America and the Thirteen Original Colonies essays

America and the Thirteen Original Colonies essays Every person born and raised in America, within the past half century, has at one time or another heard the song "Fifty Nifty United States"; the song which pounds the memorization of the fifty American states into one's head. If you were to ask any person from the age of ten to thirty, they would most likely be able to recite every single state, alphabetically. Towards the beginning of the brilliant masterpiece, there is a line which exclaims, "Fifty Nifty United States/ From thirteen original colonies..." The line, having horrible melodic doggerel, is right about these colonies. Thirteen colonies established by the British were satellites used in a system of mercantilism; they provided the natural resources while England would manufacture the goods to sell back to them. Unlike many other attempts at establishing previous settlements, these particular colonies, over a period of time, began to take their own form and question the mother country. The colonies developed their own ideas and beliefs and eventually broke away from England to for the United States of America. Among the so-called Thirteen Original Colonies, which included those of New England, the Middle Colonies, and the Southern Colonies, were certain common institutions and philosophies. The first colonies of America, the quintessential "thirteen" of them, had certain elements that caused them to be similar. Geographically, every colony was on the eastern coast of America, and everyone had similar environmental and land features. In the New England colonies, although a bit colder, had necessary farming land with some forest area; in the Middle colonies, farmland was abundant and waterways were important to trade; and in the Southern colonies, farmland was a very important factor and it was generally warmer than the other colonies. Geography also had a large impact on the economy, logically, seeing as if the three sections of colonies did not have distinguishing characte...

The Harvesters

The Harvesters The Harvesters In Bruegel's 1565 painting, The Harvesters, he portrays a season most closely resembling late spring, right after the harvest. He does this on the surface level with the peasants and the wheat. However, he solidifies this relationship by forming concrete relationships with diagonals and parallels, depth, colors, and nature.Bruegel's use of diagonals and parallels are easily visible in this work. In fact, he uses two different diagonals that intersect one another: one has a negative slope and one has a positive slope. The latter of which is perhaps more evident, because it outlines large portions of land that lie on this positive slope. One can see it at first glance. The gold foreground, and the green and gold middle ground are both on diagonal line paths going from bottom left to upper right. The most prominent peasant, the one lying on the ground against the tree, also falls on this diagonal.The Harvesters

Religious Fundamentalism Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 1

Religious Fundamentalism - Essay Example   Christians and Muslims widely differ in their interpretation of historical events. For example, Crusades was a religious war and fundamentalism formed its bedrock. Both Muslims and Christians interpret this huge historical event differently. For example, Muslims interpret this event as a series of military campaigns run by Christians to stop the expansion of Islam and restrain the growing power of Muslim rulers. Many Christians were becoming impressed by Muslim civilization which was not tolerated by Christian fundamentalists and they started this war. Christians, in contrast, believe that expansion of Islam was not an issue, but Pope Urban II announced the first crusade to help Christians restore their access to the holy places in Jerusalem. What are some common threads between Christian and Islamic religious fundamentalism? Many traits are shared by Christian and Muslim religious fundamentalists. For example, it is claimed that right-wing religious extremists and their Muslim c ounterparts share five main characteristics. These common characteristics, as claimed by research, are found in nearly all fundamentalists. These are â€Å"racism, bigotry, intolerance, disdain for education, hatred of gays and women and people of different faiths and non-believers†. Both Christian and Muslims fundamentalists gush with hatred and vengeance for gays and empowered women. Also, both are found bursting at the seams with racist ideas and they also equally think low of people from other faiths.  

