Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Mentoring Is A Nurturing Process Education Essay

My mentee was one of my collaborators and companion at school, who had less mature ages of learning experience than me. He instructs prevocational students who are of low capacity and are perceived as being inconvenient. Tutor demonstrated that they considered the capacity to gracefully troublesome judgment as basic to convey throughing the capacity of providing proficient help. ( Hall et al. , 2008 ) . Hence I was mindful that my relationship with my mentee was going to change from a well disposed to an expert 1. So as to keep the cordial connection among me and my mentee, I understood that I ought to non be exorbitantly prevailing since coaching exists just with regards to a synergistic relationship dependent on an association in which neither one of the parties holds a position of control over the other. ( Landay in Awaya et al. , 2003 ) The coaching technique is non ever plainly comprehended in Education. I needed to give my mentee an away from of coaching and the tutoring plans and this was extremely of import for the two of us as a beginning stage. I disclosed to him that the tutoring method would be where the two of us would larn from one another as Coombs expressed â€Å" as we help mentees to build up their ain expert example, we are co-enquiring into bettering our ain. ( Coombs, 2005 ) Tutoring is a methodology whereby a shrewd man ushers, Teachs, impacts and supports a mentee, this was what I enlightened my mentee regarding the capacity I would be set abouting along this excursion. I other than made him perceptive of my capacity as a â€Å" basic companion † and how this capacity would help him in his expert developing. What is of import is the method of consideration by the on-screen character, the mentee, with the goal that they can larn more from the system and conceivably go their ain â€Å" basic companion † ( Peddler, 1983 in Wood, 1997, p.335 ) . Self-reflection has been recognized as a significant segment of going an expert instructor. Along these lines, I clarified my mentee, the ALACT hypothetical record of self-reflection to happen answer for his activity. V acknowledged being given an away from of way, in footings of counsel and musings with customary clasp table gatherings for the criticism and treatment. ( Hobson, 2002 in Cain, 2009 ) . Consequently I needed to illuminate V that it would be four hebdomads coaching meeting with four proper gatherings whereby criticisms and medicines would be taken topographic point. My mentee appeared to be happy with the unmistakable review he got and ended up mentally arranged and excited. I felt upbeat since we were screening the excursion in a decent and positive way. My first classification visit took topographic point on the 21st June 2012.The class period was of 40 proceedingss and there were 15 students taking all things together. It was a little gathering and I was welcomed by pretty much the entirety of the understudies. I sat at the dorsum of the schoolroom viewing my mentee at work. We were at that point old buddies might be that is the reason my mentee was at ease in my quality. My mentee began legitimately off by pulling the works development and naming the various parts viz. the foliages, roots and roots without making the subject out of the exercise on the board. I did non happen the turning over engine efficacious since the points and the plan of the exercise was non given to the understudies. Toward the start of a class, the understudies ‘ focus are at the extremum promotion they are generally responsive at that cut, so a legitimate turning over engine assists with catching the association and centralization of the understudies and arraign them to the full in larning. We can make reference to the turning over engine as a psychological ‘warming up ‘ . What I acknowledged with my mentee was that he gave a reasonable, great structures introduction of the works development using pulling on board as visual show. Siting at the back viewing the understudies was in itself an utile encounter. There was one understudy oscitance at the dorsum and I could see one looking outside the schoolroom and a couple of them taking a gander at their fingers or at their companions. This obviously demonstrated their lack of engagement in the exercise. Regardless of whether the understudies were non demoing any association, they stayed calm in the class as though they were regarding a few guidelines that have been set up. I understood that each schoolroom is unique, in light of the fact that each teacher is distant from everyone else. My mentee keep up for him. There was quite a bit of his talking taking topographic point in forepart of the class. He did non travel about in the schoolroom. At the terminal of the exercise, my mentee did asked a few request s to the students to ensure if procurement has taken topographic point. In any case, this was managed without taking their names. Pretty much all the requests were shut requests. Along these lines understudies did non secure opportunities to spread out their contemplations and take part in terrible treatment. I saw that the greater part of the understudies couldn't answer these requests. Questions ought to be organized to fit understudies capacity degrees so all are included. In any case, here, it was ever similar understudies replying. There was insufficiency of commitment and inadequacy of mental fight from the understudies ‘ sides. This may take to a sentiment of disappointment from their work and lack of bias for the point In my first reappraisal meeting with V, I needed to flexibly him with criticism and contemplations furthermore talk them with him. Criticism is the most utile constituent of the arrangement ( Brandt, 2008, in Copland, 2010 ) . I began with the positive features so as to develop up his confirmation. He tuned in to me mutely. At that point I proceeded onward to the negative features. As Maynard ( 2000 ) said savvy keeps an eye on seemed disinclined to state anything which may throb their mentee ‘s sentiments, I experienced unequivocally the equivalent I disclosed to myself that in the event that I needed to help my mentee to grow expertly, I needed to thump his work. He began to warrant for the lack of dynamic fight in the classification, the ground being that the understudies were at that point of low capacity. I tuned in to his legitimization, after which I asked him what orchestrating to him should be possible to do the understudies locked in. I needed V to experience self-reflection since examination is the capacity to pass on past occasions to a witting degree to do feeling of them and to discover suitable approaches to move in future ( Baornett, 1990 in Wovel, 1997, p1338 ) . In any case, I was non prepared for that. Bergnet and Holmes accept that the individual is individual of import, who has inside him an extraordinary intensity for modification, who has the ability to be an adjustment specialist. So I asked V whether he consented to pass on adjustments for his expert advancement he required. For that ground, I clarified him in thing the ALACT hypothetical record: Action, Looking back on the activity, Awareness of crucial aspects, Making substitute techniques for activity and in the end the Trial. I other than gave him the way to his answer. We separated off on a neighborly and joking note after make up one's disapproving of the day of the long stretch of the accompanying classification visit and criticism meeting. A short time later when I thought about the gathering, I felt regretful and was asking myself â€Å" was n't I unnecessarily harsh while naming the negative aspects? † Listing these aspects in a steady progression may hold made him experience low and for that ground, V gave those defenses. I understand that following clasp I ought to be increasingly cautious with the way I recorded the negative aspects. During the second classification visit, I was again welcomed by the students. V was elucidating on bloom development. This clasp exercise points were clarified and the subject of the exercise composed on the board. He so drew a marked chart of a bloom on the board and keep up on explaining on each bit of the blossom. Still I could see the understudies non paying taking care of their teacher. There were some who were in any event, talking when V was making ready for his dorsum to the understudies. All the practices were because of miss of commitment of the students. On the off chance that they would hold been locked in with their securing, there would hold been no talking and looking here and at that place. This clasp exorbitantly, my mentee only talked and talked in his record on blossoms. Educating ( like clinical claim to fame ) requires use of comprehension, perusing of grounds and its application to genuine condition of affairss, actioning basic idea achievements and old encounters ( Harrison, J.K et al.,2005 ) .Thus for learning understudies on blossoms and its development, I figured V could hold advised his students to pass on certain blossoms, which they could use to reenforce their procurement and trepidation, in order to obtain the understudies to an investigation degree and do the larni ng dynamic rather that latent and create achievements for belly to-burial place securing. â€Å" Good educator accounts, with proper outlines will deliver mental fight and dread. Understanding is best idea if as holding a portrayal or hypothetical record in the head that compares to the situation or marvel being experienced. Fight is tied in with helping understudies to build up these psychological hypothetical records ( Ofsted dynamic fight ) Concsiously, we train what we know, unwittingly, we encourage what our identity is. ( Hamachok, 1999, p.209 ) . teahcre ‘s skills are controlled by his convictions he advised as for larning and learning and these discover their actionsand each activity that a teacher attempt has an outcome on understudies. Feiman-Nemsec ( 1983 ) region that educators have themselves spent numerous mature ages as studnets in schools, during which cut, they have built up their ain convictions about learning, a large number of which are oppositely restricted to these introduced to them during their instructor guidance. For representation, they may hold built up the conviction that guidance is transmittal of perception and most educator teachers discover this conviction non great to going a decent teacher. Except if teachers follow up on their contemp

Saturday, August 22, 2020

Is the death penalty effective Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Is capital punishment compelling - Essay Example The general public is one which requires profoundly and frantically consistently, a death penalty. Notwithstanding the discipline, there would have been an a lot more elevated level of murders over the world. Without the death penalty, the populace would will in general use, ‘mob mentality’ in circumstances where the feelings turn crazy. There are various cases, both basic just as progressively exceptional where individuals have lost their lives and it is critical to take note of that without the predominance of a capital punishment, there would not be any hindrance to kill. In the event that an individual was basically to be secured prison with complete access to food, garments, and safe house without winning it, at that point individuals would take this alternative and could never stress over killing anybody (Davis, 1998). In straightforward terms, our general public is documented with various hoodlums and isn't humanized enough to oversee without a reasonable set down obstruction for the wrongdoing. Thus, it is important for capital punishment to be applied to guarantee a more secure society. Various specialists have additionally guided their perspectives toward the ineffectualness of the capital punishments and have likewise drawn out the way that disregarding the death sentences that are being utilized inside the nations, there are as yet various individuals who will in general do the wrongdoing. The way toward giving capital punishment is a long one with the hoodlums living easily in jail and this, all things considered, will in general diminish the viability of a capital punishment. As an obstruction, it is significant that the lawbreakers are not given an opportunity and are executed immediately to make the discipline an effective one (Dieter, 1998). Anyway this plainly is absurd considering the quantity of laws and guidelines that should be considered before giving an individual a capital punishment, along these lines making this technique inadequate and wasteful. I for one accept that the capital punishments are a viable technique for leading the general public and lawbreakers that have submitted murder. This is predominantly in light of the fact that, the

Thursday, August 13, 2020

Sneak peek at the new admissions and SFS sites

Sneak peek at the new admissions and SFS sites As Ive mentioned here, here, and here, Ive been spending my summer leading a project to redesign the new sfs.mit.edu and mitadmissions.org. Although we are two separate offices, we report to the same Dean (that would be Stu) and share a communications team, and are working with Upstatement, the agency that helped design the new www.mit.edu and science.mit.edu. Were coming up to launch on both sites and so I wanted to take this chance to blog a preview and talk about some of the design decisions weve made. These arent final things will change before we launch but you can get a sense of the basic design direction. Student Financial Services (SFS) SFS is the office at MIT that combines the function of assessing and providing financial aid with billing and collecting tuition and other payments. Their processes are very complex and highly regulated by institutional, state, and federal policy. And, while we offer generous financial aid, anytime money is involved people tend to get stressed out. Based on these findings and priors, our goals for this redesign include: making it really easy to find what you are looking for, especially if you dont know what that is yet provide simple documentation of complex processes reduce places where information can be duplicated, trying for a single source of truth wherever possible helping people find information or ask SFS staff if they want to talk to a human Heres a quick preview of what it looks like: We basically built a site with two templates: a section front, used on homepage and landing pages, that provides visually scannable explanations, directories, and statistics to quickly orient people to core topics. At the third level, we have an article template, which breaks down big processes into modular pieces and explains each one of them. This structure was borrowed from the application section of the current (soon to be old) apply section on MITadmissions.org. Inspired by Feynmans physics lectures, we included a margin notes feature, so you can mouse-over annotated words and get even more detail.  This another way we are trying to enable simple, human-readable language wherever possible, while not losing any of the required detail and complexity for those things that do require further elucidation. Theres also a glossary, a help section with FAQs and an email form, and a super-powerful Solr search to quickly search all of the pages and/or filter them by type of page. We decided to focus on SFS first, and so were planning to launch it next week, on Thursday 8/23. Assuming all goes well (knock on wood), next Thursday morning well flip a switch and visitors will start going to this new site. At that point, we hope to begin collecting any bugs that emerge and performing any necessary design tweaks, as well as developing a content improvement strategy going forward. Theres lots of ideas we have about how to improve the SFS content, like more financial literacy information, crowdsourced strategies from students on hacking their budgets, and more interactive tools to help estimate aid and plan budgets. Most of that will happen post-launch, but I think this website will be a good platform on which to build. MITAdmissions.org If youre reading this, youre probably familiar with our office, and with our current website design; if youre a longtime reader, you may even remember the old one, which Kris and I rebuilt when we both starting almost a decade ago. Going into this project, we felt pretty good about our website, but there were a few things we wanted to improve: the blogging (and content development) backend is awful and really gets in the way we needed some better media management and security fixes (https please) we wanted to make better use of our incredible wealth of content in old blog posts Heres a quick preview of what it looks like: As you can see, its in some respects a revised version of our current websites. There are some structural changes weve brought the aforementioned article template across the whole site, for example but a pretty similar look and feel. Many of the features from SFS (blazing search, margin annotations, help section, etc) were ported here as well. Yuliya has spent the summer reading the blogs and categorizing them into dozens of categories that will be used across the site to surface old content and help people get access to useful information about MIT academics and culture. She plans to post about this process and her findings in the future. We hope to launch the new admissions site in early September. Because were focused on SFS right now, were in a bit of a pause on feature development on the admissions side, but I think were going to be able to add even more things to what you already see in this preview: more illustrations, lots of graphics tweaks, and good places to host MITAdmissions Labs content once its built. Like with SFS, well keep doing content development too, but most of that will happen post-launch. Thats your preview! Im really excited about both of these sites and hope youll like them as much as I do once you have the chance to use them. And let me know if you have any questions below.

