Is Foreign Debt a Problem for Bangladesh?

Is Foreign Debt a Problem for Bangladesh? Part-A Foreign debt in Bangladesh Introduction: External debt is one of the sources of financing capital formation in any economy. Developing countries like Bangladesh are characterized by inadequate internal capital formation due to the vicious circle of low productivity, low income, and low savings. Therefore, this situation calls for technical, managerial, and financial support from Western countries to bridge the resource gap. On the other hand, external debt acts as a major constraint to capital formation in developing nations.The burden and dynamics of external debt show that they do not contribute significantly to financing economic development in developing countries. In most cases, debt accumulates because of the servicing requirements and the principal itself. In view of the above, external debt becomes a self-perpetuating mechanism of poverty aggravation, work over-exploitation, and a constraint on development in developing economi es. Public borrowing can be seen by private investors as a warning signal of the government becoming bankrupt within the foreseeable future.They may also fear that government will impose higher taxes in future in order to facilitate the repayment and servicing of the loan. In that case private investors will become less enthusiastic to invest. However, policy makers have to know whether public borrowing is followed by any crowding- out effect on investment, through whatever channel, and to what extent and whether the detrimental effect of such actions outweighs the benefit coming from the use of borrowed money, as is argued by the classical. What is public debt?Public debt is the entry records of cumulative total of all government borrowings less repayments that are denominated in a country's home currency. Public debt should not be confused with external debt, which reflects the foreign currency liabilities of both the private and public sector and must be financed out of foreign e xchange earnings. Government debt is one method of financing government operations, but it is not the only method. Governments can also create money to monetize their debts, thereby removing the need to pay interest.But this practice simply reduces government interest costs rather than truly canceling government debt and can result in hyperinflation if used unsparingly. Governments usually borrow by issuing securities, government bonds and bills. Less creditworthy countries sometimes borrow directly from a supranational organization (e. g. the World Bank) or international financial institutions. Sources of public debt: A. Internal Sources. I. Borrowing from individual by issuing govt bond, notes, etc II. Borrowing from commercial bank III. Borrowing from central bankIV. Borrowing from nan-bank Financial institution B. External Sources I. Foreign Government II. Foreign private institution III. International financial institution like IMF, WB etc. Why Bangladesh economy is dependent o n Public debt? To utilize natural resources Economic development Financing deficit budget Strong social and economic structure Crucial economic contingencies Implement annual development Program Import financing Implementation of fiscal policy To strong national defense Modernization of agriculture Facilitate quick industrialization.Factors Which Influence How Much a Government Can Borrow †¢ Domestic Savings. If consumers have a high savings ratio, there will be a greater ability for the private sector to buy bonds. †¢ Relative Interest rates. If government bonds pay a relatively high interest rate compared to other investments, then ceteris paribus, it should be easier for the government to borrow. Sometimes, the government can borrow large amounts, even with low interest rates because government bonds are seen as more attractive than other investments. †¢ Lender of Last Resort.If a country has a Central Bank willing to buy bonds in case of a liquidity shortages, inv estors are less likely to fear a liquidity shortage. If there is no lender of last resort (e. g. in the Euro) then markets have a greater fear of liquidity shortages and so are more reluctant to buy bonds. †¢ Prospects for Economic Growth. If one country faces prospect of recession, then tax revenues will fall, the debt to GDP ratio will rise. Markets will be much more reluctant to buy bonds. If there is forecast for higher growth. This will make it much easier to reduce debt to GDP ratios.The irony is that cutting government spending to reduce deficits, can lead to lower economic growth and increase debt to GDP ratios. †¢ Confidence and Security. Usually, governments are seen as a safe investment. Many governments have never defaulted on debt payments so people are willing to buy bonds because at least they are safe. However, if investors feel a government is too stretched and could default, then it will be more difficult to borrow. †¢ Foreign Purchase. A country lik e the US attracts substantial foreign buyers for its debt (Japan, China, UK).This foreign demand makes it easier for government to borrow. However, if investors feared a country could experience inflation and a rapid devaluation, foreigners would not want to hold securities in that country. †¢ Inflation. Financing the debt by increasing the money supply is risky because of the inflationary effect. Inflation reduces the real value of the government debt, but, that means people will be less willing to hold government bonds. Inflation will require higher interest rates to attract people to keep bonds.In theory, the government can print money to reduce the real value of debt; but existing savers will lose out. If the government creates inflation, it will be more difficult to attract savings in the future. Is foreign debt a problem to Bangladesh? Excessive reliance on debt, whether domestic or external, carries macroeconomic risks that can hinder economic and social development. Cou ntries macro-economic is thus disturbed by this factor alone. Scarcity of resources has already compelled the government to borrow afresh and/or impose new taxes on the citizenry to meet debt service obligations.High domestic public debt pushes up interest rates and crowds out private investment, which is much needed to promote economic growth. When most government revenues are devoted to debt servicing, fiscal policy cannot be used to provide basic services, such as education, health, safe drinking water and housing. Unfortunately, the national budget — annual statement of the government’s income and expenditure — does not recognize the gravity of the situation characterized by its serious problem to finance the external debt servicing at the cost of basic human services.Every year Bangladesh pays, on an average $ 1070 million, to its foreign creditors. A 2003 study (SUPRO: 2003) exclusively revealed the fact that for every dollar in foreign grant aid received, the government spends over $1. 5 in debt service to foreign creditors annually. While there is no denying that Bangladesh is heavily dependent on foreign aid and loans to finance its annual budget, it is also true that aid agencies and multilateral lenders in the West have to carry a lion’s share of the blame for Bangladesh’s burden of debt. Between 1980 and 2012, Bangladesh’s total outstanding international debt quadrupled.The bulk of this surge in lending to the autocratic regimes came from the International Development Association, the soft-loan window of the World Bank. Can the World Bank and the IMF morally impose the burden of this debt on the Bangladeshi people, when in fact that money provided valuable succor to an autocratic regime that the people were struggling to topple at the time? How sustainable Bangladesh Debt is? Bangladesh is classified as a low-income country and is home to the third highest absolute number of poor people in the world, after China and India.Despite the huge amounts it spends servicing debt ($1551. 3 million in 2011), the World Bank describes it neither as ‘severely’ nor even ‘moderately’ indebted, but instead classifies Bangladesh as ‘less indebted’. Instead of rewarding Bangladesh for its track record of prompt debt servicing, the World Bank has interpreted this to mean that Bangladesh’s debt must be sustainable. Arbitrary thresholds on indicators like debt/exports made Bangladesh ineligible for the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative or the Multilateral Debt Relief Initiative.Bangladesh will not receive through either of these initiatives the debt relief that it desperately needs to finance public expenditures on school and hospitals among other basic necessities. One of the Bangladeshi development experts remarked that- â€Å"Bangladesh has regularly paid its debts, expanded exports and are now being punished for its success† (Bhattac harya: 2006). The whole argument is that, since these countries are able to repay they must have â€Å"sustainable† levels of debt.The sustainability of debt is primarily measured on the economic matrix called Debt Sustainable Analysis (DSA) introduced by the World Bank and IMF, which lays too much emphasis on the country’s exports and does not fully reflect the true nature of the debt burden on government expenses. How can Bangladesh’s debt be sustainable especially when it pays back on an average $1070 million to its foreign creditors in general and $870 million to its so-called benevolent development partners (multi-lateral and bi-lateral donors) annually?For a poor country like Bangladesh, would it be realistic to calculate ‘debt sustainability’ without looking at how much money it spends on schools, hospitals and roads, on teachers, medicines, clean water and on everything else that is needed to combat the dire poverty blighting so many lives? If a country cannot afford to meet the basic needs of its own people, then how can one argue that giving money to the rich world is affordable or â€Å"sustainable†? How can its debt be sustainable when the cost of external debt servicing exceeds the public spending on health and education, for example?In what criteria, the Bangladesh external debt can be measured as sustainable when it clearly demonstrates that MDG progress is being seriously hampered due to the excesses of debt servicing? Presumably, the international community has left a single choice for Bangladesh: servicing external debt at the cost of basic services let alone the MDG progress! Why Bangladesh deserves full debt cancellation? Undeniably, Bangladesh cannot afford to pay on average $1060 million a year to foreign creditors.Even though the country is making some progress with regard to the implementation of the MDGs, it is still home to 70 million people living in poverty. It has the highest incidence of po verty in South-Asia. In fact, Bangladesh cannot afford to pay a single dollar in debt service. If debt sustainability is based on the financing needs for the MDGs, Bangladesh would receive full debt cancellation. Bangladesh needs US$ 7. 5 billion a year to finance the implementation of the MDGs. A growing number of NGOs, governments and analysts have come to the conclusion that debt cancellation should be expanded.As independent expert Bernards Mudho explained earlier this year (2007) in a report commissioned for the United Nations: â€Å"There†¦ is a need for further comprehensive solutions to the debt problems of poor countries, including further debt relief by other multilateral institutions and for permanent solutions to the problems of bilateral and commercial debts. Bangladesh Debt must be cancelled, because †¦ ? Debt costs too much to Bangladeshi people in general and poor and marginalized in particular. People need a healthy and prosperous life that requires incre ased government spending on basic services such as health, education, water-sanitation etc. ? Bangladesh needs to achieve the MDG targets in time. To finance the Millennium Development Goals, every year a staggering US7. 5 billion in external budget support is needed. This is about four times the amount of aid and concessional loans currently provided by foreign donors and creditors. ? At this juncture, Bangladesh can no longer afford to pay a single dollar for debt servicing. Because†¦.. Every dollar paid in debt service is a dollar lost for the MDGs†. Part-B Impact of Foreign debt on Bangladesh 1. Effects on Economic growth 2. Effects on NNP 3. Effects on Inflation 4. Effects on Investment 5. Effects on consumption 6. Effects on Production 7. Effects on Distribution 8. Effects on Risk, uncertainty, liquidity Part-C Statistical Analysis 1. Trend Analysis of Foreign Debt: Trend Analysis of External debt of last 10 years is given below Y=1714. 5+0. 8647x R? = 0. 9247 Appen dix Table 1 shows the summary of trend equation and r2 of External debt of Bangladesh.The trend equation of Foreign debt is, Y=1714. 5+0. 8647x and the square of correlation coefficient (r2) = . 9247. Interpretation: The trend equation indicates that during the period from 2003 to 2012 debt increase at the rate of . 8647 billion per year and 1714. 5 is the average external debt of Bangladesh. It is reflected from the table that trend equation of foreign debt are positive and goodness of fit of all the equations are very high. 2. Descriptive Analysis of Foreign Debt: Descriptive Statistical Analysis of External debt of last 10 years is given below: (All amounts are in billions) Descriptive Statistics | |N |Range |Minimum |Maximum |Mean |Std. Deviation |Variance |Skewness |Kurtosis | | |Statistic |Statistic |Statistic |Statistic |Statistic |Statistic |Statistic |Statistic |Std. Error |Statistic |Std. Error | |Foreign_Debt |11 |8. 7200 |16. 5000 |25. 2200 |2. 103273E1 |2. 9825127 |8. 8 95 |-. 169 |. 661 |-1. 108 |1. 279 | |Valid N (listwise) |11 | | | | | | | | | | | | Interpretation: This table provides statistical information about the data set, such as showing mean value of foreign debt individually and its deviation.For this information, for instance we found that minimum value of the variable is 16. 5bill, Maximum value is 25. 22billon, its mean 2. 103273e1 and Standard deviation is 2. 9825127. 3. Correlation Analysis: Table shows the correlation matrix for estimating interrelationships between chosen economic parameters of Bangladesh. Variables |GDP real Growth |Amount of Foreign Debt |Inflation rate |Investment Amount |Remittance Inflow |Import |Export Amount |Foreign Reserve | |GDP real Growth Rate |1 |. 635 |. 638 |. 748 |. 427 |. 457 |. 485 |. 352 | |Amount of Foreign Debt |. 35 |1 |. 819 |. 555 |. 919 |. 901 |. 920 |. 846 | |Inflation rate |. 638 |. 819 |1 |. 518 |. 686 |. 742 |. 763 |. 494 | |Investment Amount |. 748 |. 555 |. 518 |1 |. 406 |. 433 |. 4 68 |. 222 | |Remittance Inflow Amount |. 427 |. 919 |. 686 |. 406 |1 |. 915 |. 935 |. 920 | |Import Amount |. 457 |. 901 |. 742 |. 433 |. 915 |1 |. 994 |. 888 | |Export Amount |. 485 |. 920 |. 763 |. 468 |. 935 |. 994 |1 |. 885 | |Foreign Reserve Amount |. 352 |. 846 |. 494 |. 222 |. 920 |. 888 |. 885 |1 | | From the correlation matrix we have observed the followings; GDP real Growth has moderate correlation with foreign debt, inflation rate, investment and low degree of correlation with remittance, import, export and very low correlation with GDP per capita. †¢ Foreign debt has strong correlation with. †¢ Inflation rate have strong correlation with. †¢ Investment have strong correlation with. †¢ Remittance inflow has moderate correlation with †¢ Import has strong correlation with †¢ Export has low correlation with †¢ Foreign exchange Reserve has low correlation with Part-D Recommendation & Conclusion Recommendation: The international community inc luding the G-8 must take necessary steps immediately to ensure full Debt cancellation for Bangladesh; †¢ Debts must be cancelled as a matter of justice: creditors must accept their share of responsibility in creating the current debt crisis, and cancel debts on this basis; †¢ A â€Å"MDG-consistent† frame-work of Debt Sustainability should be applied and cancellation must be available to all that need it; †¢ The issue of Climate Change and its adverse effect must be taken into account and additional fund should be released to overcome the adversity linking it with MDG process; †¢ The governments of indebted countries must demonstrate to their citizens that they are spending money well and accountably.But this must not be used as an excuse to impose economic policy conditions or to limit those countries receiving debt cancellation by the donor community; †¢ Rich countries, institutions and commercial creditors must cancel all illegitimate and un-payabl e debts being claimed from all poor countries; †¢ Total Debt stocks must be cancelled, not just Service; debt service cancellation for a limited period is not enough. †¢ Debt cancellation of any kind must not be conditional and it must not be considered again as ODA Conclusion: The study has been conducted with a view to examining the presence of crowding- out effect of public borrowing on the private investment in the Bangladesh economy.To accomplish the task, a model for investment function has been specified and estimated considering public borrowing, GDP and interest rate as independent variables. A long -run relationship has been estimated and analyzed by performing unit root test, co – integration test and an error correction model. The main findings of the study confirm with statistical significance that there is no crowding- out effect in Bangladesh, rather, the crowding- in effect is evident. This result is indeed somewhat paradoxical in terms of convention al wisdom. The study has attempted to offer a rationale for this seemingly paradoxical finding from a macroeconomic point of view.In doing so, it has analyzed a couple of macroeconomic issues and ended up with the conclusion that the presence of crowding- in instead of crowding – out effect can be attributed to such factors as excess liquidity in the banking system, imperceptible government competition with the private sector, relatively sustainable public debt scenario, government expenditure for transfer payment program , significant development expenditure for producing those goods and services which has the potential to discharge positive externalities, government microcredit programs and ADP -black money linkages. The results of the study have important implications for the fiscal management.Existence of excess liquidity and possibility of crowding – in effect together put the fiscal authority in a position to foster private investment and hence economic growth th rough expanding borrowing backed public expenditure. However, the overall criteria that public expenditure authority ought to ensure is the transparency and efficiency in its programs. Moreover, government can avoid unnecessary inflation and external indebtedness by reducing reliance for funds on Bangladesh Bank and foreign sources as long as excess liquidity in the banking system prevails. In view of the perceived limitations inherent in this study, the following aspects may be taken up by future researchers: Decomposing private investment by category and taking each of them as separate dependent variable; †¢ Segregating borrowing by government itself and borrowing by other public sector corporations, and considering them as separate explanatory variables; †¢ Splitting public borrowing by sources (not only banks, NBDC or general public but also Bangladesh Bank and external sources) and taking all of them as explanatory variable s; †¢ Incorporating a dummy variable fo r capturing the issue of economic reform and structural variation between after and before 1990 periods; and †¢ Finally, if possible, carrying on the whole study on the basis of quarterly data to make the analytical framework parsimonious. [pic] ———————– 10

