Personal and Professional Development for engineers Assignment

Personal and Professional Development for engineers - Assignment Example These inventions by engineers not only made the human life easier but also provided more employment opportunities to the people. Research and development in engineering profession has also led to the invention of better technology, machines, and manufacturing processes, which guarantee a consistency in the quality of the finished products. Civil engineers can be credited for construction of bridges, roads, buildings, and dams; electrical engineers can be recognized for their establishment of power plants; chemical engineers can be appreciated for their role in manufacturing of apparel merchandise and pharmaceuticals; agricultural engineers can be credited for the increase in crop yield through better irrigation and farming practices; however, it is the mechanical engineer who lays the foundation for the proper functioning of other disciplines of engineering. If there were no machines, which are actually designed and fabricated by a mechanical engineer, there would be no industries an d no technological development. WorldWideLearn (n.d.) stated that a mechanical engineer invents the processes that are used in internal combustion engines, turbines, generators, refrigeration and air-conditioning units, etc. To accomplish the duties of a mechanical engineer successfully, proper certification through accreditation authorities is essential. 2. Professional Registration and Licensing Various countries have different norms and requirements for awarding license and registration to the engineers, including the mechanical engineers. Thornton (2010) mentioned that every state has its own registration and licensing procedure for awarding the professional engineer title in the USA. However, to facilitate the practice of engineering in various states, an individual can apply for professional engineering title in the concerned states with minimum paper work, if a license has already been granted by one American state. The Engineering Council (2011) declares that it is the gover ning body of the engineering profession in the UK, and it has laid down certain standards for getting an engineer professionally registered at various levels. There are national institutions of engineering recognized by the Engineering Council for granting memberships and licenses to the applicants. For memberships and registration of mechanical engineers, The Institution of Mechanical Engineers (2010) takes the responsibility. The various engineering titles, based on academic qualifications and experience, are defined by the chief governing body, the Engineering Council. 3. Engineering Council There are four levels at which the engineers, including the mechanical engineers, can get professionally registered in the United Kingdom. The purpose of having a professional license procedure is to maintain the high standards in the practice of engineering for ensuring the safety and health of the public as well as the environment. The Engineering Council (2011) asserts that by having the m embership of the respective engineering institution, which is also recognized by the Engineering Council, the engineers have better chances of getting employment, drawing more salaries, getting easier promotion, and are also well-accepted by the industry, the government, and the public. The four levels of professional engineers recognized by the governing body i.e. Engineering Counc

Persuasive effect Essay Example for Free

Persuasive effect Essay How is the writing persuasive? Work through the article commenting on how the choice of words, the style of the writing and the way the information is presented work together to create this persuasive effect. Several techniques are used in the writing to persuade us, to her side of the argument. The first one we meet is the large, bold title of ZOOOOOOH! Tthis is attention grabbing and the linguistic cleverness combines the subject of the article, zoo and the idiotic reactions of the visitors, i. e. Ooooooh. The title has a subtle meaning; it has in it the mindless, moronic reactions of the visitors on seeing the animals, and the graphic design cleverly manipulates our thoughts on the critical comments on zoos. Also there are a line of animal pictures on the bottom of the page, this is to create a sense of realism through illustrations. The sub-heading is in bold as well though it is not as large as the title, this play on words is reflected by the way that she combines her anecdote with an inverted situation, Tess Lemmon watches people watching animals. The effect of that being that it is a play on words with an element of graphic design and it makes us want to read the article and it subtly introduce the idea that she is analysing the reactions of the people, as if in a scientific way. The quotes in bold below the sub-heading are for entertainment, she deliberately takes the most inane comments from the people that she watches and let them argue the case for her, this is called Aunt Sally she has quoted the opposition and has reiterated the quotes for her own needs, the entertainment is in fact a secondary purpose to the real purpose of summing up the attitudes to the animals that the visitors feel in the zoo and shaming them and parodying it. The last quote is the most stupid of them all and has been given its own extra space for its summing up of her views and thoughts on the subject. The first paragraph is devoted nearly entirely to the technique of making short, sharp points, lies on a slab of concrete, stares into space, flicks its tail. People stop, make comments, then go this has the effect of making us think about what the visitors do, because she has summarised what they do in one short paragraph. Exaggeration is also used (which is also called hyperbole), the tiger lies on a slab of concrete, this makes it sounds worse than it is especially as she has generalised the idea of that all the animals lie on a slab of concrete in all zoos while there may be some exceptions, this is bias. This stresses her point of animals in a cell and lying on a slab of concrete without anything to do and living in an unnatural environment, the short sentences also leads us on to the arguments of zoos. She also uses Aunt Sally to a great effect with quoting, a good day out, this makes a point to us of her sarcasm towards the idea of going to the zoo for entertainment and a parodying subject. She uses colloquial language, But hang on a minute running aroundin our backyards, this is used to convey ideas to the reader through an easier way, the effect is, that of an friend having an conversation with you, it is used to put us at ease to seem that she can be trusted, and the language involves everyone, especially using the possessive adjective our and Were this effect in context with colloquial language is that the piece becomes avuncular and inclusive and it invites us to contribute, this makes the writer identify herself with the readers, this encourages the readers to agree with her view and to make us sympathetic to her views. She also uses a rhetorical question, Whatever is in this day and age? to lead on to her arguments, this question makes us feel involved, as it seems as if she cares about our own opinions, it also adds emphasis and stresses the point that we can not allow an animal in a cage, they have the same effect as the use of directives-they make you think that the writer is talking to you personally. The exaggerated tone of the question makes us think about the point of the question and agree with her. This paragraph has a certain amount of sarcasm and Aunt Sally in it, the exaggeration in, the tiger is living it up like nobodys business. Makes the zoo director sound bad, and the section of, saved from having to earn it doesnt even have to walk anywhere. In it one can detect the sarcasm of her writing, on quoting the zoo director. The quote in itself makes the animals sounds quite like prisoners really, with their meals handed to it on a plate, and it doesnt even have to walk anywhere, the effect of that compared with the fact she hints to us about the, zoo directors office is that of the zoos using the animals as exhibits to make themselves rich. Also the tone of, with his tongue only half way in his cheek, brings out the bad habits of the person that she has interviewed the effect of that is to present to us negative opinion of him and also the sentence has a literal meaning as well, of not meaning what you say so that the effect is she doesnt want us to take his views seriously. Also an Aunt Sally was used in describing the zoos as an, Welfare state, this suggests to us that she does not agree with the views of the zoo director and it is an irony that the zoos are described as an, welfare state. Another Aunt Sally is used to great effect in describing her feelings to the reasons trotted out by the zoo whenever their existence is challenged. Also the words in quotations, an ambassador for the wild is there because it reinforces her opinions of zoos and their well-used phrases, as she doesnt believe them. She uses her title of, as an anthropologist This gives credibility to her article and research as we think she would give an unbiased opinion, but in fact this is a trick so that we think she is not biased, but rather using the title, she hides herself and still, gives us the biased opinions under the pretence of being a scientist, having spent hours She repeats herself once more as she says, watching people watching animals, this merely emphasis the point that her subject is on humans and repeating the point in the sub-headings, this is also an anecdote so that we believe in her because she has experience. She then goes on to say her conclusions after giving us her title of an anthropologist and make her sound more reliable, she goes on to say about her opinions of zoos, it is almost a directive/imperative language as she says, no zoo can fulfil no zoo can bring about presents a distorted picture this almost commands us to believe in her research and her conclusion. Also another important is the use of 3 words grouped together, good, bad, best in the world the good, bad, best, bit emphasises the point, it somehow strengthens and stresses the point she is making. Another good persuasive trick used by her is to mingle fact with opinion and make it sound all like fact, in this next paragraph we see her doing just that, many of the main European zoos were founded at the beginning of the last century this is all fact and now she astutely and subtly adds her opinions on that, hand in hand with the spirit of adventure conquest and acquisition it is no coincidence that the zoo as we know it sprang up in the colonial era this makes us understand the real reasons for displaying the animals while it is still only her opinion. This affects us on whether we believe and trust the text, she gives a lot of facts but she has hidden her opinions in the form of fact among the facts, so we would tend to believe her, she uses opinions based on facts while giving facts as examples to illustrate her point. To further the readability of her article, colloquial language is used to simplify the language barrier between the grammatically correct English and her colloquialism so that it is easier to read and to digest the information, these days gawp a rhetorical question is used, so what do the zoos do? this is colloquial language with rhetorical question working at the same time. The answer has sarcasm built in, she hypes what the zoos say they do, serious scientific research total commitment to conservation vital role as educators then she dashes it all to pieces with 2 sharp points, they go to see the animals-and to be entertained. The effect of that is to drag down the zoos lofty ideals so that she can now put her argument to use with the subject now, of why we need zoos, this is divide and conqueror, she uses a linked process of arguments and then one by one she moves on to another stage and to convince us in the end to her beliefs. Another rhetorical question, Just what do people see when they look at an animal in a zoo? this time it is all in a paragraph of its own, this is so, so that we would have time to reflect on the question before she goes on to one of her main arguments. We then see the use of inclusive language, were most of us we tell us this language includes us and therefore more closer to the authors thoughts and we would believe it more as the argument appeals to us as the reader. In the next paragraph, we see emotive language been used, harmful stripped torn away reduced it to be an object to be observed, the emotive language used appeals to our heartstrings and it arouses strong feelings within us, to do something to stop the suffering.

