Race and ethnicity in the United States Census Essay Example for Free

Race and ethnicity in the United States Census Essay What do the terms race and ethnicity mean to you? Why are these concepts important to United States society? Race is usually defined by the color of a person’s skin such as black, or white. These words are used very frequently. Ethnicity is a more proper way to define us as people and usually refers to our cultural background/ancestry. For example: Africans, African Americans, Caucasians, and Hispanics. These concepts are important to the United States because of the diversity, and all walks of life, census plays a big role. Our ethnicity/race is what distinctively separates us from one another by groups. Also according to (Office Of Management and budget August 28,1995) In 1977, OMB issued the Race and Ethnic Standards for Federal Statistics and Administrative Reporting that are set forth in Statistical Policy Directive No. 15. The standards in this Directive have been used for almost two decades throughout the Federal government for recordkeeping, collection, and presentation of data on race and Hispanic origin. The standards have been used in two decennial censuses and in surveys of the population, data collections necessary for meeting statutory requirements associated with civil rights monitoring and enforcement, and in other administrative program reporting. Data collection agencies have legislative authority to collect racial and ethnic data needed for Federal programs and in the case of the decennial census, for redistricting. They also use racial and ethnic data for analyses of social, economic, and health trends for population groups. Basically it is important for them to collect this info for federal, business, and statistical reasons. References: http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/fedreg_race-ethnicity

Pakistans Relationship with IMF and World Bank Essay -- Pakistan Econ

Pakistan's Relationship with IMF and World Bank My topic deals with Pakistan, its relationship with the IMF and World Bank, and its internal problems that are causing unemployment, poverty, economic crisis and hunger. I shall be analyzing the situation using the neo-classical theory, as it is what the economists of the Pakistan government and the IMF are using to alleviate the economic instability of the country. Situated in the sub-continent, Pakistan is a low-income country, with great promise for growth. Unfortunately, it is held back from reaching middle-income status by chronic problems like a rapidly growing population, sizable government deficits, a heavy dependence on foreign aid, recurrent governmental instability and large military expenditures. It is to address these fundamental faults in Pakistan’s economy that the IMF has initiated the Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) in the country. This is discussed in further detail later in the paper. Like all developing countries, Pakistan’s population is largely employed in the agricultural sector, which accounts for about 48 percent of the labor force. In today’s world the Industrial and Service sectors are the largest growing areas of a developed county’s economy. Yet Pakistan only employs 39 percent of its population in Service, and a minute 13 percent in Industry. This is a paltry figure, compared to the employment statistics of a developed country. Pakistan is also heavily dependent on a single export crop, cotton. Hence the country’s fortunes rise and fall with the cotton market. It is no wonder that there are so many poverty stricken people in Pakistan. When almost half the population is involved in a very volatile market, a lot of the time, a lot of people will be burnt by price fluctuations. The country is also subject to the mercy of the weather. Focussing on a major cash crop means very little diversification. This translates to mass hunger and hard times for the agricultural sector whenever the agrarian lands are ravaged by floods, or conversely, by droughts. Even more importantly, Pakistan’s agricultural sector is marked by large landowners, controlling most of the production. Hence, only a minimal amount of the profit from exports goes to the poor people working for the large farmers. It is these people who constitute a large portion of P... ... what appears to be an inevitable crash of its economy. The situation of the poor and under privileged could also be alleviated eventually as long as the government decides to start spending money on developing an infrastructure that can help feed the hungry by providing them with jobs. Nevertheless, there are no easy options left. Only the painful ones remain. It is, however, important that the pain of reform be distributed equitably, and not born largely by the poorer classes, as is very often the case. There are tough times ahead. Unfortunately, there is little evidence that the Pakistani ruling elite is aware of the gravity of the situation; or that it has what it will take to steer the country out of its mess. Bibliography: Bibliography: Andleeb Abbas, ‘Pakistan: A Puppet on the IMF Chain’ M Sharif, ‘IMF tranche $280 mn: Prof. M Rashid, ‘Fracturing Social Change’ IMF online resources World Bank online resources Pakistan Budget Report, 98-99 Dialogue between IMF and Pakistan, ’99 Lappe, Collins, Rosset, Esparza, ‘World Hunger’ Prof. Dr. M.A. Hussein Mullick, ‘Pulling the country out of its present financial crisis: the challenge for the present regime’

Is the Panama Canal Sustainable?

