Recent orders
My perspective changed after the school trip to China
Insert name
Instructors’ name
Course
Date
My perspective changed after the school trip to China
My school trip to china changed my perception about life. It happened two years ago when my teacher, classmates and I boarded a plane to Chinas capital city, Beijing. The flight was slightly more than 13hrs 36min. On reaching Beijing, we boarded another plane to our destination Guizhou province, a journey that took as an additional 2hrs 30min. Guiyang is the capital city of Gauizhou. We were accommodated at the Novotel Guiyang Downtown hotel.
Gauizhou is one of China’s poorest provinces and has a population of approximately 3.45 million people, most of whom live below the poverty line. The World Bank describes three levels of poverty, ‘extreme poverty’; a household defined by income of less than a $1 a day. Next we have the ‘moderate poverty’; a household that is living on $1 to $2 a day. Lastly we have ‘relative poverty’; this is a household defined by earnings below a specific level of the average national earnings.
Most factories in this province disobey child labor laws. Children are employed to work for minimum wages. Those working in garment and textile factories often work for more than 14 hours a day the whole week and sleep by their machines. Boys in Qing Cheng Shan or the Green Mountain City are paid a wage of 18 cents to carry a 55 pound bag of coal up the mountain. Even in the main cities, school teachers who earn a salary of approximately $50 per month; good salary in China, may have to save up for two years to buy just a bicycle. Families are separated in opposite corners of the country so as to work in different areas to cater for their family’s needs. They only have three weeks in a year to be together. Poor families live in bamboo framed houses or houses made out of a combination of straw-and-mud. These houses are located in parts of Sichuan, Yunnan and Hunan provinces. Progress to them means, moving from a mud house to a concrete house. This made me appreciate the living conditions back at home, where water and electricity are a necessity. Here in the rural areas electricity is only found in towns and the factories that offer jobs. Water is found in bore holes dug years back, and it is the duty of children to fetch it and carry the filled containers back home. The children have to walk quite a distance because the bore holes are located far away from their houses.
After a long week, we were back to our normal lives, but what I saw there made me want to open my own orphanage to help the less fortunate. I approached my grandfather who runs an orphanage to volunteer. My grandfather; Mr. Saleh Kamei runs the Fair Heaven Children’s (FHC) home. It is located in 3139 N Fair Heaven Loop, Strafford MO 75757-8919. It is a residential care facility for kids in the state of Missouri. He started it back in the year 1997 after a trip to Africa which also changed his perspective about life. He initially wanted to go back to Africa to start it there but back home there was also a necessity for this kind of care.
It is now three years since my experience in China and my voluntarism at my grandfather’s orphanage. During the school holidays, my services are needed more. Every morning we serve the children with breakfast; a privilege their families never used to afford, then I offer my tutoring services. What I have learned from this experience influenced me to become more humbled to have been born into my family. I am grateful for my parents for giving me what I need without even asking for it. Just a smile on these children’s faces brightens my day and am grateful to God that my grandfather found it in his heart to help these beautiful children.
Hanseatic League
Name
Instructor
Course
Date
Question 1
History
Hanseatic League
Hanseatic League was a commercial association comprising of northern German cities, which thrived between the years1250 and 1500. The league comprised of all the towns considered important on Baltic shore and along the Northern Germany main rivers. It monopolized trade along the Baltic and North seas mostly in herring, cloth, grain, furs, lumber, and minerals. The league was helpful in suppressing piracy and improving navigation because of dredged waterways as well as building of lighthouses and canals. At the same time, there was establishment of courts at the league’s alien trading posts to assist in settling disagreements among members (Walford 182). The league later became strong and protected its merchants against arbitrary laws in relation to foreign rulers and foreign lawsuits. Mutual monetary interests led to high cooperation and the expulsion of rebellious members from the league. The collapse of Hohenstaufen dynasty in Germany in 1254 was the end of an aggressive imperial rule. The situation encouraged many Northern German towns to form leagues and protect their trading rights overseas. Later, the German Merchants Associations Abroad united together with the Northern German towns to create the Hanseatic League.
