Intern Experience Reflection Essay -- Reflection Paper, criminal justi

As I continue exploring the aspects of Family Inc., I find myself becoming more amazed at the tragedies that occur in the lives of juveniles. Society is always pointing the finger at the children, blaming them and punishing their negative actions. With a deeper look at the family system behind these children, I have found an empathy for the delinquent children. The organization is not only for delinquent children, but it is thought that children with incarcerated parents have a higher risk of going into the prison system. Especially since these children most likely get placed with grandparents, they could become more rebellious and hard to handle. Since learning the mentor database system, I have seen a bit more of the actual family aspect of the mentees. I have been updated and informed of children, the stories of their parents, and how they got where they are now. The circumstances that I have heard about are things that I could not even imagine going through myself. Growing up in Philadelphia and even having close friends with troubled homes has not prepared me for the issues I hear. It is no wonder these children lose their self-control. I guess this just shows the cycle of the criminal justice system. The streets create criminals, whether it be through poverty or simple environmental stressors. The criminals have children, like everyone else. Their children are subject to the living situations that come with losing a parent to the system, which in turn pushes them to the streets. They follow the same path their parents walked down. I see Family Inc. as an institution that creates a fork in the road, giving the child the options to go the right way and steer clear of crime. The mentor is a guide to show the light to the r... ...me to college. I finally get to see what I learned in the class come alive in the professional world. I now yearn to learn more about my career choice from the classroom, so I can continue to make use of it in the real world. I have even decided that I might change around a couple of my classes to figure out what juvenile classes are offer the coming semester. Overall, I am enjoying the experience. I am taking each day as it comes, learning as I go. I think that working with Family, Inc. is a good interning experience. I find it to be a good mix of my life goals and personal interest. I am currently a mentor, orientation leader, and university ambassador at school and I have always been one to be there to help new people adapt. I guess this has always been in my mind because, now that I think of it, even in my lower level jobs, I trained new employees.

Why Is Religion Important? Essays -- Why Study Religion?

"This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple; the philosophy is kindness." -- Dalai Lama In a world where religions plays such a major role in people’s lives, it is not surprising why it is such a major focus in the way choices and decisions are made. There are many religions throughout the world. Some are faiths with a very concentrated following in specific geographic areas, while others span the entire globe and have enormous numbers of followers. Each of the world’s major religions has definite distinctions that set themselves apart from others and that make them unique. These religions, however, all follow the same basic morals and guidelines that are quite similar. The most widely followed faith on the planet is Christianity. Followers of Christianity believe that God sent his own son Jesus to earth to save them from their own sinful ways. They believe that Jesus was killed for his teachings and was then resurrected after lying in a tomb for three days. The main Christian holy day is celebrated on the day Jesus rose from the dead. This day is known as Easter Sunday and is the center of the entire faith. The ultimate goal for Christians is to have their souls join God in heaven when they die where they will live forever in eternal happiness. Christianity is broken up into three different groups that follow similar beliefs but do differ on some. Roman Catholics are the first type. They make up the largest single faith in Christianity. Catholics are united under their leader, the Pope who resides in Rome. They interpret meaning from the Bible to use in everyday life. Roman Catholic scholars, who spend their lives interpreting ... ...s teachings say that all of life is suffering and that this suffering is caused by desire. He said that the only way to end suffering is to end desire and to end desire you must follow the Eight Paths of Enlightenment. There are other smaller groups of religious beliefs like Confucianism, which is basically a respect for elders. Most people in Japan follow this belief. Animism is a faith followed by more primitive cultures throughout Africa and Asia. This centers on the fact that spirits inhabit everything in nature and are thus worshipped for it. Religion remains a crucial part of world politics. It is the driving force behind much of today’s biggest problems, and until everyone learns to respect one another’s differences this unnecessary violence will continue. Dalai Lama Quote http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/topics/topic_religion.html#vM6qqb6vc2q3bDQk.99

