Wednesday, October 30, 2019

Theories of Gender and development Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Theories of Gender and development - Essay Example Emphasis will also be made to shade light on some of the critiquing approaches to development. This will be done in comparison to the effect of colonial masters in their application of mode of production as a bench mark to the contemporary culture. â€Å"†¦revealing the workings of power and the capitalist mode of production† (Smith 84). Women have for a long time been undermined in most nations. The gender discrimination has been felt by most women in the society with severity varying from country to country and from time to time. For instance, in India, according to the census conducted in 1972, about 94% of women were either employed in the informal sectors working in farms and handicrafts or remained at home taking care of the family. Because early crusaders for women equality were not vocal enough in ensuring that women were given equal opportunity in matters of employment, women accepted the existence of the initial development initiative without question. Therefore , the WID approach did little to improve the social and economic status of women. The situation has however improved given the fact that society has began to recognize women in matters development. In its approach, the WID has very much concentrated on working with women by empowering them by offering development opportunities to them through work related approaches so that women can concentrate less on home based economic activities and concentrate more on income generating activities (D'Agostino and Levine 34). Whereas Women in Development approach focuses on empowering women through self reliance projects and gender identity, Gender Development draws its focus on the gender perspective where the social and economic roles are looked at from the gender perspective rather than from the sexist approach. Gender analysis approach with respect to Gender and Development, however, explains how development projects can be pushed in the society so that focus is not placed on women alone but rather on the relationships between men and women. This approach is however not very much different from the initial WID approach, the difference lies in the integration of women in development projects without isolation. This incorporation of women and men in economic development is essential to ensure that as men make yards of progress in their areas of income, women also do the same. This focus in relationship between men and women is useful at the family level. For example, if I am married and own a handcart that I use for transportation, I shall have relieved my wife of the cost, energy and time for transporting, say her goo ds to the market. This is what Gender Development advocates for. In totality, I believe the Gender Development approach has advantage over the WID approach because of the pattern it follows in the integration of women in activities that are male dominated so that both can help in matters of national development instead of putting much weight on women alone. It is the Gender Development that has gained recognition worldwide and most nations are enthusiastic in adopting it so as to improve on the per capita income of the citizen. WID has rather decided to remain relevant by advocating for what women can do in order to promote development (Razavi and Miller 19). However, there have emerged various critiques to the GAD and the WID approaches by various scholars

