Hebrew Bible and Christian First Testament Essay

Hebrew Bible and Christian First Testament - Essay Example The early part of the history of Israel is technically Biblical history. On this note, it is vital to point out that the history of Israel, rather than using a theological reading only, ought to be governed by religious perspective. This is particularly so as it makes relevant connections with the past and present, though at different timelines. A brief outline of the history of Israel starts with the call of Abraham when he went to the land of Canaan. From Abraham through Isaac and Jacob, the history of Israel as a nation begins to take shape. The jealousy of Joseph’s brothers changes fortune and Israel takes his sons to Egypt to escape the seven years of famine. Migration and conquest of Canaan start with Moses and ends with Joshua. Briefly, a number of judges rule Israel, amongst them Deborah, Samson, and Gideon until the birth of Samuel when Israel later demands an earthly King. Historically, this period takes place somewhere around the 1300 B.C and covers the reign of Dav id Solomon and the division of Israel. The division of Israel into Southern and Northern Kingdoms follows closely with the fall of Israel and the exile into Babylon. The history of Kingship in Israel is widely covered in first and second Kings. This critical period marks Israel’s fall away from God and subsequent punishments by being exiled. The prophecy of Daniel actually takes place in exile.Around 539 B.C., Babylon falls and prophets Ezra and Nehemiah led the first phase of return into the Promised Land.... The jealousy of Joseph’s brothers changes fortune and Israel takes his sons to Egypt to escape the seven years of famine. Migration and conquest of Canaan starts with Moses and ends with Joshua. Briefly, a number of judges rule Israel, amongst them Deborah, Samson and Gideon until the birth of Samuel when Israel later demands an earthly King. This period has a number of prophecies and promises. Historically, this period takes place somewhere around the 1300 B.C and covers the reign of David Solomon and the division of Israel. The division of Israel into Southern and Northern Kingdoms follows closely with the fall of Israel and the exile into Babylon. The history of Kingship in Israel is widely covered in first and second Kings. This critical period marks Israel’s fall away from God and subsequent punishments by being exiled. The prophecy of Daniel actually takes place in exile (Scott, 2000, p. 357). Around 539 B.C., Babylon falls and prophets Ezra and Nehemiah lead the first phase of return into the Promised Land. The history of Israel during this time majorly dwells on liberation prophesies and various small revolts that are not covered in the Bible. During this time, Christianity has not been born but there are prophecies by Major Prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, pointing to a salvation of humankind through a God chosen Messiah. God restores the Israelites back to their land in readiness for the birth of Jesus Christ the Messiah. This is what Scott (2000, p. 307) refers to as the Messianic hope. This happened during the Roman reign at when Caesar Augustus was at the helm of Roman leadership. Other events happen in the context of the New Testament although they still form part of the history of Israel. A critical

How to do qualitative research Essay Example for Free

How to do qualitative research Essay Introduction: Qualitative research is about asking questions and gathering information through words, to then later analyze. One way of doing this is through ethnography. But before any research can be done, there must be a research question. In this case, Do the Olympics cause their audience to act differently than when they are watching any other popular TV show? This question was chosen to clearly outline the process of ethnography, and how it is useful in finding out the information needed to answer this research question. Methodology: An ethnography is A Research approach to understanding the culture of a group (patterns of behaviour/attitudes, how they create meaning), by immersing oneself in the activities of the specific group over a period of time and then writing up a descriptive summary. (Savage 3). An ethnographic approach includes being engaged in and listening to conversations, taking regular notes and collecting artifacts of the group being studied (Savage 7). All of these things later help in writing up a summary of findings that where gathered from the ethnography. There are two main types of ethnography, first there is an overt ethnography where the participants are told they are being observed. This type of ethnography is most commonly used and is less risky because the participants are aware of the study that is taking place. The other type is covert. This is where the researcher is unknown by the participants (Savage 10). The ethnography done about whether the Olympics change the way an audience acts is a covert ethnography. The subjects were unaware of the researcher and the fact that they were being studied and just watched TV as they normally would. Although this study was in a closed setting, there is always a chance of a risk when doing a covert study, because one of the participants may not want to be studied (Savage 9-10). Another important aspect of doing an ethnography is gaining access. Gaining access all depends on whether it is a closed setting or an open setting. Open settings are public settings are are fairly easy to gain access to. They include places like a street corner, or a movie theatre lobby, or city council meetings (Savage 9). Closed settings are non-public settings that are harder to gain access to because they usually require a contact, or permission to get into. Closed settings include families, firms, doctors offices and political parties (Savage 9). These are places that access is only granted to people who have permission. Although, in most cases, a lot of groups that are in a closed setting, have both open and closed settings, so if permission was not granted, then there would still be an opportunity for an ethnography when the group is in an open setting. The ethnography that was done took place in a closed setting and access was granted due to it being at the researchers house. This made