Friday, January 24, 2020

Analyzing the Effects of Educational Structure of Vietnam on the Greate

Analyzing the Effects of Educational Structures and Opportunities of Vietnam on the Greater Society Abstract: Education attainment is the highest level of formal education a person achieves within a given society. With education there are more opportunities, including a better standard of living. Vietnam is a developing country that sees the benefits of higher education, but due to structural problems, students and administration are dealt with many pressures to overcome. This paper uses structural theories of Weber and Parsons to analyze the current situations in Vietnam. By using public publications and personal interviews, inferences are made about the future development of the country. ANALYZING THE EFFECTS OF THE EDUCATIONAL STRUCTURE OF VIETNAM ON THE GREATER SOCIETY â€Å"Hope is important because it can make the present moment less difficult to bear. If we believe that tomorrow will be better, we can bear a hardship today.† - Thà ­ch Nhá º ¥t Há º ¡nh, This quote spoken by Thà ­ch Nhá º ¥t Há º ¡nh, a religious scholar, Buddhist monk and activist from Vietnam represents the aspiration to have a better life that all people seek. This message, while short, concisely represents the attitudes of many individuals coming from impoverished or developing countries. Generally from a sociological perspective, aspiration profoundly influences people to achieve. The Socialist Republic of Vietnam is a Southeast Asian nation on the brinks of social development within both public and private sectors. The country which is noted for its single party communist agenda with French civil statute influences, it has re-opened western diplomacy in the last two decades since the Vietnam War. The summer of 2010 marked Vietnam’s 15th ann... ...the abilities for individuals to make decisions accordingly. In particular, family units may influence big decisions, such as what university or college to enter and what a child should choose as a major. Of course, various family units may have varying demands on members, depending on living conditions. This topic will be further discussed later in this paper. In society, there is what sociologists call life chances. Max Weber developed this term and it refers to the opportunities available for a given person within a society (Anderson and Howard 2009). As indicated in our introduction, this often reflects particular stratification of an individual. This also correlates with how individuals interact within society as an institution. Perhaps, life chances could be grouped with the adaptation function with student’s using the resources that are presented to them.

Wednesday, January 15, 2020

Documentation(Cebu-Bohol Tour)

