A Brief History of English and American Literature Essay Example for Free

A Brief History of English and American Literature Essay The Norman conquest of England, in the 11th century, made a break in the natural growth of the English language and literature. The old English or Anglo−Saxon had been a purely Germanic speech, with a complicated grammar and a full set of inflections. For three hundred years following the battle of Hastings. this native tongue was driven from the kings court and the courts of law, from parliament, school, and university. During all this time there were two languages spoken in England. Norman French was the birth−tongue of the upper classes and English of the lower. When the latter finally got the better in the struggle, and became, about the middle of the 14th century, the national speech of all England, it was no longer the English of King Alfred. It was a new language, a grammarless tongue, almost wholly {12} stripped of its inflections. It had lost a half of its old words, and had filled their places with French equivalents. The Norman lawyers had introduced legal terms; the ladies and courtiers, words of dress and courtesy. The knight had imported the vocabulary of war and of the chase. The master−builders of the Norman castles and cathedrals contributed technical expressions proper to the architect and the mason. The art of cooking was French. The naming of the living animals, ox, swine, sheep, deer, was left to the Saxon churl who had the herding of them, while the dressed meats, beef, pork, mutton, venison, received their baptism from the table−talk of his Norman master. The four orders of begging friars, and especially the Franciscans or Gray Friars, introduced into England in 1224, became intermediaries between the high and the low. They went about preaching to the poor, and in their sermons they intermingled French with English. In their hands, too, was almost all the science of the day; their medicine, botany, and astronomy displaced the old nomenclature of leechdom, wort−cunnin g, and star−craft. And, finally, the translators of French poems often found it easier to transfer a foreign word bodily than to seek out a native synonym, particularly when the former supplied them with a rhyme. But the innovation reached even to the commonest words in every−day use, so that voice drove out steven, poor drove out earm, and color, use, and place made good their footing beside hue, {13}wont, and stead. A great part of the English words that were left were so changed in spelling and pronunciation as to be practically new. Chaucer stands, in date, midway between King Alfred and Alfred Tennyson, but his English differs vastly more from the formers than from the latters. To Chaucer Anglo−Saxon was as much a dead language as it is to us. The classical Anglo−Saxon, moreover, had been the Wessex dialect, spoken and written at Alfreds capital, Winchester. When the French had displaced this as the language of culture, there was no longer a â€Å"kings English† or any literary standard. The sources of modern standard English are to be found in the East Midland, spoken in Lincoln, Norfolk, Suffolk, Cambridge, and neighboring shires. Here the old Anglian had been corrupted by the Danish settlers, and rapidly threw off its inflections when it became a spoken and no longer a written language, after the Conquest. The West Saxon, clinging more tenaciously to ancient forms, sunk into the position of a local dialect; while the East Midland, spreading to London, Oxford, and Cambridge, became the literary English in which Chaucer wrote. The Normans brought in also new intellectual influences and new forms of literature. They were a cosmopolitan people, and they connected England with the continent. Lanfranc and Anselm, the first two Norman archbishops of Canterbury, were learned and splendid prelates of a {14} type quite unknown to the Anglo−Saxons. They introduced the scholastic philosophy taught at the University of Paris, and the reformed discipline of the Norman abbeys. They bound the English Church more closely to Rome, and officered it with Normans. English bishops were deprived of their sees for illiteracy, and French abbots were set over monasteries of Saxon monks. Down to the middle of the 14th century the learned literature of England was mostly in Latin, and the polite literature in French. English did not at any time altogether cease to be a written language, but the extant remains of the period from 1066 to 1200 are few and, with one exception, unimportant. After 1200 English came more and more into written use, but mainly in translations, paraphrases, and imitations of French works. The native genius was at school, and followed awkwardly. The Anglo−Saxon poetry, for example, had been rhythmical and alliterative. It was commonly written in lines containing four rhythmical accents and with three of the accented syllables alliterating. R_este hine thà ¢ r_à ºm−heort; r_à ©ced hlifade G_eà ¡p and g_à ³ld−fà ¢h, gà ¤st inne swà ¤f. Rested him then the great−hearted; the hall towered Roomy and gold−bright, the guest slept within. This rude energetic verse the Saxon scà ´p had sung to his harp or glee−beam, dwelling on the {15} emphatic syllables, passing swiftly over the others which were of undetermined number and position in the line. It was now displaced by the smooth metrical verse with rhymed endings, which the French introduced and which our modern poets use, a verse fitted to be recited rather than sung. The old English alliterative verse continued, indeed, in occasional use to the 16th century. But it was linked to a forgotten literature and an obsolete dialect, and was doomed to give way. Chaucer lent his great authority to the more modern verse system, and his own literary models and inspirers were all foreign, French or Italian. Literature in England began to be once more English and truly national in the hands of Chaucer and his contemporaries, but it was the literature of a nation cut off from its own past by three centuries of foreign rule. The most noteworthy English document of the 11th and 12th centuries was the continuation of the Anglo−Saxon chronicle. Copies of these annals, differing somewhat among themselves, had been kept at the monasteries in Winchester, Abingdon, Worcester, and elsewhere. The yearly entries were mostly brief, dry records of passing events, though occasionally they become full and animated. The fen country of Cambridge and Lincolnshire was a region of monasteries. Here were the great abbeys of Peterborough and Croyland and Ely minster. One of the earliest English songs tells how the savage heart of the Danish {16} king Cnut was softened by the singing of the monks in Ely. Merie sungen muneches binnen Ely Tha Cnut chyning reu ther by; Roweth, cnihtes, noer the land, And here we thes muneches sang. It was among the dikes and marshes of this fen country that the bold outlaw Hereward, â€Å"the last of the English,† held out for some years against the conqueror. And it was here, in the rich abbey of Burch or Peterborough, the ancient Medeshamstede (meadow−homestead) that the chronicle was continued for nearly a century after the Conquest, breaking off abruptly in 1154, the date of King Stephens death. Peterborough had received a new Norman abbot, Turold, â€Å"a very stern man,† and the entry in the chronicle for 1170 tells how Hereward and his gang, with his Danish backers, thereupon plundered the abbey of its treasures, which were first removed to Ely, and then carried off by the Danish fleet and sunk, lost, or squandered. The English in the later portions of this Peterborough chronicle becomes gradually more modern, and falls away more and more from the strict grammatical standards of the classical Anglo−Saxon. It is a most valuable historical monument, and some passages of it are written with great vividness, notably the sketch of William the Conqueror put down in the year of his death (1086) by one who had â€Å"looked upon him and at another time dwelt in his court.