The league continued to grow in power in the first half of the 14th century. King Wald Mars IV from Denmark challenged the supremacy of the league in the Baltic. Although the Danish King was originally successful, the league overpowered him. This is because its status and power had reached new heights and extended its commercial control in Northern Europe. The main reason for the formation of Hanseatic League was to help in tackling weak national governments since a solid governmental presence would obviously be part of their collapse. In the process, many governments realized that the harnessing of resources managed by the Hanseatic League would make them become more powerful.
Dutch East India Company
The Dutch East India Company was a trading company, which was chartered in the year 1602 by the assembly of Netherlands States-General. The main aim of its formation was to look sustain and control Dutch trade mainly in the Indian Ocean, as well as provide support in fighting against countries such as Spain and Portugal. The company raised money by selling shares and was ruled by representatives who came from separate Dutch states. It was also offered trade monopoly in the East Indies and was in a position to import goods from Netherlands without payment of free duty (The Dutch East-India Company and Accounting for Social Capital at the Dawn of Modern Capitalism 162). It replaced Portuguese, which was considered a master in commerce in Europe as well as the East Indies. It had supreme ruling power in Dutch colonies mainly from the East of Africa and across the Pacific. The company was rich and strong in the late 1600, but declined because of mismanagement coupled with foreign competition. It collapsed in 1798 after the French dominated Netherlands. Conversely, the firm’s South African colony stood at ‘the Cape of Good Hope,’ which was founded in the year 1652, and conceded by the Netherlands to Britain in the year 1815. The company’s island colonies were located in the Pacific was later controlled by the Dutch government, until after the second world war when majority of them came together to form Republic of Indonesia.
Suleyman the Magnificent
Suleyman the Magnificent was considered one of the best Ottoman Empire rulers. He is remembered as one of the fiercest Islamic religion conquerors. In Middle Eastern cultures, he is referred to as an excellent builder. Suleyman’s reign as sultan saw the Ottoman Empire reach its peak in terms of power and affluence. Muslims as well as Europeans also viewed him as an important leader in the world (Atıl and Arifi 309). The Ottoman Empire military experienced a great expansion to the east and west during his reign. Suleyman also gave out threats of overrunning the center of Europe by himself. He embarked on an extensive cultural, complemented with architectural projects in Constantinople. Istanbul, established in the middle of the sixteenth century, remained architecturally the most active and innovative city in the world. Suleyman was a clever military strategist, shrewd politician, and an arts cultivator. He sponsored many artists, religious thinkers together with philosophers who surpassed the most educated
Tokugawa
Ieyasu Tokugawa founded modern Tokyo after accepting the shogun title from the emperor in the year 1603. This was preceded by the country gaining peace in 1600 with law codes issued under his name underpinning its composition. Majority of Daimyo had affirmed their loyalty to Ieyasu, and Tokugawa estates, which comprised of a quarter of Japan’s farmland and made him a supreme Daimyo (Gordon 389). The authority of Tokugawa against other Daimyo was merged by leaving their wives and families and becoming permanent Edo hostages. This meant that they were in a position to attend the shoguns in the capital after every second year.
Despite Daimyo being unchallenged rulers in their estates, they were afraid of Tokugawa, who could seize them as punishment. The emperors used to live in lavish powerlessness in Kyoto that was financially supported and watched by Tokugawa. The society was divided into four classes of samurai, merchants, farmers, and artisans. These had restricted contact with the world beyond Japan for stability preservation. There was standardization of measures for coins and weights. In addition, there was improvement of road networks, comprehensive legal codes, and issuing of admonitions. Tokugawa peace and continuous rich Daimyo traffic to and from Edo made Japan to become prosperous. It also made the country to be one of the most refined pre-modern commercial societies. However, the resulting population explosion surpassed the natural resources; hence prompting a prevalent peasant unrest. The firm Tokugawa administration, which had surrounded the shogun with advisers, hindered response to rising colonialist encroachment. In the end, pro-imperial radicals found in remote Daimyo realm in Western Japan reconciled against Tokugawa over lordship and overthrew the dynasty during the Meiji Restoration. Later, the 15th Tokugawa shogun collapsed in the year 1868, and joined the new Meiji aristocracy as a member.
