Why does Economic Dependence on Product Exports in Underdeveloped Count

The landlocked country of Burkina Faso ranks 183 out of 187 countries in the 2012 Human Development Index, indicating that the quality of life in the African country is tremendously low (World Bank). Despite the United States having contributed $520 million to the underdeveloped country in recent years in an act of humanitarianism; Burkina Faso is still economically unstable, forcing them to heavily depend on their most profitable industries (Kerry). Gold mining is currently a source of income that the country is greatly relying on. In order to grow financially, gold mine managers have resorted to trafficking children for the worst forms of labor, driving them out of their schools and away from their families. Economic dependence on product exports in the underdeveloped country of Burkina Faso leads to child labor because perilous conditions must be endured, low wages must be paid, and workers must be willing to labor. The revenue made from gold mining in Burkina Faso is mainly produced by Burkinabe children, seeing that mining is a hazardous undertaking that comes with low wages. Burkina Faso is a newcomer in the scene of gold mining, as production has more than doubled, reaching 32 tons of gold in 2012 and increasing by 41% from 2010 to 2011 (DFATD). More than 200 gold mines are spread out all through the country, most of them remote and unknown of (Price). These remote locations are difficult for organizations such as local NGOs, UN Gift, and Interpol to track down, making the chances of arresting a trafficker quite slim. Children are brought to these mining sites, because the conditions there are very difficult to work in. Employers make their workforce work 14 hours a day, 6-7 days a week. Workers only receive room and boar... ...ks/2013/03/206636.htm>. Price, Larry C. "Burkina Faso: Childhoods Lost in the Gold Mines." Pulitzer Center. Pulitzer Center, 28 Apr. 2013. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. . Price, Larry C. "Children in Burkina Faso Take on Dirty, Dangerous Work of Digging Up Gold." PBS. PBS, 10 July 2013. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. . Sollinger, Marc. "Children Mining for Gold in Burkina Faso." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. . Van De Glind, Hans. "Migration and Child Labour." UN GIFT HUB. UNODC, Sept. 2010. Web. 15 Mar. 2014. .

Math Every Day

It occurs to me that learning mathematics, especially calculus and other forms of higher mathematics, is much like learning a foreign language. Math starts out like a foreign language, having its own symbols, definitions, applications, and structures. It is difficult to use at first and requires repetition, like a new language. One needs to memorize symbols, their functions and many rules, and then one needs to practice by working many problems. Learners cannot be comfortable with new languages (mathematics) until they can use it repeatedly, consistently, and successfully. Calculus, or a new language, is already existent and the learner needs to adapt to it and work in it; the new material will not adapt to the learner. One learns a language by listening to others and by reading, using a dictionary, learning the language rules, and what breaks any or all of those rules. Calculus is similar. After much practice, students can communicate with others in their new language and expand their abilities with more practice and use, just as in mathematics. Those with a good foundation via formal instruction are clearly better at than those that pick it up here and there, intermittently.   The first can be understood and the second become lost. Less well-trained learners are limited in the range and layering of meaning their communication can involve and do not have the tools for even higher levels of language (mathematics) learning. A strong foundation prepares the new language speaker or the new calculus student for the next step in their subject’s discipline and for later innovation, research, and invention in that discipline. Mathematics and language are the same — They have formulas and patterns; they are communication and they are beautiful (e.g. fractal patterns and poetry). Perhaps this is the reason that the films â€Å"Close encounters of the third kind† used music (very mathematical) and â€Å"Contact† used mathematics as the forms of communication that proved successful between aliens and earth people.

