Immigration :: essays research papers

December 11, 2000 Immigration In the decades following the Civil War, the United States emerged as an industrial giant. Old industries expanded and many new ones, including petroleum refining, steel manufacturing, and electrical power, emerged. Railroads expanded significantly, bringing even remote parts of the country into a national market economy. America was the ideal place. In the late 1800s, people in many parts of the world decided to leave their homes and immigrate to the United States. Fleeing crop failure, a shortage in land, and employment, rising taxes, and famine, many came to the U. S. because it was perceived as the land of economic opportunity. Others came seeking personal freedom or relief from political and religious persecution. With hope for a brighter future, nearly 12 million immigrants arrived in the United States between 1870 and 1900. During the 1870s and 1880s, the vast majority of these people were from Germany, Ireland, Russian, Italy, and England Immigran ts entered the United States through several ports. Those from Europe generally came through East Coast facilities, while those from Asia generally entered through West Coast centers. More than 70 percent of all immigrants, however, entered through New York City, which came to be known as the "Golden Door." Throughout the late 1800s, most immigrants arriving in New York entered at the Castle Garden depot near the tip of Manhattan. In 1892, the federal government opened a new immigration-processing center on Ellis Island in New York harbor. Although immigrants often settled near ports of entry, a large number did find their way inland. Many states, especially those with sparse populations, actively sought to attract immigrants by offering jobs or land for farming. Many immigrants wanted to move to communities established by previous settlers from their homelands. Once settled, immigrants looked for work. There were never enough jobs, and employers often took advantage of th e immigrants. Men were generally paid less than other workers, and women less than men. Social tensions were also part of the immigrant experience. Often stereotyped and discriminated against, many immigrants suffered verbal and physical abuse because they were "different." The Irish were called white niggers. They came to America because of An Gorta Mor. (That’s the great hunger for those who didn’t know). The Britt’s hated (and still hate) the Irish, and they made them work like slaves, and paid them very little. The Irish, who came because they thought they could get some land, and be free in America, were starving in the streets, and dying in the factories.

Productivity Measurement at National, International and Firm Level

Productivity Measurement at International, National and organization level. PRODUCTIVITY MEASUREMENT Productivity measurement is the quantification of both the output and input resources of a productive system. The goal of productivity measurement is productivity improvement, which involves a combination of increased effectiveness and a better use of available resources. While productivity can be given the sort of short hand definition as the ratio between output and input USE OF PRODUCTIVITY MEASURES Productivity is a required tool in evaluating and monitoring the performance of an organization, especially a business organization.When directed at specific issues and problems, productivity measures can be very powerful. In essence, productivity measures are the yardsticks of effective resource use. Managers are concerned with productivity as it relates to making improvements in their firm. Proper use of productivity measures can give the manager an indication of how to improve produc tivity: either increase the numerator of the measure, decrease the denominator, or both. Managers are also concerned with how productivity measures relate to competitiveness.If two firms have the same level of output, but one requires less input this is due to a higher level of productivity, that firm will be able to charge a lower price and increase its market share or charge the same price as the competitor and enjoy a larger profit margin. Within a time period, productivity measures can be used to compare the firm's performance against industry-wide data, compare its performance with similar firms and competitors, compare performance among different departments within the firm, or compare the performance of the firm or individual departments within the firm with the measures obtained at an earlier time.Productivity measures can also be used to evaluate the performance of an entire industry or the productivity of a country as a whole. These are aggregate measures determined by com bining productivity measures of various companies, industries, or segments of the economy. NATIONAL LEVEL MEASUREMENT Since productivity is one of the basic variables governing economic production activity some mention of national productivity concerns would be appropriate. As a matter of fact, productivity may be the most important variable governing economic production activity.It is the fundamental controllable factor in wealth production. Since other economic variables depend on it, increasing productivity tends to have a beneficial multiplying effect on other economic variables. Improving productivity is of national importance because, for a society to increase its standard of living, it must first increase productivity. Overall productivity for individual countries is calculated by dividing output, as measured by GDP or GNP, by the country's total population.Thus, productivity is measured as the dollar value per capita outputs. An increase in this measure of productivity means that each person in the country, on average, produced more goods and services. Also if productivity increases, then profits increase. The resulting profits can then be used to pay for wage increases (inherent in inflation) without having to raise prices. In this way, productivity gains actually help curb inflation. It has been estimated that technology was responsible for at least half of the growth in productivity.It would appear, then, that if the country wants to continue to increase productivity, technology may be the key. ORGANIZATION LEVEL PRODUCTIVITY MEASUREMENT For an individual firm or industry, measures of gross output, combined with labour, capital and intermediate inputs, correspond directly to a specific model of a production function with â€Å"neutral† or â€Å"output-augmenting† technical change. When multifactor productivity[MFP] measures are based on such a gross-output concept, MFP growth approximates the rate of neutral, disembodied technical chan ge.Alternatively, MFP measures could be based on a value-added concept where value added is considered a firm’s output and only primary inputs are taken as a firm’s input. Value- added based productivity measures reflect an industry’s capacity to contribute to economy- wide income and final demand. In this sense, they are valid complements to gross-output based measures. At the aggregate level of the economy, gross-output and value-added based measures converge when gross-output measures are defined as sectoral output.Sectoral output is a measure of production corrected for deliveries within a given sector. From this perspective also, gross-output and value-added based measures are complements. A useful strategy in the development of productivity measures is to start with aggregate value-added based productivity measures: the necessary data tends to be relatively easily available and the choice between gross output and value added makes less difference than at t he detailed industry level.INTERNATIONAL LEVEL PRODUCTIVITY MEASUREMENT NEED Interlinked monetary systems Technology/ service transfer Domestic and regional competitions Valuable tool for evaluation Problems of Productivity Measurements at International Level In exchange rate measurements (often prices of similar goods not compared). All industrial level data not available. Social, Political, cultural factors not included. Data for developing countries is lacking.