† {17} â€Å"He who was before a rich king, and lord of many a land, he had not then of all his land but a piece of seven feet. . . . Likewise he was a very stark man and a terrible, so that one durst do nothing against his will. . . . Among other things is not to be forgotten the good peace that he made in this land, so that a man might fare over his kingdom with his bosom full of gold unhurt. He set up a great deer preserve, and he laid laws therewith that whoso should slay hart or hind, he should be blinded. As greatly did he love the tall deer as if he were their father.† With the discontinuance of the Peterborough annals, English history written in English prose ceased for three hundred years. The thread of the nations story was kept up in Latin chronicles, compiled by writers partly of English and partly of Norman descent. The earliest of these, such as Ordericus Vitalis, Simeon ofDurham, Henry of Huntingdon, and William of Malmesbury, were contemporary with the later entries of the Saxon chronicle. The last of them, Matthew of Westminster, finished his work in 1273. About 1300 Robert, a monk of Gloucester, composed a chronicle in English verse, following in the main the authority of the Latin chronicles, and he was succeeded by other rhyming chroniclers in the 14th century. In the hands of these the true history of the Saxon times was overlaid with an ever−increasing mass of fable and legend. All real knowledge of the period {18} dwindled away until in Capgraves Chronicle of England, written in prose in 1463−64, hardly any thing of it is left. In history as in literature the English had forgotten their past, and had turned to foreign sources. It is noteworthy that Shakspere, who borrowed his subjects and his heroes sometimes from authentic English history, sometimes from the legendary history of ancient Britain, Denmark,and Scotland, as in Lear, Hamlet, and Macbeth, ignores the Saxon period altogether. And Spenser, who gives in his second book of the Faerie Queene, a resumà © of the reigns of fabulous British kings—the supposed ancestors of Queen Elizabeth, his royal patron—has nothing to say of the real kings of early England. So completely had the true record faded away that it made no appeal to the imaginations of our most patriotic poets. The Saxon Alfred had been dethroned by the British Arthur, and the conquered Welsh had imposed their fictitious genealogies upon the dynasty of the conquerors. In the Roman de Rou, a verse chronicle of the dukes of Normandy, written by the Norman Wace, it is related that at the battle of Hastings the French jongleur, Taillefer, spurred out before the van of Williams army, tossing his lance in the air and chanting of â€Å"Charlemagne and of Roland, of Oliver and the peers who died at Roncesvals.† This incident is prophetic of the victory which Norman song, no less than Norman arms, was to win over England. The lines which Taillefer {19} sang were from the Chanson de Roland, the oldest and best of the French hero sagas. The heathen Northmen, who had ravaged the coasts of France in the 10th century, had become in the course of one hundred and fifty years, completely identified with the French. They had accepted Christianity, intermarried with the native women, and forgotten their own Norse tongue. The race thus formed was the most brilliant in Europe. The warlike, adventurous spirit of the vikings mingled in its blood with the French nimbleness of wit and fondness for display. The Normans were a nation of knights−errant, with a passion for prowess and for courtesy. Their architecture was at once strong and graceful. Their women were skilled in embroidery, a splendid sample of which is preserved in the famous Bayeux tapestry, in which the conquerors wife, Matilda, and the ladies of her court wrought the history of the Conquest. This national taste for decoration expressed itself not only in the ceremonious pomp of feast and chase and tourney, but likewise in literature. The most characteristic contribution of the Normans to English poetry were the metrical romances or chivalry tales. These were sung or recited by the minstrels, who were among the retainers of every great feudal baron, or by the jongleurs, who wandered from court to castle. There is a whole literature of these romans d aventure in the Anglo−Norman dialect of French. Many of them are {20} very long—often thirty, forty, or fifty thousand lines—written sometimes in a strophic form, sometimes in long Alexandrines, but commonly in the short, eight−syllabled rhyming couplet. Numbers of them were turned into English verse in the 13th, 14th, and 15th centuries. The translations were usually inferior to the originals. The French trouvere (finder or poet) told his story in a straight−forward, prosaic fashion, omitting no details in the action and unrolling endless descriptions of dresses, trappings, gardens, etc. He invented plots and situations full of fine possibilities by which later poets have profited, but his own handling of them was feeble and prolix. Yet there was a simplicity about the old French language and a certain elegance and delicacy in the diction of the trouveres which the rude, unformed English failed to catch. The heroes of these romances were of various climes: Guy of Warwick, and Richard the Lion Heart of England, Havelok the Dane, Sir Troilus of Troy, Charlemagne, and Alexander. But, strangely enough, the favorite hero of English romance was that mythical Arthur of Britain, whom Welsh legend had celebrated as the most formidable enemy of the Sassenach invaders and their victor in twelve great battles. The language and literature of the ancient Cymry or Welsh had made no impression on their Anglo−Saxon conquerors. There are a few Welsh borrowings in the English speech, such as bard and druid; but in the old Anglo−Saxon literature there are {21} no more traces of British song and story than if the two races had been sundered by the ocean instead of being borderers for over six hundred years. But the Welsh had their own national traditions, and after the Norman Conquest these were set free from the isolation of their Celtic tongue and, in an indirect form, entered into the general literature of Europe. The French came into contact with the old British literature in two places: in the Welsh marches in England and in the province of Brittany in France, where the population is of Cymric race and spoke, and still to some extent speaks, a Cymric dialect akin to the Welsh. About 1140 Geoffrey of Monmouth, a Benedictine monk, seemingly of Welsh descent, who lived at the court of Henry the First and became afterward bishop of St. Asaph, produced in Latin a so−called Historia Britonum in which it was told how Brutus, the great grandson of Aeneas, came to Britain, and founded there his kingdom called after him, and his city of New Troy (Troynovant) on the site of the later London. An air of historic gravity was given to this tissue of Welsh legends by an exact chronology and the genealogy of theBritish kings, and the author referred, as his authority, to an imaginary Welsh book given him, as he said, by a certain Walter, archdeacon of Oxford. Here appeared that line of fabulous British princes which has become so familiar to modern readers in the plays of Shakspere and the poems of Tennyson: Lear and his {22} three daughters; Cymbeline, Gorboduc, the subject of the earliest regular English tragedy, composed by Sackville and acted in 1562; Locrine and his Queen Gwendolen, and his daughter Sabrina, who gave her name to the river Severn, was made immortal by an exquisite song in Miltons Comus, and became the heroine of