The role of family members in the prospects of female entrepreneurs Literature review

The role of family members in the prospects of female entrepreneurs - Literature review Example The paper tells that business as a profit-oriented initiative primarily entails risk. This is the tone of the works of authors such as Timmons and Spinelli and Ward and Aronoff who put forward conceptual definition of enterprise as a pursuit of opportunity that requires the investment of resources and the exercise of control. The definition involve the variables such the requirement of considerable investment that one cannot control and the role of people and their motivation towards the enterprise's cause and objective. For these prior works, family becomes an inevitable model - ready and stable - that could address the social, economic and psychological challenges involved in starting and managing businesses. Indeed, even the most liberal and sophisticated economies such as those in Europe and the United States, family-owned businesses constitute as much as 85 percent of the respective aggregate enterprises. There is no business landscape wherein family-owned or controlled business model thrives than in Asian countries such as China. The cultural and social contexts underscore tight familial relationship as ideal, which naturally extend to business pursuits because it provides mechanism of effective control and support. Zapalska and Edwards work tells us more about this in detail with their in-depth analysis of the Chinese Confucian thought and how and why it places great importance to the family. As has been the case in China, the culture emphasizes respect for the elders as well as high regard for authority and the hierarchy on social and organizational levels.

Microfinance Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

Microfinance - Dissertation Example The foremost significance of microfinance institutions lies in their pro-poor feature Most of the developing nations are characterised by a majority of the population dwelling in poverty-stricken rural areas. Hence, microfinance institutions help to bail them out of dire situations arising out of low investment potentials and opportunities mirrored through a poor economic growth rate. Secondly, the fragile financial systems of developing economies are too poor to confront the risk of lending out to the rural poor; rather, they tend to advance their services to the more organised or formalised sector. Hence, investment lending is indeed negligible for the rural areas in developing economies. Lastly, the rural poor in developing economies often are discouraged to avail lending options in commercial banks, where they need to deposit collateral while taking credit unlike in microfinance institutions, where they are allowed to accept loans collectively that does not expose any single indi vidual to huge liability stakes. In addition to alleviating poverty, reducing inequality of income and generating employment, microfinance institutions also help to boost up economic growths through increased production and reduced dependence on externally produced items (Woller & Parsons, 2008). The situation in Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia could be distinguished exclusively as an oil-producing giant that draws almost all of its income from exporting the fuel around the world. However, the rise in economic growth rates has been recorded as 1.25 percent between 1981 and 2000 in contrast to a fall of 2.5 percent in GDP per capita, implying a rising inequality in the distribution of income (Raphaeli, 2003, p. 1). The nation is also characterised by an extremely skewed tax structures favourable mostly for the richer section, while the same cannot be said for the poorer population who derive their incomes out of primary activities such as farming or fishery. The modestly developed financia l sector of Saudi Arabia cannot is quite unfavourable for the rural poor who have to strive hard for loans. Furthermore, the national government exhibits little effort in development of infrastructure in these regions (Islamic Development Bank, 2010, p. 3). These loans could prove to be foundations for setting up of small scale industries conducive for the economic growth and employment generation in the nation. In addition, microfinance institutions could also bail