Sunday, October 27, 2019

Advantages and disadvantages of the oligopoly market system

Advantages and disadvantages of the oligopoly market system This essay will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the oligopoly market system. Supermarket has brought into the service for man for long. The roots of supermarkets are the Co-operative of the nineteenth century. At the beginning of the early 20th century the people come up to an idea for selling goods. After that there become the first Supermarket which was set up in January 12th, 1948 in UK. (Brainy History, 2010) As soon as the first supermarket has been set up, a large number of supermarkets came out such as Tesco and Sainsburys. The supermarket industry is now developing in a very high speed. As the supermarket is one of the great improvements in peoples daily life, it becomes one of the most important places for all the people. Today, the supermarket industry in UK has already been changed into oligopoly market. This essay will discuss the characteristics of oligopoly market, and then discuss the kinked demand curve, non-price competition and the marketing mix in the o ligopoly market. First of all, an oligopoly market means that several relatively interdependent companies which concentrate the supply and compete with each other. Therefore, this become highly competitive and the oligopoly companies sell the homogeneous products which are branded. (Tutor2u, 2010) If the company sells the homogeneous products, the consumers will not get the new and better product in a very short time because of the competitive between the firms. They all sell the same product so that there wont be pressure for them to be survived in the UK Supermarket market. Another characteristic of oligopoly market is that the market has been controlled by a few big firms. As a result, these companies will control the market as they like. That may let another characteristic happened which is called price maker. (Tutor2u, 2010) Price maker is a kind of people or firm who set up the price for the product in the market. These people could easily control the market in a way the oligopoly firms want, s o that the consumers will not get some preferences in this kind of market, such as discount, promotion and so on. Therefore, from the characteristics above, it easily shows that the oligopoly market does huge harmful for the normal consumers. If the UK supermarket keep on being like this, the consumers will not get preferences anymore. The next point which is going to talk about is the kinked demand curve. The blank area is where price stability happens (from figure 1). These oligopoly firms always use the non-price competition to increase their output quantity. According to these two figure, in this case, there are no rising in price so that the consequence is what consumers want to see. Non-price competitions, is a kind of competition which is not focus on the price. That shows there are many other competitions in this market. From the Tesco.com and Asda.co.uk, it shows that the Big Fours official websites are some promotional activities, for example discount and cash back. Although, there are some different methods for non-price competition. Figure 1: Figure 2: Reported by TIMESONLINE 2007, Tesco, Asda, Sainsburys and the former Safeway, and the dairy companies Wiseman, Dairy Crest and Cheese Company are doubt for the dairy product price in 2007. As a result, Tesco possibly get a number of number for about 80 million bill. After that, Tesco is going to get back the money by law. So that the case shows that there are some mistakes in this market system. This may also damage the market system too and the consumer confidence can be lost at the same time. The last and which is the most important that can not be ignored is the marketing mix for the oligopoly market system. First of all, in an oligopoly market, the place for which the consumers can go to buy the products are mainly the Big Four. The consumers can not have many different choices for choosing the place to buy things so that Big Four has already control the market as they want. Then, the price can just set up by the price maker. In an oligopoly market, the price maker is the oligopoly firm which shows that the firms can set up the price as they want. For the product, every oligopoly company produces homogeneous product and service. The Big Four use their selves advantages to build high barrier to entry which is to protect their market share. These will make the consumers own less choices for buying the product. Promotion also doesnt always happened in the oligopoly market. All in all, the oligopoly market do harmful for the consumers. In conclusion, from the discussion above, we know that the characteristics of ver, the maximum competition in the oligopoly market can be advantageous to the improvement in providing various products to meet the needs of consumers. It will be meaningful in their oligopoly market and the marketing mix and kinked demand curve shows that the oligopoly is beneficial to the consumers. And oligopoly is also beneficial for sellers too. What is more, our consumers are able to enjoy a well-developed purchasing environment.

Friday, October 25, 2019

Mans Ability to Adapt as Evidenced in To Sir With Love :: Movie Film comparison compare contrast

Man's Ability to Adapt as Evidenced in To Sir With Love    In the novel To Sir With Love various human characteristics are portrayed. Of these, the idea that humans are able to adapt and change their way of thinking seems to be demonstrated throughout the story. In the novel, both the teacher, Braithewaite, and his students end up going through many changes that ultimately result in their coming to change their way of thinking about each other. In life, as in this fictionalized account, the ability to adapt to the world around one's self is a very important trait. In my own life, this has occured on many occasions. Thus, it can be said that to be able to change and adapt ourselves and our ways at looking at things to our to our situations we are truly at advantage.   In the story, Braithewaite begins with a set of preconceived ideas about his students. He expects them to be unintelligent, rough, racially intolerant children with no future-hardly deserving of his respect. But, as he sees later, they are are the total opposites of his of his initial ideas. This is gradually shown through their actions, such as such as the students all going to visit the house of their black friend during his crisis, or their learning to treat each other with respect;they learned to address each other as their last names, inthe case of the boys, and "Miss", for the girls. For the students,they learned to respect and really learn from their teacher,something they had never cared to do before. Braithewaite helped them to break out of the the pattern of intolerance and roughness that society had placed them in. They began to respect themselves and then to respect others. In short, it was obvious that both the teacher and his students were able to adapt their way of thinking to their advantage;they did not get stuck in their original set of preconceived notions about each other. This is a key point of the novel, this idea that people can change their ways.   In my own experiences, I have ended up changing my ways as I have become wiser.