Advantages and disadvantages of mobile phones Essay

The 21st century has seen the advent of amazing technological advances, one of which is of the mobile phone. Nowadays, a mobile phone consists of camera, MP3 player, alarm clock,†¦., or in another way, a mobile phone is a combination of more than 10 items of our daily lives. And so a mobile is a basic need and everybody has it. We can all see clearly the advantages of a mobile phone, but not everybody recognizes the down side of having one. As mentioned and well – acknowledged by everyone, convenience is an advantage of mobile phone. With a mobile phone, we are able to have instant contact with whomever we want, whenever we want, and also because it is a multi-functional device beside communication use, even more accurate for the new generations of smart phone. At present, a smart phone can access the internet using 3G or Wi-fi. Therefore, it is not just a phone, but a mini computer. Besides the obvious advantage, another comes to mind, and that is texting helping people to overcome shyness and awkwardness. Being late for a meeting, apologizing, telling loved things to someone,†¦ are all quite uncomfortable situations and speech can make things even worse. But text gets rid of those moments and replace it with a clean, logical and clear message. Furthermore, teenagers find mobile phones being an expression of their identity because they are beyond the control of parents. A mobile phone makes our lives quite easier, right? Not quite. As you can see, scientists have claimed that mobile phone produces a small amount of radiation waves, resulting to brain cancer, so long usage can be harmful to health. And in terms of health, there have been a great deal of traffic accidents caused by texting and calling while driving. So firstly a mobile phone can affect our health and probably our lives. Secondly, mobile phones can be great distraction at work and school. The internet, the games on smart phones, the endless number of applications, those are temptations, creating lack of concentration for people working and studying, which is an activity being definitely less exciting by comparison. In addition, mobile phones are sometimes disturbance in our lives due to the wrong-number phone calls, draft messages, prank calls,†¦. . These are very annoying and can lead to discomfort, especially if these are being made at night. Then there are environmental issues involved with mobile phone usages. According to a survey, people on average use their phone 11 to 18 months, a short period of time. And when those old phones become trash, and with the need of phones at  present, which is a lot, it can lead to pollution due to hardware of mobile phones being hard to dispose of. In conclusion, we use mobile phones on a daily basis for theirs obvious advantages, but we also need to be aware of the not so obvious or simply ignored disadvantages. On account of the mass demand of mobile phones, we need to know both sides of them in order to make the best out of a wonderful device.