it easy to gain access without having to worry about any limits that can sometimes come with closed settings. Summary of Findings For this topic, one would find that using ethnography would be the best way to go about making a research project about the Olympics causing an audience to act differently then when they watch other popular TV shows. This is because the study was about to view two different settings, one of subjects watching a popular TV show (American Idol), and one of subjects watching the Olympic Games. This allowed for a very good comparison between the two, and made answering the research question fairly easy. While doing the ethnography in both settings, being a fly on the wall allowed the researcher to observe how the subjects acted in both situations without being noticed. The setting also helped in disguising the researcher, because the subjects were just told it was homework, or they were used to the researcher being on the computer anyways. If this study were to be conducted as an in-depth interview, the results would be quite different. The interviewee may not know how they react when theyre watching television, or may not notice that they act differently and vise versa, which would then make it difficult to get the desired information. This would put the study at a halt because no relevant information would have been gathered. Conducting an ethnography is the only real way to go about answering this research question. There is a certain level of control that comes with doing an ethnography for this question because the researcher is unknown, this also ensures that the subjects are acting the way the normally would and not acting the way the think they should act. Which is sometimes the case when people are told they are being studied. Also, (in this case) the subjects are somewhat being forced to watch the desired television show. This ensures that the subjects are being exposed to the same show and can allow for more specific research. Ethnography is also useful because it allows for change. If the ethnography were to go on, there would most likely be more television shows to compare the Olympics to, but in this case, the research question could be narrowed down to Do the Olympics cause their audience to act differently than when they are watching American Idol? . If the study were to continue, because it is an ethnography with multiple subjects for each show, there is room for change, and the data that was already collected would still be useful. Whereas if an in-depth interview was to done, and data was collected there is no guarantee that each subject watches the same television shows to be able to compare among the different subject that were interviewed. Key Learnings After choosing to use an ethnography to answer this research question, some things became quite clear. First, when conducting a covert ethnography, sometimes it is not so easy to remain unknown to every subject, and it is difficult to judge what they are thinking or what they will do if they were to find out. This raised the question of what should the researcher do if they are in a closed setting that they cannot leave and a subject did not want to be studied and was very angry? In most closed setting situations, the chances are that it will not be a covert ethnography, but after this covert closed setting ethnography, it was made clear that the position of research should not be made known for the safety of the researcher. This leads to another question about ethics and who should be harmed in that case. If the researcher is in danger of being harmed if they were to tell the subject that they were being studied, and if the researcher did not tell the subject, then it is considered unethical because the subject is being lied to. Does this issue then become an issue of choosing the greater good? In which case, who decides what the greater good is? Second, when doing an ethnography there is not always something useful to take note of. This causes ethnography to be very time consuming because the research must wait until they have all the information needed which may take a very long time if nothing is happening. This causes a problem because there is no guarantee that anything will happen at all that would help the researcher answer their research question. Conclusion: In discussing using ethnography to answer the question of Do the Olympics cause their audience to act differently than when they are watching any other popular TV show? and what was learned, it is safe to conclude that ethnography is the best way to approach a question like this. This is largely due to the method being more successful at gathering information than its alternative, and because there are a number of way that is can be performed to ensure that the researcher is able to get the information needed.

The concepts of microfinance and microcredit

The concepts of microfinance and microcredit Chapter 2.0: Literature Review Microfinance is the provision of financial services by certain institutions known as MFIs such as Cooperative Banks, Community Based-Saving Bank, Credit Unions, development bank to the poor, low income earners, self-employed and small businesses. Microfinance has been design to address issues of poverty to help those not having access to formal financial system.. According to MIX in June 2010 there was more than 1800 MFIs in over 100 countries, with 92.4 millions borrowers and 78.5 millions savers in the developing world. The concept of microfinance was created by Professor Muhammad Yunus founder of Grameen bank in Bangladesh. Microfinance includes a range of services such as microcredit, saving, insurance and funds transfer. Traditional banks do not provide facilities to low income earners; they provide services to people after assessing the profile of clients according to certain criteria such as pay, credit history and assets of the clients. According to Hernando De Soto (1989) a Peruvian economist poor people have no assets to provide as collateral to bank when taking a loan, therefore they are not liable to receive loans from banks. Since poor people do not have access to traditional banks they have to lend money with high interest rates from others sources such as pawnbroker and local money lender sometimes with 100% interest rate as borrowing from them is fast and