the tragedy of Locrine, once attributed to Shakspere; and above all, Arthur, the son of Uther Pendragon, and the founder of the Table Round. In 1155 Wace, the author of the Roman de Rou, turned Geoffreys work into a French poem entitled Brut d Angleterre, â€Å"brut† being a Welsh word meaning chronicle. About the year 1200 Waces poem was Englished by Layamon, a priest of Arley Regis, on the border stream of Severn. Layamons Brut is in thirty thousand lines, partly alliterative and partly rhymed, but written in pure Saxon English with hardly any French words. The style is rude but vigorous, and, at times, highly imaginative. Wace had amplified Geoffreys chronicle somewhat, but Layamon made much larger additions, derived, no doubt, from legends current on the Welsh border. In particular the story of Arthur grew in his hands into something like fullness. He tells of the enchantments of Merlin, the wizard; of the unfaithfulness of Arthurs queen,Guenever; and the treachery of his nephew, Modred. His narration of the last great battle between Arthur and Modred; of the wounding of the king—â€Å"fifteen fiendly wounds he had, one might in the least {23} three gloves thrust—†; and of the little boat with â€Å"two women therein, wonderly dight,† which came to bear him away to Avalun and the Queen Argante, â€Å"sheenest of all elves,† whence he shall come again, according to Merlins prophecy, to rule the Britons; all this left little, in essentials, for Tennyson to add in his Death of Arthur. This new material for fiction was eagerly seized upon by the Norman romancers. The story of Arthur drew to itself other stories which were afloat.

Management Challenges to NGOs

Management Challenges to NGOs INTRODUCTION Management has been defined by Weirich Koontz as the process of designing and maintaining an environment in which individuals, working together in groups, effectively accomplish selected ends or goals (Weirich Koontz, 2005). They also submitted that management is applicable to all kinds of organizations (public, private, not for profit) and that no matter the organization, managers responsibilities are to plan, organize, staff, lead and control in such a way that surplus is created authors (Werich and Koontz 2005). This surplus could mean profit as in the private sector, or meeting a need or having a positive effect, as in the not for profit sectors. So whether an organization was set up in order to sell cars at a profit e.g. Toyota, or set up to meet the dire needs of the poor e.g. Food Aid, management is important if the goals are to be met. However, while the importance of management in all spheres of human living has been highlighted by several authors, the reality of NGO management differs significantly from what obtains in the Public or the Private sectors. Fundamentally, management or managerialism has not been a major concern for many NGOs until very recently. Why was this so? What are the peculiar features of management in this sector? What are the important management challenges facing NGOs and why are they important? While management challenges abound in all sectors, this essay will explore those peculiar in the management of NGOs in order to answer these questions. It will also critically analyse the case study of Project Literacy, a South African NGO to illustrate how some of these challenges were responded to. The essay will focus more on the most important management challenges, which have been taken to be leadership, funding, accountability, performance monitoring evaluation, and scaling up. There are many different kinds of NGOs, however for the purpose of this essay NGOs will be defined as are organisations that are non-political, non-profit, non-governmental, and accountable to their stakeholders and involved in welfare and socio-economic development of people (Rahman, 2007). WHY NGO MANAGEMENT? Since 1960, the number and size of non-profit organizations involved in international relief and development have grown substantially (Carroll, 1992; Clark, 1991; Fisher, 1998; Fowler, 1998; Edwards, 1999). As the sector has expanded, it has been subject to new competitive pressures. In the past, the word management was considered synonymous with business management, but for NGOs, commercial activities are presumed to be against their non-profit mission and scored negatively. Since the last two decades NGOs themselves have realised the importance of management, and academicians along with NGO executives have also started thinking over the issues of vision, mission, strategic planning, goals, effective coordination and communication, human resource development, motivational strategies, bottom lines and leadership. Today more NGOs compete for increasingly scarce donor resources. Both private and institutional donors demand greater financial accountability and more concrete evidence of program impact. Small, independent NGOs find it hard to keep pace with more efficient, larger ones that take advantage of economies of scale in marketing, operations, and support services. The world of competitive market dynamics presents difficult paradoxes to many who work in the NGO sector. They believe that their organizations strength, fuelled by the staffs primary motivation, is in its determination to help people improve their lives. But in this more competitive NGO world, it is no longer enough to simply have good intentions and a strong value orientation. As noted by Lindenberg (2001), those working in the NGO sector now recognize that NGOs that do not adapt their strategies and promote greater impact, efficiency, and accountability run the risk of bankruptcy as well as irrelevance. Yet they fear that too much attention to market dynamics and private and public sector techniques will destroy their value-based organizational culture. It has also been argued elsewhere that the management system for NGOs is supposed to be different from traditional management thoughts given by Fayols Modern Operational Management, Taylors scientific management and Webers Bureaucratic Model, because of their distinctiveness in vision, mission, organisational culture, goals and values from the other two sectors (Rahman 2003). Stemming from Henri Fayols (1916) definition of management as forecasting, planning, organizing coordinating and control, Rahman (2003) gave a possible definition of NGO management: To manage an NGO is to forecast with shared vision, to plan strategically, to operate professionally and to lead culture friendly. In this definition the word organise used by Fayol has been replaced by operate in order to give a more functional touch, and the word control has been replaced by lead because there is a minimum use of control in NGO management as the shared values of NGOs discourage the concentration of power at the hie rarchical levels and in their functions. Having agreed that management has gained importance for NGOs, what then are the key management challenges for NGOs? Though management challenges abound also in the public and private sectors, the NGO sector has a unique complex nature with its own characteristic management challenges ranging from funding problems to leadership, performance monitoring evaluation, accountability, scaling up, human resources, organization culture, and professionalization. The following sections will however focus on the first five challenges I believe a key in NGO management. FUNDING AND INDEPENDENCE Funding is a very major challenge in NGO management. NGOs require funds to carry out programs and maintain the organization. Unavailability of funds for an NGO could mean a total standstill. NGOs could most time depend on government for funding. However, NGOs that depend largely on public finance run the risk of becoming mere government subsidiaries by implementing activities formerly carried out by their