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Jurisprudence - Essay Example Keeping in view the most fundamental of the human desires, statutes of prevailing law offer unflinching liberty to the individuals provided the freedom does not challenge the rights of others in such a manner that could place afflictions and tribulations to others. It is therefore national and international laws introduced by the states as well as the UN Charter of human rights vehemently look for the allowing freedom to the people without discrimination. Article 2 of UN Charter, passed by the General Assembly ascertains the freedom of individuals in these words: â€Å"Everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status.†2 In addition, the Charter applies bar on the authorities in respect of treating any group or community with prejudice, and also bans all types of pains and torture s, degradation and slavery altogether.3 In addition, Article 5 (1) of the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) guarantees individual liberty by stating it to be the fundamental right of every human, where no one shall be deprived of his liberty save in the cases and in accordance with a procedure prescribed by law. Thus, only the criminals, offenders and violators of human rights could be deprived of their right of liberty.4 The statutes of existing laws do not confine human liberty to one specific area or zone only. Rather, they offer complete freedom to humans in respect of speech, action, religious faith and cultural values, employment and recreation, and marriage and sexual orientation as well. British Law of Contract declares a contract to be void provided it restraining a person on his liberty of marriage, parenting and starting or running the business of one’s choice5 provided they do not create any other illegality and irregularity in them. Similarly, the st atute of law does not allow an organisation to exhibit prejudice on the basis of ethno-racial and religious background of the individuals as well as while keeping their gender or sexual orientation in view. It is therefore International Labour Organisation (1960) has made it clear that any distinction, exclusion or preference made on any biased basis, which has the effect of nullifying or impairing equality of opportunity or treatment in employment or occupation.6 Nevertheless, law also enforces restrains on the freedom of individuals in the best interest of society. It is partly due to the very fact that law forbids the individuals to entering into the property of other without seeking his prior permission. Similarly, law restricts the people to get involved into the activities that could put the freedom and benefits of others into jeopardy. There was a time when the principle of might is right used to prevail in all cultures, where a powerful clan or tribe could invade over any we ak neighbour by dint of its power, and could turn its population as their slaves; the Trojan Wars of ancient times also depicted the same.7 It is therefore renowned Gaullish chieftain, warrior and the conqueror of ancient Rome, Brennus had raised the slogan

