Tuesday, March 10, 2020

Attacks on Private Hire Taxi Drivers in Oldham Essays

Attacks on Private Hire Taxi Drivers in Oldham Essays Attacks on Private Hire Taxi Drivers in Oldham Essay Attacks on Private Hire Taxi Drivers in Oldham Essay For three days in May 2001 the eyes of the nation, and a sizable part of the world, were on Oldham. The town whose main claim to fame was that it was once the cotton spinning capital of the world was thrust into the limelight for the less worthy reason that it was the scene of the worst racially motivated riots in fifteen years. (Ritchie, 2001) Since the riots of May 2001 there has been an increased occurrence of violent attacks on taxi drivers being reported in both local and national media, these attacks culminated in January 2003 in the murder of Izra Hussain, an Asian private hire taxi driver and father of six. The aim of this report is to try to find out whether these attacks are racially motivated. In the Dictionary of race and Ethnic Relations (1984) E. E. Cashmore defines prejudice as learned beliefs and values that lead an individual or group of individuals to be biased for or against member of particular groups. Prejudice is therefore about what people think and is not necessarily translated into actions. Discrimination, on the other hand, is about actions. Cashmore defines it as the unfavourable treatment of all persons socially assigned to a particular category. Both prejudice and discrimination are often based on stereotypes about particular groups of people. In order to research these attacks we are going to use various methods, making sure that we follow the three most prominent criteria for the evaluation of social research, which are according to Bryman (2001) are reliability, replication and validity. Reliability is concerned with the question of whether the results of a study are repeatable. Reliability according to Bryman is very close to another criterion of research- replication and more especially replicability. It sometimes happens that researchers choose to replicate the findings of others. The final and in many ways the most important criterion of research is validity. Validity is concerned with the integrity of the conclusions that are generated from a piece of research. With these criteria in mind, the following methods of collecting data for this report have been chosen. The main body of data has been gained from a semi-structured interview using a mixture of open and closed questions. A structured interview entails the running of an interview schedule by the interviewer. The aim is for all interviewees to be given exactly the same context of questioning. For the purpose of this research the interviews were conducted in person by visiting the interviewees in their work situation. The sample for this research was taken from private hire taxi drivers, figures from Oldham Metro Councils licensing Department (2003) state that there are approx 800 drivers working and that they are split roughly 60% Asian and 40% UK/White. Given these figures, 20 respondents, 12 Asian and 8 UK/White were chosen. This meant going to various private hire taxi offices in the Oldham area. In a personal interview, the interviewer may respond to signs, such as puzzlement or unease, by restating the question or attempting to clarify the meaning of the question. This may entail prompting, when an interviewer suggests a possible answer to a question to the respondent. Bryman (2001) states that prospective respondents have to be provided with a credible justification for the research in which they are being asked to participate and for giving up their valuable time. The results from the interview were noted by writing down the respondents replies. To back up our main body of research, a quantitative content analysis of local newspaper and taxi trade magazines. In analysis we sought to quantify the contents in terms of predetermined categories. In this case we looked for individual stories, which portrayed physical assaults on taxi drivers, by counting individual stories and then analysing the nature of assault and the types of perpetrators involved. The local newspaper archive was used and sources from the last 2 years were analysed. The analysis of the taxi trade magazine, which was carried out on-line, was used to see if these attacks took place nationally. Bryman (2002) states that content analysis is a very transparent research method; it can allow a certain amount of longitudinal analysis with relative ease. Pawson (1995) argues that formal content analysis is not without its problems. Simply counting the number of items tells you nothing about their significance, and the meanings of the text or images being studied can only be implied. Our research found that out of 20 respondents, 12 where of Asian, Pakistani or Bangladeshi descent, and 8 described themselves as of White UK descent. The age of the respondents was between 25 and 65. Of the 20 respondents 17 were married, 2 were co-habiting and one was single. It should be noted that all of the Asian respondents were married and all had children. All the drivers interviewed described themselves as self-employed private hire taxi drivers. They worked on average 60 hours a week; this was usually split between days and evenings. The evening work was mostly on Friday and Saturday. Shifts of 12 hours were not unusual at busy times. Oldham is a mixed urban and rural town on the edge of the West Pennines, most of the private hire taxi offices (22 in all) are situated in the town centre, but the drivers cover the whole borough. When asked about attacks on private hire driver 19 out of the twenty respondents reported that they had suffered some form of attack or abuse.

