Thursday, October 31, 2019

Criminology Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Criminology - Essay Example However, more recent theories seek to front crime as caused by a multiplicity of causes, most of them inherent in the larger society. As per Croall (9), there is no one way of looking at crime in society that can fully explain why crime usually takes place. More so, Croall asserts that â€Å"there is no clear cut history of which have predominated in distinct periods although some have more resonance at particular historical moment† Sociological theories explain crime as caused by disconnect within society and/or lack of core tenets of moral living. The major sub-theories within sociological explanation of crime include strain theory, labeling theory, control theory, social theory, and critical theories. All these sociological theories tend to explain crime in the context of the social environment that essentially includes the family, work places, the school, and other areas of the community that people tend to live in and interact. The only way that these theories seem to dif fer is in the way they focus on different aspects of the social environment occupied. While some focus on individual differences in crime, others tend to look at crime as a larger end-product of group differences in society. They later try to look at distinction in criminal activities in distinct communities so as to explain the causes inherent in the neighborhood with a higher crime rate that are absent or minimal in the areas with lower crime rates. A new frontier in crime causation, however, seeks to combine a number of the above theories, thus creating integrated theories. According to Arrigo (17), this theory, in essence, shows a link between several of the sociological causes giving rise to crime causation. Sociological theorists, however, portray crime as result of the social environment within which individuals correlate with others. This is shown clearly in the sub-theories of sociological theory as evident below. Strain Theory Strain theory as sociological theory of crime causation explains crime as a product of the pressure imposed on individuals or groups in order to achieve certain goals. When people become upset, they might take part in criminal activities to offload their stress. In addition, they might take such step in order to try to free themselves from the strain they are going through. For instance, if other people constantly bully someone, he/she might take it off on a weaker target, or one might resort to theft to reduce financial pressures (Goode & Yehuda, 1994 p 97). An earlier proponent of the strain theory was Robert K. Merton who came up with a paradigm where crime causation is explained as occurring or taking place due to a blockade between institutional means of achieving cultural goals. Merton further elaborates the institutionalized means as education leading to a good job while the cultural goals are money, family, and a status in society. Robert K. Merton deviance typology Merton came up with the typology to show the various r elationships between institutionalized means and culturally accepted goals. The first group, according to Merton (1968), is that of those who accept both the institutionalized means and the culturally accepted goals. They are the conformists who struggle to attain the goals by following the means prescribed by society. The second group is that of the innovators.

Tuesday, October 29, 2019

Case Studies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Case Studies - Essay Example The key market players of the pharmaceutical industry are the companies originating from USA, Japan, Europe, China, and Brazil. The medicines manufactured by the leading pharmaceutical companies are prevalent across the globe. USA is regarded as the world’s largest market of pharmaceutical and is the also the world leader in the Bio pharmaceutical research. 80 Percent of the research and development in pharmaceuticals is conducted in the laboratories of USA (Select USA, 2013). However, USA is largely dependent on the import of generic drugs and 40 percent of the pharmaceutical is consumed in USA (Select USA, 2013). It is believed that the present market situation of Biologic, over the counter (OTC), and generic drugs reflect the potential of the pharmaceutical market (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2011). As per the reports of House of Commons, UK around 650 million prescriptions are prescribed by the general practitioners of United Kingdom (UK) itself (House of Commons, 200 5). The National Health Service which is one of the leading medical organizations of UK sells medicines worth ?7 billion every year and 80 percent of these medicines are manufactured by branded companies (House of Commons, 2005). In the UK the pharmaceuticals industry is regarded to be the most profitable sector after Finance and Tourism. Majority of the pharmaceutical company’s revenue is generated from the USA because it is the world’s largest free pricing market for pharmaceuticals. Marketing Environment Analysis The marketing environment analysis will help us in indentifying the factors that affect the company directly and indirectly. The macro environmental factors affect the activities of the company directly and the micro environmental factors affect