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SWOT Analysis - Essay Example Sustainable business practices and strong commitment to corporate social responsibility are other major strengths of Trader Joes. â€Å"Trader Joe’s is committed to providing selective products that cannot be found in grocery stores† (â€Å"What is Trader Joe’s Strategy?†). In other words, unique products are the major strength of Trader Joes. Expanding global market, growing demand for organic foods and growing ecommerce opportunities are providing many opportunities to Trader Joes. India and China like Asian countries are developing rapidly at present provides excellent opportunities to Trader Joes like companies. Product recalls and the increased focus on some geographical areas alone are some of the weaknesses of Trader Joes. It should be noted that Trader Joe has limited presence outside California. Inability to expand business to other territories not only in America but also in other parts of the world is some of the major weaknesses of Trader Joes. Increasing manpower cost, increasing competition and the entry of substitute products are some of the major threats of Trader Joes. Manpower cost in America is extremely higher compared to that in countries such as India or China. As a result of that Indian and Chinese products are causing big threats to the products of Trader

Human rights and armed conflict Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Human rights and armed conflict - Essay Example The paper describes the patterns, developments, controversies, problems and major sub-issues regarding each issue. As part of this paper, the relationships between the two issues and possible solutions that are effective in the next twenty-five years are discussed. Armed conflicts refer to the armed conflicts between two or more organized parties in disputes about power over government and territory (Moir, 2002 p210). There are 118 armed conflicts that ensued between 1990 and 1999, of which ten were strictly inter-state conflict. Five were wars of independence, and one hundred wars were primarily internal conflicts. Violent conflicts in Europe, including Turkey, Caucasus and Russia, accounts for two-thirds of the increased incidents of wars in the early 1990s (Moir, 2002 p210). Europe in the early 1990s became one of the most violent regions in the world. The annual reduction in the number of conflicts after 1992 is as a result of changes in Europe. There are a number of factors that led to the rise of international and regional armed conflicts. Poor economic status of different nations is the leading cause of intra-state armed conflicts in the modern world. The greatest challenge facing the current governments is resource allocation. The reso urces are limited in supply, and their demand is high. Most governments normally allocate more resources to urban centers and regions that are highly productive than dry, remote area. This makes some local governments feel neglected by the central governments, and this may cause conflict between different local governments (Moir, 2002 p211). Repressive political systems in transition periods are also the other significant cause of intra-state armed conflicts. Reformists and opposition parties are often witnessed organizing riots to protest against some political policies introduced by the sitting authority. This sometimes grows worst to appoint

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Management Capacity Resume Essay The purpose of this letter is to express my interest in working with your company in a management capacity.   I have over 15 years experience working for a major bottling company utilizing my Sales and Operations management skills which would be an asset to your organization. My diverse background includes serving in the United States Army Reserve.   In both my military and professional career, I have demonstrated excellent leadership abilities and exceptional customer service skills.   I successfully built a solid sales team consistently mentoring and motivating staff to meet and exceed company sales quotas. In addition to the skills noted on my resume, I can also offer your company: An enthusiastic individual seeking new endeavors, accomplishing personal and professional goals. A multi-tasking individual leveraging sales and marketing skills to exceed sales quotas. Excellent analytical ability with solid verbal and written communication skills. I look forward to speaking with you further to discuss my skills and qualifications.   You can reach me at the number listed above.

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Free Will in Experimental Philosophy Essay Although the â€Å"free will† problem envelops a spectrum of ideas, I agree with the following belief: â€Å"The folk are compatibilists about free will. † While there are, of course, incompatibilists and indeterminists, for the most part, the general population consists of compatibilists. Now, I know experimental philosophy has a problem with the use of generalizations without actual statistics, but throughout this paper, I will explain exactly why the world revolves in a generally compatibilist manner. Firstly, to speak of compatibilism, you’d have to assume that the world is deterministic, meaning that everything that happens from here on out, including human action, is caused by the facts of everything that has happened before it. With that assumption in mind, compatibilist believe that we still have free will as long as we aren’t operating under external limitations. The problem with that is that although compatibilists believe we are free, there is still disagreement on just exactly how free we may be, which is the weak spot indeterminists and incompatibilists use to try to break the argument. One nature of compatibilism is referred to as classic compatibilism. This means that we’d be acting freely as long as we, without being impeded by any outside force, take a course of action that we personally choose for ourselves. These compatibilists believe that it is the presence of impediments such as â€Å"physical restraints, lack of opportunity, duress or coercion, physical or mental impairment, and the like† that would cause us to not act freely (Caruso, 2012). However, this line of reasoning is not accepted by those who support the Consequence Argument. In the simplest terms, this argument states that no one has power over the facts of the past and the laws of nature. Also, no one has power over the fact that the facts of the past and the laws of nature entail every fact of the future (i. e. , determinism is true). Because of that, no one has power over the facts of the future (McKenna, 2004). Compatibilists respond to this by saying that the focal point should be the differentiation between free and un-free, and not by the absence of causes. Other philosophers argue that we act freely when our first order and second order desires become aligned. Because our mental processes are more developed than those of younger children and simpler animals, we have the rationale to decide whether our instincts or raw desires should be acted upon. That rationale is referred to as the second order desires (Frankfurt, 1971). For example, Chris is at the bar with his girlfriend Ana. While Chris has stepped away to the restroom, Jose approaches Ana and flirts with her in a manner that she does not feel comfortable with. Once out of the bathroom, Chris sees this. Enraged, he initially wants to go and physically put Jose in his place. In spite of this, he remembers that he is up for a promotion at work, and getting into a bar fight probably won’t help his chances of receiving it. He tells Ana to collect her things. They leave. What we see here is the protagonist, Chris, experiencing first order desires that make him want to hurt Jose. His second order desires are what tell him that although he is feeling those first order desires, his second order desires are not in agreement and therefore, he shouldn’t act on them. Although some compatibilists seem to be satisfied with this reasoning because it justifies the causation of our actions, it doesn’t explain whether our thoughts and desires are consequences of the past as well. An example would be that Kate feels the desire to take a run in the park and does so. Yet, if determinism is true, which compatibilists believe it is, she is already determined to feel that way, and although she may want to feel that way, without any outside force acting on her she is not free (McKenna, 2004). Her first order and second order desires may even align, but without the ability to do otherwise, due to determinism, she would not be free. Even so, compatibilist Michael Levin says â€Å"minding or accepting one’s desires is as much an effect of past causes as the desires themselves,† but if our internal desires are causally determined, they cannot also be free. All it would be is a different form of causality (Caruso, 2012). Nevertheless, compatibilists argue that it isn’t necessary for an individual to have been able to do otherwise (Nahmias, Stephen, Nadelhoffer, Turner, 2005). If there were the choices of A through Z and someone that could manipulate me into doing A that would do so if I didn’t do it on my own, I would still have free will if I picked A without the manipulation. In this case, compatibilist see me as having had free will because I chose A on my own. My 1st order desires were aligned with my 2nd and that is why A happened. If I had been manipulated to do so, then the problem of free will would once again come into question, but being that the manipulator is fairly irrelevant to the story since I acted on my own accord, and would have done the same thing without the potential manipulative factor. Also, there a couple of studies done to determine what relationship non-philosophers believed existed between free will, determinism, and moral responsibility. In Study 1, there were three scenarios. Scenario 1 was negative. Scenario 2 was positive, and Scenario 3 was neutral. In all three cases, between 68 – 79% of folk said there was free will. While there were some fluctuations in percentages when it came to the association between free will and the ability to choose otherwise, the amount of participants making judgments that disagreed with incompatibilism was two to three times greater than those that followed along with incompatibilist intuitions. This study was supported by their second study. In this study, they tell the subjects that everything in the universe is caused completely by their genes and environment. The scenario takes twins, Fred and Barney, and places Fred with the Jerksons and Barney with the Kindersons. One day they both find a wallet with $1000. Fred keeps it, while Barney returns it to its rightful owner. When polling the participants, 76% said they both acted on their own free will and could have done otherwise. This shows that the majority of folk believe that compatibilism is true, and while external factors and facts of the past might influence the choice making process, it does not define it; therefore we are free within the confines of a determined universe (Nahmias, Stephen, Nadelhoffer, Turner, 2005). Now, why do I personally find â€Å"the folk are compatibilist about free will† to be true? Aside from the aforementioned statistics, the reason is that if we did not find a middle ground between free will and determinism, we wouldn’t do any of the things we do. Everything from the grading systems used in schools to receiving a promotion at work all the way to fighting wars is done in a compatibilist manner. The premise of all these concepts is the idea that if you choose do X, having the option of Y, Z will happen. If you work hard enough in school (X), you will receive good grades (Z), even though you can just be lazy (Y). If you are the most productive and pleasant at your job (X), you will receive a promotion (Z). If we go into a war (X), we have the chance of winning (Z). While all the factors in each of those scenarios might have also been determined, there is no reason for us to feel disappointment when we really studied but still managed to only get a B on a test or when we lose troops across seas. Though the previous paragraph does explain that folk believe in free will, it doesn’t explain why folk have the compatibilist view of free will. The reasoning for that is because while compatibilists believe that you can control some aspects of your life, you can’t control all of them. As Michael Levin said, â€Å"Compatibilist usually agree that free will does require behavior at least to be determined, since you cannot freely do what is beyond your control. † For example, we are born and we die. The sun rises. The sun sets. We inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide. There are certain laws of physics that we must adhere to. Some will argue that we believe those to be stable laws of how the universe will operate, but only because that’s what it’s done until now. Tomorrow we might not have the sun rise, and tomorrow we might inhale carbon monoxide and exhale nitrogen. However, since certain things have been fixed for a trustworthy amount of time, we, the folk, have accepted it as determined facts of the universe. The determined factors of the universe are the skeleton upon which we place the flesh that is our free will. ? References Caruso, G. D. (2012). The Folk Psychology of Free Will: Arguement Against Compatibilism. Kriterion Journal of Philosophy, 26, 56-89. Frankfurt, H. G. (1971, January 14). Freedom of the Will and the Concept of a Person. The Journal of Philosophy, 5-20. McKenna, M. (2004, April 26). Compatibilism. Retrieved from Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy: http://plato. stanford. edu/entries/compatibilism/ Nahmias, E. , Stephen, M. , Nadelhoffer, T. , Turner, J. (2005, October). Surverying Freedom: Folk Intuitions about Free Will and Moral Responsibility. Philosophical Psychology, 18(5), 561 584.

