Modern Day Relevance of The Declaration of Independence Essay -- Decla

Modern Day Relevance of The Declaration of Independence The Declaration of Independence is one of the most important documents produced by an American thinker. Reading The Declaration of Independence presents the reader with a window into the world of revolutionary America. It conveys the dynamic nature of the time better than any written work of the period. The real importance of The Declaration of Independence lies not in the purpose for which Jefferson created it, to declare independence from Great Britain, but rather how future generations have interpreted Jefferson's words. Jefferson's document originally guaranteed basic rights for a select segment of the American population. Today it has become a document which has been interpreted to guarantee the basic rights of everyone living in America and abroad. In a way it has become a document with a life of its own. It has become something far more substantial than anything Jefferson or his contemporaries, writing within an eighteenth century mindset, could ever have believed it would bec ome. When Jefferson first stated in The Declaration of Independence that, "All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain inalienable rights," he most certainly did not mean "all men." If he had then it would be hard for him to justify the fact that a sizable percentage of the American population was enslaved. He meant that all white, property-owning Americans were equal to their British counterparts. No consideration was given to women in The Declaration of Independence, they did not hold an equal status with men in the Jeffersonian model of an American republic. "All men," was certainly not the all-encompassing phrase that has been circulating in America ... ...England's policies on the American colonies. There was no way for him to know that The Declaration of Independence would be used to give, and preserve, basic rights for all people; American citizens or not. It is as if The Declaration of Independence has matured along with the United States. America is a country that has been home to a diverse population since its founding. The Declaration of Independence is interpreted in such a way that it has become a tool to accommodate America's heterogeneous population. The poetic nature and riveting tone of the document has inspired the generations of the past to gain and protect their "unalienable rights". What those rights are has been subject to change with each passing generation. 1. Much of this information has been taken from John C Miller's, The Wolf by the Ears: Thomas Jefferson and Slavery. (NY, 1977), pp. 52-53.

