Self and Society Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Self and Society - Essay Example Each "healthy" society needs people capable of looking forward into the future and capable of showing us the path that leads outside the polluted atmosphere of intrigues of the group of the "little" people we all belong to. Namely, people who serve the truth and not the group or the public opinion are predecessors of the society who warn us of the dangers on our way to freedom. While the group is characterized with sluggishness and inertia, the individual is capable of rapid changes of his/her opinion towards the light that glows over the new facts and warns of new danger. However, those who serve the truth only, are rare and few. Many philosophers and famous writers have tried to find answers to these and similar questions concerning the individual versus society. Camus, Dostoyevsky, Kafka, Thoreau and Emerson are only a few of those who have tried to criticize the society they have lived in, to cynically laugh at and mock their own time, to warn of the dangers of the moral and ethical erosion they have been witnesses of. Knowing the characteristics of existentialism to which Camus belongs, it is understandable why in his short novel "The Stranger" Albert Camus criticizes the judicial system and depicts the irony of a case when a man is condemned for his indifference and avoidance of societal code. Mersault, the protagonist, is condemned not only by the judge but the spectators in the courtroom as well for something else, that is, his lack of emotional response at his mother's funeral, etc., other than the crime he committed (killing the Arab) and the sentence is for him to be decapitated in the name of many people whom he has never known or whom he will never meet. Mersault is forced to be the outsider when he wants to speak on his behalf. Mersault's story is the story of everyman. To Mersault (i.e. to Camus) life's only meaning is seen from the death point of view. According to Camus, people strive to make their lives meaningful in the face of God but it is absurd, because hope and faith are only p ointless measures constructed by each individual to provide purpose and avoid responsibility. Yet, Mersault is not a person who avoids responsibility for his deeds. On the contrary, he accepts responsibility for what he has done, changes into a person readers would like him to be, i.e. he shows that he is fully capable of feeling, he has emotions, he comes to terms with death, and gives a clear picture of what others are like - people hiding their true selves behind the veal of moral and societal code, when in fact they are nothing else but people full of hatred. "With death so near, Mother must have felt like someone on the brink of freedom, ready to start life all over again. It was as if that great rush of anger had washed me clean, emptied me of hope, and, gazing up at the dark sky spangled with its signs and stars, for the first time, the first, I laid my heart open to the benign indifference of the universe. To feel it so like myself, indeed, so brotherly, made me realize that I'd been happy, and that I was happy still. For all to be accomplished, for me to feel less lonely, all that remained to hope was that on the day of my execution there should be a huge crowd of spectators and that they should greet me with howls of execration" (Camus, "The Stranger", p.76). Does not hatred equal less than zero "Someone must have been telling lies about