Saint Domingue Uprising
The Saint Domingue rebellion remained a new type of slave uprising, which revolutionaries claimed was already emancipated and was also known as the Haitian revolution. It was different from other revolutions experienced before because of its violent and bloody character in fighting for independence. Many people were killed since several nations took in the revolt. The Haitian revolution was different from others because of the social cataclysms that accompanied the uprising. The old Saint Domingue collapsed prompting a new social and political entity to develop in the new state establishment. The revolution produced a political reorganization by destroying the social foundations and condensed the entire social superstructure from its original rudiments (Garrigus 199). Slaves fighting mainly for their right to own themselves accomplished all these changes. They were complemented by men who felt that they were half-free and wanted the other half of liberty, which was French citizenship right. The Haitian revolution remained a symbol of significance and gave optimism to the surrounding Caribbean colonies.
Works Cited
“The Dutch East-India Company and Accounting for Social Capital at the Dawn of Modern Capitalism 1602-1623.” The Dutch East-India Company and Accounting for Social Capital at the Dawn of Modern Capitalism 1602-1623. (2012). Print.
Atıl, Esin, and Arifi. Süleymanname: The Illustrated History of Süleyman the Magnificent. Washington: National Gallery of Art, 1986. Print.
Garrigus, John D. Before Haiti: Race and Citizenship in French Saint-Domingue. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006. Print.
Gordon, Andrew. A Modern History of Japan: From Tokugawa Times to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Print.
Walford, Cornelius. “An Outline History of the Hanseatic League, More Particularly in Its Bearing Upon English Commerce.” Transactions of the Royal Historical Society. 9 (1881). Print.
Question 2
Study of Modern Imperialism to Understand Economic Globalization Skeptics
The study of contemporary imperialism is significant in helping individuals understand the reasons some countries, which were colonies remained suspicious of economic globalization. The countries that endured colonization are skeptical and cautious on revolutionary globalization issues. Whilst normally acknowledging the fact that the recent decades have experienced a substantial intensification of international interdependence, skeptics interpretations tend to dispute the novelty (Held and Anthony 234). The degree of modern global interdependence is significantly exaggerated with a spatial concentration of actual nature patterns. This is highlighted in terms of economic interdependence, which insists that globalization is mainly an incident largely associated with the major OECD states (Shaikh 290).
In addition, such sates are the main architects of an open and liberal international economy. The dismissing of a united global economy by skeptics emphasizes that the world seems to be breaking up into many major economic as well as political blocs in which different capitalism forms have continued to thrive (Kim 345). The stress on footloose capital as well as a new global capitalist structure has been overstated and so has the welfare state decline. Instead of a new world order, it is evident that the post Cold War worldwide system has experienced a return of the old style of geo-politics coupled with neo-imperialism. This has helped the most powerful countries and social forces to consolidate their universal dominance. In assuming the current novelty, skeptics’ position indicates that the hyperactive globalists have ignored the continuous dominance of national power and autonomy (Mandle 322).
Works Cited
Held, David, and Anthony G. MacGrew. The Global Transformations Reader: An Introduction to the Globalization Debate. Cambridge [etc.: Polity, 2003. Print.
Kim, Nam-Kook. Globalization and Regional Integration in Europe and Asia. Farnham, England: Ashgate, 2009. Internet resource.
Mandle, Jay R. Democracy, America, and the Age of Globalization. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008. Print.
Shaikh, Anwar. Globalization and the Myths of Free Trade: History, Theory, and Empirical Evidence. London: Routledge, 2007. Print.
Handouts and other Printed Materials and Effective oral presentation skills
Name:
Institution:
Course:
Tutor:
Date:
Handouts and other Printed Materials
Introduction
Effective oral presentation skills are imperative in ensuring that the target audience understands the messages intended to be passed on.