Congo Poverty

Poverty has worsened in the Republic of Congo since the 1980s and half the country’s people now live below the poverty line. This average, however, masks wide geographic and economic inequalities. Most of the country’s poor people (64. 8 per cent) live in rural areas and women are among the hardest hit by poverty. In 2006, more than a third of children under five in rural areas suffered from malnutrition. Access to water is also poor in rural areas where only 11 per cent of people can get water compared with 75 per cent of people in urban areas.Rural people also have a higher unemployment rate with close to 50 per cent of the economically active rural population being out of work. Young people and vulnerable groups are particularly hard hit. The country’s turbulent history — a troubled transition from centralized planning under a Marxist government to a market economy, together with economic mismanagement, military coups and brutal civil conflict during th e 1990s — have all left their marks. The vital national rail line and adjacent rural roads forming the Congo's economic lifeline were ruined.At the height of the conflict, about one third of the country's people were displaced. The chronic financial crisis became acute and the financial sector came close to collapse. Poverty became deeper in the rural areas of the Congo where poor people are now powerless, vulnerable and isolated. Transportation costs are very high which seriously hampers small producers’ access to markets. HIV/AIDS affects 5. 3 per cent of the population, but affects the 15-49 year age group the most and is an obstacle to reducing poverty in the Congo.An estimated 90,000 adults and children were living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2003. The government supports a multi-agency initiative implementing a ten-year programme to assist people living with HIV/AIDS. Who are the Congo's rural poor people? Although half the country’s people live below the poverty line, the poorest people are in rural areas where they earn a livelihood as are small-scale farmers and fishers. There are also poor people living in peri-urban areas who have no access to land. Because of the low population density in rural areas, access to land is not a major problem for most rural people.But in peri-urban areas, where small plots can be profitable, land has become a scarce resource, and people without access to land or off-farm employment are the poorest of the poor. The most vulnerable of all poor people are young people and women, who are the primary agricultural producers and processors. Where are they? Poverty is most severe in the Congo's rural areas where people are more isolated and there is little investment. Why are they poor? Despite the country’s huge potential, there are several causes of the poverty in the Congo: * microfinance in rural areas is almost non-existent; low agricultural productivity as a result of traditional cultivation m ethods, insufficient use of inputs such as improved seeds and planting materials and fertilizers; * vehicles, access roads, crossings and navigation channels are in very poor condition which makes transport and other costs high; * difficulties in marketing because of weak collection and distribution organizations, basic processing equipment and a frail communication system connecting producers, traders and consumers. Not to be mixed with the neighboring Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has become the poorest country in the world as of 2010.Democratic Republic of the Congo was known as Zaire until 1997. Congo is the largest country in the world that has French as an official language – the population of D. R Congo is about six million larger than the population of France (71 million people in D. R Congo vs 65 million in France). The Second Congo War beginning in 1998 has devastated the country. The war that involves at least 7 foreign armies is the deadl iest conflict in the world since World War II – by 2008 the Second Congo War and its aftermath had killed 5. 4 million people. Congo Poverty Poverty has worsened in the Republic of Congo since the 1980s and half the country’s people now live below the poverty line. This average, however, masks wide geographic and economic inequalities. Most of the country’s poor people (64. 8 per cent) live in rural areas and women are among the hardest hit by poverty. In 2006, more than a third of children under five in rural areas suffered from malnutrition. Access to water is also poor in rural areas where only 11 per cent of people can get water compared with 75 per cent of people in urban areas.Rural people also have a higher unemployment rate with close to 50 per cent of the economically active rural population being out of work. Young people and vulnerable groups are particularly hard hit. The country’s turbulent history — a troubled transition from centralized planning under a Marxist government to a market economy, together with economic mismanagement, military coups and brutal civil conflict during th e 1990s — have all left their marks. The vital national rail line and adjacent rural roads forming the Congo's economic lifeline were ruined.At the height of the conflict, about one third of the country's people were displaced. The chronic financial crisis became acute and the financial sector came close to collapse. Poverty became deeper in the rural areas of the Congo where poor people are now powerless, vulnerable and isolated. Transportation costs are very high which seriously hampers small producers’ access to markets. HIV/AIDS affects 5. 3 per cent of the population, but affects the 15-49 year age group the most and is an obstacle to reducing poverty in the Congo.An estimated 90,000 adults and children were living with HIV/AIDS at the end of 2003. The government supports a multi-agency initiative implementing a ten-year programme to assist people living with HIV/AIDS. Who are the Congo's rural poor people? Although half the country’s people live below the poverty line, the poorest people are in rural areas where they earn a livelihood as are small-scale farmers and fishers. There are also poor people living in peri-urban areas who have no access to land. Because of the low population density in rural areas, access to land is not a major problem for most rural people.But in peri-urban areas, where small plots can be profitable, land has become a scarce resource, and people without access to land or off-farm employment are the poorest of the poor. The most vulnerable of all poor people are young people and women, who are the primary agricultural producers and processors. Where are they? Poverty is most severe in the Congo's rural areas where people are more isolated and there is little investment. Why are they poor? Despite the country’s huge potential, there are several causes of the poverty in the Congo: * microfinance in rural areas is almost non-existent; low agricultural productivity as a result of traditional cultivation m ethods, insufficient use of inputs such as improved seeds and planting materials and fertilizers; * vehicles, access roads, crossings and navigation channels are in very poor condition which makes transport and other costs high; * difficulties in marketing because of weak collection and distribution organizations, basic processing equipment and a frail communication system connecting producers, traders and consumers. Not to be mixed with the neighboring Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo has become the poorest country in the world as of 2010.Democratic Republic of the Congo was known as Zaire until 1997. Congo is the largest country in the world that has French as an official language – the population of D. R Congo is about six million larger than the population of France (71 million people in D. R Congo vs 65 million in France). The Second Congo War beginning in 1998 has devastated the country. The war that involves at least 7 foreign armies is the deadl iest conflict in the world since World War II – by 2008 the Second Congo War and its aftermath had killed 5. 4 million people.

