Homelessness Paper Essay Example

Homelessness Paper Essay Example Homelessness Paper Essay Homelessness Paper Essay Homelessness is defined as â€Å"An Individual who lacks a fixed regular and adequate nighttime residence†, (Burt, 1989, p. 17). Have you ever stopped to wonder how many people are Homeless? Who are most at risk to fall into this situation? I highly doubt it. While most people really do not care and ignore homeless people, others look at them as motivation, people whom they do not want to become. Another question that comes to mind is, how do homeless people survive and what are their legal rights. What causes people to become Homeless is it a choice or a failure of society? Do homeless individual have the same perspective on life and show the same emotions as ordinary people do. What can we do to help stop homelessness? These are the topics that I will be briefly addressing in my paper. The study of homelessness for the past couple of years has been very complex and difficult to come by. From what I learned during this research, most of the statistics on homeless people are sometimes inaccurate. Researchers use different methods to measure homelessness. One method attempts to count all the people who are literally homeless on a given day or during a given week, this is called point-in-time counts. While the second method examines the number of people who are homeless over a given period of time, this is called (period prevalence counts). Point-in-time studies give a snap-shot picture of homelessness; they only count those individuals who are homeless at a particular time. Period prevalence addresses the problem of homelessness more accurately, because some of these people will eventually find housing and escape homelessness making it a temporary condition. There is another issue involved in counting the number of homeless people in America. Many homeless people will not be counted because they are not in places where researchers can find them. These groups of people are often referred to as â€Å"the unsheltered or hidden homeless†, (Burt, 1989 p. 18). These people stayed in automobiles (59. 2%), camp grounds, boxes, caves or boxcars (24. 6%). This would state that homeless counts would miss a vast majority of people and give false information. A perfect example of this would be Sociologist Peter Rossi who came under attack by the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, for having researched the homeless population far below the Coalition’s estimate. His response to this was â€Å"In the short term, good social research will often be greeted as a betrayal of one or another side to a particular controversy†, (Schaefer, 2004, p. 41). In a study made by the Urban Institute 2000, stated that approximately 3. 5 million people, 1. 35 of which were children are likely to experience homelessness in a given point in time. The homeless population is a diverse group. â€Å"Over the past year, over 3 million men, women and children were homeless†, (nlchp. org, p. 1). When I first looked at the number I could not believe my eyes, but in fact they were real. Among the homeless, 41% are single men, 14% are single women, 5% are unaccompanied children, 40% are families with children, 67% are single parent families, 23% mentally disabled, 10% veterans, 50% African Americans, 35% White, 12% Hispanic, 2% Native Americans and the list goes on. In many cases a person does not choose to be homeless, it is the decisions that they make throughout life or unpleasant situations that lead to becoming homeless. An example I can share would be a relative of mine who experienced being homeless at a very young age. My dear cousin, who is now 22, was forced to leave her household at the age of 13 with her mother. She begins by telling me that, it all started when her parents got divorced. She stated that â€Å"I felt lonely and scared, even though I had my mother I was not used to living or sleeping outside of my household†, (Machado, 2005). Since her mother could not support themselves financially, she started to fall behind on her various bills. This eventually led to losing their house and having to live in homeless shelters. To make a long story short, this would be an example of choosing whether to stay homeless or blaming society for what has happened. Over time they turned their lives around and were able to obtain a small yet comfortable apartment where she lived with her mother. When my cousin told me all that she went through I felt sorry for what had happened, but she said â€Å"It was an experience that I do not wish upon anyone, but it also made me appreciate all the little things that I did not have when I was in the shelter†, (Machado, 2005). This goes to show you that it can happen to anyone, but it becomes an individual’s choice whether to get out of it or simply stay homeless. For the most part I believe that children are most at risk of becoming homeless. An adult man or woman can manage being homeless out in the streets. This would not be the case if it were a child, because a child can not make decisions or have any notion of survival skills. Homeless people are often found in various places. Some of these places include libraries, shelters, soup kitchens, public health clinics, park benches, bus stations and etc. These are just a few of the places that we know of. The Average cost for a night of lodging in a crisis shelter including all services is $19. Costs are slightly lower per night in shelters with a bed capacity of 51 or more and higher in smaller shelters bed capacity of 50 or less. Homeless people often use Federal Programs such as McKinney-Vento Education, Health Care for the Homeless or Emergency Food Shelter Grants. This is how they survive out in society. The U. S. Department of Housing and Urban Development gave an estimate in 1984 of â€Å"111,000 persons can be housed in emergency shelters nationwide on any given night†, (Caton, 1990, p. 111). Some shelters however have restrictions were they do not allow single adult women, women and children and single adult men. This is primarily due to communal sleeping and bath accommodations and inadequate staff to monitor a two sex situation. Another program that I looked into was Halfway Houses, where residents are supervised by psychiatrists and other medical and support services. Residents typically work outside of the home during the day and share meals and other household chores. These programs however are for those homeless people whom have mental-illnesses that can not survive out in the normal world without some type of medication. Panhandling is very common in the streets; this would be the act of begging for money out on the corners of streets. Homeless people unlike us have to look for these resources for survival, if they did not exist they would either die of hunger or people would mostly likely kill them. You would think the homeless people do not have rights but in actuality they do. An example of this entails food stamp programs, unlike ordinary people when applying for this, homeless people do not need permanent addresses. They are entitled to purchase their own food when living in shelters that do not supply them with cooking. What causes people to become homeless? There are many factors involved in answering this questioning. One question that I ask my self is, Homelessness is it a choice or a failure of society. The Lack of Affordable Housing leads to Homelessness in most cases. An individual working full time, â€Å"Has to earn an average of $15. 