TOUR CEBU-BOHOL TRIP A few months ago, on September 25 to 30, 2010, we, the students of the STI College of Cotabato, had an educational tour of Cebu and Bohol, both of which are major tourist spots of the country. The given activity was prepared and realized with the purpose of exposing us to two of the most visited places in the Philippines—to let us experience and see for ourselves the feel of the dynamic tourism there and to know about the current trends regarding the field of hotel and restaurant management which, as we know, consists of work that entails lodging and food service, and plays an essential role in the tourism industry. The trip is considered to be a significant part of our training as aspiring hotel and restaurant managers, owners and/or workforce in the future. The school believed that for us to be effective and efficient members of the hotel industry, we should first be involved in excursions like that in order for us to grasp fully the reality of our chosen future careers and get a clear view of its know-how as well as to learn and obtain new ideas which we could apply in the long run. Being a major tourist destination that they are, Cebu and Bohol’s hotels and restaurants are without a doubt in demand. The school did not overlook that and made a great decision of choosing the two for it is, nonetheless, one of the best places of exposure. Over the years, with the advancement of technology, new developments are also inevitable and have surface especially in the competitive world of hotel industry which has truly evolved a lot. For that reason, we are truly glad that through the activity that we had, we were able to learn something innovative which we could not do so the other way around and just by being inside the four walls of our classrooms. We did not only visited the places just for the sake of seeing its physical beauty and take pictures of it like most tourists do but we went there with the very intention of learning especially from the seminars that we attended. The trip that started on the 25th of September 2010 was wisely spent and was efficiently arranged to really fit all the many places that we were able to visit. On the second day, we arrived at Bohol by 6:00am and checked-in at the Bohol Plaza Mountain Resort. It was a 4-star resort built on a mountain or more appropriately, a hill, hence the name, which has a spectacular view of the mainland of Bohol and faces the city of Tagbilaran. We also went to see the mysterious Chocolate Hills and were truly awed by the beauty it possessed. When noon came, we lunched at the famous restaurant on a boat known as The Floating Restaurant via the Loboc River Cruise and were greeted by a sumptuous and delicious meal. After which, we had the Tarsier encounter at the Corella and Tarsier Visitors Center and saw the extinction-threatened smallest primate on Earth, the Tarsier. And then we got to the blood compact site, the place where the sanduguan between the Spaniards and our ancestors during the 1500s transpired and were briefly informed about the rich history of Bohol. In line with that, we were made to see some of the ancestral houses in the place that were preserved and stood the test of time. It now operates as a tourist end including the great churches that were also built ages ago, particularly the Baclayon Church which is one of the oldest churches in the Philippines. In addition to that, we had a stopover at the other resorts in Bohol and at the Bee Farm which provided us a rare experience of organic delights. Moreover, we were able to see the splendor of Cebu while on tour, including its magnificent ancestral houses and the churches of the Basilica de Sto. Nino and Cathedral Church that significantly mirrored the rich culture and history of the place. In 1521, the Spanish conqueror Ferdinand Magellan arrived there and in that same year, planted a big wooden cross at the place where the first Filipinos were baptized as Christians. Currently, this place is a big tourist attraction and is called as the Magellan’s Cross. Consequent to that, we set out to see Cebu’s Beverly Hills Subdivision where people could find the affluent gated communities of the place and the idyllic Chinese Taoist Temple that is the center of worship for Taoism open to worshipers and non-worshipers alike. After lunch, we continue to explore Cebu at its best and saw the oldest street there known as the Colon Street. We likewise went to the University of San Jose-Recoletos, a Catholic private university that is considered to be one of the excellent schools in the land and had a tour of the area. For our next destination, we went to the Mactan Shrine where the statue of our first hero, Lapu-Lapu, could be found and had a souvenir shopping. Cebu, like the other well-developed cities in Manila, is a metropolitan area and branded as the center of business and trade in the Visayas. It is identified for its many skyscrapers that has been scattered all over the place which includes our next stop, to one of Cebu’s finest commercial sites, the Ayala Center. However, though we really had fun, we were also exhausted from the day’s activity and, as explorers of the place, I think it is important that we have a comfortable place to spend the night and regain our strength for yet another busy day. The Crown Regency Hotel did not disappoint us on that and gave us what we all need after a long day around town. While there, we were able to get what I think all tourists deserve—that ‘home-away-from-home comfort’ through the superb hotel accommodation and service that they have. We spent our fourth day a little bit different from the past three days. Instead of touring the other landmark of Cebu and Bohol, we attended a seminar on bed-making, flaring and other things involving hotel and restaurant accommodations at the Crown Regency Hotel. Lessons on the hotel’s activity were given to us and before lunchtime, we were escorted up to take a look at their rooms that displayed different themes—depending on the preferences of their customers—and onto the hotel’s roof deck. Afterwards, we went into a beachfront hotel and resort, the Imperial Palace, and had one more seminar regarding the hotel’s services, the silverwares and utensils they are using and so on. When the seminar ended, we proceeded to go to SM Cebu. Along the way, we were able to pass by an outstanding and splendid hotel, considered to be among the top hotels in Asia—the Plantation Bay—which showcased a variety of fruit plantations along its entrance. Sadly, we were not able to take a look inside. All in all, it was a fun-filled learning experience, with all of us getting along and contributing to the success of the activity. The tour really left a great impact to most of us and, indeed, it was worth all the long time of preparation, expenses and fatigue. †¦Till then.

