charities and nineteenth century missionaries share the belief that the North must come and save the suffering natives, which in the case of the missionaries, has been proven to have inflicted more harm than provided relief. Thus, despite what the images of suffering African children on websites such as that of Compassion Canada might lead one to believe, it is time for Africans to educate their own, w ithout any interference.

Woodstock 1969 Essay -- essays research papers

The Woodstock of 1969 was a revolution in itself and responsible for redefining the point of view, respect, and attitude of the so-called "counter-cultured" youth of the late sixties. The attendants of the festival were youths from around the United States in ages ranging from 17 to 26. The overall mood of the festival was very relaxed and happy. Although there was a minimal amount of violence at Woodstock, there were financial problems, drugs, nudity, and traffic jams that seemed to go for miles down the old country roads surrounding Max Yasgur's dairy farm. Woodstock was a symbol of the rebellious society of the time. The youths that went were looking to vent out frustrations that their parents had forced upon them. For most youths, the "3 Days of Peace, Love, and Music" seemed to be just the place to balance their thoughts, relax with friends, and meet new people that hated their parents as much as they did. Two-hundred thousand people were expected to show for the Woodstock festival, and instead an overwhelming "400,000 youngsters turned up to hear big- name bands play in a field near the village of Bethel, New York state in what has become the largest rock concert of the decade". The attendents and the mood of the Woodstock festival in Bethel, New York was that of the counter-cultered young society of the late sixties. Max Yasgur's farm was transformed from a beautiful lush, green dairy farm field into a 400,000- person mudpit. Throughout the days of the festival, the attendants were "undaunted by rain, mud, wet clothes and chilly mountain breezes, thousands of youths sat on a rural hillside here for a marathon 19-hour session of folk-rock music". Drugs had also become increasingly more popular in the sixties, and Woodstock was no exception to the latest trend. Drugs were readily available and generously passed around through the crowds of youths all over the hillside. But the drugs weren't the reason that people generally attended the Woodstock festival. Most would agree with a man interviewed five miles away from his vehicle walking towards the festival in saying that " But it's more than that. I'm here for the same reason that Indians used to have tribal gatherings. Just being here with people like me makes it all worthwhile... ...ting with a lot of room, grass, trees, lakes. It was going to be a youth cultural exposition and that is where the culture of this generation expresses itself more naturally". Woodstock '69 has remained the icon of the sixties. After a "mind-blowing rendition of the national anthem, the hillside was cleared for the first time in nearly four days of the hordes of youths who came here for three days of music, companionship, and, in many cases, drugs". "Mr. Yasgur is gone, as is the farm. The meadow is green again, and very peaceful. Someone has built a small monument...commemorating the event, listing performers and dates". Today there are still people who believe in the philosophy of peace, love, and hapiness. They still have the hope that one day the government will "take the backseat" to an overcrowded music festival. A policeman after the music festival said what only can be imagined now-a-days, that those kids "have proven something to the world... that half a million kids can get together for fun and music and have nothing but fun and music."

