A Raisin in the Sun Essay Example for Free

A Raisin in the Sun Essay In the play A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry you go back in time to when segregation was still aloud. In this play you meet a cast of people with dreams of a better life. The American Dream, to be specific. This dream is portrayed differently for each character, all of which impact the play. Two of these character`s are Walter Lee Younger and Lena Younger. In Raisin in the Sun Mama and Walter’s American dreams conflict and impact the family through materialism and desire to be the ideal American family in society. Mama and Walter both desire to provide for their family. They both look at money as success. When the $10,000 insurance check comes along, Mama sees it as a chance for her family to finally live up and be more like the rest of the American society. She aspires to look after her family, by giving them a house, a car, and most of all- happiness. Walter on the other hand becomes obsessed with his dreams of business, which he believes will result in financial independence to provide for his family. He feels ashamed when he can’t give money to his son. When Travis asks for fifty cents and Ruth tells him they don’t have it, Walter gives him fifty cents anyway. â€Å"In fact, here’s another fifty cents†¦ Buy yourself some fruit today- or take a taxicab to school or something†(12) He yearns for his son Travis to look up to him. He adds another fifty to make this more real or true. This also shows how Walter looks at money as success. Walter believes this will be true if he has his dream of owning his own business or all in all- wealth. Success to both them means that they no longer have to struggle, and live up to what people perceive. Mama distinguishes herself from Walter when it comes to materialistic matters. The first thing mama does when she gets the insurance money is buy a house for her family. This shows how the capitalistic society is having a materialistic effect on Mama. Mama’s dream consists of a house and happy family. Mama’s plant is a perfect indication of her dream. It symbolizes her family in a way. When the family is down, the plant is down. Mama is constantly in protection of the plant, in hopes of holding on to her dream. Walter in comparison is always looking to be somebody and make it in life. Walter sees wealth as the only solution to this. He longs for financial support. He becomes corrupted by society -to find his identity through money. Walter tells his mother, I want so many things(60). This shows his greediness. All in all Mama and Walters dreams both involve money. Mama shows us her longing for the acceptance of society when she immediately buys a house in a white neighborhood, to provide for her family. Walter shows us his desperation to be a valuable human being when he steals money in hopes of starting his liquor business. Walter wants to be respected and live a happy lifestyle for this family. He longs to be the head of the household. Walter see’s himself with a liquor store as having power. It isn’t till the end until he rethinks the values of himself and his family’s future about how there is more to living than just having material riches. Mama only yearns for her family to be respected and live up to what society perceives. No matter what you perceive The American Dream to be, it is possible to attain it and be successful. The American Dream is whatever your dream of success perceives to be. Hansberry shows how hard it was for colored people to find their identities during segregated times. Walter and Mama learn that money doesn’t possess much when it comes by itself. In Raisin in the Sun Mama and Walter’s American dreams differentiate and impact the family through their wanting to be accepted in society and live in peace. Anyone in this country can undertake happiness and success if they work at it.

Exploitation of Workers in Developing Countries

Exploitation of Workers in Developing Countries Since the time, plans were being made to implement free trade we were guaranteed it would be a win/win situation.This was one of the very important step for the pioneering of Globalization. First world consumers, manufacturers,industrialists, farmers, laborers everyone would benefit. Not only the first world countries, the whole world would benefit. It would pull the developing world up because there would be plenty of good, well-paid jobs that would be created . When borders opened to the free flow of goods and services, consumers would have more variety, and at cheper prices. Even agricultural goods could move around the world to new markets, sluggish farm prices would also rise. The farmers in developing countries would now have new markets for their goods, and they would bow out of piteous poverty.It seems like the perfect idea and sounds great too, doesnt it? But like most things that sounded too good to be true, it quiet was. The American/British/European workers who had jobs that paid pretty well in the scheme of things found that their employers could clear up the factories and move to a country where the workers werent so well paid. A country where there are no tariffs, so goods could be shipped back into the First world countries and sold, often cheaper than when they were made in the rich countries. Not only was labor cheaper, but environmental laws were generally more lenient in, say, Mexico, India or China. The companies could use child labor too and there were no laws forcing a 40-hour workweek.Drive your workers to the point of exhaustion and pay them as little as possible. If they complain, replace them-This is the formula adopted by all the third world factory bosses for success. All the consumers care for is low prices from their favorite clothing stores and supermarkets. So is this what Globalization called for ? To exploit the labour in third would countries all for the benefit of the rich countries like America , Europe,etc.Consumers in th e first world countries found goods were economical when they were made overseas. The foreign workers did not have the high-paying jobs as promised. They had poverty-wage jobs and the sweatshop was back. They were under paid and working in poor conditions with masses of eager workers waiting in line for them to quit. My argument in the essay is How Globalization has resulted in Labour Exploitation and Child Labour in many third world countries. An International Confederation of Free Trade Unions report said, MULTINATIONAL corporations remained the main beneficiaries of globalisation as more than 1,3-billion people around the world lived on less than $1 a day.(Globalisation: the plight of billions stressed ,By Reneà © Grawitzky, Business Day, 30 March 2000) The widening inequalities should be addressed as part of a broader strategy by unions in dealing with the effects of globalisation. What does globalization mean to working people? Ask a member of UNITE and shell talk about the thousands of good paying jobs that were taken overseas. Talk to the young woman in Bangladesh who gets 20 cents for making a shirt that sells for $30 at The Gap. Ask the 14- to 16-year-old women in Central America who are forced to swallow birth control pills in front of their bosses so the company can keep them on the job, since it doesnt pay for health care. Ask the laid-off steelworker about the foreign imports, made by U.S. corporations abroad and exported to the U.S. because they make more profits. Or ask Iqbal Masih, the 12-year-old rug maker from Pakistan who was enslaved from age 4 and forced to learn a trade. (What globalization means to working people, John Gallo, Peoples Weekly World, 20 April 2002) .What is the reason for all this wretchedness ? Everywhere, the lives of working people are degenerating. If theyre not working from dawn to dusk,Slogging all day, for not enough to live on, they are made dispossessed and being bombed. Is it due to globalization, or greed, or laziness? Or is there something more fundamental, something less obvious, behind the worlds current problems.(What globalization means to working people, John Gallo, Peoples Weekly World, 20 April 2002). In the name of competition, employers try to produce cheaply in bulk and sell larger volumes. One way to put together cheaper labour and still make greater profits is by keeping salaries as low as possible -by any means necessary. Since all wealth is produced by human labor, the fruits of that labor, or value, go either to the workers or the owners. The less workers get, the more the owners get. That accounts for the long, brutal history workers have faced when trying to form unions or improve their livelihood. (What globalization means to working people, John Gallo, Peoples Weekly World, 20 April 2002) The third world Countries such as Indonesia, Malaysia, India and Brazil have become more capitalized. The small farmers in these countries now work in factories and mills. They have become workers and in a number of ways find themselves similar to U.S. workers 70 years ago. As poor as they had been, these new workers now have less. They are concerned in trying to form unions to fight to improve their wages and working conditions.They are no more cut off in their country and continue to making ties of solidarity with their fellowmen all over the world. They are the workers who will change the face and the power of the working p eople in the world. Globalization has impulsed a number of interrelated concerns with respect to its social repercussions. The impact on labour employment, income distribution and labour standards are some