The Panama Canal was completed in 1914 by the United States. The 51 mile long route cuts through Panama at the narrowest point between North and South America to connect the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans. Panama is in Central America between Columbia and Costa Rica. The Panama Canal The canal was built to and save ships from Europe and Africa going the entire way around the bottom tip of South America (the red route on the map), to reach western Asia. The canal cuts through Panama and allows most ships to pass through it so save on cost and time (the green route on the map). By building this canal, shipping has been given an enormous advantage, as ships no longer have to sail around the tip of South America to reach either ocean and sailing time is drastically reduced. Investigating the natural environment The climate in Panama is hot and humid, with a prolonged rainy season (May to January) and a short dry season (January to May). The region's normal daily temperature is 26 degrees Celsius and varies little throughout the year, perhaps 2-3 degrees. During the evening hours, however, the temperatures change more considerably, and can fluctuate as much as 6-10 degrees Celsius. There is a climate graph below showing the climatic conditions in Panama. Climate, rainfall and humidity graphs for Panama This graph shows that the rainy season does last from May to January and month with the highest rainfall in November with 569mm and the lowest rainfall in February with about 40mm of rain. This graph also shows that the average temperature throughout the year is around 26 degrees. There is very little seasonal variation in temperature but there are large seasonal fluctuations in rainfall. The humidity chart shows that the humidity is also high throughout the year, peaking between June and November, but only varying by 9% over the whole year. So between June and November, there is high humidity, high rainfall and on average, only 5 hours of sunshine a day as apposed to the 8 or 9 hours from January to April. A Sketch map of the panama region This map shows the rainforest and where the locks and the reservoirs are located. Man has had to create these reservoirs for the canal to function properly, meaning man has modified the drainage area. In order to make the reservoirs, much of the land has had to be flooded, rainforests and settlements also. This meant that many habitats were destroyed and many animals would have died as a result. Not only this, but substantial amounts of rainforest would have had to have been destroyed, that lay in the canal path and where the afore mentioned reservoirs are, again destroying habitats and killing animals. Along the route of the canal there is a series of 3 sets of locks that lower and raise the ships on their way to and from Atlantic and Pacific oceans. These locks are called the Gatun, Pedro Miguel and the Mira Flores locks. At Gatun there are 2 parallel sets of locks each consisting of 3 flights. This set of locks lift ships a total of 26 metres. The locks are constructed from concrete. More than 1.53 million cubic metres of concrete were used in the construction of the Gatun locks alone. The smallest set of locks along the Panama Canal are at Pedro Miguel and have one flight which raise or lower ships 10 metres. The Mira Flores locks have two flights with a combined lift or decent of 16.5 metres. Investigating the Social Environment Panama City is the largest city in panama. Its metropolitan area contains nearly one third of the nations inhabitants, about 1 million people. From 1980 to 1990 the city's population grew from 386,300 to 413,000. After 1990 the population again grew rapidly, increasing to 688,927. The city cannot cope with such rapid growth and there isn't enough accommodation for the whole population, so shantytowns start appearing, these are clusters of shacks, which the people build themselves. They make their ‘houses' out of anything they can find, corrugated iron, tyres and the like. These shantytowns accommodate only the poorest of the population as the richer citizens can afford the higher house prices in the city. This rapid urbanisation and the development of the shantytowns makes Panama City much more polluted. The shantytowns sprawl out from the City centre and start to intrude on the rainforests, then posing an ecological threat and threatening the sustainability of the Panama Canal. Urbanisation level This graph shows the percentage of urbanisation over the past 15 years and the predicted levels of the next 20 years. According to this graph urbanization is set to increase steadily over the next 25 years. The Panamanian government are moving people into the rainforest to give them a chance to rebuild lives and to escape the mass urbanisation and unhygienic conditions of the shantytowns. This relieves the congestion in the city and gives people new opportunities. Investigating the Economic Environment The Panama Canal is generating a lot of money for the people of Panama; it is not only a strong business and a power source, but a tourist attraction too. Many visitors come to visit the canal and bring a lot of revenue into the area, encouraging businesses to grow and prosper. The ships must pay over 15 hundred dollars to use the canal, so this brings a lot of revenue into the area. The Panama Canal can make the quality of life increase on one hand, but decrease on the other. The Canal brings a lot of revenue into the area although it can divide the social classes. The Canal creates a richer class, which are the people that profit from the canal, who continue to get richer as the