Education and Gross Domestic Product of the Philippines

Education and Gross Domestic Product of the Philippines Marione Tomas T. Padilla ABSTRACT The research paper is about determining whether certain factors of Education have an effect on the overall Gross Domestic Product of the Philippines. Intuition would tell us that Education has an effect on GDP. In addition, budget allocations for education in the Philippines are high compared to the other sectors in the government. Table of Contents Introduction Background of the Study †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 4 Statement of the Problem †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 5 Objectives of the Study †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 6 Significance of the Study †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 6 Scope and Limitation †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 7 Review of Related Literature Civilian Discretionary Spending †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 8 Human Capital and Education †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 9 Education in the Philippines Millennium Development Goals Similar Studies Theoretical Framework Gross Domestic Product IS-LM Model Operational Framework Variable List A-Priori Expectations Methodology Empirical Testing and Analysis of Results Conclusion and Recommendations References Introduction Background of the Study According to Jeffrey Sachs (2011), civilian discretionary spending is spending on public goods and services that the private economy cannot provide on its own[1]. In addition, one of the sectors he mentioned that are involved in civilian discretionary spending is education. Education is defined as the knowledge and development resulting from an educational process (Merriam Webster, 2014)[2]. In any country, education is one of the things that the government is in charge of and is one of the factors in the government’s expenditures which contributes to a percentage in a country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP); the government takes into consideration the budget allocation for education, how they are going to make the educational sector competitive i.e. the quality of the service that the citizens of the country are to get, and many other factors. The Philippines currently has a literacy rate of 95.4% and rank 108th out of 215 countries in terms of literacy rate[3]. In addition, the educational system of the Philippines is currently experiencing a shift, because our educational system is being exposed to different factors such as the implementation of the K to 12 and the ASEAN Integration which are to be imposed soon. In the previous education system of the Philippines, kindergarten was not compulsory for students but now it is. In addition, Primary Education (Elementary) and Secondary Education (Junior and Senior High School) both require 6 years making a total of 12 years. Because of these adjustments and other factors, the budget and the expenditure for education increase every year. The Department of Education is one of the top departments that are given high budget allocations with their proposed 2014 budget being the highest at 293.3 billion pesos; according to an article in Rappler (2013), â€Å"the increase is focused on learning resources, as well as classrooms, chairs and school facilities†[4]. But despite all of this, the overall quality in the education has declined and this was due to certain factors (insert them here). With this given, this proves to be a challenge not just for the government but for the other Filipinos as well that could not cope up with the Philippines’ current system of education. According to World Vision (2011)[5], education has a relationship with growth of an economy i.e. lack of quality education is a threat to economic growth. In addition, World Vision also stated that 92 percent of Filipino children are able to enroll in primary education but 20 percent of these students who enrolled are able to finish. Statement of the Problem The Philippines experienced a decline in the quality of education due to certain factors such as the quality of the education, affordability, budget, and mismatch between training and the jobs[6]. With this, the researcher has prepared the following questions: a) How can the Philippine government fix or alleviate these factors? b) Were there any measures taken in line with the previous question? What specific measures were done and were they effective? c) Are Filipino students (both current and incoming) ready for K to 12 given the decline in the quality prior to the implementation? d) Is K to 12 really a step further for the Philippines? The researcher would also want to know if the budget that has been allocated to them is being used efficiently and in the end if it contributed to the output of the country. In addition, the researcher would also want to clarify if these expenditures in education really did make any changes. Objectives of the Study Given the background of the topic for this research, the researcher would like to accomplish the following objectives: a) Determine the relationship between certain factors of education i.e. number of enrolled students and education expenditure, and the Gross Domestic Product of the Philippines b) Be able to find ways to improve the quality of the educational system of the Philippines so that we can be really ready for future changes. c) Construct an econometric model that can be used in analyzing how GDP and Education go hand in hand. Significance of the Study A lack of quality education can hamper growth in the economy because the citizens are not equipped with the basic knowledge; in addition, a lot of Filipinos do not have access to even the basic education and because of this, the human condition is not improving. In the Human Development Forum held last March 2, 2011, U.S Secretary of Education Arne Duncan stated that Education can be the bridge to factors such as eliminating gender inequality, poverty reduction, planet sustainability, preventing deaths and illnesses, and for peace. In addition, he stated that education is inseparable from the development of human capital, and that education is the new currency so that nations maintain economic competitiveness and global prosperity (Duncan, 2011)[7]. In line with the previous statement, this study is aiming to find a way to be able to improve the standard of education that the Philippines has and to make it competitive. In addition, this study aims to make a point that education plays a role in the growth of a country and is a step towards improving lives thus we should not take this lightly. The researcher believes that the government should look into the bigger picture and the root causes as to why our education is not accessible or feasible to the citizens. Scope and Limitation The data used in this study came from sources such as indexmundi, World Bank, NSCB, and UNData. The researcher took into consideration GDP, Education Expenditure (not including capital and equipment), and number of enrolled students per year level except the Tertiary Level due to unavailability of data; the research has 30 observations (from 1982 to 2011) and is focused on a Philippine setting. The researcher is using the multiple regression analysis to determine the