of the issues included. Global competition has led to job losses or flexible job arrangements in many countries. Compared to the regular jobs these are often less secure and provide fewer social benefits. Economies all across the globe are more volatile now because of short term capital movements. This has resulted in severe economic and financial crises that further leads to unemployment and poverty. All these have created a sense of diffidence among workers and created resistance to globalization from various quarters. A well designed system for social protection is critical for long term growth prospects in open economies. The extent of social protection remains low in Asia, Africa and Latin America. In terms of social protection, there are increasingly unpredictable and fragmented employment relat ionships that lead to more and more workers not being covered by cash sickness benefits. There has been establishment of global labour standards by organizations like International Labour Organization (ILO) which work to promote rights at work, enhance social protection and encourage decent employment opportunities. But can these regulations actually improve lives of workers in LDCs? Will the anti sweatshop campaigns raise labour standards ? Will WTOs imposing trade sanctions on countries that violate standards actually help ? With economic globalization accelerating in the past few decades these questions have just got more complex and controversial. Trade and investments may not be the best way to pull up and help workers in poor countries. Labour standards and free trade are interdependent rather than competing ways to improve welfare. Unions based in first world countries play a eminent role in the dispute over globalization and labour standards whereas workers in LDCs are rarely heard from. The cause for this gap is that these poor countries, mainly those with non d emocratic governments, do not provide the necessary freedom of association or the legal protections for collective bargaining. If the workers from poor countries had been given little opportunities to protect their own interests and voice their concerns, there would be less need for activists from advanced countries to intercede on their behalf. International labour mobility has also increased due to globalization and the growing economic interdependence of states. This has also resulted in the deregulation and exploitation of labour migration. Even the migrant workmen are devoid of legal protection in the foreign countries. Even though many states have put down strict barriers on the legal entry of labour migrants, there are still a large number of irregular and illegal migrants working in low paid sectors lacking the benefits of a national worker. Most of todays migration presents characteristics that converge with concerns for labor migration policy. In short, most permanent immigrants and refugees as well as migrant workers seek remunerative activity, participate in the labor force, and face discrimination and xenophobia directed at foreigners in host countries. (Globalization, Labor and Migration :Protection is paramount, Patrick Taran Eduardo Geronimi , 22 november 2002) The LDCs face serious social and economic dislo cation associated with persistent poverty, growing unemployment, loss of traditional trading patterns, and what has been termed a growing crisis of economic security. (Globalization,Labor and Migration :Protection is paramount, Patrick Taran Eduardo Geronimi , 22 november 2002) The concerns will only increase because since 1975 the figures have only been doubling, from a 75 million in 1975 to 150 million in 2000, these figures represent the migrants living outside their home countries. The other issue in this article that needs to be focussed on is Child labour in light of Globalization. Apart from labour exploitation, Child labour is a serious concern for the consequence of Globalization. It is a grave and extensive problem in LDCs today. It was revealed in a very recent International Labour Organization (ILO) report (ILO, 2006) that approximately 166 million children in the age group of 5 14 years were classified as child laborers in 2004. That accounts for 14% of all children in that age group. These children are engaged in precarious work which adversely affects their growth, moral development and health. They are concentrated mainly in the developing countries. More than half of these children were from the Asian pacific region . The others being from Latin America and Sub saharan Africa.They work in the carpet marking factories, pornography, glass blowing, fireworks, prostitution,etc. Child labour came under the limelight in the 1990s when the campaigns were started by industrialized worlds on why such large number of children were working when they should be gaining knowledge. In November of 2000, ten children earning around $11 per month burned to death in a garment factory in Bangladesh. The exits from the factory were chained shut. Images of children chained into factories, sold as slaves, or forced into prostitution stain the popular imagination about child labor. Fortunately, while many children work in the developing world, relatively few experience such atrocities.(Globalization and the Economics of Child Labor, Eric V. Edmonds,n.d) Of course the world organizations like UNICEF, ILO and governments initiated policies to check child labour globally. But did it help enough is the big question ? Globalization increases employment opportunities specially in developing countries due to the rapid increase in foreign investment. This therefore surges the demand for local labour and higher wages. These changes in the developing economies springing from globalization could further lead to child labour due to earning opportunities. To illustrate how trade policy and globalization can have an affect on child labour, I would like to take Vietnam as an example on how its increase in the price of rice led to a decline in child labour. Vietnam restricted its exports of rice starting in 1989. These quotas suppressed the domestic price of rice. Between 1993 and 1997, Vietnam gradually relaxed this export quota so that by 1998, Vietnam was completely exposed to the international price of rice. During this period of liberalization, the price of rice increased by 30% relative to the rise in the consumer price index. Rice is an important commodity in Vietnam. It is the primary staple in the V ietnamese diet, the largest single component of household expenditure, and 70% of households produce rice. Moreover, in 1993, before the liberalization of rice prices in Vietnam, 26% of children between 6 and 15 worked in rice production in Vietnam, and rice production was far and away the largest employer of adults. Thus, rice price increases should affect both children and adults.The study finds that rice price increases can account for 45% of the overall decline in child labor that Vietnam experienced in the 1990s. This corresponds to approximately 1 million fewer working children in Vietnam. (Globalization and the Economics of Child Labor, Eric V. Edmonds ,n.d) In India child labour has become an accepted practice. It is believed to be a necessity to overcome poverty. The carpet industry, for example pays these children extremely low wages since adults refuse to do these jobs. Even MNCs exploit child labour in poor countries. Nike is accused of using child labour in countries like pakistan, india, bangladesh, china, etc. These children were all in the age group of 4-5 years. More than 200 children were involved in each production processes. The Nike soccer balls in Pakistan are accused to be stained with the harsh truth of child labour. More than half of the soccer ball production is done in Pakistan and every step of its production has child labour involved. So is a reputed company like Nike helping or exploiting these developing countries? In china, the members of a chinese minority group mainly young girls aged 15-18 were employed in the Longfa Shoe factory in the Guangdong province. Longfa Shoe factory supplies Nike , Inc. These compani es get down to the extent of illegally swapping IDs, making fake birth certificates, illegal migration, etc. Even the chocolate industry is accused of using child labour. In Cà ´te dIvoire,West Africa thousands of children are forced to labour in the production of cocoa. Even the well established companies like Puma, Wal-Mart, Hanes are believed to use child labour. Allegations were made against Harvest Rich factory in Bangladesh, which is a contract supplier to these US and European companies. Young children were found sewing clothes for these companies. There were at least 200 children involved, some as young as 11 years. These children work upto almost 12 hours a day. They were reported to be beaten, slapped and forced to work for 19-20 hours sometimes. They get horribly low wages which could be as low as 6.5 cents per hour. The Firestone Tire and Rubber Company is operating the worlds largest rubber plantation in Harbel, Liberia for the last 80 years. They exploit labour and al so use child labour. The rubber tappers are forced to bring their wives and children, they use toxic pesticides without protection. The children are forced to carry about 70-80 pound buckets of rubber on their shoulders for miles. These laborers live in shacks which exist since 1920s. All these cases, which are just a few to illustrate, include big companies from the developed countries who use child labour only to their benefits. Is this what globalization has called for?