flexible. Over the last 30 years MFIs have developed new methods with less collateral to offer small loans to low income earners and has grown rapidly in Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America where there were few bank infrastructures and where in some cases more than 80 % of the population did not have a bank account. Grameen Bank and Banco Solidiario of Bolivia two popular have provided millions of loans to poor people and microentrepreneurs and and these has caused governments and NGOs to direct their resources to microfinance programmes. According to CGAP (2008), MFIs are funded by 33 donors of 21 investors such as DFI. Microfinance offers permanent financial facilities for education, health, personal emergencies, disasters, investment opportunities to the poor and it is used as a development tool. MFIs begin as non-profit organization increasingly they are now evolving as profit entities because MFIs are required to have a banking license for saving services. Some MFIs offers non- financial facilities such as health services and business development. In this review we will analyze and see how microfinance contributes to the economic development of a country and the review will be focused on creation of employment and the empowerment of women by microfinance. 2.1.1 Professor Muhammad Yunus The concept of microfinance was created by Professor Muhammad Yunus founder of Grameen bank in Bangladesh and noble price winner in 2006.He receives 76 other awards in different countries for his work. Yunus was awarded Americas highest civilian honor, the Medal of Freedom by President Barack H Obama for his contribution in poverty alleviation. Professor Yunus obtained a doctorate in Economics from Vanderbilt University found in Nashville, Tennessee in the United States. He stayed in the US for eight years as a student after his study as a professor in economics. In 1972 he came back to Bangladesh During the famine of 1974 in Bangladesh Professor Muhammad Yunus minor loans of USD27 to 42 poor families for them to buy and sell small articles to allow them to earn a living. The objective behind the loan was to reduce poverty in Bangladesh and poverty alleviation becomes his vision. Grameen bank was an idea generated by Professor Yunus the bank started as a project at the University of Chittagong as a pilot test to find different ways of providing credit to the poor in the rural area The Grameen bank offered its services to a village named Jobra near the university; the project was successful and had the support of Bangladesh central bank in 1979. The bank extends its services to Tangail district and to other areas of Bangladesh. In 1983 the Bangladesh Government turns the project into an independent bank and Professor Yunus had a grant from the Ford foundation to incorporate Grameen bank with the support of two bankers namely Mary Houghton and Ron Grzywinkski from Shore bank of Chicago. The Ford foundation was established in 1936 it is an independent nonprofit and nongovernmental organization which help in social change, the organization help to reduce poverty and help in human advancement worldwide by offering subsidies and loans to certain organizations. Microfinance is also being criticized for its high interest rate, loan repayment and women exploitation but we cannot criticized whole system if there are drawbacks, the whole system can be reviewed for improvement at the right time and places since no system is perfect 2.1.2 Grameen bank Grameen bank is a Nobel Prize winner corporation founded on 2 October,1983 and since then has been proliferated in more than 65 countries, its headquarter is situated in Dhaka in Bangladesh and the bank is the largest MFIs in the country. Grameen is known for its solidarity lending system or banking and is also known as banking to the poor. Solidarity lending is the foundation of microcredit. The word Grameen is derived means village in Bangladesh, the bank incorporates the 16 decisions which is recited by bank borrowers and which they shall abide to them. The 16 decisions comprises the four principles of Grameen bank which are Discipline, Courage, Unity, and Hard work, and the other 15 decisions are resumed as to improve their standard of living and there is the element of togetherness to do social activities to improve their way of living. These sixteen decisions have a positive impact on the inhabitants of Bangladesh where more children have joined school. The bank has different s ources of funding; initially huge capital was obtained from donor agency at low rates. During the 1990s the bank has its bulk of capital from the Central bank of Bangladesh and recently from the sales of bonds subsidized by its government. In 1998 The bank make loan to poor people in the form of microcredit as a result of flood in Bangladesh, the repayment rate decreases but recovered afterwards, USD4.7 billions has been loaned in 2005and USD6 billion in 2008. Nowadays the bank has expand more and offers more loans to the poor and in 2006 it has up to 2100 branches in Bangladesh. Due to Grameens success more than 40 countries including the United States in 2008 where 12.6% of the population live below the poverty line have been inspired by the bank to make projects with the same perspective, only Africa which has lag behind. The World Bank has financed the projects. The bank is owned by the poor borrowers of the bank of which the majority are women as the borrowers own 94% of the equity and the remaining 6% is owned by the Government of Bangladesh. The bank has grown to a large extent between 2003-2007 in 2003 the numbers of borrowers have doubled and in October 2007 the number of clients was 7.34 Million of which 97% were women and had a staff of 24703, in 2504 branches over 81574 villages that is the branches have spread in more villages since they were situated in only 43681 villages in 2003 and the repayment rate. Since the banks start ed to operate it has USD6.55 billions as loans USD87 billion has been repaid and the bank claim repayment rate of 98.35% up from the 95% of 1998 but again the Wall Street journal in 2001claim that it doubted the 95% and the accounting standard used by Grameen bank. Grameen started to diversify in the 1980 where it develops into a multi facet group with profit and nonprofit group among which are Grameen fisheries foundation for fisheries project, Grameen Agriculture Foundation for irrigation project, Grameen fund and Grameen Trust.Grameen believe that the concept of giving charity will encourage charity whereas the concept of microcredit will help poor people to exit poverty and the bank invest in children education by providing scholarships and loans for higher education.In 2009 the bank has disbursed total cumulative amount of loans of USD8741.86 and total loans during the year USD 1150.54millions with a total deposits of USD1200.49 millions with number of groups of 1253160 with 79 70616 members. There are organization which has been created all over the world inspired by GB such as Grameen foundation, Grameen Trust, Grameen America, grameen credit agricole among others. 