Sugar Trade Essay Example for Free

Sugar Trade Essay â€Å"Give me some sugar!† When most people hear that phrase, it usually means someone wants a kiss. But in the late 1600s and early 1700s, people want to plant sugar. True, it started some 9000 years ago in New Guinea, but it took a while before the rest of the world caught on. During this time, there was a movement called the sugar trade. Although there were many forces driving the sugar trade, what mainly drove it were the ideal land masses for sugar production, the amount of slaves needed, and the demand for it. The first driving force behind the sugar trade was finding the perfect land to grow the plant. Jamaica and Barbados were under British rule in 1750 (Doc. 1), and they were the ones who discovered that the islands were well within the ideal climates for producing sugar because they were in the correct temperature climate, and had the perfect soil; the only off thing was the amount of rainfall they had was less than perfect amount. (Doc. 2) The encyclopedia tells us that the land that the British conquered than its own land and/or even England’s own land. Once a man had found the model land, he would state everything that he needs for his plantation, such as windmills, a boiling-house, the amount of slaves and animals, and all the other houses and shops. (Doc. 6) Belgrove demonstrated that owning a plantation was a big deal and one had to be absolutely sure on everything that was needed in order to have a fully-functioning plantation. Most plantations were owned by wealthy English families, instead of numerous people buying the land together. (Do. 7) It can be interpreted that Mintz said that the better was to get money was to own the whole thing by yourself. Men like Charles Long and John Gladstone owned large amounts of land and therefore became richer because of the amount of land they owned, amount of sugar they produced and the amount of slaves they had. (Doc. 7) Williams shows us that rich Englishmen liked getting richer and they used their plantations to attain this goal. The second driving force behind the sugar trade was the amount of slaves that were needed in order to produce these mass amounts of sugar. Men, and  women, and possibly children, were forced into the field to work or into the boiling-house. (Doc. 8) Clark and Bridgens illustrated that the British didn’t care what age or gender you were, you still went out and made sugar each and every day. Slaves didn’t come cheap though, at least not in British Caribbean. In 1748, slaves cost â‚ ¬32 in the British Caribbean whereas they only cost â‚ ¬14 on the West African coast. (Doc. 9) This indicates that the British Caribbean wanted to give the buyers a run for their money, whereas the African coast didn’t know better, this was all new to them. As the amount of slaves someone owned went up, so did the amount of sugar that was produced, unless you were the French in 1789, where they somehow actually lost tons. (Doc. 10) The British were probably more efficient in producing crops than the French and it resulted in them being the biggest sugar trader in the Caribbean. The need for slaves was so imperative that the British would trade thing that weren’t even theirs in order to make sure they had slaves. (Doc. 11) Campbell displays the variety of thing that the Brits would trade, such as powder, bullets, tobacco-pipes, certain toys, and some East India goods, but in the end, nothing was their own. The third force behind the sugar trade was the demand. Everywhere you looked, there were people using sugar for something. Whether it be tea, or rum, people had to have sugar. They would have a large barrel that weighed between 700 and 1200 pounds filled with sugar and people would go insane trying to get it. (Doc. 3) Parris illustrates this to us and Moseley says that the increasing demand for sugar exceeded all comparison with other articles, meaning sugar was the number one thing that Brits of the 1600s and 1700s wanted more than life itself. The UK, and most of the rest of the world, has used sugar to put in tea, which has made tea the most important nonalcoholic drink ever. (Doc. 4) Sugar was and is still a big deal, not only in England, but also in the US; ask ten people and see how many of them drink tea or coffee with sugar in it. By 1770, the population was well above eight million, and the consumption was up to 16.2 pounds. (Doc. 5) That basically says that all the Brits were drinking two pounds of sugar a year! They even set up a parliament that set up a trading system that said Brits made materials into finished goods, such as pots and pans, and then merchants would go and sell it at high prices in England and other  countries, which meant more money came in than went out. (Doc. 12) This meant that they could use the money that came in to buy more sugar or slaves to make sugar. Although there were many forces driving the sugar trade, what mainly drove it were the ideal land masses for sugar production, the amount of slaves needed, and the demand for it. One beneficial factor to this DBQ would have been more information on the French because it’s know that they were also planting and growing sugar, but we don’t hear their success story, as they did pass Britain in the top sugar producer in 1740.