First-principles Calculations of Rare Earth Diffusivities

First-principles Calculations of Rare Earth Diffusivities First-principles calculations of rare earth (Y, La and Ce) diffusivities in bcc Fe ABSTRACT: The impurity diffusivities of rare earth elements, Y, La and Ce, in bcc Fe have been investigated by the first-principles calculations within nine-frequency model and semi-empirical corrections for magnetization. The microscopic parameters in the pre-factor and activation energy have been calculated. For the three elements, the solute-vacancy interactions are all attractive, and Y and La solute atoms more favorably bond to the vacancy. The solute-vacancy binding energy can be explained in terms of the combination of the distortion binding energy and the electronic binding energy, and the strain-relief effects accounts for larger portion of the binding energy for Y and La than that for Ce. The diffusion coefficients for Y and La are comparable, and predicted to be larger than that for Fe self-diffusion. Compared with Y and La, Ce shows large migration energy and weak solute-vacancy attractive interaction, which accounts for the lowest diffusivity of this element. Keywords: Diffusion; Rare earth; Bcc Fe; First-principles calculations 1. Introduction In the past years, the addition of rare earth (RE) elements has been regarded promising in steels [1-3]. A series of beneficial research for the development of Rare earth Addition have been focused on the purification and modification of inclusion, since RE elements are characterized by significant negative free energy changes for compound formations. RE doping also improve the high-temperature oxidation resistance of steels due to the reactive-element effect (REE) [4,5].In addition, the phase transformations, recrystallization behavior, and the corrosion resistance of steel can be improved by adding RE [6, 7]. Knowledge of all of these is essential to understand the influence of RE additions on the physical, chemical and various properties of steels. In spite of the progress so far in RE application, it is apparent that many questions still remain rather controversial. Data for the effects of rare earths on the surface and interfacial properties, surface tension, contact angle, etc., of steels, are unanswered, for the sake of precise solubilities of rare earths in iron and steels are still not available. Furthermore, accurate thermodynamic data are still unsatisfactory, to accurately predict these characteristics. Kinetic properties, in particular diffusion coefficients for RE, are necessary in understanding the underlying mechanism of RE’s above effects [8]. Therefore, the investigation of the diffusivity for these RE elements is expected to be useful in the context of developing RE steels. Although for diffusion in bcc Fe many data are available, nevertheless there is little experimental or calculated data for RE. For the three commonly used RE elements, Y, La and Ce, only the diffusion coefficient of Y has been reported [9].The purpose of the present work is to investigate the impurity diffusivities of rare earth elements, Y, La and Ce, in bcc Fe by the first-principles calculations within nine-frequency model and semi-empirical corrections for magnetization[10,11], calculate the associated solute-vacancy binding energies, migration energies, pre-factors and activation energies for these impurity diffusivities, as well as the self-diffusion coefficient of Fe, thus discuss the related factors of the diffusion coefficients. 2. Methodology The temperature dependence of diffusion coefficient D is expressed in the Arrhenius form D=D0exp(-Q/kBT). For bcc Fe, the Arrhenius plot of self-diffusion and solute diffusion in iron of the ferromagnetic state deviates downwards from the Arrhenius relationship extrapolated from the paramagnetic state [12]. This effect is attributed to the change of magnetization which affects the diffusion activation energy. The temperature dependent magnetization on the diffusion activation energy is well described by the following form [13]: QF(T)=QP[1+ÃŽ ±s(T)2] (1) where QF(T) and QP are the activation energies in the ferromagnetic and paramagnetic state, respectively; s(T) is the ratio of the magnetization of pure iron at a given temperature T to that at 0K, and has been experimentally measured [14,15]; the constant ÃŽ ± quantifies the extent of the influence of magnetic on activation energy. The measured value of ÃŽ ± for Fe self-diffusion is 0.074, in the case of the solute species investigated in this context that have no measured ÃŽ ± values available, the values can be estimated from a semi-empirical linear relationship with the induced change in local magnetization on Fe atoms in the first and second neighbor shells of a solute atom [16]. The first-principles calculations give direct access to the magnitude of the activation energy in the fully ordered ferromagnetic state (T=0K). Given the values of ÃŽ ± and s(T), we can compute QP through the relation , and QF(T) from Eq. (1). We based the diffusion calculations on the assumption that the mechanism of diffusion is primarily monovacancy mediated. For self-diffusion and solute diffusion on a bcc lattice, the diffusion coefficient can be expressed as following [10,17]: Dself=a2f0Cvw0 (2) Dsolute=a2f2Cvw2(-ΔGb/kBT) (3) where a is the bcc lattice constant, f0=0.727 is the self-diffusion correlation factor, f2 is the correlation factor for solute diffusion which depends on the relative jump rates for a vacancy to different sites neighboring the solute atom. Cv denotes the equilibrium vacancy concentration, can be written as Cv=exp(ΔSf /kB)exp(-ΔHf /kBT), where ΔSf and ΔHf are the vacancy formation enthalpy and entropy, respectively, the harmonic approximation makes these two become temperature-independent constants. and kB is Boltzmann’s constant. w0 and w2 are the vacancy hopping frequencies for Fe and solute atoms to exchange with a nearest-neighbor vacancy, respectively. Based on transition state theory (TST), the vacancy hopping frequency w is written as , where and are the phonon frequencies in the initial state and transition state, and the product in the denominator ignores the unstable mode; ΔHmig is the migration energy, gives the energy difference for the diffus ing atom located at its initial equilibrium lattice position and the saddle-point position. The solute-vacancy binding free energy ΔGb can be expressed as ΔGb =ΔHbTΔSb, where ΔHb and ΔSb are the binding enthalpy and entropy, respectively. The correlation factor f2 can be calculated using the nine-frequency model developed by Le Claire [11] which involves different jump frequencies of vacancies to their first neighbor position in the presence of the solute atoms, as illustrated in Fig. 1. In this model, the interaction of solute-vacancy is assumed up to second neighbor distance. The nine frequencies shown in Fig. 1 correspond to all of the distinct vacancy jumps, including the host Fe atom jump w0 without impurity. The detailed calculation procedures could be found in Ref. [10]. Fig. 1. Schematic illustration of the nine-frequency model for the bcc Fe crystalline with a solute atom. The arrows indicate the direction of the vacancy jumps. The numbers in the circle represent the neighboring site of the solute atom. For convenience, we can represent the self- and solute diffusion equations (Eqs.(2) and (3)) in Arrhenius form to obtain the pre-factor and activation energy of diffusion. By combining the above Eqs., the diffusion coefficient for Fe self-diffusion and solute diffusion can be expressed as: (4) For self-diffusion, the pre-factor is, and the activation energy in the fully ordered ferromagnetic state given as . Also, the solute diffusion coefficient can be expressed in an Arrhenius form with the pre-factor is, and. The first-principles calculations presented here are carried out using the Vienna Ab Initio Simulation Package(VASP) with the projector augmented wave(PAW) method and the generalized gradient approximation of Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof functional(GGA-PBE) [18]. The computations performed within a 4à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ´4à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ´4 supercell including 128 atoms. The binding, vacancy formation and migration energies were calculated with 300eV plane-wave cutoff and 12à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ´12à ¯Ã¢â‚¬Å¡Ã‚ ´12 k-point meshes. All calculations were performed spin polarized, with a ferromagnetic ordering of the Fe moments. The residual atomic forces in the relaxed configurations were lower than 0.01eV/Ã…. The transition states with the saddle point along the minimum energy diffusion path for vacancy migration were determined using nudged elastic band (NEB) method [19] as implemented in VASP. We adopt the harmonic approximation (HA) to consider the contribution of normal phonon frequencies to free en ergy. The normal phonon frequencies were calculated using the direct force-constant approach as implemented in the Alloy Theoretic Automated Toolkit (ATAT) [20] package. Similar cutoff energy, k-point mesh size and supercell size used for the total energies were used for the vibrational calculations. 