Dangerous Stunts Seen On Youtube English Language Essay

Dangerous Stunts Seen On Youtube English Language Essay David Nuno became the latest teenager to die in a freak accident this week trying to duplicate a stunt he saw on YouTube called the good kids high. Nuno, 15, and his two friends were watching a YouTube video of how to pass out on purpose before trying it out on Tuesday, Chula Vista Police Capt. Gary Wedge said. Just like in the video, Nuno was standing before he lost consciousness. When he fell forward, he crashed onto an empty drinking glass and broke it with his collarbone, allowing the shard to slice through his interior and exterior jugular arteries. His friends didnt see the blood until they rolled him over, prompting one to race down the stairs to find Nunos father, Wedge said. As Nuno regained consciousness, he realized he was bleeding and ran down the stairs just as his father was running up to help him. As his father applied pressure to the wound with a towel, Nuno collapsed on the floor. Emergency responders arrived and tried to stop the bleeding, but Nunos pulse disappeared. They performed CPR, but he died shortly after he got to the hospital, Wedge said. Anytime a teen dies, its tragic, Wedge said, adding that hed never seen anyone try to asphyxiate himself to get high before Tuesday, but hes learned its much more common than people realize. Nunos death isnt the first like it not even the first this month. A  12-year-old  suffocated to death in Wisconsin trying to achieve a pass-out high last Thursday. The Dangerous Behaviors Foundation asked victims parents to report choking game deaths and recorded  416 fatalities  as of last September. Emergency rooms are seeing more and more teens with injuries that result from emulating things they see on YouTube videos that include the choking game, and other more innocuous sounding but deadly games such as thecinnamon challenge, the  salt-and-ice challenge, chubby bunny  and even extreme fighting. Dr. Thomas Abramo, the chief of pediatric emergency medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, said he sees all of it in his ER. Although teens have acted on risky behavior fads throughout his 30-year career, he said hes seeing trends catch on faster than ever before, and he thinks its because of YouTube and social media. If you get one kid doing it, you tend to see more kids doing it, said Abramo, who said two of his patients have died playing the choking game. The spread of the event is definitely faster. One challenge that scares Abramo involves being hit on the head with a bench or a folding chair to see if you can take it, he said. A lot of the time, they cant. Fractures, concussions, lacerations, Abramo said. Just the things you would think would happen. Once you see some of these videos, you go, Oh my God,' the doctor said. The Darwin award videos, which involve varying dangerous challenges, are the worst hes seen. Survival of the stupidest. I cant believe it happens. It defies logic, Abramo said. YouTubes guidelines prohibit content that encourages dangerous behavior, but 72 hours of new video are uploaded each minute, according to YouTube statistics, making it difficult to prevent dangerous content being posted. We count on our users to flag content they believe violates the rules, a YouTube spokesman said. We review flagged videos around the clock and remove all those that violate our policies. Dr. Alan Hilfer, a child psychologist at Maimonides Medical Center, said he thinks the existing videos validate risky behavior for teens and give them a way to get notoriety if they post a video. He said he hears a lot about YouTubes amateur ultimate fighting videos, which show teen fights with are no rules just bare knuckles. A kid showed me his video of that, and it was appalling, he said. These kids were beating each other to a pulp, and kids were standing around and cheering until somebody gave up. Hilfer, who has worked as a child psychologist for four decades, said videos also validate anorexia and cutting by making them seem normal. However, Dr. Carol Bernstein, a psychiatry professor at New York Universitys Langone Medical Center, said she doesnt think YouTube alone is to blame for teens engaging in challenges that could seriously injure them because many factors are involved. She said other environmental factors, physiology, and temperament contribute to a childs decision to emulate a video. Stress here should be on knowing our children, watching behaviors and having conversations with them, Bernstein said. Theres no substitute for parents and teachers who are engaging with their kids in general. She said if parents discover their child is hurting himself or herself in any way, they should have a conversation with that child. If necessary, she said parents should reach out to a pediatrician to see if he or she should be evaluated by a child psychologist. The message here if for parents to not be afraid to have conversations with their children, she said. We need to do that. Ada Del Riego English 4 honors/ per. 6 Mr. Wright Article Assignment Dangerous Stunts Seen on YouTube Hurting, Even Killing Teens http://usfencounter.stfrancis.edu/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/2956.gif http://t2.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQCx80ongRk-y6fSG3R1QgrTQqvjnPF-Mcoy5Tt6bq3RPY0O1ID http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRs6FPiV59kCxKbDYRUSw6YHQHFpbUeHqOxLOzHbEXkXynS_iAg ABC news have informed us about the new game that is killing many teens today. It comes to be that there is a new game, a game in which is causing many teens to lose their lives or suffer major injuries. This game is called the choking game. David Nuno became one of the teenagers to die in a freak accident trying to attempt the choking game. He was with a group of friends and while he was attempting to suffocate himself he fell on top of a glass cup. The cup shredded into pieces because he broke it with his collarbone. The piece of glass allowed it to slice through his interior and exterior jugular arteries which caused him to have internal bleeding. When his friend noticed that David wasnt responding they turned Davids body over and he was bleeding extensively. One of Davids friends went to go reach for his parents and when his dad arrived to where David was at he applied a lot of pressure to Davids head. They called paramedics but that didnt save the life of David Nuno. The paramed ics did everything possible to keep David alive but moments later Davids pulse was gone and somebody had died because of a game that many kids are curious to try. Many of these kids are being informed by these games by the social web. You tube takes big part on this game because there are videos posted on how kids can learn how to choke themselves without a problem. Kids do these activities in groups with friends but the sad part is like Advocate Judy Rogg said these kids dont believe that they are doing any wrong in practicing these games. On the ABC news video interview, advocate Judy Rogg has a story to tell and a message to send out. Her own child was killed by this game and she as a mother didnt understand why her child who had it all would want to go ahead and try this game. As well kids say that this is a safer game to play instead of doing drugs. Judys child heard about this game in school and without her knowing Judys son grabs his boy scout rope and decides to hang himself, when police were called in to the scene they investigated that Judys son did not commit suicide if not he was trying to attempt the game called the choking game. Judy Rogg has channeled her grief to making a change in society. She has gone around the world to make notice that the choking game has to stop or at least let students know about this game and what it can do to you before trying it. It has been known that 416 facilities have been reported for playing the choking game. As well Dr. Thomas Abramo has said that he has seen almost every type of case in the ER and he believes that the kids are looking at these games like trends and something cool to do and follow. For this reason a lot of these kids are following the trend and its happening at a rapid pace. This is why Dr. Thomas blames the social media for these open ideas kids have now. For example Dr. Thomas stated If you get one kid doing it, you tend to see more kids doing it, which caused the spread of the event to happen definitely faster. These games have different names around the world for example the first name known would be the chocking game, knock out and as well California knockout. Unfortunately this isnt the only game being played, many other students also play games called the cinnamon challenge, the salt-and-ice challenge, chubby bunny and even extreme fighting. The cinnamon challenge is when you get a spoon full of powdered cinnamon you eat it and try to swallow it. It has caused several of students to lose their breath and cause the cinnamon to stay in their throat leaving the students with no way to breathe. People who have asthma are extremely in danger because it clogs up your lungs and causes you to have shortness of breath. The chubby bunny game is when you have a bag of marshmallows and you try to attempt to stick one marshmallow at a time while each marshmallow you stick you have to say chubby bunny. This is a dangerous game for the reason that in the moment that you are laughing and having a good time one marshmallow can fly to the back of your throat and choke you. The hamlet procedure will have to be given to you but in any time you wont have the luck to survive the chubby bunny. Dr. Abramo has also seen cases in which kids have themselves be beaten up to see how much they can take from something and the cases end up that they really cant take much of it. They get fractured; have concussions, and even lacerations. Dr. Abramo stated that the worst videos he has seen have been from the Darwin award but he states himself that the people who attempt these stunts define the word logic. It has come to a conclusion in which Dr. Abramo has made his own opinion that the social web has taken part in many of these kids putting their lives in danger. YouTube has guidelines in which prohibits the people to encourage themselves to do any dangerous stunt. Even though a new video is being posted up almost every seventy- two hours YouTube statistics have said that it has been harder to post up videos. As well YouTube encourages that their members flag the content that violates the rules and regulations that YouTube asks for. YouTube spokesman said We review flagged videos around the clock and remove all those that violate our policies. Dr. Alan Hilfer who is a psychologist at the Maimonides Medical Center states that these videos have changed the behavior of teens, posting up these videos give them notoriety in which changes teens behavior. Dr. Alan has seen this reaction among the kids because someone showed him a YouTube video where kids were beating each other up and all the other kids watching the fight where just cheering and didnt have any state of mind to stop this fight. Dr. Alan has been in this industry for over four decades and he doesnt remember ever seeing this type of behavior or even kids cutting themselves. Another Dr. Carol Bernstein states that she doesnt believe that the social web has so many faults on the kids reaction to these videos, she believes that YouTube itself alone is to blame for teens reacting the way they do. She believes environmental factors, physiology, and temperament cause a childs decision to emulate a video. Dr. Carol also states that parents should take a big part in their kids lives. Dr. Carol says that if any parent or teacher sees any change with their student or child they should have a deep conversation or if not they can receive help by someone else. This article wanted to state a message to parents out in the world to not be afraid to have conversations with their children. This article talks about the dangerous stunts seen on YouTube in which are hurting teens and even killing them. These games are games being played because peer pressure is put upon most students. Trends are meant to be followed as in fashion and the latest cars but not in dangerous games. For most teens any game that is being played students want to try to attempt it and follow what everyone else is doing, just because they believe that these game can cause them to get noticed or either become the cool girl or guy in school. These games have caused a lot of unexpected deaths, which is not worth to hear that your family member or friend was killed while playing one of these games. I believe that these games should be put to a stop for the reason that students dont know the consequences to these games and they are trying them without knowing if their lives can be in danger. Peer pressure takes a big part in teen society. Once your part of a group of friends everyone wants to get along, fit in with each other and as well look alike in different occasions. For these reasons a game takes a big part as well as in drinking. If one student is influenced into drinking or even doing drugs I believe kids mentality would be short enough to not notice that the game they played has caused deaths around the world. Students are sometimes pressured into wearing things they dont like, things that only students believe that they can look part of the group and not a part of what everyone else and what they are doing. As well I believe that students dont know when to stand up from what is right and wrong. When Dr. Abramo witnesses to watch a video where kids are being beaten up to points that they get black out is crazy. These students are around the fight or even watching the video as if they would like to be there in person and even picking sides to who was a better fig hter. Doctors have realized that teens now a day dont know what is good and bad and what they should stand up for. Another big part that takes place in these games is the imagination kids have now a days to entertain themselves. Sometime technology takes a big part of students lives. I believe that TV shows like Ridiculousness are TV shows that show students that these stunts are capable of doing, capable of getting hurt, and capable of not listening to the content that tells students that these stunts are not supposed to be attempted. As well YouTube has been one of the teens major resources for students to look up videos that they can imitate. There have been a lot of videos on YouTube in which they havent been flagged or reviewed to see if its an appropriate video to watch. Students just look at this as a way to be cool and attempt something that somebody else did that everyone else would like to see. The concerns that many of our teachers, parents and guardian have for us isnt because they want to be over protective if not they dont want occasions like these to happen. Health is a big part to look at when youre doing something that you believe wont get you hurt, but statistics have said by the ABC news that at least fifty percent of the teens population have tried these outrageous games. Most of the population has been boys. Teens have to realize that these games arent games to be played because they come with one consequence and that is death. Stress is a reason for the kids to act the way they do as well. This should put a warning sign to the teachers, parents and guardians so that they can notice if anything is wrong with their student or child. As well its recommended to know if there is a change in anything you see out of the ordinary on anyone to report it to someone older who can give it to the authority. Doctors as well have seen the number of increase in how kids are att empting these games and come to the hospital with the explanation that they got hurt playing these games. I remember games being played when I was little but not the games today that teens are hearing about. Hide and Seek, Catch me if you can and card games are all game that teens and even younger kids play. Younger kids are more influenced to do something that their friend has asked them to do because they are friends and the innocence in a kid and teen isnt t noticed to them yet. Kids and teens trust their friends almost as much as they trust their own family and if playing a game like truth or dare is fun, they wont see any harm in playing it. Stunts are not meant to be done by children, teens or unprofessional people. Stunts that are posted on YouTube and other websites are either meant for you to see and laugh at or enjoy it. It has come to the conclusion that because of these stunts there have been lifes lost just because others want to attempt something that can cause you harm just because youre not capable for it. In this occasion I believe since there isnt much to do any more about these kids to stop playing these games the best way to handle the situation is to create an organization in where students and teens all around the world can pledge to not playing these games because they are dangerous. Its the same concept used in how ATT is using the schools and people to pledge to not driving and texting. Opinions by the public have been made that our society isnt thinking correctly and day by day they just go ahead and sacrifice their life for something that isnt worth trying. The public blames this situation in many different ways. First they blame the person for doing the stunt because either they are not realizing what they are doing or are just too dumb to notice. As well they are blaming the parents because they are not taking too much responsibility to what their children do and act, and lastly the public blames the media because these stories keep on coming up and it never dies down. It just gives a more of an opportunity for the people to hear about the situation and continue it. I cant disagree with none of these statements because all of them come into play in this story and article. Everyone has a fault in the situations that the teens face today and for this reason I believe that media, parents, and children should all sit down and realize that they have some fault in wha t has happened. They should all as well help out and find a way where everyone can help out and fix the situation. Media for once should only display what is correct to display and the negativity on deaths and stunts like these should be kept to a minimum on who should find out about these situations. Then again I believe that the article caught my attention because there are so many ways to look at the situation and as well many ways to interpret your own opinion in this article from what you believe is right and wrong, towards what you believe has the most fault in this article and what should be changed to make our society better and make our people understand that these stunts are not meant to be done or shown to others if not done by a professional.