From Servitude to Freedom in Charlotte Brontes Jane Eyre Essay

From Servitude to Freedom in Jane Eyre   Ã‚   Charlotte Bronte's novel, Jane Eyre, skillfully reveals that Jane, the protagonist, has the qualities of endurance, valor, and vitality, yet she is refused self-contentment by the confined society in which she lives. Not only is this work a love story, but it is the tale of a young orphaned girl and her struggle for love and independence. Through the various environments Bronte provides, Jane oscillates between education and containment and also between freedom and servitude. Beginning at Gateshead, Jane has her first experience of containment in dealing with the Reeds. John Reed blatantly smothers Jane's space by treating her like a slave, and Mrs. Reed enslaves her in every way. Mrs. Reed treats Jane as a stepchild instead of a niece and oftentimes sides with her children even if Jane is right. For example, in the incident with John Reed, Jane is reading a book about birds and secretly wants to be able to fly away from all of the bad things at Gateshead. When John condemns Jane for reading "his" books, Mrs. Reed sends Jane to the Red Room even though Jane did not initiate the fight. The torturous experience for Jane becomes a type of containment in which she must obey her aunt and cousins, as a slave would obey his master. Jane feels then that she must resist everyone, Bessie, Miss Abbot, her cousins, and especially her aunt. She is urged by these same people to pray and repent and is locked yet again in an eerie room. Jane encounters another character, Mr. Lloyd, who attempts to degrade her by making fun of her for crying. Her physical containments, along with her mental ones, are coming to her one after another and take her to her limit. Jane deals with many emotions she fee... ...rlotte Bronte. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1990.    Jane Eyre. Dir. Franco Zeffirelli. Perf. William Hurt, Charlotte Gainsborough, and Anna Paquin. 1996    Jane Eyre. Dir. Julian Aymes. Perf. Timothy Dalton, Zelah Clarke. 1983    Kadish, Doris. The Literature of Images: Narrative Landscape from Julie to Jane Eyre. New Brunswick: Rutgers UP, 1986.    Linder, Cynthia A. Romantic Imagery in the Novels of Charlotte Bronte. London: MacMillan, 1978.    McLaughlin, M.B. "Past or Future Mindscapes: Pictures in Jane Eyre." Victorian Newsletter 41 (1972): 22-24.    Peters, Joan D. â€Å"Finding a Voice: Towards a Woman’s Discourse in Dialogue in the Narration of Jane Eyre.† Studies in the Novel. 23 no 2. (1991): 217-36. Zonana, Joyce. â€Å"The Sultan and the Slave: Feminist Orientalism and the Structure of Jane Eyre.† Signs. 18 no 3. (1993): 592-617