own governments or multilateral institutions (Senillosa, 1998). Government policy may differ from the NGOs objectives and/or the beneficiaries interests, which may lead to a conflict of interest. The availability of substantial government grants may tempt NGOs or the program beneficiaries to become involved in programs inconsistent with their own objectives and capacities. The sheer size of government grants and certain government grant restrictions (specific countries, certain social groups, special forms of assistance) may lead to an imbalance in the NGOs programs. Some NGOs have, more or less, become contractors to governments, particularly if they do not have other programs or funding sources. NGOs may become unwilling to criticize government publicly thus softening their advocacy work and/or human rights campaigns. Also, as government funding may be comparatively easy to obtain, there is the risk of the NGO ignoring or downgrading their traditional sources of private funding and traditional relationships with their constituencies. In addition, as non-governmental providers of development services, NGOs (and their programs) became subject to the availability of government funds (with associated uncertainty about magnitudes and timing), to some degree of governmental control and supervision, and to the rules and procedures that went with the receipt and use of public funds. This tended to impose heavy and sometimes excessive requirements on NGO administrative and audit capacities (Van Der Heijden, 1987). Another problem with funding is the issue of rejection of core funding- a situation whereby donors are only willing to pay project costs. According to Bornstein (2003), NGO managers that are not competent enough to incorporate core costs within project proposals usually have their key functions not being funded. Organizational development, experimental pilot approaches and long-term impact analysis are being abandoned due to lack of funds. Finally, financial uncertainty affects planning for NGOs. It has also forced them to look for more financial sources and adopt private sector-like methods like downsizing. Take for example; shortage of funds is forcing many South African NGOs outside the donor loop to diversify income sources. They are redefining their relationships to the state and the market, taking on government contract work, selling services to the private sector and charging user fees. Some have had to downsize and depend on short-term contract staff while others are experimenting with their legal status and turning into non-profit companies. (Bornstein 2003). LEADERSHIP Leadership in NGOs is a matter of concern considering the highly personalized nature of leadership in the sector. The sector is full of anecdotal stories about the detrimental impact of paternalistic founder leaders, charismatic autocrats, or the guru syndrome (Hailey, 1999). On one hand such leaders demonstrate a drive and commitment, and a remarkable ability to mobilize people and resources. While on the other hand they are criticized for dominating organizations, being unaccountable, and failing to adapt to changing circumstances. Chambers (1997) points out that such NGO leaders can achieve many things through their guts, vision and commitment, but the way they use power is a disability that jeopardizes organizational effectiveness. He argues such charismatic leaders are vulnerable to acquiescence, deference, flattery and placation (Chambers, 1997). They are not easily contradicted or corrected. As a result they actively suffocate promising initiatives that may threaten their powe r base, relationships, or position of patronage. The concept of leadership in NGO could also at times be antithetical to the participatory culture espoused by many NGOs. In a sector that believes itself to be more value driven, participatory, and less managerialist than the for-profit business sector, there is an unwillingness to concede the important influence of any one individual leader. Managers in this new era thus have to be conscious of the greater credence given to ideas of equality and participatory democracy in this sector if they are to succeed (Hailey James 2004). Effective NGO leadership also requires the ability to balance a range of competing pressures from different stakeholders in ways that do not compromise the leaders individual identity and values (Hailey James 2004). The leadership of development NGOs face extraordinary challenges as they work with very limited resources in uncertain and volatile political and economic circumstances to help the most marginalized and disadvantaged members of their communities. Civicus referred to the growing deficit in leadership abilities in NGOs. In particular they pointed to rapid turnover of NGO staff in leadership positions into business and government and the difficulty NGOs have in replacing them (Civicus, 2002). All too often this failure of leadership results in programmatic dysfunctionality and even organizational collapse. MONITORING AND EVALUATING PERFORMANCE NGOs are making significant efforts to show how they are performing, a trend impelled by three factors: stricter requirements attached to official aid; doubts about NGO claims to be more effective than governments; post-Cold War shifts in the role of NGOs, which increase their own needs to know what is being achieved, in order to manage the processes of organisational reorientation and transformation. However, almost without exception, NGOs are finding it very difficult to come up with sound, cost effective methods to show the results of their development activities, or even to demonstrate their effectiveness as organisations (Fowler, 1996). Rick Davies attributed the problems of monitoring and evaluating the performance of NGOs to ambitious expectations, complexity caused by scale (hierarchical differences in goals and expectations at various actors levels), diversity of NGO activities, vague objectives, fault-able measuring tools, and absence of baseline information adequate monit oring systems (Davies, 2000). Unlike commercial companies development NGOs do not have the bottom lines of market feedback, profitability, and returns on financial investment, nor do they receive the judgement of citizens through social unrest or the periodic vote. In other words, consumers and voters are the source of performance standards for business and government- but not for NGOs (Fowler, 1996). According to LeCompte (1986), the difficulty in measuring the development performance of NGOs stems from the basic incompatibility between the assumptions on which the aid system is based and the actual process of socio-economic change. Social economic change is mostly contingent as different from the linear model the aid system presupposes. There are three problems with this approach. Firstly, the right ways of doing things cannot all be sufficiently predicted in advance? Secondly, the assumptions seldom hold. And, thirdly, development in the sense of sustained improvement in the lives and circumstances of people who are poor or marginalised does not take place in a linear way under the influence of one single intervention (LeCompte, 1986). As resources move down the aid chain, several things happen which undermine the project approach, and hence limit the ability simply to tie resources and activities to NGO performance in terms of development? Furthermore, the measures of development are very complex, containing both tangible or physical elements and intangible factors of human and organisational processes and capacities. Also, the possibility of attributing the cause of change to an NGOs work is very restricted. ACCOUNTABILITY Who are NGOs accountable to, for what, and how? Concerns about the role and accountability of NGOs have been voiced from different quarters