Reading and Writing Essay

Learning how to read back in 1970 is quite different from learning how to read in the world we live in today. Learning to read was somewhat difficult for me as a child. We didn’t have the fancy reading tools back in the day, such as: Hooked on Phonics or Phonemic Awareness. Looking back over my life, I can remember when I was in the first grade, about six or seven years old and I brought home my first report card. On my report card my teacher pointed out an area of weakness in reading. I can still hear my father saying â€Å"Susie are you having trouble reading? † I would respond as any typical six year old child would do by shrugging my shoulders and saying â€Å"I don’t know. † My father was a concerned parent and wanted to help his child. He didn’t want to see me struggle in school nor did he want to see me fall behind. My father was determined he was going to help me improve my reading skills and by doing so my reading grade would improve also. So therefore, my father set up a strategy plan. Every evening after school my father and I would sit down at the dinner table and work on improving my reading skills. His first step was to see if I could sound out all the letters of the alphabet. Once he realized I was able to sound out all letters in the alphabet, his next step was to determine if I could sound out all the vowels: long, short and house top vowels too. The third step was to begin sounding out small words such as: the, cat, red, run, ran, like etc. Once I began to get comfortable reading on my own while my father prepared dinner for my two brothers and I, he would have me to sit at the dinner table and read aloud to him fifteen minutes each day. Eventually with with all the hard work and dedication my reading skills gradually improved. After all, they say practice makes perfect. As I grew older I started enjoying reading much more than I ever realized. I had to find out what type of books and magazines I enjoyed reading. In other words, I had to find my reading niche. I enjoy reading books like Mama, How Stella got her Grove Back, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, A Day Late and a Dollar Short by Terry McMillan. Reading can be very enjoyable, relaxing and mind stimulating as well. Reading exercises our brain. One can self improve while gaining experience from other people by reading. Reading is knowledge and power. Reading teaches children about the world around them. Reading develops a child’s imagination. Now that I have returned to college, reading and writing is a common part of everyday life. Every semester I have had several different assignments that required reading and writing skills. I have had to do an essay, public speaking presentations which involved reading and writing. Reading is very important because one can explore themselves to new things. One can also self improve while gaining experience from other people. Reading can be used for connecting your brain and it can also boost ones imagination and creativity. Reading exercises ones brain. Many factors play a vital role in a child’s growth and development. Reading develops a child’s imagination. Children who read do better at school. Reading relaxes the body and calms the mind. Reading is a great source of entertainment. This is an important point because these days we seem to have forgotten how to relax and especially how to be silent. In almost everything we do reading and writing is a vital part of our everyday lives.

