The political economies of Panama and Costa Rica Research Paper

The political economies of Panama and Costa Rica - Research Paper Example Costa Rica & Panama: Basics Costa Rica has an estimated population of 4.6 million as of July 2011 and a growth rate of 1.3% (IndexMundi, 2012). Sixty-four percent of this population is residing in urban centers of which about 94% are white, 3% black, 1% Amerindian, and 1% Chinese (IndexMundi, 2012). Their language is Spanish and the nation has high literacy rate of 94.9% (IndexMundi, 2012). The country allocated 6.3% and 10.5% in health from its GDP in 2009. The nation is located in the border of Caribbean Sea and the North Pacific Ocean. It is adjacent to Panama. Its rich geographic area is blessed with mineral, petroleum, hydropower and commercial resources (IndexMundi, 2012). Panama, on the other hand, has a population of 3.5 million and with a growth rate of 1.5% (IndexMundi, 2012). It has a 0.4 migration per a thousand of populace based and 75% of its people are residing in urban communities (IndexMundi, 2012). Panama has bilingual language: English and Spanish with predominant Roman Catholic religion. The country has allocated about 3.8% of its GDP for education and around 8.3% for health. Panama likewise is blessed with copper. Mahogany forests, hydropower and good shrimp culture among many other natural resources of commercial values. Costa Rica’s Pol-Economy Clare, Seanz and Trejos (2002) pointed that there are empirical evidences showing the decline of Costa Rica’s income per capita in the last decade albeit good economic standing in economic input. Clare et al. (2002) opined that the situation seemed amazing because the 80s to the 90s was the period when the country is undertaking serious reform in trading and fiscal performance. Re searcher attributed this mediocre 0.7% annual growth rate of income per capita to influential factors of development: demographic changes (Clare et al., 2002). The latter meant an increasing figure of labor productivity in industrial and agricultural sectors. Economists posit that such increase in participation in production, particularly women and immigrants from Nicaragua. While increased number of labor forces meant growth of income, however, economic activity is slowed by poor labor productivity. Labor productivity has only reached a poor rate of 1.57% in Costa Rica compared to 3-4% labor productivity in East Asian countries (Clare et al., 2002). Using growth accounting, researchers pointed that slow labor productivity growth is reflected in slight negative growth rate of total factor productivity (Clare et al., 2002). This finding is bit odd because the in the last four decades, multitude of technological advancements are poured in this country to support the labor forces in pr oduction. Further study using sectoral analysis was in fact utilized to determine whether slow growth of productivity is a universal phenomenon or merely underplayed by a particular sector. Oddly, Clare et al. (2002) found that the industrial and agricultural sectors continued to attain high rates labor growth productivity and TFP while the service sector stagnates in the production. Researchers opined that it’s ironic for the service sector to have decreasing production output noting that it’s absorbing a large share of resources. As a matter of fact, the service sector of Costa Rica has been allocated with budget higher than that of Brazil and Chile (Clare et al. 2002). Economists assumed that the service sector have difficulties in capturing its market. In a disaggregate

An Article on Facebook from the Times of India Essay Example for Free

An Article on Facebook from the Times of India Essay For once, I was ahead of the curve, and, having rarely been in this exalted place, I can tell you it feels good. The backlash against Facebook, the social networking site, has begun, with rumblings of discontent being heard from distant corners of the globe. Word is going round that it is time-wasting, trivial, and a pathetic substitute for meeting friends in person. This is precisely what I have been saying to my friends all along but they used to recoil in horror as though declining to open a Facebook account was like refusing to bathe. They muttered darkly about certain people being pig-headed. I was reated like a Luddite, vainly holding out against penicillin or the electric kettle. Every time i asked them what exactly was so wonderful about this site, they gave the same feeble answers. Oh, its a great way to keep in touch. You can post your photos on it. Through the links to other peoples pages, you can see what your ex-boyfriends or ex-husbands are up to. Well, according to me, this is a waste of time. I can barely keep in touch with the friends who really matter to me four to five at the most, at any given stage in my life much less maintain an online relationship with old college friends or colleagues from years ago. If one has never bothered to make contact with them in all these years, its because one has never needed or particularly wanted to. It means that they dont matter hugely to me now. They did then, but now im in touch with another set of friends. My life is full enough with them. If one has a spare few hours, one would rather meet a friend over coffee or wine. That real-time, face-to-face conversation is contact, not exchanging trivia online. Why would i want to see a friends holiday snaps when i can barely summon up enough interest in my own to get them developed? Few things, bar waiting for milk to boil, are as boring as other peoples holiday pictures. Much as i love my friends in various parts of the world, im perfectly content with a broad brush update. An occasional e-mail telling me they are fine, their teenage son hasnt become a drug dealer and their dogs arthritis is better is fine with me. Any more detail is redundant. I assume they are equally uninterested in the daily mundaneness of my life and that is exactly as it should be. Even assuming i wanted to sign up, i would never have the time. If i, blessed with two maids and only one child to look after, cannot find the time to go on this site, how do millions of others, particularly those in the West who have many household chores, do so? hurry! No wonder companies are banning this site. God knows what it is doing to global productivity. But even outside work, dont people have to walk the dog? Check up on an elderly aunt? File their tax returns? The Facebook phenomenon has confirmed yet again what we have always known that human beings are sheep. They see someone going off in one direction and they follow blindly for no apparent reason beyond the comfort of numbers. All my efforts at persuading my 12-year-old son not to get onto Facebook failed. I spoke cogently about the charm of being different, of having the moral strength to resist peer pressure, of the infinitely greater pleasures of reading, but my efforts failed. His school friends looked at him as though he had gone soft in the brain. As for twitter, dont even get me started. The very name cutesy and twee irritates the hell out of me. Facebook and twitter are fads. Like all fads, theyll end up in the dustbin, not of history, but of historys footnotes.