canal brings in more and more money and a poorer class, as they have to move into the rainforest and live off the land with little or no money. It could also introduce crime into the area as the canal creates richer areas, with more valuable things in it, and with the poorer people living close by in the shantytowns, it is an open invitation for crime. If the Canal had to close, Panama would economically suffer immensely. Its main source of income would have dried up and the country's wealth would go down dramatically as a result. The shipping companies that use the canal would also suffer incalculably as their ships would have to sail around the tip of South America to reach the eastern world. Panama would have massive problems then with urbanisation, as people would flock to the city in hope of jobs, therefore the shantytowns will rapidly increase in size, posing new problems to the city. The Canal and it's reservoirs supply 700 000 people with fresh water. If the reservoirs cease to operate, then these people's water supply will be cut off. Evaluation If the Panamanian rainforest is cut down too much, the consequences will be dire. The canal will not be able to function properly as there will not be enough water in the reservoirs to sustain the canal. The tree's roots hold together the soil so if the trees are cut down during deforestation, then the soil becomes loose and with the huge amounts of rain that the area receives much of the soil will be washed away, into the reservoirs that feed the canal. If vast amounts of soil wash into the reservoirs then the soil occupies some of the volume of the reservoir, volume that could have been taken up by water. This means that the reservoirs cannot hold as much water as they were designed to hold. As the canal relies solely upon these reservoirs, depletion in the amount of water the reservoir could take would harm the canal's efficiency as every ship that travels through the canal takes with it an immense amount of water so there would not be the water available to work the canal, ultimately ensuring the closure of the waterway. Solutions The water in the lakes has been going down because of deforestation. The government have made a new â€Å"organic law† that allows the government to have the final say for any projects in the watershed zone. Three million dollars is being set aside to combat any environmental plans and satellite imaging is being set up so the government can view the area on a much larger scale and can see the real extent of the damage. This should enable the government to act quickly if they can see a potential threat. The Government must also regulate urbanisation as a spread of Panama City's unplanned, chaotic urbanization into the watershed would spell disaster for the canal, electricity supplies, and clean drinking water. However, the government are not perhaps taking the issue as seriously as they should be. In 1995, the government gave permission for a four-lane road to be built in the lower catchment of the watershed, ploughing straight through the national park. The Panama Canal can be sustainable if the correct precautions are taken to ensure that urbanisation and deforestation do not increase any more, otherwise, they will spiral out of control and the panama canal will have to close, ending many, many businesses in the local area and around the world.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller Essay - 714 Words

While reading three articles about the play called The Crucible I noticed many interesting facts. Many questions as well came to mind. The main question was â€Å"What was the Arthur purpose for writing The Crucible†? Well let’s start of by saying Arthur Miller was a extremely American play writing. Miller born in 1915, but where was his childhood? He grew up in New York with a Jewish family. Arthur Millers’ play went on Broadway at the Martin Beck. This occurred in the year of 1953. The play was called The Crucible. Was The Crucible even one of his best places? Well it was yet one of his best second plays. What were the events of the play of Miller had done? The event of the play had to do with the events that took place in Salem. What†¦show more content†¦He used Salem Witch trials as a metaphor to get Attention towards the tragedies of McCarthyism publicities. Miller uses allegory in his play to show the similarities of one historical period to anoth er. In the 1950s everyone wanted freedom, mean while during the Salem witch was the trials of religions was what life was all about. In both time periods people were scared they didnt want to be familiar with some one that could be communist or a none Christian. There for Miller wasnt only trying to send a message to McCarthy but also, to many other people. This shows the fact that When The Crucible was first produced, McCarthy cronies singled out members in the theater and in holly wood as leftists and communist sympathizers needed, many critics and audience members, and even McCarthy himself, pointed the finger at miller as a spearheading his own attack against what was the perceived to be very core American values. According to all this it proves the fact of how miller felt. â€Å"Miller himself said that once he was blacklisted as a communist by the us government, people with whom he would have chatted on the street suddenly turned a suspicious eye on him. A lot of people around miller were going against him in a very cruel way, McCarthy himself signed an attack towards miller. This play had a lot to do with certain centurys and time periods. As the period of its creation early 50s would suggest, however,Show