Kinesin Moves by an Asymmetric Hand-Over-Hand Mechanism

Kinesin Moves by an Asymmetric Hand-Over-Hand Mechanism Introduction This review discusses the motion of kinesin, a double headed motor protein. A study was conducted to determine which of two motion patterns is the one which describes the movement of this protein: the inchworm model, or the hand-over-hand model. What is Kinesin? Kinesin is a protein in a class of motor proteins which are powered by the hydrolysis of ATP – the molecule responsible for transporting chemical energy for metabolism [1]. Kinesin transports large cargo about cells by walking along microtubules, hydrolysing one molecule of ATP per step [2]. It has been proposed than the force of the protein binding to the microtubule propels the cargo along [3]. Kinesin moves to the â€Å"plus† end of the microtubule, meaning it transports the cargo from the centre to the edge of the cell [4]. There is evidence that some kinesins have a role in mitosis (cell division), by separating microtubules or depolymerising them [5]. The Models The inchworm model describes motion with one â€Å"arm† of the protein moving forward, followed by the other, with the first arm always in the lead. There are two types of inchworm motion, symmetric and asymmetric, which are shown in the image below. The symmetric model takes smaller steps, so only one arm moves at a time. Asymmetric motion takes a single step, at the middle of which both arms move. In the hand-over-hand model, alternating arms move forward over each other. In the symmetric case, the molecule rotates in the same direction every time, but in the asymmetric case the molecule rotates in alternating directions. These models are shown in the image below. Main Results The papers main result shows that the kinesin protein moves using an asymmetric hand-over-hand mechanism. To reach this verdict, a variety of single molecule experiments were performed. They established that the individual kinesin dimers make discrete steps at random intervals along the microtubule, and may take as many as one hundred 8 nm steps before releasing. The movement is processive, meaning that the protein can make many consecutive steps without releasing the substrate (the molecule on which it acts – here, the microtubule). This motion exists even when external forces up to several pN are applied, which indicates part of the protein stays attached at all times. The active part of kinesin is composed of a dimer, with two identical heavy chains, each with a â€Å"head† attached to a common stalk. These chains join to a short â€Å"neck† composed of single polypeptide chains. The heavy chains are coiled round each other to allow the rotation necessary for the hand-over-hand model. This rotation is about the neck, but the motion of the heads turning would continue winding, summing until the heavy chains would join into a common stalk, preventing independent rotation. A study was conducted [6] showing that no significant rotation occurs of the stalk during the stepping motion. For a symmetric model, a large rotation (about 180 degrees) was expected in the hand-over-hand models. The basis for the definition of â€Å"symmetric† here was in three dimensions: the structure of the kinesin and microtubule must be identical at the start and end of each ATP hydrolytic cycle, except for the two heads having swapped places [6]. An example of this is simply the dimer rotating half a revolution about an axis perpendicular to the microtubule each step [7], hence the prediction for a rotation of 180 degrees. However this was ruled out, and an inchworm model was proposed. In this, only one of the heads is active in hydrolysis, but the possibility of an asymmetric hand-over-hand motion remained. This would mean that the head and neck move in such a way that the overall rotation of the stalk is suppressed, instead alternating between two distinct structures [8]. How They Were Obtained The step motion of individual native and recombinant (formed in the lab by combining genetic material from multiple sources) kinesin molecules was measured, using optical force-clamp apparatus. This technique uses light from a tightly focussed laser to trap small, polarisable particles in a potential well near the focal point [9]. It was found that the intrinsic stepping rates alternated between two different values for each step, meaning the molecules â€Å"limped†. The difference in steps implies there was an alternation in underlying molecular configurations, meaning the motion could not be fully symmetric (such as the inchworm and symmetric hand-over-hand motions should be). The discovery of the limp, along with other nano-mechanical properties, means the protein moves with an asymmetric hand-over-hand motion. Single molecules of kinesin were attached to microscopic beads, serving as markers for position and as handles for external forces. An optical trap was then used to capture the individual beads that diffused whilst carrying the kinesin, which were placed near the microtubules. This was while kinesin bound and moved. The motion was then tracked using nanometer level precision. A feedback-controlled force lamp was used to apply a constant backwards load during the motion, in order to reduce the Brownian fluctuations and improve the spatiotemporal resolution. It also allowed for the kinesin to move further, taking more steps, in order to show statistical significance. The Results A derivative of Drosophila melanogaster kinesin (DmK401) was shown to have an obvious limp, with large time differences in the steps despite the stochastic nature (and ensuing variability). Statistical analysis showed significant differences in the average step times for both slow and fast steps. The durations of the steps were then calculated as Ï„slow = 136  ± 6 ms and Ï„fast = 24  ± 1 ms. The limp factor, L, can then be calculated as the ratio of the mean duration of the slow stepping time to the mean duration of the fast stepping time. The distribution showed significant limping for the majority of molecules, but there was wide variation in the results. 63% of records showed L > 4, and the average was L = 6.45  ± 0.31. Some motors took many runs and had consistently higher limp factors than others, but the distribution was broad and the populations could not be separated of limping and non-limping molecules. Other kinesin molecules, such as the native squid kinesin, showed almost no evidence of limping – the same calculations were applied as to DmK401, and the times were calculated to be Ï„slow = 90  ± 4 ms and Ï„fast = 54  ± 2 ms. The difference is much smaller than that for DmK401. The limp distribution was also found to be narrower, with the average limp factor being L = 2.23  ± 0.14, only slightly higher than the estimated value for a non-limping molecule, L ~ 1.8. The test was then done with kinesin derivates of Drosophila which had increasing stalk lengths. Longer stalks mean the motors are less likely to limp. The largest stalk tested was that of DmK871, and this had a limp factor of L = 2.16  ± 0.17, which was indistinguishable from native squid kinesin. There was also a correlation between an increasing limp factor (therefore shorter stalks) and an increase in characteristic lifetime of the slow