2.1.3 Microfinance in developed countries Poor people who lack access to finance are also found in rich countries such as in Amecica. Grameen started in America in the late 1980s. Southern Bancorp under the tutelage of Grameen give microcredit to entrepreneurs in Arkansas but make 30% losses at the start, afterwards the bank found out that people needed help to develop their working skills. Grameen in the US mostly financed those who already have a job, people selling toys, cleaning houses not those who will start from nothing. The head quarter of Grameen Foundation is situated at Washington D.C in the US; it is a non-profit organization which helps to eradicate poverty. It was inspired by Grameen bank in Bangladesh, but it is an independent organization. Professor Yunus is a member of the board of directors and gave Grameen Foundation its first grant Grameen foundation finance MFIs. Grameen America has been created to provide microcredit to micro entrepreneurs. It was created in January 2008 and it is found in Manhattan and Professor Yunus is the chairman of the board. The organization is trying to become sustainable to help other people in need, according to the organization anyone with a vision can receive financial services irrespective of their background. The objective of the organization is to reduce poverty to create a better future for families. Grameen America helped the poor communities of the US especially immigrants. 2.1.4 Microcredit Theoretical review According to Boudreaux and Cowen (2008) microcredit is a micro magic and makes the life of the poor becomes easier, it is an alternative to traditional lending of banks. Instead of giving charity to the poor, microcredit is a human way of providing finance to poor people as according to the Chinese proverb Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime, it is an investment in human capital. Microcredit is an innovation in the world of finance it is at the heart of microfinance, the concept did not exist before the seventies, and it is a small loan rarely exceeding USD200 and usually below USD50 made to the poor or people with low income with little or no collateral. Microcredit clients are those that are considered as near the poverty line, the loans allow micro entrepreneurs to generate an income for a better standard of living. Grameen bank based itself on three Cs namely Character that is the reliability of the people the Capacity to handle funds and the Capital which is the assets of the borrower such as savings. Microcredit is gaining more credibility in the finance industry and many large organizations are developing microfinance programs for future growth although at the start many were pessimistic about the future of microcredit in the financial system. 50% of the population in many developing countries is self employed and these loans of three months to three years with small interest rates and no collateral help poor people to become financially independent and help to reduce poverty. The microcredit programs helps people to achieve high repayment rate even sometimes more than that of traditional banking because of the system of peer support. In the case of the Grameen bank where there are solidarity groups and it is also known as social capital and is composed of 5 members and each member is responsible for each other success and repayment, but are not guarantees or liable if members default. Neverth eless the members make sure that each one is taking its responsibility to make repayment this act as a motivating factor for the members. Sometimes in real life when a member of the group defaults the other four collaborates together and contribute to pay on behalf of the defaulting member. The microcredit system of Grameen bank is based on Trust and there is no conventional contract between the bank and the borrowers, but the borrowers must have a small account with the bank known as group fund which acts as an insurance in case of an emergency. Women account for 97% of the microcredit client of Grameen bank and this help to empower women as they get access to resources and have a say in decision making since they become micro entrepreneurs. Grameen bank has records of 98% repayment rate from women which is in contradiction with Wall street Journal which says that there is one fifth of the total loan of the bank is overdue but Grameen bank claims in turn that the standard of living of the poor has increased that is they are respecting the 16 decisions of the bank and are able to make a repayment of around 4USD per week. Empirical review of microcredit Grameen bank develop several program for the poor of which one of them is the struggling members program in 2003 which is different from the 5 group member borrowing it consists of distributing interest free loans to beggars in Bangladesh where the banking rules do not apply and where the repayment period is arbitrary for USD1.5 about 3.4 US cents and if they borrower default they are already covered under an insurance paid by the bank itself. This type of loan encouraged the beggars to generate an income by the sales of cheap items, there is a record shown in the microfinance summit 2006 that loans taken by beggars are about USD 833,150 and the repayment is USD 496,900 that is 59.64% repayment rate which according to me is quite encouraging since it is more half of the money loaned. Certain developed countries such as in Canada have try to used the Grameen model but the project has failed due to certain factors such as the risk profile of