21/hour to be able to afford rent for a modest two-bedroom home†, (NLCHP, 2004). Another problem surrounding the homeless is that there are not enough resources made available to help them. There are more homeless people in the United Stated than there are shelters. Another factor involves drugs, alcohol and mental health problems. Most homeless people that you find either have a drug and alcohol addiction or have some type of mental illness. In this cases rehabilitation or medical procedures have to take place in order to help this individuals out. There are other issues involved in becoming homeless, such as abuse, neglect and adults getting divorced. Like in my cousin’s case, whose father divorced her mother, which ultimately led to them becoming homeless. In my opinion homelessness is caused by society and choices that homeless individuals make during their life. I say this because in doing my research, there are many programs and federal aid made available to homeless people. Now if you do not care about the situation that you are in and wish to stay the way that you are, than you ignore all these possibilities and continue on with your bad streak. On the other hand if you do wish to get out, then all it takes is time and effort from your part. Now from my perspective, I could not begin to imagine how it would feel to be alone and homeless. I have gotten so use to having a household and all the conveniences that it has become second nature to me. An ordinary person, (by this I mean someone who is financially stable) has different views on life than a homeless person would have. An Ordinary person wakes up in the morning thinking about work, family, money, food and etc. While this is similar to a homeless person’s thoughts, an ordinary person does not have to beg for money since they obtain a job. They have no need to search for remains in a dumpster to feed themselves, because they can easily go to a restaurant and buy something. It is horrible to have to wake up everyday under a bridge or under a card board box knowing that it might be your last. This is why you will see homeless individuals develop a drug addiction, alcoholism and sometimes even go mentally insane. There are many ways that we can help to eradicate homeless people or homelessness all together. One way is to get to know some homeless people. Most times what makes this difficult is the fear homeless people stir up in us. As odd as it might sound, these fears make it important for us to get to know some homeless people before trying to do anything helpful. You might want to start of by volunteering at soup kitchens, shelters, or public health clinics. These are all great places to meet individuals who might need your company or help. Another approach would be to stop portraying the homeless as â€Å"victims†. The problem with this is that seeing people as victims can dehumanize them and make them seem too different from yourself. This kind of perception faintly stimulates the breakdown of human community because for all of its intended sympathy, it divides humanity in classes of â€Å"them† versus â€Å"us†. Homeless people are often the victims of forces they do not control, such as the cost of housing versus take-home pay or a factory closing. As long as you know you have some other options, you are not yet impoverished. We can help these individuals by listening to them and working on their strengths, instead of their weaknesses. Theses are just two of the many ways to try and help out homeless people. There exist others but to go through each and every one of them would involve a whole different paper. Instead of seeing these people as a problem to be solved, I believe everyone should do their part in helping out homelessness. In doing my research I learned many interesting concepts about homelessness that I was not aware of. Most homeless people do not have a choice to become homeless; it is a situation that arises in their lives that can not be stopped. In most cases it is a matter of cost of housing versus take home pay or financial set backs that people have. Although there are many federal government aids, the homeless population is too vast for their help. The choice is yours whether to get out of the slump that you are in or stay the way that you are, miserable and lonely. If you wish to help out the homeless you can do so by volunteering at soup kitchens, shelters or hospitals. Try not to judge them by the way they look, instead observe and listen to what they have to say and learn from it. 1. Temple, Gray (1991). 52 Ways to Help Homeless People, USA : Thomas Nelson Publishers a. Several Different ways to help out the homeless. Ways of getting to know them as people and not as a stereotype. Solutions for the eradication of homelessness 2. Burt, Martha (1989). America’s Homeless, Washington DC: Urban Institute Press a. The different causes of homelessness in America and various solutions. Explanations why people become homeless and who are most at risk of falling into this situation. 3. Caton, Carol L. (1990). Homeless in America, New York : Oxford University Press a. Statistics, surveys, and research by different organizations on how many homeless individuals do exist out in America 4. WWW. NLCHP. ORG a. Various federal and government programs that exist to help out homeless individuals. 5. Schaefer, Richard (2004). Sociology A Brief Introduction, New York: Mc-Graw Hill a. Psychological point of view on how homeless people are viewed by others not in their same situation. 6. Interview Alma Machado, May 13, 2005 a. Personal experience and better perspective of what it is to become homeless. Ways of getting out of being homeless. 7. Groves, Martha. Proquest. 8 Sept. 2005 http://proquest. umi. com a. Discussion on how many Americans accept homelessness. Issues surrounding homelessness who are the most at risk. 8. Pascual, Cielito. Share-International. 13Sept. 2005 share-international. org a.