step time, whereas the fast step remained invariant. This suggests the limping comes from one head alone, and the other is indifferent. A bacterial expression of a derivative of human kinesin (HsK413) also limped, with limp factor = 2.98  ± 0.25, much greater than the native squid kinesin, but still less than DmK401 and DmK448. Rarely, squid kinesin molecules seemed to limp, making outliers – some of which limped consistently. Discussion As both native and bacterially expressed dimers from different species can limp, this behaviour may be a result of a common mechanism describing how all kinesin molecules move. The alternation between short and long step times during limping reflects an alternation between the intrinsic rate (the rate with which the population increases) and the time it takes to leave each phase where neither head is moving. This implies the structure of the kinesin-microtubule complex is different at the end of sequential steps. The mechanism describing the movement of kinesin must therefore be asymmetric, meaning the molecular configuration switches after each step. Symmetric mechanisms, by definition, cannot account for switching – inchworm models will not limp without additional (asymmetric) features, nor will symmetric hand-over-hand models. The detail of how kinesin motors move is not well known or understood, so we cannot look at how limping could relate to the structure of the motion, but there are some suggestions based on the asymmetric hand-over-hand mechanism. Limping could be caused by misalignment of the stalk coils, meaning the necks would be different lengths, hence the head with a shorter neck would need extra time to find the next binding site using a diffusional search and overall slowing the kinetics. Another option is that there could be over- or under-winding of the coils from hand-over-hand motion, causing torsional asymmetry. The energy required to coil or uncoil the stalk would be reduced, changing the equilibrium and the rate with which the head moves forward. Whilst there is no immediate explanation for the effect whereby the shorter stalks result in longer slow stepping times, it may be incorporated into later studies with further assumptions. However, these experiments have shown that more approaches are needed for single-molecule experiments to answer these questions. Despite the exact mechanism not being known, the experiments do show that the kinesin motors limp, and making the asymmetric hand-over-hand mechanism the most likely. Why is this Significant? This is a breakthrough in the field, as more detail can now be found on how biological motors move. By establishing how kinesin moves, other motors can be analysed to find their mechanisms for movement, and this helps to further our understanding of biology. The same experiment can be done with other proteins, or more experiments can be done with kinesin to better understand certain factors – for example, why the slow stepping times correlate to shorter stalks, or why limping appears to come from one head only. What Other Work has Been Done? Whilst many similar experiments have been conducted, this has improved the knowledge of kinesins movement by showing that the inchworm model does not apply. It has opened up avenues for either looking deeper into kinesins movement, or for finding the mechanisms for other motors. The experimental method used was also new, and was different from the previous study by Hua, Chung and Gelles [6], which was researching something similar. Hua, Chung and Gelles looked at the rotations in the movement of kinesin, with the null hypothesis of a symmetric hand-over-hand mechanism. This was done by immobilizing a derivative of Drosophila, and measuring the different orientations of the microtubules as it moved. Their findings were consistent with the inchworm model, which is why it was proposed initially. Conclusion The kinesin mechanism is now better understood than before, with more information gained in explaining the mechanism. This has presented more factors for consideration and created new questions to answer: the opportunity for further research is huge. Future experiments could consider different proteins movements, or look deeper into the kinesin mechanism. The discovery is significant as it has not only given more insight into biological motors, but revealed ample possibilities for more experiments in the field. Acknowledgement This review was written primarily based on the work of â€Å"Asbury, C L et al. 2003. Kinesin Moes by an Asymmetric Hand-Over-Hand Mechanism. Science. 302(2130).†, with all numerical values and the majority of content based on the paper, unless otherwise stated. References [1] Knowles, JR. 1980. Enzyme-catalyzed phosphoryl transfer reactions. Annual Revue of Biochemistry. 49, pp.877–919. [2] Schnitzer MJ. 1997. Kinesin hydrolyses one ATP per 8-nm step. Nature. 388(6640), pp.386–390. [3] Mather, WH and Fox RF. 2006. Kinesins biased stepping mechanism: amplification of neck linker zippering. Biophysical Journal. 91(7), pp.2416–26. [4] Ambrose, JC, et al. 2005. A minus-end-directed kinesin with plus-end tracking protein activity is involved in spindle morphogenesis. Molecular Biology of the Cell . 16(4) pp.1584–92. [5] Goshima, G and Vale, RD. 2005. Cell cycle-dependent dynamics and regulation of mitotic kinesins in Drosophila S2 cells. Molecular Biology of the Cell. 16(8) pp.3896–907. [6] Hua, W, Chung J, and Gelles, J. 2002. Science. 295, p.844. [7] Howard, J. 1996. Annual Revue of Physiology. 58, p.703. [8] Hoenger, A et al. 2000. Journal of Molecular Biology. 297, p.1087. [9] Greenleaf, W J et al 2005. Physical Revue Letters. 95, 208102.

ABC, Inc. Case Study Analysis Essay -- Management Business Essays

ABC, Inc. Case Study Analysis Problem At the beginning of April, Carl Robbins was hired at ABC, INC. as a new recruiter. He successfully hired several employees, even though he was fairly new at his job. This was his first recruitment effort that turned out quite well. After this, the Operations Supervisor, Monica Carrolls, tasked Carl to recruit 15 new employees to begin working at ABC in July. So Carl scheduled an orientation to take place for the 15 employees on June 15th. Monica contacted Carl around May 15th to ensure that the process to get the orientation started was underway and Carl assured her that the orientation would be ready in time. Carl started working on the task to set up the orientation around the end of May and soon realized he didn’t have a room for the orientation to be held and the necessary paperwork was far from complete. He only had three manuals and all were missing pages and not one of the new employees was scheduled to get the required drug test. He had two weeks until the orientation was to be presented and suddenly realized he may have misinformed Monica on having the orientation ready in time. Carl put himself in a misfortunate situation with his lack of experience and improper use of communication causing him to be behind in his tasking. If Carl does not act fast or start communicating with his management, he may not be able to make the deadline. Background   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In Carl’s situation he did not have much experience for his job and ...