“The Invisible Leash”: The Patty Hearst Case and the Crazy Things Victims Do

In April 1974, roughly two months after they kidnapped Patty Hearst, the Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) released a photo of Hearst as evidence that she was no longer a kidnap victim but a willing member of their group. In the photo, Hearst is pictured alone (no other members of the Symbionese Liberation Army are evident). She stands off centered in the photo (to the left) in front of the Symbionese Liberation Army’s symbol, a seven-headed cobra (â€Å"Symbionese Liberation Army†). Her stance is aggressive: her legs are apart as if she is braced and ready to shoot; her gun is pointed (not at the viewer, but off to the viewer’s right); and her finger is on the trigger. The gun itself is a serious weapon, a carbine. And Hearst’s attire is militaristic and revolutionary: she wears pants, tight, military-type clothing, and a beret of the same sort worn by revolutionary Che Guevera, in the famous photo of him snapped by Alberta Korda (â€Å"Che Guevara†). Moreover, the background color in the photo of Hearst is red, a color that suggests violence and aggression. In the lower right corner of the photo, another machine gun rests against the wall, only the upper portion of the gun is visible (its barrel), and it’s pointing upward, toward the top of the photo. While this photo is meant to depict Hearst as a willing member of the SLA, it isn’t quite successful. That is, it suggests a more complex truth: that people sometimes play roles that do not fully describe them and in which they are not at home. A close look at the photo reveals that Patty Hearst, though she assumes the stance of a guerrilla, is anything but that. Her gaze is not directed violently at the viewer; instead, she looks to the side, transforming herself into the object of the gaze rather than being the gazer. This is in sharp contrast to Korda’s famous photo of Che Guevara, whose hat style Hearst has adopted. In his photo, Guevara faces the audience squarely and audaciously (â€Å"Che Guevara†). Hearst’s posture may be audacious, but the direction of her gaze reveals submission. Other details in the photo also suggest that she is less than at home in her role as aggressive warrior. Her gun, for example, is pointed to the side – just as is her gaze. She’s not threatening the viewer with the gun; she’s exposing herself to the viewer. Plus, though none of the SLA members are present in the photo with Hearst, the unmanned, projecting gun in the lower right corner of the photo draws the eye and reminds the viewer that just off stage lurks a threat. With her glance to the side, Hearst seems almost focused on this threat. Indeed, a quick look at her eyes reveals dark circles under them. Her mouth is pinched and drawn. These are indicators that she may be uncomfortable, even stressed in her new role. In fact, the photo, along with an audio communication from Hearst on which she called her father a â€Å"corporate liar† and explained that she was joining the SLA and taking a new name (â€Å"SLA: Tania†), caused her fiance and her parents to â€Å"[speculate] that Hearst had been brainwashed or coerced. † They did not believe that the Patty Hearst they were seeing and hearing was the â€Å"real† Patty Hearst (â€Å"SLA: Patty Hearst). And, indeed, Patty Hearst, granddaughter of newspaper tycoon William Randolph Hearst, seems to have changed over the course of her kidnapping. Compare, for example, two of her communiques with her parents. The first was received February 12, only 9 days after armed gunman kidnapped her from her fiance’s apartment on the night of February 4, 1974 (â€Å"Radically†). In this communique, she says: Mom, Dad, I’m OK. I’m with a combat unit that’s armed with automatic weapons. And these people aren’t just a bunch of nuts. They’ve been really honest with me but they’re perfectly willing to die for what they’re doing. And I want to get out of here but the only way I’m going to is if we do it their way. And I just hope that you’ll do what they say Dad and just do it quickly. And I mean I hope that this puts you a little bit at ease and that you know that I really, really am alright. I just hope I can get back to everybody really soon. (â€Å"The Patty Hearst Tapes†) Here Hearst focuses almost entirely on her own situation, telling her parents who has taken her and what her parents need to do to free her. She mentions that her captors are serious but says very little about their political agenda. She sounds, in fact, very much like one might expect a kidnapped, 19-year-old to sound. By day 59 of Hearst’s captivity, her communiques reveal that her focus has changed from herself to the SLA’s cause. Mom, Dad. Tell the poor and oppressed people of this nation what the corporate state is about to do. Warn Black and poor people that they are about to be murdered down to the last man, woman, and child. Tell the people that the energy crisis is nothing more than a means to get public approval for a massive program to build nuclear power plants all over the nation. The message goes on in this vein and culminates with the following: â€Å"I have chosen to stay and fight. I have been given the name Tania after a comrade who fought alongside Che in Bolivia. It is in the spirit of Tania that I say, ‘Patria o Muerte, Venceremos’† (â€Å"The Patty Hearst Tapes†). The Latin phrase means â€Å"Fatherland or death: We shall overcome† (Cox), and it suggests Hearst’s transformation from heiress to warrior. Clearly Hearst had changed, and after she was caught on video camera robbing a bank with the SLA only a few months after she’d been kidnapped (Ramsland), Americans caught up in the story were left to debate whether a person is always responsible for his or her own actions. In an article published in the National Review during Hearst’s 1976 trial, one commentator gave specific voice to the questions many people were asking themselves: When given the opportunity, why didn’t Hearst â€Å"reassert her own individuality and [try] to escape? And, even more succinctly, the commentator asks: â€Å"Is Hearst guilty? † (â€Å"What Is Guilt? † 258). Hearst was eventually sentenced to 7 years in prison for helping the SLA with their criminal activities (including bank robberies), but President Carter had her released after only 22 months (Chua-Eoan), and, in 2001, President Clinton pardoned her (â€Å"Radically†), wiping her record clean. President Clin ton’s pardon suggests that Hearst was not responsible for what she did. It suggests that under specific conditions, a person can behave in ways for which she must not be held responsible. In a nutshell, it suggests that those who have endured traumatic experiences (victims) are not necessarily accountable for what they do. And, indeed, by most accounts, Hearst’s experience was traumatic. During the first several weeks of her captivity (prior to her participation in the first of several bank robberies), she was (according to her own accounts) kept in a dark closet. She was â€Å"sexually assaulted† (â€Å"Truth† 201). She was told that her parents were â€Å"insects† and that she was a member of a class of people that was â€Å"sucking blood† from the commoners. When her father visited San Quentin (as part of a ransom demand made by the SLA), and he reported that the conditions of the prisoners there was fine, Hearst’s captors reportedly told her that her living conditions (in the cramped, dark closet) were similar to those of the San Quentin prisoners. The take home message for Hearst was that her â€Å"tiny cell, stale air, and gloomy walls were [considered by her father to be] an acceptable environment for his daughter. † Her captors led her to feel increasingly alienated from her old life and from her family (â€Å"Tania’s World†). Subject to severe trauma, a person may not behave rationally or in keeping with what might be expected. For example, in 2007, when police found and liberated Shawn Hornbeck, a boy who had been abducted 4 years earlier (when he was only 12), one of the questions that surfaced repeatedly was: why didn’t he run? During at least the last two or three of his years of captivity, his captor (Michael Devlin) allowed Shawn a tremendous amount of freedom. Shawn went to school, rode his bike, and had multiple opportunities to report his situation to authorities, but he didn’t (Tresniowski, Grout, and Finan). Shawn’s attorney speculates that an â€Å"invisible leash† kept Shawn from running (qtd. in Tresniowski, Grout, and Finan). And C. Robert Cloninger, a medical doctor at the Sanson Center for Well-Being in St. Louis, indicates that victims may â€Å"[bond] with their abductors† in order to â€Å"feel safe†: Once you’ve begun to identify with your captor, you don’t have to fear them anymore, because you’re in harmony with them†¦We see this in hostage situations, where the emotional brain short circuits the rational brain. (qtd. in Tresniowski, Grout, and Finan) It was this same â€Å"invisible leash† that made Hearst do the seemingly crazy things she did: rob banks, hide from the law, remain with the SLA. A close look at her history and a careful look at the now infamous SLA photo of Hearst reveal the truth: she may have pretended to be Tania, but that was a temporary role, assumed under extreme circumstances to protect herself. Her transformation from â€Å"an apolitical rich girl† to a â€Å"gun-toting radical† (â€Å"Radically†) tells us more about the events that she was caught up in than about who she was.