in recent years. As the World Bank (2005) noted, with growth in the influence of NGOs so also are they attracting greater public scrutiny, prompting calls for greater accountability. Some donors, governments, corporations, and international agencies raise important questions about the effectiveness of NGO work and the legitimacy of their advocacy. Some NGOs have also recognized the need to ensure good practice in the wider voluntary sector. The question of accountability is seen as a bureaucratic hurdle at best, and at worst as a threat to achieving an NGOs aims. Some fear that any toughening of accountability may lead to an overbearing influence from funders and governments, which could then lead to cooptation and a deflection of original purpose (Najam, 2000), or lead to the stymieing of innovation and reducing the diversity of NGOs (Cnaan, 1996). The problem of to whom accountability should be towards also arises many times. Accountability is usually upwards to donors and not to the poor who are the most immediately concerned. NGOs just want to show that money is not being misappropriated and that the approved activities are completed rather than that desirable change was achieved, let alone sustainable. Bendell (2006) however argued that democracy and human rights should firmly be at the centre of the debate about NGO accountability. By democratic accountability he meant that NGOs should be more accountable to those with less power who are affected by the organizations actions or decisions the poor. SCALING UP Much has been said about the need for NGOs to increase the impact they are having rather than applying small piecemeal efforts to large scale problems of poverty. Edwards and Hulme (1992) described strategies for scaling up to meet this demand for more impacts. Some NGOs are contented to focus on a single small community within which they work taking a small is beautiful approach to their work (Lewis 2001). Edwards and Hulme (1992) noted three kinds of scaling up for NGOs as; additive (increase size and coverage of programs), multiplicative (gain more leverage by influencing other development actors, thereby reaching more people), and diffusive (transferring its approaches beyond the organizations immediate sphere of influence). Bangladesh Grameen Bank was able to effectively manage the challenge of the scaling up process. The bank impacted a lot of poor people in the immediate community, but rather than growing any larger as an implementing organization, it encouraged the adaptation of its original microcredit delivery model around the world (Lewis 2001). CASE STUDY: PROJECT LITERACY, SOUTH AFRICA This case study is about Project Literacy, an NGO based in South Africa. The NGO was founded in 1973 by Jenny Neser to help provide an opportunity for non-educated marginalized workers to learn how to read, write and learn other basic life skills thereby tackling the problem of very low educational level in the society (projectliteracy.org.za). Just like most NGOs, it started with the leader identifying a need in the society which neither the government nor the private sector is making provision for. The NGO started out making use of church facilities for the training and getting volunteer teachers to help out with the training. Much of the funds at this initial stage were from the founders purse and little fees affordable by the beneficiaries. Even at this early stage, some other churches too started to copy Project Literacys programme, thereby increasing their impact (multiplicative scaling up). In 1985, the NGO enrolled up to 200 learners in its Adult Basic Education Training (ABE T) programme and had an annual budget of approximately R4000. The first major turnaround however came when the NGO received a donation of $10,000 (worth R33, 000) from USAID. With this, the NGO registered Project Literacy Trust Fund, and with additional fundraising drive, built its first mini office. By 1990, trainings for community based organizations and commercial clients were initiated. This helped in further diversifying the NGOs income source. The program also enjoyed a lot of support from other bodies like the South African Council of Churches and the Independent Development Trusts which both gave funds for the further development of an ABET teacher training programme and development of suitable ABET materials. The NGO was able to build its central office in 1994 through a donation from the Joint Education Trust. However, the direct funding enjoyed by most South African NGOs from international donors soon dried up. With democracy in South Africa in 1994, donors began entering into bilateral agreements with the elected government rather than directly with NGOs, resulting in the folding up of most NGOs. This highlights the centrality of funding to the operations of these NGOs and probably their overdependence on it. Project Literacy however, was able to survive this period by identifying the opportunity in this challenge (Farouk, year unknown). The new Government saw the need to provide sector wide training to meet the education and skill needs of its work force and the unemployed. This was done through the establishment of Sector Education Training Authorities (SETA) e.g. agriculture SETA will attend to needs in agriculture. Project Literacys strategy was to build capacity to tender effectively for government contracts, and the organization moved from direct delivery to service delivery. It al so restructured its financial management structure, retrained staff, and adopted a robust marketing strategy, all of which were not normal practices in the sector. This sort of bold move required strong leadership able to venture into areas not treaded before. By 1999, the NGO had gained national notoriety, with offices in all of South Africas provinces. Also critical to Project Literacys success was its leadership structure. Unlike most other NGOs that depend on the charisma of the leader and his influence or connections, Project Literacy was able to put in place a standard structure with board of trustees and board of directors, with a management team. By 1995, Jenny Neser the founder resigned and a new CEO was appointed. Continuity was thus ensured. Growth however has its challenges, and Project Literacys biggest challenge ever came in 2010 when it lost a major government contract worth R 90m. By this time the organization spent up to R1.2m monthly to maintain its offices nationally. The loss of this contract resulted in the need for the organization to close all its provincial offices and lay off 47 out of its 78 staff members (Independent online, 2010). This highlights the danger of a growth dependent on government funding, and also the danger of additive scaling up. Politics could play a major role in who gets governments contract, and a domineering monopoly might not be the best mode for NGOs to adopt in their bid to scale up. Whether or how Project Life will be able to handle the current management challenge remains a question to be answered, but the lessons learnt from it will be invaluable to every aspiring NGO. In conclusion, this essay has highlighted the importance of management with respect to NGOs and how it differs from management in the public or private sectors. It has also considered the management challenges of leadership, funding, accountability, monitoring evaluation, and scaling up as the most important management challenges facing NGOs. The case study of Project Life has shown that management in the NGO sector could be likened to a rollercoaster ride, monumental success could bear with it seeds for colossal failure. NGOs in the foreseeable future will have to continue to work in a very unpredictable environment, adapting quickly as the need may be in order to survive diverse challenges that will continue to face them.