Do the right thing Essay -- essays research papers

The weather is sizzling hot and tensions are slowly coming to a boil in this Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn neighborhood. Slowly but surely we see the heat melt away the barriers that were keeping anger from rising to the surface. The Blacks and the Hispanics own the streets the Koreans own the corner store and of course the Italians own the pizzeria, the Cops who happen to be all Caucasian, prowl the streets inside out, looking for anyone to harass. Toes are then stepped on and apologies are not made. Spike Lee creates the perfect set-up for a modern day in Bed-Stuyvesant. Without fail Spike Lee is transformed into an anthropologist. Spike Lee’s goal is to allow viewers to glimpse into the lives of real people and into a neighborhood they call home. After all this isn’t just some flight into an imaginary ghetto. It’s a journey into real life, real people and of course real circumstances. In the words of the local DJ Mr. Seà ±or Love Daddy its time to, â€Å" Waaa aake up!" and see what real life is really about. Our main character is Mooky, a black teenager, who works in Sal’s famous pizzeria. Mooky is the pizza parlor delivery boy and he is the only one of his friends to have a job. Sal and his two sons run the pizzeria. Sal is one of the very few white Italian business owners remaining in this predominately black neighborhood. Despite obvious tensions, Sal holds his ground in the neighborhood and remains proud of the fact that these people, meaning the kids of Bed-Stuy, have grown up on his pizza. Along the way we meet other characters such as Radio Raheem who is a neighborhood kid who walks the street with an oversize radio and decorates his fingers with the symbolic ‘love’ and ‘hate’ rings. Smile, a mentally disabled individual who runs around the streets selling the one existing photograph of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Then there is Mooky’s Puerto Rican girlfriend, who is raising their son and constantly nagging Mooky for being a deadbeat f ather. We also meet The Mayor, an alcoholic, elderly man who wanders the street looking for any type of chores to do in exchange for a small about of money. Lee’s choice of characters and actors seems noticeably ideal. Each character is full of life and more importantly each is an individual. Each character is created to retell a part of our society that we sometimes over look. This obviously makes Spike Lee a... ...ee demonstrates this when the viewers start to think about who really is to blame for the chaos that erupts near the end of the film. Perhaps Lee is asking his audience to simply judge people as individuals and not as representatives of an entire race, since he would like to prove that race is a social category not a biological fact. This is apparent when the audience comes to realize that each character belonging to a certain racial group has a counterpart who is very different in his or her views. For example the Italian Sal who shows some slight racist tendencies are nowhere as ignorant as one of his sons. In conclusion Spike Lee does show noteworthy signs of become an anthropologist. His ever quest to inform his audience that they should not judge a person from their ethnicity group and assume all actions of that person are typical traits of that race. He clearly tries to inform the viewers of race as a social category and not a biological race. Spike Lee simply wants us to open our eyes. The world is full of beautiful things and if we keep ourselves narrowminded, we end up missing a great deal. In the words of Mr. Seà ±or Love Daddy did say it best â€Å"Waaaaaaaaaaake up!† Do the right thing Essay -- essays research papers The weather is sizzling hot and tensions are slowly coming to a boil in this Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn neighborhood. Slowly but surely we see the heat melt away the barriers that were keeping anger from rising to the surface. The Blacks and the Hispanics own the streets the Koreans own the corner store and of course the Italians own the pizzeria, the Cops who happen to be all Caucasian, prowl the streets inside out, looking for anyone to harass. Toes are then stepped on and apologies are not made. Spike Lee creates the perfect set-up for a modern day in Bed-Stuyvesant. Without fail Spike Lee is transformed into an anthropologist. Spike Lee’s goal is to allow viewers to glimpse into the lives of real people and into a neighborhood they call home. After all this isn’t just some flight into an imaginary ghetto. It’s a journey into real life, real people and of course real circumstances. In the words of the local DJ Mr. Seà ±or Love Daddy its time to, â€Å" Waaa aake up!" and see what real life is really about. Our main character is Mooky, a black teenager, who works in Sal’s famous pizzeria. Mooky is the pizza parlor delivery boy and he is the only one of his friends to have a job. Sal and his two sons run the pizzeria. Sal is one of the very few white Italian business owners remaining in this predominately black neighborhood. Despite obvious tensions, Sal holds his ground in the neighborhood and remains proud of the fact that these people, meaning the kids of Bed-Stuy, have grown up on his pizza. Along the way we meet other characters such as Radio Raheem who is a neighborhood kid who walks the street with an oversize radio and decorates his fingers with the symbolic ‘love’ and ‘hate’ rings. Smile, a mentally disabled individual who runs around the streets selling the one existing photograph of Martin Luther King and Malcolm X. Then there is Mooky’s Puerto Rican girlfriend, who is raising their son and constantly nagging Mooky for being a deadbeat f ather. We also meet The Mayor, an alcoholic, elderly man who wanders the street looking for any type of chores to do in exchange for a small about of money. Lee’s choice of characters and actors seems noticeably ideal. Each character is full of life and more importantly each is an individual. Each character is created to retell a part of our society that we sometimes over look. This obviously makes Spike Lee a... ...ee demonstrates this when the viewers start to think about who really is to blame for the chaos that erupts near the end of the film. Perhaps Lee is asking his audience to simply judge people as individuals and not as representatives of an entire race, since he would like to prove that race is a social category not a biological fact. This is apparent when the audience comes to realize that each character belonging to a certain racial group has a counterpart who is very different in his or her views. For example the Italian Sal who shows some slight racist tendencies are nowhere as ignorant as one of his sons. In conclusion Spike Lee does show noteworthy signs of become an anthropologist. His ever quest to inform his audience that they should not judge a person from their ethnicity group and assume all actions of that person are typical traits of that race. He clearly tries to inform the viewers of race as a social category and not a biological race. Spike Lee simply wants us to open our eyes. The world is full of beautiful things and if we keep ourselves narrowminded, we end up missing a great deal. In the words of Mr. Seà ±or Love Daddy did say it best â€Å"Waaaaaaaaaaake up!†

Child Marraige Essay

It blocks them from education and any possibility of independent work. It subjects them to pregnancy and childbirth before they have reached physical maturity, a circumstance that often produces serious physical trauma, psychological disturbance, and sometimes lifelong physical and/or emotional incapacities. Confusion about the legal status of child marriages results from widespread ignorance of the law by the majority of society. Even ministers were in many cases, unaware of the actual minimum ages for marriage. In Afghanistan marriage is regulated by civil law, various interpretations of Shariah law, and traditional and customary practices. Civil law sets the minimum marriage age for females at 16, but it permits a father to give his daughter in marriage at age 15, if he chooses. Shariah law sets the minimum age for females at 15. Customary practices approve marriage at earlier ages. In any case, Civil law takes precedence over both Shariah law and customary practice. (Shariah law is applied in matters not specifically set forth in the civil codes. Although the non registration of the marriages and the absence of identification documents do not allow the collection of accurate data on the subject, the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission (AIHRC) consider the non respect of the minimum age requirement to be the major violation of the right to marry or not to marry. In addition, Afghanistan is bound to end child marriage through its ratification of certain internationalconventions including The Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) and The Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC). Based on annual report of AIHRC suicides, self immolations, murders, sexual perversions and psychological disorders are amongst the many negative consequences of child marriage. These also include the increase of maternal and child mortality rates, and the low level of education for women which has a long term effect on the role these play in the country’s political, social and economic life. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) report, girls who marry during their childhood do not develop properly, neither physically nor psychologically. They are frequently denied access to education and are subject to different types of diseases arising from abnormal births and isolation. Childhood marriages are common place and prevalent in Afghanistan. In this respect, the Afghan Constitution has clear provisions to support families and children. Based on the reports 57% of Afghan girls are forced to marry before the age of eighteen. Pregnancies of sixteen years old girls are relatively common in Afghanistan. Problem statement: Child marriage is a serious problem, and there are frequent cases of young girls being married to the much older men. Many times, children and teenagers are pulled out of school to marry, depriving them of an education and meaningful work. Victims suffer health risks associated with early sexual activity, such as high risks of maternal and child mortality and sexually transmitted infections, such as HIV/AIDS. They are also likely to be victims of domestic, sexual, and/or emotional abuse, and may suffer from social isolation. Child marriages have negative and unexpected consequences like propagation of disease, divorce cases and escaping from home. While parent’s poverty and illiteracy may lead to their marrying daughters as child, these very marriages will prevent the daughters from having access to education and economic progress. Research Questions: 1. What are the Social, Economic and Political consequences of forced and early marriages in rural society? Objective The focus of this concept paper is to know reasons, causes and consequences of early childhood marriages in Afghanistan. In addition this will seek on vulnerabilities which the girls face by forced and early marriages in rural areas and how it is linked with the rural society and contribute with the poverty, violence and isolation of the families. Research method: The Research will included literature review, reviews of existing files in hospitals and schools, interviews with hospital and school directors, interviews with Rural people (Target area), Government officials and NGOs. Forced Marriages in Afghanistan Afghanistan y Tahera Nassrat   |   on April 6th, 2010   |   9 comments Throughout the world, there are 49 countries that have forced marriage or child bride problems. Forced marriage is simply breach of basic human rights. It is a form of domestic violence and child abuse that contributes to a society’s problems. Afghanistan is one of the Islamic countries where people hold strongly tight to customs and traditions. Breaking the tradition of marrying young children, both boys and g irls, is not only difficult, but near impossible in most urban districts. In the rural areas of Afghanistan, girls are mostly married between ages of 7 to 11. It is really rare that a girl reaches the age of 16 and is not married. The customs, traditions and community they live in make it impossible for girls to break free from forced marriages. They do not get ask to speak for self desire. The fathers in the families mostly decide, as the mothers do not get involved in the decisions, because they are women. By marrying   children in early ages, families are putting them in situations of isolation, health problems, abuse, suicide and lack of education. They believe, they are doing best for their children and without their consents, they bond them into marriage contracts. However, they don’t consider that forced marriage affect women and young children adversely. It involves negative situations like threatening behavior, emotional blackmail, physical violence, rape, sexual abuse, suicide and even murder and young children are obviously not in the capacity to handle such pressure. According to a United Nations’ report, between 60 to 80 percent of marriages in Afghanistan are forced marriages. The report states that the reason why girls are dragged into forced marriages are; repayment of debts; to solve a dispute and to pay family expenses. Moreover, It is obvious among Pashtons, that their widow will never marry someone out of their family, as they always marry the brother of their deceased husband. However in a non-Pashton family, the girl is asked to marry her brother-in-law to get support for the children of her sister. Even worse, some sisters are married to pay for the crime of their brothers by marrying the victims. So, people in Afghanistan believe it is part of culture to marry a girl before age of 18th and not let her have a say, but they should consider that forcing a girl to marry cannot be regarded as cultural practice in any society. It is a violation of basic human rights. Therefore, women as part of society should be able to freely express their choices about their lifestyle desires. The video bellow is history of a 12 year girl who was forced into marriage. She ran away to break free from her in-laws, but unfortunately was arrested and in form of punishment by her husband (a Talib) she lost her nose and ear. Child Marriage in Afghanistan October 2, 2011 by Aamozgar01 Filed under Cultural, Featured 5 Comments If the government of Afghanistan does not stop the practice of child marriage, most mothers will lose their children besides their own lives in Afghanistan as a result of under age marriage. Indeed, getting married under the age of eighteen or sixteen is not legal according to any law around world because it is internationally accepted that at least the couples should be sixteen. Although according to the Afghan Civil Law the minimum age of marriage for male is 18 and female 16, according to reports of Medica Mondiale and UNICEF, 57 per cent of Afghan females are married under the age sixteen without their consent because of their parent’s financial problems. Moreover, Getting married under 16 sixteen will result several serious health problems for mothers that cause them not to develop properly, neither physically nor psychologically (Earily Marriage in Afghanistan). For instance, a woman living in Qala-e-Bakhtiar of Kabul with her six children has said to Medica Mondial that she was only 15 when she was married against her will. She hates the noise of her children   because   of   having   psychological   problems. (W. Mukhatari , pg 6). The marriage of children by force is against human rights. Children know nothing about their sexual relationship with their life partners, because they are still child and their parents should take care of them. Therefore, to save the Afghan female hildren from being exchanged for an amount   of   money   to   solve   a   family s   financial   problems,   Afghanistan government   should   educate   and campaign     about   consequences   of   child   marriage,   increase employment opportunities for parents, and enforce the law by making the marriage registration legal. In spite of understanding the childhood condition of children, most of the Afghan parents marry their daughters because financial problems they are facing. Poverty is a challenge, which changes the lives of children besides the culture of early child marriage. According to the report by Millennium Development Goals for Afghanistan, the average income of per member of family is 200$ a year and less than one dollar   a   day. So, they   are   considered   below   the   poverty   line     (Earily     Marriage   in Afghanistan). Thus, to get out of the financial crises the marriage of their daughters before their legal ages such 16 or 18 would be considered for some families the only option for the parents to protect their family honor, pay their debts and take a little amount of money in exchange for their. First of all, one of the reasons of child marriage is to receive an exorbitant amount of money, which is called Toyana (wedding expenses) in Dari. The payment that parents   receive from the groom family is not less than 300,000 Afs. and is not meant to be the wedding expenses, but the price of their child daughter. In a report about the child   marriages   in   Afghanistan   by   the   Women   and   Children   Legal   Research   Foundation (WCLRF) shows that most of the interviewees have said that the only reason they were married in their childhoods was to receive Toyana from the groom’s family (Earily Marriage in Afghanistan). Secondly, the other factor that makes the poor families marry their daughters under the age sixteen, often times in rural areas, is to exchange women for women which is called Badal. The practice of this type of marriage is very common among the afghan people. This kind of marriage saves a huge expense of both sides because of exchanging their child daughters from a family to another family to satisfy both sides. The wedding party of such kind of marriage is often   celebrated at one time to avoid spending an   large amount of money. Indeed, it is the little young female who is devoted for her brother and is victimized for a little amount of money. Third, debt is another function that the females are exchanged for under the age sixteen in Afghanistan. When a family is unable to pay its debt within limited time that agreed, then the family is supposed to pay a huge amount that satisfy the lender, such as building, farming land, in some cases even a daughter otherwise the family is put in jail. So, the only remaining option for the family to protect its ancestors   property would be to sacrifice a daughter as a form of repayment for debt. It does not matter whether the child daughter is 9 or 18 years. As an explicit example, Shahs Family had to marry their 9 year old daughter Khalida   two years ago. Shah had received almost 2000$ from a drug trader to grow opium in his land, but the government crop-eradication team destroyed his poppy field and put the Shah family in debt. So, he had to give his 9 years daughter to drug trader because nothing was left in his life. (Clifford) Forth, the traditional custom of Afghan people is victimizing the child females in most of the rural areas. One of the reasons of child marriage in Afghanistan is Baad, which is a traditional way of having the child females to marry one of males from the family of   enemy and forcing her to accept him as her husband in compensation for the crime that her father or brother has committed against the enemy family, and to stop the enmity between two families. For instance, Aisha, an Afghan female whose nose and ears were cut by her Al-Qaeda husband in Oruzgan province, was just 8 years old when she was given as a Baad to her husband family 10 years ago (Shaming her in-laws costs ). Because her father had killed a member of her husband family, so he had to give his daughter to compensate his crime and to avoid being imprisoned or being killed by his enemy. Unfortunately, when the child female goes to her husband house in Baad marriage she is not going to her in-laws   house as a bride but as a slave. Consequently, the child marriage has several negative impacts on the health of both, mothers and babies. The female children wh o are married under the age of 16 0r 18 would not be prepared for pregnancies and child birth. A statistic of child marriage by Women and Children Legal   Research   Foundation   (WCLRF)   shows   that   28. 7%   mothers   have   physiological   and psychological problems, 34. 1% have physically weak children,   8. 9% have handicapped and disabled children, 1. 6% have children with different types of diseases and disorders, and 40. 