3. Result and discussion Table 1 illustrates our calculated vacancy formation, migration and binding energies, as well as the constant ÃŽ ± for solute species, the associated activation energies for self- and solute-diffusion in the paramagnetic and fully ordered ferromagnetic state. For pure bcc Fe, the vacancy formation energy and migration energy obtained here are consistent with the reported range of values, ΔHf=2.16-2.23 eV and ΔHmig=0.55-0.64 eV [10,21,22]. For Y impurity in bcc Fe, the calculated vacancy binding energy and activation energy in full ordered ferromagnetic state also compare well with the previous first principles work [9,23], in which ΔHb=-0.73 eV and =2.26 eV. It can be seen that Y and La have smaller activation energy than that for Fe self-diffusion, while Ce is predicted to have a lager value of activation energy than that for Fe self-diffusion, in both the ordered ferromagnetic and paramagnetic state. Table 1 Vacancy formation energy ΔHf , solute-vacancy binding energy ΔHb, migration energy ΔHmig, the ferromagnetic activation energy and the paramagnetic activation energy QP; the variable dependence parameter of activation energy on magnetization ÃŽ ± (the value for Fe is taken from experimental measurements, while the values for Y, La and Ce have been estimated from first-principles calculations). Solute-vacancy binding energy plays a crucial role in understanding solute diffusion kinetics. From Table 1 it can be seen that referring to the nearest-neighbor solute-vacancy pairs, the binding energies are all negative, which implies the solute-vacancy pairs are favorable. Specifically, Y and La impurities are computed to have higher values of solute-vacancy binding energies -0.69 eV and -0.66 eV, respectively, while that for Ce is -0.43 eV. To obtain information on the origin of these attractive behaviors, we decompose the total binding energy into the distortion binding energyand the electronic binding energy as [24] . The distortion binding energy is the energy that can be gained by reducing the distortion in the bcc Fe matrix when a solute atom and a vacancy combine to form a solute-vacancy pair, and can be expressed as: (5) where and can be calculated as follows: after the supercell containing a solute-vacancy pair (or a substitutional atom) has been fully relaxed, the solute-vacancy pair (or the substitutional atom) is removed from the system, then the total energy can be calculated. denotes the total energy of pure bcc Fe supercell, and is the total energy of the supercell containing a vacancy. Then can be calculated from . The calculated energy decomposition for solute-vacancy binding is shown in Table 2. The distortion energies (-0.31 to -0.65 eV) for all solute elements(Y, La and Ce) are negative, and much bigger than their corresponding electronic binding energies (-0.04 to -0.12 eV). This implies that the distortion energy is the major part of the total binding energy, i.e. the strain relief effect contribute significantly to the interaction between the impurity atom and the vacancy, especially for the solute Y and La, which accounted for 94.2% and 97.0% of the total binding energy, respecti vely. Table 2 Decomposition of the total solute-vacancy binding energy into distortion binding energy and electronic binding energy. The correlation factor f2 is related to the probability of the reverse jump of a solute atom to its previous position [25]. Table 3 lists the calculated values of correlation factors for Y, La and Ce at representative temperatures of 850, 1000 and 1150K. The correlation factors for Ce is nearly a constant close to 1, while the Y and La diffusion correlation factors decrease with increasing temperature, corresponding to the weak solute-vacancy binding for Ce and the strong solute-vacancy binding for Y and La. Therefore, the Ce atom is the most difficult to return back to its original position in the temperature range of our investigation. Including the smallest binding energy, highest migration energy and correlation factor, provides an explanation for the low diffusivity of Ce atom. Table 3 Correlation factors (f2) for Y, La and Ce solute-diffusion at representative temperatures of 850, 1000 and 1150K. Table 4 lists the calculated diffusion activation energies and pre-factors for Fe self-diffusion and Y, La and Ce impurity diffusion. For pure bcc Fe, we find our calculated results are in good agreement with the published values. For Y impurity in bcc Fe, the calculated activation energy in full ordered ferromagnetic state also compare well with the previous first principles work, while the pre-factor is as much as two orders of magnitude lager than the reported value. The experimental or calculated diffusion coefficients of La and Ce are not available to the best of our knowledge. Fig. 2 presents a direct comparison between the calculated and published temperature dependent diffusion coefficients for Fe self-diffusion and Y solute diffusion. For Fe self-diffusion, the calculated values are in good agreement with Huang et al. [10] and Nitta et al.[24], but smaller than the measured data of Seeger [25], this discrepancy may be due to the impurity, defects and grain sizes of the testing materials, and instrumental accuracy. For Y solute diffusion, the diffusion coefficient values are higher by a factor of 4-5 than those due to Murali et al. [9], this discrepancy can be attributed to the harmonic vibration and the influence of the bulk magnetization on the activation energy. The temperature dependence of the solute diffusion coefficients for Y, La and Ce in bcc Fe matrix are plotted in Fig. 3, where the Fe self-diffusion coefficient is also included. It can be clearly seen that the diffusion coefficients for Y and La are higher than the self-diffusion in pure bcc Fe, while the diffusion coefficients for Ce are lower than that of Fe self-diffusion, over the entire temperature range below the ÃŽ ±-ÃŽ ³ phase transition. For the case of Ce solute diffusivity, the lowest value of diffusion coefficient originates from the largest migration energy and the smallest solute-vacancy binding energy. For the two faster diffusers, Y and Ce, which have the comparable diffusion coefficients, we can observe that the diffusion rate of La is higher than that of Y at temperatures below 930 K, but this relation reverses with temperature rising above 930 K. This is attributed to the effects of the diffusion pre-factors of these two elements. Therefore, the investigation for diffusion should also be based on detailed considerations of the diffusion pre-factor, including the contribution of the correlation factor, rather than the vacancy formation energy and migration energy. The diffusion properties of solute elements (Y, La and Ce) in bcc Fe matrix have been studied using DFT calculations in conjunction with the Le Claire nine-frequency model. Of the three impurities that we investigated, the diffusion coefficients for Y and La are comparable, and predicted to be larger than the Fe self-diffusion. In contrast, the calculated results indicate that Ce diffuse slower than Fe self-diffusion. The slowest diffusion rate of Ce originates from that the solute-vacancy binding energy for this element is lower than that of Y and La, and the former has higher migration energy as well. In the case of Y and La, the small direction deviation between the trends of the diffusion coefficients of these two impurities, mainly comes from the contribution of the diffusion correlation factor. The authors are grateful for the financial support of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 51101083) and the Natural Science Foundation of Inner Mongolia (No.2013MS0813). References [1] M.F. Yan, C.S. Zhang, Z. Sun, Appl. Surf. Sci. 289 (2014) 370. [2] W. Hao, W.T. Geng, Nucl. Instrum. Meth. Phys. Res. B 280 (2012) 22. [3] Y.H. Yoo, Y.S. Choi, J.G Kim, Y.S. Park, Corros. Sci. 52 (2010) 1123. [4] S.K. Samanta, S.K. Mitra, T.K. Pal, Mater. Sci. Eng. A 430 (2006) 242. [5] R. Thanneeru,S. Patil,S. Deshpande,S. Seal, Acta Mater. 55 (2007) 3457. [6] S.T. Kim, S.H. Jeon, I.S. Lee, Y.S. Park, Corros. Sci. 52(2010) 1897. [7] H.Z. Li, H.T. Liu, Z.Y. Liu, G.D.Wang, Mater. Charact. 103 (2015) 101. [8] D. Simonovic, M.H.F. Sluiter, Phys. Rev. B 79 (2009) 054304. [9] D. Murali, B.K. Panigrahi , M.C. Valsakumar, C.S. Sundar, J. Nucl. Mater. 419 (2011) 208. [10] S.Y. Huang, D.L. Worthington, M. Asta, V. Ozolins, G. Ghosh, P. K. Liaw, Acta Mater. 58 (2010) 1982. [11] A.D. Le Claire, Philos. Mag. 21 (1970) 819. [12] S.Takemoto, H. Nitta, Y. ijima, Y.Yamazaki, Philos. Mag. 87 (2007) 1619. [13] L. Ruch, D.R. Sain, H.L. Yeh, L.A. Girifalco, J. Phys. Chem. Solids 37 (1976) 649. [14] H.H. Potter, Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. A 146 (1934) 362. [15] J. Crangle, G.M. Goodman, Proc. R. Soc. London, Ser. A 321 (1971) 477. [16] S. Takemoto, H. Nitta, Y. Iijima, Y. Yamazaki, Philos. Mag. 87 (2007) 1619. [17] M. Mantina, Y. Wang, R. Arroyave, L.Q. Chen, Z.K. Liu, Phys. Rev. Lett. 100 (2008) 215901. [18] G. Kresse, J. Hafner, Phys. Rev. B 47 (1993) 558. [19] G. Henkelman, H. Jonsson, J.Chem. Phys. 113 (2000)9978. [20] A. van de Walle,M. Asta,G. Ceder, Calphad 26 (2002) 539. [21] C. Zhang, J. Fu, R.H. Li, P.B. Zhang, J.J. Zhao, C. Dong, J. Nucl. Mater. 455 (2014) 354. [22] H. Ullmaier, Atomic Defects in Metals, Springer, Berlin Heidelberg, 1991. [23] O.I. Gorbatov, P.A. Korzhavyi, A.V. Ruban, B. Johansson, Yu.N. Gornostyrev, J. Nucl. Mater. 419 (2011) 248. [24] X.S. Kong, X.B. Wu, Y.W. You, C.S. Liu, Q.F. Fang, J.L. Chen, G.N. Luo, Z.G. Wang, Acta Mater. 66 (2014) 172. [25] M. Mantina, Y. Wang, L.Q. Chen, Z.K. Liu, C. Wolverton, Acta Mater. 57 (2009) 4102. [26] H. Nitta, T. Yamamoto, R. Kanno, K. Takasawa, T. Iida, Y. Yamazaki, S. Ogu, Y. Iijima, Acta Mater. 50 (2002) 4117. [27] A. Seeger, Phys. Status Solidi A 167 (1998) 289.