the activities of the company indirectly. The micro environmental factors constitute of environmental factors like suppliers, distributors, competitors etc. The macro environmental factors constitute of demographic, economic, socio cultural, political, physical and legal factors. The PEST analysis will be instrumental in determining the external threats and opportunities faced by the pharmaceutical industry in the USA. Political Factors Department of Health The US department of health is a government body which regularly monitors the activities of the pharmaceutical companies. The main task of this government body is to scrutinize the license, clinical trials etc of the pharmaceutical companies. Economic The medicines manufactured and sold by the pharmaceutical companies are expensive because these companies incur huge amount of research and development costs. Post recession majority of the established pharmaceutical companies have closed down their research sites because the cost of research and development is too high and the profit earned by these companies is minuscule (The Guardian, 2013). It is observed that the most of the pharmaceutical companies are incurring losses due to the current economic slowdown (Gallagher, 2012). Socio Cultural Factors The sales of the medicines in the USA are largely influenced by the ageing population and the increasing obesity among the youth. Although, post recession the purchasing power of the common people has reduced the demand of the medicines and

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Disadvantaged groups in education and emergencies

Disadvantaged groups in education and emergencies This chapter first identifies groups or clusters who would be particularly vulnerable educationally in an emergency. This does not catalogue all vulnerabilities in these groups, but tries to restrict it to existing disadvantage which may be exacerbated by emergency or new vulnerabilities created by disaster. It then looks at ‘educational sites’ which are also vulnerable in themselves, or which might contribute to vulnerability. It draws attention to the intersection of multiple vulnerabilities, but also signals the notion of emergency as an opportunity. The chapter also draws attention to hidden or forgotten emergencies. 3.1.1 Gender-related disadvantage It would be commonly agreed that girls as a broad category are at greater risk during an emergency, because of traditional gender disadvantage. ‘Normal’ patriarchal cultures are strengthened during emergencies, as people seek comfort in routine relations, roles and hierarchies. If girls are routinely left without access to education, this is unlikely to change. Afghanistan, for example, is traditionally seen as a site of educational difficulties for girls (although in Kabul they currently attend schools and projects freely). The links of gender disadvantage with poverty and economic vulnerability are well documented (Mujahid-Mukhtar, 2008). Cultural barriers often cited are limited roles for girls and women, differential treatment of girls in nutrition and health, men viewed as breadwinners, a male dominated education system, gender-differentiated child-rearing practices, low status of women, lack of knowledge of the social and personal benefits of education, gender ster eotyping and threat of sexual violence (UNICEF, 2007). Specific areas related to emergency in many or all countries which have been highlighted in this study would be: Early marriage (girls are pushed into marriage because of fragile and insecure situations, increased poverty, death of bread-winning relatives, and therefore they leave school). After war, there are fewer men, so girls are pushed into polygamous marriages (as in Afghanistan), but conversely, therefore, men are forced to accept more than one wife. Older people have not adapted their norms to accept single unattached women, as in other post-conflict locations Child labour (sons recruited in conflict, the need to work, displacement causing vulnerability to be incorporated into trafficking and sex trade). Domestic labour, normally girls, is often not viewed as ‘child labour’ although this can prevent school attendance. Boys are more likely to receive kits and educational materials because of ‘normal’ male preference in and out of schools (interview data, Nepal). Protectionism/lack of independence. In the context of the tsunami, in the Maldives secondary schools do not exist on every island, and parents may be reluctant to send their daughters to neighboring islands for fear of pregnancy and also fear of sexual abuse Abuse. Sexual abuse, rape, gang rape and physical abuse all get worse in the camps and in situations of emergency with the breakdown of law and order and lack of supervision. Men experiencing loss of status are more likely to engage in domestic violence. Trafficking for prostitution increases, particularly post-emergency when police or security force protection is withdrawn (interview data, Nepal). During conflict, boys may be recruited or taken for enforced labour. Kidnapping and abduction are a threat as well as trafficking. Religious taboos and misinformation. Oxfam reported that in some cases in the tsunami the heavy and voluminous clothing worn by Muslim women and the cultural barriers that prevent girls from learning to swim contributed