Care should be taken to ensure that they do not distort the meaning of the respective messages.
Handouts and other forms of printing materials enable the audience to understand the messages accordingly.
However, they should be given to the audience at the right time to ensure that they do not distract attention during oral presentations.
As much as their design should be visually appealing, this should not undermine the ability to pass on information with ease.
Handouts
Basically, handouts contain an in depth analysis of the information contained in oral presentations.
They help the audience to understand the subject under review.
Further, they make the respective presentation both strong and memorable. Gatto (1990) indicates that handouts can be distracting during oral presentations.
For this reason, they should be distributed at the end of the presentation.
With regards to structure and design, handouts should be clean and neat.
If possible, the developers of these should refrain from using fancy fonts and these can be distracting.
In addition, too much information should not be included on a single page; rather information contained on each page should be simple and easy to understand.
To ensure optimal results, information contained therein should correspond to the oral presentation.
This also makes it easier for the audience to follow the presentation.
To attain this, page numbers can be used. Furthermore, developers of handouts should leave some space for note taking (Cox, 2006).
Flyers
Flyers are handouts that provide more information about a product being evaluated in oral presentations.
Pictures can be included in the flyer to make it more attractive.
Nonetheless, the design of the respective flyer should be logical, coherent and meaningful. Pictures included should match the text and the product under review (Cox, 2006).
The flyer should be simple to avoid distracting the audience.
Colors should be chosen carefully and be reflective of the theme of the product or the text.
Then, meaningful simple headings should be used.
Graphics should not be used in the headings.
Most importantly, the entire flyer should have information and no place should be left empty.
Summary Sheet
These comprise neatly folded pieces of paper with a summary of the speaker’s presentation.
Summaries are different and may include relevant facts, bulleted points underscoring the main quotes or time line of important events.
Gurak and Dragga (1999) indicate that summary sheets should be limited to one page.
Additional referencing material and contact information should be included in the summary sheet.
Stickers
These are not effective for presentations that are information based.
Nonetheless, they are vital for politically based oral presentations or persuasive presentations.
They make the speech memorable and audiences can always refer to them.
In most cases, they contain the name of the speaker and the slogan that defines the speaker’s speech.
For a smaller audience, file folder stickers with a handwritten slogan are more cost effective.
Poster
This handout plays an instrumental role in enhancing understanding of the presentation.
Usually, it explains where the speaker got the information.
It can act as a conversation starter and trigger a debate of vital issues under review.
Posters also advertise various works or products that the presenter talks about.
Most importantly, Cox (2006) indicates that posters summarize the work or information that is presented orally.
Banners
These contain various forms of visual appeals and enable the audience to remember well what they see.
In most cases, they are employed outdoors.
As such, the material used needs to be resistant to harsh weather.
In addition, the materials should be durable especially in cases where the banner needs to stay out for a long period of time after the presentation.
According to Gatto (1990), lively colors need to be employed to attract and maintain the attention of the audience.
This can be attained if colors are chosen well.
Better results can further be attained if they are blended well with the background color. Background in this regard included the color of the environments.
The color of the banner should sharply contrast with that of the environment to have optimal results.
The size of the respective banner should also be large enough.
This would allow or effective printing of the letters relaying vital information.
Conclusion
Handouts are effective in providing additional information than that contained in oral presentations.
As identified, they need to be distributed after the presentation to avoid distracting the audience. Generally, information contained in banners should be relevant and consistent with that contained in presentations.
Handouts should be neat and designed in a manner that does not compromise understanding by the audience.
Handouts and printed materials and wide and varied and range from flyers, banners and posters to summary sheets and stickers.
If used in an effective manner, these can be imperative in enhancing understanding and ensuring that the audience remember the messages contained therein.
References
Cox, M. (2006).What every student should know about preparing effective oral presentations. Boston, Allyn & Bacon
Gatto, R. (1990).A practical guide to effective presentation: Its not just what you say, its how you say it that gets results. USA: GTA Press
Gurak, L. & Dragga, S. (1999). Oral presentations for technical communication. USA: Longman