Music In The Movies: Experiencing Something New :: essays research papers fc

Question: â€Å"For the elements of music are not tones of such and such a pitch, duration and loudness, nor chords and measured beats; they are like all artistic elements, something virtual, created for perception . . .sounding forms in motion.† [Suzanne Langer, Feeling and Form (1952), p.107]. The success of music in film relies on the perceptions and interpretations of audiences based on their social experiences. Discuss. Response to Question: The function of film music is not easily defined. Film music is often associated with realizing the social experiences of the audience, such associations then leading into psychological and aesthetical discussion. Whether or not film music is examined as an analyzable art form, it is part of an audiovisual system that allows spectators to escape. If this is so, music is subliminal in the sense that it unconsciously prepares the spectator for the means by which to do so. Cinema events can allow audiences to perceive reality in a passive framework and therefore, the success of film music does not heavily rely upon interpretations of viewers’ social experiences. More to the point is the fact that film music allows a virtual reconstruction of ‘experience’ along with the proposal of new ones. If cinema accommodates the invention of virtual social experiences, then by what means does the music contribute to this? An understanding of the relationship between music and the cinematic world of the ‘make believe’ will help to answer this question. Film music can allow far-fetched ideas to become plausible. Alien attacks, shootings, murders and court room hearings are not usually associated with the vocabularies of our everyday social experiences, so how can cinema extrapolate such experiences so realistically? Music certainly has an important role. Suzanne Langer discusses in depth the associations between music and time. She suggests that: Music creates and image of time measure by the motion of forms that seem to give it substance, yet a substance that consists entirely of sound, so it is transitoriness itself. Music makes time audible, and its form and continuity sensible. Jean Mitry has similar ideas: Film needed a king of rhythmic beat to enable the audience to measure internally the psychological time for the drama, relating it to the basic sensation of real time. Consequently, film music can cover up the incoherencies between real time and virtual time. The relative time passed between events on screen can be expressed through the music. How else can a narrative spanning decades logically take place within and hour or two of film?

Symbols and Symbolism in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby :: Great Gatsby Essays

Symbolism in The Great Gatsby F. Scott Fitzgerald tried to accent the point that money does not breed happiness. Money causes people to become envious, greedy, and jealous. It compels people to show a persona of arrogance and creates a haze of fog in the air of the world around them. They begin to become oblivious of the outside world and think of themselves as a higher being. This causes lack of acceptance for their responsibilities. I thing the author was also trying to show us that sometimes one can hold on to a dream for so long, and try so hard to achieve it that it can leave you in misery instead of happiness. Creating the reverse of it's intent. F. Scott uses a color scheme to show many emotions of characters in this story. The ultimate factor for almost every action within the story is money, the color green. This color shows the envy, greed, and jealousy that make up this story. Green is not only the color of money and the color most notably associated with greed, but it is also the color of the light on Daisy's dock. The same dock light that Gatsby spent so many nights gazing at. This is no coincidence, F.S.F. wanted to express to his readers the symbolism behind the color. Gatsby envied Tom because he knew that Daisy needed a wealthy man to take care of her. And as he was building his wealth, Gatsby would look over the lake toward that green light with envy and await the day he would be good enough for Daisy. The use of white, in reference to Daisy's wardrobe, symbolizes her laziness and uselessness within the story. She is completely devoid of any knowledge of the outside world, always lost in pointless thought. Something that I found quite apparent was her obviously shallow, money grubbing motives. For example, when she is taken into Gatsby's home for a tour, she is shown Gatsby's beautiful imported shirts. Daisy begins to cry, saying that these shirts are so beautiful. But what she is really expressing is her envy and jealousy of Gatsby's new riches and all of his elaborate material possessions. One form of symbolism that I found very interesting was Scott's use of the billboard ad containing the huge eyes of one Dr.

Advantages of Monopoly Essay

Monopolies do not always lead to increased prices, lower outputs and welfare losses. In fact, monopolies can often lead to increases in society’s welfare as large monopolists benefit from economies of scale in production and distribution. These falls in costs can often be passed on to consumers in the form of lower priced products. We will now discuss briefly some of the potential advantages of monopolistic market structures. †¢ Lower production costs and increased welfare Under monopoly, greater output and standardization can lead to lower costs. This can lead to economies of scale and scope, which can be passed on to consumers in the form of lower priced products. †¢ Natural monopolies It could be argued that some industries are more efficiently organized as monopolies. Industries such as water, gas, electricity and communications are often referred to as ‘natural monopolies’. A natural monopoly arises when the ratio of the minimum efficient scale to industry size is so large that industries can only support one efficient firm. In natural monopolies, fixed costs form a large part of total costs. If the monopoly is in private hands, the monopolist maximizes profits where marginal costs equal marginal revenues, and produces at output level and charges price. The monopolist makes excess profits equal to the shaded area. If the firm were forced to charge a price that would prevail under competition, it would set price equal to marginal costs and produce at output level. For example, suppose we have a water company that supplies a certain part of the country through a network of pipes. It would be inefficient for a new firm to enter the market, set up its own system of pipes and then start supplying a segment of the market. This is because the level of output the firm produces would yield insufficient revenue to cover total costs. This competition would therefore lead to wasteful duplication (and competition) of systems. †¢ Technical progress Large monopoly profits may be used to finance research and development programmes. Monopoly profits are the reward for successful innovations. These innovations bring welfare gains to society in the form of new products and processes. Furthermore, these monopoly profits will not persist as there will eventually be entry by imitators or patents will lapse, which will eventually dissipate these profits. These assertions have been tested empirically for manufacturing and service industries in a number of countries. †¢ Avoids wasteful forms of competition Monopolies may avoid wasteful forms of competition such as advertising, which are prevalent features of many oligopolistic market structures. Given that monopolists to some extent have a captive market, there is little incentive for monopolies to advertise. In addition, monopolists may also generate a degree of price stability. They may be expert in accurately gauging the level of demand and supply. A monopolist may also be better placed to endure any downturn in the business cycle. Reference: http://classof1.com/homework-help/economics-homework-help/

A Comparison of Special Education Philosophy, Policies an Dpractice Essay

The focus of this study is to compare the educational philosophies, policies,and practices between Malaysia and Japan, with regard to the education of children with special needs. Malaysia and Japan have some common historical experiences in that both countries were involved in the Second World War, both were colonised and given independence by Anglo-American powers. Geographically they are both in Asia. A significant difference between the two countries is the homogenous nature of Japan’s population and the pluralistic multicultural, multi lingual, multi ethnicity and religions of Malaysia. Japan is a developed and industrialised country whereas Malaysia is developing and targeting to be an industrialised one. Japan’s population of 127 million dwarfs Malaysia’s 29 million. It is needful to examine the set up of other countries, discover the root of the problems and analyse their solutions so as to better understand one’s own education system, avoid mistakes made and adopt suitable models accordingly. Hence, in this comparative study, an Asian country was chosen over an Anglo-American one, because Japan and Malaysia are both culturally group-oriented, power concentrated, inclined to be replicative and relationally holistic. As such it is probably easier to relate to contextually in matters relating to adapting globalised best practices in a culturally sensitive way. This paper seeks to look at the special educational policies and philosophies of both countries, study their practises, identify key issues and challenges faced, and to discover possibilities for mutual exchange, growth and development. There has always been a personal interest in Special education probably from parental influence and also from exposure to special people at a very young age. The increasing awareness of Special Education in Malaysia can undoubtedly be attributed to regular reporting by the media and the escalating pervasiveness of information technology available to the masses. In recent years, Special Education has given more attention to a wide