A Step Up Speech For a 14 Year Old (Student Government) Essay

A Step Up Speech For a 14 Year Old (Student Government) - Essay Example But it never perturbed me because I had amazing mentors around me. They always guided me and encouraged me whenever I consulted them. With each passing year I am becoming more responsible and confident and this is due to the support of the teachers of my school. I will never forget the efforts and love of Ms. Miller and Mr. Neilson who have always been there whenever I needed them. They have always been appurtenance to me who give strength and bring out the best in me and improve my capabilities. Respected Sir and Madam I respect you and will always admire your efforts. Thank you for your love for all these years. My mother has always been hortative. It is due to her support and kindness that I have been able to come this far. Now that I am being promoted to the next and higher level, I am sure that whatever I have learned from the competent faculty I will utilize it effectively in the next four years. I hope by running for the post of President in high school I will be able to make all of you proud of

Managerial Economics exam paper Term Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Managerial Economics exam - Term Paper Example The salary that the owner of a business can earn and the interest that the owner can earn on the invested capital are examples of implicit costs. The following equations can be used to calculated business and economic profits. c) Since project B has a higher standard deviation of $15000 than project A, we can conclude that project B is riskier. However, project B provides a better return of $70000 as compared to the expected return of project A of $60300. Project A has lesser risk since its standard deviation is lesser than that of project B. Higher standard deviation of project B indicates that there are high chances that the return will either be higher than the expected return or lower than the expected return. If the customer is a risk-averse one, he will prefer project A since it provides a lower return but has lesser risk attached to it. A risk-taking customer would go for project B since project B provides a better return although there is higher risk attached to it. Implicit cost is the cost of the opportunity that a firm loses when it employs its resources in earning profits. The salary that one can earn by investing his time elsewhere or the interest that one can earn on the capital employed in business are some examples of implicit costs (Begg 1997). According to the Consumer Demand Theory, the quantity demanded of a product increases with a decrease in its price and quantity demanded decreases if price is increased. There is a direct relationship between demand and income. If income of consumers increases, quantity demanded also increases and if income decreases, quantity demanded also decreases. Change in tastes also influence the quantity demanded of a product (Sloman 1997). For example, if people get more inclined towards buying smartphones than other cellphones, the smartphones demand will surge due o the change in tastes and preferences of the

PsyInfo Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

PsyInfo - Research Paper Example I chose the topic of autism because children with behavioral problems in general and autistic children in particular, hold my interest. When I was in school, I had a class mate who did not mingle much with us and kept very much to himself. I remember that some of the children used to make fun of him, and I was surprised to discover that he did not really notice much of the sarcasm and the jokes cracked at his expense. That caused me to be interested in finding out just what was wrong with him, and that is how I discovered much about autism. Currently, I am oscillating between becoming a psychologist or a social worker – I have not decided yet, for certain, which path to choose. However, irrespective of the final plan, I have decided to work with children with behavioral problems. There has been quite a bit of work done in this regard, but I feel it is not enough and there need to be more professionals who are involved with children with behavioral problems. Studying this topic and getting more information on it will help me in my plans, as whether I become a psychologist or a social worker, I am planning on making children my focus in this regard. I would prefer working as a child psychologist or a social worker specializing in children’s welfare. In this regard, I have chosen to make autism and behavioral problems my specialization. Pandey, J., Verbalis, A., Robins, D. L., Boorstein, H., Klin, A., Babitz, T., Chawarska, K., Volkmar, F., Green, J., Barton, M., & Fein, D. (2008). Screening for autism in older and younger toddlers with the Modified Checklist for Autism in Toddlers. Autism, 12 (5),