The Challenging of Institutions Within the Art World

TERM 1 WEEK 5 The challenging of institutions within the art world â€Å"Artworks are designed to challenge institutions and test the limits of tolerance,† (John A Walker) as they challenge the historical context of traditional institutions, such as conventions, government and religious views, by viewing works. Through the post-modern frame (examining how artists and artworks challenge traditional bounds and rules, and conventions in art including concepts of originality and authenticity), artists in contemporary societies have started to use non-conventional, appropriated techniques to create new meaning within their works- shocking audiences and challenging institutional tolerance, ‘limits of tolerance’ (John A Walker) often being assessed through audiences reaction, censorship and the banning of exhibitions. The Sensation Exhibition is a collection by Charles Saatchi opened in 1997 to attempt to define a generation of artists, shocking the world with their controversial themes and medias. Three works within this exhibition that challenge the institution and tested the boundaries of their tolerance were The Holy Virgin Mary (1996) by Chris Ofili which explores the hypocrisy of Catholicism, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Something Living (1991) by Damien Hirst which deals with the cycle of life and death and My Bed (1999) by Tracey Emin which explores the most brutal times in Emin’s life. Each of these works tests the boundaries of tolerance for institutional galleries, religion, society and morality, challenging and confronting the way they are viewed within each institution. The Sensation Exhibition, lead to an up roar by members of society, including aspects of the art world Chris Ofili’s, The Holy Virgin Mary was a leading cause of controversy in the Sensation Exhibition due to the potent mixture of themes such as purity, pornography and excrement. On two lumps of dried, varnished elephant dung, sits Ofili’s work of an African American Madonna, covered in Renaissance styled drapery. The Holy Virgin Mary appropriates and recontextulizes the traditional Virgin Mary, not only by this but, by juxtaposing the pure, innocence of cherubs and substituting not only their physicality on the canvas but also their meaning with photographs of female genitalia. Ofili’s work plays with the idea that women should bear full chastity but also embarrass her sexuality within, highlighting the hypocrisy of Catholicism. The Holy Virgin Mary challenges the Catholic Church as an institution through the recontextulization of the Virgin Mary- a pure and sacred symbol in Catholicism. How individual views each work within each gallery institution is different. â€Å"You don’t have the right to a government subsidy for desecrating someone’s religion. † (Rudolph Giuliani- Mayor of New York) The Holy Virgin Mary provoked the anger of Giuliani, not only outraged because of the pornographic elements of the artwork but also its painting surface and support on elephant dung. For Guliani, this work was interpreted as an insulting and blasphemous attack on the holy status of the Virgin Mary. While Giuliani sees the work as disrespect to religion, Ofili himself sees the piece as a work of beauty, the elephant dung highlighting the natural phenomenon of life, another entity of purity within itself. Through Ofili’s work, religion has become a reoccurring subject of art, not because of any religious beliefs held by the artist himself, but to show the result of change in society, including religions place therein. Society has been conditioned by institutions to behave in a contemplative, reflective manner when viewing museum works. Every individual views a work differently, thus challenging the limits of not only an individual’s tolerance but also an institution as a whole through the general publics expression and reflection on a work. Damien Hirst’s The Physical Impossibility in the Mind of Something Living explores the confronting idea of death in a hypocritical light. Hirst’s use of the physical form of a dead shark, which is known as a symbol of death and fear is very confronting. The public viewing this work may question these stereotypical ideas associated with this animal whilst being able to stare it directly in the face, in all its silence and serenity. The use of formaldehyde to preserve the external remains of the dead shark makes the audience