The Homeless Essays - Homelessness, Humanitarian Aid, Socioeconomics

The Homeless Essays - Homelessness, Humanitarian Aid, Socioeconomics The Homeless Homelessness is a very large problem that America has come to face with. Millions of people, including children, families, babies, veterans, and the elderly live day by day without food, water, a roof over their head, or love. People that are mentally ill also have to tough it out on the streets, which can be very confusing to them, and dangerous to us. This problem must be solved soon, because it's not getting better fast enough. People have not always had to suffer with homelessness. Though the problem has almost always existed, it had not reached a severe level until the early 1970's. With every war there has been a small trickle of homeless veterans to follow, but the Vietnam war and Korean war left a wave of many people without anywhere to go. This was just the start of the problem. Many homeless people lived in places called Skid Row. A place with cheap bars, entertainment, and very cheap housing in buildings called SROs, or Single Room Occupancy. They could be rented from .50 to .90 cents a night. Then cities started to grow, and in the mid 1970s One million SROs were replaced with parking lots, buildings and apartments. Skid Row eventually vanished. Then the government decided to decriminalize drunkenness, loitering, and vagrancy. That means there were a great many homeless people that would normally be arrested under these conditions, still roaming the streets. Women and children started to f! ilter in to the homeless scene, and then in a huge recession in the 1980s 11,000,000 people were laid off (9.7% of all jobs). The numbers of homeless people soared. It didn't stop here though. President Reagan and Bush dropped public housing funds from 30 billion dollars to 6.7 billion, a net loss of 37,800 houses per year. By the beginning of the 1990s, over one million people were on waiting lists for homes. Homeless people can be categorized into four basic categories, families, lone, transient, or bums. A person in a family is usually a man and wife with one to many children living on the streets. A lone person is that who has no connection to anybody and never travels, but stays in the same general area. A transient is a person who never settles down for more than a few weeks, but keeps moving throughout cities by means of walking and hitch hiking. Within these categories are sub-categories. These sub categories are taken from a random group of 1,000 homeless people, and what their numbers would be. CATEGORYPEOPLE Families220 Lone Individuals780 Under 19146 Women229 Elderly Men17 Veterans Men188 Mentally Disabled Men125 Disabled Men28 Full Time Jobs7 Part Time Jobs27 Sporadic78 Effort173 Bum (Undeserving Homeless)49 Even the people with full time jobs are in need of permanent residence. These people live on eating scraps of food from trash cans, and possible meals from shelters on occasion, but those are usually three times a week at dinner, or some other type of schedule. People who have homes rarely think, nor can comprehend what terrible things that the homeless have to go through. They live in abandoned buildings, cars, buses, boxes, on park benches and underground. They eat bits of old fruit and meat with the mold and green sludge scrapped off. One man and his son used up their $60 of food stamps that they were giver for two months. For a week they lived on ketchup and mustard. Within three days of the condiments disappearing the boy had both his feet amputated due to frostbite. This was in New York. There are some people who still have a spark of interest in finding jobs. They look for places to work, and they try to establish an address and connections. If a homeless person is absolutely dedicated to ending his own homelessness, he will most likely find his way out. The one category that people assume all homeless fall into is the undeserving homeless, or "bums". These are usually men in their 40s or 50s who sit around all day and do nothing. They don't try and help themselves or others. They lie and cheat and honestly deserve nothing because they could never give anything if they were forced to. They make up a very small group in fact, about 4% of all homeless. Drugs are