Research Proposal On Us Agricultural Crisis

I intend to write my paper about the persisting agricultural problems that United States farmers are facing today, and how these problems are deeply rooted to the lack of radical, government-initiated change despite legislations which are publicized as farmer-friendly government initiatives and how the past and present problems compounded into a dilemma that presents the probability of large scale farm business collapse and agricultural apocalypse, what Ikerd describes as â€Å"the end of agriculture, as we remember it, in America† (2002).Thesis Farmers working in US farms like John Reifsteck are providing very encouraging assessment of the year's yields, ‘It’s been a good harvest on my farm, and my neighbors have also done well' (2007). Others may provide the same identical appraisal when asked the same question.But contrary to the sporadic and random claims of stabilized and/or improving farming revenues across the country and promising turnout of both crops and sales in the market, the US agriculture as a whole has been consistently barraged by economic and financial concerns which are cause primarily by the lack of government action that can protect the farmers, their farms and their general business interests from external factors beyond their control.At the end of 2007, the 2007 United States Farm Bill, which proposes among others the continued subsidizing of local farmers and their business ventures, faced many critics and criticisms over what seems to be protracted impact that eventually leads away from the general interests of farmers because of internal politics and the subsidy dispensing nature of the bill which is similar to previously legislated bills.With critics on one side and influential power players on the other side, ordinary farmers are left unaffected and unaided by the US government, abandoned to suffer the same set of farming-related problems that middle-class farmers are burdened with for nearly a century now.The veh icle that is designed to funnel government resources towards the needs of farmers in the US should be re-evaluated to see if real actions are being done to answer farm and farming-related problems and at the same time if the channels go straight towards its intended target or pour in somewhere else so that the government can have a full assessment of the scope of the problem and from there take constructive actions to repair the deteriorating US agricultural pipe line. Supporting Arguments I. Failure of farmers to experience economic improvement during the 20th century A.The economic depression of American farmers occurring from 1920 to 1940 and repeating on 1952 until 1972. B. The end of the Golden Age of Agriculture in 1900. C. The food boycotts during 1973 II. Limited Government action on agricultural and farm-related problems A. Slow enactment of agriculture-related legislation B. Huge gaps in years to amend existing agriculture laws C. Limited resources allotted by the governme nt for food and agriculture III. Controversies surrounding the 2002 US Farm Bill A. Perceived characteristics that go against World Trade Organization agreements. B.Threat of overproduction as a result of the enactment of the legislation into law. C. Impact of Subsidy on market prices D. Role of overproduced corn in the spread of e coli IV. Roadblocks of 2007 US Farm Bill A. Alleged by WTO as preventing fair competition B. Impact results to billions worth of trade sanctions from other countries C. Under threat of veto from the US president D. Entails high costs Bibliography Bjerga, Alan. Senate Approves Farm Bill Over Bush Veto Threat. Bloomberg. com. December 14, 2007. http://www. bloomberg. com/apps/news? pid=20601103&sid=aWIfSjtJmPgE&refer=us Farm Economic and Financial Crisis.The Economic Crisis: Finances on the Farm. World Crisis in Agriculture. Ambassador Agricultural Research Department. Serf Publishing, Inc. 2001 http://cgca. net/serf-publishing/economiccrisis. htm Funding f or Farmers. EconSouth, 2003 http://findarticles. com/p/articles/mi_m0KXG/is_1_5/ai_100962424 Hedges, Stephen J. Panel OKs farm bill that keeps subsidies. Chicago Tribune. October 26, 2007 http://www. chicagotribune. com/news/nationworld/chifarm_frioct26,1,3300139. story? ctrack=1&cset=true Ikerd, John. Why Farming is Important in America. Fourth Annual Rural Development Conference.North Dakota Association of Rural Electric Cooperatives, Mandan, North Dakota, February 5-7, 2002. http://web. missouri. edu/~ikerdj/papers/WhyFarming. html#_ftnref1 Panares, JOyce Pangco. UN pushes abolition of farm trade subsidies. Manila Standard Today. http://www. manilastandardtoday. com/? page=politics2_oct19_2007 Reifsteck, John. Food and Fuel Truth About Trade and Technology Board Commentary, November 9, 2007. http://www. truthabouttrade. org/article. asp? id=8489 USDA Budget Summary 2006. Farm and Foreign Agriculture Services. http://www. usda. gov/agency/obpa/Budget-Summary/2006/06. FFAS. htm

The impact of consumption and Investment on the GDP in Qatar (1990- Statistics Project