Two papers Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Two papers - Assignment Example Discrimination can be overcome by encouraging diversity and making it an unacceptable action. It should be discouraged in all interactions and instead promote cultural diversity as a better alternative to interact with others. 2. What are the potential challenges posed by differences in nonverbal communication when communicating across cultures or communicating interracially? Provide two examples of specific types of nonverbal communication and describe the challenges they pose. What potential solutions can you suggest for overcoming these challenges? One of the major challenges posed by differences in nonverbal communication when communicating across cultures is miscommunication. A certain action, body language or sign may be construed as something else by the recipient thereby resulting in misunderstanding. People must be aware of this differences to avoid any miscommunication. Non-verbal communication is very important in communication process because they comprise majority of the message. In a study by Zhijing Chen (2009), she reported that one of the findings of a study in communication conducted in the United States, 93 percent messages were transmitted through nonverbal behaviours while only 7% were transmitted through the explicit verbal language. This means that nonverbal communication is very important in communicating across cultures. Two classic examples is the V sign where the two fingers are protruded with the face palm out signifying peace or victory in the US and other cultures such as Philippines. The V sign however is taken differently in Indonesia where it just meant number two. Another glaring example is the pointing of finger where one will use his index finger to point at people or objects. This is harmless in the US and is used to identify people or objects. In Asia however, this could mean trouble because