Tuesday, January 7, 2020

The Gender Pay Gap What It Is and Why It Matters

In April  2014, the Paycheck Fairness Act was voted down in the Senate by Republicans. The bill, first approved by the House of Representatives in 2009, is considered by proponents to be an extension of the 1963 Equal Pay Act  and is meant to address the gap in pay between women and men that has persisted despite the 1963 legislation. The Paycheck Fairness Act would allow for the punishment of employers who retaliate against workers for sharing information about pay, puts the burden of justifying gendered wage discrepancies on employers, and gives workers the right to sue for damages if they suffer discrimination. In a memo released on April 5, 2014, the Republican National Committee argued that it opposes the bill because it is already illegal to discriminate on the basis of gender  and because it duplicates the  Equal Pay Act. The memo also stated that the national pay gap between men and women is merely the result of women working in lower-paying fields:  Ã¢â‚¬Å"The difference isn’t because of their genders; it’s because of their jobs.† This spurious claim flies in the face of a litany of published empirical research that demonstrates that the gender pay gap is real  and that it exists within—not simply across—occupational categories. According to the NYTimes, federal data shows that it is greatest among the highest paying sectors. The Gender Pay Gap Defined What exactly is the gender pay gap? Simply put, it’s the hard reality that women, within the United States and around the world, earn only a portion of what men earn for doing the same jobs. The gap exists as a universal between the genders, and it exists within the vast majority of occupations. The gender pay gap can be measured in three key ways: by hourly earnings, weekly earnings, and annual income. In all cases, researchers compare median earnings for women versus men. The most recent data, compiled by the Census Bureau and the Bureau of Labor Statistics, and published in a report by the American Association of University Women (AAUW), show a 23 cent pay gap in weekly earnings for full-time workers on the basis of gender. That means that, overall,  women make just 77 cents to the man’s dollar. Women of color, with the exception of Asian Americans, fare far worse than white women in this regard, as the gender pay gap is exacerbated by racism, past and present. The Pew Research Center reported in 2013 that the hourly earnings pay gap, 16 cents, is smaller than the weekly earnings gap. According to Pew, this calculation vanishes the portion of the gap that exists due to gender disparity in hours worked, which is produced by the fact that women are more likely to work part-time than are men. Using federal data from 2007, Dr. Mariko Lin Chang documented a gendered annual income gap that ranged from zero for never-married women and men, to 13 percent for divorced women, 27 percent for widowed women, and 28 percent for married women. Importantly, Dr. Chang  emphasized that the absence of a gendered income gap for never married women masks a gendered wealth gap  that crosses all income categories. This collection of rigorous and undisputed social science demonstrates that a gender gap exists when measured by hourly wages, weekly earnings, annual income, and wealth. This is very bad news for women and those who depend on them. Debunking the Debunkers Those seeking to â€Å"debunk† the gender pay gap suggest that it is a result of differing levels of education, or of life choices  one might make. However, according to the American Association of University Women, the fact that a 7% weekly earnings gap exists between women and men just one year out of college demonstrates that it cannot be blamed on the â€Å"life choices† of being pregnant, birthing a child, or reducing work in order to care for children or other family members. As far as education, per the AAUW report,  the maddening truth is that the pay gap between men and women actually widens as educational attainment increases. For women, a Masters or professional degree is simply not worth as much as a man’s. The Sociology of the Gender Pay Gap Why do gendered gaps in pay and wealth exist? Simply put, they are the product of historically rooted gender biases that still thrive today. Though many Americans would claim otherwise, these data clearly show that the vast majority of us, regardless of gender, view men’s labor as more valuable than women’s. This  often unconscious or subconscious assessment of labor value is influenced strongly by biased perceptions of individual  qualities thought to be determined by gender. These often break down as gendered binaries that directly favor men, like the idea that men are strong and women are weak, that men are rational while women are emotional, or that men are leaders and women are followers. These sorts of gender biases even appear in how people describe inanimate objects, depending on whether they are classified as masculine or feminine in their native language. Studies that examine gender discrimination in the  evaluation of student performance and in hiring, professor interest in mentoring students, even in the wording of job listings, have demonstrated a clear gender bias that unjustly favors men. Certainly, legislation like the Paycheck Fairness Act would  help make visible, and thus challenge, the gender pay gap by providing legal channels for addressing this form of everyday discrimination. But if we really want to eliminate it, we as a society have to do the collective work of unlearning the gender biases  that live deep within each of us.  We can begin this work in our everyday lives by challenging assumptions based on gender made both by ourselves and those around us. Recent Attempts at Passage of the Paycheck Fairness Act In March 2019, the Democrat-dominated House of Representatives passed the H.R.7 - Paycheck Fairness Act, a new attempt at the legislation that was first introduced in 1997. The bill was then sent to the Republican-dominated Senate, where it faces an uphill battle.