Role of Zinc in Physical Growth and Cognitive Development

Role of Zinc in Physical Growth and Cognitive Development Summary The study covered 2 to 3 year old children in Laguna, Philippines. The study was conducted for the following purposes: to determine the zinc status and its relationship to physical growth and cognitive development; to describe the socio-economic and demographic characteristics, water and sanitation practices, health services, and child care and feeding practices of mothers; to evaluate the food intake and nutrient adequacy; to assess the nutritional status, zinc status and iron status; to determine the level of cognitive development; and to examine the association of zinc status with water and sanitation practices, health services, child care and feeding practices, nutritional status, iron status, and cognitive development. Socio-economic and demographic characteristics revealed that more than half of the households were located in lowland areas. Majority were living in single houses. Some owned the house and inherited the lot from parent. In terms of house materials, most roofs and external walls were made from galvanized iron and concrete/brick/stone. More than one-third of the households have floorings cemented with tiles/linoleum. The main source of electricity was MERALCO in which more than half have their own electric meter. LPG was their major source of fuel for cooking. Further, few households have small holding with agricultural animals like cattle, chicken, ducks, horses and milk cows. Of the households, 69% have 3 to 5 members in the family and 38.5% have children 12 years old and below. In terms of household income, the monthly income ranges from Php1, 000.00 to Php67, 200.00 with a mean monthly income of Php7, 762.00. In general, 57.7% of households were below poverty threshold. The age of mothers ranged from 19 to 58 years old. With a mean age of 29.9 years, more than one-third of the mother-respondents were between 25 to 29 years old. Nearly 3% and 25% were below 20 years and beyond 35 years of age, respectively. In terms of education attainment, majority of mother-respondents either reached high school or graduated from high school. Probably because of lack of education, majority of them have no occupation. Majority of the mothers were married. With regards to religion, most mothers were Roman Catholic. There were more children in district 2 who participated in the study probably because of higher number of children in the area. More than half were 31 to 35 months of age and were female. Some of them belong as the second child in the family. Moreover, 30.2% of the mothers remembered the birth weight of their children based from recall and as recorded in the child’s birth certificate. Only 4% of children were born with low weight. More than one-third of the households have main source of and access to drinking water from the community water system. More than half of the mothers stockpiled water in plastic containers with cover for less than 5 days which can reduce the risk of water storage from being contaminated. Perhaps having an access to sufficient quality and quantity of safe water for consumption, nearly one-third of the mothers do not to store water for drinking. Majority of the mothers spent amount of time obtaining water from water sites that could have been dedicated to other activities like child care. In terms of toilet facilities, almost all households have their own water-sealed latrines however 30.9% of them shared their toilets with other households. In relation to garbage disposal and segregation, most of the households have their garbage collected and carried out proper waste segregation possibly because of the garbage collection system being implemented in the province. In terms of health conditions, almost 70% of the children have been sick for the last 30 days. The most common type of illness experienced was Upper Respiratory Tract Infection such as cough, cold and pneumonia. Parasitism was one of the existing health illnesses among children but majority of them were not yet dewormed. Among children who had suffered from illnesses, 85.9% of the mothers sought for medical help probably because of better access to health centers. In terms of infection, only 12.1% of children were tested positive with infection. Male children were more at risk to infection than female counterparts. With regards to health services, 48.3% of children were not fully immunized, 20.1% received iron syrups and 79.2% received Vitamin A supplementation. More than half of the mothers brought their children to health centers when suffering from diarrhea and nearly 30% of children were provided with Oral Rehydration Solution (ORS). In terms of participation in nutrition educati on classes, only 32.2% of the mothers were attending. In addition, 65.1% of the households were involved in different government nutrition programs food fortification, food assistance, community food production and livelihood programs. Relative to child care and feeding practices, most of the mothers were the main source of physical and emotional care of the children. In her absence, 31.6% of grandmothers took responsibility by feeding the child, bathing the child and baby-sitting. All mothers claimed that they frequently talk, praise, kiss/hug/show affection, play, and tell stories with their children. During meals, majority of the mothers help, encourage and motivate the children to eat as well as they maintain eye to eye contact and minimize distractions if children lose interest easily. Similarly, most of the mothers put their children to sleep and take care of them when they wake up at night. In terms of the children’s personal hygiene, more than half of them have their own utensils. Majority of children’s hands and face were being washed before eating and after toileting. Of the mothers, almost all wash their hands after toileting the child. In relation to the cleanliness of environment, most of the mothers made sure that their children do not eat food picked up from the