Book Review: When Genius Failed Essay

Lowenstein’s ability to come up with a concise, coherent story and his experience in financial journalism is strongly evident in this book. Not only can Lowenstein weave together and tell a great story (this author felt he was being led through the history of the fund and its characters by one of its inner partners while reading through this book), he also pays attention to details whenever it is needed – and he succeeds greatly by catching many important subtleties (such as in the beginning of Chapter one when he used one of those â€Å"subtleties† in Meriwether’s early areer to explain the basis of LTCM’s core business model and the subtle, but gradual â€Å"style drift† that brought down the hedge fund afterwards) as well as making many interesting observations along the way (such as the fatal flaw LTCM committed when it started engaging in stocks arbitrage as opposed to sticking to bond arbitrage). 7. Concept: Unsystematic Risk. A specifi c risk is a risk that affects a very small number of assets. This is sometimes referred to as â€Å"unsystematic risk†. In a balanced portfolio of assets there would be a spread between general market risk and risks specific to individual components of that portfolio. Unlike systematic and market risk, specific risk can be diversified away. A diversified portfolio is the realisation of the proverb â€Å"don’t put all your eggs in one basket†. As Irish investors become more sophisticated in their strategies, they look beyond the risks of stock-picking to managing risk through diversified, balanced investment portfolios. Mr. Fitzgerald, portfolio manager for Hibernian Investment Managers said that often the first step in reducing risk is investing in pooled investments like mutual funds, unit trusts and unit-linked funds. It’s a toe-in-the-water position, they begin with cautiously-managed funds, and then as they grow in wealth or experience they may choose a managed fund with higher equity content† Source: Margaret E. Ward, The Irish Times, 2nd July 1999. 10. Concept: The Capital Asset Pricing Model (CAPM). William Sharpe the Capital Asset Pricing Model in 1964. Parallel work was also performed by Jack Treynor, John Lintn er and Jan Mossin. CAPM is used in finance to determine a theoretically appropriate required rate of return of an asset. It considers a simplified world where there are no taxes and transaction costs, all investors have identical investment horizons and identical opinions about expected returns, volatilities and correlations of available investments. This model states that the expected return on a specific asset equals the risk-free rate plus a premium that depends on the asset’s beta and the expected risk premium on the market portfolio. CAPM extended Harry Markowitz’s modern portfolio theory and of diversification to introduce the notions of systematic and specified risk. Source: www. google. com 11. Concept: Capital Budgeting. Capital Budgeting or Investment Appraisals are the planning processes used to determine a firm’s long term investments such as new machinery, replacement machinery, new plants, new products and research and development projects. This is the process of identifying which long-lived investment projects a firm should undertake. US entertainment giant Warner Brothers investigated a possible high-tech back office studio development in Belfast. Executives from the group conducted an appraisal of possible investment opportunities on the site. The group planned a high-tech quarter in Belfast, which it hoped would attract multimedia, informatics and telecoms firms to set up in Northern Ireland. Source: Francess McDonnell, The Irish Times, 7th August 2001. 18. Concept: Financial Management. This is managing a firms internal cash flows and its mix of debt and equity financing, both to maximise the value of the debt and equity claims on firms’ and to ensure that companies can pay off their obligations when they come due. This is illustrated through financial reporting; the dream of consistent and uniform systems of financial reporting around the world is a seductive one. It is also elusive. The problem is that, however great the attempts at providing a universally acceptable standard, the differing goals of the world’s reporting regimes get in the way. Europe and about a 100 other countries go for the International Financial Reporting Standards (IRFS) whereas, the US stand alone and stick to their US generally accepted accounting (GAAP) yet seek reconciliation from the IRFS. It is the electronic tagging and analysis system XBRL that will enable the elements of a company’s financial reports to be accessed by users and reconfigured to provide whatever information the user wants. Mr. Cox, the Securities and Exchange Commission chairman said he was â€Å"looking forward to a future in which XBRL, US GAAP and IFRS would be interconnected and hence the problem of global comparability would be solved†. Source: Robert Bruce, Financial Times, 4th January 2007.