clients, no taste for joint liability that is the no solidarity between the borrowers, high overhead costs therefore the project does not stand without subsidies in Canada which is contrary to the USA where microcredit has been successful. Sometimes microcredit is subjected to problem such as opportunism and asymmetric information. The first Grameen branch has made a loan of $1.5 million in the USA among which was 600 women and the repayment was very high up to 99%. People took the loan to sell items such as flowers, jewelry clothes and Grameen bank remains unshaken while others collapsed during crisis. Despite the global recession, The President Barack Obama announced the creation of $100 million funds to lend as microcredit to the western hemisphere. Microcredit programmes should be well designed according to the characterist ics of a country, other factors such as the background of the country, the stability of the banking sector,the poverty level, the opportunities and the challenges. 2.1.5 Micro Saving Apart from microcredit the need of financial users is increasing, there is demand from 19 million potential savers to have access to micro saving services. They need services that are flexible and adapted to them. Traditionally savings is done by people at home or by normal banks at a high cost which was not encouraging to the poor. Microfinance has brought services such as savings to poor people. Savings help people to feel safer and more stable, and help poor people to manage their money conveniently. Micro saving consists of small deposits, terms and interest rate that is flexible to clients at the same time banks used the money to make loans to poor people. In some cases micro saving is better than taking small loans since taking a loan is a debt and it becomes a responsibility or a burden if the interest rate of the loan is too high, therefore microcredit is more risky than saving. Saving is an asset for people whereas a loan is a liability; clients will prefer to have assets th an liabilities. Saving is a sacrifice for poor people but it is flexible and they earn interest instead of paying interest which is a source of income. Saving is a must and can helped people in times of need of illness, fire, flood and unexpected events 2.1.6 Credit Insurance In 2002 opportunity organization started to give micro insurance services. Its subsidiary MicroEnsure was the first institution offering micro insurance services and provide protection against many risks for the poor. Stakeholders and local insurance worked in collaboration with MicroEnsure to develop and match the needs of the poor. The insurance provided were affordable, they offered agricultural, medical, property and life policy providing a safety net in case of disasters with average premium of USD 1.5 for family with 5members. Medical policies covered even people already suffering from diseases and even those suffering from HIV viruses. Actually MicroEnsure is offering insurance in 5 countries to over 1million poor people and was one of the runner-ups of financial times in June 5 for sustainability award and receives a grant from The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to expand itself in other countries. MicroEnsure operates in 9 countries and serve millions of people with credi t life, funeral, Health, Political violence, property , typhoon and weather index crop 2.1.7 Microcredit Summit The first microcredit summit was held at Washington D.C. on the 24 February 1997, 137 countries were present at the summit with 2900 participants. In the summit they launch a campaign to reach 100 million poorest families that is those people living below the poverty line, with those living with less than USD1.25 a day adjusted to the purchasing power parity (based on 2005 prices) all around the world within nine years especially to empower women as micro entrepreneurs. The objective was nearly achieved in 2005 and in November 2006 the campaign re-launched to 2015 with two new objectives was ensured that 175 millions poorest families especially women are obtaining credit for self employment and for business and financial services. The second objective is to ensure that 100 millions poorest familys worldwide increase to USD1 a day adjusted to the purchasing power parity from 1990 to 2015. The microcredit campaign is the project of the Educational fund from the USA an organization committed to end hunger and poverty around the world. The campaign group together people such as microcredit practitioners, donor agencies, international financial institutions, non -governmental organizations, advocates, and other people involved with microcredit for effective and efficient practices. In August 2008 the World Bank claim that approximately 280 million families live below the poverty line with less than USD1.25 daily. The four core themes of the summit are reaching the poorest, empowering women, building self sufficient and sustainable MFIs, ensuring that microfinance has a positive impact on the lives of the poor The forthcoming Microfinance Summit 2011 will be held in Valladolid, Spain, the summit is believed to improve the microfinance sector and to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. A hundred countries and over 2000 participants are expected in the summit. In the agenda there will be the presentation of new products, job creation with microfinance and best practices among other issues will addressed. 2.1.8 Poverty It has been proved that microfinance is the tool to help poor family moved out of poverty and to contribute to the economy of a country by increasing their income generating capacity. Studies have shown with the microcredit provided by Grameen bank in Bangladesh 48% of the families below the poverty line have exit from poverty. According to some studies with microcredit 5% of the poor could exit the poverty line each year as it is an investment in human capital and improve peoples life. Microcredit is an opportunity for the poor to realize their dreams. Microfinance is a strategic tool to trim down poverty and help the poor to participate in the social and economic life of a country. 