Philosophy ( professional and business ethics) Essay

Philosophy ( professional and business ethics) - Essay Example Most likely, Bob is not only self centered but also materialistic in nature causing him to care very little about the benefits or positive aspects of â€Å"being good† or acting morally. One aspect of acting morally is how one is perceived by others. If Bob begins to act in a manner that appears moral and considerate of those around him, he is more likely to be trusted and liked. If Bob is trusted and liked, he will easily be able to convince others to do business with him or even help him out in a time of need, in the spirit of neighborly kinship. As an amoral person, Bob must feel the consequences of his actions in that others around him are repelled by him and avoid a great deal of contact with him. If Bob can be convinced that changing his attitude and actions will yield favorable results for him personally, he will most likely be conducive to such changes. The concept of â€Å"ought† or â€Å"should† may in fact be erroneous to Bob as the idea of what one should or should not do are subjective and void of scientific reason. Additionally, Bob is coming from a place of primal desire or concern as opposed to an ideology that doing the right thing is something that one should do in order to be a good person versus the motivation to do the right thing in order to perpetuate one’s own best interests. In theory, the latter of the two motivations, seems to in essence make the notion of Bob’s doing the right thing amoral because of the motivation behind those actions. This however, may be the only form of morality that Bob is willing to embrace and since it benefits those around him for him to act morally as opposed to amorally, it can be argued that regardless of Bob’s motivation for his moral actions, the actions themselves are moral due to their results all the way across the board. Additionally, if Bob can be convinced that his conversion to moral actions versus continuing in amoral actions will preserve his

Status of Women in India Essay Example for Free

Status of Women in India Essay in indiaâ€Å"When one boy is educated, one person will be wise. When one girl is educated entire family will be wise.† This is famous quote by girl education pioneer Mahatma Phule. This underlines the importance women in society. From the time of independence our constitution concentrated to give enough right for women. But the problem is that women are facing many problems in this modern age of gender equality. The structure of Indian society is different and unique than any other. Indian society believes in epics like Ramayana and Mahabharata more than anything else. Society wants that a woman should be like Sita the ideal Indian woman, who surrendered all her desires and followed Rama to the forest. Girls are brought up to follow the footsteps of Sita. In today’s modern world this expectation continues. A woman should go for work, earn money and must do house hold works also. Society expects that a woman should be like superwoman who can do everything. This is totally injustice for women. From the time of independence we as nation tried to create a society where women have equal rights as men. Our constitution, Government worked sincerely in that way. The Laws like The Hindu Marriage act (1955), The Hindu Succession Act (1956), The Dowry Prohibition Act (1961), The Maternity Benefit Act (1961), The Equal Remuneration Act (1976), The Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) act (1986) have paved the way for bringing about major positive changes in the lives of women. Despite of such constitutional weapons women are facing lot of problems like 1) Feticide: Feticide is the largest problem for today’s society. As technology developed, people are using it to kill girl fetus. Feticide is today’s biggest problem Indian society. Till 2001, there are only 933 female births per 1000 male birth. This is dangerous situation for the balance of society. In spite of act against girl child abortion people are finding escape for abortion. As of March 2001, the female population stands at 495.4 million out of total 1,028 million Indian populations. Thus, in the present population of 1.03 billion, there ought to be 528 million women. Instead, estimates show only 496 million women in the population today. This implies that there are some 32 million missing women in India. Some are never born, and the rest die because they do not have the opportunity to survive. Sex-ratio (number of female per 1,000 male) is an important indicator of womens status in the society. In 1901 there were 972 females per 1,000 males, while by 1971; the ratio has come down to 930 females per 1,000 males. In 1981 there has been only a nominal increase in the female sex ratio within 934 females to 1,000 males. There were only 926 females per 1000 males in India according to 1991 census. The 2001 census indicate that the trend has been slightly arrested with the sex ratio at 933 females per 1000 males, with Kerala at 1058 females. The sex ratio of the 0-6 age group has declined sharply from 945 in 1991 to 927 in 2001. According to UNFPA State of world population 2005, Punjab (793), Haryana (820), Delhi (865), Gujarat (878) and Himachal Pradesh (897) have worst child sex ratio. Facing this problem is not easy at all. We have to make families aware about the importance of girl child for the balance of society. 2) Harassment: Harassment is the common in country like India. Probably it is for the reason of Dowry. Police records for the country as a whole show that a woman is molested every 26 minutes. A rape occurs every 34 minutes. Every 42 minutes, an incident of sexual harassment takes place. A woman is kidnapped every 43 minutes. And every 93 minutes, a woman is killed. When a woman is harassed she doesn’t come for the complaint against it due to fear. She fears the disgrace in society and shuts her mouth. We have to provide fear free environment, so that a woman come for complaint and demand justice. 3) Lack of Health Awareness: As mother, family care taker a woman always ignores her own health and concentrates on the family health. This is age long habit of traditional Indian woman. As individual she must break this. Government as well as social wale fare communities must arrange proper health education and cheap health facilities for woman. 4)Woman Literacy: In 2001 the total literacy rate in India is 65.8. The woman literacy rate is 54.16 while male literacy rate is 75% this shows that woman literacy rate is low, In spite of many schemes for girl education. We have to make minds of girl child parent to send them school.These are the random problems and many are under curtains. The one perfect remedy is the proper implementation of laws and schemes for woman. Though significant improvements are have taken in the position of woman in the 50 years following independence, women continue to suffer from the problems like violence, illiteracy and ill health Together we have to work in the way of gender equality, woman wale fare so that a woman can live proudly as human being and not as servant nor as goddess.