Saturday, May 23, 2020

Who Are the Native Americans

Ask most people who they think Native Americans are and they will most likely say something like they are people who are American Indians. But who are American Indians, and how is that determination made? These are questions with no simple or easy answers and the source of ongoing conflict in Native American communities, as well as in the halls of Congress and other American governmental institutions. The Definition of Indigenous Dictionary.com defines indigenous as: Originating in and characteristic of a particular region or country; native. It pertains to plants, animals, and people. A person (or animal or plant) can be born in a region or country, but not be indigenous to it if their ancestors did not originate there. The United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues refers to indigenous peoples as people who: Self-identify as indigenous at the individual level and are accepted by the community as their member.Have historical continuity with pre-colonial or pre-settler societiesHave a strong link to territories and surrounding natural resourcesExhibit distinct social, economic or political systemsHave a distinct language, culture, and beliefsForm non-dominant groups of societyResolve to maintain and reproduce their ancestral environments and systems as distinctive peoples and communities. The term indigenous is often referred to in an international and political sense, but more and more Native American people are adopting the term to describe their native-ness, sometimes called their indigeneity. While the United Nations recognizes self-identify as one marker of indigeneity, in the United States self-identify alone is not enough to be considered Native American for official political recognition. Federal Recognition When the first European settlers came to the shores of what Indians called Turtle Island there were thousands of tribes and bands of indigenous peoples. Their numbers were dramatically reduced due to foreign diseases, wars and other policies of the United States government; many of them that remained formed official relationships with the U.S. through treaties and other mechanisms. Others continued to exist, but the U.S. refused to recognize them. Today the United States unilaterally decides who (what tribes) it forms official relationships with through the process of federal recognition. There are currently approximately 566 federally recognized tribes; there are some tribes who have state recognition but no federal recognition, and at any given time there are hundreds of tribes still vying for federal recognition. Tribal Membership Federal law affirms that tribes have the authority to determine their membership. They can use whatever means they like to decide who to grant membership to. According to Native scholar Eva Marie Garroutte in her book Real Indians: Identity and the Survival of Native America, approximately two-thirds of tribes rely on the blood quantum system which determines belonging based on the concept of race by measuring how close one is to a full-blood Indian ancestor. For example, many have a minimum requirement of  ¼ or  ½ degree of Indian blood for tribal membership. Other tribes rely on a system of proof of lineal descent. Increasingly the blood quantum system is criticized as being an inadequate and problematic way of determining tribal membership (and thus Indian identity). Because Indians out-marry more than any other group of Americans, the determination of who is Indian based on racial standards will result in what some scholars call statistical genocide. They argue that being Indian is about more than racial measurements; it is more about identity-based on kinship systems and cultural competence. They also argue that blood quantum was a system imposed on them by the American government and not a method indigenous peoples themselves used to determine belonging so abandoning blood quantum would represent a return to traditional ways of inclusion. Even with tribes ability to determine their membership, determining who is legally defined as American Indian is still not clear cut. Garroutte notes that there are no less than 33 different legal definitions. This means that a person can be defined as Indian for one purpose but not another. Native Hawaiians In the legal sense, people of Native Hawaiian descent are not considered Native Americans in the way that American Indians are, but they are nonetheless indigenous peoples in the United States (their name for themselves is Kanaka Maoli). The illegal overthrow of the Hawaiian monarchy in 1893 has left in its wake considerable conflict among the Native Hawaiian population, and the Hawaiian sovereignty movement which began in the 1970s is less than cohesive in terms of what it considers the best approach to justice. The Akaka Bill (which has experienced several incarnations in Congress for over 10 years) proposes to give Native Hawaiians the same standing as Native Americans, effectively turning them into American Indians in a legal sense by subjecting them to the same system of law that Native Americans are. However, Native Hawaiian scholars and activists argue that this is an inappropriate approach for Native Hawaiians because their histories differ significantly from American Indians. They also argue that the bill failed to consult Native Hawaiians about their wishes adequately.

Tuesday, May 12, 2020

The Importance Of Women During The Slave Exchange

Understanding the importance of women in regards to the slave exchange is essential for gaining insight into the investigation of slave society by and large. Not only were female slave subordinate in view of race however they likewise shared the trials of the abuse of the female sexual orientation. The black woman assumed a key part in the advancement of slave groups through the improvement of African Sexuality, Family Structure and Economic Productivity. It is in this manner that I will approach the slave exchange from a female viewpoint to comprehend the advancement of these slave groups. The African female did not soley serve as a financial attribute when bought as a slave. Regular sexual obligations and childbearing were expected and†¦show more content†¦Shockingly, on the other hand, this romanticized perspective of the dark lady did not command originations of the time. Numerous European eyewitnesses saw African ladies as rough and creature like in light of the fact that they were physically fit for doing likewise work in the fields as their male partners. White female workers were not equipped for performing the same undertakings thus the strength of structure of dark females was adversely contrasted with European ladies. There is additionally proof of various issues between white men and dark ladies making a huge mulatto populace and incredibly prompting the displeasure of a little European female populace. A woman in the book of Dubois speaks to the animalization and molestation of black women in saying, â€Å"I shall never forgive, neither in this world nor the world to come: its wanton and continued and persistent insulting of the black womanhood whit it sought and seeks to prostitute its lust.† There are a couple contrasting perspectives on the development of marriage in the slave arrangement of the Atlantic World by today s history specialists and social investigators. While some scholars guarantee that family development was simply one more type of mastery by the white man, social scholars battle that family structure helped with framing connection ties and different types of society

Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Coastal management Free Essays

string(63) " protective reef will be given the go-ahead by the Government\." THE LOBBY and several bedrooms parted company with the Holbeck Hall Hotel yesterday, leaving half of the four-star establishment behind. Engineers said heavy rain this spring after several dry summers was the probable cause of the landslip, which has sent sections of the hotel toppling into the North Sea. The north-east wing of the 30-bedroom hotel collapsed into Scarborough’s South Bay on Saturday night. We will write a custom essay sample on Coastal management or any similar topic only for you Order Now Guests had been evacuated early on Friday after huge cracks appeared overnight. The rest of the east wing gave way yesterday, leaving the hotel barely half intact, but what remains is likely to be demolished. Geologists say the east Yorkshire coast, with it’s steep clay cliffs, has always been vulnerable. South of Scarborough, the 40-mile stretch of cliffs of Holderness is the fastest-eroding coastline in Europe and is experiencing the worst land-slips for 40 years. But Mr Michael Clements, director of technical services for Scarborough council, said sea erosion was not a factor in the Holbeck landslip. The cliffs below the hotel are protected at their base by a sea wall. The main problem, he said, was probably heavy rain which penetrated layers of sand and gravel in the cliffs, lubricating the clay which had cracked in hot weather. â€Å"There is a long history of cliff movements in the area,† Mr Clements said. â€Å"According to local records, the first Scarborough spa was carried away by a landslide in 1770, while the Holbeck cliffs suffered a major slip in 1912. Cliff stabilisation schemes were carried out further north at Whitby in the 1980’s and at Robin Hood’s Bay in the 1970’s. In the fishing village of Staives, the breakwaters were recently raised. Pressure for further protection has run up against the obstacle of expense. â€Å"The cost of protecting these cliffs is phenomenal.† Mr Clements said. â€Å"The work at Whitby cost à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½3.4 million.† Most developed areas around Scarborough have seawalls but this is not the case further south, where Mr Eddie Knapp, principal engineer of Holderness council, said there had been â€Å"unusually large and particularly worrying† land losses over the past six months. â€Å"The average rate of erosion is 6ft a year but this year it has been up to 65ft in places,† Mr Knapp said. At Skirlington, 65ft of land has recently fallen into the sea, carrying away 23 bases at a caravan park, while 70ft of land has gone at Aldbrough caravan park, leaving 15ft of unfenced land before a 60ft drop into the sea. A family living in a chalet at Atwick, near Hornsea, was rehoused when the cliff edge came perilously close. Mrs Sue Earle, chairman of the Holderness Coast Protection Committee, is to outline local concerns in talks at the Agriculture Ministry today. Mrs Earle, whose farm-house is 30ft from the cliff edge at Cowden, said: â€Å"Now that this has happened in a nationally-known resort, I hope it will help to bring the issue out into the open. Daily Telegraph, 7.6.93 South Coast subsiding as the sea level rises By Christine McGourty, Technology Correspondent PART of the south coast of England is sinking at a rate of almost an inch every five years, according to new research. The find comes from an analysis of tidal measurement data from 1962 until about 1985 by Portsmouth University researchers. The higher tide measurements were thought to be a combination of subsidence and rising sea levels. Discovery of the subsidence à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ from Portsmouth to Newhaven à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ follows evidence from around the world that global sea levels have risen by four to six inches over the past 100 years. The subsidence will add to the problems expected from the sea level rise associated with global warming. Sea levels on the south coast are expected to rise by at least eight inches by 2050. Dr Janet Hooke, director of the university’s river and coastal environment research group, said: â€Å"Most previous studies showed the subsidence was confined to East Anglia. This is the first analysis to show that parts of the south coast may be subsiding too. The movement may have origins back in the last ice age.† Malcolm Bray, one of the researchers, said at the Institute of British Geographers’ annual conference in Nottingham: â€Å"It seems frightening. â€Å"What we’re doing now is to work out what it means for the local authorities affected. â€Å"We can’t stop flooding à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ that’s an act of God à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½ but we may be able to minimise the impact through coherent local and regional strategies. â€Å"We need to study the coast over longer distances and look slightly further into the future to stop authorities doing something that could have detrimental effects on their neighbours. â€Å"Our research shows that some parts of the coast are independent but many parts are interconnected.† They found the stretch from Lyme Regis to Newhaven could be divided naturally into nine â€Å"coastal cells†. Dr Hooke said: â€Å"Some preventative measures need to be taken now while the opportunity is there. â€Å"We don’t want to see building on very vulnerable zones, which could just create problems for the future with flooding and erosion. â€Å"Plans may be needed to manage conservation of wetlands which are particularly vulnerable.† The researchers welcomed the Government’s strategy for coastline management, announced last October, and said that more coherent analysis of longer stretches of coastline were needed all around the country. * Navy beans, from which baked beans are produced, could be grown in England if the global temperature rises as predicted in the next century, according to a study. Researchers at Coventry University and Horticultural Research International have found that navy beans could be grown in Hampshire, East and West Sussex and Kent if the temperature rose by just 0.5C in the next century. The climate is too cold at present for navy bean crops and most are imported from America and Canada. Daily Telegraph 8.1.94 Erosion-hit resorts pin hopes on reef of tyres By Richard Spencer and Lynda Murdin RESIDENTS along the fastest eroding coastline in Europe are hoping a plan to dump millions of tyres in the sea as a protective reef will be given the go-ahead by the Government. You read "Coastal management" in category "Papers" Villages and the resorts of Withernsea and Hornsea on the Holderness coast in Humberside are in danger of slowly falling into the sea. If the Ministry of Agriculture grants a licence for the trial tyre-reef scheme, it could lead to one of the most ambitious coastal engineering projects in Europe since the Dutch reclaimed its polders from the other side of the North Sea. The area from Hull to the low, muddy cliffs of the Humberside coast has always suffered erosion. Spurn Head, the spit of land which juts out into the Humber estuary, has been washed away and re-formed six times in recorded history, while many villages already lie underwater. But, in the past five years, the pace of change has rapidly increased. Some homes have been abandoned and farmers are seeking compensation for loss of land and buildings. The Humberside trial would submerge a bank of 1.5 million compressed tyres bound with nylon and concrete into a tangle of ropes six or seven metres high, 110 metres long and 60 metres wide. Placed up to 1,000 metres offshore, it would be tested for its stability, effects on local currents and pollution. If it worked, the full scheme could place more than a billion tyres in seven, two-kilometre long strips all the way up the coast. Humberside County Council accepts that such an ambitious project is unlikely to go ahead quickly – possibly not even this decade. In the meantime, the coast depends on smaller schemes under the supervision of Holderness Borough Council. The most recent, at the village of Mappleton, was opened with fanfares four years ago but, while it has saved the village, it has also caused resentment. Other villages say that it has accelerated the rate of erosion elsewhere by preventing the protective sand that drifts down the coast from reaching the beaches. It raised expectations that other schemes could be put in place, hopes the Government dashed in 1993 with a review of policy imposing new environmental and financial demands. The Department of the Environment is expected shortly to approve a controversial à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½4.5 million, 1,000-metre sea wall around the North Sea gas terminal run by BP and British Gas near Easington. A full plan, which would also have protected the village, was turned down by the department. Mr Robin Taylor, Holderness’s director of development, said this appeared to be because under the new guidelines schemes had to prove not just â€Å"cost-beneficial† but to be in the national interest. Saving gas supplies probably was, saving villages not. Mr Ambrose Larkham, who owns the Easington Beach Caravan and Leisure Park, is demanding a public inquiry. â€Å"The ludicrous thing is it is almost as cheap to build 1,600 metres while the equipment’s there as it is 1,000,† he said. Mr Taylor said: â€Å"The question of why we are protecting the terminals and not the people of the village is likely to become very controversial. The issue is whether we should be protecting multinational companies and not our own residents.† But Mr Geoffrey Twizell, terminal manager for British Gas and himself a resident, said: â€Å"We are happy to contribute to any scheme that meets everyone’s aspirations. Nobody would be talking about any protection at all for Easington if it weren’t for the gas terminals here.† Daily Telegraph 1.4.95 Essex drops its guard to let nature take its course By A J McIlroy A TACTICAL retreat could be the answer to coastal erosion on the Essex coast, Government engineers have decided. Contractors from the Ministry of Agriculture and English Nature yesterday lowered the sea wall to flood 21 hectares at Tollesbury Fleet on the Blackwater Estuary. The area is being restored to salt marshes intended to absorb the power of waves that have been pounding artificial sea defences. If the experiment succeeds it will be extended along the Blackwater and to other saltwater estuaries. Roy Hathaway, of the Ministry of Agriculture’s flood and coastal defence division, said tracts of coastal marshes were lost when drainage engineers in the 17th and 18th Centuries built sea walls to reclaim land for farming. Now, as a result of the gradual rise in sea level, many of the hundreds of miles of sea wall are crumbling. These are costing millions of pounds to repair, a financial burden that is â€Å"becoming increasingly hard to justify†. He said that to encourage private landowners to accept coastal flooding, the Government had written a â€Å"saltmarsh option† into its set-aside programme, the European Union measure to take farmland out of production. In exchange for allowing their land to become inter-tidal again, farmers would receive à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½190 per hectare per year for grassland and à ¯Ã‚ ¿Ã‚ ½500 for arable land. The payments are guaranteed for 20 years. Mr Hathaway said the ministry was working with conservation groups to maximise the gain to wildlife by restoring the salt marshes. Daily Telegraph 5.8.95 SHORING UP THE COASTLINE By John Hodder THE PRETTY little Suffolk town of Woodbridge was snoozing under a cloudless sky, with a soft breeze taking the sting out of the sun. I gazed out over the placid surface of the River Deben. It was midday in midsummer and this was quiet, gentle England at its most benign – the sort of place, the sort of time that makes it hard to feel threatened by anything, let alone the forces of nature. Twenty-four hours later I was on the beach at Dunwich, 20 miles to the north. The conditions were not very different – the same blue sky and hot sun, cooled now by a rather more blustery wind coming off the sea. But here the threat felt very real – probably because here it is very real. Dunwich is at the mercy of the elements, as it has been down the centuries, and the cliffs just carry on crumbling. If the sea is left to its own devices over the next 70-odd years, the shoreline will retreat by about 200 metres. That, at least, is the experts’projection. Projections, of course, are not the same as firm predictions. But they underline what the problem is – in this case, chronic erosion. The first and obvious question is: â€Å"What can be done to stop it?† The second and much more taxing one is: â€Å"Should anything be done to stop it?† Neither question has an easy answer. If Dunwich is not simply to be abandoned to its fate, a difficult balance will have to be struck between its interest and those of its neighbours. Coastal protection is a tricky science. Nobody knows that better than Roy Stoddard. His title is senior engineer (coast protection) with the Suffolk Coastal District Council and it was to pick his brains that I had gone to Woodbridge. His job is to oversee the 30-mile stretch of coastline from Felixstowe to Southwold, an area whose sand and shingle beach is notoriously unstable when pounded by the waves of the North Sea. It has suffered grievously in a series of violent storms this century. The task of looking after it is now shared between the local authority and the National Rivers Authority (NRA), overseen by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF). They work closely together and their common enemy is the sea. The approach to coastal protection has shifted significantly over the past 20 years. â€Å"‘Fight against the sea’ was the message until the 1970s,† says Stoddard. â€Å"Now we are not trying to fight against it so much as to work with it, using its peculiar ways to destroy its own energy.† That shift in approach is reflected in marked changes in the sort of barriers now being erected to stem the apparently relentless advance of the waves. As a result, the traditional beach scene is changing. For example, the solid sea walls built behind the beach – and the wide promenades that have accompanied them since Victorian times – are now out of favour. Walls merely repel the waves: they do nothing to reduce their speed or power, which is now recognised as the key to the successful preservation of the shor e. Instead, efforts are being concentrated on protecting and building up the beaches themselves. Similarly, a profusion of timber groynes jutting out at right angles into the sea – the time-honoured means of defence and a common sight along this coast – is seen as far less effective than a few large, rock-based structures shaped like fish-tails. The old wooden ones are fine for leaning against while you have your lunch or sheltering behind on a cold, blowy day. But they are not good at sheltering the shore. The main problem with them -apart from their propensity to rot – is that they cannot be made long enough or deep enough to significantly slow down the incoming rush of water. Hence the move towards the new fish-tail variety. A series of these has been built at Clacton, 20 miles to the south of Stoddard’s patch. He is now proposing to develop the concept further by building two similar groynes at Cobbolds Point in Felixstowe, using rock and concrete. Despite their size, which might be considered ugly and intrusive, few people dislike them, he says, and the arguments in their favour are compelling. By confronting the sea farther out they do much more to take the steam out of the waves before they reach the shore. And the farther out you go, the more shore you protect by creating two calm areas in the lee of the two wings of the â€Å"tail†. Thus you help to build up a long stretch of sheltered beach. â€Å"Fish-tailed groynes are many times the length of wooden groynes but you only need one about every kilometre rather than one every 20-30 metres,† says Stoddard. â€Å"As well as being more environmentally-friendly because they enable people to walk along the whole beach – something they couldn’t do before, at least not without stepping over groynes every few yards. â€Å"They have another advantage over sea walls. If you build them and find they don’t work as well as you’d like, you can pick them up and move them. You can’t do that with a massive sea wall.† Stoddard sees the introduction of fish-tail groynes as a â€Å"soft-engineering solution† in contrast to the old â€Å"hard† solution of building walls, which is now seen as causing more difficulties than it solves. â€Å"The problem is that whenever you build a hard wall it is almost invariably accompanied by the beach levels falling. The sea is thrown back off the wall and drags the sand and shingle out. Sometimes the wall itself is undermined – you can shore it up but in time the same thing will happen again.† Solid walls are the most concrete (literally) expression of the view that you must at all costs protect the land against the sea. That view is now being challenged. â€Å"You have four options,† says Stoddard. â€Å"Do nothing, hold the line, advance or retreat. Ten years ago the general view was that everything that could be saved should be saved. Now people are far more aware that harsh decisions have to be made.† Such decisions have worrying implications for places like Dunwich. There, to stop the erosion, you would have to start building some form of protective structure along the beach: merely reinforcing the shingle bank is not enough to stop continuing inroads being made into the coast. So why the hesitation over doing something more effective about it? Simply this: the erosion of the cliffs at Dunwich has positive benefits for the beach immediately to the south at Sizewell. Dunwich’s loss is thus Sizewell’s gain: that is nature’s way. It is a conundrum repeated all along the coast. â€Å"If you have got to save the cliffs at Dunwich, you’ve got to find alternative means of feeding the beach at Sizewell,† says Stoddard. â€Å"In the end, you have to say that there are some places you won’t protect – and people have got to come to terms with that.† Such a hard-nosed attitude can stir up fierce emotions, not least because of the way it could affect both the people who live there now and those who would like to join them. Consequently, it has serious implications for local planners. Do you, for example, go on allowing people to build houses near the sea, thus continually extending the number of years that you have to go on protecting that particular bit of coast – probably at someone else’s expense? Another issue arousing controversy is the question of compensation for landowners whose land is gobbled up by the sea. At the moment there is no provision for compensation – indeed, it was specifically excluded from the 1949 Coast Protection Act. But as Stoddard says: â€Å"How do you tell a farmer that his 500 acres of productive arable land would be far better as salt marsh? The question of compensation is going to have to be addressed very shortly.† The difficult questions roll in almost as relentlessly as the sea. I pondered them late at night as I walked the beach at Aldeburgh, with the wind strengthening from the north-east and the waves crashing on to the shingle. They were still nagging away later still, as I lay in bed listening to the roar on the shore just below my hotel window. The sound that had been so soothing in the summer sunshine had taken on a darker edge. Suddenly the forces of nature seemed far less benign. Leisurely progress coastal protection has developed piecemeal over the past 150 years, driven not so much by pure science as by the demand to fulfil social expectations. It was essentially that pressure which led to the widespread introduction of sea walls. From the mid-19th century wealthy Victorians sought the development of coastal resorts. To realise their leisurely ambitions, engineers were drafted in to build the walls and the promenades which went with them. Over the years it has become increasingly obvious that such a haphazard approach is unsatisfactory and that activity on one bit of the coast could have damaging effects on another. The need for greater planning and co-ordination, recognised in the 1949 Coast Protection Act, is now universally acknowledged: it will be reflected in the six new shoreline management plans that are being prepared for the whole of the east coast, from the Humber to the Thames. 26.8.95 From Compton’s Complete Reference Collection Landforms that result from erosion, or wearing away of the land, make up some of the most scenic coastal areas in the world. Sea cliffs that border many rocky coasts are an example. These cliffs were created when pounding waves weakened the lower portion of the rock to the extent that parts of the cliffs above tumbled into the water, leaving a rock wall with rubble at the bottom. Solid rock shores that lack beaches are easily destroyed by the sea. Beaches consequently protect the shore. Sometimes groins (short piers that extend out into the sea from 30 to 200 meters, depending on the nature of the beach) are constructed to protect the shores from erosion. This has been done along the coasts of the Black Sea. In recent years, some beaches have been artificially restored with sand taken from the sea bottom or from nearby dunes. This has been done on many beaches in the United States and on the island of Norderney in the North Sea. How to cite Coastal management, Papers