to the death by drowning of many women and girls. The same clothing also restricted some women from running to high places or from climbing trees. Anecdotal evidence suggests that many men survived by doing just this. There are reports from many of the tsunami-affected countries of Muslim women who perished because they were too afraid to leave their home with their head uncovered. Conversely, in some cases the waves were so strong that women were stripped of their clothing and there are reports of naked women refusing to climb into rescue boats manned by males from their villages (Pittaway et al., 2007). Marginalization of females during humanitarian and reconstruction efforts after the tsunami, with lack of consultation about needs and with response efforts almost exclusively headed by male staff. Refuges and camps often showed little regard for women’s health, safety and privacy. However, gender-related disadvantage does not always mean girls come off worst: in conflict, boys may be more likely to be recruited as child soldiers, and hence lose schooling; in economic difficulties caused by disaster, they may be taken out of school because they have greater earning power. Conversely, there is evidence from Nepal that females joining insurgent groups (e.g. Maoists) may experience higher status there and participation in decision making, and that in this sense, conflict has increased rather than decreased female status. Much depends on their role, whether combatants, supporters or dependents (Plan, 2008a). While an ex-combatant woman may enjoy a more equal status within a relationship or marriage with another ex-combatant, when an unmarried woman otherwise wants to return to her family or community she is a seen as ‘spoiled’, as she would not have been protected in the same way as non-combatants growing up in traditional or conservative cultures. 3.1.2 Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) and refugees While these groups which can be caused by an emergency are clearly vulnerable generally, there is sometimes a difference relative to other groupings in that they are identifiable, and that they receive help. In some countries, those formally identified as IDPs may be the more fortunate ones, as they can claim assistance, including educational support. They are visible in the camps, whereas the ‘lone IDPs’ who are fleeing a personal emergency, or who do not have the political knowledge to claim official IDP status, can suffer problems of discrimination or exclusion in a new community. IDPs may not want to, or be unable to, return to their own communities, and have resettled: at what point do they cease to be IDPs, especially in normally nomadic societies where there is much seasonal migration for work? Specific issues relating to education and emergency are: Internal displacement exposes children to forced military recruitment; they may become direct targets in the conflict or be subject to unequal or biased educational service provision (Sri Lanka). Refugees suddenly become a minority, with loss of status and position; there is lack of choice, including educational choice. Afghan refugees in Pakistan complain that they are given very little choice about where to live – the camps nearer Afghanistan cannot guarantee security, and food or shelter cannot be guaranteed in Peshawar. There are the well-documented issues of language and curriculum of their new schools, as well as problems of ‘return’. Afghan refugees in Pakistan for example are now being sent back, causing a highly uncertain situation for them with all this movement. There is pressure on remaining schools after an emergency to accept more children, which means larger classes, therefore a decrease in quality and in drop-out for all children. ‘Hosting’ refugees amounts to an education emergency in affected communities, with jealousies and feelings that incomers drain resources or hold ‘our’ children back. Refugees may have services that the surrounding communities lack. Children and families may move several times before settling in one place where they could stay more than six months. If they go to school, children drop out continuously when they cannot keep up or catch up. Older children may be forced to learn with younger children, to match their perceived learning levels, which cause distress and a lack of self-esteem. Security in the camps is a problem (see above), as is health, for example with cholera in Pakistan. Relocated communities in the tsunami can suffer: in Sri Lanka, various buffer zones in the coastal areas were established to impose limits on where people could live after the tsunami, but some were far from the sea, and parents tend not to send children to school in these circumstances, as this could show acceptance of the unsatisfactory situation. Refugee and IDP children may be more subject to abuse and trafficking; children living with ‘host’ families are more likely to be abused. There can be drug and alcohol problems of parents (and children) in IDP camps. 