ground, do not eat food touched by animals and keep their children away from animal excrement. Moreover, most of the mothers exclusively breastfed their children; initiated breastfeeding within the first hour of life; and gave colostrum during infancy. Nearly half of the children were introduced with solid foods at six months. Most of the children were continued being breastfed by mothers even when they have been given solid food. As children grow old, almost all mothers said they increase their children’s quantity of food, frequency of feeding, consistency of food, and number of food given to them. Moreover, nearly all mothers experiment food combinations, tastes and textures for their children. Similarly, majority of the mothers feed their children during illnesses and recovery. In reference from the scoring system developed for the study, results show that child care and feeding practices of the mothers were excellent which may be attributed to participation in health and nutrition education activities conducted in every barangay. Feeding problems were being encountered among children. Majority of the children accept very limited number of food and reject other food thus they eat food of the same nutrients. Most of them tend to linger with their food during mealtime. More than half eat more than what they need. Conversely, a few of them felt like vomiting especially when fed with coarse foods and some asserted independence in choosing the taste of food. The mean 2-day total food intake of children weighed 1126.2 grams. The two food items considered as the most important in children’s diet were rice and rice products, and whole milk. Overall, majority of the children had energy intake of 100% or more and protein intake of 80% or more. More than 80% of children were able to meet the EAR for Fe and 79.2% for Zn. Thus, no elevated risk of zinc deficiency was found among children based on zinc intake. In terms of supplementation, results show that 47% of children were given with vitamin supplements. Based from the three anthropometric indices, weight-for-age showed that 81.2% of the children had normal weight-for-age while 18.8% suffered from acute malnutrition. Disaggregating by gender, females were more at-risk to acute malnutrition than males. Height-for-age revealed that 33.5% of children were stunted while 66.4% of children had normal height-for-age. The distribution of height-for-age by gender revealed that males had higher prevalence at 19.5% than females. Weight-for-height presented that 3.4% of children had low weight-for-height. Majority had normal weight-for-height while 1.3% was overweight-for-height. Considering the weight-for-height distribution by gender, the current nutritional status of children revealed that 45.6% and 49.7% males and females, respectively, had normal weight-for-height. In terms of biochemical indices, the overall zinc deficiency prevalence was 2%, which considered as low public health significance. The mean serum zinc level in children was 123. 13Â µg/dL. Both gender had the same mean serum zinc, but female children were found at risk to zinc deficiency. The overall anemia prevalence rate was 12.1% and considered as moderate public health significance. The mean hemoglobin level of children was 11.95 g/dL. Mean hemoglobin level and prevalence was higher among female children than male. Only 12.1% of children were tested positive with infection. Male children were at risk to infection than female counterparts. Assessment of cognitive development showed that the average cognitive scaled score was 9.72 points. Disaggregated by age in months, 31 to 35 month old children had the highest average cognitive scaled scores. In general, 27.5% of children were delayed in overall development, from which 12.1% had significant delay while 26.2% were advanced in their overall development from which 1.3% was significantly advanced. Correlation analysis revealed that significant associations were found in water and sanitation practices, health services, infection, food intake, nutritional status and cognitive development. No association was found between child care practices and nutritional status. Using the regression model, the study showed contributory factors that zinc status were energy intake, iron intake, zinc intake, height-for-age, cognitive development and infection. Conclusions The study imparted some knowledge and understanding on the association of zinc status, physical growth, other biochemical indices and cognitive development. It provided evidences on the association of zinc status with water and sanitation practices, infection and health services, child care and feeding practices, food intake, physical growth, iron status and cognitive development. The study found factors that were associated with nutritional status of children. Water and sanitation practices of the households and the mothers like sources of water, storage of water, garbage disposal and waste segregation as well as health services extended to children were associated with nutritional status. In the same manner, infection, food intake and cognitive development were associated with nutritional status. Similarly, weight-for-age, height-for-age and weight-for-height were associated with zinc status, iron status and cognitive development. Associations were found in zinc status, iron status and cognitive development and between iron status and cognitive development, as well. Regression model showed the contributory factors that may affect zinc deficiency. Children with adequate intake of energy, zinc and iron were less likely to become zinc deficient. Similarly, zinc deficiency was less likely to occur among children with normal height for their age and who have an average cognitive development. Conversely, zinc deficiency was higher in children with infection. Recommendations With the assessment of zinc status and its relationship with physical growth and cognitive development, it is recommended that in the achievement of optimum nutritional status of 2 to 3 year old children, food intake should