Sunday, May 3, 2020

Bridge to Wisemans Cove Essay Sample free essay sample

In the Teenage fiction novel. A Bridge to Wisemans Cove. Carl is one of the few people who change in the novel while being at wattle Beach and Wisemans Cove. Carl alterations Physically. Socially and mentally. Harley besides changes seeing his personality has developed every bit good as his determination devising and Maddie besides changes seeing that she isn’t the Maddie Carl knew before. Carl was put in a tough determination seeking to work out what both he and Harley are traveling to make for the hereafter. Carl Develops physically. mentally and socially. Carl has become physically fit by working on the flatboat. His head develops since he now needs to be in charge of Harley’s hereafter and more significantly. his ain and he has besides met a new accomplishment and that is being able to speak to girls without faltering and being diffident. Harley is a typical immature male child who has made a batch of incorrect determinations throughout the novel. We will write a custom essay sample on Bridge to Wisemans Cove Essay Sample or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page every bit shortly as he met Aunt beryl. his life changed from being a nice immature male child to an aggressive immature kid. he has been stealing nutrient from the shops. seeking to hit Aunt beryl but since he has been populating with joy. everything has been different from wattle beach with Aunt Beryl. Maddie was a really obstinate individual until she genuinely knew Carl. She wanted to ever see Nathan Trelfo but every clip when joy said no she would travel into her room weeping and when Aunt Beryl took Carl. Harley. Maddie and Jasmine. Maddie Wanted to take Nathan to the fish hawk with her but joy wouldn’t allow her so she went to her room and called Nathan but he said no. Carl isn’t the lone individual who changes in the novel. these statements put frontward prove that other people change. non merely Carl. Carl Changes in a assortment of ways. Harley besides changes personality wise and the picks he makes and he is now responsible for what he does and Maddie besides changes because she is non every bit obstinate as she one time was because she used to seek and ask for Nathan Trelfo to every event that happened in her life so

Thursday, March 26, 2020

Approaches India and China took to achieve the fast development in economies

Introduction China has amazed the whole world at large because of the tremendous growth in its economy (Chow 45). Although China has a very large population, the Chinese people have proved to the entire world that they can be very hard working. Recent research shows that it comes second after the super powers United States of America in terms of the economy defeating countries like Japan, Russia, India and other developed countries.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Approaches India and China took to achieve the fast development in economies specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More In the past 30 years, that is from the year 1979 China’s growth has been averaged to a rate of ten percent per annum, which shows a very great improvement. China is also the largest exporter in the world exporting a wide variety of commodities such as agricultural commodities like rice , machinery, electronics, nuclear weapons and textile s just to mention but a few. Other than just exporting it is the second largest importer of goods majorly from Japan, Taiwan and South Korea. China’s major imports include; oil, minerals, plastics, other machinery it lacks and many others. This therefore is enough evidence that China is good at trading with many trading partners all over the world. India on the other hand is following suit so as to better their economy. It is ranked fifth in the world in terms of economy (Chow 78). Despite the fact it is lower than china, it beats other developed nations like Germany. In the year 2006, the economy of India stood at 8.5%. This paper will therefore discuss the key factors that contributed to the rapid economic growth of China and India. Use of Foreign investment by China to improve the economy China has invested greatly in technology leading to production of high quality products. In a bid to achieve this, it imported advanced machinery, plant and production facilities from tra ding with other countries (Arora 98). The investment in these facilities advances the technology of the country hence improving the quality and quantity of products produced. China’s commodities are among the top most sophisticated products in the world hence attracting investors from other countries. It is because of this that the total factor in productivity of China has grown by 4 percent per annum. The government also made investments in the education system such that it involved technological training sessions (Dana 90). It emphasized on teaching of industrial method in schools. This was advantageous as it made the schools produce graduates who were endowed with technological knowledge. The resulting graduates therefore worked in the manufacturing sectors of the economy and thus led to the improvement of the quantity and quality of outputs (Hertel 204). Due to this the country was able to increase its exports and as a result improving the state’s economy.Advertisi ng Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Other approaches used by China to improve the economy Reforms in the agricultural sector Agriculture is among the top most sectors of China’s economy. Research has indicated that the agricultural sector of China results to 60 percent of its Gross Domestic Product hence being a determining factor of the state’s economy. China produces the highest quantity of rice in the world. It also produces other agricultural products such as wheat, cotton, maize and tobacco which is exported thus the government earning foreign exchange. The government policies The government implemented policies that were driven to achieving economic growth at a fast rate. The government reallocated resources in different sectors of the state hence making them run well financially (Hertel 132). After the allocation of resources the government privatized them so as to ensure efficient running and high productivity unlike when they were run by the state. Use of the available cheap labor China is a highly populated nation (Arora 78). Therefore the presence of the large number of the human capital which was of high quality was a great advantage to the government. This is because the people were willing to work despite the low wage rate that they were being offered. The government took this as an advantage and made great use of the available workforce so as to improve its economy. How India used entrepreneurship to improve its economy India is endorsed with people of different cultures. When these people meet, they lead to exchange of commodities hence entrepreneurship. This entrepreneurship was so intense that India was ranked number two globally in terms of entrepreneurship in the year 2002(Srivastava 2). This improvement was brought about by liberalization and the installation of good information systems. Through this, the country tried by all mea ns to attract investors so as to be able to compete well globally. For example, most nations of the world prefer outsourcing services from India, since they know they will definitely get quality and efficient work. The fact that India is among the developing countries, its economy is greatly influenced by globalization. Apart from introducing new business opportunities, globalization may lead to decline of a nation’s economy if does not favor that nation. India also has a big population which is mostly characterized by hardworking businessmen (Srivastava 1). The businessmen from India were able to spread all over the globe in a bid to do business. This improved the economy since the foreign exchange went back to the country hence increasing its gross domestic product which eventually led to the rapid growth in its economy. Some of the factors hindering entrepreneurship in India include; the lack of capital and support from the government, poor infrastructure and unwelcoming s ocial attitudes. So at to greatly improve the economy of India, these factors have to be put into consideration and dealt with immediately. The government can help in this by subsidizing the duty to be paid by the entrepreneurs. The government can also assist in improving the country’s infrastructural condition hence making business favorable.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Approaches India and China took to achieve the fast development in economies specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Conclusion A comparison between the two countries indicates that China seems to be more aggressive in terms of rejuvenating its economy as compared to India. This is easily depicted by the measures China undertakes so as to reform the economy (Dana 87). The other reason is the mere fact that China wants to overtake the United States of America which for a long time has been known to be the best economy in the world. If China c ontinues in the same way, there is a likely hood that it might overtake the United States of America. However, both countries can be said to have had rapid growth in their economies despite the different approaches they used. Both economies have impacts on the whole world at large though China seems to hold a bigger part because of the many investors it has. India’s development in their economy affects a great portion of the global nations because of its entrepreneurs that are distributed globally. Works Cited Arora, V. (2005). China’s Economic Growth: International Spillovers. Journal of Economics, pp. 52- 109. Chow, G. (2005). Globalization and China’s Economic and Financial Development. New York. Wadsworth Publishing. Dana, L. (2000). Creating entrepreneurs in India. Journal of Business Management vol 38, pp 86-91. Hertel, T. (2004). Global Impacts of China’s Economic Growth. California. Barnes Noble. Srivastava, K. â€Å"Benefiting from Social Entre preneurship and Social Business in India† 2009. Web.Advertising Looking for essay on business economics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More This essay on Approaches India and China took to achieve the fast development in economies was written and submitted by user Kenna Murphy to help you with your own studies. You are free to use it for research and reference purposes in order to write your own paper; however, you must cite it accordingly. You can donate your paper here.