Saturday, February 22, 2020

Systems and Operations Management Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Systems and Operations Management - Assignment Example If we define this question the answer that we will get goes something like this: managing the activities, decisions and responsibilities of the resources so that it can produce and deliver the quality products or services in a stipulated span of time is called as Operations Management. Mainly, Operations Management about managing resources to create goods and services (Slack et al., 2010). In today’s competitive world, every organization has the operations management team that oversees the smooth functioning of the operations in terms of production and delivery of products and services. As Hayes et al. (2005) claims, effective operations strategy should be consistent and contribute to give competitive advantage. The person who manages this particular team is called as Operations Manager and it is his/her responsibility to see the operation is going smooth. Strategic Importance of the Digital Economy A decade before the Civil War, which was in 1850, the economy of the United St ates was not very big. It was even smaller than that of Italy. But after 40 years of the war United States was world’s largest economy. The reason behind this enormous progress is the railroads. What they did was connect the east and the west along with the interior parts with both the sides. With this move the industrial goods of the eastern part of the country gained access for the rest of the country; they scaled the economy with stimulation of the steel and manufacturing industries (Arthur, 2011). And this had made the economy to prosper many folds making it the largest economy. These types of changes are not unusual. Since 60 years or so there has been a great transformation in the economy of the country and most of the reforms are being done by the technology that has entered the country almost unnoticing. The entry of the technology has brought new social classes with them and also creates different classes of business. In today’s fast paced world is it possible to think such silent and slow yet deep economic transformation? If we look at the genetic or nano technology we can see the same, however, the time for them has not yet come in full force (Arthur, 2011). But it is arguable that there is something deep that is going as far as the information technology is concerned, which is way beyond the computers or the social media or e-commerce. The business processes that were completely human effort are now being executed electronically without losing time. These processes are executed in an unseen strictly digital domain (Katz and Koutroumpis, 2012). Let us take a look at an example. If you think about 20 years back, when you had to go somewhere in flight you would have a paper ticket that you would produce to a human being in the airport counter. After that the person would register your ticket, check your luggage in and help you know if the flight has arrived or not. All these activities were to be done manually by human interventions (Art hur, 2011). However, today, in the time of information technology, when you go to the airport you just need to swipe your frequent flyer card or credit card in the kiosk and you will get all the necessary stuffs – boarding pass, luggage tag, receipt etc. in just few seconds, without any human intervention. Once you swipe your card, an enormous conversation is being initiated among the

Thursday, February 6, 2020

Civil Disobedience - Gandhi Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Civil Disobedience - Gandhi - Essay Example e to easily suppress the incidences of violent uprising, but the civil disobedience movement was launched on a widespread scale and proved to be a tactic that the British were simply unable to defeat through military means. Gandhi has played an unforgettable role in the history of India and is referred to as Bapu, or the Father of the nation, due to his valuable contribution in bringing about a retreat of British forces from India. Gandhi first commenced the civil disobedience in South Africa, when he was practicing as a lawyer. Angered by the discrimination that was heaped upon black South African majority and his Indian brothers by the white minority, Gandhi encouraged these people to refuse to cooperate with practices they were expected to follow that only denigrated them more. He gave up his lucrative legal practice in order to become the leader of the Indian community that was comprised of despised traders and laborers. (www.india-today.com) and devised his policy of civil disobedience or a quiet non violent refusal to comply with unjust practices that were an attack on human dignity. Gandhi later utilized the civil disobedience movement very successfully in his home country of India, in resisting British rule and demanding that they leave India. He initiated the Non cooperation movement in 1921-22. Indians boycotted British goods and chose to use only Indian products. The crowd and masses quite simply refused to obey orders and the British found themselves helpless in dealing with people who openly disobeyed rules but did not resist arrest and did not retort with violence to any draconian British measures to maintain law and order. There was however, a constant demand from the asses for the British to quit India. Two decades after the movement was first commenced, Gandhi was successful in achieving the goal of Swaraj, or complete independence.(www.india-today.com). Falk (2003) has argued that the potential of the civil disobedience movement in bringing