Postcolonial Gothic texts? Essay

Before starting this essay, it is important to acknowledge the fact that the term ‘postcolonial gothic’ is quite difficult to define accurately. For the most part of this essay, I will be taking for granted the fact that these texts are essentially postcolonial in form, in so far as they are texts that have ’emerged in their present form out of the experience of colonization and asserted themselves by foregrounding the tension with imperial power. ‘1 It is with this certainty in mind that I will be looking more specifically at the gothic elements of the pieces, which separate the texts from other typically postcolonial works. Nevertheless, certain distinguishing postcolonial features will arise throughout the essay and this will be especially explicit when I look at the contextual aspects of the pieces. Turcotte identifies the fact that ‘it is certainly possible to argue that the generic qualities of the Gothic mode lend themselves to articulating the colonial experience in as much as each emerges out of a condition of deracination and uncertainty, of the familiar transposed into unfamiliar space. ‘2 As such, the idea of displacement presents itself clearly though the two texts. In Wide Sargasso Sea for instance, we feel a strong sense of Rochester’s alienation in Jamaica: †Is it true,’ she said, ‘that England is like a dream? Because one of my friends who married an Englishman wrote and told me so. She said this place like London is like a cold dark dream sometimes. I want to wake up. ‘ ‘Well,’ I answered annoyed, ‘that is precisely how your beautiful island seems to me, quite unreal and like a dream. ‘ ‘But how can rivers and mountains and the sea be unreal? ‘ And how can millions of people, their houses and their streets be unreal? ‘ (67) He finds it impossible to feel comfortable in Jamaica and it is Antoinette’s equivalent inability to understand England that forms a barrier between the couple. The gulf between their different backgrounds and upbringings is particularly evident through this conversation and it becomes increasingly clear that Rochester sees Antoinette as alien and inaccessible to him: ‘I felt very little tenderness for her, she was a stranger to me, a stranger who did not think or feel as I did. ‘ (78) Therefore, we see the postcolonial notion of the ‘other’ featuring in the novel. When we learn that Rochester views Antoinette in such a manner – as ‘that which is unfamiliar and extraneous to a dominant subjectivity’3 – a certain unease is created, which amplifies the gothic tone of the novel. The reader senses his discomfort with her ethnicity, as he talks derogatively about her: ‘I did not relish going back to England in the role of rejected suitor jilted by this Creole girl. ‘ (65) This prejudice seems to develop into a deep-seated fear of contamination from the Creole woman with ‘long, dark, sad alien eyes†¦ [who] looked very much like Amelie. ‘ (105) Further supporting his discomfort with her ethnic origin is the fact that he insists upon calling her Bertha, despite her objections: ‘Bertha is not my name. You are trying to make me into someone else, calling me by another name. ‘ (121) His renaming of Antoinette suggests that he wants to make her sound more English and, since she shares her name with her mother, he also appears to want to detach her from her family and her creole heritage. Antoinette is a white creole and throughout the novel, the reader senses that Rochester feels betrayed by his experience – he has gone to Jamaica in order to marry a wealthy heiress, whose skin is white like his own. As such, at first sight, things do appear to resemble normality for him and it is only when he gets to know her better that the differences in their make up show through. To pinpoint this sensation more precisely, we need to look at an idea stemming from displacement, that Freud identified as ‘the condition of the uncanny, where the home is unhomely – where the heimlich becomes unheimlich – and yet remains sufficiently familiar to disorient and disempower. ‘4 This is certainly the situation in which Rochester finds himself and this is epitomised when Rochester begins to see Antoinette as a doll: ‘She lifted her eyes. Blank lovely eyes. Mad eyes†¦ I scarcely recognised her voice. No warmth, no sweetness. The doll had a doll’s voice, a breathless but curiously different voice. ‘ (140) Freud claimed that a favourable condition for the uncanny is when there is uncertainty as to whether an object is alive or not and this is certainly the way in which Rochester views Antoinette. Therefore, although on the surface everything appears to be normal, all the things around Rochester have a peculiar unfamiliarity for him. The character of Antoinette also suffers such alienation when she arrives in England and is confined to her room: ‘Now they have taken everything away. What am I doing in this place and who am I? ‘ (147) The reader senses that without her country and the things around her that are familiar to her, she has lost her own identity. The notions of displacement and the uncanny are very disturbing in essence. They infuse the novel with a sense of unease and a sense of disturbance in the characters that the readers can relate to. Similarly, in Ovando many of these features of displacement and the uncanny are evident and the anxiety and dread that this imposes on the reader is what gives this story its gothic overtones. The character of Ovando symbolises the imperial power in the story and the narrator represents the native peoples, crushed by the colonisers. The impact of Ovando on the narrator’s land is profound and the imposition of his European culture appears to contribute to this effect: ‘He carries with him the following things: bibles, cathedrals, museums†¦ libraries’ (3) Although these things represent the treasures of culture in their European environment, the narrator appears to be recognising the fact that these things do not belong in their New World environment. Through enforcing these things on the new land, Ovando is conforming to what is described in â€Å"The Empire Writes Back† as ‘the political and cultural monocentrism of the colonial enterprise†¦ of the European world. ‘5 Furthermore, Ovando enforces his religious beliefs on the natives and this becomes clear when he tries to justify his actions by referring to ‘fate’ and the narrator states: ‘I could have brought a stop to what was an invasion to me, a discovery to him; after all, I too knew of divinities and eternities and unalterable events. ‘ (4) Ovando fails to see that the natives have their own belief systems in place and his ignorance is exemplified by the fact that the narrator appears to realise Ovando’s downfall, acknowledging his ignorance. Although he does not condone the colonisers’ actions in any way, there is a degree of understanding on the part of the narrator -who represents the natives – that does appear to be present in Ovando: ‘To the stranger’s eye (Ovando’s) everything in my world appears as if it were made anew each night as I sleep, by gods in their heavenly chambers’ (7) The narrator is acknowledging the fact that Ovando and the Imperial powers on the whole failed to realise that the New World – ironically named by the imperialists – was not in fact ‘new’. These countries had their own pasts and their own traditions that the narrow-minded colonisers, who had their eyes ‘half-shut’ (6), failed to recognise or appreciate. Although of course this narrative is written from the biased perspective of the natives (Kincaid’s background supports this fact) the historical accounts of colonisation do essentially support the notion of the blinkered imperialists. As a consequence of this and the lack of integration into native lifestyle by the colonisers, they fail to see that their European traditions are displaced in this new environment and, through imposing them, they create a rift between themselves and the natives. More obviously present in Ovando is the notion of the uncanny. Standing alongside this sense of displacement, the presence of the uncanny promotes a very daunting and disturbing feel in the piece. Turcotte directs the notion of the uncanny in postcolonial literature in particular to the notion of ‘physical perversion†¦ [where] nature, it seemed to many, was out of kilter. ‘6 Throughout this short story, everything is out of kilter in effect. For instance, when Ovando is looking at the map, Kincaid distorts reality and time: ‘Using the forefinger of his left hand, he traced on his map a line. Months later his finger came to a stop. It was a point not too far from where he had started. ‘ (6) This distortion of time is disorientating to the reader and the narrator describes other events, which are equally impossible. When for instance the narrator describes the protest put to Ovando about his unfair treatment of the natives, he undergoes a process of metamorphosis: ‘But Ovando could not hear me, for by this time his head had taken the shape of a groundworm, which has no ears. ‘ (10) Although the narrator is clearly illustrating his refusal to hear the pleas of the natives, it becomes clear that nothing is impossible in the story. Kincaid writes: ‘The moment in which the words could be said was the moment in which the words would be true. ‘ (8) – and the reader recognises that whatever is said in the story simply has to be accepted as the truth. The author gives words an enormous amount of command and authority and, as such, the power of words in this story exceeds the influence of the reader to interpret the events for themselves. Therefore, it could be deemed that Kincaid is confiscating the power of interpretation from the reader in order to highlight the way in which power was taken away from the natives – and the unease and discomfort that this creates adds to the