Friday, March 6, 2020

Hypoxia and Aviation

Hypoxia and Aviation Introduction The paper presents a review, analysis and a study on hypoxia faced by pilots at higher altitudes. The problems faced by pilots of commercial flights and the ways and means of dealing with them with the use of technology used in military planes will be the point of discussion and focus.Advertising We will write a custom assessment sample on Hypoxia and Aviation specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The usage of technology that minimize the conditions of hypoxia at higher altitudes and reduction of its negative effects on pilots who deal with the decision-making process while flying will be analyzed, and recommendations will be given. Literature Review Hypoxia and Flying One of the foremost things of the primary requirements of humans is air. The lack of air, most specifically oxygen leads to hypoxia. Initially, hypoxia has been reported at high altitudes on mountains by mountaineers and after the invention of aero planes, the p ilots and flight attendants are experiencing the effects of hypoxia and are feeling stressed. This can be termed as ‘decompression sickness’ (Aronson K.S; 1991, 26) and has been first recognized or occurred in 1841. According to Aronson K.S (1991, 26) French mining engineer M. Triger ‘noticed symptoms experienced by miners after working in deep mine shafts’ (Aronson K.S; 1991, 26). Number of workers had been prone to joint pains and became vulnerable to paralysis. However, the same sickness can be felt in a reverse manner, which can be known as hypoxia, when pilots fly in the air in a plane. While they fly in the air, they experience decompressed air and don’t have enough oxygen in the air, they breathe that is required for normal metabolic activities of the body. Though the effects of hypoxia are not the same in different pilots, but it cannot be ignored as the effects are noticeable. In this regard, Aronson K.S (1991, 26-27) mentions about Paul Ber t who is famous with the name ‘father of altitude physiology’. As per the information provided about Paul Bert’s observations, though the commercial flights flying at a height of around 20,000 feet, with the pressurized atmosphere, still there is a lack of pressure of oxygen as the pressurization is only enough if the aircraft flies at 8,000 feet. That means the commercial aircrafts are flying at a height of around 20,000 feet with the pressurized atmosphere that suits the altitude of 8,000 feet, which results in hypoxia in pilots and flight attendants.Advertising Looking for assessment on health medicine? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Aronson K.S (1991, 28) explains that when one goes to 18,000 feet above the sea level, the atmospheric pressure will be reduced to half of the standard pressure of one atmosphere. That means the oxygen availability also decreases by half of the amount that is ava ilable at the normal atmospheric pressure at sea level. Consequently, the pilots and flight attendants who face this situation almost daily suffer from hypoxia (Aronson K.S: 1991, 25-28).1 Thus, pilots and flight attendants are mostly associated with hypoxia. Though the commercial air craft cabins do have enough induced pressure for the safety and health of passengers and crew, the hypoxia depends on altitude. According to Sharma L (2007), at an altitude of 8,000 feet, people in flight may experience mild hypoxia (Sharma L; 2007), even in the presence of the pressurized atmosphere. That means the pressurized atmosphere is lacking oxygen, and it is necessary to pressurize the flight interiors with oxygen. Exposure to hypoxia can be considered into two categories. Simply being exposed to hypoxia and working in the atmosphere of hypoxia. Pilots and flight attendants do work in the hypoxia atmosphere, and it may result in headache and loss of memory, which may affect future working stat us of pilots. The hypoxia may lead to stress, headache, backache, disturbed sleep, hearing problems and so on. Hence, ‘the nature and extent of physical/physiological problems and discomforts experienced by pilots’ (Sharma L; 2007) need to be examined, and a study is necessary to decide on the cause for the problems and difference from the normal state they are facing while in and after the flying hours. It is necessary to know about the variation of effects of hypoxia if any on the persons depending on their age and sex. As the effects of hypoxia may or may not present for a long-time, it is necessary to conduct tests on the pilots regarding hypoxia for each flight or in some airlines, they test pilots for the effects of hypoxia before each flight (Sharma L: 2007)2 so that necessary medication could be given.Advertising We will write a custom assessment sample on Hypoxia and Aviation specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More How ever, according to Good W.A (1991, 104) the performance of the pilots might be degraded with ‘both prescribed and over the counter medications as well as by the medical conditions for which they are taken’ (Good W.A; 1991, 104). Normally, the medicines of hypoxia are sedative, tranquilizer or antihistamine. These medicines make a pilot ‘much more susceptible to hypoxia’ (Good W.A; 1991, 104) and hence it is necessary for the pilots to minimize the use of over the counter medicines. In addition to the above precautions alcohol can impair the pilot even many hours after its consumption and digestion due to hangover. The impairment of pilot may cause flight accidents and some of the major accidents give ground to the argument that hypoxia may be the reason for the inability that caused the accident. For example, two accidents at Dallas and Fort Worth involving Delta Airlines alongside the accident in Denver by the flight of continental airlines proved that the pilots are the cause for the fatal happening, and hypoxia may be the reason for it. Another accident in Washington DC due to Air Florida flight, alongside the crash of North West flight in Detroit could be some more examples, where pilots are blamed for the happenings, and hypoxia may be a cause for it. Hence, one cannot rule out the role of hypoxia in flight crashes as it impairs the pilots’ ability to deal with the situation (Good W.A: 1991, 104-105).3 Pressurized Atmosphere and Hypoxia As hypoxia affects the ability of the pilot to deal with the adverse situations, modern aircraft are capable of operating at very high altitudes. The capability is due to the attempt to prevent hypoxia with the pressurized atmosphere. However, due to any unforeseen circumstances as if ‘sudden loss of cockpit pressure presents a life threatening hypoxia situation, requires an immediate response’ (Lindeis A.E, Fraser W.D Fowler B; 1997). To deal with the above-mentioned situatio ns of rapid decompression situations that lead to hypoxia, the modern military aircrafts are having a system that gets the plane down to deal with the decompression and can be provided for commercial aircrafts also in the future.Advertising Looking for assessment on health medicine? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More The rapid get down of the plan in the condition of decompression is to minimize the effect of or slow down the onset of hypoxia by descending to a safe altitude, where the decompression at higher altitude could be controlled. To do this with commercial aircrafts also, a series of experiments had been done to reduce the impairment of pilot performance due to rapid de-compression. However, there exists severe hurdle to these experiments as to measure the performance of a pilot in these circumstances is very difficult as it depends on physiological state of the pilot. To minimize the physiological problems of pilots, the system has two features. One is related to breathing and another to put enough pressure on the body. The breathing system is known as positive-pressure breathing (PPB) through a mask. The second feature that consists of a jerkin with inflatable bladders puts pressure on limbs, chest, lungs and abdomen thus minimizing the effect of decompression or hypoxia. The PPB is t o delay the collapse of blood circulation system and hypoxia as well. The main hurdle to extend the usage of this system to commercial flights also is because it is necessary to provide these suits and masks to all the passengers, which is commercially not viable. However, the present review is regarding the effect of hypoxia on pilots, its consequences and ways and means of minimizing or avoiding it, the ‘first aim of the experiments was to determine the degree of performance impairment under rapid decompression and the extent the PPB can help in reducing it. The hypoxia may result in affecting the ‘visual serial choice reaction time (SCRT) task of the pilots, which may prove fatal and thus immediate reduction of hypoxia is necessary to avoid accidents in commercial planes. In addition to that Lindeis A.E, Fraser W.D Fowler B (1997) explains that the possible causes of performance deficit indicate hypoxia as it decreases the arterial blood oxygen saturation. This decre ase in saturation may result in slowing of reaction time for pilots and may result in accidents. Hence, hypoxia and its effects are to be studied to provide more comfortable and safety measures for pilots to reduce the contexts of performance deficits while flying (Lindeis A.E, Fraser W.D Fowler B: 1997).4 Conclusion: The literature review concludes that the hypoxia results in impairment of the pilot and may affect his/her decision making capability. Hence, it is necessary to contemplate about the safety measures that avoid the effects of hypoxia on pilots and minimize the negative effects on decision making capability. Methodology The methodology involved in this paper is a qualitative analysis of the topic with the help of available literature. The analysis has been supported by literature review, which provided enough background for the aspects that should be considered during analysis. The review starts from finding of effects of hypoxia to the effects of it on pilots and fligh t attendants and the measures that need to be taken to minimize or reduce it. The technology that helps in minimizing the effect of hypoxia and the possibility of usage of it has been reviewed, and the analysis will take place according to the aspects and conclusion of the review and as per the necessities of pilots, which help in reducing flight mishaps and improve air safety. Analysis/Discussion As far as the effects of hypoxia are considered, the ‘provision of the pilot against high sustained accelerations, against hypoxia’ (AEAT; 1993, 2) needs to be considered. The decompression effects at high altitude could be minimized by the technology that provides breathing gas. The breathing air can be provided from ‘engine bleed air. To do this, ‘molecular sieve oxygen generator, which works on pressure breathing on exposure to acceleration( (AEAT; 1993, 2) is necessary as it provides not only oxygen necessary to breathe comfortably but also the minimum pressure necessary for the body to be normal at high altitudes, which result in decompression. That means to avoid the state of decompression and lung collapse; there should be a system in the cabin that provides pressure and oxygen respectively. To do so, protective garments are necessary as the mask provides oxygen for lungs and garment exerts enough pressure on the body in a decompressed atmosphere. In addition to that it is necessary to provide inward relief to the pilots as they experience suffocation due to lack of supply of oxygen. The cabin and other places in an aircraft need to have systems to replenish the back-up oxygen in case of decompression emergencies as the pilots may not take the right decision while they suffocate. The commercial plane makers can take a cue from the systems in war planes that provide ‘higher degree of protection and mobility’ (AEAT; 1993, 3) for the pilots. In this regard AEAT (1993, 3) explains about liquid conditioning to full coverage ant i g trousers, necessary for the pilots to face decompressed and hypoxia situations. However, the system and the garments provided to the pilots should be selected and made after taking into consideration functional characteristics. They are ‘operational life support, operational escape and survival, and personal’ (AEAT; 1993, 3). The operational life support should enable the pilot to take decisions regarding flight safety, which means the safety of passengers alongside self. The operational escape survival should consider the aspects that help the flight crew and passengers to escape in case of emergency. However, in commercial flights, operational life support is necessary as it is difficult to train the passengers regarding escape and survival attempts. However, operational life support equipment could be provided so that it could help the passengers also in the case of emergency. However, as the paper is about hypoxia and its effects on pilots and their decision mak ing, the operational life support for the pilots is of utmost importance. The oxygen masks and pressure breathing garments can provide with the necessary operational life support necessary in the case of decompression and hypoxia faced by the pilots (AEAT: 1993, 1-3).5 This is due to the fact that at high altitudes, ‘the human body experiences hypoxia when it tries to adapt to lower atmospheric pressure and reduced oxygen level as well’ (Penetar D.M, Friedl K.E; 2004, 272). This results in increased heart rate, cardiac output and respiration rate as it is necessary to ensure sufficient supply of oxygen to the body parts. To ensure that supply the above-mentioned activities will increase, and they return to the normal when the atmospheric pressure returns to normal. The changes in respiration, heart output and blood circulation result in change in the mood and it affects the physical and mental performance of the pilots. Hence, the safety measures and systems that are to be included in the flights should work in a manner to normalize the above mentioned increased activities. The increased heart output and blood pressure also results in a decrease of endurance of the body, and the consequence is the need of exercise performance. The decrease of endurance decreases the situation that allows to work and yet times may demand the days and weeks of exposure to enough oxygen. Hence, after every flight, it is necessary to examine the pilots for the status of endurance, physical fitness and mental stability as well. If this can be seen as an exaggerated response, they should be checked for the above features once in a stipulated period of time. This is because, Penetar D.M, Friedl K.E (2005, 273) explains that psychomotor performance would be degraded with the ascent of altitudes above 4,300 meters, and the accuracy of the decision-making process would be impaired. Penetar D.M et al (2005) further continues that there would be a delay in reaction and signif icant impairment of cognitive performance, which is necessary for the pilots while taking decisions during flight. One measure that can be taken to reduce hypoxia though not up to the desired extent is not to ascend rapidly to altitudes above 1,800 meters (6000 feet) as that may put the individuals at risk and if the pilots are put at risk whole flight will be at risk. Hence, the intensity of effect of hypoxia depends on rapidness in the initial ascent, and if it could be reduced the intensity of the effect of hypoxia also could be reduced. As a result, alongside the systems that deal with decompression and lack of oxygen, the rules and regulations should stipulate the slow ascent to delay and minimize the effects of decompression and hypoxia. Penetar D.M, Friedl K.E (2005, 274) further explains that aviation equipment needs to be designed to provide enough haemoglobin saturation to pilots. This could be helpful in hypoxic environment and these systems are widely used only in milita ry planes, but not in commercial flights. Hence, these systems need to be modified according to the usage of commercial flights and offered to the pilots so that they could deal with hypoxic conditions successfully and this also helps them to remain fit even after continuous and frequent exposure to hypoxic conditions. The systems that deal with decompression sickness also should be considered as ‘Air Force over the past 20 years, with thousands of simulated altitude exposures revealed a 41 percent incidence of decompression symptoms’ (Penetar D.M, Friedl K.E: 2005, 272-275).6 Conclusion The hypoxia is the worst situation that any pilot can face while flying and can be considered as a major concern in aviation industry. As the safety of the passengers depends on the decision making capability and physiological condition of the pilot and flight attendants, it is necessary to have systems that deal with hypoxia and decompressed atmosphere. The systems should provide opera tional life support to enable the pilot to perform the duties in conditions of decompression and hypoxia. The review and analysis concluded on the facts of development of systems that provide oxygen and pressure as well in the high altitudes for pilots. Recommendations It is necessary to provide oxygen and pressure in the cabin of the pilots to increase their decreased endurance due to decompression and hypoxia. To deal with hypoxia, the systems should provide oxygen for breathing. To deal with the decompressed atmosphere, the systems should provide pressure in the cabin so that the pilots can work in normal atmospheric pressure conditions. It is necessary to examine the pilots for their physiological conditions once in a stipulated period to find the negative effects of hypoxia on them if any. There should be institutional arrangements in aviation industry to deal with the decreased physical endurance of pilots. Reference List AEAT. (1993). SAFE Europe Symposium 1993. Aircraft En gineering and Aerospace Technology. 66 (1). Pp.2-4. Aronson K.S. (1991). Flight: The Physiological Stresses. In Sheila R. Deitz and William E. Thoms, eds., Pilots, Personality, and Performance: Human Behavior and Stress in the Skies. New York: Quorum Books. Pp. 25-28. Good W.A. (1991). The Post-Deregulation Pilot Job Market: Pilot Error or Personnel Economics?. In Sheila R. Deitz and William E. Thoms, eds., Pilots, Personality, and Performance: Human Behaviour and Stress in the Skies. New York: Quorum Books. Pp.104-105. Lindeis A.E, Fraser W.D Fowler B. (1997). Performance during Positive Pressure Breathing after rapid decompression up to 72000 feet. Human Factors. 39(1). Penetar D.M, Friedl K.E. (2004). The Physiology of Performance, Stress and Readiness, in James W. Ness, Victoria Tepe, and Darren R. Ritzer (ed.) The Science and Simulation of Human Performance: Advances in Human Performance and Cognitive Engineering Research. Volume 5. Emerald Group Publishing Limited. pp.267-305 Sharma L. (2007). Lifestyles, Flying and Associated Health Problems in Flight Attendants. Perspectives in Public Health. 127(6). Footnotes 1 Aronson K.S. (1991). Flight: The Physiological Stresses. In Sheila R. Deitz and William E. Thoms, eds., Pilots, Personality, and Performance: Human Behavior and Stress in the Skies. New York: Quorum Books. P. 25-28. 2 Sharma L. (2007). Lifestyles, Flying and Associated Health Problems in Flight Attendants. Perspectives in Public Health. 127(6). 3 Good W.A. (1991). The Post-Deregulation Pilot Job Market: Pilot Error or Personnel Economics?. In Sheila R. Deitz and William E. Thoms, eds., Pilots, Personality, and Performance: Human Behaviour and Stress in the Skies. New York: Quorum Books. P.104-105. 4 Lindeis A.E, Fraser W.D Fowler B. (1997). Performance during Positive Pressure Breathing after rapid decompression up to 72000 feet. Human Factors. 39(1). 5 AEAT. (1993). SAFE Europe Symposium 1993. Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology. 6 6(1). Pp.2-4. 6 Penetar D.M, Friedl K.E. (2004). The Physiology of Performance, Stress and Readiness, in James W. Ness, Victoria Tepe, and Darren R. Ritzer (ed.) The Science and Simulation of Human Performance (Advances in Human Performance and Cognitive Engineering Research, Volume 5). Emerald Group Publishing Limited, pp.267-305