4% of these women have suffered from gynecological disease (Earily Marriage in Afghanistan). In addition, the child marriage would result to take the life of the mothers along with losing the babies. Most   of   the   mothers   who   are   dying   at the age of   18-19   are   because   of   their   early regnancies, and the chance of   survival for the babies would be forty per cent comparing to the mothers who married in their proper ages (Sadik). Furthermore, child marriage would result the child brides to be abused by their in-laws family. Most of the child females face various violations after t hey get married, such as no right to choose, no right to go somewhere without the permission of her husband . When the violation increase the child bride is going to be isolated from the families and relatives. Thus, the only options that remains for the child bride is to suicide or escape from home. The interview of female prisoners by   the   Medica   Mendials   legal   staff   shows   that   60%   of prisoners   were   the   escapees   from husbands   houses who were married under the age sixteen. Most of the prisoners have said that they   were   being   abused   or   even   being   threaten   to   dead by   their   in-laws   families (W. Mukhatari , pg 9) . To come out of the child marriage problem and save little young girls in Afghanistan, education and awareness of public are the main keys to prevent from child marriage. The government should provide community education programs to inform the public about negative consequences of child marriage. Such programs can be implemented easily by   Ministry of Women Affairs, which   can   easily   teach   the   women   of   an   area   without   any   problem,   or   in   other   way,   the government should pay the clergymen of mosques to advice the parents on their tribunes. These are the only sources that families can trust on. Moreover, the government should implement public awareness campaigns by international organizations and by holding Shoras and Jirgas with the elders of rural areas to talk about the negative impacts of child marriage (Earily Marriage in Afghanistan). The government of Afghanistan should enforce the law to prevent child marriages. For instance, keeping the marriage registration regularly by the government agencies and receiving the evidence and acquiescence of both sides could be a possible way to reduce the child marriage. For example, in parts of   Indonesia, registration of marriage is dependent on evidence that the marriage is not forced on couples (Sadik). The parents who marry their daughters in their childhood under the age 16 should punished and persecuted seriously by the government as governments of Norway and Kyrgyzstan did. They both have set the minimum age of the girls 17 and the punishment of those who marry the females earlier than the age 17 would be jailed for 2 to 6 years. Weak Economy is another factor, which causes most child marriages in Afghanistan. The government should try to develop the economic situation in rural areas where   women have   cannot   earn   money   for   themselves. For example,   the   project   of Micro finance Investment   Support   Facility   for   Afghanistan,   which   is   donated   by   the   World   Bank   and   is implemented by the Rural Rehabilitation and Development Ministry, should be accessible for all women the Afghanistan. In fact, lending a little amount of money to women can be   the   start   of   their   business   to   provide   their   own   necessities. For example   Saima Mohammad who was about to be divorced by her husband because of having only a daughter and no son. Her husband had borrowed 3,000$, and he was not able to pay it back. So, Saima went to Pakistani micro finance organization called Kashf Foundation, took out only 65$ as loan and bought her 65$ bead and clothes to make embroidery from them and sell them to market in Lahor. She has everything now, and even her husband is working with her (Knistaff). The government should be serious in taking important steps against child   marriages in Afghanistan, because child marriage is dangerous for the health of both, mothers and their babies. People should be informed; the parents who force their child daughters to marry and those who marry females under the age sixteen should be punished. Most importantly, the economic situation of people should be developed to prevent them to not marry their children under the age sixteen in exchange for an amount of money. So, the Afghan government needs to increase peoples’ awareness about the outcome of early marriage, make employment opportunities and persecute those who marry their children before the age sixteen. Written by: Zabiullah Zabi http://www. aamozgar. org/child-marriage-in-afghanistan/ Forced and Child Marriage Forced and child marriages entrap women and young girls in relationships that deprive them of their basic human rights. Forced marriage constitutes a human rights violation in and of itself. Article One of the  Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages  states that â€Å"No marriage shall be legally entered into without the full and free consent of both parties, such consent to be expressed by them in person after due publicity and in the presence of the authority competent to solemnize the marriage and of witnesses, as prescribed by law. † The Marriage Convention addresses the issue of age. According to Article 2 of the  Convention, â€Å"States Parties to the present Convention shall take legislative action to specify a minimum age for marriage. No marriage shall be legally entered into by any person under this age, except where a competent authority has granted a dispensation as to age, for serious reasons, in the interest of the intending spouses. †Ã‚   Under General Assembly Resolution 2018 (XX) of 1 November 1965, â€Å"Recommendation on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages,† Principle II states that the minimum age to marry be set no lower than fifteen years. However, this is only a recommendation and it still allows room for a competent authority to grant â€Å"dispensation as to age for serious reasons. Leaving the minimum age of consent to the discretion of each country and allowing an authority to make exceptions to the minimum age of marriage aggravates the potential for early and forced marriages. Forced marriages differ from arranged marriages. In forced marriages, one or both of the partners cannot give free or valid consent to the marriage. Forced marriages i nvolve varying degrees of force, coercion or deception, ranging from emotional pressure by family or community members to abduction and imprisonment. Emotional pressure from a victim’s family includes repeatedly telling the victim that the family’s social standing and reputation are at stake, as well as isolating the victim or refusing to speak to her. In more severe cases, the victim can be subject to physical or sexual abuse, including rape. In arranged marriages, the parents and families play a leading role in arranging the marriage, but the individuals getting married can nonetheless chose whether to marry or not. Many regard arranged marriage as a well-established cultural tradition that flourishes in many communities, so a clear distinction should be drawn between forced and arranged marriages. However, in some cases the difference between a forced marriage and an arranged marriage may be purely semantic. In her January 2007 report, â€Å"Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Human Rights Aspects of the Victims of Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children,† Sigma Huda states that, â€Å"[a] marriage imposed on a woman not by explicit force, but by subjecting her to relentless pressure and/or manipulation, ften by telling her that her refusal of a suitor will harm her family’s standing in the community, can also be understood as forced. † Prevalence Forced and child marriage mainly affects young women and girls, although there are cases of young men and boys being forced to marry—especially if there are concerns about his sexual orientation. Reliable statistics on forced marriage are difficult to compile due to the unofficial and, therefore, undocumented nature of most forced marriages. In 2003, the International Centre for Research on Women estimated that more than 51 million girls under 18 years were married and they expected the figure to rise to over 100 million within the next ten years. Similarly, in 2006, experts estimated that thirty-eight percent of young women aged 20 to 24 in the fifty least developed countries were married before the age of 18. >>Learn more Causes and Risk Factors No major world religion sanctions forced marriage. It is purely a cultural practice. However, no culture exclusively practices forced marriage. Victims are forced into marriage for many different reasons. In the  United Kingdom, the Working Group on Forced Marriage found that most cases were a result of â€Å"loving manipulation, where parents genuinely felt that they were acting in their children and family’s best interests. †   To families living in poverty or economic instability, a daughter may be seen as an â€Å"economic burden† who must be married as soon as possible to take financial strain off of the family. Marriage can also be used to settle a debt, or to strengthen family or caste status through social alliances. Fears about sexual activity before marriage, or fear of rumors about such activity ruining a daughter’s opportunity to marry well, also fuel early and forced marriages. >> Learn more Consequences and Effects Forced and child marriages have severe psychological, emotional, medical, financial, and legal consequences. Victims tend to be isolated from their peers and friends. They rarely have access to social services that could assist them. Early marriages often interrupt a victim’s education. This deprives them of their right to education, as well as limits any possibility of economic independence from their spouse, making it more difficult to escape from an unwanted marriage. The unofficial nature of many of these marriages means that they often go unregistered, leaving a woman with no legal protections in cases of separation. Forced and child marriages are also more likely to become violent because the relationship is based on the power of one spouse over the other. In addition, complications during childbirth are much more common among young mothers. >>Learn more International and Domestic Law and Policies Numerous international legal instruments prohibit forced and child marriage, including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the United Nations Convention on Consent to Marriage, Minimum Age for Marriage and Registration of Marriages, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Although most countries have signed onto these documents, many countries have not taken sufficient steps to implement these treaties. In 2005, the Council of Europe adopted  Resolution 1468  on forced marriages and child marriages. However, only a few countries have criminalized forced marriage.