Gregor Mendels Theories Of Genetic Inheritance :: essays research papers

Gregor Mendel's Theories of Genetic Inheritance Gregor Mendel played a huge role in the underlying principles of genetic inheritance. He grew up in a Augustinian brotherhood where he learned agricultural training with basic education. He then went on to the Olmutz Philisophical Institute and then entered the Augustinian Monestary in 1843. After 3 years of theological studies, Mendel went to the University of Vienna where he was influenced by 2 professors, the physicist Doppler and a botanist named Unger. Here he learned to study science through experimentation and aroused his interest in the causes of variation in plants. Then in 1857, Mendel began breeding garden peas in the abbey garen to study inheritance which lead to his law of Segregation and independent assortment.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Mendel's Law of Segregation stated that the members of a paror of homologous chromosomes segregate during meiosis and are distributed to different gametes. This hypothesis can be divided into four main ideas. The first idea is that alternative versions of genes account for variations in inherited characters. Different alleles will create different variations in inherited characters. The sescond idea is that for each character, an organism inherits two genes, one form each parent. So this means that a homolohous loci may have matching alleles, as in the true-breeding plants of Mendel's P generation(parental). If the alleles differ, then there will be F hybrids. The third idea states that if the two alleles differ, the receessive allele will have no affect on the organism's appearance. So a F hybrid plant that has purple flowers, the dominant allele will be the purple-color allele and the recessive allele would be the white-color allele.