be improved early in life. Nutrition counselling among mothers on Infant and Young Child Feeding should be implemented to promote breastfeeding; the importance of early initiation of breastfeeding and timely introduction of complementary feeding; and its effect on infant growth and survival. Considering the new child growth standards, promotion of breastfeeding and improvement of appropriate complementary feeding are important due to its effects on morbidity, feeding patterns and growth outcomes beyond infancy. Similarly, exclusively breastfed infants of mothers with adequate zinc nutriture can provide their zinc requirements up to 5 to 6 months in life. However, after 6 months of age, breastmilk alone cannot supply sufficient zinc to meet infant’s needs. S o, delayed introduction of complementary foods until after 6 months of age, or inadequate amounts of absorbable zinc in complementary foods increased the risk of zinc deficiency. Therefore, ensure messages on zinc that presented to have associations with stunting and cognitive development. These nutritional outcomes are important in the overall growth and development of children. Because stunting is irreversible after 36 months of age, interventions on pregnant women and young children, particularly those under 24 months of age, should be given attention. Supplementary feeding interventions beyond 36 months of age would not reduce stunting, as rapid weight gain in later childhood is associated with adverse long-term outcomes. A preventive strategy of behavioural change communication for mothers and food supplementation for all 6 to 23 month old children should be targeted in conjunction with the content and timing of present nutrition interventions. In the Philippines, zinc supplementation is provided for the treatment of diarrhea. The study had recognized that zinc delivery intervention such as supplementation improves zinc status, physical growth and cognitive development, as well as documented in the Lancet Series 2013. Health service providers should examine the existing policies on micronutrient supplementation and consider if zinc supplementation could be integrated in the program. Mothers’ participation in health and nutrition services and programs improved the nutritional status of children. Thus, the local health units and health service providers should encourage the participation of the mothers in all health services such as immunization, deworming and micronutrient supplementation. The implementation of micronutrient supplementation should be properly strategized and improved. Health service providers should be more competent and more responsive. Supplies should be continuously available. Health information system should be more efficient and client care should be organized. Government programs should be intensified as these contribute to the improvement of nutritional status. Proper targeting of households and individuals should be designed especially when resources are inadequate. Moreover, nutrition programs should be periodically monitored to review the information, implementation and coverage and use for comparison with the implementation plans. Similarly, programs should be systematically and objectively evaluated to measure the relevance, efficiency and cost-effectiveness; to determine if needs and results have been or are being achieved, and to analyze the details for any discrepancy.

Music File-Sharing- Right or Wrong? Essay -- Internet File Sharing Ess

Music File-Sharing- Right or Wrong? To file share or not to file share? That is the question. Should free music off the internet be legal? Who is in the right- Napster or the music industry? There are some of the topics I hoped to discuss when I invited four journalists to my house to debate the controversial issue of online music. Ding-dong! â€Å"Uh-oh†, I think, wiping my hands on a paper towel. â€Å"They must be here early.† It’s six-thirty, my guests aren’t due to arrive until seven, and I am already a half-hour behind. The lobsters are still boiling on the stove, the chunky potatoes are rock-hard and my spinach salad lies in pieces all over the kitchen floor. Things aren’t off to such a good start. I am supposed to be hosting a small, informal discussion tonight with a few journalists. The topic of the forum concerns the recent legal uproar about online music organizations such as Napster, Morpheus and Kazaa. I have invited a variety of people; some of whom have clashing opinions. I am looking forward to a heated and intellectual discussion; which will be good because I am planning on writing a book on the subject of online music. I haven’t decided yet whose side I am on; the music industry or the internet music providers. Hopefully, tonight’s discussion will provide me with some insight as to which side to stand on. Or maybe, I won’t have to choose a side†¦who knows? As I walk to the front door, I can’t help but feel just a little bit anxious, but excited at the same time. â€Å"I wonder who it is†¦who had the nerve to be fifteen minutes early?† I think to myself. I open the great oak door to find Tobey Grumet, a journalist from Popular Mechanics magazine. â€Å"How’s it going?† he asks casually as he ... ... on the issue of online file-sharing. Each of them had to take an opinion on the subject because it is part of their job. And, for the most part, I don’t believe there was any kind of prior incentive to their taking one side or the other. Each of them has an extensive technological background and I think they looked at the issue pretty objectively. I learned a lot about online music from this project. I never realized what an important part of the technology community it plays. It is fun to download free music, rate it, and perhaps even discuss it with fellow music lovers. And it is convenient and thrifty to be able to check out albums before you decide to buy them. My final decision is that online music is a positive aspect of the internet that I hope, somehow, will continue to remain free and entertain music lovers through the means of the internet.