Free Essays on Anthropolgy- Taking A Nas Song And Depicting The Meaning

have meaning, and we can make a connection with what the singer/ writer has to say. Hip - Hop and rap often are classified as music that promotes; violence, drugs and inappropriate behavior. Yet many of the most famous rappers have sent positive messages to their listeners. Nasir Bin Olu Dara Jones, A.K.A. â€Å"Nas Escobar† has a gift. He writes songs that come from his heart and from what he has seen in his lifetime. Born and raised in Queens Bridge, Queens New York he has seen a lot in his 29 years. His lyrics are â€Å"raw† and to the point. In the song â€Å"I can†, Nas offers lyrics of hope and continued support to children. This song contains many stories, all promoting one thing, with perseverance and knowing that in with time and many lessons to be learned, one will grow and become something great. Nas has been known for many of his songs/ and the meaning of his lyrics, but this song is not only making its way up the charts, but into the minds of many. When one hears a child singing â€Å" I know I can, be what I wanna be, if I work hard at it I’ll be where I wanna be†, it brings a smile to your face; knowing that these kids are singing a song that is catered to them and carries a positive message. The song continues with many short stories; the first one talking about a woman who was going to be a famous singer, but gets caught up with doing drugs and gets nowhere in life. Nas explains that the company one keeps is important, because they can alter your lifestyle, and it’s not always for the best. This is a subtle way of telling kids watch what they do because although it might seem harmless at that time, it can affect you forever. He also shows that drugs can ruin your dreams, so keep your mind straight. â€Å"I met a... Free Essays on Anthropolgy- Taking A Nas Song And Depicting The Meaning Free Essays on Anthropolgy- Taking A Nas Song And Depicting The Meaning Words went put together don’t only make sentences, but the words, phrases, and sentences make visions, pictures and ideas in our minds. Songs often become our favorites or have special meaning when the words have meaning, and we can make a connection with what the singer/ writer has to say. Hip - Hop and rap often are classified as music that promotes; violence, drugs and inappropriate behavior. Yet many of the most famous rappers have sent positive messages to their listeners. Nasir Bin Olu Dara Jones, A.K.A. â€Å"Nas Escobar† has a gift. He writes songs that come from his heart and from what he has seen in his lifetime. Born and raised in Queens Bridge, Queens New York he has seen a lot in his 29 years. His lyrics are â€Å"raw† and to the point. In the song â€Å"I can†, Nas offers lyrics of hope and continued support to children. This song contains many stories, all promoting one thing, with perseverance and knowing that in with time and many lessons to be learned, one will grow and become something great. Nas has been known for many of his songs/ and the meaning of his lyrics, but this song is not only making its way up the charts, but into the minds of many. When one hears a child singing â€Å" I know I can, be what I wanna be, if I work hard at it I’ll be where I wanna be†, it brings a smile to your face; knowing that these kids are singing a song that is catered to them and carries a positive message. The song continues with many short stories; the first one talking about a woman who was going to be a famous singer, but gets caught up with doing drugs and gets nowhere in life. Nas explains that the company one keeps is important, because they can alter your lifestyle, and it’s not always for the best. This is a subtle way of telling kids watch what they do because although it might seem harmless at that time, it can affect you forever. He also shows that drugs can ruin your dreams, so keep your mind straight. â€Å"I met a...

Ethical Marketing and Tobacco Advertising Essay

Ethical Marketing and Tobacco Advertising - Essay Example Because of their powerful role in the society, governments and the legislatures of different nations and states impose rules and regulations to ensure that such power is not used wrongfully. Moroever, there is a growing demand on businesses to maintain higher ethical standards in all of their practises (Lantos 2001). The tobacco industry provides a classic setting to study the ethicality of marketing practices in general (Sundaram & Mitra 2007). This is especially that it is believed that â€Å"the cigarette is the only legally available product in the United States that when used as directed, will kill the user and injure others (Snell 2005). The future of the tobacco industry depends on maintaining current users and recruiting new users to replace older smokers who quit or die from tobacco-related diseases (Kreslake, et al,2008, p.1685). As such, every day in the United States, the tobacco industry spends almost $42 million on advertisements and promotions, and between 2002 and 2003 the industry increased its spending by $2.7 billion (Facts A La Carte 2007). The usual way of the government to effectively reduce the use of tobacco products is to ban smoking in restaurants and impose higher taxes on tobacco products (Doohee et al 2004). This paper will explain the basic ethics in marketing based on the related literature gathered and the current marketing strategies of the tobacco industry and a brief evaluation on the two sides of their ideas. For George Brenkert (2008), marketing a product is not about obtaining profit. For him marketing is a moral activity embodying central ethical values and principles. Marketers are expected to have limited but positive sympathies toward others (Robin and Reidenbach 1993). In Brenkert’s book Marketing Ethics, he addressed in a clear and pragmatic manner the ethical questions, misunderstandings, and challenges that marketing raises. He tried to confront standard marketing views and offered

HUMANITIES Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

HUMANITIES - Essay Example the optimistic aspect of those issue schemes is applied while concluding any specific event, we come out with a positive approach towards conclusion of that event, and if pessimistic aspect of those issue schemes are applied, then appropriate conclusion towards any specific event can not be drawn. It is really essential to apply such issue scheme to any specific issue which should enable us in drawing a better conclusion. Before going into discussing impact of a historic issue on a selected event, let’s first get to know which historic issue and event are chosen for this purpose. The historic issue which has been selected is violence versus peace and the event on which its implication will be discussed is 9/11, a violent attack on the world trade center. The selected issue is a real ongoing issue in the present era and almost every country in the world is facing the dilemma of violence these days. And in opposition to that, peace is the phenomenon which has a lot of influence in settling up disputes and conflicts either among the individuals or among the nations. The event which is selected is also related to the historic issue of violence versus peace and in this assignment, we will show how much significance violence and peace has on the event of 9/11. While discussing a historic issue, let’s first get to know what violence is. To start with violence, it is those sadistic and aggressive acts done by a group or an individual whose purpose is to create fear and terror among some people or societies. We can also say that any act which creates fear and affects psychological stability of a person or society is called an act of violence. Whenever a violent act occurs, the people living in that specific area get mentally distressed and their routine life also get disturbed because of the fear that is generated due to the violent act. People, who perform violent acts, always have a motive of creating fear and distress among people. â€Å"Violent groups have an