Wednesday, February 19, 2020

Banking Regulation and Risks Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Banking Regulation and Risks - Coursework Example The banks are now on a constant quest to out-wind the effects of the global financial crisis and encounter a new business era. The change in the regulatory framework of banks has been observed globally. The practices of the banks of increased regulatory requirement have are hindered the banks from progressing (Ernst & Young, 2011). Hence, this report aims to highlight the effect of the global financial crisis on the regulatory framework of the banks. It will signify the need for the banks to alter the global banking landscape. This has become mandatory so that the system can run smoothly and performance can be optimized while developing capability to sustain any such economic shocks in future. SECURITIZATION The financial engineering based process of pooling certain types of assets so that they can be converted into interest bearing securities is called securitization. The asset in turn derives interest and principal payment for the individual who has purchased the securities (Jobst, 2006). This concept began in 1970’s in the US. The agencies which were backed by the US government pooled the home mortgages. By the 1980’s other assets which were primarily important for pooling were gathered and since then the market of securitization grew dramatically (Jobst, 2006). There was incremental growth in the residential mortgage funding through residential based mortgage securities (RMBS) in UK moved to ?257 billion from ?13billion (Wainwright, 2010). Following trend was observed across the years: (Wainwright, 2010) With the global financial crisis the stability of this concept was also widely impacted. This impact originated from the credibility of securitization conducted for the sub-prime mortgage loans. The poor credit origination, lack of regulatory efficiencies and inadequate methods of valuation proved to hurt the securitization severely. UK suffered as nearly 70% of the RMBS were given to foreigners who reverted to local markets (Wainwright, 2010) The concept of Securitization is also known as financial innovation. The need for securitization was realized to supply the customers with securitized bonds which were backed by sufficient assets. The surety that such bonds will never be subject to bankruptcy was a major factor which attracted the individuals towards it (Davis, 2011). USEFULNESS OF SECURITIZATION AND THE FINANCIAL CRISIS Businesses adopted securitization as source of funding for business on the basis of assets held by them. Banks also allured to the usefulness of securitization as it reduced the pressure of minimum capital requirement imposed as regulation (Jobst, 2006). Securitization was widely used in the US before the financial crisis. At the time of the global financial crisis it was observed that the asset based securities were primarily in the limelight of the investors’ portfolio. The securitization tool was asset backed and so it was widely used as collateral of the sale and repurchase agreements. T he asset based securities were also used for the issuance of the asset backed commercial paper. However, the benefits of securitization were enchased unduly that resulted in the crises. During the financial crisis banks were involved as financial intermediaries. When the banking system collapsed these instruments also collapsed as the banks couldn’t sustain the complex engineering introduced for excessive use of the process. This

Tuesday, February 4, 2020

Research the historical events and circumstances leading up to and Essay

Research the historical events and circumstances leading up to and involving the creation of the Film Production Code - Essay Example Free speech did not extend to film making industry and motion pictures. The industry was concerned over pointed profanity, suggestive or licentious nudity, inference of sex perversion, illegal trafficking of drugs, white slavery, sex hygiene and venereal diseases, scenes of actual childbirth and ridicule of the clergy. One of the films that were produced in the pre-Code period that accelerated the need for the code was the Sign of the Cross. In addition to being profane, proponents of the code believed that the Film Production Code would do away with evident scenes of nudity that made direct inference to sex and ridiculed the clergy (Dixon et. al., 2008). The code was abandoned since it outgrew its importance as TV technology encroached. Movies were faced with serious competitive threats. With televisions, Americans did not have to leave the comfort of their homes to watch moving pictures. Hollywood decided to offer something that could not get on TV broadcasts, and this was under more restrictive censorship code; Motion Picture Association of America. Thus Film Production Code was abandoned (Gilbert,

Monday, January 27, 2020

Effect of Leadership styles and Change Management

Effect of Leadership styles and Change Management Leadership experts agree that The most important factor which is being faced by leaders now and in the future are sensitivity to radical change and the experts also agree with the fact that radial change is the most important key. The result is a model of radical change describing the leadership styles best suited to the successful implementation of each stage in the change process. Using the Leadership Style Inventory (LSI), leaders can determine which stages of radical change they are equipped to handle. The key component of a successful leader is the proactive and responsiveness to radical change .Some experts in this field describes the qualities that should be there is a leader are that he should be flexible to change , now leaders should be open to novel alternatives and they should be willing to take greater risks. Now days leaders are more information seeker then information distributors as compared to before. Leader Style Focuses on Persuades by Makes changes Learned by Commanding Results Directing Rapidly Doing Logical Innovation Explaining Carefully Studying Inspirational Opportunities Creating Trust Radically Questioning Supportive Facilitate work Involvement Slowly Listening Now this above table is knows as Leader style inventory (LSI) which basically tells us about the main styles of different types of leaders which is their main focus , how to tend to approach their work , how they are able to make changes and how do they learn to do it. There are four main types of leader styles. The commanding style focuses on performance and has a short-term goal orientation. Commanders are highly productive and results oriented. They can be very effective when goal achievement is the primary focus. They learn better by their own successes and failures than by input from others. Other one is the logical style they tend to cover all the alternatives and they have long-term goals they tend to take decisions very carefully and they learn to do things by studying all the aspects. Third one is the inspirational style, which comes in those leaders who fore see future opportunities and develop meaningful visions by experimentation. And those who are more concerned with cu stomers and are more customer oriented is a specialty of supportive style leaders. They are involved as much as possible and in their view change is low by listening to each and everything what others have to say. Now radical change is done through five main stages which are planning, enabling, launching, catalyzing and maintaining. The way leaders handle work are categorized by these five stages some can be good at planning or initiating while other can be useful at monitoring and marinating. Now leaders who are versatile are known as strategic leaders. They know how to plan and organize things at the work place they know how to handle customers and stretch their employees imagination for developing and implementation of strategies. so leadership qualities are very important is change management . The five stages of a process, which are mentioned above, are very important and the leader has to adopt and cope with the change. Now in this article (Stephen Warrilow, 2010) stated that change management support those strategies which are people centric rather than totally process oriented and such strategies are successful which are based on this theory. This article is based on a research project which was held at Hawthorne Plant of western electric company in the US, now the project was not to examine the motivation styles or to see how leadership effects the whole process but they wanted to know that how environment plays an important role i.e. to check the environmental and physical influence of the workplace. The studies which came as a result they called it as the The Hawthorne Effect which basically means that psychological factors plays important role in the motivation and the improvement of the work quality of the employees and the Hawthorne effect also states that people would work better when they are allowed to socially interact witch each other and a supportive attention is given to them accordin g to them workplace is a social network where people come and interact with each other. There were three further conclusions which experts analyze from this effect which are as follow Social factors influence individuals production more rather than the individuals aptitude. There is a group life among the workers i.e. there is a group life and how the works tend to develop their relation with their superiors tend to direct the work and will carry out orders in the same manner. Work group norms affect the productivity So basically the leadership styles effect the productivity for instance better supportive attentions should be given to the employees. By applying some principles managing organizational change will be more successful. Now change management requires thoughtful planning and sensitive implementation but above all the main characteristics, which affects are consultation with and involvement of the people which are affected by the change. These factors are vital for any leader because they need to consult before they making any decision and involvement of other people are very important because if you are working in a team then it is very important that you take the whole team along with you individualism sometimes costs heavy. There is a difference is culture as there are some cultures that still promote individualism but most of the nations have understood the power of teamwork and they heavily reply on it. Now the managers should be encouraged to communicate face to face with their people too if they are helping one manage an organizational change. Email and written notes and extremely weak at conveying and developin g understanding. For organizational change that entails new actions, objectives and processes for a group or team of people, use workshop to achieve understanding, involvement, plans, measurable aims, actions and commitments now another main and important way of doing things in an organization is to encourage your management team to use workshops with their people too if they are helping you to manage the change. The leader should understand that people should be involved at all times, they should understand where the organization is at the moment, understand the future goals that where wants to be and the most important is to communicate, involve, enable and facilitate involvement from people, as early and openly and as fully as in possible. There are eight steps which are stated as John P Kotter eight step change model can be summarized as increased urgency, build the right guiding team, get the vision right, communicate for buy in, enpower action, create short term win which mean s that the goals should be set which are easy to reach and it is dont let up and lastly make change stick. Organizational culture and leadership and inter related experts have two approaches to the study of the cultural aspect in organization: cultural as an organizational variable an, then culture something which can be manipulated. So the leader himself can control the nature, direction and the impact of such manipulations. Now if culture can be seen as an integral part of an organization then everything is affected by the culture. In (Schein, 1992) observed that organizational culture and leadership and inter related and this relation can be seen by considering the organizational life cycle. So during the process of organization formation the founder of the company creates an organization, which reflects their values and beliefs. (Bass, 1985) demonstrated the relationship between leadership and organizational culture by examining different styles of leadership on culture. According to him there are two kinds of leaders one are transactional leaders which perform their duties and work w ithin the culture of the organization and second are the transformational leaders who frequently work towards changing the organizational culture in line with their vision. Findings show that the style of the leader effects performance, certain types of culture are linked to superior performance and culture and leadership are related, behavior and styles also play an important role in the leadership and the change management as the decisions are based on the leaders for that they have to diagnose the problem first then act according to it then understanding of the situational factors are very important because if the leader dont know where he wants to be and where he wants to take the organization then he will fail as a leader and organization will collapse as a whole. Good leadership is critical to a successful organization. Success comes from aiming high with the clear visions and communication that good leadership brings. The importance the executive attaches to leadership and development of leadership capacity is reflected in the leadership agenda set out in Ambitious, Excellent organization. The behaviors of leaders within organizations have been found to account for some of the organizations overall performance. The characteristics of a successful leader and ways of achieving Exemplary leadership. Challenge the process by looking for new ways of doing things. Inspire a shared vision by looking into the future and communicating the organizations goals to the rest of the group. Enable others to act by listening and encouraging others to participate. Model the way by first knowing the philosophy, goals and plan of the organization. Encourage others to grow by acknowledging and rewarding their accomplishments. Although present day leaders may think in terms of empowerment and team building, the fundamentals of leadership are integrating followers and helping them achieve the organizations common goal. In order for the organization to grow, there needs to be change. There are two things that need to happen in order for change to occur. First, many leaders need to be working together. Secondly, leaders need to break down or abandon the familiar way of doing things. Although this is often seen as the disruptive side of leadership, this process challenges others to go beyond their limits and bring to the organization new and innovative way of doing things. So we can conclude that leadership styles do tend to influence the performance of the organization and they way they tend to take those decisions effect the whole of the organization. This article reports a longitudinal study that examined mergers between three large Multi-site public-sector organizations. Facts are provided and used to examine the effect of leadership and change management strategies on acceptance of cultural change by individuals. In this article basically the great man theory of leadership is discussed according to which situation also plays a vital role in determining the leaders effectiveness to that and how different types of leader act in different situations. Theories of transformational leadership and organizational change emphasize that change is accomplished through the leaders implementation of a unique vision of the organization through powerful persuasive personal characteristics and actions designed to change internal organizational cultural forms This study attempts to identify the impact of three different leadership styles on the learning climate generated in the organization. The leadership styles studied are: benevolent or paternalistic style, critical style and developmental style. The impact variables studies include the extent to which they produce loyalty and dependence, resentment and counter dependence and learning, job satisfaction and morale. The study indicated that while benevolent style creates dependence and resentment, critical style creates resentment and it is developmental style that tends to creates learning and job satisfaction This article will present a conceptual framework of the various elements of organizational change in order to obtain a better understanding of the management of organizations. As such, the purpose of this article is to present an overview of strategic organizational change (SOC) and its managerial impact upon leadership, learning, motivation and productivity. Successful organizations show more positive than negative attributes. Successful organizations tend to focus on customers and their needs. They invest in ways to improve sales and provide superior service to clients, and they do not forget that their customers and their customers needs underlie their organizations existence.