The Concept of Love in Ovids Metamorphoses :: Ovid Metamorphoses Essays

The Concept of Love in Ovid's Metamorphoses In Ovid's Metamorphoses, the concept of love seems to vary from character to character. In one case, a god in the form of a man desperately seeks a particular woman and refuses to relent until he has her. In another instance, a female goddess cares deeply for a man and goes to great lengths to protect him from danger. In yet another case, both who are arranged to be married seem indifferent about the matter. This anti-epic certainly does not follow the adventurous theme of the epic. There is no protagonist hero to focus on unless you visualize the god's prey as the hero in his/her escape. The assembled writings seem to be more of a recording of the misdeeds of the gods. It appears that Ovid wanted to write about the desires of gods and people instead of a great adventure. Ovid's work ridicules the concept of marriage and harmony between the sexes. It paints men and women as individual creatures who have little desire of joining with the opposite sex. The male gods are impelled by Cupid's power to chase certain female characters. Of course, the female characters are not interested and choose to evade capture so that they may continue with their individual desires. When the female god Venus falls for a human male and lays with him, she goes to great lengths to protect him from the wild animals. She specifically tells him to be bold "when you approach the timid animals, those who are quick to flee: but do not be audacious when you face courageous beasts" (Ovid 936). The man Adonis chose not to heed the god's warning and went on to hunt a wild boar with the aid of his hounds. The boar that Venus despised killed the human that she lusted after. This is another example of individual wants taking precedence over the joined couple. Pygmalion was so much of an individualist that he created his own mate from ivory. The Concept of Love in Ovid's Metamorphoses :: Ovid Metamorphoses Essays The Concept of Love in Ovid's Metamorphoses In Ovid's Metamorphoses, the concept of love seems to vary from character to character. In one case, a god in the form of a man desperately seeks a particular woman and refuses to relent until he has her. In another instance, a female goddess cares deeply for a man and goes to great lengths to protect him from danger. In yet another case, both who are arranged to be married seem indifferent about the matter. This anti-epic certainly does not follow the adventurous theme of the epic. There is no protagonist hero to focus on unless you visualize the god's prey as the hero in his/her escape. The assembled writings seem to be more of a recording of the misdeeds of the gods. It appears that Ovid wanted to write about the desires of gods and people instead of a great adventure. Ovid's work ridicules the concept of marriage and harmony between the sexes. It paints men and women as individual creatures who have little desire of joining with the opposite sex. The male gods are impelled by Cupid's power to chase certain female characters. Of course, the female characters are not interested and choose to evade capture so that they may continue with their individual desires. When the female god Venus falls for a human male and lays with him, she goes to great lengths to protect him from the wild animals. She specifically tells him to be bold "when you approach the timid animals, those who are quick to flee: but do not be audacious when you face courageous beasts" (Ovid 936). The man Adonis chose not to heed the god's warning and went on to hunt a wild boar with the aid of his hounds. The boar that Venus despised killed the human that she lusted after. This is another example of individual wants taking precedence over the joined couple. Pygmalion was so much of an individualist that he created his own mate from ivory.

the bell jar :: essays research papers

The book â€Å"The Bell Jar† by Silvia Plath was different from other books assigned through-out my time at high school. Most of the other books, including for example â€Å"Of Mice and Men†, Lord of the Flies†, and â€Å"The Heart of darkness† were stories about mostly men and how they all turned against each other in some way and acted like animals instead of humans, and in the end of all of them someone dies. The book â€Å"The Bell Jar† though is without a doubt my favorite so far because it is about a female and about all the pressures of everyday life that run through her head. This is something that I can relate to because I too think about some of these same worries such a as virginity, looks, and morals to name a few. I am claiming that the theme or the meaning of this book is that in order to stay sane in this world, you can’t let the pressures and worries run your actions and decisions and your life or else you will not be able to function. I feel that this is what happened to Esther. I think that these pressures to Esther are what set her over the edge and made her think the way that she did and made her think that something was wrong with her.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Sylvia Plath portrayed a lot of meaning in this book. The main idea and meaning that she, as a writer, was trying to portray to the reader, is to understand how the worries, burdens, and pressures of being a young, mature adult are enough to put someone, like Esther in a depression so deep that it gives the illusion to the reader that she is insane and not in touch with reality. I believe that it is a matter of her being depressed and not of her being insane because of all that is on her mind she cant think clearly which makes her seem insane because if the strange things that she talks of such as not being able to sleep or eat, or even write. I think that the author did a very good job of making her seem depressed to the point of â€Å"insanity† because of how she Esther feel like she wasn’t sleeping when really she was sleeping for hours upon hours when she was put into the institutions. At an earlier

Belonging – Romulus My Father