Construction Materials Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Construction Materials - Assignment Example 1.1. Social Buildings have to comply with social considerations of sustainability so that they must provide safe, comfortable and healthy interiors. In order to meet these objectives the major considerations are ensuring structural integrity, dealing with vibration levels, adequate weather protection, fire resistance and acoustic performance. 1.2. Economic Economic considerations play a major and often deciding role in determining what kinds of materials to use for construction purposes. The major considerations are that buildings ought to be durable, reusable, require low maintenance and energy efficient. These considerations need to be satisfied both during the building phase as well as during the operation phase. Some other considerations include the construction costs, net lettable area, building reuse value, construction programmes and whole of life value. 1.3. Environmental Environmental considerations mandate that buildings ought to be constructed in a manner that their whole- of-life energy use as well as their greenhouse gas emissions produce a small ecological footprint. The major considerations are the life cycle assessment (LCA), cooling of urban areas, thermal mass and recycling. Appendix ‘A’ shows the mutually common area that social, environmental and economic factors share to produce a truly sustainable design. 2. Sustainability of Current Lecture Centre Building Concrete has been in extensive use around the globe as a preferred construction material for residential and commercial applications alike (Goodchild, 1997). When put in perspective of sustainability, concrete has a number of advantages to offer including (but not limited to) economic considerations, durability, acoustic performance, recyclability, thermal mass, fire resistance and adaptability. The factors listed above can be optimised to achieve maximised sustainability from concrete construction based on construction techniques and other considerations. The current Lectur e Centre Building at Brunel University is made out of concrete in large part and offers a sustainable outlook based on social, economic and environmental considerations. These are discussed below in detail. 2.1. Social Concrete buildings are able to offer structural integrity along with structural requirements that are well understood by designers and builders alike. This leads to the construction of safer structures that are able to stand up to risks such as snow, earthquakes, wind base loading etc. The large mass involved in concrete construction ensures that these structures provide excellent damping characteristics that are required for minimising vibration. In addition, concrete provides exceptional fire resistance given that it does not burn at all and does not emit toxic fumes when exposed to fire (Ching, 1995). For most cases concrete structures can be described as fire proof. Similarly, concrete structures are able to offer excellent acoustic damping characteristics as well which mandates the lowest possible use of insulation materials. 2.2. Economic Concrete buildings are the most economical solution when it comes to multi-storey buildings (please see Appendix ‘C’ for a comparison). The large amount of benefits that are provided by concrete such as fire resistance, large thermal mass and durability ensure that concrete buildings have lower operating costs and maintenance requirements. Building reuse is also more common for concrete structure for example