Saturday, January 18, 2020

Notes for Top Girls

Top Girls by Caryl Churchill Copyright Notice  ©1998-2002;  ©2002 by Gale Cengage. Gale is a division of Cengage Learning. Gale and Gale Cengage are trademarks used herein under license. For complete copyright information on these eNotes please visit: http://www. enotes. com/top-girls/copyright eNotes: Table of Contents 1. Top Girls: Introduction 2. Summary  ¦ Act 1 Summary  ¦ Act 2 Summary 3. Caryl Churchill Biography 4. Characters 5. Themes 6. Style 7. Historical Context 8. Critical Overview 9.Essays and Criticism  ¦ The Importance of Angie in Top Girls  ¦ Feminist Drama: The Politics of the Self: Churchill and Keatley  ¦ De-realised Women: Performance and Identity in Top Girls 10. Compare and Contrast 11. Topics for Further Study 12. What Do I Read Next? 13. Bibliography and Further Reading Introduction Since its earliest productions, Caryl Churchill's Top Girls was regarded as a unique, if difficult, play about the challenges working women face in the contemporary b usiness world and society at large.Premiering on August 28, 1982, in the Royal Court Theatre in London before making its New York debut on December 28, 1982, in the Public Theatre, Top Girls won an Obie Award in 1983 and was the runner-up for the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. The play is regularly performed around the world and has quickly become part of the canon of women's theater. Top Girls helped solidify Churchill's reputation as an important playwright. Critics praise Top Girls for a number of reasons.Churchill explores the price of success paid for by the central character, Marlene, while using unusual techniques including a nonlinear construction, an overlapping dialogue, and a mix of fantasy and reality. The last occurs at a dinner party celebrating Marlene's promotion, which is attended by five women from different times in history, literature, and art. The dinner party is the Top Girls 1 first scene of the play and, to many critics, the highlight of Top Girls. Churchill br ings up many tough questions over the course of the play, including what success is and if women's progress in the workplace has been a good or bad thing.While many critics compliment the play on its handling of such big ideas in such a singular fashion, some thought Top Girls was disjointed and its message muddled. As John Russell Taylor of Plays & Players wrote, â€Å"Like most of Churchill's work, it is about nothing simple and easily capsulated. † Summary Act 1 Summary Act 1, Scene 1 Top Girls opens in a restaurant where Marlene is hosting a dinner party for five friends. She has recently been promoted at work. The five guests are all women that are either long-dead or are fictional characters from literature or paintings.The first to come are Isabella Bird and Lady Nijo. Nijo and Isabella discuss their lives, including their families. Dull Gret and Pope Joan, who was elected to the papacy in the ninth century, appear. The conversation wanders between subjects, including religion and the love lives of Nijo and Isabella. Isabella goes on about her travel experiences. Joan talks about dressing and living as a male from the age of twelve so that she could further her education. Marlene proposes a toast to her guests. They, in turn, insist on toasting Marlene and her success. Joan relates her disturbing story.While she enjoyed being the pope, she also had a discreet affair with a chamberlain and became pregnant. In denial about her state, she gave birth to her child during a papal procession. Joan was stoned to death, and her child, she believes, was also killed. While Joan relates her story, Nijo talks about her four children being born, and only being able to see one of them after having given birth. Isabella talks about how she never had children. Marlene wonders why they are all so miserable. The final guest arrives. She is Patient Griselda, a character in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales.Griselda tells her story. Though she was a peasant gir l, she was asked to be the wife of a local prince, but only if she obeyed him without question. Griselda agreed, though it later meant losing the two children she bore him—they were taken from her as infants. Then Griselda was sent back to her father with nothing but a slip to wear. Her husband called her back to help him prepare for his next wedding to a girl from France. The girl was her daughter—all this was a test of her loyalty. He took Griselda back, and the family was reunited. Marlene is upset by Griselda's tale.Nijo is also perturbed because her children were never returned to her. Gret finally speaks up about her journey through hell, and how she beat the devils. The scene ends with Isabella talking about the last trip she took. Act 1, Scene 2 The scene opens in the Top Girls employment agency in London. Marlene is interviewing Jeanine for possible placement. Marlene tells Jeanine that if she is to be sent on a job with prospects, she must not tell them that she is getting married or might have children. Marlene evaluates Jeanine and suggests jobs based on her perception of Jeanine's future.Act 1, Scene 3 This scene takes place at night in Joyce's backyard in Suffolk. Joyce is Marlene's elder sister. Joyce's sixteen-year-old daughter Angie and her twelve-year-old friend Kit are playing in a shelter they built in the backyard. Joyce calls for Angie, but Angie and Kit ignore her until she goes back into the house. Angie says she wants to kill her mother. Introduction 2 Angie and Kit discuss going to the movies. Kit gets mad at Angie when she talks about dumb stuff. Angie desperately wants to leave home. Kit believes they should move to New Zealand in case of a war.Angie is indifferent because she has a big secret. She tells Kit she is going to London to see her aunt. Angie believes that Marlene is really her mother. Joyce sneaks up on them. Joyce will not let them go to the movies until Angie cleans her room. Angie leaves, and Kit informs Joyce that she wants to be a nuclear physicist. When Angie returns, she is wearing a nice dress that is a little too small for her. Joyce becomes angry because Angie has not cleaned her room. It starts to rain. Joyce and Kit go inside. Angie stays outside. When Kit returns to get her, Angie threatens to kill her mother again. Act 2 SummaryAct 2, Scene 1 It is Monday morning at Top Girls. Win and Nell, who work at the agency, are talking. Win tells Nell about her weekend that she spent at her married boyfriend's house while his wife was out of town. The conversation turns to office gossip. They consider changing jobs as Marlene has been promoted over them, limiting their prospects. Still, Nell and Win are glad Marlene got the job over another coworker, Howard. Marlene enters late. Win and Nell tell her that they are glad she got the promotion rather than Howard. Win interviews Louise, a forty-six-year-old woman who has been in the same job for twenty-one years.Louise has done everyt hing for her company, but has spent twenty years in middle management with no opportunities to go higher. Win believes there will be only limited openings for her. In the main office, Angie walks up to Marlene. Marlene does not recognize her at first. Angie has come to London on her own to see her aunt, and she intends to stay for a while. It is not clear if Joyce knows where Angie is. Angie becomes upset when Marlene does not seem like she wants her to stay. Their conversation is interrupted by the appearance of Mrs. Kidd, Howard's wife. Mrs.Kidd is upset because Howard cannot accept that Marlene got the promotion to managing director over him. In part, he is disturbed because she is a woman. Mrs. Kidd wants Marlene to turn down the promotion so that he can have it. Mrs. Kidd leaves in a huff when Marlene is rude to her. Angie is proud of her aunt's saucy attitude. In another interview, Nell talks to Shona, who claims to be twenty-nine and to have worked in sales on the road. As th e interview progresses, it becomes clear that Shona has been lying. She is only twenty-one and has no real work experience.In the main office, Win sits down and talks to Angie, who was left there by Marlene while she is working. Angie tells Win that she wants to work at Top Girls. Win begins to tell Angie her life story, but Angie falls asleep. Nell comes in and informs her that Howard has had a heart attack. When Marlene returns, Win tells her about Angie wanting to work at Top Girls. Marlene does not think Angie has much of a future there. Act 2, Scene 2 This scene takes place a year earlier in Joyce's kitchen. Marlene is passing out presents for Joyce and Angie. One of the gifts is the nice dress that Angie wore in act 1, scene 2.While Angie goes to her room to try it on, Joyce and Marlene are talking. Joyce had no idea that Marlene was coming. Marlene believed Joyce had invited her there. Angie made the arrangements, lying to both of them. Angie returns to show off the dress. Th ey chide her for her deception. Angie reminds her that the last time she visited was for her ninth birthday. Marlene learns that Joyce's husband left her three years ago. It is getting Act 1 Summary 3 late, and Angie is sent to bed. Marlene will sleep on the couch. After Angie leaves to get ready for bed, Joyce and Marlene continue their discussion about their lives.The sisters' conversation turns into an argument. Marlene believes that Joyce is jealous of her success. Joyce criticizes the decisions Marlene has made, including leaving her home and giving up her child, Angie. Marlene offers to send her money, but Joyce refuses. Marlene is excited about a future under the new prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, while Joyce cannot stand the prime minister. They talk about the horrid life their mother led with their alcoholic father. It becomes clear the sisters have very different views of the world. As Marlene nears sleep on the couch, Angie walks in, having had a bad dream. Frightenin g,† is all she says. Biography Churchill was born on September 3, 1938, in London, England, the daughter and only child of Robert Churchill and his wife. Churchill's father was a political cartoonist; her mother worked as a model, secretary, and actress. Churchill began writing stories and doing shows for her parents as a child. After spending her early childhood in London, the family moved to Montreal, Quebec, Canada, in about 1949, where Churchill spent most of her formative years. Caryl Churchill In 1956, Churchill returned to England to enter Oxford University.While studying literature at Lady Margaret Hall, she began writing plays for student productions. Her first play was written as a favor for a friend. One of Churchill's student plays, Downstairs, won first prize at the National Student Drama Festival. Churchill graduated with her B. A. in 1960, intending to become a serious writer. Act 2 Summary 4 Family matters stymied her plans. In 1961, Churchill married David Har ter, a lawyer, and had three sons over the next decade. Still, she managed to write about thirty radio dramas, usually one act, throughout the 1960s and early 1970s, as well as some television plays in the early 1970s.Many of these early plays were related to her life experiences and were somewhat depressing, but they did garner Churchill some notice for her writing abilities. In the early 1970s, Churchill turned to theater, initially writing for fringe theater groups. Owners, a tragic farce, was her first major play, produced by a fringe group in London in 1972. This production led to her position as a resident playwright at the Royal Court Theatre from 1974 to 1975. Churchill began exploring feminist ideas with her first play for the Royal Court, Objections to Sex and Violence (1974).Churchill continued to explore feminism with Vinegar Tom (1976). She wrote the play both with the help of and for Monstrous Regiment, a feminist touring-theater company. Vinegar Tom and Light Shining in Buckinghamshire (1976) use historical settings to discuss repression. These plays garnered Churchill more attention and critical praise. In 1979, Churchill's Cloud Nine had its first production. This was her first big hit, and had a long run on both sides of the Atlantic. The Obie Award-winning play was set in the Victorian era, with the roles played by their physical opposites. For example, a man played an unhappy and unfulfilled wife.Critics enthusiastically praised Churchill's originality. Churchill followed this success with Top Girls (1982), a play about feminism and the price of success for women. Though some did not regard it as highly as Cloud Nine, the play cemented her reputation and won her another Obie. Churchill wrote plays on a variety of topics throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Fen (1983), which focused on female tenant farmers, won her the Susan Smith Blackburn Prize. In 1986, she wrote Serious Money about the London stock exchange. Churchill used music and dialogue that rhymed in the play, which also won the Blackburn Prize and many other awards.She continued to experiment with technique in Mad Forest (1990) and The Skriker (1994), which incorporated music and dance. Though Churchill's output decreased in the late 1990s, she continues to push the limits of traditional dramatic forms using dance and music, and other unexpected constructions. Characters Angie Angie is the sixteen-year-old adopted daughter of Joyce. Angie is the biological daughter of Marlene, but was given up by her birth mother, who was only seventeen at the time and had career ambitions. In act 1 of Top Girls, Angie realizes that Marlene is her mother, though she has not been told directly.Both Marlene and Joyce do not think highly of Angie and believe her future is limited. She has already left high school with no qualifications. She was in remedial classes, and her best friend is Kit, who is four years younger. Angie is frustrated and wants to murder her mother. Instead, sh e runs away to visit her aunt in London and hopes to live with her. Previously, Angie tricked Marlene into visiting her and Joyce. Angie is Marlene's embarrassment, but she is also one of the things that links her to the women at the dinner party. Isabella Bird Isabella is one of Marlene's dinner party guests in act 1, scene 1.She is a Scottish woman who lived in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries and who traveled extensively later in life. In Top Girls, Isabella is the first to arrive at the party and dominates the conversation in a self-absorbed manner. She talks on and on about her travels; her complex relationship with her sister, Hennie; her clergyman father, and husband; her illnesses; religion; and her lack of children. While Isabella does listen and respond to the others, she mostly tries to figure out her own life and what it meant. She could never be as good as her sister, but her adventures made Biography 5 er happy. Isabella is one of the characters who he lps Marlene define herself. Dull Gret Dull Gret is one of Marlene' s dinner guests in act 1, scene 1, and the third to arrive. Gret is the subject of a painting by Brueghel entitled â€Å"Dulle Griet. † In the painting, she wears an apron and armor and leads a group of women into hell to fight with devils. Gret is generally quiet through most of the dinner, answering questions only when directly asked and making a few comments on the side. Near the end of the scene, Gret makes a speech about her trip to hell and the fight with the devils.Like all the dinner guests, Gret's story reflects something about Marlene's life. Jeanine Marlene interviews Jeanine for placement by Top Girls in act 1. She is engaged and is saving money to get married. Marlene is not supportive of Jeanine's ambitions to work in advertising or in a job that might have some travel, but she categorizes her according to what Marlene believes she will be able to accomplish. Pope Joan Pope Joan is one of Marlene 's dinner party guests in act 1, scene 1, and the fourth to arrive. She is a woman from the ninth century who allegedly served as the pope from 854 to 856.Pope Joan is somewhat aloof, making relevant, intelligent declarations throughout the conversation. When the topic turns to religion, she cannot help but point out heresies—herself included—though she does not attempt to convert the others to her religion. Joan reveals some of her life. She began dressing as a boy at age twelve so she could continue to study; she lived the rest of her life as a man, though she had male lovers. Joan was eventually elected pope. She became pregnant by her chamberlain lover and delivered her baby during a papal procession. For this, Joan was stoned to death.At the end of the scene, Joan recites a passage in Latin. Like all the dinner guests, Joan's life and attitude reflects something about Marlene. Joyce Joyce is Marlene's elder sister and mother to Angie. Unlike her younger sister, Jo yce stayed in the same area and social class she grew up in. Joyce is unambitious and unhappy. She was married to Frank, but she told him to leave three years previously because he was having affairs with other women. She supports herself and Angie by cleaning houses. Because Joyce seemed to be unable to have children, she adopted Angie as an infant when Marlene decided to give her up.But Joyce soon got pregnant and miscarried the child because of the demands of raising Angie. Joyce resents both Angie and Marlene, in part because of her miscarriage. She calls Angie a lump and useless. Marlene is too ambitious and clever for Joyce. Yet Joyce has pride. She will not take Marlene's money, and she does not cater to her crying. Joyce maintains her working class loyalty and stands her ground when Marlene starts to sing the praises of Margaret Thatcher. Despite such differences, Marlene and Joyce are very much alike.They both believe they are right and do what they must to survive in their different worlds. Mrs. Kidd Mrs. Kidd is the wife of Howard, the man who got passed over in favor of Marlene for the managing director position at Top Girls. In act 2, Mrs. Kidd comes to the office and tries to get Marlene to turn down the position. Mrs. Kidd hopes Marlene will understand how much it would hurt Howard's pride and livelihood. Marlene is not impressed by her pleas, and Mrs. Kidd leaves after insulting Marlene for being a hard, working woman. Kit Kit is the twelve-year-old best friend of Angie.Unlike Angie, Kit is clever and plans on being a nuclear Characters 6 physicist. The girls have been friends for years, though Kit gets annoyed by Angie's limitations. In some ways, Kit is a younger version of Marlene. Louise Louise is interviewed by Win for placement by Top Girls in act 2. Louise is a forty-six-year-old woman stuck in middle management who believes she has been overlooked for promotion and underappreciated by her present firm. Win is not particularly supportive of Louise's desires to use her experience elsewhere and does not offer much hope for a better position.Like Marlene, Win categorizes Louise according to what she believes Louise will be able to accomplish. Marlene Marlene is the central character in Top Girls. She is a successful businesswoman who has recently been promoted to managing director of Top Girls, an employment agency. To celebrate, she has a dinner party at a restaurant with five guests, all of whom are women who are either dead or fictional characters from literature and paintings. Marlene's own life shares some parallels with these women. Marlene's adult life has been focused on her career, to the exclusion of nearly everything else.She previously worked in the United States and has done well for herself. Marlene has little to no contact with her family. Her alcoholic father is dead, and her long-suffering mother is in some sort of home. Marlene does not get along with her sister Joyce, who has remained part of the wo rking class and lives in the same neighborhood where they grew up. Marlene let Joyce raise her daughter, Angie. Marlene became pregnant at age seventeen, and because the then-married Joyce did not have a child, she allowed her to adopt the baby. Marlene has as little respect and interest in Angie as Joyce does.Like the women she interviews at Top Girls, Marlene believes Angie's future is limited. Yet Marlene's own life is just as circumscribed, but in different ways. Her success has come at a high price, costing her both her empathy and her relationships. Nell Nell is one of the employees at the Top Girls employment agency. She is happy that Marlene got the promotion over Howard, but she has her own career