3.1.3 Minority groups/caste/ethnicity In all countries there are pre-existing patterns of social stratification based on ethnicity, caste, tribe or clan. These are highly linked to social class and socio-economic status. Emergencies will tend to mean that low status groups are further disadvantaged or discriminated against, as power to attract resources is not evenly distributed. Conflict may be between different ethnic groups, or with a majority group and there is rarely a win–win resolution of the conflict; even if the conflict is not directly related to ethnic or other status, as in natural disasters, the lack of capacity to claim rights and resources post-conflict means more polarization. Areas under conflict may find it more difficult to respond to natural disasters, as has been reported for reconstruction after the tsunami in LTTE-controlled areas of Sri Lanka. Recommendations for action suggest projects focusing on a specific group, e.g. safe play areas for children from a specific ethnic group, or educatio n facilities for a specific religious group (Save the Children, 2008a), although there is a danger of focusing, say, on one caste which may cause attitudes to that group to harden. 3.1.4 Economically disadvantaged Poverty on its own is not always a predictor of vulnerability, and clearly combines with other axes of disadvantage. Emergencies will highlight these. While homelessness in disasters can affect families in every economic stratum, their social capital becomes crucial, as does the network of relatives and friends who can provide support. The poor are likely to have poorer quality housing, in poorer or lower lying land (or conversely in steep hills) which does not withstand floods, cyclones or earthquake; therefore they can be displaced or live in the open not near to a school. Animals too are not protected, and subject to loss. Food shortages are made worse by emergency, and may mean migration to urban areas to find work. Rural children are more likely to be out of school, particularly when poor; natural disasters may mean that distances to the nearest school become even greater. The rapid recent increase in food prices in Bangladesh and elsewhere has had an impact on school attendance, both because children have become hungry and less attentive and because parents have been less able to meet educational expenses. Parents have also been forced to cut back on the use of kerosene for night lighting thereby reducing the evening study period for students (Raihan, 2008). 3.1.5 The invisible Children without a formal identity (estimated to be 50 million globally) are never registered and there-fore deprived of access to education. In emergencies, they have no claim to resources or proof of age when relocating. It is more difficult to resist recruitment into insurgent or security forces. Children of different ethnic groups may be deprived of nationality and identity. Street children may come under the category of invisible, as they are harder to track and monitor, and also may not be in formal school. However, there is a debate as to whether they are particularly vulnerable during emergencies, as they are used to surviving, and have personal and social resources which the newly homeless do not have. The out-of-school by definition tends to be more invisible. They are more vulnerable during emergencies, since, as in Sri Lanka, most of the educational and emergency provisions utilize schools, and the out-of-school tends to be invisible among service providers. The turning away of children in Afghanistan from orphanages, schools or projects can precipitate them being involved in the sex trade, as dancers or working with truck drivers. 3.1.6 Differently affected This is a broad category of children who are differentially affected by emergency, or who have pre-existing conditions which may be exacerbated by emergency: Those with disabilities. Those with physical and mental disabilities are less likely to survive a disaster. Special facilities or education are not always prioritized during emergencies. Schools that refuse to take children with disabilities in ‘normal’ times are even less likely to accept them after an emergency. Children may have been injured by landmines, and all need landmine education. Traumatized children. Children experiencing conflict and witnessing the violent death of relatives and friends suffer a range of traumatic conditions. Children were scared of going back to schools after the tsunami, and even after four years were reported to be ‘very jumpy’ and emotionally unstable at school. Orphans, especially where there is lack of social welfare support. Absence of orphanages may be a problem, or conversely orphanages may be a site for abuse or trafficking of children. Agencies such as UNICEF and World Education may be against the institutionalization of children, including orphans, and there can be lack of integration mechanisms and support. Child-headed households. The child can be of either sex, but additional responsibilities (economic and caring) mean such children are unlikely to go to school. Child soldiers and ex-combatants. Such children have not just lost schooling, but may be traumatized as well as stigmatized on their return. They may be placed in classes inappropriate to their age. Drug users (living in badly bombed buildings in Kabul, for example). In the Maldives, there is strong social stigma against drugs and children will be expelled from school if caught with them. There are few rehabilitation centers or organizations to help them. School failures. Those who were failures before an emergency often use the crisis as an excuse to drop out of school. War children or ‘lost generation’ need to ‘catch up’ within rigid school systems which make this impossible. They may be jealous of the younger generation whose education was not disrupted, and fear the future. Children in conflict zones. There may be security checkpoints preventing access to school (also for their teachers) and/or danger of mines. Children of prisoners (criminal or political). These may suffer low esteem as well as economic hardship. Children in detention centers and prisons themselves. UNESCO runs a de-institutionalization project in Afghanistan, which also includes children in and from orphanages. Children of sex workers. Children of the HIV affected and from homes where there are diseases such as leprosy. 