Visual Spatual Learner :: essays research papers

Her next clue was something she noticed when she was demonstrating drawing to a class, and trying to give a verbal explanation of the methods she was using. She found that she often would "simply stop talking right in the middle of a sentence. I would hear my voice stop and I would think about getting back to the sentence, but finding the words again would seem like a terrible chore -- and I didn't really want to anyhow. But pulling myself back at last, I would resume talking -- and then find that I had lost contact with the drawing, which suddenly seemed confusing and difficult. Thus I picked up a new bit of information: I could either talk or draw, but I couldn't do both at once." ~*~*~*~ A part of the answer is that, from childhood onward, we have learned to see things in terms of words: we name things, and we know facts about them. The dominant left verbal hemisphere doesn't want too much information about things it perceives -- just enough to recognize and to categorize. The left brain, in this sense, learns to take a quick look and says, "Right, that's a chair ...." Because the brain is overloaded most of the time with incoming information, it seems that one of its functions is to screen out a large proportion of incoming perceptions. This is a necessary process to enable us to focus our thinking and one that works very well for us most of the time. But drawing requires that you look at something for a long time, perceiving lots of details, registering as much information as possible -- ideally, everything.... Symptoms of Dyslexia Dyslexic people are visual, multi-dimensional thinkers. We are intuitive and highly creative, and excel at hands-on learning. It is sometimes hard for us to understand letters, numbers, symbols, and written words because we think in pictures but learning to adapt this hidden talent can lead to success, particularly in creative and inventive fields. Reading: Â · Fluctuating memory problems with letters, words or numbers -- including sequences such as the alphabet. Â · Skipping over or scrambling letters, words and sentences. Â · Reading is a slow, tiring process often accompanied with head tilting or finger pointing. Â · Reversal of similar letters (such as "b" and "d"), words (such as "saw" and "was") and numbers (such as "6" and "9"). Â · Letters and words blur, move, double, scramble or are omitted or added.

Boot Camp Debate Essay -- essays research papers

The Boot Camp Debate In any of today's society no matter where you look there will be some evidence of crime present. This statement derives from a sociologist theory that says no society can exists without crime. The government is constantly looking for new ways to deal with these reoccurring problems. The focus has been placed upon the government to look into young offenders and the style used to punish them. Weapons possession is quite common among the youth, at least in urban Canada, between one-third and one quarter of students surveyed indicated that they had carried some form of weapon at school over the previous year. Data drawn from Statistics Canada has revealed that the number of reported incidents of violent crimes by males aged 12-17 have risen 64% and more than doubled for females during the decade beginning in 1989 and ending in 1999. A study conducted in Southern Ontario, exploring student perceptions of violence in schools, revealed significant levels of fear relating to possible victimi sation. It is these more serious crimes involving young offenders that the government has been forced to deal with. Many suggestions have been made and many bills have been voted on but still no "sure fire" solution to the problem exists. The latest idea brewing in Parliament is the use of boot camps to punish young offenders; however others believe sending young offenders to boot camp is not the answer and there are more efficient ways to correct their negative behaviour. The newest "brain-storm" that politicians have dwelled upon is sending young offenders that commit serious offences to boot camp. The first question that comes to mind is what is a boot camp? A boot camp is an alternative place to send youths between the ages of 12-17 who commit serious criminal offences. Boot camps have five basic goals: (1) incapacitation, (2) deterrence, (3) rehabilitation, (4) reduction of prison costs and crowding, and (5) punishment (Colledge & Gerber, 1998). These facilities are designed to resocialize the "bad-boys" and "bad-girls" into citizens that will be accepted back into society. The plan is to use a military style to punish the kids and in return teach them discipline and transform them back to law abiding citizens . "Punishment ranges from rigorous exercise - running extra laps... ...he rehabilitation of young offenders rather than shipping them off to prison or boot camps. The boot camps and prisons do not offer the youths the proper treatment needed to transform a person from a criminal back to a normal citizen of society. Places such as Custody Centers offer a more controlled and logical process of programs developed especially for the special kids sent to these places. It is believed that a program such as the P.G.Y.C.C. will ultimately be more effective in correcting the behaviour of young offenders and in conjunction lower the rate of youth crime around the country. References Colledge, D. and Gerbert, J. (1998, June). Rethinking the assumptions about boot camps. Federal Probation, vol. 62, issue 1, p.54. Honywill, B. (1996, Nov. 20). Boot camps not answer: panel: Must discourage conditions leading to youth crime. The Hamilton Spectator, p. N1. Simpson, L. (1996, Oct. 5). Academy targets troublesome teens: Military-style school for boys costs $20,400 a year. The Hamilton Spectator, p. A1. Prince George Youth Custody Center. [WWW document]. (n.d./ 2000, Mar. 22). Available: <http://members.pgonline.com/~pgycc/