Aristotle: The Three Kinds Of Friendship

Aristotle: The Three Kinds Of Friendship In book VIII of Aristotles The Nicomachean Ethics (1999; 1156a6 1156a30), the notion of The Three Kinds of Friendship (Philia) is expressed. Holding that there are three basic kinds or species of friendship that bind us together expressing that in respect to each there exists a mutual and recognised love. Utility, pleasure, virtue and the good can attract and bind us together in an association of friendship, essentially we become friends with certain individuals because they are either: useful to us, provide us with pleasure, or they attain to the principles of virtue and the good. In pursuing friendship by way of our actions we can have three goals in mind. The three objects of love that which we strive to achieve being: utility, pleasure and the good. Friendships of utility and pleasure pertain to self-indulgent and self-centred natures and are therefore only friendships in a truncated effect, they are prone to dissolution due the changeable nature of our wants and desires effecti ng what we find useful or pleasurable. Aristotle states that in such friendships love is only incidental with one not precisely loving the other at all but only his own good. Hence these relationships are seen to be incomplete or imperfect. To base a friendship on utility is not to love the other in their own right but to gain some good from them, in relation to one or both the parties involved. Aristotle relates this kind of friendship to that of a commercial transaction between two parties or a relation of two old men who provide each other with mutual support in their twilight years. Friendships of pleasure characteristic of the young whom are compelled by impulse and desire are sought as means of attaining pleasure from another. Like the desires that spawn them they are transient by nature but can be cherished and are held in higher esteem than friendships based on utility, as they can be sought for their own sake, involving a sharing of pleasures what gives life a certain sweet ness. Although the emphasis here by way of desire leans towards erotic relationships friendships of pleasure can also be based on pleasure such a conversation. The complete friendship is one based on virtue and moral goodness, existing between people of equal moral and virtuous standing these good people are similar in virtue wishing goods to each other for each others sake. These men acting by way of virtue complement each other incidental to each others wants or needs they simply admire the other in relation to the good and attain usefulness and pleasure to the highest degree. Complete friendships are then rare, raising the problem: can anyone really have a true friendship in the eyes of Aristotle? How many people can really attain to this idea of the good man? Is it possible to be that morally good and virtuously astute? Friendship is a term we know very well one that is important to all of us in our everyday lives. Aristotle here is expressing friendship in terms of the Greek word Philia. The conception is altogether different form our modern interpretation, more extensive in its interpretation. Philia can exist in the family sphere as well as in relation to being a citizen and the duties that that entails even as far to include peoples relations to natural phenomena. Aristotle grounds his discussion of friendship in praxis: practical reason. Human beings act in search of an end or goal in search of the good. To act in accordance with the good is to act virtuously, the ultimate end being happiness or flourishing. The differences between the three objects of love are differences of degree. Friendships of utility and pleasure resemble that of the good but are incomplete formulations and only resemble that of the good. In essence utility and pleasure are incidental and extrinsic not being sought for their own sake but, for an external gain or benefit. Essentially all relationships can useful, pleasurable and good, but, a truly excellent virtuous relationship should be sought in accordance with the good as a final end. These good people develop good character by way of acting virtuously perfected by habit (Hexis). One cannot simply learn virtue. Instead a cultivation of habits is required with experienced grounded in life to become virtuous you must a ct in accordance with virtue, do virtuous things. The notion of sameness is also introduced: a perfect integration of oneself into friendship creating a perfect oneness. One must also be conscious or aware of the other, each reflecting on what is good for the other. This criteria together as one creates a primary friendship.