gothic effect of the story. Morrow and McGraph acknowledge that after the 1830 and ’40s the gothic became ‘increasingly fascinated with the psyche of the gothic personality. ‘7 This is particularly obvious in Ovando, with Kincaid’s in-depth exploration of the mental workings of the coloniser. The supposed superiority of the European colonisers, over the natives is apparent through the character of Ovando, who insists upon ‘possess[ing]’ the natives. Similarly, we have insight into the workings of the colonised people. We see their bitter retrospection at their welcoming attitude towards the colonisers: ‘†Ovando,† I said, â€Å"Ovando,† and I smiled at him and threw my arms open to embrace this stinky relic of a person. Many people have said that this was my first big mistake, and I always say, How could it be a mistake to show sympathy to another human being, on first meeting? ‘ (3) Although this is not symbolic of the ‘gothic personality’ in the same way that Ovando’s thoughts are, the juxtaposition of this welcoming, warm attitude highlights the deviousness of Ovando’s thinking, as he deliberately takes advantage of people who were prepared to share their land with him. In Wide Sargasso Sea, there is no equally explicit demonic gothic personality as there is in Ovando. However, there are dark qualities lurking in both Antoinette and Rochester. With Antoinette, of course, her personality creates an amount of unease in the reader, particularly since we aware of the fate of the character she is rooted in from Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre. Additionally, with Rochester’s unease about the fact that ‘her mother was mad’ (129), the reader is constantly haunted by the notion that she will turn out like her mother. Obviously, these anxieties turn out to be justified as we see her realisation of her supposed responsibility: ‘I was outside holding my candle. Now at last I know why I was brought here and what I have to do. ‘ (155-6). Antoinette burns down the house, believing in her misery that this is her destiny. This, in itself, is quite a morbid notion that amplifies her state of despair and gloom. McGraph and Morrow acknowledge that ‘the new gothicist would take as a starting place the concern with interior entropy – spiritual and emotional breakdown†¦ ‘8 Therefore the recognition of Antoinette’s despair means that, although this insight into her psyche does not mirror the horror and gruesomeness of the gothic personality in Ovando, the extent of her despair instils a deep sense of dismay in the reader and supports the gothic nature of the text. The respective writers also employ various literary techniques in the pieces, which indicate that the texts are postcolonial gothic in nature. For instance, the entire notion of gothic literature is suggestive of ‘horror, madness, monstrosity, death, disease, terror, evil and weird sexuality’9 and many of these qualities are prevalent in Ovando. The imagery used in Ovando conforms to these horrific characteristics customary in gothic literature and the physical appearance of Ovando corresponds to this in particular: ‘Not a shred of flesh was left on his bones; he was a complete skeleton except for his brain, which remained, and was growing smaller by the millennium. He stank’ (3) This gruesome image of Ovando can only provoke horror and disgust in the reader and the nightmarish qualities of such gothic literature present themselves clearly here. Similarly, the physical appearance of Ovando continues to worsen into the form of the devil: ‘He had also grown horns on either side of his head, and from these he hung various instruments of torture; his tongue he made forked. ‘ (9) This demonic image is possibly one of the darkest images that can be drawn upon and, as such, Kincaid is portraying the character of Ovando in the most evil way possible. The idea that he personally ‘made’ his tongue forked also draws to mind images of masochism that, again, are dark in nature. This use of graphic and disturbing imagery draws all the qualities of ‘horror, madness, monstrosity†¦ ‘ together to form a deeply disturbing text conforming to the conventions of gothic writing. The structure of Ovando also allows the piece to fit into the genre of gothic literature successfully. The piece is dreamlike in that it has no fixed structure and it moves through the action with no real sense of succession at all. Events do not lead into one another, but the reader gets the sense of dreamlike disorder with the physical world constantly changing. It is this constant flux in the story that creates a disturbing sense of disorder in the piece, which, no doubt, reflects the disorder created by the invasion of the colonisers. In Wide Sargasso Sea, Rhys uses some very graphic images that are disturbing in nature and as such conform to the gothic style. During the fire, we hear Antoinette’s retelling of events, as she realises that their pet