3.2 Educational sites and personnel Schools were destroyed. Schools (and colleges) can collapse in an earthquake and a hurricane in the worst case with students and teachers are still in them. In most of Nepal, a non- architectural and designing phase the presented seismic safety measures. National Society for Earthquake Technology (NSET) with a modification or restructuring of the school program, but can reach only a few. But in the actual school vulnerability of particular importance is the contract and the corruption of the materials used to make it easier to make the collapse of natural disasters to the schools. Do not let this corruption in Pakistan and China, is going on the list, and this sustained after a disaster or even. In Bangladesh, which has been identified (interview), build back on the poor instead of build back better. In China, the authorities have also asked the parents did not cause to complain about the building to ensure the death or injury of their children and financial incentives for them. Poor building standards of experience, but also on their return folded the school itself forms to create an emergency (Harber 2005) anxiety in the child and parents. Schools as a refuge or a takeover of the internally displaced, disrupting education. Built schools or on the ground that the social distance is an issue, renovated. If the site is in this sense are people died as a cemetery, still popular. As one respondent said: The school is a graveyard it. Children do not go to school for fear of appearing recruited into armed groups, or to go on the road. In the Maldives, an island, when the school was destroyed, and it was reported that sometimes reluctant to take on children in other islands of the school, while others welcome. Child labor and domestic workers in their own home or in someones home is difficult to adapt to the standard items or in school. Older children can be destructive, is considered cute employees. Temporary schools (even permanent) can move the missing girls and teachers sanitation special. To form an important topic in the vulnerability of certain groups, the maintenance management systems and school officials. These are usually male-dominated groups, at least moderately high caste and socio economic status. You are likely to be, during and after CIES EMERGEN the same group, it may be necessary to change the mindset so that they meet for the child or to seek an appropriate school concept. Now the question is, what incentives could make them to change this mindset. How can teacher’s high caste be persuaded to teach low caste children and interact? How can the person who convinced for the school management committee has been grant equitable distribution? One study examined community-based education system in Nepal, that the use of community based school improvement plan to bring elite processes, the process of creating incentives and equity. Strategy of education untouchables girls the opportunity to the majority of the population are less willing to tolerate a d irect attack, but would under the heading (Gardner and Subrahmanian, 2005) to agree. 3.3 Multiple vulnerabilities Although it is possible to a certain group or website, as can be seen above, two important questions are immediately clear: First, within and between the clusters they intersect in various ways, secondly , therefore it is difficult to around the disadvantaged or even draw the most vulnerable limit. It is commented on how to report in India, even if it is taken out of the equation of sex , the majority of the population is at risk. Caste is said to individual well over 50 % of the population affected , although there are exceptions, generally poor Dalits , disenfranchised , less educated , more abused . The vast majority of the population to be at risk if they are fragile along a parameter, they are more likely to have multiple vulnerabilities . Everyone has a different vulnerability so-called beam (Fluke, 2007), from a political, economic, social and ideological complex interactions. Practice of: The third complex is the time when they begin and end with emergencies (if they do), for those in danger? Vulnerable orphans temporarily take care of a family, but later at a loss and abandonment and exploitation of resources. Vulnerability often associated with children (Zelizer, 1994), perceived social value to work in practice or emergency emotionally as the context victim. This can dramatically change the changing social and economic priorities. Schools can a neutral body to maintain and improve the childs value when their environment is sensitive.