Plasma Donation Essay -- Observational Essays

Plasma Donation Save a life, donate plasma! Plasma donation is a process many college students pursue in the efforts to make a sort of supplementary income while attending school. However, many other people in society do not know what all plasma donation entails. This essay will discuss the many aspects and details that the plasma donation process involves. These details include the donor’s waiting time and check-in, the donation process itself, and finally the finishing touches of the donation process. Plasma donation begins with the individual arriving at the Biolife Plasma Center. Upon arrival the person signs themselves in via clipboard or computer. Then after sign-in the individual is seated amongst many other potential donors awaiting their name to be called so they may advance in the donation cycle. Eventually, a nurse calls the individuals name, and directs them toward the front desk. Here they will be weighed on an electronic scale, and also at have their finger pricked with a small punch. This punch makes a small inci! sion in the index finger, that allows a sample of blood to be squeezed into a small straw-like tube. This blood sample is then taken to the small laboratory to be tested for efficiency, while the potential donor is taken to a small cubicle to answer a series of questions involving their immunization history. After the questioning session ends the individual is once again seated in the waiting area until their name is called over the intercom system. Pending normal test results on the blood sample, the donor will be summoned to the donor floor. Here the donation process will finally begin. The individual has now become a donor, for their test results have all come back and fallen within the normal rang... ...donor is able to collect their payment. The donor reports once again to the desk, where they are paid and have their left middle finger dabbed with a substance that will appear under ultraviolet light. This is done to ! prohibit the donor from going to another facility to give plasma. This is the official end of the donation experience. Whether it be helping others that need a blood transfusion, or a supplemental source of income, donating plasma is an extravagant process that takes more effort than the normal citizen realizes. Previously I have explained the entirety of the donation procedure, including the waiting room ordeal, the donating, and then the end stages of the process. This information was presented so that others curious about plasma donation can vicariously live the donation process, and get a feel for what really goes on in the Biolife Plasma Center.

The Implications Involving Dinosaur DNA Essay -- Exploratory Essays Re

The Implications Involving Dinosaur DNA Of course it was the movie Jurassic Park who seemed to coin the phrase â€Å"Dino DNA.† This movie gave the public the thought that, a) it is possible to find dinosaur DNA and b) we can clone dinosaurs from this DNA. This essay is not going to pick apart Jurassic Park’s scientific value, however it will share the current knowledge and information on dinosaur DNA. The discovery of DNA is important because it may uncover different bits of information. The idea of cloning dinosaurs, especially at this point is out of the question. It is really hard to clone living animals today, with full DNA and genome strands, we can’t even think about recreating animals millions of years ago. DNA is a protein molecule that is proven to contain the genetic sequence of any particular species. Every species has a different type of DNA. This is how we differentiate between different species today. Humans have different DNA than rats. Rats have different DNA than mice, etc, etc. However, we know that DNA hold-up needs a living body to keep â€Å"alive.† Therefore, DNA decomposes with soft tissue, as the animal decays over time. For the most part of dinosaur studies, finding DNA from these dinosaurs was unheard of because dinosaurs lived over 65 million years ago. Until recently, it was previously thought that DNA, under optimal circumstances, could perhaps be preserved for only about 10,000 years. This is long after dinosaurs roamed the Earth (Pittman, 2004). Some research has reported finding insects fossilized in amber, containing species such as a termite (30 million years ago), and a weevil from approximately 130 million years ago. These are extraordinary findings, but of course disputed. ... ... but there can still be the possibility of contamination. Although we can only do so much with DNA and protein fragments, they are still discoveries, which are going against previous intuitions. Again, no cloning of dinosaurs are going to take place any time soon, but DNA may help to link dinosaurs with other species around today. These two articles, the research article and the review article show strong evidence that preserved proteins, including DNA can survive under the perfect circumstances. Of course more research will need to be done, and hopefully more findings will conclude the same results. References Pittman, S.D. 2004. Fossilized DNA. http://www.naturalselection.0catch.com/Files/fossilizeddna.html. Received April 3rd, 2004 Woodward, S.R., Weyand, N.J., Burnell, M. 1994. DNA sequence from cretaceous Period. Science, v266. pp 1229. The Implications Involving Dinosaur DNA Essay -- Exploratory Essays Re The Implications Involving Dinosaur DNA Of course it was the movie Jurassic Park who seemed to coin the phrase â€Å"Dino DNA.† This movie gave the public the thought that, a) it is possible to find dinosaur DNA and b) we can clone dinosaurs from this DNA. This essay is not going to pick apart Jurassic Park’s scientific value, however it will share the current knowledge and information on dinosaur DNA. The discovery of DNA is important because it may uncover different bits of information. The idea of cloning dinosaurs, especially at this point is out of the question. It is really hard to clone living animals today, with full DNA and genome strands, we can’t even think about recreating animals millions of years ago. DNA is a protein molecule that is proven to contain the genetic sequence of any particular species. Every species has a different type of DNA. This is how we differentiate between different species today. Humans have different DNA than rats. Rats have different DNA than mice, etc, etc. However, we know that DNA hold-up needs a living body to keep â€Å"alive.† Therefore, DNA decomposes with soft tissue, as the animal decays over time. For the most part of dinosaur studies, finding DNA from these dinosaurs was unheard of because dinosaurs lived over 65 million years ago. Until recently, it was previously thought that DNA, under optimal circumstances, could perhaps be preserved for only about 10,000 years. This is long after dinosaurs roamed the Earth (Pittman, 2004). Some research has reported finding insects fossilized in amber, containing species such as a termite (30 million years ago), and a weevil from approximately 130 million years ago. These are extraordinary findings, but of course disputed. ... ... but there can still be the possibility of contamination. Although we can only do so much with DNA and protein fragments, they are still discoveries, which are going against previous intuitions. Again, no cloning of dinosaurs are going to take place any time soon, but DNA may help to link dinosaurs with other species around today. These two articles, the research article and the review article show strong evidence that preserved proteins, including DNA can survive under the perfect circumstances. Of course more research will need to be done, and hopefully more findings will conclude the same results. References Pittman, S.D. 2004. Fossilized DNA. http://www.naturalselection.0catch.com/Files/fossilizeddna.html. Received April 3rd, 2004 Woodward, S.R., Weyand, N.J., Burnell, M. 1994. DNA sequence from cretaceous Period. Science, v266. pp 1229.