parrot is stuck in the burning house: ‘I opened my eyes, everybody was looking up and pointing at Coco on the glacis railings with his feathers alight. He made an effort to fly down but his clipped wings failed him and he fell down screeching. He was all on fire. ‘ (36) This horrific image of the bird being burned alive equates to the burning images of the devil in Ovando and highlights the notion of suffering in the text. The colonial experience clearly caused suffering and anguish and this conveyance of pain is an effective means of expressing this. Rhys also refers frequently to the notion of obeah, which relates to black magic and spirit theft. Antoinette accuses Rochester of obeah, through trying to change her name, but she is also guilty of its practice when she puts a love potion in his wine. This exploration of the unknown and the ghosts that Christophine knows about, although ‘that is not what she calls them’ (113) creates an eerie and supernatural dimension in the piece. The use of such ideas by Rhys is concordant with the daunting elements that define the gothic genre. In Ovando in particular, the gothic literary technique of inversion is also employed throughout. McGraph and Marrow identify the use of inversion as a gothic effect, ‘where terror and unreason subverted consensus and rationality, where passion was transformed into disgust, love turned to hatred and good engendered evil. ’10 The narrator appears to acknowledge throughout that good can engender evil. When Ovando arrived on the island, of course, the narrator was eager to accept him: ‘For I loved him then, not the way I would love my mother, or my child, but with that more general and spontaneous kind of love that I feel when I see any human being. ‘ (3) The good in Ovando, however, is overtaken by greed and self-love, epitomised in the masturbation episode where ‘Ovando gently passes his hands down his own back, through the crevices of his private parts†¦ ‘ (11-12). Therefore, the reader senses that the imperial powers were all subjected to this inversion driven by greed in effect, and this literary technique is an effective way of mirroring this inversion of good to bad in human beings. Similarly in Wide Sargasso Sea, some of these features of inversion can also seen to be employed by Rhys. Rochester’s worsening feelings towards Antionette indicate this and such an overturn in emotions that epitomises the gothic tone and alteration from passion to disgust can be seen when Rochester sleeps with Amelie. No sooner has he slept with her, did he begin to feel discontented with her appearance: ‘†¦ her skin was darker, her lips thicker than I had thought†¦ I had no wish to touch her and she knew it, for she got up at once and began to dress. ‘ (115-6) His darkest fears appear to surface through her, with his acknowledgement of how native she looks and the hint that he worries further that she could be related to Antoinette. Having previously stated: ‘Perhaps they are related, I thought. It’s possible, it’s even probable in this damned place. ‘ (105) -the way in which he sees her this morning strongly rouses the deep-seated fear of incestuous relations in him. These issues in themselves are dark and gothic in that sense, although the fact that these issues are only hinted at makes them far more ominous in some respects. Looking at the works from a contextual perspective, it is interesting to see that Gelder concludes that ‘Postcolonial nations can re-animate the traumas of their colonial pasts to produce Gothic narratives. ’11 This can be seen explicitly in Ovando through the character of Frey Nicolas de Ovando. Although he appears to be a fictitious character, he was undoubtedly named after a sixteenth century governor in the Dominican Republic. Friar Nicolas de Ovando was governor from 1502 to 1509 and during this time, he was renowned for his cruel treatment of the native Taino tribe. It is reported that, in order to gain more power over the tribes, he arranged a feast for the tribe chiefs and then burnt down the house where it was held. Furthermore, any people who survived the fire were tortured and killed. There is no question that Kincaid’s character was created in direct reference to him and the cruelty of the character of Ovando in her novel supports this fact: ‘One morning, Ovando arose from his bed. Assisted by people he had forcibly placed in various stages of social and spiritual degradation†¦ ‘ (9) This demonstrates explicitly the blame that Kincaid attributes to Ovando for the pain and suffering caused. She dispels any notions of fate or necessity and lays the burden on the shoulder of the one character who, in addition to clearly being the general described above, broadly represents the imperial nations. It is clear that Kincaid is drawing upon real life horrors for her story and Turcotte identifies this technique: ‘From its inception the Gothic has dealt with fears and themes