Global Change Essay Example for Free

Global Change Essay The concept of civil society was reinvented in the late 1980s in response to the rapid market development and the end of the Cold War. The collapse of the Soviet Union marked the rapid development of global market due to higher international security. Market development gradually leads to the development of civil society for two reasons: Firstly, the middle class helps to fight more freedom from the government as they want to gain more and more control of themselves. This situation, allows spaces for civil society to develop. Some donors search for NGOs to implement their civic or economic related interests and visions. 1 Secondly, the retreat of the â€Å"welfare† states in western countries further triggers the emergence of civil society as people want to address the problem themselves instead of solely depending on the invisible hand of the free market. Hong Kong, which is recognized as a newly industrialized economy (NIE) has adopted the minimal-interventionist principle in economic development for a long Low tax rate and free market policies are the priorities of the Hong Kong government. Civil society is said to be very important in the implementation of democracy as civil society is a representation of diverse interests of the people. In the planning system of Hong Kong, though the government was willing to involve more public participation in the process with the increasing force of democratization between 1990 and 1997, the role of civil society in planning policy formulation and implementation was not yet clear. According to the experiences of some UK cities, partnership between civil society and the local governments can facilitate sustainable development. It is yet to know whether such kind of partnership is possible in Hong Kong or not. So the aim of this paper is to find out the challenges and opportunities of mobilizing partnership between the government and civil society. Aims of the study This paper aims to explore the challenges and opportunities in fostering partnership between civil society and the government in the planning system of Hong Kong. This paper is based on the central argument that civil society organizations (â€Å"CSOs†) should play significant role in the planning system to explore the challenges and opportunities. It is argued that CSOs are important for promoting more effective idea in the policy planning in terms of reflecting the needs of the locals as well as the moral values neglected by both market and the government. It is believed that the challenges and opportunities are not that straightforward to be understood as they should involve a lot of other factors. These factors are to be examined in order to provide a clearer picture for the analysis. Structure of the paper This study is composed of six sections:- Session I begins with an introduction. It states the purpose of this paper and the content structure. Section II is the theoretical framework established for understanding the theoretical meaning of civil society and the importance of partnership between the government and the CSOs. Section III is the background about development of citizenship in Hong Kong. It is found that the civil society in Hong Kong is becoming mature. Section IV discusses on the six major factors contributing to the challenges in the relationship between the government and the civil society. Section V seeks to study real-life cases to further strengthen the argument that CSOs should play significant role in the planning system. Section VI, the final section of this paper. It summarizes all the key issues discussed in this paper and highlights the importance of the role of CSOs in planning system.   Defining â€Å"Civil Society† The definitions and meaning of civil society in different mainstream theories are explored and outlined in Appendix 1. The interpretation of civil society by Aristotle is now widely recognized as autonomy, not under direct state control. It emphasized on the formation of government based on voluntary willingness of people and universal election in order to guarantee sovereignty of citizens (for Locke) and the freedom of civil society (for Rousseau). The existing political system in Hong Kong is different as the HKSAR government is not directly elected by the citizens. Hong Kong people can only elect some of the legislative councilors, who act as delegates to deal with legislative issues; and district councilors, who are serving as advisors of the government. The sovereignty is just partly in the hand of Hong Kong people. In fact, the situation of Hong Kong is closer to the idea of Hegel that civil society and family together form the state. Civil society is actually functioning as a partly autonomy body under the government of Hong Kong. However, civil society should perform a more active role in the system in order to balance the power of the state and the market for the benefit of the public. So Friedmanns definition of civil society will be applied to support the empowerment of civil society. Civil society, as an association of individual interests, should grow up to balance the power of the state. His definition also separates the concept of market from civil society, which is applicable in the situation of Hong Kong. Friedmann(1998) states that civil society must be seen as standing in â€Å"opposition† to the corporate economy. The relationship of civil society and the market should not be neglected when we understand the relationship of the government and the civil society. 2 To sum up, the combination of Friedmanns and Hegel’s definition of civil society is applied in this paper. Civil society is defined as a sphere without direct state control, but is not totally separated from the state. The participation in civil society is based on voluntary willingness and it is actually an association of various individual interests. It is different from the concepts of corporate economy and family, but they are related to some extent. Civil society may not necessarily oppose to the corporate economy, but they may interplay to produce good results. Civil society should be empowered to balance the power of the government and market.

Innocent Man by John Grisham Essays -- essays research papers

The innocent man is the story of Ron Williamson who was unjustly convicted of murder and spent twelve years on death row before being exonerated by DNA evidence. Ron Williamson was born in Ada, a small town in Oklahoma. His future looked bright when he was young and he was an exceptional athlete who was drafted by the Oakland Athletics. After an unsuccessful career in the minors Ron Williamson became a drug addict and an alcoholic whose life steadily got worse. He could not keep any job and he began spending most of his time in bars, and living with various friends. He soon accumulated a criminal record that included DUI?s, check fraud, and two rape charges that did not result in conviction. He became a heavy user of prescription drugs on top of his alcohol abuse, and after his baseball career ended he developed several mental llnesses and began to spend brief spans of time in mental hospitals. When a waitress who worked at a bar he often frequented was raped and murdered he became a suspect. Eventually he was convicted of the crime which he did not commit and was sentenced to death. A friend of his, Dennis Fritz was also wrongfully convicted as an accomplice and sentenced to life in prison. It was a terrible ordeal that Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz suffered being wrongly convicted of a murder. They both spent 11 years in prison, fritz serving a life sentence and Williamson on death row, locked up with heartless killers and treated like an animal. The book also has a subplot revolving around the abduction of another girl in Ada who to this day has never been found. Two men, Tommy Ward and Kurt Fontenot were convicted of a rape and murder and are currently serving life sentences. Although no concret... ...tem. It is unbelievable how lax, inadequate, and unjust the justice department can actually be in our country that we thought was civilized. It is ludicrous that many of the same people who convicted two innocent men of crimes and nearly got one killed are still working in the same offices even after they were proven unethical, and disrespectful to their duty. This book was not written help Ron Williamson or Dennis Fritz, they have already been exonerated and have received compensation. It was probably not written for money, John Grisham stated in a speech that he feared a lawsuit. (law.virginia.edu) This book was written to make a political point. Even though this book is somewhat biased against the death penalty it still should enrage an American citizen who believes that a person is ?innocent until proven guilty,? and ?has a right to remain silent.?