2.1.8 Employment Generation Microcredit helps in the generation of employment; therefore it helps in economic development and in a sustainable means of income. With the microcredit poor people are able to earn a living by selling low priced items or to even expand their businesses at the same time they become sustainable and create employment for other people .Microfinance is a mean of creating employment and improving the life of poor people. 2.1.9 Women Empowerment Microfinance more specifically microcredit is an instrument used for the empowerment of women it increase social welfare and enhances gender equity. Microcredit helps women to become economic actors in power that is becoming self reliance and economically independent. We have heard a lot about the role of women in microfinance, 94% of the borrowers of Grameen bank are women and 97% of the borrowers are owners in the equity of the bank, according to Rankin (2002) the reason behind this is because women invest more in the family than men because of their nurturing instincts and are more devoted towards their families. Women play a crucial role in the economic growth of a country by first improving their family life, their communities and countries. In the microfinance summit provisions are made for the poorest families around but especially for women as they form an important part of microfinance. Women are targeted because they are the one in the family to up bring the children and po verty of the women results in illiteracy of their children and other social problems. Mohhamud Yunus (1999) explains that women are more willing to work harder to raise their children and to move their families out of poverty, whereas when a destitute father earns an income his priorities will more around himself than for his family. In 2005 Kofi Anan promote the year as the UN microfinance year for empowerment of women. Studies have shown that women are good income earner and that women have a high repayment rate this is because solidarity group or social capital replaces securities required by traditional banks thus creating better credit worthiness. In Nepal with the Women empowerment program 68 % of the women are able to cater for the needs of the family by sending their children to school, buying and selling properties which normally was the duty of the husband. Access to microcredit has increase from 7.6 million in 1997 to 26.8 million in 2001 among which are 21 million women the access to loans enabled them to make economic decisions , to buy assets and resources and to become more independent. Social capital forms an integral part of empowerment of women and they work collectively for mutual welfare. According to Coleman (1988) social capital is an asset in the form of human relationship by the sharing of knowledge and resources within a group and World Bank (2009) define social work as a model of collective actions that create quality and quantity social interactions. Social capital helps women to feel united build trust, motivates them to work together to achieve in life. Women empowerment leads to self esteem, motivation, self empowerment, higher knowledge, good leadership, higher collective action, better decision making and ultimately better social position. Women empowerment also helps to fight violence against women. Although violence against women occurred in all social class but women living in poverty are more prone to domestic IPV and domest ic violence, but can at the same time increase the risks since in some cases empowering women is challenging the gender norms Benefits cannot be assumed in all contexts since empowerment is complex and depends on situation. There is also the problem of moral hazard since when women have access to the credit for a given purpose and they are using the money for other purposes. We will look at two among many microcredit stories of women the first one is that of Janet Deval from Haiti who was an illiterate women with a hearing problem she had five children, her husband refused to pay the school fees but she knew that education was important for the children. Janet sold goods in Hinche and pay for her children schools on her own. She started to take literacy classes at Fonkoze a microcredit institution in Haiti. Afterwards Janet knew how to write her name and could things that she couldnt do before since she was never sent to school. Later she took a loan from Fonkoze to be able to expand her business at the market to be able to continue to send her children to school, without the microfinance institution Janet would have been unable to read and write and to even expand her business therefore she would have been able to educate her children. The second case is that of Anastacia Abella from the Philippines, she lived as a squatter in Manila, she lived with her four children in a shelter made from scrap, the village have frequent blackout therefore she decided to search for jar in the garbage to make lamps, after decorating the lamps, she sell 150 of them each day and make a small profit. She took a loan at Opportunity international and she was to make 300 lamps a day, the loan allows her to make greater profit and be able to improve her standard of living. Empirical review Social capital is an important component of microcredit it is used as a tool in development programmes. Social A study was carried out by Forbes Marshall Co .Ltd a well known company in Pune, India as an initiative of CSR about the impact of social capital on social empowerment carried using primary data from 217 women all members of SHG by using random sampling from 60 SHG among which 34% came from lower social class and the rest middle lower class with average family members of 5 and the average age of the women was 30 years old. The number of years of association is 1-7 years. Data reveals that most of them entered a group for the first time and that most of them were aware of the SHG by existing members. The SHG met frequently for interactions.15 variables such as Access for awareness building and capacity building which was further divided into Access to education and training, access to loan and girls education were used using Likert scale to know the perceptions of women about the microfinance programs. To see the effectiveness of the microfinance programmes by the indicators more, sensitivity was used as the SHG were divided into 3 categories of less than 1year,1-3 years and more than 3years. The conclusion of the study was that the social capital created help in women