Homeless in America Essay

Families live, die and are born on the streets of vast cities of United States. Less attention are shown to those who are homeless, people focus more on bigger issues when this is a major problem that has occurred for years. Statistics shows that 1.6 million youth run away from home each year between the ages of 12 and 17. The predominant race for runaways is White non-Hispanic (57%), Black non-Hispanic (17%), Hispanic (15%), and Other (11%) follow (Blaha). Homeless children most likely leave their original homes because of the way of life and the hard pressure due to their living environment and family issues. Homelessness makes children sick, wounds young children, & homeless children often struggle in school. Homeless children are in fair or poor health twice as often as other children. They have higher rates of low birth weighted need special care right after birth for times as often as other children. Also have very high rates of acute illness, with half suffering from two or mo re symptoms during a single month. Despite state and federal efforts to provide homeless children with improved access to public school, at least one-fifth of homeless children don’t attend school. This is because they either have no transportation from the shelters to school or lack of school and medical records makes registration harder. Daily demands off finding food and shelter push children’s educational needs aside. Homelessness and poverty are linked. Poor people are frequently unable to pay for housing, food, child care, health care, and education. Difficult choices must be made when limited resources cover only some of these necessities. Often it is housing, which absorbs a high proportion of income, which must be dropped. Being poor mean being an illness, an accident, or a paycheck away from living on the streets. Homelessness and street life have extreme effects on children. Their unstable lifestyles, lack of medical care, and inadequate living conditions increase young people’s susceptibility to chronic illnesses such as respiratory or ear infections, gastrointestinal disorders, and sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV /AIDS. Children fending for themselves must find ways to eat; some scavenge or find exploitative physical work. Many homeless children are enticed by adults and older youth into selling drugs, stealing, and prostitution. Studies show that at least half of homeless youth has been a victim of physical or sexual abuse. This is hard to believe when first heard, but once one thinks about how much exposure they have to the world, criminals, and offenders the fact becomes more realistic and believable. Some studies have come up with two theories to examine the homeless youth which is the lifestyle-exposure theory and the routine activity theory. In these theories the youth’s proximity, exposure, guardianship, and target congruence are examined. They are more likely to get raped and end up with a sexually transmitted disease. Since they are always on the streets, this gives the predator’s easier access to their prey (the youth). Both the theories, lifestyle-exposure and routine activity theory, are associated together because they both pay no attention to criminal motivation, but focus on how what they do in the everyday lives are related to their exposure to many dangerous people and places. With the youth being so exposed many say this is high potential risk of being victimized. When the theories are combined they include the four concepts which is proximity to crime, exposure to crime, guardianship, and target attractiveness/congruence. The fault in these theories is that they both ignore the sources of criminal motivation. One a child is around a certain area enough, they most of the time adapt the characteristics of the environment and do as they see. If everyone around them is stealing then the child is more likely to steal, if everyone is having sex around them then they might get use to the fact of seeing sex and may not see it as bad. Drug use by children on the streets is common as they look for means to numb the pain and deal with the hardships associated with street life. Studies have found that up to 90 percent of street children use psychoactive substances, including medicines, alcohol, cigarettes, heroin, and etc. The mental, social and emotional growth of children is affected by their lifestyles. There are numerous reasons children chose to run away from home during the early twentieth century: death of parents, abusive home life, broken homes, and poverty. The majority of them go without shelter for varying lengths of time. Because homeless difference between runaway children and homeless children was that runaways chose to leave their home for the reasons above while homeless children were victims of social and economic factors that left and runaway children are too young to work and lack marketable skills, they are often recruited by criminals involved in the illegal drug trade, prostitution, and pornogr aphy. They are either active participants in these activities or serve as recruiters of other vulnerable children. Experts generally agree that homelessness among children is increasing in both rural and urban areas. The causes are social in nature. These children are often homeless along with their mothers and are victims of economic recessions, job loss, and high housing costs. Data on the extent of the problem is inadequate and can be found only in isolated case studies. Children become homeless because of the families. Families become homeless because there is an imbalance between the number of households that live in poverty and the amount of low-income housing availability. If there are more households that need assistance than the housing units can afford then some people become homeless. In some households, some families pay more than the 30 percent which is the required percentage that is required by the federal government for the family to pay based on which they can afford to pa y for housing. In some cases where the family cannot even pay the 30 percent this is when they become homeless. â€Å"In one study referenced by the National Network for Youth, 51% of runaway and throwaway youth responded physical abuse. The Department of Health and Human Services asserts that up to 40% have been sexually molested.†(Blaha) â€Å"Emotional and mental stress also is common. According to the National Network for Youth, 50-56% of homeless youngsters report mental health problems over their lifetime. Staffs at runaway and homeless youth shelters paint an even bleaker picture. According to their data, 63% of the runaways they work with are depressed; 50% have trouble with school; 20% abuse drugs and alcohol; and 17% have been in the juvenile justice system. One survey found that 26% of those in shelters and 32% of those on the street have attempted suicide. A separate survey relates that nearly one-third of shelter youth have attempted suicide at some point in their lives.†(Blaha) Some youth use school as a safe place. It is times where they can get off the streets and actually feel like a regular child. They can get a free meal, they can interact with children their age and not predators. Some are so in to going to school because they see it as their way off the streets. They go to school and take it serious so they can move on to college and get a job so their own children will not end up in the same situation. â€Å"School is a place of safety, structure, and opportunity. Yet homeless children and youth face unique barriers to education. These barriers include being unable to meet enrollment requirements; lack of school supplies and clothing; and poor health, fatigue, and hunger. When these barriers are not addressed, homeless children and youth often are unable to attend school, which prevents them from obtaining the education that is both their legal right and their best hope of escaping poverty as adults.† (Facts about Homeless †¦ ) There are some places that the youth could go for safety, the National Safe Place. The National Safe Place is a program that provides safety and others services for youth in need. The NSP informs and educate youth about other things that they could do rather than be homeless. â€Å"National Safe Place is an outreach and prevention program that is uniquely designed to provide immediate safety and access to services for any youth in need. In partnership with over 360 youth serving agencies and over 10,000 businesses and community organizations across the United States, the Safe Place program educates youth about alternatives to running away and homelessness and provides easily accessible links to service providers. Ongoing data collection indicates that National Safe Place has been successful in reaching endangered youth at risk of abuse, neglect or serious family problems but that expanded program models remain needed. â€Å"(Walsh) In essence, children become homeless because of many reasons such as death of parents, abusive home life, and poverty. Homelessness has a major affect on children in America. This unstable lifestyle makes it difficult to afford things that a child need such as housing, food, and an education. There are many ways that one can help the homeless youth, a person must go out of their comfort zone and just try to help. â€Å"Homeless people need shelter, food and most importantly they need love. One easy way to help a homeless person is paying for a hotel room for the person. It will not benefit them for long but at least the will have a shelter for some days. Many people will not give homeless people money because they are afraid it will be spent wrongly on alcohol, drugs, etc. Not giving a homeless person any money because of that reason is wrong yet if you know without a doubt that the homeless person in question will spend it that way it may be wise to spend it for him on something he really needs, like a roof over his head. Simply give the homeless person the money. Instead of trying to be in control of what and how the homeless person spends the money give them the money and trust that that the person will spend it right. â€Å"(Tucker)