Thursday, October 24, 2019

Virginia Woolf’s a Room of One’s Own

Though published seventy years ago, Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own holds no less appeal today than it did then. Modern women writers look to Woolf as a prophet of inspiration. In November of 1929, Woolf wrote to her friend G. Lowes Dickinson that she penned the book because she â€Å"wanted to encourage the young women–they seem to get frightfully depressed† (xiv). The irony here, of course, is that Woolf herself eventually grew so depressed and discouraged that she killed herself. The suicide seems symptomatic of Woolf's own feelings of oppression within a patriarchal world where only the words of men, it seemed, were taken seriously.Nevertheless, women writers still look to Woolf as a liberating force and, in particular, at A Room of One's Own as an inspiring and empowering work. Woolf biographer Quentin Bell notes that the text argues: the disabilities of women are social and economic; the woman writer can only survive despite great difficulties, and despite th e prejudice and the economic selfishness of men; and the key to emancipation is to be found in the door of a room which a woman may call her own and which she can inhabit with the same freedom and independence as her brothers. 144) Woolf empowers women writers by first exploring the nature of women and fiction, and then by incorporating notions of androgyny and individuality as it exists in a woman's experience as writer. Woolf's first assertion is that women are spatially hindered in creative life. â€Å"A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction,† Woolf writes, â€Å"and that as you will see, leaves the great problem of the true nature of women. . . and fiction unresolved† (4). What Woolf seems to say is that being female stifles creativity.Woolf does not assume, however, that a biological reason for this stifling exists. Instead, she implies that a woman's â€Å"life conflicts with something that is not life† (71). In other words , mothering, being a wife, and the general daily, culturally defined expectations of women infringe upon creativity, in particular the writing of fiction. The smothering reality of a woman's life – – housekeeping and child-rearing duties, for example – – distract a woman from writing. Sadly, Woolf notes, even if a woman in such circumstances manages to write anyway, â€Å"she will write in a rage where she should write calmly.She will write foolishly where she should write wisely. She will write of herself where she should write of her characters† (69-70). Woolf posits here that an angry woman, writing out of the repression of her everyday life, will be an ineffective writer. Finally, Woolf blames the patriarchal culture, as if the freedom of women writing is â€Å"some infringement of [man's] power to believe in himself† (35). She suggests that men resist women writers because fiction by women somehow diminishes their belief in their own wo rks.Woolf's message, it seems, is that women must rail against the resistance of the patriarchal culture and attain some degree of independence and androgyny. Woolf does not suggest that women write the same as men. In fact, Woolf asserts that â€Å"it would be a thousand pities if women wrote like men, or lived like men, or looked like men† (88). Woolf believes that a man's sentence is not a woman's sentence, that the two will be vastly different from each other, though not necessarily one better than the other.Her assertion is that men's sentences are awkward in the hands of women because â€Å"the nerves that feed the brain would seem to differ in men and women† (78). This difference of gray matter and neurons would necessarily result in a difference of perspective and sentence structure. Woolf suggests that for fiction to be artfully done, there must exist a measure of androgyny, â€Å"a plan of the soul so that in each of us two powers preside, one male, one fema le† (98).In essence, Woolf claims that this state of androgyny would allow women the same freedom to express themselves that men seem to have been inherently endowed with. â€Å"The androgynous mind is resonant and porous,† Woolf continues, â€Å"it transmits emotion without impediment; it is naturally creative, incandescent and undivided† (98). What Woolf overtly states here is that the ideal creative mind is a marriage, or balance, of the supposed female traits of emotionalism with the supposed male traits of productivity and style. What is implicit, however, is that the female mind can be resonant and porous only when undivided.In other words, a woman can write well only when her mind, like a man's, is not forced to choose between gender and identity, or between her art and society's expectations of her. A woman will write with fluidity and resonance only when she has the same freedom of expression as a man. An additional notion Woolf presents is that women mu st maintain individuality in their experiences as writers. This intimacy with one's identity nurtures the creation of fiction, but only when written out of one's own personality and not imitated through another's. â€Å"Why are Jane Austen's sentences not the right shape for you? Woolf asks Mary Carmichael (80). The idea Woolf reinforces here is that a woman should find and develop her own writing style, not simply mimic her predecessors. Notice, though, that Woolf does not suggest we glean no stylistic inspiration from women writers like the Brontes and Jane Austen, who paved the way for generations of women writers. â€Å"Books continue each other,† Woolf says, â€Å"in spite of our habit of judging them separately† (80). Continuing something, however, does not mean using the same blueprints or tools during the creative process.What Woolf implies is that every book a woman, sitting in that room of her own, produces will generate books from other women. A degree of m imicry, of course, is impossible to avoid. â€Å"A woman writing,† Woolf admits, â€Å"thinks back through her mothers† (97). The â€Å"mothers† here are not only biological mothers who give birth to our physical bodies, but also those women who meticulously scratched their way out of patriarchal constraints and into print; the women who acted as surrogates to birth generations of women writers.Subtle mimicry would seem a natural act under such circumstances, much as a child unconsciously develops personality traits of either parent. Finally, a woman reading Woolf's book has to wonder if that â€Å"room of one's own† is strictly a spatial, physical concept. It is possible that Woolf writes of a psychological construct as a room of one's own, a place one can emotionally go to and write from. Few of us have the luxury of a concrete room of our own, and if we are to be writers, emotional space of our own is the barest necessity.Women who want to write must f ind some quiet space in their psyches from which they can create. â€Å"So long as you write what you want to write, that is all that matters,† Woolf encourages, â€Å"and whether it matters for ages or only for hours, nobody can say† (106). What Woolf seems to say is that what we create within that space of ourselves, within a single moment, is what matters so long as we do it with an eye toward our own individual, androgynous hearts.

Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Oreo market research Essay

Nabisco is a company that has been in existence since 1898. During their 109 years in existence, they have grown through natural growth, mergers, and acquisitions. This has allowed Nabisco to be the leading snack maker in the world. The Oreo chocolate sandwich cookie was first introduced in Hoboken, N. J. in 1911. Oreos today are far and away the world’s most popular cookie. The Oreo family accounts for approximately 10 percent of all store cookie sales–a $3 billion market. However in recent years Nabisco has been reluctant to adapt to current market trends. The company was focusing on producing new versions of existing products to make them more convenient. Situation Analysis In 1898, the New York Biscuit Company and the American Biscuit and Manufacturing Company merged over 100 bakeries into the National Biscuit Company, later called Nabisco. Founders Adolphus Green and William Moore, orchestrated the merger and the company quickly rose to first place in the manufacturing and marketing of cookies and crackers in America. To expand their global presence and to strengthen their position in the fast-growing consumer snacks sector, Philip Morris Co. Inc. acquired Nabisco Holdings in December 2000. Philip Morris purchased Nabisco for $14. 9 billion in cash plus assumed $4 million in debt. Eventually, Philip Morris integrated the Nabisco brands with its Kraft Food operations. And now it includes brands such as Chips Ahoy, Fig Newtons, Mallomars, Oreos, Premium Crackers, Ritz Crackers, etc†¦.. Nabisco Arabia Company Ltd. (NAARCO) was formed in 1995 as a joint venture between Nabisco International and The Olayan Group of Saudi Arabia. In 2000, NAARCO made a major investment in a new plant to produce OREO, the world’s most popular cookie. OREO cookies were launched in the Saudi market in March 2001 with a major TV campaign. Internal Analysis The $3 million plant upgrade included a whole new production line, new offices, additional warehousing, and new mess rooms for the increased work force. Equipment from Spain, Italy, India, France, and Austria went into the world-class facility, under the supervision of Nabisco Technical Director Frank Willemsen and the Technical Services Manager Anselmo Codina. The people of Kraft have recognized that the business has an important role in society- a responsibility that included understanding and meeting the public’s expectations, helping to address important social, environmental and economic issues and making a difference in local communities and the world. They firmly believe that â€Å"Our success will depend importantly on our willingness and ability to listen, get feedback on what we’re doing from those both inside and outside Kraft and act responsibly on issues of important concern. † 1 Stargate Institute Market Analysis Target Market: The current target market for the original vanilla filling Oreo is children. The original Oreo cookies have previously focused on and promoted the new colors for the creme filling and change the round shaped cookies into rolls, which would generate new interest amongst children, who would in turn convince their parents to buy the new cookie. Geographic Factor: This project is done and carried on in Riyadh, the capital and largest city of Saudi Arabia. Riyadh belongs to the historical regions of Nejd and Al-Yamama. The population of the city is 4,700,000 of which 60% are Saudis and 40 % are foreigners. And the density is 3,024 km square. Demographic Factor: As Riyadh is known for its restrictions and being an Islamic country, the family life cycles followed here are usually all family members. Young single people can not live separately and independently, fearing for them young mature boys/girls will live under their families until its time for them to start up