The People Versus Lady Macbeth :: essays research papers

The People Vs. Macbeth The Macbeth trial broke out in full force today as the entire nation of Scotland paid close attention to the small town court of Grahacknboroughsly, Scotland. The charges are for abuse of power, abuse of wealth, abuse of friendship and misuse of a regal Scottish accent. As the parade of people came into the courthouse, 2/3rds of them were enemies of Macbeth. The motion to dismiss came early on grounds of permanent death on Macbeth’s defense team. The motion was quickly dismissed as Macbeth was being quite lively for a dead King. The motion was not helped by the â€Å"deceased† ordering the judge to â€Å"Lemme free, drop the charges and get a haircut.† The defense motion was further weakened by the comment, â€Å"the judge can kiss my giant, royal behind.†   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The trial soon got underway after the court was able to settle Macbeth down. The People’s witness list started off at the top and worked down. The first was Banquo, as he had been victimized by Macbeth early in the tale and his testimony, as well as his casket, was getting stale. After hearing the testimony from Banquo, the Macbeth defense brought out their one and only witness, a stable boy, who looked as though he had been threatened with his life. The boy’s shaky and unseemingly well worded testimony went over very badly on the jury side and the crowds side. The boy brought out the fact that Macbeth was blinded by the possibility of absolute power and wealth, and that he couldn’t control his wife’s demands until it was too late for the both of them. He also stated that the opportunity wouldn’t have been there if it weren’t for the king’s cowardly sons and their flight from Scotland. This did not go over well for the side of the jury that was strongly pro Duncan (even though they were supposed to be non partisan, it was hard to find a soul who didn’t love Duncan so much as to hate Macbeth.)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The People now brought out the Weird sisters and their cauldron to make their testimony. As cryptic as it was, it revealed that they had convinced Macbeth to kill Duncan, even though it was not hard. The jury was heavily swayed by this revelation, the common thought was that it may not have been Macbeth’s fault. The sisters may have convinced him.

Automobile and Level Material Appendix Essay

Choose one of the Facts for Consideration sections from Ch. 3 of the text and list the page number for the section you chose. Then, complete the following table. List five threats appropriate to the environment from the section you chose. Rate the risk for each threat from 0 (low) to 10 (high). Then, list five appropriate countermeasures. Once you complete the table, write a brief explanation of the countermeasures for the two threats with the highest risk total, stating how the countermeasure reduces the risk associated with that threat. This assessment is based on the Facts for Consideration on page _93___ THREAT| RISK| COUNTERMEASURE| | Probability| Criticality| Total| | Example:Physical assault| 9| 4| 13| Highly visible officer presence| Inmate Escape| 10| 5| 15| Extra guards to help prevent escape attempt| Inmate Riots| 8| 4| 12| Officers carry visible weapons to show that if inmates get out of hand measures will be taken |. Transport vehicle driver exhausted | 9| 4| 13| Extra driver to transport vehicle in addition to other guards that aren’t driving| Inmates take over the van| 10| 4| 14| Have the inmates checked before they get on the van and then handcuffed so they are not able to move around or get close to the driver| Have more than one officer on the van | 8| 3| 11| One officer can drive and the other can keep an eye on the inmates|. The inmate escape is very important. If there are extra guards then it will be easy to prevent this from happening, especially since some trips can take up to 48 hours to complete. With all the stopping (two to eight stops on any given trip) and going it would be great to have the countermeasure. When it comes to inmates taking over the van, I feel as though that is something that can happen even if there are two officers on the van. Inmates are strong and they always have something up their sleeves. So if we were to take the countermeasure and actually have them checked before they get on the van and then handcuffed it makes the ride safer and less threatening.