Belonging is a paradoxical concept illustrating an individual’s sense of inclusions and exclusion simultaneously. This is evident in Raimond Gaita’s memoir Romulus My father as the individuals Romulus, Raimond and Christine experience the dynamic changes evident in the concept of belong to place, society and community. Armin Greder also explores the fluid and dynamic nature of belonging through his picture book ‘The Island’ through the isolation of the protagonist within the confinements of the island. The inclusion or exclusion from a community is shaped by human prejudices and tolerances. The biographical examination of Romulus’ life with in the text RMF, illustrates his rejection and acceptance within the community of Baringhup. Romulus’ immigrant status shows the division between the new immigrants and the Australians, as the immigrants are forced into a camp. This camp offered shelter and food, though it also offered an opportunity for belonging through shared experiences and cultures, â€Å"He asked the man who greeted new arrivals whether there were any other Romanians†¦ He sought them out and they quickly greeted. Although unaccepted by the Australians, Romulus is able to find other immigrants who he is able to connect with and form relationships, creating a family society between them. Through Romulus’ adoption of the Australian name â€Å"Jack† he attempts to connect to the social milieu of Baringhup though impeded by his unfamiliar morals and values which are not accepted by the Australian community. The strong prejudices of the Australian community are evident in the event of the fire, when Romulus attempts to scare the snake out of the grass through setting alight of the grass. This event causes the exclusion of Romulus in the community â€Å"responding with the instinct of an immigrant†¦ he set fire to the stook†¦Ã¢â‚¬  showing the intolerance of the community and emphasising the belief that he (Romulus) will never be accepted in the Australian community. Yet through Romulus’ contribution to the community through his ironwork and hardworking mentality he is able to be accepted into the community, evidently showing the inconsistent nature of belonging. Similarly, Armin Grader’s picture book â€Å"The Island’ is a metaphorical account of the way prejudices and fear create artificial barriers between people, which are used to exclude others to ensure protection. Shown his lack of clothing the protagonist is identified as foreigner on the island. Through the 4 panelled images we see the foreigner attempt integrating into society by performing civilised jobs, such cooking, carpentry, and singing in the local church. Though in each of these images the man is portrayed in an obscure manner, such as a devil in the choir, showing his exclusion of the individual while performing average tasks of the community, illustrating how belonging to self, controls an individual’s sense of belonging to society, and emphasising the fluid nature of belonging. Due to the social convention the community on the island and the fear evoked by the foreigner, the islanders construct a wall. This wall symbolises the islander’s sense of inclusion to each other as a community and a group which protects and supports each other. It also prevents the islanders from receiving the resources from the ocean, which is one of the main sources of the island livelihood. This artificial wall acts as a barrier to the islands inclusions with the outer world, yet allows the sense of belonging within the confinements of the wall to strengthen. This symbolic use of the wall, illustrates the paradoxical concept of belonging and the dynamic changes within the concept. An individuals belonging to society and community is only achieved through a sense of belong to place. Throughout the memoir, Gaita utilises the surrounding environment as a vehicle to explore the concept of Romulus’ and Raimond’s belonging to the community. â€Å"He longed for the generous and soft European foliage, but the eucalypts of Baringhup†¦ seemed symbols of deprivation and bareness. The negative emotive language shows the negative feelings Romulus has towards the Australian landscape illustrating his lack of connection to the land, thus the lack of connection to the community. In contrast although Raimond is positioned as an outcast by Tom Lillie because of his un-Australian like action, Raimond is able to achieve a connection to the land through his lyrical description of the landscape â€Å"The scraggy shapes and sparse foliage a ctually became the foci for my sense of its beauty and everything else fell into place. This connection allows Raimond to feel a sense of inclusion within the community as they share a common love for the land. The dwelling at Frogmore served to shape Raimond’s sense of belonging by providing place in which his relationship which his father could grow and develop, it also provided him with a constant place where he knew he could feel accepted. Although to Christina the residence at Frogmore becomes a symbol of her unacceptance to the family society â€Å"she could not settle in a dilapidated farmhouse in a landscape that highlighted her isolation. She longed for company† The negative connotations surround the words dilapidated and isolated reinforce the misery that Frogmore and emphasis he disconnection to place, in the one location where she should belong, exemplifying how the ideal of belonging is fluid and dynamic. It is the essence of place that the islanders attempt to maintain during Armin Greder’s text The Island. The close knit community of the island are fearful when the foreigner lands on the shore of their land. Through the singular sentence on the first page â€Å"He wasn’t like them† it is evident that he foreigner was challenging their sense of identity. Through the silent image of the rough sea the foreigners isolation is emphasised. Shown through the protagonist’s lack of clothing the man’s disconnection to the land, his skeletal frame contrasted to the large well-nourished men of the island, emphasis his non-belonging and questions the islander’s fears towards the weak man. The challenge of their land over humanity ultimately results in the men, killing one of their own and sending the foreigner back into the ocean. This illustrates the negative effects of belonging and non-belong, and stress’s the paradoxical nature of belonging as the islanders belong to the community yet excluded themselves from the sea illustrating a consequence of belonging to community is loss of place. Within both texts RMF and The Island, Gaita and Greder present the concept of belonging as of a fluid and dynamic nature. This paradoxical nature of belonging illustrates an individual’s sense of inclusion and/or exclusion simultaneously, as the protagonists are faced with the challenge of not belonging within a society yet conflicted by the sense of belonging to place concurrently, evidently showing the concept of belonging within place, society and community.