their own families. And generally Saudi people are well known by their family sizes. Most of the family sizes are more then 6 or even far more than that. This is what makes the youth population really high in the kingdom. And it is something obvious and general that Saudi people are known for their wealth and considered as rich people and in return earn high incomes. Behavioral Factor: As Riyadh is developing, people now are becoming aware of various new brands which are attracting them to explore and investigate things. Women here are obsessed about shopping and show a favorable attitude and interest towards the different brands. They are also considered as heavy users when it comes to brand loyalty. 2 Stargate Institute Marketing Need As Oreo is a biscuit, and biscuits are food, so the most important need the Oreo biscuits satisfy is Hunger. But if we further narrow down the needs, Oreo can be satisfying more than just the drive (hunger). *Oreo satisfies the nurturing need example, a mother having difficulties in feeding her 4 to 6 years old child with some nutrition food, can consider Oreo to feed her child with a sip of milk. *Oreo satisfies the imitation need example, kids watching the Oreo ad on TVs while the other kids are enjoying twisting, licking and dunking the cookie into a glass of milk. This forces the kids to want that cookie right away and imitate the same steps. *Oreo also satisfies the fun need, and in this case not only kids will want to have fun and enjoy Oreo even adults like to have fun once in a while individually or even with their kids. Market Trends Various on-going and changing trends in the consumer market affect the business of an organization. Some of those having an impact on Oreo chocolate sandwich biscuits are: A 2004 TNS study amongst Saudis has found a trend towards smaller families. It revealed that Saudis – realize the need for smaller families to provide a better quality of life for their children. Females have been given permission by the government to work which resulted in the increase of purchasing power. Driven by changing lifestyles and population growth the impact on the food market has been positive. The market therefore witnessed rapid growth over the review period. The consumers in Saudi market are seen as active switchers with a medium brand loyalty level. Lastly, a study was conducted by TNS in 2007 which showed that 99 per cent of Saudi respondents in the study consumed chocolate â€Å"food† (chocolates, chocolate milk, biscuits, etc. ) in the last seven days, an increase from 95 per cent in 2004. 3 Stargate Institute Market Growth Growth in the Saudi Arabian biscuit market is being driven mainly by two factors – firstly, the marked increase in advertising spend by multinationals such as Nabisco, Master Foods and Danone. Secondly, the popularity of emerging products such as chocolate-coated biscuits and bread substitutes, which have recently been launched in the market. Researches have shown that biscuits, particularly sweet biscuits, are generally sold at low prices, averaging between SR0. 25 and SR2 (US $0. 06 – US $0. 53), for a single-serve pack and enjoy excellent distribution in all outlets. The biscuits sector is highly developed owing to the strength of the local industry in Saudi Arabia, represented by large manufacturers such as United Food Industries. Oreo sales showed a fluctuating result during the past 13 years. When Oreo initially was launched into the market, sales increased to a high extent for about 3 years but then sales decreased for a long period during 1997 to 2002. Oreo marketing managers became aware of their loses and immediately went back to action and changed their marketing mix and started to introduce several different new products. This effort resulted with high sales in 2008. Sales were amounted to $4 billion and market share 41%.