Hysteretic Behaviour of an SDOF System

There have been several research workers who have attempted to develop processs for gauging maximal inelastic supplantings. It is deserving observing that most of these surveies used stuff theoretical accounts which followed simplehystereticnon-degrading regulations. There have merely been a few of these surveies which have considered debasement effects. A brief sum-up of earlier surveies in this field are given below. The first research work sing the equal supplanting regulation was conducted by citet { nm } who analysedSDOFsystems utilizing three temblor records.Elasto-plastic theoretical accounts were assumed which show no strain hardening. Even with the limited land gesture records and idealized theoretical account, they were able to pull a decision that in low frequence parts ( or high periods ) , the maximal inelastic distortions is equal to the maximal elastic distortions. Although there would be great benefits if this regulation were to keep true for anyhysteretictheoretical account, the inquiry that is raised is whether or non we can associate the maximal inelastic distortions to the maximal elastic distortions for low periods where the inelastic supplanting exceeds that of the elastic. A similar numerical survey was carried out by citet { shim } ; nevertheless instead than merely analyzing onehysteretictheoretical account, the survey was carried out on five differenthysteretictypes. The rule theoretical accounts used were either bilinear or ofcloughtype, with no debasement considered. As opposed to the old survey, merely one temblor record was used for the analysis. Having said that, they were able to come up with a relationship between maximal inelastic and elastic supplantings for different period ratios. To summarize their findings, they concluded that for periods higher than that of the characteristic period ( after the changeless speed passage on the response spectra ) the maximal inelastic supplanting peers about the maximal elastic supplanting ; they found this to be true for all thehysteretictypes used, therefore corroborating the equal supplanting regulation. They besides found that for periods less than the characteristic, the inelastic supplanting was gr eater than that of the elastic. They go on farther to reason that this difference is dependent on thehysteretictheoretical account used and the sidelong strength of the construction in mention to the elastic strength. Other research workers such as citet { chi } have confirmed this decision. An extended research was conducted by cite { m, mom,megabit} who analysed over 30,000SDOFsystems utilizing 124 land gesture records on different dirt types. Having developed ratios of maximal inelastic to elastic supplantings for three different types of dirt conditions utilizing anelastoplasticstuff, he so extended his work by developing rations between maximal inelastic to elastic supplantings for changing temblor magnitudes, epicentre distance and dirt conditions. Subsequently on, cite {mi1} found another manner to associate maximal inelastic supplantings to maximum elastic supplantings without the usage of inelastic supplanting ratios, viz. , the indirect method. He did this through the usage of strength decrease factors ; by multiplying maximal elastic supplantings by alteration factors, he was able to come close the maximal inelastic supplantings. He was besides able to demo that the indirect method is a first order estimate of the first, bring forthing non-conservative consequences as opposed to utilizing inelastic supplanting ratios. Sing debasement effects, citet {clo} developed a theoretical account where stiffness debasement was taken into history and incorporated in theelasto-plastic theoretical account. The chief difference between the originalelasto-plastic theoretical account and the modified stiffness degrading theoretical account is that there is a decreased energy soaking up per rhythm after the point of giving up.Cloughwas able to reason that compared with theelasto-plastic theoretical account, there was no important alterations in ductileness demand for constructions with periods longer than 0.6 seconds when analysis degrading stiffness theoretical account. However,Cloughbesides found that a larger ductileness demand was required for short period constructions when compared to theelasto-plastic theoretical account. citet {tak70} developed a more refined and sophisticated hysteresis theoretical account on the footing of experimental observations. This theoretical account included stiffness alterations at flexural snap and giving up, and besides strain-hardening features. The unloading stiffness was reduced by an exponential map of the old maximal distortion.Takedabesides prepared a set of regulations for burden reversals within the outmost hysteresis cringle. These are major betterments over theClough( 1966 ) theoretical account. It was citet {fu} who developed thehysteretictheoretical account that includes flexural stiffness belongingss. This theoretical account, besides named the degradingTrilinearHysteresis Model, behaves in an indistinguishable manner as the bilinear theoretical account up to the output point. Beyond the output point, the system behaves in a absolutely fictile manner. When the stuff is unloaded, the mention output point is changed to the unloading point merely before the unloading takes topographic point, besides the unloading stiffness matching to pre- and post-cracking are reduced in proportion to do the stuff behave as the bilinear theoretical account between both positive and negative output points. Although it is of import to understand the different types of debasement, whether or non it has a important consequence on the inelastic supplanting ratios and the overall seismal public presentation is still a subject of research. In add-on to inelastic supplanting ratios, alteration factors and debasement of stuffs, the concluding supplanting of a system, otherwise known as the residuary supplanting is a subject which has caught the involvement of many research workers. citet { 1,2 } found out that the unloading-reloading regulations of thehysteretictheoretical account used has a important impact on the magnitude of residuary supplantings. Furthermore, they found that when the hardening ratio is increased, the magnitude of the residuary supplanting is decreased. When sing the effects of stiffness debasement during droping they concluded that the magnitude of residuary supplanting decreased even more. Another early survey by citet { 4 } showed that the mean over 10 records, residuary supplantings from an elastic-perfectly plastic bilinear theoretical account is more than the value from the citet { 3 } theoretical account. Furthermore, the values of the computed residuary supplantings was inconsistent and showed a big spread. citet { 5 } and citet { 6 } carried out parametric analysis of bilinear theoretical accounts and concluded that the most important factor that affected the residuary supplanting is the post-yield hardening. They besides added that the effects of magnitude, epicentre distance, dirt conditions and periods were minimum on the ratio between residuary and peak supplantings. cite { 8 } looked at the residuary distortion ofSDOFsystems under 20 different land gestures, each with changinghystereticregulations and parametric quantities. They made a comparing between the modifiedTakedatheoretical account citet { 9,10 } and the bilinearelasto-plastic theoretical account. The decision was residuary supplantings from the modifiedTakedatheoretical account were a fraction of those from the bilinearelasto-plastic stuff, besides, with increasing droping stiffness debasement, the ration of residuary to top out inelastic supplanting is decreased. As with the old survey, they found that for both theoretical accounts, the indurating ratio impacts residuary supplantings and travel farther to state that the residuary supplanting decreased when the indurating ratio additions from 0 % to 5 % and addition when the softening ratio goes to -10 % . citet { 12,13 } focused on the ratio of residuary to elastic spectral supplantings of bilinearSDOFsystems. They were able to happen that the residuary supplanting ratio of a bilinear system with a indurating ratio of nothing or 1 % additions perceptibly when the force decrease factor increases up to 3, but really small beyond this point. However, they concluded that in the bilinear system, the residuary to elastic spectral supplanting is non significantly affected with decrease factors between 1.5 and 6. In fact, the ratio of residuary to elastic spectral supplantings seems to diminish when the decrease factor is increased from 1.5 to 6. They besides noted that site conditions, magnitude and epicentre distance had a minor consequence on the ratio of residuary to elastic spectral supplanting, as with the old surveies. % — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — % Section 2 % — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — — section { Drumhead } It is by and large agreed that the equal supplanting regulation is valid for periods higher than the characteristic period. However, for periods lower than the characteristic period this ratio varies depending on the type ofhystereticbehavior. This fluctuation will be analysed through the usage of manyhysteretictheoretical accounts. There are many changing methods of sing debasement. However, the consequences obtained through single methods do non conform to the same solution. The ground why this is the instance will be investigated. Residual supplantings are besides a subject of contention. The relationship between the decrease factor $ q $ and the residuary supplanting ratio is unsure. This ratio will be determined for a scope ofhysteretictheoretical accounts in hunt for a relationship between the two parametric quantities stated above. [ AskMergoswhat other relationships ]