Tuesday, January 28, 2020

Zen masters Essay Example for Free

Zen masters Essay Same as Buddhism, Zen became accommodated for those, who practice it. So, it obtained new characteristics in the West. This process of accommodation was repeated in each country where Zen appeared. Nowadays masters, who learn Zen in Vietnam, China, Korea or Japan, established their own schools in the Western countries. All these established schools have unchangeable elements, but at the same time they contain a lot of elements, which differ for each country. It is hard to image all challenges non-theistic, oriental teaching can meet while assimilating in the West. Zen becomes transformed by Western society but the society itself also gets transformed by Zen. There are several basic challenges Zen practitioners meet in the West. North Americans and Europeans have implemented new traditions to Zen Buddhism. Annual meeting of representatives of different Zen Buddhism schools if one of such innovations. Such practice is not accepted in Asian counties, where Zen masters did not communicate much with each other. In the annual meetings, organized in the west practitioners and masters from different Zen schools, come together to share their experience and discuss important issues. â€Å" As Bodhin Kholhede, an abbot of Rochester Zen Center, states, â€Å"Within individual Sanghas, too, we have seen a general horizontalization of authority since the first generation of (mostly Asian) Zen teachers founded their centers† (Kholhede, 340). There are major changes inside the monasteries and Zen centers, as well. They also get influenced by secular tendency and the balance between spiritual and secular is often moved to the side of secular. Zen originates from China, the country where Confucian traditions have influenced all social, religious and political processes. Propriety, filial piety and obedience to authority are the main principles of Confucianism, which had great influence on all religious movements and Zen is not an exception. Special relations between masters and disciples became one of the distinctive features of Zen Buddhism. Master had almost unlimited power on his students and there were even cases when masters killed their disciples. It is evident that these principles could not have been accepting by the Western society and North American one. Confucian principles could not be used for Western tradition of Zen. First Western Zen centers based on these principles could not attract many followers and had to adapt to Western ideology. Zen had to undergo serious transformation in the question concerning an attitude to women. In Asian countries women were not usually allowed to participate in Zen practices, especially they were not allowed to become masters. As Bodhin Kholhede notices, â€Å"The largely invisible role of women in Asian Buddhism is no secret. Official teacher lineages, or â€Å"patriarchal lines,† are by definition composed exclusively of men† (Kholhede). It is not that women were not seeking for awakening and did not want to commit their life to spiritual quest. Such a role of women in Zen and Buddhism was conditioned by the role of women in Asian society. Women were not considered to have same spiritual and religious abilities as men did. It is evident that such ideas could not have been accepted by Western Zen practitioners. Western women took active part in Zen practice and this finally caused the change in behavior, and attitude towards women. Introduction of women to Zen practice had another important meaning. Nowadays Western Zen centers try to replace hard and exhausting practices with more moderate ones in order to make them suitable for both, male and female practitioners. The change of female role also influences Zen vocabulary. Some phrases which could have been addressrd to male practitioners only now become gender neutral. For example, the very term â€Å"patriarchal line†, which means the line of masters who succeed each other, is some monasteries is now replace to â€Å"ancestral line† in order to underline that women also can be Zen masters. Western Individualism has become a serious obstacle for Zen in the West. All Western culture is distinguished by striving to individualism and self-autonomy. While these notions are not widely developed in Asian countries, they have become central in the West. Individualism is peculiar to all Western countries, â€Å"but it is qualitatively different from the traditional Asian conception of self, in which a person is defined within a nexus of social relations, and dependent on a contextual web consisting of other persons as well as place, time, and history. This definition resonates strongly with Buddhist doctrine, in which the self is so thoroughly interdependent that it has no essential reality† (Kholhede, 342).

Monday, January 20, 2020

The Irish Essay -- essays research papers fc

  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ireland has a great history of war, famine, despair, and hardship. Throughout the years the Irish have come from the lowest of lows to the highest of highs. In this paper I will give a history of the Irish people before coming to America, what it was coming here, how they were welcomed to their new home, and how they are faring now. I will also expose many of the stereotypes that the Irish have pinned to them and the reason that they are there.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In the early 1800's, the Irish had great success in the potato industry due to the high prices for agricultural products because of the war with England. Soon though, prices began to fall and so did productivity. For that reason, the owners of the farm land turned there plots into grazing areas. There was an addition problem though, what would happen to the hundreds of other farmers that worked the land? One popular solution for most â€Å"landlords†, as they were called, was to evict all the tenants, whether they were paid up for rent or not. Then they would destroy their homes so that they could not return.(No author 1).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The now homeless people turned to secret organizations to retaliate against the people that they once depended on to live their lives. Some names of these groups were Rightboys, Thrashers, Ribbonmen, and Whitefoots.(No author 1). When these vigilantes were caught, their punishments were severe. Something as simple as stealing a piece of bread could land you a multiple year sentence in prison. To add insult to injury, the prisons that these people were sent to was in Australia, many miles away from there homes. It was thought that things for the Irish could not get any worse, but in 1845 that is just what happened.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The potato was a very significant part of the Irish way of life. It is one of the few foods that a person can survive solely on. Many homes lived exclusively on the potato, they could   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   ... ...e in their new country. Now all we have to do as a society is drop all the foolish stereotypes that most of us still have and let the Irish be the Irish, Whites be the Whites, the Blacks be the Blacks and so on. Who cares where people come from or what has happened in the past? We are in the here and now, no need to look back on things done long ago. Put the past behind and the future in front and I think that America would be better off.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Works Cited Connery, Donald. The Irish   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Simon and Schuster. New York, NY. 1968 Kennedy, Robert. The Irish   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  University of California Press. Berkley and Los Angeles California. 1973 Larson, Audrey. History of Ireland www.humboldt1.com   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  2-27-2004 McCarthy, Joe. The World Library: Ireland   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Time Incorporated. New York, NY. 1964 O Grada, Cormac. Black ‘47 and Beyond   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Princeton University Press. Princeton, New Jersey. 1999 No Author. Http://www.humboldt1.com/history/.2-27-2004   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  