MoreRelatedThe Crucible By Arthur Miller1269 Words   |  6 PagesAt first glance, the playwright Arthur Miller in The Crucible highlights the historical significance of the Salem Witch Trials of 1692, but in fact it is an allegorical expression of his perception of McCarthyism. If the reader has some background information on Arthur Miller’s victimization as a communist, it is evident that the play is a didactic vessel illustrating the flaws of the court system in the 1950’s. The communist allegations were launched at government employees, entertainers and writersRead MoreThe Crucible By Arthur Miller1681 Words   |  7 Pagesof their way to the last dying breath to make sure they leave with a good or bad reputation. In one of the recent literature study in class â€Å"The Crucible† by Arthur Miller, Miller uses characterizati on to illustrate reputation throughout the play. â€Å"The Crucible† takes place in Salem, Massachusetts. It is based upon the Salem witch trails. In â€Å"The Crucible†, we journey through the life of three characters who reputations plays a major role in the play. The three characters are John Proctor, AbigailRead MoreThe Crucible By Arthur Miller1333 Words   |  6 PagesAs the various characters in The Crucible by Arthur Miller interact, the dominant theme of the consequences of women’s nonconformity begins to slide out from behind the curtains of the play. Such a theme reveals the gripping fear that inundated the Puritans during the seventeenth century. This fear led to the famous witch-hunts that primarily terrorized women who deviated from the Puritan vision of absolute obedience and orthodoxy. Arthur Miller presents his interpretation of the suffering by subtlyRead MoreThe Crucible By Arthur Miller998 Words   |  4 Pagesmotivated by jealousy and spit e. The Crucible is a four-act dramatic play production that was first performed on January 22, 1953. Arthur Miller used dialogue within the characters to cover the multiple themes; conflicts and resolutions, plus the few directions for the different actions of the play. The Salem Witch Trials were intended to be performed as the play however, when read, it can be more carefully examined and broken down to analyze the techniques. Miller, the playwright, uses literaryRead MoreThe Crucible By Arthur Miller1145 Words   |  5 PagesUnbalance Through The Centuries In Arthur Miller’s play, The Crucible, the author reflects the persecution of communists in America in the 1950’s through a recount of the Salem witch trials. It is often presumed that Miller based his drama directly off of events that were particularly prevalent in the years surrounding the publication of The Crucible- which was released in the year 1953, towards the conclusion of the Korean War. Although there was not a literal witch hunt occurring during this timeRead MoreThe Crucible By Arthur Miller1063 Words   |  5 PagesIn the English dictionary, there are three definitions of the word crucible. One is a metal container in which metals are mixed and melted. Another is a severe test. But the third definition, and the one that I think fits the best for this book, is a place or situation in which different elements interact to create something new. In my mind, this fits because all of the characters had their little grudges and dirty secrets. But when all th ose seemingly little things interact, they formed somethingRead MoreThe Crucible By Arthur Miller1285 Words   |  6 Pages Rationale, Morality, Stereotypes, Pressure, Self-Censorship, Unanimity, and Mindguards. Groupthink has also taken place in our history a a country. The play, The Crucible by Arthur Miller is about a the real-life Salem Witch Trials that happened in 1692 - 1693, in Salem, Massachusetts. Some symptoms of Groupthink found in the Crucible are Rationale, Pressure, and Self-Censorship. The Groupthink symptom, Rationale, is described as when victims of Groupthink ignore warnings: they also collectivelyRead MoreThe Crucible By Arthur Miller811 Words   |  4 Pages While The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, is only a four act play, it still resembles the format of a five act play. The five-act structure evolved from a three-act structure, which was made famous by Roman Aelius Donatus. Donatus came up with three types of plays: Protasis, Epitasis, and Catastrophe. The five-act structure helped to expand the three act structure, mainly made famous by Shakespeare through his many tragedies. Even though The Crucible contains only four acts, it still has the commonRead MoreThe Crucible By Arthur Miller1052 Words   |  5 PagesBuddy Al-Aydi Ms.Healy English 9 CP 14th October 2014 The Crucible Essay The Crucible was a novel written by Arthur Miller in the 1950’s. It was written in a format of the play, portraying an allegory of the Salem Witch-Hunts led by Senator Joseph McCarthy. The book is known to have a inexplicable plot. This plot is advanced by multiple characters in the book in order to ensure that the reader maintains interest with the material that is being read. The farmer, John Proctor, would be theRead MoreThe Crucible By Arthur Miller841 Words   |  4 PagesThe Crucible is a chaotic play, throughout this American classic Arthur Miller takes the reader through multiple events of terror and insanity. While creating a great on-stage play, Arthur Miller portrays his life through the events, the characters, and plot of The Crucible. Using vivid imagery and comprehensible symbolism, Miller manipulates the real personalities of the characters and events in 1600 Salem, Massachusetts to create a symbolic autobiography. Throughout this play, the reader experie nces