Friday, October 25, 2019

United States Agency for International Development Essay -- AIDS HIV F

United States Agency for International Development When the Department of Defense awarded Halliburton subsidiaries billions of dollars to rebuild Iraq in an uncompetitive bidding process, taxpayers and members of Congress alike cried foul. Liberals at Swarthmore College bemoaned the mixture of domestic business interests with foreign policy and reconstruction efforts. Initially, foreign companies were formally barred from the lucrative reconstruction projects. This spring, Halliburton delayed billing the DOD over $140 million under allegations of overcharging for military meals and energy supplies. Where the DOD controls reconstruction in Iraq, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) controls foreign development aid. While the bloated and uncompetitive contracts to Halliburton attracted a hail of criticism, USAID emerges largely unscathed from criticism despite a legacy of brazenly self-interested and inefficient foreign aid policy. USAID balances two mandates: protecting American interests and promoting inter national development. Tied aid-- grants or loans which require consumption of the donor country’s goods and services-- is an obvious and insidious manifestation of this dual mandate. An examination of American aid policy, a colonial precedent to tied aid, and the experience of Egypt from 1974-1989 reveals how tied aid poisons and adulterates the practice of development. Tied aid: â€Å"Seductive† but â€Å"seriously wrong† (Hancock 61) Tied aid is not a win-win situation. A balance between domestic interests and foreign development restricts the full potential of foreign aid. Michael Maren’s The Road to Hell offers a scathing indictment of foreign aid infused with self-interest and laments how â€Å"the hum... ... Philip Publishers Ltd: United States, 2002. Campbell, Catherine. ‘Letting Them Die’: Why HIV/AIDS Intervention Programmes Fail. Indiana University Press: United States, 2000. Hancock, Graham. Lords of Poverty. First Atlantic Monthly Press: Great Britain, 1989. Maren, Michael. The Road to Hell: The Ravaging Effects of Foreign Aid and International Charity. The Free Press: New York, NY, 1997. Mitchell, Timothy. Rule of Experts: Egypt, Techno-Politics, Modernity. University of California Press: Berkeley and Los Angeles, California, 2002. Radelet, Steven. Challenging Foreign Aid: A Policymarker’s Guide to the Millennium Challenge Account. Kirby Lithographing Company: United States, 2003. Student Global AIDS Campaign (SGAC) website. http://www.fightglobalaids.org/files/phatfile/appropriationskit.doc USAID website. http://www.usaid.gov/about_usaid.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Compare and Contrast on High School and College Essay

The transition from high school to college is an arduous one. Students have to get used to being on their own and have more responsibilities than ever before. The workload is only the first of many differences between being a senior in high school and a freshman in college. Along with an increase in workload, students are also forced to learn proper time management skills such as how to juggle a job, school, all while maintaining a social life. The transition from a high school student to a college student begins the second they open the door into what looks like another world. There is no aspect of familiarity, no point of reference for students. There are no individual desks or familiar faces to give them the feeling of security that one feels going back to high school each year. The first day of high school always included some kind of icebreaker where students were forced to state their name and an â€Å"interesting fact† about themselves in hopes of helping other students to remember their name. In college, no one cares what one’s name is or that they have 3 hamsters at home. Professors are more concerned with getting down to business and teaching the scheduled material on the very first day of class. Students are forced into a whirlwind of unfamiliarity and they either sink or swim. The decision is theirs. Generally speaking, a high school student can expect to be free of homework for the first two weeks of high school. However, students do not get so lucky in college. One can expect a paper and group project, as well as a syllabus quiz to be given within the first class period. In addition to assigned papers and syllabus quizzes, it is up to students to complete textbook readings, of 20+ pages before coming to class and to be prepared to be given a pop quiz if necessary. It is common for first year college students to feel lost and overwhelmed, inundated in papers and assignments, often questioning how they will make it through the semester. Above all, students are forced to learn how to better manage their time. There is no more daydreaming or dependin g on classmates to help with in-class and take-home assignments. What used to be so easy in high school is not so easy in college. There are no more seven-hour school days planned out by guidance counselors with help from a computer program. Schedules are no longer handed out in homeroom on the first day of classes, instead it is the student’s job to pick the classes they want to take and come up with a perfectly crafted schedule that fits into their already busy schedule. It’s up to the scholar  to decide when to eat lunch, when to study, and when they can fit a job into their schedule. In college, students are given more freedom when it comes to their schedule, but it is easy to find comfort in that cookie cutter schedule that is given in high school. The real world can be a scary place for a first year college student. In sum, the transition from high school to college is a challenging one. It is not easy to be pushed out into the real world, completely submersed in _____. Although it may be tough at times, this transition is a crucial one in the process of growing up. The lessons learned within the first year of college are ones that can be taken and applied later on in life.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Literacy and People Essay