Skittles :: essays research papers

Skittles OVERVIEW Skittles is a variety entertainment and dining establishment located in Washington, D.C. . Our mission is to provide our patrons with a unique blend of live entertainment while delivering a top quality dining experience. We will do this by emphasizing service excellence and the highest level of performance in all aspects of our operations and services. Our prominent services include live entertainment, ranging in form from comedy to jazz performances to poetry recitals and others. We also offer lunch, dinner, drinks and dancing to our customers. The restaurant is operated by its several partners who have an equal share in ownership. The partners are Tracy Jackson, James Johnson, Sonja Dawkins, Kevin Brown and Steffi Carr. The restaurant is ideally located on the D.C. waterfront. There it will be easily accessible to a large cross section of consumers and make it possible to provide patrons with a safe and controlled environment. Our establishment brings a relatively new concept to the Districts restaurant industry. What we provide is an everchanging mix of live entertainment to customers while serving all of their drinking and dining needs as well. We are somewhat of a one stop, night on the town, in that we provide not only the drinking and dining needs of person going out but we also provide, in the same location and depending on the night, everything from dancing to live music performances to a night of comedy entertainment. Because of its uniqueness to the marketplace in D.C., Skittles has an excellent opportunity to establish itself and become a force in the restaurant/entertainment community in the District. This is partly because of the limited direct competition the company has to face. Although direct competition is limited, there are several establishments which we feel will pose competition to us in the market. They include Blues Alley, Hogates, H.I. Ribsters, Phillips, Gang Plank, The Wharf, and Club 721. Despite the threats which the competition poses to the restaurant, we are still very confident in the ability of this concept and restaurant to thrive and succeed in the District. SITUATION ANALYSIS We, the owners of Skittles, are very enthusiastic about our chances of success with this new and exciting restaurant concept. Our enthusiasm was bolstered even more by what was revealed to us after performing a situation analysis for the company. The analysis showed that as a company, our strengths and the opportunities that exist, far outweigh our weaknesses and the threats we perceive ourselves having to face. This indicates to us that with hard work and a total team commitment, Skittles will be a definite success. As for the

Marriage and European Dowry Custom Essay

Lobolo or Lobola (Mahadi in Sesotho; sometimes translated as bride price) is a traditional Southern African custom whereby the man pays the family of his fiancee for her hand in marriage (Compare with the European dowry custom where the woman brings assets[citation needed]). The custom is aimed at bringing the two families together, fostering mutual respect, and indicating that the man is capable of supporting his wife financially and emotionally. Traditionally the lobola payment was in cattle as cattle were the primary source of wealth in African society. However, most modern urban couples have switched to using cash. The process of lobola negotiations can be long and complex, and involves many members from both the bride’s and the groom’s extended families. Often, to dispel any tensions between the families, a bottle of brandy is placed on the table. This is usually not drunk; it is simply a gesture to welcome the guest family and make everyone feel more relaxed (it is known as mvulamlomo, which is Xhosa for ‘mouth opener’). Lobola may have some unintended negative effects. It may have created a financial barrier for some young men looking to take a bride. It is common for a couple that are emotionally ready to commit to each other to stay unmarried if they do not have the financial resources to satisfy the impeding traditional ritual. For those who do have the financial means, the issue can be Lobola’s opportunity cost. Young men who are in the wealth-creation stage of life may feel that their future is better secured if they invest their money elsewhere to receive significant financial returns. Lobola is seen by some as an extravagance that has little relevance in a society where young Africans are trying to lift themselves out of inherited poverty. However, the tradition is adhered to as strongly as ever, and in families where tradition and intention override greed, lobola can be a great way of showing commitment between families, not just between the bride and groom. Many traditional marriages utilise a cash-based lobola; this can be then followed by a European-style wedding ceremony, where the lobola funds are used to pay for expenses. In this way, any outlaid costs are returned to the payer in another form, preserving tradition, honour and finances.

Votes For Women c1900-28

Question 1 From Source A – a poster produced in 1912 by the Suffragettes – it can tell us one of the reasons why the Suffragettes were demanding the vote for women. On the top row, it shows women in highly educated, well paid jobs like a mayor or a nurse, while below it a row of â€Å"low-level† men such as a convict and a drunkard. Already here we see a stark contrast in their class. It shows us that women of such quality were not allowed to vote, while men of such low integrity were. A reason why women were not enfranchised was because people deemed them to be inferior and less intelligent to men. However, what this posters shows us is that women can be more educated, and better respected, yet still not get the vote, unlike the men who didn't accomplish anything good in life, yet still got the vote. Also, people criticised the Suffragettes with their violent methods – which failed, and accused of being crazy lunatics. What the poster also shows is that men could be lunatics, and still gain the votes, but why can't women do so to. Question 2 Source B is an extract from a book written in 1907 called â€Å"Woman or Suffragette†. Its main view is that women should not be voting, but in fact were â€Å"destined to make voters†. It disagrees with the whole movement, both the Suffragists and the Suffragettes. It also has a reference to the Suffragettes movement, with its â€Å"shrill cry†. Source C on the other hand is a cartoon drawn in 1906 by Bernard Partridge. It shows two campaigners, one – portrayed as a calm, sensible, upper-class woman – a Suffragist, and the other – shown as a crazy and violet woman – a Suffragette. It also shows the Suffragette brandishing her fist, showing her violence and the basis if the Suffragette's movement. The cartoon criticises the Suffragette movement, with its â€Å"shrieking sister†, and shows the Suffragist saying to the Suffragette â€Å"YOU help our cause? Why, you're its worst enemy!† There is also a reference here, like Source B, to the Suffragettes movement, referring to their â€Å"shrieking†. This shows us that the artist doesn't support the Suffragette's violent movement, but does support the Suffragist's peaceful movement. This tells me that Source C doesn't support Source B fully about the disagreement of the women's movement, but rather that the women's movement was acceptable when it took a more peaceful approach. Question 3 Despite the Suffragette campaign, women still had not gained the vote by the outbreak of the war. Source D – an extract of a book written by Emmeline Pankhurst in 1912 – shows us that because of the failure to have woman enfranchised, the Suffragettes wanted the matter to be more widely noticed by the public. Emmeline said that it succeeded in this because the â€Å"newspapers are full of us†. This is like a reason for why the Suffragettes were ‘allowed' to be violent. Source E on the other hand is a speech given by a Member of the Parliament just a year after Emmeline Pankhurst's book was written. It is opposing the idea of women gaining the vote, saying that it will â€Å"ultimately put the control of the government of this country into female hands†. This shows us that some members of Parliament opposed the idea of having women in Parliament. Already the sources show us two of the different reasons why women were not given the vote. Another is that the Prime Minister at the time – Herbert Asquith – also opposed women's rights to the vote. This would have influenced Parliament. Another reason is the public and their opinion. With the Suffragists before, and their peaceful campaign, it got them the vote in local elections. With the Suffragettes, they got people to be scared of them and threatened the welfare of the others. This I think is the most important reason. To be enfranchised, they needed the public's support, because without this, no-one would support their campaign. Question 4 Both Sources F and G are useful to find out the contribution of women to the war, both in different ways. Source F is an example of propaganda, made at the time by the government, to try and get women to work in munitions factories, and consequently in the war effort. What this poster doesn't tell us is the number of women who were working in the munitions factories, but rather that the government allowed women to help in the war effort. In fact, this poster could be telling us that women were vital to the war, and that without women, the war could not have been won. With the women working in factories and doing the jobs that the men did enabled the men to go to war and fight. Also, the poster, with the words â€Å"Enrol At Once† is suggesting that women should do just that. At the forefront of the poster shows a very healthy looking woman, looking like she enjoyed working in the factories. Most women at the time would be working in poor conditions, with little pay and so a poor standard of life. The woman contradicts this, and so makes women want to join up. Also, it shows us that the government wanted to persuade women to work at the factories, and so needed them to be participating in the war. There's however, no way to know if the poster succeeded or not. Source F, on the other hand, is a table of statistics, written in the 1980s. This could mean that the data could have been compiled after years of research. Furthermore, as it is published in a school text book, it would mean that it should be an unbiased piece of evidence, unlike the government poster. Although it is a secondary piece of evidence, you can still find out about the contribution to the war done by women, but not fully. The table only shows us the number of women employed in certain industries in 1914 and 1918. There s no other information telling us about before, during, or after the war. We cannot tell if the number of women working in industries fell or rose during these times. Also, this positive trend may not have happened across all the industries. It also doesn't show us the facts, but, when compared to the start of the war, there was a significant increase in women working in industries, and so the war effort. Overall, I think that Source G is more useful. It provides actual statistics, which enables you to make a conclusion about the amount women did contribute to the war. Source F is merely a poster designed to enrol women into munitions factories and shows the government's need for female contribution to the war effort. It doesn't give any indication about the number of women working in munitions factories, let alone the industries. Question 5 ‘It was the work that women did during the war during the war that earned them the vote'. Personally I do not agree with this statement. I feel that it is a multiple of reasons, not just the war, which enabled women to be enfranchised. One of the reasons was due to their war effort. In helping out in the war, they earned people's respect, both the public and politicians. Also, they should people that there were not crazy, violent women as they were seen before, but in fact sane people. Source H partially agrees with this, as it says that â€Å"†¦women workers received a warm welcome† but not