which are endemic in the colonial experience: isolation, entrapment, fear of pursuit and fear of the unknown. ’12 Therefore we see that the gothic genre is particularly apt for expressing the distresses caused by the process of colonisation. This process of the re-animation of traumas from people’s colonial pasts is repeated in a sense through Rhys’s Wide Sargasso Sea. She is retelling a Gothic story that already exists in Jane Eyre, giving depth and, indeed, a life to Rochester’s mad wife in the attic. Spivak recognises that Rhys takes Bronte’s Jane Eyre and ‘rewrites a canonical English text within the European novelistic tradition in the interest of the white Creole rather than the native. ’13 This would suggest that, just as the madwoman in the attic has no voice in Jane Eyre, neither does the colonised persons in colonial and postcolonial literature. Therefore, Rhys is giving them the voice they have been deprived of. Many things point to the fact that this was her deliberate intention and we can assume that her personal reward from doing such a thing is clear when we hear other accounts of prejudice in her works: ‘I had discovered that if I called myself English they would snub me haughtily: ‘You’re not English; you’re a horrid colonial. †14 Jean Rhys was a white Creole like this character and, as such, the closeness of the character to the novelist makes it difficult to detach the two. Therefore, it is clear that the gothic genre for Rhys is an effective means of conveying the personal trauma she has experienced as a result of prejudice, stemming from colonisation. In conclusion, it is clear to see that these texts can be defined as postcolonial gothic. As postcolonial texts, they also possess many of the distinguishing features of gothic texts. The aptness of the gothic genre as a means of reiterating colonial pasts is evident throughout, as the horror and disruption that it conveys so well is symbolic of the anxiety and heartache that the process of colonisation created for those people ensnared in its progression. Bibliography:   Bill Ashcroft, Gareth Griffiths, Helen Tiffin. The Empire Writes Back: Theory and Practice in Postcolonial Literatures. London: Routledge. 1989.   ed. Athill, Diana. â€Å"The Day They Burned the Books† in The Collected Short Stories of Jean Rhys. New York: W. W. Norton. 1968.   Boehmer, Elleke. Colonial and Postcolonial Literature. Oxford: Oxford University Press. 1995. Ed. Childs, Peter. Post-Colonial Theory and English Literature: A Reader. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 1999.   Gelder, Ken. â€Å"Postcolonial Gothic† in The Handbook to Gothic Literature. ed. Mulvey-Roberts, Marie. Basingstoke: Macmillan. 1998.   Kincaid, Jamaica. â€Å"Ovando† in The Picador Book of the New Gothic. A Collection of Contemporary Gothic Fiction. ed. Mcgraph, Patrick; Morrow, Bradford. London: Picador. 1992.   ed. McGraph, Patrick, Bradford Morrow. The Picador Book of the New Gothic. A Collection of Contemporary Gothic Fiction.

Xacc/280 Wk2 Assignment Journalizing, Posting, and Preparing a Trial Balance

Journalizing, Posting, and Preparing a Trial Balance XACC/280 November 27, 2011 Journalizing, Posting, and Preparing a Trial Balance The general goals of financial reporting are to keep an accurate and ethical record of all financial transactions of a company, while maintaining integrity and adhering to the generally accepted principles of accounting. The steps I took in the recording process for this assignment were to first make journal entries to accurately depict all financial transactions for the fictitious company. After making and double checking my journal entries, I entered them into the general ledger. This step might seem a bit redundant, but it is vital to have this information available in both forms—a day by day account, and an account by account analysis. Lastly I prepared the trial balance report for the same fictitious company. The steps I took support, and are in strict adherence to, the principles of accounting because: there are no fictitious entries, I made no attempts to understate income nor to overstate expenses, and I double checked my work to ensure accuracy. I made certain that I accurately recorded the information I was given, and ensured that it balanced out. The basic accounting equation (Assets = Liabilities + Owners’ Equity) is fully satisfied, and the financial information I was given is accurately reported. I once had a wonderfully wise employer who was a CPA. He told me that all we can do is report the numbers we are given by our clients. If it does not pass the â€Å"smell test† then we can bring it to the client’s attention, but we should never accuse them of attempting anything resembling fraud. Make copies of the information given to us by the client, and keep those copies in the client’s file. That way, we can prove that the numbers we reported were the same numbers we were given to report.