Tuesday, October 22, 2019

Average GRE Scores for Top Public Universities

Average GRE Scores for Top Public Universities Many graduate schools have taken the average GRE scores for incoming graduate students off of their websites. Theyre not publishing the rankings in many cases. However, some graduate schools are willing to post average ranges  of scores for incoming grad students, although most of those scores are arranged by intended major rather than by the schools statistics. If youre interested in seeing the most up-to-date GRE scores by intended major, then take a peek at the link provided. Otherwise, read on for the average GRE scores as listed for top public universities for a select few of their majors - Engineering and Education - as published in US News and World Report.   GRE Scores Information If you are confused perusing these scores because you expected to see numbers in the 700s, then Im betting youre probably still thinking about the old GRE score system which ended in 2011. Currently, average GRE scores can run anywhere between 130 - 170 in 1-point increments. The old system assessed students with a scale from 200 - 800 in 10-point increments. If you took the GRE using the old system and want to see what your approximate GRE score would be on the new scale, then check out these two concordance tables. Please note, however, that GRE scores are only valid for five years, so July 2016 was the last time students with GRE scores in the prior format were able to use them.   GRE Verbal Concordance TableGRE Quantitative Concordance Table University of California -  Berkeley: Engineering:   Quantitative: 165 Education Verbal: 149Quantitative: 155 University of California - LA: Engineering:   Quantitative: 162 Education Verbal: 155Quantitative: 146 University of Virginia: Engineering:   Quantitative: 160 Education Verbal: 160Quantitative: 164 University of Michigan – Ann Arbor: Engineering:   Quantitative:   161 Education Verbal: NAQuantitative: NA   University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill: Engineering:   Quantitative: 160 Education Verbal: 158Quantitative: 148 College of William and Mary: Education Verbal: 156Quantitative: 149 University of California – San Diego: Engineering:   Quantitative: NA Education Verbal: NAQuantitative: NA   University of Illinois – Urbana/Champaign: Engineering:   Quantitative: 170 Education Verbal: 156Quantitative: 160 University of Wisconsin – Madison: Engineering:   Quantitative: 168 Education Verbal: 158Quantitative: 149 University of Washington: Engineering:   Quantitative: 170 Education Verbal: 156Quantitative: 147 Pennsylvania State: Engineering:   Quantitative: 170 Education Verbal: 154Quantitative: 145 University of Florida: Engineering:   Quantitative: 169 Education Verbal: 155Quantitative: 155 University of Texas – Austin: Engineering:   Quantitative: 170 Education Verbal: 158Quantitative: 152 Georgia Institute of Technology: Engineering:   Quantitative: 164 Ohio State University: Engineering:   Quantitative: 169 Education Verbal: 156Quantitative: 151 Texas AM: Engineering:   Quantitative: 163 Education Verbal: NAQuantitative: NA So Are My Scores Going to Get Me In? There are a number of factors that go into your admittance into one of these top public universities. And although your GRE scores  are  important, they are not the only things considered by admissions counselors, as I am sure you already know. Make sure your application essay is top-notch and that you have secured stellar recommendations from those professors who know you best in undergrad. And if you havent worked on that GPA already, then now is the time to ensure youre getting the best grades you possibly can in case your GRE score isnt exactly what you wanted it to be.