ambitions and might want to find a job with better prospects. In the meantime, her boyfriend, Derek, has asked her to marry him, but she does not know if she will accept.Her career seems more important to her than the marriage. During the play, Nell conducts an interview with Shon a, whom Nell believes might be good for Top Girls. Nell is disappointed to learn that Shona has lied about everything on her application. Lady Nijo Lady Nijo is one of Marlene's dinner party guests in act 1, scene 1, and the second to arrive. She is a thirteenth-century Japanese courtesan to the Emperor of Japan. She later became a Buddhist monk. Like Isabella, Nijo is somewhat self-absorbed, though not to the same degree.Nijo tells the others about her life, including information about her father, her lovers, her four children (only one of whom she ever saw), symbolic clothing, and her time as a traveling monk. But she also listens respectfully to the stories of others and acknowledges her limitations. Nijo liked her silk clothing and easy life with the Emperor. By the end of the scene, Nijo is in tears. Like all the dinner guests, Nijo's life reflects something about Marlene's. Patient Griselda Patient Griselda is one of Marlene's dinner guests in act 1, scene 1, and the last to a rrive.She is a fictional character, appearing in ‘‘The Clerk's Tale’’ in Geoffrey Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, among other stories. As soon as she arrives, Marlene has Griselda tell her story. Griselda was a peasant girl who was asked to marry a local prince, but only if she would obey him without question. She agreed and bore him two children who were taken away from her while they were still infants. She did not question the decision. Her Characters 7 husband sent Griselda back home with nothing more than a slip to wear. She went without question.He sent for her to help him plan his second marriage to a young French girl. Griselda came back. At a pre-wedding feast, he revealed that the girl and her page/brother were their children and all these incidents were tests of her loyalty. Like all the dinner guests, Griselda's story reflects an aspect of Marlene's life. Shona Shona is interviewed by Nell for placement by the Top Girls agency in the second act. Shona tries to pass herself off as a twenty-nine-year-old woman with sales experience, which Nell believes at first.As the interview progresses, it becomes clear that Shona has been making up a story. She is really twenty-one and has no job experience. Shona is certain that she could handle high-profile jobs, but Nell does not believe her. Win Win is one of the employees at the Top Girls employment agency. Like Nell, she is glad that Marlene got the promotion over Howard, but she has her own career ambitions and might move on. She is relatively well educated and has previously lived in several different countries. Win spent the previous weekend with her married boyfriend at his house, while his wife was out of town.During the course of the play, Win interviews Louise for a job; she shares Marlene's callous attitude toward Louise. Themes Choices and Consequences Nearly every character in Top Girls has made or is in the process of making life-changing decisions with important consequ ences. The dinner party in act 1, scene 1 exemplifies this. Each of the historical figures has made a hard choice. For example, Pope Joan chose to live like a boy, and then a man, in public. When she became pregnant by her secret lover, the stoning death of her and her baby were consequences of her chosen life.Joyce chose to adopt Angie, which led to a certain life path. Joyce believes that she miscarried her own child because of the demands of raising Angie. Marlene also made several hard choices. She became a career woman who spent some time working in the States. Marlene is estranged from her family, including her biological daughter, Angie, and does not seem to have many close friends, female or male. Her dinner party in celebration of her promotion consists of women who are dead or do not really exist, not with friends or family. She has no love relationship.Marlene is very much alone because of her life choices. While her daughter Angie has already made two life choices dropping out of school at the age of sixteen with no qualifications, and running away to London to live with her aunt/mother—the consequences of these actions in her life are unclear. Success and Failure Success is an important part of Marlene's life in Top Girls, defining who she is and whose company she enjoys. The dinner party is meant to celebrate her promotion to managing director as well as the successes of her guests. Joan became the pope. Isabella traveled the world.Gret fought the devils in hell. Griselda survived her husband's extraordinary tests of loyalty. Marlene sees these women as successful, though they are not in her real, everyday life. Marlene's personal life is a failure because of her success in business. She has no real friends in the play, and she has not seen her sister or biological daughter in seven years. At the dinner party, she moans at one point, ‘‘Oh God, why are we all so miserable? † Yet, Marlene believes that Joyce is mostl y a failure because she did not grow beyond her neighborhood; instead, she got married and raised a child.Joyce cleans houses for a living, and she is not impressed by Marlene's life. Joyce does not really see her world in the same terms of success or failure. She does what is necessary to survive and to rear Angie. However, both sisters agree that Angie has no chance of being a success in life. Angie has no education, no ambition, and is regarded as dumb. The best she might do is Themes 8 menial work and marry. While this describes Joyce's life, both Joyce and Marlene perceive that Angie might not be able to take care of herself. This would be the ultimate failure in their eyes. They agree that one should support oneself.Class Conflict Marlene and Joyce's differing definitions of success stem in part from a class conflict. Marlene has moved beyond her working-class roots to a middle-class life by education and persistence. She holds a management position in a demanding field, an em ployment agency. She even lived and worked in the United States for several years. Marlene supports the political agenda of Great Britain's female prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, even though she is perceived as anti-working class. Joyce remains firmly working class, leading a life only slightly better than her parents.She works as a cleaning lady to support Angie. Unlike Joyce and Marlene's mother, who stayed with her alcoholic husband and had nothing, Joyce told her husband to leave when she could no longer take his controlling nature and numerous affairs. Joyce regards Thatcher as evil, comparing her to Adolf Hitler for her attitudes towards working-class people. Joyce believes that Marlene thinks she is too good for her. Marlene says she does not like working-class people, but she does not really include her sister as one of them. The pair never come to an understanding on class.Sex Roles and Sexism Throughout the text of Top Girls is an implicit discussion of what society exp ects women to be. Each of the guests at the dinner party defines womanhood in a particular era, either by what they are or by what they are not. Isabella, for example, could not live up to the standards of femininity defined by her sister, Hennie. Yet Isabella was a traveler who saw more of the world than most men. Marlene also breaks out of the traditional roles for women, by virtue of her career. While Marlene has benefited economically from her career, her disregard for sex roles has its problems.She is not married, and it does not seem like she is in a long-term relationship. Joyce does not really like her. Mrs. Kidd, the wife of the man who was passed over for the promotion that Marlene got, begs her to not take it. Mrs. Kidd believes that the upset Howard should not have to work for a woman. Further, Mrs. Kidd hopes that Marlene will give up the promotion because Howard has to support his family. Mrs. Kidd calls Marlene â€Å"unnatural† for her uncompromising stand on t he promotion and her attachment to her job. Marlene does not give in, but such sexism does not make her life and choices any easier.Style Setting Top Girls is a feminist drama/fantasy set in contemporary times. The action is confined to two places in England, London and Suffolk. The realistic action takes place in two settings. One is the Top Girls employment agency, where Marlene works. There, potential clients are interviewed, and Angie shows up, hoping to stay with Marlene. The other is Joyce's home and backyard, where Marlene visits and Angie and Kit scheme. The fantasy dinner party that opens Top Girls also takes place in London. (In many productions, the restaurant is called La Prima Donna. Though the dinner is clearly a fantasy because all the guests are dead or fictional, the setting is very real. Fantasy versus Reality In act 1, scene 1, Marlene hosts a dinner party with guests both long dead (Pope Joan, Lady Nijo, and Isabella Bird) and fictional (Dull Gret and Patient Gri selda). While Marlene listens to and guides the conversation—injecting only bits about herself—these five women share their stories. The party is ostensibly to celebrate Marlene's promotion at work, but she intends it to be a celebration of all their successes. Though Style 9 hese women have each achieved something they are proud of, success has come at a large price in their lives. The dinner party itself shows the tensions between fantasy and reality because the guests are not â€Å"real† to the rest of the characters in Top Girls, only to Marlene. Yet the ideas and problems brought up by the fantasy women are very real. These issues echo in the plot and dialogue of the rest of the text, adding another dimension to the tension between fantasy and reality. Time Top Girls is not a linear play, but one in which time is used in an unusual fashion. The last scene of the lay, act 2, scene 2, is the only part that takes place at a specific time in the story, about a year earlier than the other events. This flashback ties up some of the loose ends created by the story. The rest of the scenes, even the action within act 2, scene 1, do not have to take place in the order presented, though all are set in the present. The events are linked thematically, but not by a specific sequence of time. In addition, the idea of time is toyed with at the dinner party in act 1, scene 1. None of the guests can really exist at the same time, yet they share many of the same concerns.Multiple Casting Often when Top Girls is performed—including its premieres in England and the United States— several parts are played by the same actresses. Only the actress who plays Marlene, the central character in the play, has only one role. Thus guests at the dinner party are played by actresses who also play contemporary characters. Such casting decisions create visual links between seemingly disparate women. In the original production, for example, the same actress played Dull Gret and Angie, implying that these characters might have something in common.Similarly, another actress took on the roles of Pope Joan and Louise, drawing another parallel. This casting technique further emphasizes how alike the concerns of the historical characters and contemporary characters really are. Historical Context In the early 1980s, Great Britain was ruled by women. Though Queen Elizabeth II was only a royal figurehead, real political power was held by Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. A member of the Conservative Party, Thatcher had been elected on May 3, 1979, and proceeded to put her own stamp on British life over the next decade or so.She was reelected in 1983 and 1987, and held office until late 1990, when she received a vote of no confidence and was replaced by fellow Conservative John Major. Thatcher had been the longest-serving prime minister in Great Britain since the nineteenth century. To improve the British economy, Thatcher dismantled the social ist practices that were put in place in the post-World War II era. She privatized major industries, like coal mining and telecommunications, which had been run by the British government, and she cut down on the power of trade unions.Because Thatcher's revolution benefited the middle- and upper-classes and seemed to hurt the working- and lower-classes, she was very unpopular among the latter groups. Unemployment continued to rise, and by 1982, over three and a quarter million people were unemployed. With cuts in both welfare and other social programs, such people's lives were becoming much harder. Though the economy was strong and interest rates and inflation were down, real living standards had been falling slightly for several years; international trade was also down. In 1982, Thatcher and the Conservative party had some popularity problems among the general population.National morale was not particularly high until the Falklands War broke out. The Falkland Islands were a British p ossession in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Argentina. The group of islands are small and only about 1,800 people were living there. The territory was at the center of a dispute between Argentina and Great Britain for a number of years, and the two countries were in negotiations over them. In the spring of 1982, Argentina became impatient and invaded the Falklands. Great Britain responded and reclaimed the islands before Argentina quickly surrendered.Though there were approximately 243 British casualties, the victory Historical Context 10 improved national morale and the repute of Thatcher and the Conservatives. The popularity of the Labour party went down. Thatcher was but one symbol in the 1980s of powerful women. There was a concrete change in the position of working women. In Great Britain in the early 1980s, women made up forty percent of the labor force, and over sixty percent of women aged twenty to sixty-four were working. Marriage rates fell in the 1980s, after having remained stable for many years.Before that decade nearly every adult woman was married at some point. Those that did marry gave up working after having a child, although sometimes they went back to work after their children went to school or reached adulthood. Most women who worked were employed in poorly paid white-collar, service, and industrial occupations. Approximately seventy-five percent of women did personal services work, clerical work, retail work, or health, education, or welfare work. The number of professional women was still small, but more women were becoming lawyers than ever before.These professional women often had equal pay for equal work, but working-class women did not. Despite the success of Thatcher, many British women were anti-Conservative, though they did not necessarily support Labour either. To these women, Thatcher may have shared their gender, but her political prominence did not necessarily make her their heroine. Critical Overview Most critics agree t hat Top Girls is an intricate play; generally, they find much to praise in its themes, attitudes, and text. The play's depiction of women and feminism is particularly interesting to critics.Writing about the original London production, Bryan Robertson of The Spectator argued, â€Å"her play is brilliantly conceived with considerable wit to illuminate the underlying deep human seriousness of her theme. The play is feminist, all right, but it is an entertaining, sometimes painful and often funny play and not a mere tract. † Expanding on this idea, Benedict Nightingale of the New Statesman wrote, â€Å"What use is female emancipation, Churchill asks, if it transforms the clever women into predators and does nothing for the stupid, weak and helpless?Does freedom, and feminism, consist of aggressively adopting the very values that have for centuries oppressed your sex? † A scene from the 1991 production of Top Girls at London's Royal Court Theatre Writing about the same pro duction, John Russell Taylor of Plays & Players is one of several critics over the years who believed that the rest of Top Girls did not live up to the promise of the dinner party scene. He found the play disjointed, arguing that â€Å"the pieces in the puzzle remain determinedly separate, never quite adding up to more than, well, so many fascinating pieces in a fascinating puzzle. Critical Overview 11 When Top Girls opened in the United States a short time later, a few critics were dismissive of the play and Churchill's potential appeal to American audiences. Calling the play â€Å"confused,† Douglas Watt of the Daily News proclaimed, â€Å"Churchill can write touchingly and with a good ear for everyday speech about middle-class Londoners today. But while concern for ugly ducklings may be universal †¦ Top Girls is a genre piece likely to arouse even less interest here than Alan Ayckbourn's equally tricky, but infinitely more amusing, works about the English middle cla ss. Edith Oliver of the New Yorker was perplexed by certain aspects of the play. She wrote â€Å"Top Girls †¦ is witty and original, with considerable dramatized feeling, yet somehow never got to me, and I was never certain whether she was making one point with the whole play or a lot of points in its separate segments. † Later in her review, Oliver emphasized that â€Å"[d]espite my admiration of Miss Churchill's ingenuity, I was disappointed and at times puzzled—never quite certain, for example, whether the historical characters of the first scene were meant to be the prototypes of modern characters. † A majority of American critics commented on the uniqueness of certain aspects of Top Girls, but they were most concerned with its feminist theme and social meanings. For example, John Beaufort of the Christian Science Monitor called Top Girls â€Å"a theatrical oddity in which the long view of what has been happening to womankind's ‘top girls' combin es with a sharp look at contemporary women achievers and a compassionate glance at the plight of an underclass underachiever who will never know the meaning of room at the top. Apart from one cheap shock effect, Miss Churchill has written a thoughtful and imaginative theater piece. Along similar lines, T. E. Kalem of Time asks in his review, â€Å"Is the future to be divided between a smart, scrambling upper class of no-holds-barred individualists and a permanent underclass of poor souls who are unfit for the survival of the fittest? † An unnamed reviewer in Variety added, â€Å"If it's about male manipulation, Top Girls also pointedly involves the conditioned mentality of the sisterhood itself, with its inherited sense of role in a masculine or at least male-dominated world. The play seems to be saying that women historically have had themselves as well as sexist pigs for enemies. John Simon of New York believes the ideas in Top Girls have universal applicability. â€Å"Th is is not easy theater, but funny, fiercely serious, and greatly worth thinking about. Its aporias [insoluble contradictions] are not only pertinent to women, they also concern the entire, always incomplete, human condition. † Top Girls has continued to be performed regularly over the years. Most critics believe the play has withstood the test of time, despite specific references to British prime minster Margaret Thatcher and attitudes specific to the early 1980s.Of a 1991 revival in London, Paul Taylor in The Independent argued, â€Å"What continues to distinguish Top Girls is its cool, objective manner. The scenes in the job agency are almost too cleverly efficient in the way they expose the heartlessness the women have had to assume along with their crisp power-outfits. Churchill permits you to identify with the tricky plight of these characters but she does not ask you to like them. † Similarly, Alastair Macaulay of the Financial Times believes, â€Å"Both as theat re and as politics, Top Girls is exciting and irritating.The dialectic of its final scene, between the Thatcherite Marlene and her socialist sister Joyce rings true as you listen. The terms in which the sisters argue about Thatcherite politics have not dated. † Essays and Criticism The Importance of Angie in Top Girls Many critics who have commented on Caryl Churchill's Top Girls have focused their praise on the interesting characters and complexities of the scene that opens the play, act 1, scene 1's dinner party. The party is hosted by Top Girls' central character, Marlene, and is attended by five guests, all obscure figures from history, literature, and