Exploration Notes- as Level Drama and Theatre Studies Essay

1) Discuss and compare the exploration of characterisation in Metamorphosis by Steven Berkoff and (A Doll’s House). Draw your own practical understanding of the skills used including use of language and voice to portray character. In our practical sessions of Modelling Gregor in â€Å"Metamorphosis†, we thought about how we would physically see Gregor. To do this, we had to individually create the shape of Gregor with our bodies. We all started off thinking about it really literally- â€Å"How would a beetle look?† rather than thinking about how our body represented Gregor and his feelings towards society. We then expanded on our thoughts about Gregor and then tried to empathise with him and think about how we would look if we were in his situation. My finished individual beetle was crouched/curled up on the floor on my side with my head down, hidden away- this represented Gregor’s vulnerability (a beetle on his back is helpless and cannot move, but a beetle has a hard shell which protects him; I was half and half because with my head down, I didn’t want to be seen by society and I was ashamed of what I had become however with my front/underside slightly showing, I was exposed to society and helpless but because you could see my back/shell, I was half protected by family- I think that throughout the show this would change and I would end up completely on my back because the family does end up abandoning/killing Gregor) , one of my arms was in a jerky/awkward position and the other was outstretched away from my body- the jerky arm represented Gregor changing and being abnormal and different, the outstretched arm however showed that I was reaching for someone to help and save me from what I was turning into; my legs were limp, lifeless and in an awkward shape to show that I was, again, turning into something new and weird but could not move and physically get away from it. After we made our individual beetle, we then worked in partners and modelled them into Gregor. I decided to use props for this (I used a chair). Hana (my model Gregor) ended up being positioned on her side, with her head under the chair and one of her arms reaching out onto it, her legs were crooked and awkward to show that she couldn’t move from her pain. After that, we raced our â€Å"beetles†Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ Hana lost.. but this showed that Gregor was in a good position because he found it difficult to manoeuvre himself and get away from what was happening to him- his movement was limited and awkward when he did so. Hana then modelled me, she had me stood up with my legs wide open (showing vulnerability) and one of my legs turned in and that knee bent (which looked awkward, abnormal and hard to move), my head was dropped and my stomach was contracted in. She placed my arms out to the sides in awkward positions, which was quite physically demanding as I was holding the position. We then used these positions for a scene of Metamorphosis. The dream scene; we incorporated our ideas of how Gregor felt and moved into this scene. We decided to have a narrator and an actor onstage being Gregor. I tried to capture the essence of Gregor’s franticness yet vulnerability in the way I directed Hana as Gregor. I did this by changing the speed and dynamics of how she was moving; this matched the way I was narrating as I also changed the tempo, dynamics and pitch of my voice to really capture how Gregor’s character felt. To create the family we thought about the physical features of a beetle and applied them to the metaphors of the family. We ended up putting Mr Samsa in the middle, seeing as he is the heart of the family; we then had Gregor again in the middle with his arms over Mr Samsa almost saying that he is protecting him and the family with his income but he is still exposed to society and therefore vulnerable. We had Mrs Samsa knelt in front of Gregor and Mr Samsa looking straight forward with a blank expression almost as if she hasn’t got much to say about the situation and is just disregarding Gregor. Greta was at the very front of the beetle as the antenna, looking out for Gregor and being his sense of feeling. The legs of Gregor were made up of society, but reaching out and away from the beetle and from Gregor. We also (as a practical exercise) held hands as a whole group and twisted ourselves into a character from the play each†¦ this ended up looking abnormal, as the family’s situation is and a lot of it also looked quite painful but we were as one as a unit, as the family is. In order to characterise Nora in a Doll’s House, we used the techniques of Stanislavski because A Doll’s House is a much more naturalistic play compared to Metamorphosis. We started with a focus exercise in which we lay down on the floor and concentrated only on our breathing and our body contact with the floor. We then got thought about some key words to describe Nora’s character and tried to focus on each of them individually, letting each emotion overwhelm our bodies. We then were counted down to stand up and walk around the room as Nora, showing her feelings through non- verbal communication. We also created some tableaux of the family in a dolls house. For this we used visual, aural and spatial techniques. 2) Discuss and compare the Visual, Aural and Spatial elements and the use of non-verbal communication techniques to present issues and ideas in both plays studied. Make reference to your practical work. Visual, aural and spatial elements either have an iconic or symbolic reference. Iconic is always visual, for example a prop; it is iconic because it is what it is and only serves its primary function (e.g. a stool is a stool and is used for sitting on etc.) However a symbolic reference is something that represents something and has a metaphor behind it (e.g. a chair could be symbolic for a particular person). Metamorphosis is an extremely abstract play and the visual, aural and spatial techniques used are very important. The play is commonly set with Gregor at the back on a platform above everyone else, slowly becoming more and more deformed. This is a very visual thing and represents the time’s changing and matters are slowly getting worse and worse for the family. The fact he is higher up than everyone else as well could also symbolise the fact he is hanging over everyone’s head and is a burden on the family. His height could also represent his status and the fact he is the cause for everything happening on stage and when he changes, everything else does as well. Another common way of positioning Gregor is to have scaffolding angling up to the back of the stage like this: This gives perspective; it also makes Gregor look further away but because of the angle, you are drawn in, giving a stronger emotional impact on you as an audience member. The scaffolding itself makes the whole aesthetic of the performance seem more skeletal; which Gregor is also slowly becoming. It is also, obviously, very structured which contradicts how the family’s situation is in the play. In the script it says that every prop is mimed other than 3 black stools places equidistantly of each other for the family to use. I think these proxemics show how the family are as a unit and detached from Gregor. In order to explore and interpret this, we created a series of 10 tableaux. In these 10 tableaux, we used visual, aural and spatial elements to show the subtext of the plot- we mainly focussed on the family and how Gregor’s change affected the family. We used a ladder laid down on its side for scaffolding in which Gregor spent a lot of the time in various awkward ways, becoming more and more deformed and trapped as the tableaux progressed. We thought we should only use the organic sounds from our movement and the ladder for our performance to represent the tension and how awkward the situation/plot/subtext was. In the changeover of each tableau, we decided to move a chair gradually towards the back of the stage to represent Gregor slowly distancing from his family. One element of these tableaux I was quite proud of was the proxemics of each member of the family compared to Gregor and the ladder/scaffolding. This is said ladder; as you can see, there is a divide across it. We used this as a barrier stopping the family from getting to Gregor; apart from in one tableau where we â€Å"broke† this barrier and Greta reached out to Gregor through the partition. Gregor was slowly becoming more and more deformed into the corner during the tableaux. Greta reaching over through the barrier to Gregor. Mrs Samsa reaching over to Greta trying to stop her from â€Å"breaking the barrier†. Mr Samsa: Back turned to Mrs Samsa and Greta (and obviously Gregor, wanting no part of it) Gregor was slowly becoming more and more deformed into this corner during the tableaux. We also used visual, aural and spatial techniques when studying A Doll’s House. Unlike Metamorphosis being abstract, A Doll’s House is much more realistic than Metamorphosis and therefore uses lots of props which are all in one way or another, symbolic of something and metaphorical. As a class we discussed the characters and props and what they may metaphorically represent: * Christmas Tree- The family’s relationships falling apart simultaneously with the pine needles falling off the tree. It could also show that looks can be deceiving because of the fact that while this tree is looking beautiful, the family is deteriorating. * Door- Freedom when Nora leaves. Trouble when she enters from the unknown outside world. * Dr Rank- Society hiding their decay. * Money- Power and all things bad and poisonous. * Nanny- The calm, security and support of Nora and the children. * â€Å"Skylark†- Nora is just a pretty singing bird with no other purpose than looking beautiful. Also the fact that a skylark cannot speak words, this is reflected in Nora; she is not allowed an opinion or it is not heard. * Stove- The characters always go back to it (especially Nora), this could stand for support and forgiveness, the warmth of friendship and loyalty because it is always there. * Macaroons- Nora’s deceit. * Lamp- The light of truth. * The Doll’s House- Nora is a kept woman, everyone’s play thing†¦or so they assume. It is actually Nora who plays with and manipulates the characters around her. Again, looks can be deceiving. Another way we explored visual, aural and special elements in A Doll’s House was when we studied the Tarantella scene. A tarantella is a traditional Italian folk dance. It gets its name from the venomous spider, the tarantula and it is supposed that when one gets bitten by this spider, the victims needed to engage in a frenzied dance in order to prevent death or disease, using very rhythmical music. Now, in context with A Doll’s House, I believe that the reason a Tarantella is danced by Nora is because she is trying to rid herself of the poison from Torvald, Krogstad and maybe even Dr Rank; or she could be trying to rid herself from lies she’s told as this is her poison. We re-enacted the tarantella scene with the proper script. We played with spatial awareness of characters, use of voice and visual effects. Nora’s movement gets gradually more and more frantic and her speech also more frantic and louder and high pitched. Torvald moves with purpose but in a much more organised and authoritative way compared to Nora; he is always keeping his eyes on her and making sure she does it ALL correctly. Mrs Linde comes in from side stage quite discretely, says her line to Nora then moves slowly and almost mysteriously to a chair in the LDF corner. Dr Rank, playing the piano, cannot keep his eyes off Nora but is fairly wary of Torvald’s presence so near him. Nora used a shawl while she was dancing which added to the visual effects and at the end of the dance she threw the shawl on the floor as if her freedom of dance had gone and the poison had come back. We then performed our own interpretive dance for the subtext of the tarantella and the whole play without any script work. We started with Torvald controlling Nora, almost as a puppeteer- for this we used music box doll music. The music then ran into Kashmir by Bond which starts with quite a distorted wave of sound which we used to show Nora slowly changing and