Digital Life – How Technology Has Changed Us

Digital Life Every day people are hit constantly by a bombardment of online media. It used to be that people would see billboards, TV commercials and magazine, but with advancement of technology people remain wired into the internet 24/7. â€Å"Smartphones† are a great example of a device that promotes constant connections. It enables people to be connected to online media at all times. The effects that this constant connection has had on people in general are life changing.We can certainly agree that the lives of everyone who has access to these connections will change over time. The primary change that is happening in everyone’s life is the way we communicate with each other. Just 10 years ago cellphones were starting to become more and more popular. They evolved from big briefcase sized machines to something that can easily fit in your pocket. Even then though, calling someone was the primary way of communicating over distances. That has changed and is no longer the case.With advancements in Email, texting and social networking, they have all moved to a more popular position than making calls. Whether people need to relay small pieces of information or have a long conversation, texting and emails tend to be what they use. While this may not seem like a big deal to most people, one can argue that it is making the people that use this form of communication over calling or face to face interaction become stumped at interacting with people and sometimes have trouble communicating face to face at all.An interesting issue connected to this is that as a result of real life communications not being a primary skill, some people resort to purely online relationships. Particularly online gamers who play games like World of Warcraft or other Massive Multi-player Online games. These relationships range from simple friendships to as far as marriages which take part online entirely, but sometimes turns into something in the physical world. There have actually been many cases of people who met playing games online, then decided to meet in real life and ended up getting married.While the presence of online dating has been around for a while with sites like eHarmony, these sites still primarily run on face to face interactions and people have an idea of the interests and likes of the people they attempt to form relationships with. In the worlds of online gaming, one can argue that even though it is formed by two people, it is to a great extent mostly anonymous. On eHarmony you know what the other person looks like while in online games, you only know who the other person wants to look like.The person someone falls for online can be the exact opposite of what the other person believed they were getting into. All of this stems from the fact that some people who become to accustomed to the online world and online media turn out to have severe communication issues in the real world that causes them to turn to the people they interact with onli ne. Increasing the rate of socially inept people is not the only effect that the internet is having. Due to the massive daily usage of Social Networking websites people take part of everyday, a problem with narcissism is arising.The problem with this is that if people have problems with things like self image, they resort to these networks. Facebook promotes negative parts of the personality directly linked to disruptive forms of narcissism, which was promoted by a study done by Christopher Carpenter. The study stated that among other aspects that are promoted by online social networking, â€Å"a sense of deserving respect and a willingness to manipulate and take advantage of others† is highly promoted. Pearse 1) It is thus clear that there is various social problems that arise from online media, not just social ineptitude. While the previous drawbacks of the connected world were looking at the social sense, something occurs in the person that hurts their sense of being alone . Since people are constantly on their internet enabled devices, they lose a sense of the things around them. They forget about the beauty of nature, among other things. Since humans by nature seek companionship, they make the life altering choice to remain connected at all times.In doing so one loses the knowledge of the beauty of being alone outside. Like Sherry Turkle said on a radio interview â€Å"If you don't know how to be alone, you'll only always know how to be lonely. If you're always reaching for the device, the cell, the Facebook, the sharing, you lose that. † (Tippet 1) What she is trying to say is that because of our fear of loneliness, we remain connected to online media all the time thus losing our ability to embrace being alone and absorbing the wonders around you. Another huge change it has in our life is in the cognitive sense.When people need to know a bit of information they used to go to the library or find it in the newspaper among other sources. Over t ime it got to the point where it was as simple as â€Å"googling† for it. Currently it has gotten to the point where people rely on a small number of sources for information. The biggest one being â€Å"Wikipedia. org,† which is a free online encyclopedia that anyone can edit and is maintained by other people. While there used to be a process that makes you think and search for information through stacks of books and articles, today it is not as interactive as it was then.The result is a slump in many habits like studying and similar queries of knowledge and the increase in bad habits like laziness and reliability in sloppy sources. An undeniably great change that happens to people with constant online media is in the way they think. This relates to the changes in how people hunt information as well. Advertisement is probably the biggest part of online media. It is what fuels it as of the online world is funded through advertisement. While there is undoubtedly good pro ducts still in production today, it is not uncommon to see bad or unreliable products become successful.The reason for this is that people are bombarded by online advertisements so much more often now that they assume a product is the best if it has a huge advertising