range of learning difficulties, including dyslexia, autism, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder [ADHD], Asperger’s syndrome and so on, with focus somewhat moving away from visual, hearing impairment and physical, mental impairments. This is probably because in most developing and developing countries, visual and hearing impairments have already well-established special educational practices. For example, Special schools where various learning aids, such as sign language, Braille and magnified letters are used to accommodate the students’ teaching and learning needs. Some countries such as Japan and the United States of America (USA), have advanced to providing not only basic education but also pioneering tertiary education for the visually and hearing impaired. Different forms of learning difficulties have emerged over the past 25 years and are probably still emerging. In the past, these special needs (learning difficulties) were all classified under mental retardation, but as discoveries continue to be made and learning difficulties are classified differently, statistics show that mental retardation worldwide has dropped considerably. As these conditions are discovered and researched, some theories about these conditions change and some evolve due to these theories being challenged or disproved and new theories being proposed. For example there is a wide range of autism, from highly-functioning to deeply autistic. Some children who were diagnosed as autistic ten years ago, are now discovered to have Asperger’s disorder. Disorders along the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) continuum include autism, pervasive developmental disorder, Rett Syndrome (American Psychiatric Assocciation, 1995) and Asperger’s disorder. Since ASD exists along a spectrum, intervention especially communication intervention must be highly individualized ( Schreibman, koegel, Charlop, & Egel, 1990), thus intervention-wise, a child with Asperger’s Disorder is to be regarded quite differently from an autistic child. The field of special education has seen growth that has been unprecedented and it is likely to continue with more contemporary curricula, programmes, materials and resources evolving at a rapid rate, driven by a developmental theoretical perspective. In response to the increasing number of children diagnosed with special needs and especially that of learning difficulty, it is imperative that policies, philosophies and practice of special education need to be redefined, reviewed and refined to cater for the development and nurture of these children. Common special needs include challenges with learning, communication challenges, emotional and behavioral disorders, physical disabilities, and developmental disorders. There are many famous personalities who have special needs and disabilities but have excelled in sport, fine arts, physics and in the music and movie arena. Olympic swimmer Michael Phelps made history by breaking records and winning eight gold medals. He also inspired thousands by speaking candidly about having ADHD. His mother has also been very public about telling their story. Professor Stephen Hawking, a renowned Physicist, is a well-known example of a person with multiple neurone disease who has against all odds, succeeded in life. Hawking cannot walk, talk, breathe easy, swallow and has difficulty in holding up his head. He could have well been classified as mentally retarded and severely physically handicapped and discharged to a home of the Spastics, yet he defied his doctor’s prognosis of not surviving more than 21 years. Stevie Wonder was born prematurely and as a result, he was never able to see. Wonder stands out as one of the most celebrated American musicians of all time. To his credit, he has won 26 Grammys and an Academy Award. This has earned him rightful standing in the Rock and Roll and Songwriter’s Halls of Fame. Phelps was told that he could never focus on anything, Hawking, that he wasn’t an exceptional student and Wonder, that he could never make it in life. They are an inspiration to one and all, both stakeholders and non-stakeholders alike. On this note let us look at Japan. JAPAN [pic] Figure1. 1 Map of Japan For many, the word Japan conjures up mystical Samurais, beautiful, graceful and demure kimono-clad geisha girls, sashimi (Japanese raw fish), beautiful spring apple-blossoms, ancient temples, lightning–fast bullet trains, Toyotas and Hondas, even the Iron Chef competitions and the list goes on; but education is certainly not an image that fills your mind when you hear the word Japan! Japan is an island country located in the Pacific ocean. It’s an archipelago of over six thousand islands, the largest being Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku accounting for 97% of Japan’s land area. Japan is often referred to as the ‘Land of the Rising Sun’ because the Japanese characters that make up Japan’s name, Nippon-koku or Nihon-koku means ‘sun origin’. Most of Japan’ s islands are mountainous and many are volcanic which is not surprising as Japan sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire. Mount Fuji is the highest mountain in Japan and an active volcano that last erupted in 1707–08. Japan has a population of 127 million people, ranks the tenth-largest populated country in the world. Tokyo is the capital of Japan with a population of 12 million. It is the Japan’s centre for culture and education and also the nation’s economic and industrial hub. The main language spoken is Japanese and most Japanese are of the Shinto-Buddhism faith. Since 1947, Japan has maintained a unitary constitutional monarchy with an emperor and an elected Prime Minister as head of government, with an elected parliament called the Diet. It is a highly industrialized, developed country and a major world economic power. Japan has the world’s second-largest economy and the third largest in purchasing power parity. It is also the world’s fourth largest exporter and fifth largest importer. It is the only Asian country in the G8 and a current non-permanent member of the United Nations (UN) security council. According to both the UN and World Health Organization (WHO) estimates, Japan has the highest life expectancy of any country in the world, and the third lowest infant mortality rate. History of Education Japan’s education maybe conveniently divided into pre-World War II(WW),post WW II, and modern Japan. On the whole, pre-WWII education was controlled centrally by the government, the education philosophy was guided by the Imperial Rescript Education (1890), Japanese values and Confucian principles were taught and stressed by society. Primary education was available to all but secondary and tertiary studies were elitist and discriminatory. This old system collapsed at the end of WWII and the United States Education Mission (1946) introduced new ideas and structures into the Japanese system such as extending free but compulsory education from six to nine years, higher education became more non-elitist, social studies was emphasized above moral studies, school boards were locally elected as opposed to being appointed under the old system, and teachers unions were formed. In 1952, Japanese sovereignty was restored and many reforms reverted back to the old system; school boards were by appointment, Japanese ideals moral studies were put back into the curricula but the 6-3-3 structure intended at democratizing education remain until today The University Control Law (1969) and other reforms emerged in the 70’s. Education in Contemporary Japan is under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (known also as the Monbukagakusho or MEXT). Three tiers of administration attend to the financial and supervisory educational services; namely the national (MEXT0, Prefectural (upper tier) and municipal (lower tier). There are five levels of schooling in Japan: Preschool which is free to all but not compulsory, Primary and Lower Secondary levels which are free and compulsory, and Upper Secondary and Higher Education which are neither free nor compulsory. The Fundamental Law of Education, the School Education Law and the Social Education Law provide the philosophies, policies and practices throughout the nation. The Japanese value educational excellence at all levels and their education system is thought to be extremely prestigious. Japan is consistently ranked at the top internationally in both Maths and science by the TIMSS (Trends in Interntional Maths and Science Study). Japanese education helps build student motivation. Their philosophy emphasizes effort over ability hence in the Japanese classroom, everyone is taught the same concepts and students are engaged in higher-order thinking skills. Correct answers are withheld and students are presented with material such as puzzles and encouraged to think of as many ways as possible to solve the problem. Fast and slow learners are not separated and advanced students help the less able, cooperation, a sense of belonging and oneness are fostered. This attitude is particularly important when it comes to special children. Special Education in Japan A brief history In 1878, the first special school for children with visual and hearing impairment was established in Kyoto. The first special class for children with intellectual disabilities was set up in 1890 in Matsumoto City, in Nagano Prefecture. To date Japan has 222 and 210 years of history respectively in the area of Special education, a figure to be proud of indeed. The number of special schools and special classes for children with various kinds of disabilities increased favorably until around 1930, but thereafter the WWII devastated special education. At the end of the WWII, the external number of special schools for children with blindness and deafness was still more than 100, but most schools were burned by air raids. In the case of special classes, all were closed except one in Tokyo, at which the children were also moved to rural areas without schools, let alone special classes. Special education had to be reconstructed after the WWII based on the philosophy of democratic education, which was introduced by the educational policy the United States who was then the occupation army. In 1947 compulsory education for primary school and lower secondary schools was introduced. Special education was rapidly rebuilt beginning with visual and hearing impairments schools and classes, followed closely by schools for intellectual disability, physical and health impairment. The development of special education since the end of WWII maybe seen as (1) Development of special schools and special classes. 