Alice Walker Essay

This story is distinctive, however, in that Walker stresses not only the importance of language but also the destructive effects of its misuse. Clearly, Dee privileges language over silence, as she demonstrates in her determination to be educated and in the importance she places on her name. Rather than providing a medium for newfound awareness and for community, however, verbal skill equips Dee to oppress and manipulate others and to isolate herself; when she lived at home, she read to her sister and mother â€Å"without pity; forcing words, lies, other folks’ habits, whole lives upon us, sitting trapped and ignorant underneath her voice.† Mama recalls that Dee â€Å"washed us in a river of make-believe, burned us with a lot of knowledge we didn’t necessarily need to know. Pressed us to her with the serious way she read, to shove us away at just the moment, like dimwits, we seemed about to understand† (50). Dee uses words to wash, burn, press, and shove. We are told that the â€Å"nervous girls† and â€Å"furtive boys† whom she regarded as her friends â€Å"worshiped the well-turned phrase† and her â€Å"scalding humor that erupted like bubbles in lye† (51). It is not surprising, then, that Mama, mistrustful of language, expresses herself in the climactic scene of the story not through words but through deeds: she hugs Maggie to her, drags her in the room where Dee sits holding the quilts, snatches the quilts from Dee, and dumps them into Maggie’s lap. Only as an afterthought does she speak at all, telling Dee to â€Å"take one or two of the others.† Mama’s actions, not her words, silence the daughter who has, up to this point, used language to control others and separate herself from the community: Mama tells us that Dee turns and leaves the room â€Å"without a word† (59). In much of Walker’s work, a character’s dawning sense of self is represented not only by the acquisition of an individual voice but also through integration into a community. Mama’s new appreciation of Maggie is significant because it represents the establishment of a sisterhood between mother and daughter. Just before taking the quilts out of Dee’s hands, Mama tells us, â€Å"I did something I never had done before† (58). The â€Å"something† to which she refers is essentially two actions: Mama embraces Maggie and says â€Å"no† to Dee for the first time. Since we are told that she held Maggie when she was burned in the fire, and since Mama’s personality suggests that she would most likely hug her daughter often, she is of course referring not merely to the literal hug but to the first spiritual embrace, representing her decision no  longer to judge her younger daughter by the shallow standards Dee embodies–criteria that Mama has been using to measure both Maggie and herself up until the climax of the story. When Mama acts on Maggie’s behalf, she is responding to the largely nonverbal message that her younger daughter has been sending for some time, but which Mama herself has been unable fully to accept. Now Maggie and Mama are allied in their rejection of Dee’s attempts to devalue their lifestyle, and their new sense of community enables Maggie to smile â€Å"a real smile, not scared.† Significantly, the story ends with the two of them sitting in silence, â€Å"just enjoying, until it was time to go in the house and go to bed† (59). Ultimately, however. Mama has the last word: it is she, after all, who tells the story. Yet her control over the text is won gradually. Walker employs an unusual narrative structure to parallel Mama’s development as she strengthens her voice and moves toward community with Maggie. Rather than reporting the entire event in retrospect, Mama relates the first half of the story as it occurs, using present and future tenses up u ntil the moment Dee announces her new name. The commentary that Mama makes about herself and Maggie in the first portion of the story is therefore made before the awakening that she undergoes during the quilt episode–before she is able to reject completely Dee’s desire that she and Maggie be something that they are not. Prior to the encounter with Dee over the quilts, although Mama at times speaks sarcastically about Dee’s selfish attitude, she nonetheless dreams repeatedly of appearing on a television program â€Å"the way my daughter would want me to be: a hundred pounds lighter, my skin like an uncooked barley pancake,† wielding a â€Å"quick and witty tongue† (48). Mama’s distaste for Dee’s egotism is tempered by her desire to be respected by her daughter. In part, then, Mama has come to define herself in terms of her failure to meet the standards of what Lindsey Tucker calls a â€Å"basically white middle-class identity† (88)–the white-male-dominated system po rtrayed in the television show. When Mama holds up her own strengths next to those valued by Dee and the white Johnny Carson society, she sees herself as one poised always in a position of fear, â€Å"with one foot raised in flight† (49).

The Bond Between Women in Williams Shakespeares Literautre

Women have been often looked at as the one’s who use their words to fight and are quick to hold a grudge against other’s but this isn’t true if one looks at the friendship between women. Women hold their friendships close to their hearts and go through the best and worst of times together, it could also be the concept of how women need to stick together in order to survive. The bond between women is something that cannot be broken by any means and will last a lifetime, this is due to the heavy reliance on emotional connects that they share. Desdemona and Emilia in Othello, the Moor of Venice by William Shakespeare show this bond between women through Shakespeare’s use of foreshadowing. As Desdemona begins to realize her fate she tells her†¦show more content†¦Although some may think a friend is betraying them in a sense, they may actually helping them in the long run. In A Doll’s House by Henrik Ibsen, the characters Nora and Kristine under go such a situation and through foreshadowing Ibsen show’s this. After Nora does the unthinkable and forges a signature, her state of being is in danger due to Korgstad. Her whole reason behind it was to help her husband that she loved with all her heart, but when it all came down to the end she realised it was all for nothing. Torvald almost digs his grave when he tells her â€Å"That’s right, we’ll take it on together, Nora, as man and wife† (2.1584). He was setting up some kind of miracle for her that he would accept what she had done but when he didn’t she realised that she really didn’t even know him, let alone know herself. But what helped for Nora to truly get to this point of understand she needed to have a push from her friend Kristine, â€Å"This terrible secret has to come out. They have to have a complete understanding between them. it’s time for all this lying and pretending to stop† (3.1597). Kristine had realised just how unhappy Nora had become even if Nora herself didnt realise it, so she had to be the one to push Nora into figuring out for herself just how unhappy she really was. When Nora’s merical doesn’t come true and she finally gathers that the whole marriage was just her acting as Torvald’s doll and doing what he wanted of her, she finally saw that she