Reader Response of Monkey’s Paw Essay

The short story which is going to be analyzed in this paper is Monkey’s Paw. It is a horror short story by William Wymark Jacobs. He is an English author of short stories and novels. The story itself is divided into three parts and will be determine the constituent and supplementary events of it. The constituent event is an event, what if it is removed, will make a gap in a plot of the story. It is also known as main event. Every story must have the constituent event, in order to create a chain of plot. Certainly, Monkey’s Paw has the constituent event in it. First, it is the most important event which is constituent – the title itself, Monkey’s Paw. The title of the story is really influential. The reader can get a gap when the object of monkey’s paw is changed with a mystical lamp, for example. It may feel more Arabian and there will be an event when the user of the mystical lamp rubbed down on it. It also changes the plot of the whole story, even the title itself, and it is not the Monkey’s Paw’s story anymore. Next, it is about the Herbert White’s death. The event when Herbert died is a constituent event which can not be removed or even be replaced. The reason of deciding it in to constituent event is that the Herbert’s death influences the three wishes to the monkey’s paw. If Herbert was not died, Mr. White would not make a second wish to get her son alive. It is shown that the event of Herbert White’s death is influential, and if it is removed, it can damage the plot of the story. Besides the constituent event is the main event in a story, the supplementary event is the removable one. It can be removed or deleted from the story, because it will not make a gap and change the structure of the plot. There are so many supplementary events in Monkey’s Paw. The first is playing chess done by Mr. White and his son, Herbert White. It can be removed, actually. The reasons are the existence of that event do not change the structure of the plot and the event is meaningless. Even if the event is not removed but is replaced its activity by another game, playing bowling for example, it does not mean anything to the structure of the plot. Another example of supplementary event is the last event of the first part of the story. It tells that Mr. White sat alone in the darkness, gazing at the dying fire, and seeing faces in it. This event is a removable and replaceable event. Without the existence of this event, the structure of the plot are not changed. Even, if the event is replaced by Mr. White is going to bed immediately, it is meaningless. In conclusion, the title of the story Monkey’s Paw, is the most important constituent event that are appeared and it is followed by another constituent event which can not be removed or be replaced. Finnaly, to supporting the constituent event, there are also some supplementary events.

Investigate a social or business issue using statistical techniques Research Paper

Investigate a social or business issue using statistical techniques (including Excel graphs), analysis and interpretation - Research Paper Example In recent years, research has concentrated on the relationship between sex differences and academic performance in various academic levels. For example, Kenney-Benson et al. (2006) conducted a research in European and North American countries on the impact of gender on academic performance. The results were that girls outperform boys even in math-related subjects, such as mathematics. These results are supported by several other researchers, such as Pomerantz, Altermatt and Saxon (2002). However, they contradict the National Science Foundation’ statement that boys outperform girls in math subjects. Further, they oppose previous findings, such as those made by Hyde, Fennema and Lamon (1990) that boys outdo girls in mathematics. There is, therefore, a conflict with respect to boys’ and girls’ performance. It could be that girls are gradually outdoing boys academically such that conclusions from research activities conducted several years ago are no longer true. There is a dire need to establish a fact regarding differences in boys and girls with respect to their academic performance. This paper seeks to clear the air by reviewing and analyzing research results to determine if girls are actually outdoing boys academically. The paper makes use of secondary data to do the analysis and concludes that boys outdo girls academically. Table 1 suggests that boys in general perform better than girls in mathematics related subjects, but girls outdo boys in arts subjects, such as languages. However, when the two variables are subject to overall performance, it is apparent that age plays a role in determining their performance. However, boys are seen to perform better than girls do at all academic levels with the difference in academic performance increasing as they advance in years. Results also indicate that academic performance stagnates or even declines as boys and girls get older. Table three shows interesting results- that boys repeat