influence of our independent variables to the dependent variable. Review of Related Literature Civilian Discretionary Spending The Huffington Post (2011), posted an article entitled â€Å"De-Mystifying the Budget Debate†; this article was written by Jeffrey Sachs. One of the things that Jeffrey Sachs pointed out was the issue on civilian discretionary spending. Civilian discretionary spending is spending on public goods and services that cannot be provided efficiently by the private economy alone (Sachs, 2011). In addition, the programs are called â€Å"discretionary† because the budget allocation is voted upon every year and contributes to about 4% of the GDP in the United States. He also mentioned the factors that make up civilian discretionary spending in the following quote[8]: â€Å"Discretionary spending includes national security (homeland security, diplomacy, development assistance); education and job training; science and technology; the justice system; public administration; environmental protection; community development and housing assistance; major infrastructure (highways, dams, levees, flood control, water and sanitation).† From the given definitions and statements, the aim of civilian discretionary spending is to make a country competitive and so that there would be more opportunities for economic growth. Human Capital and Education According to Investopedia, Human Capital is defined as â€Å"a measure of the economic value of an employees skill set† wherein it measures the labor input and is thought to be equal[9]. The term was coined by economist Theodore Schultz; this term mirrored human capacities and believed that human capital was like any other capital in general. Capital is defined as those long term assets used in the production of output by a firm. In the case of human capital, education, training and enhanced benefits are the factors to be considered when investing in human capital; in effect this will lead to an improvement in the quality and level of production. In addition, the education and the experience an employee has obtained merits economic value in the perspective of both employers and the aggregate economy. The United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP) published a study in 2001 entitled Development Planning in a Market Economy; One segment of this study, The Role of Human Capital in Economic Development: Some Myths and Realities, explains how important Human Capital is in Economic Development[10]. The author stated that for human capital to create an impact on economic development, a nation needed to have at least a 70% literate population. In addition, it was also stated that if a large number of people in the population are literate, even if they are equipped with the basic education, the minds of the masses can be opened up (UNESCAP, 2001). It was also mentioned that the government has a role in this i.e. one of the factors as to why there are differences in human capital was because of the direction of the priorities and commitments of a nation towards the educations sector[11] (UNESCAP, 2001). An entry in the Encyclopedia of Educational Philosophy and Theory (EEPAT), entitled Human Capital Theory and Education, one concept introduced is the Human Capital theory wherein it states that the framework for nation state policy framework is by enhancing the flexibility of labor in the labor market, and also enhancing skills through investment in education, training and employment schemes, and immigration focused on attracting high-quality human capital (Fitzimons , 1999)[12]. In that same entry, Fitzimons (1999) referenced Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations (1776) wherein Adam smith was able to formulate a basis for the science of human capital. In addition, two schools of thought were formed; the first school of thought distinguished acquired capacities that were classified as either capital or the human being themselves, who were not counted as capital. The second school of thought, on the other hand, claimed that human beings are considered capital. Operational Framework Variable List The table below presents the variables that have been used in the study. The model has four independent variables and one dependent variable. The regression to be performed will take into account the significance of the variables, both individual and overall References education. 2014. In Merriam-Webster.com. Retrieved April 5, 2014, from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/education Sachs, J. (2011, April 18). De-Mystifying the Budget Debate. The Huffington Post. Retrieved April 5, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-sachs/de-mystifying-the-budget_b_850332.html Geronimo, J. (2013, July 30). DepEds proposed 2014 budget biggest in history. Rappler. Retrieved April 5, 2014, from http://www.rappler.com/nation/35186-deped-proposed-budget-biggest-in-history Philippines. (n.d.). World Vision. Retrieved April 5, 2014, from http://www.worldvision.org/our-impact/country-profiles/philippines Philippines. (n.d.). Find the Data. Retrieved April 5, 2014, from http://country-facts.findthedata.org/l/111/Philippines Mankiw, G. (2013). The Data of Macroeconomics. Macroeconomics (8th Edition ed., p. 18). New York: Charles Linsmeier. Human Capital. (n.d.). Investopedia. Retrieved April 5, 2014, from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/humancapital.asp Gary S. Becker. Human Capital.The Concise Encyclopedia of Economics.2008. Library of Economics and Liberty. Retrieved April 5, 2014 from the World Wide Web: http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/HumanCapital.html Patrick Fitzsimons. (1999). Human capital theory and education. InThe Encyclopaedia of Educational Philosophy and Theory, M. Peters, T. Besley, A. Gibbons, B. Ã…Â ½arniĆ¡, P. Ghiraldelli (eds.). Retrieved 5 April, 2014 fromhttp://eepat.net/doku.php?id=human_capital_theory_and_education An Analysis on the Education and Gross Domestic Product of the Philippines 1 [1] Civilian Discretionary Spending will be elaborated in the Review of Related Literature. [2] Definition of education taken from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/education [3] Statistics taken from http://country-facts.findthedata.org/l/111/Philippines [4] The full article can be seen at http://www.rappler.com/nation/35186-deped-proposed-budget-biggest-in-history [5] Taken from http://www.worldvision.org/our-impact/country-profiles/philippines [6] Retrieved from http://www.ph.net/htdocs/education/issue.htm [7] The Full transcript can be viewed at http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTEDUCATION/0,,contentMDK:22848251~menuPK:282425~pagePK:64020865~piPK:149114~theSitePK:282386,00.html [8] This section explains the factors that make up civilian discretionary spending; note that this is an excerpt from the article mentioned. The article can be found at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeffrey-sachs/de-mystifying-the-budget_b_850332.html [9] Definition taken from http://www.investopedia.com/terms/h/humancapital.asp [10] The file for the said part can be found at http://www.worldwewant2015.org/node/296253 [11] This quotation can be seen on the same file mentioned. Refer to footnote number 10. [12] Retrieved from http://eepat.net/doku.php?id=human_capital_theory_and_education