1947- 1979 (2) Movement of integrated education – 2000 (3) Development of special needs education. – Present day The motto of the Special Needs Education System of Japan (SNES) – Where children with disabilities learn – is bold and apt. Looking at Figure 1.2, it is clear that special-needs children are given due consideration at all levels from pre-school right up to upper secondary school. Figure 1. 3 show that as the degree of disability goes from mild to severe, the children are correspondingly moved from regular classes with team-teaching, achievement-based teaching ,small-group classes, Special Support Service in resource rooms, to special classes and then on to Special Needs Schools. The four categories of special needs, the blind, the deaf, the intellectually disabled, the physically disabled and the health impaired in figure 1. 4, show the ratio of children with multiple disabilities in Special Schools in elementary and lower secondary levels. Due to increasing number of students with multiple disabilities, there is a move away from of schools catering only for single disabilities for example the blind or deaf. Japan has a national curriculum standards for children with disabilities called ‘the Course of Study or Gakushyu-shido-yoryo for schools serving the blind ,the deaf, children with physical and mental disabilities and health impairments. It can be amended when necessary to tailor to specific needs for these children. Parents, school board members and or medical and social personel are consulted in order to determine which curriculum suits the child best, be it one to one teaching, small group teaching, individual teaching plans or inclusive integration onto regular classes. Even when there is profound disability, the child is eligible for education according to their needs. In some cases teachers visit homes or institutitions to provide home tutoring. In major hospitals classes are available for children necessitating hospital treatment. Only 0. 001% of children in Japan are allowed postponement or exemption from school education. Teachers in Special education are required to have a license for special education in addition to their basic teaching license. The NISE provides highly specialized training courses. Local Special Education Centers in prefectures offer programmes to upgrade or learn new skills. Case conferences and Teacher’s study-meetings are conducted at school level. The NISE conducts research such as nationwide surveys to assist in making future national policies with regard to special education. At prefecture level, research and development schools and model schools are present throughout the country. Local Special Education Centers, Colleges and Universities conduct ongoing research on teaching methods to enhance Special Support Education. As part of the 2007 reform, the SNES aims to have schools for Special Needs Education where staff are competent in knowledge and understanding on more than one disability, so that students with multiple disabilties are be accepted and integrated into each local community. By mid 2010, Japan plans to launch their first graduate school for students with visual or aural impairments at the state-run Tsukuba University of Technology, their only University for the deaf. According to the university, it will be the world’s first graduate school for visually- impaired students and the third for hearing-impaired ones, following the footsteps of such schools as Gallaudet University in the United States, Master’s degrees will be offered: Industrial technology for visually challenged students and health science courses for hearing-impaired students. Academia is possible to all, those with special needs and those without, unless there is brain injury and the cognitive abilities are damaged. As the adage goes â€Å"There is no learning disability only teacher inability†. MALAYSIA [pic] Map of peninsular Malaysia and East Malaysia (Malaysian Borneo)Fig 1. 2 Malaysia, is made up of West Malaysia (peninsular Malaya) and East Malaysia (Sabah and Sarawak states) in nothern Bourneo. It is a land of beauty in its diversity, located in the heart of South East Asia, see figure 1. 2 which had for centuries attracted merchants and traders plying the ancient, lucrative spice and silk route between India and China. It is therefore no surprise that Chinese, Indian and Malays are the major contributors to Malaysia’s rich and vibrant cultural heritage, together with the indigenous people. Malaysia is a multi-ethnic, multi-cultural, multi lingual and multi-religious society, known for their warm hospitality, interesting and delicious variety of food and a delightful fusion of cultures making Malaysians attractive and unique. Bahasa Malaysia is the official language, but English is taught as a second language and many Malaysians are tri lingual: proficient in their mother tongue, in Malay and in English. Malaysia is well endowed in natural resources such as minerals,[ mainly tin and petroleum] agriculture and forestry. It is one of the world’s top exporters of natural rubber, palm oil, sawn timber, coca and pepper. Malaysia boasts of rich biodiversity and a wide habitat range, in the Gunung Mulu National Park, and in the Mount Kinabalu district of Sabah. Both have been marked as World Heritage Sites. In 2009 two interesting and historical townships, Malacca and Penang were also given World Heritage status. Today Malaysia is an independent nation state with a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Kuala Lumpur is the largest city and the capital of Malaysia. It is also the main financial and commercial centre of the country. Malaysia is recognized as an emerging industrialized country with a GDP per capita PPP ranking at 48th in the world and second in South East Asia. For the past 20 years, Malaysia has been on a fast track development drive with measurable physical and economic success. Unfortunately, services and facilities enabling tangible inclusion of People with Disabilities (PWDs) into their communities were not developed in tandem, resulting in Malaysians with Disabilities excluded from enjoying a barrier-free environment and normal enriching independent lifestyle. There is a pressing need to firstly look at the education commitments of Malaysia to the children with disabilities so that indeed the mission of the Ministry of Education ‘To develop a world-class quality education system which will realise the full potential of the individual and fulfil the aspiration of the Malaysian nation† can achieved, and to reach their objectives stated below: – To produce loyal and united Malaysians. – To produce happy, well mannered individuals who have faith, knowledge and vision. – To prepare the nation? s human resource for its developmental needs. – To provide educational opportunities for all Malaysians. HISTORY OF EDUCATION Pre WWII, secular schools were mainly an innovation of the British colonial government, and English-Language schools were considered prestigious at that time. Post WWII, education was mainly aimed to feed the needs of the colonial government though the Malay, Chinese and Indian communities fought hard for their mother tongue to be used as a medium of instruction. Post independence (1957) in accordance to the national language policy, the government began to change English-medium primary and secondary national-type schools into Malay-medium national schools. In 1970, the language change was made gradually starting from the first year in primary school, was completed by the end of 1982. Malaysia’s belief that (NEP),New Economic Policy 1960-1970, the National Development Policy,1071-1990, The first to ninth Malaysia Plan, 1991-2010, ensure adequate funds to the Education sector for the development of the nation’s human resource and capital. It is through this course of action that the Malaysian Education system succeeds in responding to the issues of access, equity, quality and effectiveness of education for all Malaysians in a 6-3-2 structure. Education in Malaysia is overseen by two government ministries: the Ministry of Education for matters up to the secondary level, and the Ministry of Higher Education for tertiary education. Each state has an Education Department to help coordinate educational matters in their respective states, although education is the responsibility of the federal government. The Education Act of 1996 is the main legislation governing education which designates six years of primary education as compulsory. Pre-school is optional and most pre-schools are for profit and privately run. Five years of secondary schooling is not compulsory. For their pre-university studies, students have an option of doing two years of Form six or the Matriculation. Free education is provided from Primary one right up to Form six. A Brief History of Special Education Jabatan Pendidikan Khas (JPK) or the Department of Special Education, from being just a unit in the Education Department was established as a Department in its own right in 1995. It plays a major role in curricula planning and implementing the quality of special education programmes in both the primary and secondary schools in Malaysia. However the programmes for the deaf have a much longer history, the first residential school for the deaf was established in 1954. Interest towards Special Education in Malaysia began in 1920s among volunteers who were involved in the opening of schools for the hearing and visual impaired. The Cabinet Committee Report that studied the Implementation of Education Policy through the Recommendatory 169 was the beginning of a clearer focus and emphasis on the