The largest number of people in the world “Over 700,000 of our people are involved in the cleaning of toilets using their bare hands; this is a huge shame on the country. The politicians raise slogans of becoming a super power but do not look back. They knowingly ignore the plight of the poor people of India.  Every country may become a super power but only when its people are prosperous and enjoy all amenities of life. With the world records from bottom  India cannot even become a power not to speak of super power.

When you were in school – or if you are now in school – did you ever cheat on an exam? Did you peek at your friend’s paper and copy his or her answers? Do you go online to seek out reports and papers that you can easily copy and turn in as your own?

How about on the job or getting a job? Is ‘enhancing’ your resume worth it if it gets you a leg up on the job you want or the promotion you seek?

In a recent research study, scientists found that people in lower income categories – at least as far as students are concerned – cheat more. The Canadian researchers say that income inequality decreases the general trust people have toward each other.

The researchers determined that if students don’t trust each other, some of them might think they have to cheat to keep up with their unscrupulous classmates. And other research has shown that this kind of distrust is more likely to be found in places with where incomes are not equal.

Google Data Used

To conduct their research and to examine the connection between trust, income inequality, and academic dishonesty, the researchers looked at data from Google that broke down search terms by state (in the U.S.) and found data on searches on phrases like “free term paper,” “buy term paper,” and the names of cheating websites. He compared these to survey data on how trusting people are in each state and a measure of income inequality from the U.S. Census Bureau. They controlled for several other factors that could influence the number of searches, including how many students are in each state, how large the colleges in each state are, and average household income.

Their data showed that people who live in states with more income inequality were less trusting in general, and those states had more evidence of academic dishonesty. The next step, say the researchers, will be to duplicate their finding using laboratory experiments, using pay structure to alter income inequality, then observing the effects on students’ trust and dishonest behavior.

If one of the root causes of cheating is distrust, this could explain why measures like honor codes work, they say. When students trust that other people aren’t cheating, they are less likely to cheat themselves.

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            1998    Nothing Bad Intended: Child Discipline, Punishment and Survival in a Shantytown in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In Small wars : the cultural politics of childhood. N. Scheper-Hughes and C.F. Sargent, eds. Pp. 389-415. Berkeley: University of California Press.

In this reading, Donna Goldstein looks at poverty differently than the other authors have so far; she does not research street children, but looks into the lives of children living in poor matrifocal households. She begins by saying that she will talk about a poor Brazilian family and about their relations with each other and with others in order to explain how childhood and childhood discipline are socially and economically contructed. Golstein argues that childhood is lived and experienced differently by different classes in Brazil. Economic and social realities for those who are poor are different than they are for the  upper classes, so childhood and discipline mean different things. Childhood is shortened for the poor. Poor mothers are able to rationalize cruel punishments because raising tough children becomes a necessity for their survival. They teach their children to behave in human and adult ways, and therefore are taking care of them; mothers’ actions make sense in context of their situations. However, attempts to raise children into strong adults also ensures that the children will be trapped  in the lowest class. Favela-living is about survival of the fittest.

At one point, Goldstein mentions that, to poor mothers, upper- and middle-class children can be loved because they are helpless and spoiled, while poor children are forced to become adults early on in order to survive. Favelados working for upper class individuals often prefer the employer’s children to their own children, and Goldstein talks about this as a relationship between the colonizer and the colonized. I found it very interesting that Goldstein connected what we had learned about in a previous unit about the lasting affects of colonialization to the issue of poverty and violence in Brazil.

How to remove poverty

I remember an incident- two candidates allotted a fixed sum to find out a few facts and the winner was to be, selected for the post. The one who spent lesser and were, elected had done nothing but followed and copied the facts collected by the first candidate who made expenses collecting them. The one who won based on lesser expenses proved his point that he can do things using his skills and not merely by laboring around. Therefore, smart worker is better than an ordinary one who can do wonders for an employer. This might be good for a joke but is not a joke.