Critique of Klemperers Auction Design Essay Example for Free

Critique of Klemperers Auction Design Essay What Really Matters in Auction Design, Paul Klemperer, Journal of Economic Perspective Volume 16, Number 1 Winter 2002, pp. 169-189 I really like this article because I agree with most of what it says. Auctions, in recent times, have become very popular and I dont need to interview anyone about this, I just need to examine myself to find out. Over the past few years, to be brutally honest, I have been absolutely addicted to eBay. com, an online shopping site made famous by the way in operates. Not only are all transactions made online, which is very convenient, but the way things are sold is what makes the shopping experience at eBay so unique, and fun. As the article mentions, auctions (like eBay) can be potentially good for both buyers and sellers. An auction can involve many buyers, for instance the auction of a house, whereas in the olden days, a negotiation over a house was usually between two people (bilateral negotiation) today there can be many sellers all competing for the same prize. This is good for the seller because now there is much more competition for the prize, therefore the seller will think hes getting the highest price for the same item. I think this is true because as human psychology goes, humans (generally speaking), tend to handle things better if they come in small increments, using the purchase of a house as an example, one would be somewhat overwhelmed at seeing a price tag of $1,000,000 for a house. However, instead of selling a house straight off a price-tag, if the auction method was taken, bidding might start at say $200,000, which sounds incredibly cheap. After that, the auction could rise in very small increments, say $3,000, which wouldnt be very over-whelming for the human mind to take in. And with this method, it is much easier to convince the human mind to believe that the house is worth $1,000,000, or more! However, as the article mentions, one should not be over-excited at the prospect of auctioning everything. Like most things, auctions can have their pit-falls. A major pitfall is bidder collusion. This is where buyers, or bidders, group together to cooperate with one another. This is a serious problem because this is regarded as anti-competitive behaviour which is a serious crime against the law. Sometimes, the ending winning price will be lower than what the seller had paid for it in the first place, making it an unprofitable auction. This could happen when for example, there are 10 Nike shoes for sale, and 10 bidders interested in Nike shoes. Collusion takes place when the 10 sly bidders come together and cooperate with each other so that each will go home with a pair of shoes at the lowest possible price, often the starting price of the auction, which often is very low. This is detrimental to the profits the seller was hoping to make because essentially, there is not enough competition, and it is very hard to prove in court that the bidders were colluding. I think this rarely on eBay, it hasnt happened to my knowledge, this could be because eBay has the power to monitor conversations between online members and any anti-competitive behaviour is detected and the members guilty will get into trouble, possibly kicked out and disallowed from using eBay again. A possible solution to this, as the article mentions is the tactic of hiding certain bits of information from the bidders. The use of the sealed-bid auction can be used so that bidders dont know what the current price/bid is and therefore they wont know what price they can and should collude at, because anyone can secretly enter a bid slightly higher than the collusion agreed price and walk away for more goods than everybody else. This is bad for that one person who deviated from the collusion and won everything if the other members find out it was him. However, another way to protect this competitive buyer is to make the winner anonymous. So now this seems like the perfect auction design, sealed bid auction, anonymous winner, but this design still has its pitfalls. Imagine you were the winner of the Nike shoes by sealed bid auction and you are anonymous, you paid $200 for them. However, later you find out that the runner-up bidder (the person with the second highest bid) only bided $50. It turns out that you bid and paid $150 more than you had to, this would be very humiliating and embarrassing for you. This can be a major problem I would imagine, however eBay has sort of managed to sort a similar problem out, you put the maximum your are willing to bid, if you win, you only have to pay $1 more than the runner up, that way you are the one willing to pay the most, yet you pay the least possible given the other competitors, this way, everyone stays happy. I think this is a really smart way to do it because not only can you almost assure yourself of winning, given youve got lots of money, but it means that youll pay as little as possible for the goods. The only other problem possible with this method is that the runner-up may become jealous of you and may bid up the price, these are called phoney bids, just so that youll have to pay more money, however, this is not often a problem because it is very risky for the runner-up to do this because he may over-take you in the bidding and end up having to pay the high-price. Which I would say serves him right for being so jealous and childish. If the runner-up wants the good so bad and is so jealous, let him have it but make him pay a high price. This brings me to the next thing which this article clearly points out, beware the Winners Curse. It is extremely easy to over-bid in any auctions because of the fact that bidders tend to think in terms of small increments and not big numbers (as pointed out above), therefore it is very easy for bidders to bid too much, win the good, and end up paying more than the goods actual value. In some instances, bidders are paying more for Nike shoes at auctions, when they could buy the same pair of shoes at a retail shop like say, Rebel Sports. This is called the winners curse, this can be avoided by getting as much information about the product/good as possible before bidding on the shoes. This I know has happened to me on numerous occasions on eBay. com. au, mainly because I wanted the product and I also felt proud about the fact that I beat everybody else at the auction, little did I know how much my confidence would plummet when I found out that I paid too much for the same pair of shoes! But, as Klemperer points out, hiding information about the product is not always at the sellers best interest. This point should be quite self-explanatory because, why would bidders bid aggressively if they dont know much about the item they are bidding on? This was also a lesson learnt the hard way for me, these days if Im bidding on something, I want to read that the item Im bidding is real/authentic and not a fake and that way if the item they give me is a fake, I can get a refund. If the seller wishes to encourage aggressive bidding, he/she has to provide useful and honest information for the bidders otherwise aggressive bidding is nothing but a dream. Another problem that can be faced by auctioneers is as Klemperer labels it Entry Deterrence and Predation, this is not a problem on eBay because all bidders bid at their own pace. However, in the case of an auction for say a house where bidders stand in a crowd with one another, really aggressive bidders tend to scare everyone away. On eBay where you can make small incremental bids as low as 20i at a time at anytime (provided the auction has not ended), with house auctions really aggressive bidders can bid huge increments which tends to scare off everybody else and so that person dominates the auction and has an advantage. This predatory action can be avoided by allowing the auction price to only rise by little increments at one time, this is sometimes seen where the auctioneers job is to offer the crowd a winning price from which the bidders only need to raise their hand to signal that they accept the price offered, this in turn removes a lot of the predatory actions of a few. There are many other interesting points made by Klemperer, he really is a scientist when it comes to auction analysis and I really admire the work he has done. So for you future bidders, watch out the winners curse and find out plenty of information about the thing you are bidding on, and dont get over-excited, this is very dangerous. Other than that, I look forward to reading more of Klemperers articles.