art.Ostensibly, the party is to celebrate the success of Marlene, who has recently been Essays and Criticism 12 promoted to managing director of Top Girls employment agency. The scene also defines many of the play's themes and dramatic tensions. There are a number of critics who share the opinion of Lianne Stevens of the Los Angeles Times. Reviewing a 1986 production of Top Girls in San Diego, California, Stevens writes, ‘‘outstanding performances †¦ cannot rectify the main defect in Churchill's play: Nothing that comes after is as interesting as having dinner with Pope Joan, Dull Gret, Lady Nijo, Patient Griselda and Isabella Bird. ’ There are, in fact, several aspects of the rest of Top Girls that are as interesting, mostly because of what has been laid out in the dinner party scene. One is the character of Angie, Marlene's sixteen-year-old daughter, whom she allowed her sister Joyce to adopt at birth. Angie plays as pivotal a role in the play as any of the dinner party guests. While there is no doubt that Marlene is at the center of Top Girls, and that her character presents hard and conflicted ideas about women, success, power, and employment in the early 1980s, Angie and the dinner guests help to define Marlene as much as Marlene's own actions and comments do.However, the d inner guests were chosen by Marlene, while Angie was an accident Marlene has chosen to have very little contact with and is dismissive of. Each of the dinner guests is an adult woman, though they are fantastic characters who do not really exist in the modern world inhabited by Marlene and the rest of the characters in the play. Marlene turns to them, not to any of the ‘‘real† people depicted in the play, when she wants to celebrate her promotion. While the guests are successful in their own, though not always obvious, ways, their success has come at a price.Lady Nijo suffered many degradations including not being allowed to raise her own children. Marlene is deeply troubled by the story of Patient Griselda, who was humiliated by her husband as a test of her loyalty to him, mostly because she was of a lower class. To get an education, Pope Joan led a life of deception as a male. Though she later became pope, it was her womanhood—her ability to get pregnant an d give birth to a child at an inopportune moment—that led to the murder which ended her life. Marlene's choice of guests reveals much about her.First, she does not have anyone in her real life to share her promotion with, suggesting an alienation from real women. Second, the loss of her child still weighs on her, either in her conscious, subconscious, or both. Lady Nijo, Pope Joan, and Patient Griselda all suffer the loss of children. Only Joan is rather indifferent to the death of her infant. Marlene inquires about Dull Gret' s children, clearly expressing her interest in the subject. Marlene's question after the one to Gret is rhetorical: â€Å"Oh God, why are we all so miserable? ’ There is a link between unhappiness and the idea of children and loss. Third, Marlene has no real interest in her own daughter, Angie, though they have more in common than Marlene does with her chosen guests. To understand the importance of Angie, Marlene's character must be better under stood. Marlene grew up in an unstable home. Her father worked in the fields, and had a problem with alcohol. Her mother suffered at the hands of her husband, often going hungry and being beaten. Her sister Joyce was older, and did not share either Marlene's need to escape or her intelligence.Despite her background, Marlene managed to create a good life for herself by working hard and apparently acquiring a decent education. She even lived in the United States for several years. The only flaw, the only thing that could have held her back, was when Marlene got pregnant at the age of seventeen. The situation was stressful, and Marlene was in denial for part of the pregnancy. Rather than allow Marlene to give the baby up to strangers, Joyce insisted on adopting Angie, in part because she had no children of her own.This is a long-standing point of contention between the sisters, though Joyce makes it clear that she would not have approved of any choice Marlene made in the situation excep t to have had an abortion early on or raise the child herself and not have tried to have a better life. Angie and related petty jealousies are at the heart of their conflict and thus at the center of Top Girls. Yet, Angie is a reviled character. Everyone around Angie dismisses her and believes she has no future. Joyce, her adopted mother, calls her ‘‘a big lump. ’ She believes Angie will have a hard time getting a job and her best bet in life is to get married, though she cannot imagine who would marry her. Joyce does admit at one point, ‘‘She's clever in her own way. ’’ Labeling her ‘‘thick,’’ Marlene, Angie's birth mother, tells one of The Importance of Angie in Top Girls 13 her coworkers, ‘‘She's not going to make it. ’’ She believes Angie's future career will be as a ‘‘Packer in Tesco,’’ nothing as accomplished as working at the employment agency run by Marl ene. Kit, her only friend and a twelve-year-old, says to Angie at one point, â€Å"Stupid f—ing cow, I hate you. She later tells Angie that she is not sure she even likes her. Kit amends that attitude by telling Joyce â€Å"I love Angie. † The way those around Angie talk about her, it seems like she is useless and incompetent. Joyce especially seems to hammer this idea home directly to Angie. Angie is definitely immature. She talks about being able to move objects with her thoughts, hearing a long-dead kitten in the backyard, and has only one friend, Kit, who is four years younger than her. She has ended her education in remedial classes at the age of sixteen.Yet Angie accomplishes much over the course of Top Girls, more than expected considering how she is talked about. Angie has her own equivalent of the dinner party in act 1, scene 3. She and Kit hide in a shelter that they probably made in Joyce's backyard. Kit, however, is a real person, unlike the unreal guests at Marlene's. Angie and Kit have a real, if tense, friendship. They make tentative plans to go to the movies. Angie expresses her frustrations to Kit, saying she wants to kill her mother. She tells Kit about her secret, that she believes Marlene is her mother.Angie also says that she will go to London to see her aunt. Kit does not really believe her, though, underscoring that Angie is constantly underestimated by those around her. Another success of Angie’s is going to London from Suffolk on the bus, and finding her way to Marlene’s work place in act 2, scene 1. Joyce and Kit do not think Angie could do such a thing on her own. But Angie wants to escape her life with Joyce and become a success. To that end, she goes to her aunt/mother and hopes to stay with her. Angie has the gumption to ask her aunt for help.She will even sleep on the floor of Marlene’s home to have this different, better life, like her aunt/mother. It also creates a situation where Marlene get s her child back, a key point brought up in the dinner party. Angie wants to be with Marlene, to be Marlene, and does what she can to make that happen. Angie wants to be a top girl. Angie’s first success, though the last in the play since it takes place in act 2, scene 2, is getting Marlene to visit her in the first place. The last scene takes place a year before the rest of the Top Girls.Angie lied to Marlene to get her to visit her and Joyce in Suffolk. She has not seen her aunt/mother since her ninth birthday party. Angie knows that Marlene has had good jobs and has lived in America, and she admires her tremendously. Angie appreciates that Marlene has escaped their neighborhood and become successful, just as Marlene admired that about her fantasy dinner guests. Angie may not have the education or the intelligence that Marlene has, but she wants to do something like what Marlene has done. In this scene, Marlene reveals the key to her success. She proclaims, ‘‘Ià ¢â‚¬â„¢m not clever, just pushy. ’ Angie has shown that she can be pushy as well over the course of the play, implying that she might have a better future than anyone imagined. In writing about a 1998 production of Top Girls in Los Angeles, California, Don Shirley of the Los Angeles Times argues, ‘‘Churchill painted a stark picture of Margaret Thatcher's Britain as a place where women could end up in either a cushy but heartless career or a dreary life in domestic servitude. This may sound broadly feminist, but the play finally emerges as a more specific attack on Thatcherite insensitivities towards the girls who ren't on ‘top. ’† Shirley includes Angie as one who is not on top, but does not see that she could be. Angie is a younger—perhaps dumber but no less ambitious—Marlene. Source: Annette Petrusso, in an essay for Drama for Students, Gale Group, 2001. Feminist Drama: The Politics of the Self: Churchill and Keatley Caryl Church ill's Top Girls (1983) and Charlotte Keatley's My Mother Said I Never Should (1987) are plays with an all women cast. Men, though present in the stories, are absent from the stage. They occupy emotional space but not physical space.At the very outset there is a defining of space, a creation of a feminist world. Feminist Drama: The Politics of the Self: Churchill and Keatley 14 Keatley deliberately kept the men offstage to provide a space for the women to interact among themselves, ‘‘to show the way women use language, silence and subtext when alone together’’; Churchill apparently does it for the purposes of sharing, for as Adrienne Rich has pointed out that unless women are prepared to share their ‘‘private and sometimes painful personal experience’’ it may not be possible to create a ‘‘collective description’’ of what is truly a woman's world.In both plays women from different generations and backgrounds meet together to share and to interact but with two major differences. Keatley's characters in the child-scenes are child characters and represent the same lineage whereas Churchill's characters represent several centuries, from the ninth to the present and have altogether different backgrounds.The moment women are placed centre-stage they begin to interact and introspect, to analyze and to criticize; they cease to look at themselves through the male gaze, instead they begin to problematize their conflicts and the involuntary processes of their bodies. By defining space in female terms, women are transformed from objects into subjects and their passive acceptance of gendered roles is turned into an analysis of socially imposed codes of behaviour. Plays by women need not be feminist, just as plays about women are not always so.But plays which concern themselves with women as subjects and explore their emotional realities acquire a feminist perspective. The sixties and the seventies witnessed the rise of women's theatre groups and collectives and a consciousness about women's roles. This was the beginning of a feminist theatre with, as already stated, overtly political aims. Women through exploring and talking about their experiences opened out their role confines, created female traditions and entered areas hitherto forbidden to them.Several all-women plays were also written. Megan Terry's Calm Down, Mother (1965) was a transformation exercise for women and hailed by Helene Keyssar as the first real feminist play, while her later Babes in the Bighouse (1974) was about women prisoners and closed spaces where violence became a natural inhabitant. Eve Merriam' s Out of Our Fathers' House (1975) was a projection of the struggles of exceptional women, while Wendy Wasserstein's Uncommon Women and Others (1977) examined the role conflicts in a lighter vein.Maria Irene Fornes's Fefu and Her Friends (1977) is located in the thirties and is a powerful statement about th e violence implicit in heterosexual relationships; it is as Schuler has pointed out ‘‘impossible to ignore that explicit critique of patriarchy’’ (226) present in the play. Marsha Norman's ‘night, Mother, coming out the same year as Top Girls (1983), is a tense kitchen drama about a mother and a daughter with the daughter at the end committing suicide behind a locked door. Plays with an all-women cast make a specific statement even before they put this female space to different and individual use.They discard supportive roles for women and provide them with the freedom to relate directly to each other rather than through sons and husbands, ‘‘Language, space and the body are loci for the woman playwright to dramatically challenge the images of women determined in dominant discourse’’ (Hart), Memory, history, the past are evoked for different reasons. Time too becomes an important factor, often being projected non-chronological ly. Both Top Girls and My Mother create hypothetical situations which are historically not possible but are rendered so spatially and proceed to become emotional questionings.Both are 3-act plays but while Churchill after an initial juxtaposition of the past and the present moves on, Keatley keeps on coming back to the childhood scene which is a conjunction of 1905, 1941, 1961 and 1979. Top Girls in the first act evokes the past, somewhat like Eve Merriam's Out of Our Fathers' House where six women are presented together in a ‘‘hypothetical conversation. † They act out both for themselves and each other the stories of their lives. It is a journey into selfhood, and at each step they need reassurance from their own elves. They belong to the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries, Caryl Churchill, however, builds on a wider canvas and the dramatic purpose of the bringing together of six women from different backgrounds and periods is very different. The first act of Top Girls is in the nature of a prologue where Marlene, a top executive in an employment agency is hosting a dinner for five other women, three of whom are from the Feminist Drama: The Politics of the Self: Churchill and Keatley 15 pages of history, and two from the world of male imagination.Pope Joan, a ninth century Pope who achieved this through cross-gendering, Lady Nijo an emperor's concubine and later a Buddhist nun, and Isabella Bird, a nineteenth century explorer are the three â€Å"real† women. Dull Gret, a woman from Breughel's 16th century painting and Patient Griselda from the pages of Petrarch, Boccaccio and Chaucer are the two others (Note the words ‘‘dull† and ‘‘patient’’). Each one of them—except Griselda—has in some way violated the social code as imposed upon them. Joan learnt Latin, ran away from home disguised as a boy and later became a pope.But yielding to passion, she conceives and is detected during chil dbirth. Male priests have fathered children, but she has never learnt to understand or live with her body, thus alienated from this most fundamental space she might own, she pays for it with death. Lady Nijo on the other hand accepts the code but renders it hollow by creating space for herself. Handed over to the Emperor as his concubine, she takes lovers to fulfill her emotional needs. Out of favour with the Emperor she takes holy orders as directed by her father, but instead of being confined in a convent, she walks the breadth and length of Japan.But she does this at the price of motherhood. Isabella Bird also has to sacrifice marriage and family life in search of adventure. Because she is a woman, she finds it difficult to accept the idea of living for herself alone and therefore occupies herself with good causes. As contrasted with these women from real life, who have individually made space for themselves, questioned patriarchal structures like religion, ownership, love and mo therhood, the two women from the world of imagination are limited in their projections.Griselda's life reads like a fairytale—a peasant woman married into the aristocracy, and children whom she had given up for dead restored to her later. The price of her marriage is unquestioning obedience to her husband's command which is first the taking away of her son and her daughter and later being turned out of her house. Griselda does not question her husband's right over her, nor does she resist his orders. Her case, like Nijo's, is one where motherhood has been reduced to an â€Å"institution’’ under male control (Rich). Dull Gret is also single minded like Griselda. If for Griselda it is surrender, for Gret it is anger.These five women have got together to celebrate Marlene's success and as they share experiences they question patriarchal structures either directly like Joan and Isabelle, or obliquely like Nijo, or silently through victimization like Griselda. Trave l is a major theme for Joan, Nijo and Isabella. They travel in their different dresses, Joan in her papal robes, Nijo in her silkgowns and later her nun's habit, and Isabella in her full blue trousers and great brass spurs. (Dress also specifies space. Masculine dress does not constrain the women's private space, though, in the long run, there is no social recognition of that space. Travel opens out new worlds and spaces. Their coming together in the first act provides â€Å"a dramatic genealogy of Marlene's historical community’’ (Keyssar). The second act is the in-between act with 3 scenes. The first and the third are located in Marlene's office, the second in Joyce, her sister's, backyard. The office scenes have two interviews inbuilt into them, one with Jeanine and the other with Louise, Marlene's two clients; a competitive scene between Nell and Win and Marlene's interactions with Angie and with Mrs. Kidd.The themes of these two scenes are a replay of the themes introduced in Act One—Jeanine who is torn between marriage and a career, Louise who at the end of twenty years finds herself sidetracked by younger men, Nell and Win who wish to go places both literally and figuratively but Marlene has occupied the place at the top and Mrs. Kidd who has come to plead for her husband who has been superseded by Marlene. Mrs. Kidd tells Marlene: â€Å"What's it going to do to him working for a woman? I think if it was a man he'd get over it as something normal. It's me that bears the brunt. †¦ I put him first every inch of the way. †¦ It had crossed my mind if you were unavailable after all for some reason, he would be the natural second choice I think, don't you? ’’ (58-59) In her view Marlene is abnormal in her determination to be at the top and she'll end up lonely and miserable. Feminist Drama: The Politics of the Self: Churchill and Keatley 16 The backdrop of the office room is confined and provides limited space wh ere competition and aggression and violation of territorial rights go hand in hand.The middle scene sandwiched between these two office scenes is in a backyard in a â€Å"shelter made of junk’’ by children. It is a hiding place, away from the taboos and restrictions of the adult world. Kit and Angie talk about running away from home, they talk about travel, about the reality of their menstrual blood which flows from hidden spaces and their love-hate relationship to the adult world. Later Kit seeks shelter from rain within the precincts of her friend's house while Angie herself is left outside with a feeling of rejection. The third act moves backwards in time. It takes place a year earlier than the second act.It is a confrontation scene between Marlene and her sister Joyce. They open out their past, the suppressed, sibling rivalry, Marlene's need to escape from her background, Joyce's support, the birth of Marlene's daughter Angie, and her adoption by Joyce, Joyce's mi scarriage, and her separation from her husband Frank. Women sacrifice their motherhood for a career; but at times they also have to sacrifice their marriage for their motherhood. Joyce is denied space within her marriage while Marlene is aware that men want her to turn into ‘‘the little woman’’ which she is not prepared to do.In all this it is Angie who feels confused and dispossessed. Keatley's play is also a three-act play with the first act having ten scenes and moving between 1905 and 1979. The second act is one uninterrupted scene located in 1982, and the third act is placed in 1987 diving back, towards the end, to 1923. There are five child-scenes spread over the play—Act I sc. 1, sc. 3 and sc. 8, and Act III sc. 3 and sc. 6 which act like a conjunction of events, like a voice from the past, like an abandonment of the chronological process. The movement of the play can be seen from the graph.The conjunction scene is shown as a circle with four different time streams flowing together. Covering four generations, it covers several