The impact of consumption and Investment on the GDP in Qatar (1990- 2012) - Statistics Project Example The reason for selecting this period of data was the incomplete data for all three variables that could have extended the analysis for the longer period. Moreover, it is important to provide definition of three variables included in the analysis. Net FDI = â€Å"The net inflows of investment to acquire a lasting management interest (10 percent or more of voting stock) in an enterprise operating in an economy other than that of the investor.† (â€Å"Indicator Queries†). The table indicated the country’s GDP increased significantly from 1994 to 2011 as the lowest value was recorded in 1994 and the maximum value was achieved in 2011. A sharp decline in the country’s GDP was recorded in 2009. Similar trends were observed in other two variables. The country’s exports increased significantly in the year 2011. The third variable ‘net inflows’ also showed a steady growth in the selected period. However, in 2011 a major decline was recorded. The results indicated that the value of adjusted R2 was 0.9871, which implies that the regression model implemented explained 98.71% of the total variations observed in 18 data entries. The regression equation obtained from the analysis indicated that the coefficient of constant, ÃŽ ²0 was 664545798.4126. A high value of constant coefficient suggested that there are other factors that affect the country’s GDP. Referring back to the equation of GDP provided, it could be noted that there are other variables included in the calculation of GDP. The coefficient of slopes obtained from the regression analysis were ÃŽ ²1 = 1.4160 (exports) and ÃŽ ²2 = 3.7452 (FDI net inflow). These values indicated that there is a positive relationship between GDP and exports and GDP and FDI net inflows. The findings reassert that to calculate a country’s GDP the values of investment and exports are added. The results imply that for every $1 increase or decrease in exports the country’s GDP would increase or decrease by $1.4160 respectively.

Peer review Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 1

Peer review - Coursework Example The post has also demonstrated a deep understanding of the entertainment industry and the different media platforms available in the world. Talk show queens enjoy significant influence in the world (Johns, Weir & Weir, 2014). However, it has failed to demonstrate how Ellen Degeneres can boost her Nielsen scores. The score is the most important measure of the ability of a talk show to create and maintain a strong connection with customers. The responses provided suggest that the student did not invest their time in understanding the talk show industry. Moreover, the post has shifted a lot of focus to online channels at the expense of mainstream television channels. Although the latter is facing a stiff challenge from the former, it has succeeded in maintaining its position as the primary source of entertainment for most Americans. Ellen Degeneres should be rewarded for her hard work. She has managed to establish herself as a major player in the entertainment industry (Rocca, 2012). 1 Kings 11:28 indicate that Solomon appointed Jeroboam due to his skills and outgoing nature. Johns, R., Weir, B &Weir, R. (2014). The power of celebrity: exploring the basis for Oprah’s successful endorsement of Australia as a vacation destination. Journal of Vacation Marketing, Online first version, pp.

HR project Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

HR project - Essay Example St. Lukes Medical Center (SLMC) is located in the Philippines and has provided high-quality healthcare for over a century. Founded in 1903, its mission is to provide outstanding out-patient care. Today it is the foremost and most admired hospital in the Philippines and an acknowledged leader in Asia. (SLMC About Us 2009 par. 1) To deliver excellent healthcare through caring and highly competent professionals, utilizing world-class technology and research. This we shall do in the most financially viable way without losing sight of our primary purpose - to be of service to God and mankind. As defined, a mission statement is a â€Å"written declaration of a firms core purpose and focus which normally remain unchanged. Properly crafted mission statements (1) serve as filters to separate what is important from what is not, (2) clearly state which markets will be served and how, and (3) communicate a sense of intended direction to the entire organization.† (Business Dictionary 2009). Using the definition, the abovementioned mission statement only mentioned the organization’s core purpose and focus which is very general in nature. Although it clearly identified what the organization considers of primary importance (delivery of excellent health care), there was no mention of target markets that the organization purports to serve and how. However, the third element, communicate a sense of direction, was also clearly emphasized by stating that â€Å"this we shall do in the most financially viable way without losing sight† of its primary purpose which is to be of service to God and mankind. Overall, I think this mission statement clearly identifies what the organization wants to accomplish which will remain unchanged for the span of its business life. But since there was no mention of its market, it can still be improved by including â€Å"to deliver excellent healthcare to individuals with various health dilemmas in all age brackets through