Plight of Women in Song of Solomon, Life of a Slave Girl, and Push Essa

Plight of Black Women as Double Minorities - Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Song of Solomon, Push      Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Typically minority groups are thought of in the context of race; however, a minority group can also consist of gender and class. The struggles facing a minority group complicate further when these different facets of minority categories are combined into what is sometimes called a double minority. Throughout American history, African American women have exemplified how being a double minority changes the conditions of being a minority. In Reminiscences by Frances D. Gage of Sojourner Truth, for May 28-29, 1851, a speech by Sojourner Truth is recalled where she poses the question-"Ain't I a woman" (Lauter 2049). Truth speaks for women's rights in this speech, but her question becomes more interesting when applied to African American women because they move from being a double minority to a single minority with this statement. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Song of Solomon, and Push demonstrate in their African American female characters the impact of havin g a double minority status.    In Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Harriet Jacobs depicts her struggle as an African American woman during slavery. As a female slave in her master's house, she was subject to her master's sexual advances. Jacobs explains her feelings about her master's desires and the struggle of female slaves in the following comments:    The felon's home in a penitentiary is preferable. He may repent, and turn from the error of his ways, and so find peace; but it is not so with a favorite slave. She is not allowed to have any pride of character. It is deemed a crime in her to wish to be virtuous. p. 363    Thi... ...n American female writers are much more popular today than their male counterparts. Perhaps Sojourner Truth should not have posed the question, "Ain't I a Woman," because that still implies that the only move up for African American women is from a double minority to a single minority (Lauter 2049). Perhaps the real question is-Ain't I a Human?    Works Cited Gage, Frances D. "Reminiscences by Frances D. Gage of Sojourner Truth, for May 28-29, 1851." Paul Laufer, ed. The Heath Anthology of American Literature, vol 1, 3rd ed. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1998. Jacobs, Harriet Ann. "Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl." Henry Louis Gates, Jr., ed. The Classic Slave Narratives. New York: Penguin Group, 1987. Morrison, Toni. Song of Solomon. New York: Penguin Group, 1977. Sapphire. Push. New York: Vintage Contemporaries/ Vintage Books, 1996.

Provides the following

A Study Guide, which provides the following: a. An orientation of each chapter, along with an outline of the important topics being addressed. B. Sample problems for the student to complete, with the worked-out solutions. C. Self-test questions (true/false and multiple choice) with answers. D. A tutorial on understanding the internal rate of return. E. An In-depth self-teaching supplement on capital-budgeting techniques. 2. Companion Website online study gulled for the student Includes true/false, multiple hooch, and short answer quizzes for each chapter.From my. Prenatal. Com/shown students can also access the Internet exercises, current events articles with questions, and Excel spreadsheets for the end-of-chapter problems. For the teacher: 1. A Test Item File provides more than 1600 multiple-choice, true/false, and short- answer questions with complete and detailed answers. It is designed for use with the Prentice Hall Custom Test, a computerized package that allows users to custom design, save, and generate classroom exams. 2. Companion Website provides academic support for faculty adopting this text.From the www. Prenatal. Com/shown text website, you can download supplements and lecture aids such as instructor's manuals, lecture notes, Powering presentations, problems and case solutions, and chapter outlines. Register online or call your Prentice Hall sales representative to get the necessary surname and password to access these detail supplements or contact Prentice Hall Sales directly at 3. Powering lecture notes. These Powering graphics provide individual lecture outlines to accompany Foundations of Finance.These lectures are class tested and can be used as is or easily modified to reflect your specific presentation needs. 4. Color transparencies for the primary chapters of the text, including a brief overview of the chapter, some of the exhibits in the text, and example problems that are useful in lectures. 5 Excel spreadsheet solutions to end-of-chapte r problems downloaded from www. Prenatal. Com/shown. For any teacher wanting information about the supplements, please contact the Prentice-Hall field representative for your area. Also, feel free to call any of the authors with any questions you may have.By calceolaria e. An in-depth self-teaching supplement on capital-budgeting techniques. 2. Companion Website online study guide for the student includes true/false, multiple choice, and short answer quizzes for each chapter. From www. Prenatal. Com/shown students can also access the internet exercises, current events articles with the necessary surname and password to access these digital supplements or contact Prentice Hall Sales directly at [email  protected] Com. 3. Powering as is or easily modified to reflect your specific presentation needs.