Sunday, January 12, 2020

Art of Losing Essay

In society, there is no way out of losing things; it is what’s supposed to happen and there will be no escaping it. Misplacing valuable things is a highly common activity we do presently. We lose everything! Whether it may be car keys, textbooks, your own cell phone, it is not rare to misplace any of your belongings. Time is also guilty of being a valuable product that is most often lost if not keeping a close eye on it. Elizabeth Bishop proves this point in her well-written poem, One Art, by saying â€Å"The art of losing isn’t hard to master. † Ms.  Bishop tries to inform the reader that life has treasured moments and if one is not careful they will find him or herself living in a lost state of mind. In Elizabeth Bishop’s poem, she speaks about â€Å"the art† of losing things. When the author of this poem calls the act of losing things an art, it has a greater meaning. â€Å"The art of losing isn’t hard to master; so many things seem filled with the intent to be lost that their loss is no disaster. † She speaks as though things are meant to be lost and should remain lost as if it were meant to happen. That is in fact the art in which she speaks of. She wants her readers to know that losing valuable things is somewhat beautiful in a sense that it’s meant to be and that it will find a way to become lost. Bishop even said â€Å"Lose something every day†¦. Then practice losing farther, losing faster; places, names, and where it was you meant to travel. None of these will bring disaster. † Could Bishop have been speaking about memory loss or a different loss that is only one of life’s many outcomes? She says that none of these will bring disaster; if one forgets places, names, and where he or she wanted to travel, one shouldn’t feel any loss at all because there wouldn’t be any emotion there. Perhaps one of life’s losses that Bishop wants to get through to her readers is that growing older can cause memories to fade, become lost, and never to be found again. Bishop then spoke about how time could be badly spent and how it can be lost and never granted back. â€Å"†¦the hour badly spent. The art of losing isn’t hard to master. † Any reader could definitely relate to this line. Today, people get so caught up in what they’re doing in the moment that they let time slip right out of their hands. They often will say â€Å"There is not enough time during the day! † Bishop tries to let readers know that time flies, and every minute of every hour of every day should be cherished. She then begins naming off specific items that have been lost like her mother’s watch, three houses she loved, and the cities in which she lived. Reading the line â€Å"The art of losing isn’t hard to master†, makes a reader wonder if she ever did master the art of losing, or does she still have deep feelings about these lost treasures? In the final stanza she reveals a major clue to the reader. â€Å"-Even losing you (the joking voice, a gesture I love) I shan’t have lied. It’s evident the art of losing’s not too hard to master though it may look like (Write it! ) like disaster. † As the reader, you begin to notice that there’s something that Bishop is still holding on to that she cannot seem to let go of. The reader discovers that she is obviously mourning the loss of a beloved person in her life. Even though she tries to play it off by claiming that even this particular loss is not a disaster, it appears to be one for her and she hasn’t gotten over it just yet. After finishing reading One Art, Bishop wants her readers to take from the poem that time is very precious and we should spend it wisely with either our loved ones or our most cherished heirlooms before life happens and it will be lost forever only leaving a mere memory. To focus on the things that make us happy in life before they are gone and will never return. She doesn’t want others to feel the way she did when she wrote this poem.

Saturday, January 4, 2020

Gender Differences, Gender, And Women - 885 Words

The 3 key Themes, surround men in the 1900s when they did not respect women out of there wifely duties. In the 1900s women generally had fewer legal rights and career opportunities than men. Wifehood and motherhood were regarded as female’s professions. â€Å"A man in the 19th century owned his wife and children as he did his material possessions.†(Susan gazelles). Most middle and upper class women had servants to do some or all of the housework. Some women were involved in, teaching in schools for poor children, making clothes for the poor and running kitchens. Also ways women were treated first was measured in what class you were in, then carried off unto if you were pretty or not then ended with what religion you were in. Women always had it hard just like African Americans in the 1900s The 3 Themes that are seen throughout the play Trifles are gender differences, females having an identity and women vs. men. I will explain the great meanings behind the messages of t hese powerful and symbolic themes The 1st theme surrounding gender differences is first found when we realize that most of the story, the two genders are separated socially and mentally. Glaspell shows examples of this throughout the play, and also demonstrates it through the characters actions These were trifles to the men but in reality they told the story and only the women could see that† (Sherif 774). In Trifles, the men believe that they give females an identity by the females not having a first nameShow MoreRelatedGender Differences In Women1060 Words   |  5 PagesThis integrative review explores the difference of the onset-to-hospital arrival time between females and males with acute strokes. The results demonstrate that the means and medians of the hospital arrival times among female patients seem to have more delay than male patients, particularly in the Asian-Pacific region. 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