Integrated Children and Youth Social Services

Integrated Children and Youth Social Services Integrated Children and Youth Social Services Introduction The development of integrated services in Hong Kong aims to reduce the fragmentation and duplication of services, fill service gaps, make manpower deployment and resources allocation become more flexible, and concern community needs (Angie; Hong Kong Government, 1991). According to Social Welfare Department, integrated children and youth service centre (ICYSC) integrates children and youth centre-based team, school social work team and outreach team to better serve the multiple needs of children and youth aged from 6 to 24 using the â€Å"total person approach†. There are four main objectives as shown below: Facilitating the personal development of children and youth to develop their life skills, potential and problem-solving ability. Enhancing the social development of children and youth in building up positive social values and attitudes, enhancing interpersonal and family relationships as well as contributing to the well being of the community. Adopting a community-based planning strategy to address to local youth needs and to arouse the community’s concerns on youth issues so that young people could grow up in a more concerned and supportive environment. Providing guidance and support to children and youth in disadvantaged circumstances such as disadvantaged family environment, deprived living environment and unfavourable social environment etc. and to direct them to more positive lifestyle. ICYSC mainly provides four kinds of core programs, including social responsibility and competence enhancement programmes, supportive services, socialization programmes, and guidance and counseling services. Social responsibility and competence enhancement programmes can enhance civic mindfulness and involvement of children and youth in community issues. Supportive services for disadvantaged children and youth aim at facilitating mutual support and enhancing their personal as well as social functioning. Socialization programmes aim at helping children and youth enhance the interpersonal and family relationships and development of life skills. Guidance and counseling services aim at providing opportunities for children and youth to deal with their difficulties and stress. Apart from the core programmes, ICYSC also focused on how can the centre attract more children and youth, how to enable them to utilize their leisure time constructively, how to build rapport with members and their families, and how to build up community links. Among the work of ICYSC, community needs should be given the highest priority and the centre should collaborate with other significant persons or systems which affect the welfare of the children and youth. There is no regulation or guidelines about what integrated model should be adopted by ICYSC. The integrated model really depends on the agency and the community served so that clients and residents are best benefited. Strengths and Limitations of ICYSC The areas of strengths and weaknesses of ICYSC can be interpreted in different kinds of integration as different agencies may apply different integration models or concepts. Service Integration For service users, service integration allows earlier intervention, the service gap is narrowed and the stigmatization of clients are lessened. However, this may weaken services for groups with special needs, such as marginal youth. For workers, higher degree of coordination can be developed with insights from colleagues but it takes much time to communicate and both workload and pressure are increased. For agency, there can be higher flexibility in deploying manpower and resources, preventing the overlapping of services. Nevertheless, it increases the time needed and the difficulty in management and coordination. The quality of supervision may be lowered. There may also be insufficient space in peak periods, including after school hours and weekends. These may affect the quality of service to children and youth. Profession-oriented Integration Different professionals gather and work together. For example, policemen work with social workers in Police Superintendent Discretion Scheme. Teachers cooperate with social workers to hold school events for students. With different professional skills and knowledge, the quality of service can be increased. Multi-level and multi-disciplinary interventions are also available. However, as every profession may have its own values and preferences, it requires much time for discussion, collaboration and implementation of services. In case of conflicts among professionals, conflict-resolution is required. In this way, the quantity of time providing direct services to children and youth may become limited. Method-oriented Integration Different intervention methods like casework, group work, community work, asset-based community development model can be merged together to form a multi-level intervention. This makes it more flexible to fulfill clients with different needs. This kind of integration trains workers’ skills and build up their knowledge so the services provide to children and youth can meeting the changing societal needs. Since workers have to step into and consider many intervention methods together, the workload and pressure of workers are highly increased. If they are burnt out, the efforts paid in working will be decreased. Agency-oriented Integration Different agencies can collaborate together and increase their resource pool by sharing. Resources can be manpower, financial support professional service or specific knowledge and skills. A typical example would be volunteer group where children and youth centre works with elderly centre or rehabilitation centre. These kinds of cooperation can best utilized resources from and strengths of different agencies, avoiding the overlapping of services. As this kind of integration requires the collaboration of different agencies and the efforts to match clients’ needs with resources, it is relatively time-consuming. Locality-oriented Integration Similar to agency-oriented integration, locality-oriented integration makes use of the resource pool but it is particularly from community and aims at serving community needs. The sharing of resources strengthens the interflow and referral system with agencies in the same locality, reducing the administration process and enhancing the cohesion in the community. Social capital built and convenience are beneficial to service users. Again, it is sometimes time-consuming as consensus and negotiation are not easy to achieve. Client-oriented Integration Different services under one roof can be served to different clients’ profiles or needs. The services are more person-centered so as to promote holistic development of clients, serving multiple and developmental needs throughout their life-spans by single point of entry. To fully adopt this integration, high level of coordination among teams as well as case management are crucial. Outreach work has to be carried out in order to better understand clients’ needs. Hence, workers may have higher workload and pressure. There may also be conflicts between different types of clients. There are also some general limitations of ICYSC model. Models are not regularly and comprehensively evaluated. The government didn’t provide clear operational guidelines to NGO on the way of implementation of integration. Owing to the governmental subvention (i.e. lump sum grant), service providers have to fulfill requirement of funding service agreement so they focus more on quantitative output than qualitative outcome. With fixed amount of subvention, agencies compete with each other to apply for resources and funding. When services are directed by funding, it may not fit the community needs well. The lump sum grant also hinder long-term planning of services and sustainable service development as no one can guarantee there will be enough resources for the events in the coming years. Improvement on Implementation of ICYSC There are some suggestions on how to improve the implementation of ICYSC model. And they are categorized into worker, agency and policy levels. 1) Worker Level The government may support mandatory training to social workers and other relevant professions to let them master and update their knowledge and skills to meet the changing integration environment. Workers may also make use of their free time and working hours to better equipped themselves to comply with agency’s integration model. 2) Agency Level The agency can review community needs regularly and frequently. It can also develop a web-based electronic database for more effective case-management and share among multi-disciplinary teams confidentially so as to provide more integrated and real-time client-based information. The pool of resources should be strengthened by developing self-sustaining services and reducing the limitation from government funding. 3) Policy Level The government should introduce emergency funding to meet new or sudden community needs and provide financial security to facilitate long-term planning in NGO. FSA should be evaluated and restructured based on quality and fulfillment of community needs. ICYSC models should be regularly evaluated to see if amendment is needed with the invitation of suggestions from agencies and citizens. Although different districts may have different needs, there should be some common needs for children and youth in Hong Kong. It is good to synchronize services for these common needs among service providers in Hong Kong. Last but not least, tripartite collaboration among the public, the private sector and the government should be enhanced so resource pool will be magnified and self-sustainability can be promoted. Conclusion It is hoped that by adopting the more appropriate integration model, understanding the strengths and weaknesses of the adopted integrated model with continual evaluation and improvement, children and youth can satisfy their diverse needs in a holistic manner. Children and youth can enjoy one-stop and user-friendly services. Hence, the future generation can be nurtured well and contribute to society when time comes. (1497 words) References Angie, Y. The purpose and future development of social services integration. Hong Kong Government (1991). White paper on social welfare into the 1990s and beyond. Retrieved 9 May, 2014, from http://ebook.lib.hku.hk/CADAL/B38633498.pdf Social Welfare Department. Funding and service agreement (lump sum grant) integrated children and youth service centres (ICYSC). Retrieved 9 May, 2014, from http://www.swd.gov.hk/doc/fsa_sd/ICYSC.pdf Social Welfare Department. Integrated children and youth service centres. Retrieved 9 May, 2014, from http://www.swd.gov.hk/en/index/site_pubsvc/page_young/sub_centreserv/ id_integrated4/