Stem Cell Opposition

The Stem Cell Research Argument: Why Stem Cell Research Has Opposition Joshua Jefferson Southern University in Shreveport Stem cell research is one of the most promising study that has been conducted in the past two decades. It has the potential to virtually wipe out the need for organ transplants, to restore motion to those suffering from paralysis, and so many other crippling diseases. Certain groups of people do not agree in the method that stem cells are collected and that causes the ethics behind this method to come into question.There are ways to avoid this argument all together by understanding the argument against stem cell research, avoiding that method, and then to use methods that will not go against others beliefs. Stem cell research deals with the study of how to manipulate stem cells so that they can restore an organ, to replace an organ, or to be used as a kind of patch work. The list of problems that stem cells are thought to be able to fix is endless. Stem cells are basically cells that have not started to develop into a certain kind of cell. This allows scientist to manipulate these cells so that they became what ever kind of cell that they desire.In the future, medical researchers anticipate being able to use technologies derived from stem cell research to treat a wider variety of diseases including  , Parkinson's disease, spinal cord injuries, Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, multiple sclerosis, and  Ã‚  damage, amongst a number of other impairments and conditions. Today they use stem cells to treat diseases like leukemia and bone marrow transplants(Weise, 2005) . The possibility of being able to just produce any type of organ and then replace the bad organ, without the wait of of an organ donor.A person would think the knowledge of this kind of work and the possibility of living a longer more comfortable life would make people to support research and to push for funding into this type of research. The reason why the funding for some resea rch groups are not present due to the belief system of some people. There are a number of ways to obtain stem cells that are used today. The use of embryonic and adult stem cells are the two main type of stem cells that are obtained. They differ in the way they are obtained. Adult stem cells can be found in both children and adult.These stem cells rely on the already present cell population. They are also called somatic cells, these cells contain the blueprints for any cell type that exists within the region, or organ from which they came. Just like the ability to be manipulated into other cells(Weise, 2005) . The difference between these cells and embryonic stem cells is the fact that embryonic cells can make any type of cell type while adult cells can only make certain types. There is much less controversy associated with adult stem cells because there is no destruction of embryonic material.There is still opposition versus the use of adult stem cells because of how the DNA inside the cells is used. Embryonic stem cell research has the unlimited range on where it can go in the future and it is the most controversial. Embryonic stem cells can start to grow into any type of cell. This is because these cells are in the the first stage of development and have not been given instructions on what to become. These stem cells are preset when an embryo's cells are multiplying. This would be the the first stage in a babies development. This is the reason why there is controversy surrounding embryonic research.Scientist destroy the embryo to obtain its stem cells ultimately destroying a future life. The embryos tend to be from unwanted pregnancy and would eventually breakdown because the lack of a mother to develop in. People that support certain movements like â€Å"Pro-life† are some usually do not want any kind of destruction of any kind of possible human life. The use of these stems cells should be allowed to be used , but the practice of starting off life o nly to destroy it is completely unethical and should not be funded by. The obtaining of stem cells just has to be reevaluated.We have to look at the other options that can help us to yield the results we want. There are a number of options that can help us obtain stem cells that can help to cure all the ailments that stem cell can help with. Also known as somatic cells, an adult cell contains the blueprints for any cell type that exists within the region, or organ from which it came. In effect, these cells have the same capabilities in terms of being able to manufacture other cell types. Somatic cell nuclear transfer, also known as therapeutic cloning, involves the use of a hollowed-out ovum cell, meaning all the original DNA material is removed.An adult cell's nucleus, or DNA material, is then transferred into the ovum cell. Through electrical stimulation, the ovum begins to grow as if its original embryo were intact. Induced pluripotent cells are adult cells that have been genetic ally engineered to behave like embryonic cells(Jeanty) . This is accomplished by injecting specific genes and catalyst molecules into the DNA of an adult cell. This technique uses no embryonic stem cell materials, however the resulting cells are able to differentiate into any cell type within the body, much like embryonic stem cells can(Jeanty) .Epidermal neural crest stem cells are adult cells that form the hair follicles on the scalp. These cells are capable of generating a number of different cell types within the body. â€Å"Meanwhile, many scientists predict that induced pluripotent stem cells, or iPS cells, created by turning back the biological clock of normal adult cells, will one day supplant embryonic stem cells. †(Katherine Hobson, 2009) The list on the positive effects of stem-cell research is virtually endless. The debate is over how we harvest those stem cells.If we can find a way has virtually no ethic questions then scientist will be able to help millions of p eople. Reference Jeanty, J. (n. d. ). ehow. Retrieved from http://www. ehow. com/about_5675956_alternative-embryonic-stem-cell-research. html Katherine Hobson. (2009, July 02). usnews. com. Retrieved from http://health. usnews. com/health-news/family-health/heart/articles/2009/07/02/embryonic-stem-cells–and-other-stem-cells–promise-to-advance-treatments National institutes of health and human resources for stem cell research.