Alice Munro the Found Boat Essay

At the end of Bell Street, McKay Street, Mayo Street, there was the Flood. It was the Wawanash River, which every spring overflowed its banks. Some springs, say one in every five, it covered the roads on that side of town and washed over the fields, creating a shallow choppy take. Light reflected off the water made every- thing bright and cold, as it is in a lakeside town, and woke or revived in people certain vague hopes of disaster. Mostly during the late afternoon and early evening, there were people straggling out to took at it, and discuss whether it was still rising, and whether this time it might invade the town. In general, those under fifteen and over sixty-five were most certain that it would. Eva and Carol rode out on their bicycles. They left the road-it was the end of Mayo Street, past any houses- and rode right into a field, over a wire fence entirely flattened by the weight of the winter’s snow. They coasted a little way before the long grass stopped them, then left their bicycles lying down and went to the water. ‘We have to find a log and ride on it,† Eva said. ‘Jesus, we’ll freeze our legs off. ‘Jesus, we’ll freeze our legs off’ said one of the boys who were there too at the water’s edge. He spoke in a sour whine, the way boys imitated girls although it was nothing like the way girls talked. These boys-there were three of them- were all in the same class as Eva and Carol at school and were known to them by name (their names being Frank, Bud and Clayton), but Eva and Carol, who had seen and recognized them from the road, had not spoken to them or looked at them or, even yet, given any sign of knowing they were there. The boys seemed to be trying to make a raft, from lumber they had salvaged from the water. Eva and Carol took off their shoes and socks and waded in. The water was so cold it sent pain up their legs, like blue electric sparks shooting through their veins, but they went on, putting their skirts high, tight behind and bunched so they could hold them in front. ‘Look at the fat-assed ducks in wading. ‘ ‘Fat-assed f****. † Eva and Carol, of course, gave no sign of hearing this. They laid hold of a log and climbed on, taking a couple of boards floating in the water for addles. There were always things floating around in the Flood-branches, fence-rails, logs, road signs, old lumber; sometimes boilers, washtubs, pots and pans, or even a car seat or stuffed chair, as if somewhere the Flood had got into a dump. They paddled away from shore, heading out into the cold take. The water was perfectly clear, they could see the brown grass swimming along the bottom. Suppose it was the sea, thought Eva. She thought of drowned cities and countries. Atlantis. Suppose they were riding in a Viking boat-Viking boats on the Atlantic were more frail and narrow than this log on the Flood-and they had miles of clear sea beneath them, then a spired city, intact as a jewel irretrievable on the ocean floor. This is a Viking boat,† she said. ‘I am the carving on the front. † She stuck her chest out and stretched her neck, trying to make a curve, and she made a face, putting out her tongue. Then she turned and for the first time took notice of the boys. ‘Hey, you sucks! † she yelled at them. ‘You’d be scared to come out here, this water is ten feet deep! â€Å"Liar,’ they answered without interest, and she was. They steered the log around a row of trees, avoiding floating barbed wire, and got into a little bay created by a natural hollow of the land. Where the bay was now, there would be a pond full of frogs later in the spring, and by the middle of summer there would be no water visible at all, just a low tangle of reeds and bushes, green, to show that mud was still wet around their roots. Larger bushes, willows, grew around the steep bank of this pond and were still partly out of the water. Eva and Carol let the log ride in. They saw a place where something was caught. It was a boat, or part of one. An old rowboat with most of one side ripped out, the board that had been the seat just dangling. It was pushed up among the branches, lying on what would have been its side, if it had a side, the prow caught high. Their idea came to them without consultation, at the same time: ‘You guys! Hey, you guys! † ‘We found you a boat! † â€Å"Stop building your stupid raft and come and took at the boat! ‘ What surprised them in the first place was that the boys really did come, scrambling overland, half running, half sliding down the bank, wanting to see. ‘Hey, where? ‘ ‘Where is it, I don’t see no boat. â€Å" What surprised them in the second place was that when the boys did actually see what boat was meant, this old flood-smashed wreck held up in the branches, they did not understand that they had been footed, that a joke had been played on them. They did not show a moment’s disappointment, but seemed as pleased at the discovery as if the boat had been whole and new. They were already barefoot, because they had been wading in the water to get lumber, and they waded in here without a stop, surrounding the boat and appraising it and paying no attention even of an insulting kind to Eva and Carol who bobbed up and down on their log. Eva and Carol had to call to them. ‘How do you think you’re going to get it off.? ‘ â€Å"It won’t float anyway. ‘ ‘What makes you think it will float? ‘ ‘It’ll sink. Glub-blub-blub, you’ll all be drownded. † The boys did not answer, because they were too busy walking around the boat, pulling at it in a testing way to see how it could be got off with the least possible damage. Frank, who was the most literate, talkative and inept of the three, began referring to the boat as she, an affectation which Eva and Carol acknowledged with fish-mouths of contempt. ‘She’s caught two places. You got to be careful not to tear a hole in her bottom. She’s heavier than you’d think. ‘ It was Clayton who climbed up and freed the boat, and Bud, a tall fat boy, who got the weight of it on his back to turn it into the water so that they could half float, half carry it to shore. All this took some time. Eva and Carol abandoned their log and waded out of the water. They walked overland to get their shoes and socks and bicycles. They did not need to come back this way but they came. They stood at the top of the hill, leaning on their bicycles. They did not go on home, but they did not sit down and frankly watch, either. They stood more or less facing each other, but glancing down at the water and at the boys struggling with the boat, as if they had just halted for a moment out of curiosity, and staying longer than they intended, to see what came of this unpromising project. About nine o’clock, or when it was nearly dark-dark to people inside the houses, but not quite dark outside-they all returned to town, going along Mayo Street in a sort of procession. Frank and Bud and Clayton came carrying the boat, upside-down, and Eva and Carol walked behind, wheeling their bicycles. The boys’ heads were almost hidden in the darkness of the overturned boat, with its smell of soaked wood, cold swampy water. The girls could took ahead and see the street lights in their tin reflectors, a necklace of lights climbing Mayo Street, reaching all the way up to the standpipe. They turned onto Burns Street heading for Clayton’s house, the nearest house belonging to any of them. nis was not the way home for Eva or for Carol either, but they followed along. The boys were perhaps too busy carrying the boat to tell them to go away. Some younger children were still out playing, playing hopscotch on the sidewalk though they could hardly see. At this time of year the bare sidewalk was still such a novelty and delight. These children cleared out of the way and watched the boat 90 by with unwilling respect; they shouted questions after it, wanting to know where it came from and what was going to be done with it. No one answered them. Eva and Carol as well as the boys refused to answer or even took at them. The five of them entered Clayton’s yard. ‘Me boys shifted weight, as if they were going to put the boat