The Chi Omega Spirit - Overcoming Obstacles and Achieving Success :: Personal Narratives

The Chi Omega Spirit - Overcoming Obstacles and Achieving Success For as long as I can remember I have set high goals for myself regarding my future, my friendships, and my education. Entering college with these standards I knew that I wouldn’t settle for less than my best, and I would strive to amaze myself at my success. One thing I never fit into my planned path of achievement was any type of struggle, or obstacle that could alter the way I have thought for so long. The first month of college I fell upon an obstacle I never could have imagined. I suffered a knee injury and missed continuous classes following the accident as well as surgery that was necessary to my recovery. These things tested my strength as a person, but also as a student. It made everything a little more complicated, even the little things like getting out of bed in the morning. I pushed myself to see the end of the tunnel I felt seemed impossible to crawl out of. Many things helped me along the way, and just as I hadn’t imagined my accident, I couldn’t ha ve imagined the support I found everywhere around me. I know that I can overcome obstacles in the future now because of my determination for success and the use of helpful resources all around me. Adjustment to college life seemed like it wasn’t going to be all that it was made out to be for someone like me. I am a planner, and an independent person who has never had a problem figuring things out on my own. Joining my sorority offered other things to adjust to than most college freshman understand. It meant the I was representing Chi Omega in everything I do and there are certain standards to live by than just my own. I knew that if I wanted to be initiated after winter break I had to make certain grades, have the study hours, and the initiative to be at mandatory events and meetings when I was supposed to be. It was a perfect October day in Flagstaff for our first intramural flag football game. This was the first time I was representing Chi Omega, and the proud feeling I had of wearing our letters and being a part of the team I will never forget. I went in about half way through the first half of the game.