think about the internal happenings of not only the shark but also themselves, as an individual and what happens in your mind when you are physically dead. Damien Hirst’s quest to be edgy is as boring as it is callous. It does not matter whether Hirst killed the animals himself or sat by while thousands of them were massacred for his own unjustifiable amusement. Sharks are a part of nature and should be aloud to live in the wild instead of destroyed for something predictable and unimaginative. † (Same Glover, PETA) The reaction of PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) towards Hirst’s was that he was barbaric and cruel, not recognising Hirst’s works as art. Presented in a gallery space, with the subject matter and materials used, suspended within a glass tank is an unconventional art form in itself- also contributing to the tolerance and challenging of the gallery institution and the public as an institution. This reaction, â€Å"In keeping with the piece's title, the shark is simultaneously life and death incarnate in a way you don't quite grasp until you see it, suspended and silent, in its tank. It gives the innately demonic urge to live a demonic, deathlike form. (New York Times 2007) This extract emphasises the effect this piece has on the audience when seen up close and personal in the actual gallery space, thus testing the limits of audience and gallery tolerance and challenging the space it exhibits in. Art within an institution is used to influence the public’s attitude and beliefs or, in some cases, relate to a smaller group who have gone through the similar experiences in life. â€Å"It was as if it was no longer the task to produce masterpieces, but to use the making and showing of art in the service of some more socially urgent endeavour†. Arthur Danto) Tracey Emin’s, My Bed does exactly this. My Bed explores an individual’s issue of identity, sexuality and morality in a brutally honest way through the contemplation of suicide. Emin’s work confronts an audience by letting you into her world to explore the toughest yet greatest times in her life. This subject is much more fragile than Hirst’s and Ofili’s work as it makes the connection between a personal hardship in Emin’s life rather than the fear of death felt in Hirst’s work or the traditional vs. modern exploration created by Ofili. By putting something, so personal such as a bed on display in a gallery setting- the traditional design of the institution as a place for a ‘masterpiece’ has been challenged through the raw and honestly confrontation of Emin’s work. â€Å"Emin brings life in things taken from the real world — into the art gallery and leaves it there, more or less unchanged† (The Telegraph) This statement supports Emin’s connection to individuals who go through depression and contemplation of suicide through the raw, untouched entities of her bedroom, exaggerating the self-absorption and self-pity felt in an isolated room full of negative, undermining houghts. Through placing such an intimate entity in a gallery space and making it her own room, Emin challenges the gallery as an institution by making it a more personalized experience for not only the people who have gone through this hardship, but everyone by placing something so uncanny in a public gallery, bl urring the line between private and public externalisation. â€Å"Artworks are designed to challenge institutions and test the limits of tolerance,† by attempting to define a generation of artists and their diverse and controversial artistic visions. Through different medias, attributing to their post modernistic conventions, The Holy Virgin Mary by Chris Ofili, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Something Living by Damien Hirst and My Bed by Tracey Emin all challenge and test the boundaries of tolerance for institutional galleries, religion, society and mortality. Each work explores the recontextulization of gallery spaces through the historical context by redefining an institution as a place that challenges history rather than upholds the traditional design of conventional, ‘classical’ art. Institutions such as PETA, religion, governments and the public, have all been challenged by artworks, thus redefining institutions and being designed to test their limitations. Bibliography: 27/2/13, retrieved from the world wide web, Sensation Saatchi Collection, Records of the Department of Public Information, https://www. brooklynmuseum.