down. You better take it round to the back where nobody can see it,’ Carol said. That was the first thing any of them had said since they came into town. The boys said nothing but went on, following a mud path between Clayton’s house and a leaning board fence. They let the boat down in the back yard. â€Å"It’s a stolen boat, you know,† said Eva, mainly for the effect. ‘It must’ve belonged to somebody. You stole it. † ‘You was the ones who stole it then,† Bud said, short of breath. ‘It was you seen it first. † -It was you took it. † ‘It was all of us then. If one of us gets in trouble then all of us does. ‘Are you going to tell anybody on them? † said Carol as she and Eva rode home, along the streets which were dark between the lights now and potholed from winter. â€Å"It’s up to you. I won’t if you won’t. † â€Å"I won’t if you won’t† They rode in silence, relinquishing something, but not discontented. The board fence in Clayton’s back yard had every so often a post which sup, ported it, or tried to, and it was on these posts that Eva and Carol spent several evenings sitting, jauntily but not very comfortably. Or else they just leaned against the fence while the boys worked on the boat. During the first couple of evenings neighborhood children attracted by the sound of hammering tried to get into the yard to see what was going on, but Eva and Carol blocked their way. â€Å"Who said you could come in here? † ‘Just us can come in this yard. † These evenings were getting longer, the air milder. Skipping was starting on the sidewalks. Further along the street there was a row of hard maples that had been tapped. Children drank the sap as fast as it could drip into the buckets. The old man and woman who owned the trees, and who hoped to make syrup, came running out of the house making noises as if they were trying to scare away crows. Finally, every spring, the old man would come out on his porch and fire his shot- gun into the air, and then the thieving would stop. None of those working on the boat bothered about stealing sap, though all had done so last year. The lumber to repair the boat was picked up here and there, along back lanes. At this time of year things were lying around-old boards and branches, sodden mitts, spoons Hung out with the dishwater, lids of pudding pots that had been set in the snow to cool, all the debris that can sift through and survive winter. The tools came from Clayton’s cellar-left over, presumably, from the time when his father was alive- and though they had nobody to advise them the boys seemed to figure out more or less the manner in which boats are built, or rebuilt. Frank was the one who showed up with diagrams from books and Popular Mechanics magazines. Clayton looked at these diagrams and listened to Frank read the instructions and then went ahead and decided in his own way what was to be done. Bud was best at sawing. Eva and Carol watched everything from the fence and offered criticism and thought up names. Me names for the boat that they thought of were: Water Lily, Sea Horse, Flood Queen, and Caro-Eve, after them because they had found it. The boys did not say which, if any, of these names they found satisfactory. The boat had to be tarred. Clayton heated up a pot of tar on the kitchen stove and brought it out and painted slowly, his thorough way, sitting astride the overturned boat. The other boys were sawing a board to make a new seat. As Clayton worked, the tar cooled and thickened so that finally he could not move the brush any more. He turned to Eva and held out the pot and said, ‘You ran go in and heat this on the stove. ‘ Eva took the pot and went up the back steps. The kitchen seemed black after outside, but it must be light enough to see in, because there was Clayton’s mother standing at the ironing board, ironing. She did that for a living, took in wash and ironing. ‘Please may I put the tar pot on the stove? † said Eva, who had been brought up to talk politely to parents, even wash-and-iron ladies, and who for some reason especially wanted to make a good impression on Clayton’s mother. You’ll have to poke up the fire then,’ said Clayton’s mother, as if she doubted whether Eva would know how to do that. But Eva could see now, and she picked up the lid with the stove-lifter, and took the poker and poked up a flame. She stirred the tar as it softened. She felt privileged. Then and later. Before she went to sleep a picture of Clayton came to her mind; she saw him sitting astride the boat, tar painting, with such concentration, delicacy, absorption. She thought of him speaking to her, out of his isolation, in such an ordinary peaceful taking-for- granted voice. On the twenty-fourth of May, a school holiday in the middle of the week, the boat was carried out of town, a long way now, off the road over fields and fences that had been repaired, to where the river flowed between its normal banks. Eva and Carol, as well as the boys, took turns carrying it. It was launched in the water from a cow-trampled spot between willow bushes that were fresh out in leaf. The boys went first. They yelled with triumph when the boat did float, when it rode amazingly down the river current. The boat was painted black, and green inside, with yellow seats, and a strip of yellow all the way around the outside. There was no name on it, after all. The boys could not imagine that it needed any name to keep it separate from the other boats in the world. Eva and Carol ran along the bank, carrying bags full of peanut butter-and- jam sandwiches, pickles, bananas, chocolate cake, potato chips, graham crackers stuck together with corn syrup and five bottles of pop to be cooled in the river water. The bottles bumped against their legs. They yelled for a turn. ‘If they don’t let us they’re bastards,† Carol said, and they yelled together, ‘We found it! We found it! The boys did not answer, but after a while they brought the boat in, and Carol and Eva came crashing, panting down the bank. ‘Does it leak? ‘ ‘It don’t leak yet. † ‘We forgot a bailing can,’ waited Carol, but nevertheless she got in, with Eva, and Frank pushed them off, crying, ‘Here’s to a Watery Grave! ‘ And the thing about being in a boat was that it was not solidly bobbing, like a log, but was cupped in the water, so that riding in it was not like being on some- thing in the water, but like being in the water itself. Soon they were ll going out in the boat in mixed-up turns, two boys and a girt, two girls and a boy, a girl and a boy, until things were so confused it was impossible to tell whose turn came next, and nobody cared anyway. They went down the river -those who weren’t riding, running along the bank to keep up. They passed under two bridges, one iron, one cement. Once they saw a big carp just resting, it seemed to smile at them, in the bridge-shaded water. They did not know how far they had gone on the river, but things had changed- the water had got shallower, and the land flatter. Across an open field they saw a building that looked like a house, abandoned. They dragged the boat up on the bank and tied it and set out across the field. ‘That’s the old station,’ Frank said. ‘That’s Pedder Station. ‘ The others had heard this name but he was the one who knew, because his father was the station agent in town. He said that this was a station on a branch line that had been tom up, and that there had been a sawmill here, but a long time ago. Inside the station it was dark, cool. All the windows were broken. Glass lay in shards and in fairly big pieces on the door. They walked around finding the larger pieces of glass and tramping on them, smashing them, it was like cracking ice on puddles. Some partitions were still in place, you could see where the ticket window had been. There was a bench lying on its side. People had been here, it looked as if people came here all the time, though it was so far from anywhere. Beer bottles and pop bottles were lying around, also cigarette packages, gum and candy wrappers, the paper from a loaf of bread. The walls were covered with dim and fresh pencil and chalk writings and carved with knives.