Only skills will not enable you to get an appointment if you are not qualified for the post. The skill go according to rules whereas honest are just simpletons who do not know how to do things. If you have requisite qualification but another person similarly qualified is, more efficient or better if knows his job on a different level with extra knowledge of keeping expenses down is certainly better

You may overtake him through your added skills only there is not a shortcut or any other means.

Here the issue is of skills alone is not worth, one must be competent enough to compete.  Needless to say, we have to increase skill of our people by making education entirely on a different scale of competency There is no way we can depend on orthodox ways which taught us narrow ways of thinking. We cannot see ourselves going up with our present pretending methods.

What was the activity?

For the activity, entire group of 115 was divided into 3 groups, based on a chit system. 10% of the group were classified as ‘High Income Group’, 30 % were termed as ‘Medium Income Group’ and the biggest chunk, 60% were people in ‘Low Income Group’. Each group had a set of rules.

Low Income group:

·         Not allowed to use cell phones, wear slippers.

·         Got limited amount of food and sit on floor.

·         Not permitted to buy anything extra than what is provided

·         Women had to wash own dishes after meals and also the dishes of male members in community

·         Had to sleep in floor, without pillow

·         No fans

·         Etc

Medium Income Group:

·         Can use cell phones, but no iphones, ipads etc

·         Got normal quantity of food

·         Can sleep on bed

High Income Group

·         Got pizzas and unlimited quantity of food, nice snacks

·         Can bribe their way

·         Buy anything

·         Had all luxuries

How it felt?

I was in low income group.

It was not the activity which mattered; it was actually the differences which made the entire impact. At one end, where high income group had pizzas, low income group had to settle for 2 chapattis and little dal. And meals were the thing which stuck out most and which I felt humiliating. Since, we were not allowed to buy anything extra, the feeling of hunger and deprivation was also experienced.

Other thing which I felt was, at one point or another people from actual low income group must have hated me without me doing anything intentionally but by the mere way I am born in society.

Another thing which struck me was that we tend to form group based on our income levels.

Why?

The main purpose of this activity was to move forward one step in the direction of how our kids feel when they come to school, some may be hungry, some may be sleep deprived and we have to be sensitive to situations prevailing without using them as excuses which will prevent them from learning.

Other thing is it challenged the integrity of all of us. We were free to exercise our choices, which rule we want to follow as no one was keeping a watch on us. And it was on us, how true we are towards ourselves.

Altruism is when you give and help to anyone that needs it, without expecting a reward for yourself, without bragging it to the world and without expected the reciever to say thank you (although, that is always nice).

But I wonder, how often do the charity givers and do-gooders actually practice altruism, and how often do they practice near their own homes?

Do they help children and poverty in their own neighborhoods? So many people donate to the SPCA ( animal shelters) and the United Christians Children Fund (helping in Africa), these are of course, are great deeds.

How often does one look in their own neighborhoods and offer a hand? Their are poor children in every town and city, going to bed hungry at night. Dying animals in nearly every alley. Babies dying from drug addicted mothers, women dying from abusive husbands, homeless living in neighborhood parks and under bridges.

Before touting your great deed of helping others, have you helped in your own back yard? If you have not, I say shame on you, your deed is no greater than throwing a penny into the wishing well.

Students look at a section of the exposed Wasatch Fault, a classic normal fault located in North Salt Lake, Utah. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It was their clothes

The length of their dress to the floor

Whether they were a boy or girl

The victim’s fault all plaster on the news door

It was their sexy manner

That causes their problems

By being in the wrong place and scene

It the victim’s fault that many folks see

The ability to say what on your heart

Or act in a manner that question your behavior

That places you in the victim’s image

It is your fault so just forget it

Your fortune is you’re alone

Because your destiny is in someone else hands

No need to cry society’s woes

To blame the victim is so easy now

The victim’s fault with no time for foes

Look away and close your eyes

There no need to hear the victim cries

Mercy for none and pity for less

The victim is a person under today stress

The paper is about Poverty. In section one, I defined poverty and led into section two which covered minimum wage laws. Minuimun wage led into section 3, the ideas of a living wage to decrease the gaps between the rich and poor.