campaign. The more a product advertises, the more people it reaches and sells to. Thanks to companies like Google and Facebook, it has become easy for any company to reach millions of consumers ready to give their money away. Most consumers have the idea that they need to buy things to make them happy or more complete. This is implanted in them by the massive amounts of online media they face everyday.One of the issues with this is that many consumers do not bother to do research on products they buy. They simply buy them because they are popular or because they have been advertised heavily. The same way that people have gotten lazy at hunting down information and learning, they have also become susceptible to having t heir ideas and thoughts molded by big business advertisements. The presence of technology and online media can definitely make some people forget they are human, but only to an extent.If we connect some of the negatives the online world has brought along as it developed, we can see that some human qualities are lost as well, or at least weakened. Curiosity is one of the parts of humanity that is waned thanks to the internet. Due to information being readily available at the click of a mouse, the human desire to learn has lessened in many people. While they still go to school and get degrees, most people no longer absorb information around them or that available to them in libraries, for example.People don't take in stories and knowledge and hold them dear simply because if they are ever needed, they can be instantaneously looked up or downloaded. Another way that the internet can help people forget they are human is by allowing them to become anyone they want to be. This is a by lar ge the main reason people play video games. Online games allow people to become anyone they would ever want to be from a warrior to a hero. There is nothing to stop them from achieving what they want online except time, and so very much time goes into achieving their online goals.People become so immersed into their online persona that they completely forget about their real life responsibilities among other things they ignore. Not only do some people build marriages and friendships online, but in doing allow their online personas to become their main one. Their online lives become more important than their physical lives. It is undeniable that humans are now evolving alongside technology. The further that technology evolves, the easier it is for humans to stay wired into the internet. People can now be connected at all times so of course it will have an effect on how humans evolve.I believe humans will instinctively always know that they are only human. However this will have an ef fect in that more people will turn to the internet and online media to direct their lives, since many people believe others will know how to do things better, and seek out that wisdom online, but we run into a big issue here. We can already see how online media is making people multitask badly and how it severely decreases focus amongst many. Nicholas Carr speaks of a subject called Neuroplasticity which talks about how our brain is constantly changing and evolving.Due to online media, it is being trained to â€Å"take in information very, very quickly in a very interrupted, distracted way little bits of it come at us all the time. â€Å"(Carr 1) Therefore we are actually evolving in such a way that we are gradually losing focus. One can argue that over time, with the growth of online media, focus is the main skill that may be lost almost entirely. Nicholas Carr states in an Interview on PBS News Hour that the because the internet serves distractions at all times of the day, that our focus is the target of it. What we're losing is the ability to pay deep attention to one thing over a prolonged period of time. † (Carr 2) We are evolving away from deep thought, because information is so readily available, and it presents itself to us in in the form of hundreds of small distractions every day. With online media constantly distracting people with Facebook and Twitters, some researchers wondered what life would be like for a person that would be abruptly disconnected from this constant link to the web. A group of scientists decided to put this to the test on themselves.The scientists were all shocked at what happened on the third day of their experiment. Richtel, a journalist who followed the scientists on a vacation, stated that â€Å"You start to feel more relaxed. Maybe you sleep a little better. Maybe you don't reach for your phone pinging in your pocket. † (Digital 1) After just three days of being disconnected, the sense of extreme urgency that was causing the scientists to sleep less and constantly check their phone had faded away to a certain degree. It was obvious there, that there is something positive in disconnecting even if you do it just for a small amount of time.In conclusion, online media will constantly try to take our attention off other things, and this trend shows absolutely no sign of stopping. It has undeniable effects on peoples social lives as well as their minds and how they think. As was stated by people like Carr and Carpenter, it is not a good direction in which things are evolving. While these problems are constantly growing, very few things are being done to stop them and even fewer are successful. As long as this trend continues, the chance for people to turn it around and begin using their brains as they were used before gets lower with time.It is up to the people what powers they give to online media, but trends point to them gaining more steam. The choice to disconnect is completely in the han ds of the user, but users will most likely stay online. Works Cited Pearse, Damien. â€Å"Facebook's ‘dark Side': Study Finds Link to Socially Aggressive Narcissism. † The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 17 Mar. 2012. Web. 27 Mar. 2012. . â€Å"Nicholas Carr's: The Shallows. † PBS. Ed. Jeffrey Brown.PBS, 27 Aug. 2010. Web. 27 Mar. 2012. . Tippet, Krista. â€Å"On Being. † Transcript. American Public Media, 7 Apr. 2011. Web. 27 Mar. 2012. . â€Å"Digital Overload: Your Brain On Gadgets. † Npr. org. PBS, 24 Aug. 2010. Web. 27 Mar. 2012. .