empowerment the older the association the higher the social empowerment and the higher the awareness, the unity and decision making process, but the organization must give appropriate support and policies to the social capital such as capacity building programmes to help decision making. Microfinance programmes make use of physical resources and social capital for sustainable development and economic growth. Social capital should not be the only factor that helps in the empowerment of women; there must be a good policy and objectives behind the social group. Other tools such as experiments, interviews and other types of surveys or a combination can be used to assess the impact of social capital in microfinance programmes for the empowerment of women. In the study above 15 indicators have used to assess social capital but there be other indicators that can be assessed such as communication, trust among others. IMAGE studied the impact on womens empowerment on IPV in South Africa by using random cluster and qualitative data. A microfinance program and training were provided on gender norms, sexuality, HIV and domestic violence.9 indicators of which self confidence, financial confidence, and power to make decisions were used to measure women empowerment. Results about changes in the loan groups were collected and the results were that after 2 years womens empowerment reduced sexual violence by more than half. With adjusted risk ratio= 0.45; 95% confidence interval = 0.23, 0.91 It was observed that the 9 indicators improved and the study showed that women empowerment reduce IPV. 2.2.0 Sustainability of Microfinance Sustainability of MFI does refer to the profit making or the institution being able to sustain itself without the donors or funders. Sometimes to become sustainable MFIs lower their cost and increase their interest rate. According to Rahman (1999) the IR of loan from Grameen has been higher than that of traditional bank rate in Bangladesh. The increase in interest rate may sometimes hinder repayment, the increase should not be too high so that microfinance may serve its purpose. According to UNDP (2003) among the 147 MFIs reporting in the microfinance bulletin 62 are sustainable financially. Chapter 3.0 Microfinance in Mauritius Mauritius is a bank-based economy, there are 19 banks serving the country among which 5 are offshore banks, these commercial banks do not provide microfinance services but the banking sector is stable in Mauritius and therefore important since microfinance is the by-product of the banking system. Microfinance has emerged recently in the country and actually there is only DBM established in 1964, a state-owned bank which operates in the microfinance sector and other sectors of the economy. The head office is found in Port-Louis and 5 other branches among which one in Rodrigues. The DBM serves as a catalyst in the socio-development in Mauritius, the supply of microfinance in Mauritius is quite limited in terms of range of services and the number of people served as DBM provides only Microcredit to its clients since December 2006. Microfinance is used as a tool to fight agaisnt poverty, in Mauritius the poverty line is for a household income not exceeding Rs6000 monthly that is those in the vulnerable group. There are 3 types of microcredit loan scheme that are offered to clients the first one is the Booster microcredit loan for women entrepreneur in sectors such as finance, manufacturing sectors, agricultural, agri business, handicraft, Tourism, ICT and the services sector .Women entrepreneurs loaned by DBM must be registered with NWEC, SEHDA,AREU, IVTB or the Tourism Authority. The loan amount is Rs 100,000 with 9% IR with repayment rates of 5 years and moratorium period of up to 1 year. Normally when taking microcredit no collateral are needed but in this case promissory notes are required as security. Women which are eligible are laid off women workers in EPZ and sugar industry, those in existing business, small women entrepreneurs. Microcredit financing scheme offered to vulnerable groups and are microentrepreneurs with a maximum loan of Rs50000 and 5% IR/per annum and repayment period of 4years and 6 months moratorium and as security floating charge. Booster scheme for small entrepreneur for entrepreneurs to finance a category of activities such as kindergartens, e-commerce, ICT among others, with a maximum of Rs1500000 with a repayment period of 5years, moratorium of 1 year and 9% IR p.a and a limited number of clients are served. Microfinance in Mauritius is in an infancy stage since the financial facility offered is only limited to microcredit and only 3 types of loan are provided to clients and many people may not be aware of these services since they are new in the financial sectors.

Flannery OConnor: A Twentieth Century Fiction Writer Essay -- essays r

There has been a significant amount critical analysis written about Flannery O'Connor's short stories and novels. There is a significant amount critical analysis about Flannery O'Connor because she used so many styles that have not been used before. Flannery O'Connor ranks among he most important American fiction writers of the twentieth century. Flannery O'Connor was born in 1925 in Savannah, Georgia, and lived there until her family moved in 1938. O'Connor and her family moved to a small Georgia farming town named Milledgeville. When Flannery was 15 years old her died father of a disease to the immune system known as lupus erythematosus. O'Connor attended Georgia State College for Women after graduating from Peabody High School in 1942. While at Georgia State College for Women, O'Connor provided illustrations for the school newspaper and yearbook. In the fall of 1949, Miss O'Connor moved to a home Connecticut where she boarded with her two friends, Sally and Robert Fitzgerald. After one year of hard work O'Connor produced her first novel entitled Wise Blood. During this one year, O'Connor and the Fitzgeralds grew closer together as she became the godmother of the Fitzgerald's 2 third child. Later that year, O'Connor reported to the Fitzgeralds a "heaviness" in her typing arms. O'Connor was later diagnosed with lupus erythematosus, the same disease that killed her father. Flannery O'Connor moved back to Georgia to live with her mother on a dairy farm near Mille...