â€Å"Literacy† is an often discussed topic. Be able to read and write is not as simple as it looks; literacy is one of important communication skills in today world. According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, â€Å"Literacy† means â€Å"ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate and compute, using printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Literacy involves a continuum of learning in enabling individuals to achieve their goals, to develop their knowledge and potential, and to participate fully in their community and wider society. † In other words, a person has the ability to understand and exchange of opinions and views in a society, and thus participate in this society. So if literacy is so important to everyone, then how does the reality look like? We start at very early years to learn reading and writing, so we forget that reading and writing actually are a fairly complex skill, it takes years to learn and memorize. Even in the highest level of civilization country, such as US, the proportion of literate adults has never reached 100%. According to an article â€Å"The Human Cost of an Illiterate Society† by Jonathan Kozol, there are 60 million people that are â€Å"functionally illiterate† in 1980, and he demonstrate an accurate portrait of the life illiterates live on a day-to-day basis and feel miserable. Even literate people, there are only a small number of people with a high level of reading and writing skills. In human history, the literacy was a privilege. In â€Å"Learning to Read and Write† by Frederick Douglass and â€Å"Learning to Read† by Malcolm X. They both demonstrate how important the basic reading and writing skills are and people could use it as a simple tools to impact people and auto gnosis and social change. To be literacy also is very important to people who want to participate in their society and make them life easier. In â€Å"The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me† by Sherman Alexei and â€Å"Mother Tongue† by Amy Tan. Both of their stories shows us how reading and writing provide they better future, and how difficult could be without the knowledge of literacy. So I truly believe in knowledge could change our future, and help us to build the abilities of adopting the society. And more importantly, we absorb and reveal those knowledge need to through by the reading and writing. People has their own future, that is undoubtable; but how to clarify the future is a problem that confusing many of us. Language gives a great contribution to solve this problem. Since getting language can allow people learn things and gain knowledge, it helps people know more of what our society is about and what is good for them. With these experiences, people will have a better idea of what kind of future they want and create their own dream. Sometimes, this can change a person’s life just like what Malcolm X said in his article â€Å"Learning to read†: â€Å"I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life. As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive. † In other words, the knowledge form books could impact a person from inside out. Therefore, language can help people adopt the society by showing them their future. Another ability that language can show people is the ability to fight and defense. People usually use their fists, club, or even gun as a weapon to hurt others, but in modern society with police department to stop these physical violations, what can be better than use the words to beat people. By learning knowledge, language through receive language, people also learn that these things can use to fight and defend in real life. With leaving an indelible memory in one’s mind, apparently, it is more powerful than healable body damage. Many people include Richard Wright realize its power, Richard even has some words in his essay â€Å"The Library Card† said: â€Å"Yes, this man was fighting, fighting with words. He was using words as a weapon, using them as one would use a club. † So, this is another useful effect that language brings to people, protect and fight back. There is another thing people gain form language can help them feel better in the society, which is discovery the truth. This skill, or ability, can allow people ignore the interferences on the way to success, to achieve a goal, create own future. Throughout the history, many brilliant people fail just because they were direct to a wrong way. Why they never know that? Because they were uneducated or instill something wrong, they were expected to fail. Situation in the past has shown in Sherman Alexei’s â€Å"The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me† described the difficulties that Indian kids were facing: â€Å"As Indian children, we were expected to fail in the non-Indian world. † Obviously, language provides people the ability to dig out the real truth behind illusion. Nowadays society, many people are confusing about their futures. Literacy gives a great contribution to solve this problem. At first, literacy can help people adopt the society by showing them their future. Secondly, literacy can show people are the ability to fight and defense themselves. Finally, language provides people the ability to dig out the real truth behind illusion. Literacy is important in keeping you safe and allowing you to learn and grow to better yourself. 50 Essays Bedford/St. Martin’s, 75 Arlingto Street, Boston, MA 02116 Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization http://en. wikipedia. org/wiki/Literacy.