Machiavelli’s Principals and NAFTA :: Outsourcing, Offshoring, Free Trade

"Therefore if a prince wants to maintain his rule he must learn how not to be virtuous, and to make use of this or not according to his need." 1 Thus wrote Niccolà ² Machiavelli almost five hundred years ago in his handbook to the Prince Lorenzo De’ Medici. Whether Machiavelli wrote these words in a desperate attempt to win a position as advisor or whether he hoped in truth to trap the prince with false advice we can only guess from afar. Yet his book offers both advice and food for thought for today. In the last chapter of the book he offered a dream for a new Italian Moses, someone to free Italy from foreign control. Whether this was Machiavelli’s passionate dream or simply bait for the prince, we are now embarking on what may well be the opposite: the selling out of our own country to foreigners in the dream of one unified North America. It is exactly what Prime Minister John A. Macdonald called "veiled treason" in 1891. 2 If you, Mr Mulroney, are to continue in thi s decision Machiavelli’s principals of heartlessness and purpose may be invaluable. Machiavelli warns when a principality invites a new ruler in, expecting to improve their situation they will likely be disappointed and then rebel against the ruler. In Machiavelli’s time this would have meant a full and bloody rebellion, but think how much easier it is now! The people have only to vote at the election, and do not need to remind you that in the most recent election you had only 43% of the vote. The majority of the people are against you, and this is dangerous. What is it you promise the people, and can you provide? You need not fear giving your word lightly, and I doubt anyone today truly expects you to keep all your promises. Yet still there must be something for you to offer in the end. "The common people are always impressed by appearances and results. In this way there are only common people, and there is no room for the few when the many are supported by the state." (101) The immediate problem with NAFTA, as I see it, is a shift in the tax burden from the manufacturers to the people. Retired judge Marjorie Montgomery Bowker has suggested that by 1998, when NAFTA will be fully implemented our lost revenues will be 24 billion.