Monday, October 21, 2019

12 Cause Effect Essay Topics on #8220;Living Downstream#8221; by Sandra Steingraber

12 Cause Effect Essay Topics on #8220;Living Downstream#8221; by Sandra Steingraber If you are tasked with writing a cause or effect essay on the book Living Downstream there are many potential topics from which to choose. Of course, no matter the topic you have selected, it is imperative that you back up any statement or claim you make with facts. In order to help you in that regard, below you will find a handful of facts which might prove useful in the course of your writing. In the book, agricultural and industrial pollution are mixed together with anecdotes in order to provide readers with medical literature assessments, scientific assessments, and the conclusions therein about the relationship between rising rates of cancers and environmental influences. There remains a serious imbalance between studies of which environmental factors influence or contribute to cancers and those studies which focus instead of genetic predispositions for cancers. This remains a serious concern given that many cancers are not genetically transferrable and the source must be derived from an outside factor, such as an environmental factor. The reason this need should be filled is that the cancers caused by genetics, meaning those which are inherited, cannot really be altered at present and nothing can be done to improve upon the situation. However, those cancers caused by various environmental factors can be changed immediately and all influences mitigated, especially carcinogens. Carcinogens are substances which are known to cause cancer inside of living tissue, and these carcinogens exist in a variety of environmental substances to which people are exposed regularly. Chemical pesticides are one striking example of carcinogens which make their way into the human body. Those workers who are exposed to high levels of many chemicals regularly face contamination that goes unchecked by local healthcare, and only with blood and urine samples can the changes to the body be tracked. In the state of Illinois alone 54 million pounds of synthetic pesticides had been used on farms, many of which were poison. In 1950 less than 10% of all fields were sprayed with any pesticides but by 1993 99% had been treated with chemicals. Americans today between the ages of 35 and 64 are likely to die from cancer above all other ailments. In fact, by 1950 only 25% of adults could expect to get cancer while today that rate is almost 50% for men and 40% for women. The rise in cancer has increased steadily with processed foods, changing production habits, and changes in manufacturing. The qualifying link between all of these changes is the introduction of different chemical contaminants to the environment. Tazewell County located in the state of Illinois has shown many cases of a rare bladder cancer, a cancer which was contracted by the author when she was only 20 years of age. The high rates of said cancer has been linked scientifically to the carcinogenic chemicals in the region. The evidence presented in the book revealed that there was a six fold increase in the rates of bladder cancer among the workers who were exposed to particular chemicals related to rubber before legal workplace limits were put into place. In addition, immigrants who came to the area started to exhibit signs of the cancers adopted in the new area, and not the cancers which were prevalent in the place where they had been born. The maps presented by the author indicate that there are more cancers prevalent in urban areas compared to rural areas. In these maps, there are more cancers in the rural counties where the use of pesticides took place heavily, compared to those rural areas where the use of pesticides was minimal. The various studies presented in the book indicate that cancer clusters are prevalent near polluted dump sites, polluted valleys, polluted rivers, and near chemical factories. The same studies revealed that the rate of cancer in children has increased. The lifestyles of children have remained much the same over the last fifty years, without changes to alcohol consumption, smoking, or stress-related work, and yet the rate of cancer among children has risen at steady rates. Research indicates that the rate of shellfish and fish living within polluted waters has directly influenced the increase in cancer rates. Today, North Americans are seeing an increase in liver tumors among 16 fish species located throughout 25 different locations both fresh water and salt water. Each of these locations has become chemically polluted over the last sixty years. This was contrasted to the fact that the rates of liver cancer among members of those same fish species which inhabit waters not polluted by chemicals is almost non-existent. The studies conducted and presented by the author have indicated that chemicals contained in polluted areas are damaging to the immune system as well as to the endocrine system. The damage which is done to these areas results in the promotion of cancers. Regardless of whether the carcinogens have been introduced into the environment deliberately or accidentally, many scientists are afraid to speak out toward improvement unless they can be 100% sure there is a serious link and no other possible influencers. However, the existence of such high chemicals, even with the near one hundred percent studies which have been published, now render these areas seriously dangerous to the people who live there with very little legislation being done to help or hinder. There remains a serious cancer epidemic brought about by the chemical residues and the pesticides which have been used among the environment. This first claim has only been substantiated by studies covered within the book, and few and far between beyond that scope. With these facts in mind, you can find a unique cause or effect on which to focus for your writing (we prepared for you 20 sample topics on â€Å"Living Downstream† by S. Steingraber as well). Remember, there are many more facts out there within the span of the book and this list is by no means comprehensive. However, it should serve as a useful guide when you are starting off your work. Along with this information feel free to read our writing tips on cause effects essays. References: Reus, J. AN ENVIRONMENTAL YARDSTICK FOR PESTICIDES: AN INSTRUMENT TO MEASURE THE ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT OF PESTICIDES.  Acta Hortic.  347 (1993): 215-224. Web. Searle, Charles E.  Chemical Carcinogens. Washington: American Chemical Society, 1976. Print. Steingraber, Sandra.  Living Downstream. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley Publishing, 1997. Print. Stich, H. F.  Carcinogens And Mutagens In The Environment. Boca Raton, Fla.: CRC Press, 1982. Print. Viroj Wiwanitkit.,.  Melamine And Other Problematic Food Carcinogens. New York: Nova Science Publishers, 2009. Print. Zahm, Shelia Hoar, and Susan S. Devesa. Childhood Cancer: Overview Of Incidence Trends And Environmental Carcinogens.  Environmental Health Perspectives  103 (1995): 177. Web.