Mars Attacks! Review Essay

Review of Mars Attacks! Mars Attacks! is Tim Burton’s clever thought at a martian invasion on the United States of America. After their landing, they easily took advantage of the governments trust, understanding, and compassion. Human beings, especially Americans, show just how ignorant and unpredictable they can be. However, their stupidity paves the way to their survival with a little bit of a population remaining. Source Materials: The constant struggle between war and politics makes this movie a classic bumbling mess of emgo fighting over what they consider to be right. The 1950’s science fiction focuses on how these peoples egos were created in a time of growing personalities. Genre: Parody Science Fiction portrays humility at the expense of American’s under the superior mind of the martians. Ultimately giving the upper hand to the human race for a reason that could not even be fathomed by mankind. Star Personas: The film is shown through the eyes of powerful figures from Nevada to Washington D. C. Everyone has an opinion and the best idea with how to deal with the martian invasion. A poor kid from that gets no attention within his society turns out to be the hero of the film. Technology/CGI: Used strongly throughout the entire movie, because anything that had to do with the martians was created by CGI. It was used to give a feel of abstract science fiction and not just a battle for superior intelligence. Plot: Told from a variety of different viewpoints and the advantages and drawbacks that went along with them. Everything comes together in the end to make it a bittersweet happy ending for all of those still left alive.

Religions Hinduism Essay example

Religions Hinduism Essay example Religions: Hinduism Essay example Buddhism Buddhism is a path of practice and spiritual development leading to Insight into the true nature of reality. Buddhist practices like meditation are means of changing yourself in order to develop the qualities of awareness, kindness, and wisdom. The experience developed within the Buddhist tradition over thousands of years has created an incomparable resource for all those who wish to follow a path - a path which ultimately culminates in Enlightenment or Buddhahood. An enlightened being sees the nature of reality absolutely clearly, just as it is, and lives fully and naturally in accordance with that vision. This is the goal of the Buddhist spiritual life, representing the end of suffering for anyone who attains it. Because Buddhism does not include the idea of worshipping a creator god, some people do not see it as a religion in the normal, Western sense. The basic tenets of Buddhist teaching are straightforward and practical: nothing is fixed or permanent; actions have consequences; change is possible. So Buddhism addresses itself to all people irrespective of race, nationality, caste, sexuality, or gender. It teaches practical methods which enable people to realize and use its teachings in order to transform their experience, to be fully responsible for their lives. Hinduism About 80 percent of India's population regard themselves as Hindus and 30 million more Hindus live outside of India. There are a total of 900 million Hindus worldwide, making Hinduism the third largest religion (after Christianity and Islam). The term "Hinduism" includes numerous traditions, which are closely related and share common themes but do not constitute a unified set of beliefs or practices. Hinduism is thought to have gotten its name from the Persian word hindu, meaning "river," used by outsiders to describe the people of the Indus River Valley. Hindus themselves refer to their religion as sanatama dharma, "eternal religion," and varnasramadharma, a word emphasizing the fulfillment of duties (dharma) appropriate to one's class (varna) and stage of life (asrama). Hinduism has no founder or date of origin. The authors and dates of most Hindu sacred texts are unknown. Scholars describe modern Hinduism as the product of religious development in India that spans nearly four thousand years, making it the oldest surviving world religion. Indeed, as seen above, Hindus regard their religion as eternal (sanatama). Hinduism is not a homogeneous, organized system. Many Hindus are devoted followers of Shiva or Vishnu, whom they regard as the only true God, while others look inward to the divine Self (atman). But most recognize the existence of Brahman, the unifying principle and Supreme Reality behind all that is. Most Hindus respect the authority of the Vedas (a collection of ancient sacred texts) and the Brahmans (the priestly class), but some reject one of both of these authorities. Hindu religious life might take the form of devotion to God or gods, the duties of family life, or concentrated meditation. Given all this diversity, it is important to take care when generalizing about "Hinduism" or "Hindu beliefs."