Now, I am feeling stuck at section 4. Here is what I need: this section needs to be about 4 pages of double spaced print. Everything must be cited MLA format Following are the guidelines:

 Who is responsible for implementing this policy/program change for a living wage. I am thinking federal and state)

o   Is this a National, State or Local change?

o   Will this be implemented by Government entities (i.e. DHHS, OCFS, etc.) or Non-Governmental ( I am thinking govermental, with business grants as well as Community Action Agencies, local service agencies)

o   How will funds be distributed? (block grants, competitive grants, through existing departmental budgets)

  Will your change be implemented as a permanent or pilot project? Will it be short term in duration or a long term change? (I am thinking long term, with studies and data collection every 3 to 5 yrs)

o   Consider whether your change is retroactive or could have a grandfather clause attached.  Who will oversee project/program changes ( to ensure that the changes are actually made, I am thinking IRS and better business beareus)? The persons implementing it, a government agency, or a third party entity? ( not retroactive, a forward date)

Establish a clear evaluation strategy: How will you determine whether your changes have been successful?  ( I am thinking research and data collection)

o   What are the intended outcomes and how will you know if they have been met? How do you define success? (intentions are to lesson poverty, would define success by cost of living standards and levels of poverty)

o   Who will evaluate this (the entities responsible for implementation or oversight or an independent third party would be IRS, better business, local agenices,)

 Consequences: Present some potential long or short term intended and unintended consequences of this change? long term may cause more poverty by increasing inflation

 so if there is someone here on triond that is up for helping a college student gather referenced information, please help and dont forget the reference links. Truly I would appreciate this help.

‘Leaving Gaza? It will not ever! ‘, But that still survive on the spirit of resistance Gaza society. Many community members from various groups, all asking the same spirit of resistance.

“See that hill? That the location of the war (at the turn of 2008-2009 years ago), “a 19-year-old girl pointed to a direction from behind the window of his modest home. “Two people join the jihad of our brothers,” said one of his relatives.

“One of my brothers joined the jihad,” said her friend replied. “Life is hard here,” said a mother black berabaya.

All the necessities of daily life in the Gaza Strip was expensive. Ranging from flour to make khubz (bread daily food) they must pay in the currency of the Zionist occupiers sheqel, until the rice, ranging from oil to cook, much less clothing. 2 kilos of rice prices in Gaza about 15 or about USD 32 500 sheqel.

Its very ironic is that the price of fish in the beauty of the land that bordered the Mediterranean Sea was also extraordinarily expensive. One kilo of fish to be paid by 40 sheqel alias approximately USD 100 thousand.

Even more painful, most fish in Gaza comes from Egypt’s market – especially through the tunnels. Why? Because the fishermen of Gaza sail should not be further than 3 nautical miles. Passing of that limit, they will be fired by an Israeli patrol In fact, it will not quite catch them if they do not move further than the 3-mile limit.

What is cheap in Gaza? Vegetables, spices and everyday purposes they could plant their own. And ‘Andumi’. That is, Indomie instant noodle production by Saudi Arabia and entered Egypt. “Cheap! Just a sheqel, “said a housewife. “But I forbid my children are eating instant noodles too often. Not healthy. “

Tent Camp, Gaza Strip (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

“You’re such a hard life, but you can find a better life outside the Gaza Strip. Why not move it, for example, to America or Europe? “Said a volunteer

All eyes glaring at the volunteers. “Leaving Gaza? No! “Said a 17-year-old Gaza girl who served drinks to volunteers after helping his mother in the kitchen. (In other societies might like this girl is busy hang-out with his friends or going out and immoral.)

“Hijrah from Gaza? No, “said another girl who was 19 years old. “Never.” Why not? “This is our country!” Exclaimed a fiery mother.

“Because this is a blessed land (God) and this ribath ground,” said the girl 19 years old.