Beauty and the Beast Analysis Essay

In August of 2009, Jaycee Lee Dugard was found alive after she had been abducted in 1991, and she was still with her original captor. Sources have stated that Dugard had developed a case of Stockholm syndrome with the man who kidnapped her eighteen years ago. A psychiatrist named Keith Ablow stated that â€Å"To maintain one’s desperation and grief and rage for many years, would be too damaging to the human mind – so the human mind tells itself a story about safety and contentment to safeguard itself – that’s the essence of Stockholm Syndrome† (Engel). For decades, Stockholm syndrome has made an appearance in dozens of films; sometimes the entire plot focuses around it, sometimes it’s a vague reference. However, one instance of Stockholm syndrome that is incredibly pronounced, yet never addressed occurs in Walt Disney’s Beauty and the Beast (Trousdale 1991). Based on a French novel, Beauty and the Beast was critically acclaimed as being one of the best love stories ever told, as it taught to love what is within, instead of being consumed by vanity; it was considered so successful that it was even the first animated film to be nominated for an Academy Award for best picture. However, even with its critical and box office success, no one has really addressed what kind of love story Disney is promoting. The film Beauty and the Beast does not show a story of true love and admiration of inner beauty, but instead promotes the idea of Stockholm syndrome and falling in love with your kidnapper. When Belle goes on a quest to save her father, she ends up at a secluded castle, where she finds her father locked inside the dungeon at the top of a tower. The Beast, who rules the castle, offers to let her father go if Belle takes his place as prisoner. His reasoning for making her stay as his prisoner is his hope of making her fall in love with him (and him with her) in order to break the curse upon him, his servants, and his castle. Right there we see that the Beast’s entire character motivation is focused around Stockholm Syndrome, as he is attempting to make his prisoner, who he is holding against her will, fall in love with him. He is not kind at first; he roars and yells, effectively scaring the woman of his desires, and demands she follow his orders, much like any captor would. Belle, on the other hand, is at first adamant about keeping her distance from the Beast, even when his enchanted furniture servants attempt to convince her that he’s really a â€Å"good guy†. Belle begins to have a change of heart after the Beast saves her from being eaten by wolves†¦she was almost eaten because she was attempting to escape. Even though the Beast saves her from the mean and scary wolves by bringing her back to her place of captivity, she’s so grateful for his â€Å"rescue† that she begins to think that he has the potential to be good. A montage of cute interactions between the two characters then takes place, showing how the two are beginning to bond and feel something for one another, with barely a whisper of the fact that Belle is still being held against her will. The Beast lavishes upon her with food, music, and clothing; the gracious captor even deems a huge library in the castle to be hers, and she can access it any time she wants. How kind of him to give her full access to books inside a castle that she has no choice but to spend all of her time in. He later creates a fancy date night for the two of them (still inside the castle) that even contains ballroom dancing. He finds out she is homesick, figures out he is in love with her, and let’s her go free. However, she later returns to the castle of her own free will in order to save his life. She professes her love, he turns into a handsome prince, and they live happily ever after at a castle that he now has permission to leave any time she wants. Perhaps by the end of the film Belle really did love the Beast. Even so, her love was shaped and influenced by her self-created tale of â€Å"safety and contentment† altered opinion of him during her captivity in his castle. Disney’s version of this tale of Stockholm syndrome-based love seems to contain a great moral message for young girls: if you’re held captive by a hideous monster who is vying for your affection, just go ahead and fall in love, because he’ll turn beautiful. Belle’s happy ending meant she never had to sue the beast for kidnapping, luckily for him. It’s a shame real life doesn’t follow Disney cartoons as often as it should. Just ask Jaycee. Her beast is still a beast; there was no prince at the end of her story. She got her freedom, yes, but no prince. That’s probably a good thing. It’s definitely better that beastly captors don’t change into rich and handsome men once their imprisoned object of desire returns their feelings; the justice system would never get anything done.

Impossible

The word Impossible Impossible is a word that has been used to describe a multitude of situations. People have been told forever that their dreams and ambitions were impossible; this has inspired greatness and made the world what it is today. Everyone that has achieved anything great has been told that their idea was impossible. Daymond John, like all successful entrepreneurs, inspired me by defying the odds of his time and never listening to the word impossible. Daymond John is the CEO and Founder of the world recognized clothing company FIJBU.He is from Queens, New York and from an era that was all about defying what the world's version of â€Å"impossible† was for him. He is a 44 year old African American that started a clothing company out of his house that has become a 317 million dollar company that has taken on the world and defied everyone that said his dreams were impossible. From a young age the word impossible is something I have always loved to defy I grew up in Ro ckwood Oregon and went to Reynolds Middle school where the majority of my friends and kids were apart of gangs and doing drugs.My teachers told me I was not smart enough to get out the there and that I would end up like everyone else eventually. My parents moved me to the opposite part of town where I kept my mentality that my dreams and aspirations were going to be impossible. Until a teacher I hated told me I was not going to be anything and I was determined to change my life eventually I Joined the United States Army. Before Joining the army I was told that I would not make it because of the physical demands they were going to ask of me and I was too defiant.I was determined to prove everyone wrong in four years I became a SGT and got over a 300 on my physical aptitude test also shot an expert after every qualification. The word impossible became my potential. I thrived in high stress environments. Even though from a young age I have been told that most of my ambitions were impos sible. I never believed them. My Father told me a story when I was growing up that his dad always told him: he was† living in a fantasy land† when my Father would alk about robots in the future.Now days my Father is a head engineer for Intel and works on robots all day. When my Father tells me my dreams are impossible I tell him â€Å"l am Just living in a fantasy land and want to show the world what is in it. † My interpretation stands that nothing is impossible if I am willing to put in the work to prove to the world, but most importantly myself, that I am able to do whatever I put my mind to.At the times when I find myself questioning if I am going to be able to omplete my dreams and if the word impossible is going to finally defeat me, I remember a quote by Muhammad Ali that one of my Drill Sergeants told me to remember: â€Å"Impossible is Just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world theyVe been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing. â€Å"- Muhammad Ali Impossible By dougwilliamsmp