development of Special Education in Malaysia. The recommendatory says that: â€Å"With the awareness that the government should be responsible towards the  education of disabled children, it should then take over all the responsibilities from the organizations handling it currently. Moreover, the involvement of volunteers in developing the education for disabled children is encouraged. † SPECIAL EDUCATION PHILOSOPHY. The MoE Philosophy for Special Education states that ‘Education is given to develop the students physically, emotionally, spiritually and intellectually so that students can be educated to the highest possible level to enable them to obtain employment and live independently’. Programmes are based on the following policies: †¢ Education Act 1996, Chapter 8. †¢ Education Act (Amendment) Act 2002. †¢ Education Regulations (Special Education) in 1997. †¢ Policy Committee decision, the Ministry of Education [Education Planning Committee (SRC), Meeting Management Ministry of Education, Centre for Curriculum Committee (DFA) and Department of Management Meeting Special Education]. International Declarations: †¢ United Nations’ World Programme of Action concerning Disabled Persons (1983). †¢ The World’s Declaration on Education for All (1990). †¢ The United Nations’ Standard Rules on the Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons With Disabilities (1993). †¢ The Framework for Action on Special Needs Education (Salamanca Statement) in 1994. †¢ Biwako Millennium Framework for Action Towards an Inclusive Barrier-Free and Rights-Based Society for Persons with Disabilities in Asia and the Pacific (2002). Three ministries service children with disabilities. They are, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development (WFCD) and the Ministry of Education, but education for these children are only under the auspices of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of WFCD. The Ministry of Education provides educational services for students with special needs who have visual and hearing impairment, learning difficulties, and those needing special remedial help. Learning disorders are categorized as follows: – Downs Syndrome – Mild autism – Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder – Mild Mental Impairment and – Specific learning disabilities (eg. Dyslexia). The Ministry of WFCD provides services for children with the following problems: – severe physical disability – moderate and severe mental retardation – various other defects such as and – defects that do not allow the children to learn in schools provided by the Ministry of Education. Special Education Department’s Vision and Mission JPK’s vision statement is ‘Quality Education Generates Excellence Among Students with Special Educational Needs in line with the National Education System’, with the mission to develop excellent special needs human capital based on a holistic, relevant and quality education system so that there is – Optimum development the individual’s potential – Ability to compete and be marketable. – Moral values as a responsible citizen – Smart partnerships with various parties The Special Education services provided by the Department of Education are: †¢ Special schools for pupils with visual and hearing impaired and learning (secondary). †¢ Special Education Integration Programs for students with special needs and learning disabilities, impaired hearing and sight impaired. The program is available in non-residential, normal primary and secondary schools as well as in Technical/Vocational training (secondary) schools which adopt withdrawal or semi-inclusive approach. Programmes such as the Special Education Integration Programme and the Special Rehabilitation Programmes are fully administered at state levels by the State Education Department, whereas the Integration of Special Education Programs in Technical and Vocational Education is administered by the Department of Technical Education. The Malaysian Education for All Mid-Decade Assessment Report 2000-2007 states that one of the strategies is to expand preschool places for children with special needs from 32 integration classes to 100 classrooms in order to integrate children aged 5-6 with single disability, usually the learning disabled. Expansion necessitates therefore training the necessary preschool teachers and teacher assistants and also the proviso to amend the Special Education Regulations Act 1997 to accept students with two disabilities. UNICEF, working together with the Ministry of Health’s Development Division (MHDD) devised a standardised screening tool in 2006 to improve the early detection of autism amongst toddlers so that early intervention can be instituted. Issues with Sexual and reproductive health for children with special needs are also looked into, in response and recognition of their high risk of sexual abuse and exploitation, because it directly impacts their learning and overall development. ANALYSIS Japan as a leading economic power and highly industrialised country and Malaysia as a developing and emerging industrialised one, have commonalities in that were both affected deeply by WWII, and both were dominated by a foreign power, so it is interesting to see each country recovered, rebuilt and developed post-war and how Special education has evolved since then. Looking at the philosophy with regard to Special Education mentioned earlier on, both Japan and Malaysia are very similar in that both are highly commendable, comprehensive and impressive, subscribing also to many international special-education charters such as The United Nations’ Standard Rules on the Equalisation of Opportunities for Persons With Disabilities (1993). |Mission and Vision of JPK Malaysia |Mission and Vision of the NISEJapan | | |The mission of our institute as the National Institute of | |JPK’s vision statement is ‘Quality Education Generates Excellence |Special Needs Education is to contribute to:Improving the | |Among Students with Special Educational Needs in line with |quality of education for children with disabilities and to | |the National Education System’, with the mission to develop excellent|make educational provision to meet individual educational | |special needs human capital based on a holistic, relevant and quality|needs. We aim to do this by working with the national and | |education system so that there is |government organizations. Our vision is | |- Optimum development the individual’s potential |Research Activities that contribute to National | |- Ability to compete and be marketable |Administrative Needs | |- Moral values as a responsible citizen |-To undertake research that contributes to the formulation | |- Smart partnerships with various parties |of National Policy for Children. | |- Providing education opportunities and facilities for students |Practical Research that contributes to Education | |with special educational needs. |- To undertake advanced and practical research that | |- Providing relevant education to every student with special |contributes to education | |educational needs. |Specialized Programs for Teacher Training | |- Providing opportunity for students with special educational needs |- Provide systematic and special training for the school | |to develop their talent and potential. |staff who plays the role of leadership in special needs | |- Providing sufficient and up-to-date teaching and learning |education from local public organization and support them. | |material. |Training Programs that Respond to New Challenges | |- Ensuring sufficient trained teachers in special education. |- To implement training program for the major issue of | | |National Policy and/or urgent issue at educational site | |- Planning and managing all primary and secondary special schools. |flexibly and promptly. | |- Planning and coordinating all special schools integration program. |Counseling and Consultation that Provide Activities that | |- Planning, coordinating and evaluating policies and regulations, to|Supports Local Public Organizations | |ensure education is well-balanced, to help, service and support |- To conduct consultation and provide the information for | |students with special educational needs and implement the special |counseling and consultation to the organizations. | |education vocational policy. |Provide Information for Special Needs Education | |- Planning curriculum, activities and special education affairs. |-To collect, analyze, arrange and make database of the | |- Providing special education planning, research and evaluation. |information on special needs education from domestic and | |- Providing training plan and staff development; and |overseas and provide comprehensive information to teaching | |- Coordinating Special Remedial Education Program. |site. | | |Cooperation and Partnership with Universities and | | |Organizations in Domestic and Overseas. | | |- to collaborate and cooperate with universities and | | |organizations locally and abroad through seminars, to | | |research, analyze and evaluate the issues, and to share our| | |practical research results in special needs education. | One difference in their philosophy is that when it comes to learning, the Japanese put value and emphasis in effort over that of natural ability, resulting in primary school students being taught in classes that have not been streamlined into good, average or poor students, whereas stream lining students according to their academic performance is practiced by Malaysia and many other countries. It follows then that, if effort is put into the education of a special-needs child, the child can reach its full potential given all the necessary support. This attitude has given Japan an advantage of having an over 200 year history in educating people with special needs, which began with addressing the visual and hearing impaired. The Japanese School Education Law places special education firmly within the framework of the total education system by emphasizing that it is not separate from ordinary education. Japanese special education now officially recognizes seven categories of disability: the blind and partially sighted, deaf and har.