fighting back with Torvald. Throughout the dance, Nora got stronger and less poisoned- instead, the poison was transferring into the other characters. After Nora had kicked Torvald to the floor, Mrs Linde came in and started controlling him alongside Torvald; after having liaised with Nora, she became poisoned and slowly deteriorated to the floor. Dr Rank then came into the picture, stepped over Torvald to get to Nora. They danced together until she pushed him away and transferred the poison. Finally, Nora ended up sat down on the floor, looking around almost like a child who had just broken all of her toys. Aurally, there is one very poignant moment in A Doll’s House where the door is slammed at the end by Nora. This gives the play a final point of closure where Nora has gone and has gone for good. Similarly in Metamorphosis, when the apple is thrown into Gregor’s back, this is a definitive sound of the end of the main plot. 3) Evaluate your understanding of the practitioners studied and their influences on Metamorphosis. Use your interpretation notes to aid this question making reference to the practitioners, playwright, and your own practical exploration. Leslie Steven Berkovitch, better known as Steven Berkoff, was born on the 3rd August 1937 to Russian Jews. He came from a poor family and because of their descent; he never fitted in as a child and found it hard to be a part of a group of friends. Growing up in the East End of London is a gritty, tough time for most people let alone someone of the likes of Berkoff. He was a badly behaved child and got kicked out of school a lot. You could argue he was the original â€Å"East Ender† until he then moved to New York- he lived in a 1 bedroom flat, shared with 3 other families (who were also outsiders in New York). Wherever he travelled, he could never fit in and never found anywhere to call home. He grew up to resent his family and moved back to London at age 13. As an outsider, a Russian Jew living in London, he wanted to be a gangster. He was in a stage of identity crisis where didn’t know where to belong and after being so badly influenced and behaved, he ended up in a young offenders prison which obviously made him extremely angry! After this, he changed his name to Berkoff because he didn’t want to be seen as a Jew or associated with his roots. He brought a whole new movement to British playwriting in British society. These plays he wrote commented on equality and people- they were often based in the home. When he came out of prison, he decided to go over to Europe and learn the skill of tailoring like his father had done. During his stay, he was given the book â€Å"Metamorphosis† by Franz Kafka. When he read this, he could instantly make connections between himself and Gregor. After this, he went back to the East End and started writing plays. Unlike his fellow playwrights John Osbourne and Edward Bond, he believed drama should still be abstract. Berkoff was influenced by Greek theatre; he was a â€Å"Megalomaniac of theatre styles† who loved over exaggeration and the use of masks to rid people of their identity. He loved the use of chorus (voices together) and poetic verse because it takes things out of context. I was inspired by Brecht and his political (borderline social) take on drama and the use of gestus and satire. He also like Artaud and his theatre of cruelty and the way he used the senses and sounds to put over metaphorical messages. He then travelled to France and worked under Lecoq who was a mime artiste and physical theatre worker and trained with him until he decided to move back to London. When he got back to London, he built up his manifesto of theatre. TOTAL THEATRE. Total theatre Greek theatre (chorus, unison, exaggeration), theatre of cruelty (loud sounds, harsh, gritty images and metaphors) and epic theatre (Brecht- teaches a message, gestus, stereotypes, alienation). Berkoff moulded all these ideas together and created his characters as comic and caricatures. Using the whole of the body was very important to him as he was an extremely physical director, well demonstrated with the character of Gregor in Metamorphosis. As a practitioner, Berkoff also wrote plays as well as acted and directed. He liked using lots of language and words (almost Shakespearian). He was extremely articulate and using beautiful language he talked about the gritty East End and reality of life. To put Berkoff’s views into practice, we had to pretend to be in love with a chair. We exaggerated our love and feelings and the chair was like a metaphor for our lover. We then had to flip our mood and become angry with the chair; it got us all to think how people would stereotypically act with someone you loved and then hated. We also had to pretend we were at a picnic on our own, slowly becoming more and more exaggerated with our eating and drinking, and gradually more grotesque. It really got us to focus into it and get into it, so when it was time to â€Å"fake wretch†, I actually felt physically sick! We also practiced slow motion. This was very physically demanding, like how Steven Berkoff would have directed. It was very important to control your movements but not forget that when you sped up the movements, they should look exactly the same as the slow ones. 4) Evaluate your understanding of the practitioner studied and his influence on A Doll’s House. Use your interpretation notes to aid this question making reference to the practitioners, playwright, and your own practical exploration. Henrik Ibsen was born in Norway in 1828 and died in 1906. He was from a well to do Merchant family, however his father’s fortunes took a significant turn for the worse and he ended up a moody, nasty man and turned to alcoholism which he then took out on his family. Ibsen subsequently, only wrote about money and marriage as this was influenced from his own life. His plays were seen as scandalous to many of his era because they were always touching on sensitive subjects like human rights. This then influenced many other playwrights and novelists such as George Bernard Shaw, Oscar Wilde, Arthur Miller and James Joyce. He is one of the founders of modernism in theatre. During his time, despite failing to achieve success as a playwright, he gained a lot of practical experience at the Norwegian theatre company. His play â€Å"A Doll’s House† is a realistic drama that highlights the cultural conflicts of the 19th century. The play was very controversial when it was first published as it was sharply critical of 19th century marriage norms. Her ended up having to change the ending of the original script because the leading actress didn’t like the idea of having to act out abandoning her children. It also manifests Ibsen’s concerns for women’s rights and human rights in general. This was widely considered as a landmark in the development of what would soon become a highly prevalent genre of theatre- REALISM. Realism was consequently realised. It wasn’t however until the likes of Stanislavski came along that realism became so well known and loved. He wanted a sense of realism in his work and he wanted his actors to really connect with their character. In his eyes, the actors WERE the characters. He believed REAL ACTORS=REAL ACTING. We used Stanislavski’s techniques to get into our roles when studying A Doll’s House. We began with a focus exercise, lying on the floor and zoning out our thoughts. We then thought about our character and let their feelings overwhelm our own like Stanislavski would have got his actors to. We then connected with their emotions, felt how they felt and immediately after, acted out a short scene between Nora and Torvald. This helped us all enormously because got us to lose out inhibitions and focus entirely on the story, situation and emotions of the characters. 5) Discuss the Social, Historical, Cultural and Political content of the texts studied and compare the impact on an audience and on yourself as a student of drama. In Metamorphosis, the social, historical and cultural background is made apparent in a number of ways throughout the play. Franz Kafka (the author of the original novel) took his inspiration for the characters from his own relationship between himself and his father. Unforgettable images of dislocation seem to represent both the madness of the modern world and his own desperate neurosis. Similarly, Berkoff wasn’t very close with his father. Practitioners like Brecht and Artaud influenced his work- this is clearly visible in Metamorphosis as he took Artaud’s Theatre of Cruelty and gave it Brecht’s Epic Theatre attributes. Berkoff’s own unique style created this play incorporating his personal passion of mime and the genre of expressionism. Acknowledging what I know about both Berkoff and Kafka, it is blatent that the Social, Cultural, Historic and Political aspects in terms of the two writers were their personal experiences of suppression from society, the culture they were brought up in (Kafka brought up in the a Jewish community and Berkoff brought up in the lower class and status he was born into by Russian Jews). Metamorphosis can be seen as a reaction against society and its demands. Gregor’s physical separation could represent his alienation and understandable desire. He was crushed by authority and routine and had been imprisoned by social and economic demands: â€Å"Just don’t stay in bed being useless . . .† It prevents the forthcoming rebellion of the son against the father. Gregor had become strong as a result of his father’s failure. He destroyed his father’s self-esteem and took over the father’s posts and duties within the family. After the catastrophe, the same sequence takes place in reverse: son becomes weak, and father kills him. Gregor is shown as a symbol of anxiety and alienation who is a lonely character, isolated in his own mind from the community and true friendship (much like Kafka and Berkoff). Looking at where Gregor’s values were anchored: servant to the needs of an oppressive boss in order to meet the needs of a family that continuously exploits him. The metamorphosis was inevitable. Metamorphosis shows the views and attitudes of society. It isn’t necessarily the one we live in today, but looking at it from a historical point of view it could have been representing the society in the nineteen hundreds (1915) when metamorphosis was first published. Kafka was born in Germany and could be referring to the time of the war, and how the Jewish communities were discriminated against. In A Doll’s House, patriarchal ideals were supported and reinforced by a social structure in which women had very little political or economic power. They were economically, socially, and psychologically dependent upon men and especially dependent upon the institutions of marriage and motherhood. Motherhood within marriage was considered a woman’s highest possible achievement. It was a social responsibility, a duty to society, and therefore, a full-time job. Mothering was no longer something that came naturally, but was something that had to be learned. High infant mortality rates, particularly in urban areas, were solely blamed on mothers. Working class mothers were labeled neglectful, when in truth they struggled with both child care and feeding a family. The plot concerns the collapse of a middle class marriage. It sparked debates about women’s rights and divorce. It was considered innovative and daring because of its focus on psychological tension instead of external action. It also created a new acting style that required emotion be conveyed through small, controlled gestures, shifts in action, and pauses and it was groundbreaking in that it caused drama to be viewed as social commentary and not just entertainment. For me, I think that these factors in both plays have different effects on me because in A Doll’s House, the living situation is so much more common these days compared to the monstrosity it was back when it was written. I feel like I can however relate to Nora and how she’s feeling because she is quite feministic like myself. I become quite confused when thinking about how Metamorphosis affects me because it’s obviously a very abstract play but I can empathise with Gregor and moreover Greta because she just wants to help her brother but the higher members of the family won’t let her.