Category: Youth

Abstract

Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange should start focusing on young investors in this country who have been ignored for a long time. These young people have the capacity to invest in various sectors that can help boost the economy of this country. However, there is a need to get the right education about stock market investment in order to realize its potential. When they have this knowledge, the government should introduce incentives that will make it easy for them to trade in this market. This is the only way ADX can attract young investors.

Introduction

Young people are succeeding in the stock market in various countries around the world. In Abu Dhabi, the youth have the potential to achieve a similar success if they are educated on approaches they can take when planning to invest in this area. However, Thomas (2011) says that most youths have ignored the stock market because they lack the right information. They do not understand how they can generate attractive incomes from the stock market.

This plan seeks to find a way through which Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange can educate and attract young people to the stock market investment. The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange should form a partnership with the Ministry of Education in order to find a way of introducing informative lessons about the stock exchange at early stages of learning. According to Becket (2012), the best way of reaching a large number of young people in an effective manner is through their class work.

The current syllabus that is used in the high school and even in the college does not focus on stock market investment. It is possible for one to graduate from college without knowing anything about stock market investment, especially if they take courses, which are not business related. Examinable investment lessons should be introduced in high schools and colleges to enlighten the youths about investing in stock market.

The management of Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange may consider starting mentorship programs, which target young people in this society in order to attract them to the stock market. It may be important to organize talk shows in schools and colleges to educate and attract young investors to the stock market.

ADX can engage successful entrepreneurs in such talk shows in order to mentor young investors into this market. The social media can be very helpful in reaching out to the youth who have just left colleges. Such episodes may be posted in YouTube so that they can follow them anywhere in the country. Facebook and Tweeter may also be very appropriate in educating the youth about investment in the stock market. These initiatives should be organized and executed by a unit within this firm, and the management should set some funds aside specifically for them.

The Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange should invite college students to forums where they can learn how to trade in the stock exchange. In these seminars, students will be able to learn the dynamics of trading in this market from a practical perspective. They will be able to see how people earn interests in their investments in real time. This will motivate young people to consider investing their money into stock market.

Benchmark with successful worldwide stock

In order to achieve the desired success in this programme, it will be necessary to use successful initiatives of other countries’ stock market as a benchmark. The management of Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange will need to analyze the initiatives used by these stock markets in order to attract young investors.

One such initiative was recently introduced in Japan. According to Becket (2012), the Japanese government introduced a tax incentive for youths who considered investing in Tokyo Stock Exchange. The government conducted a survey of the investments made by the young Japanese and realized that most of them were investing in very delicate industries. For instance, many of them found the food industry to be very lucrative, but they were unable to achieve success because of the level of competition and the huge investments needed (Field, 2014). This resulted in a massive closure of new start-ups soon after taking off.

This would have serious negative impacts on investors. For this reason, the government decided to come up with a programme in 2007 that was to help the youth consider investing in the stock market (Kelly, 2010).

The government considered stock market to be the best investment for the youths because of their limited experience in running businesses. It was also very good for those who were in school because it only needs a fraction of their time. The government offered the youth tax holidays once they invested in the stock market (Field, 2014).

Although this initiative has received criticism from some people, Kelly (2010) says that it had a massive impact on the youth’s investment strategies. Before this programme, most of the young people in this country believed that stock market was meant for the older generation. However, they started viewing the stock market from a different perspective.

They realized that it was one of the best investment opportunities. It may not have given immediate results as many people expected. However, Becket (2012) says that it created awareness among the youths, and the impact is currently being felt. This scholar notes that Japan is one of the countries in the world with high a number of youths actively investing in the stock market.

New York Stock Exchange has the best history when it comes to the investment by young people. According to Hart (2005), this may be partly because of the fact that the public is well informed about stock market investment. Students start learning about this stock market at a very tender age, and this help them understand its benefits.

The management of New York Stock Exchange has continuously engaged the public through various events and this has helped so much in awareness creation. Some of the television shows that are partially sponsored by this stock market have also helped in enlightening the youth about the benefits of investing in the stock market.

One such show is the Shark Tank. Young people who want to expand their businesses always dominate the show. The show demonstrates to the viewers that one does not need to start a new business to own a business. One of the easiest ways out is to invest in an already existing firm that has a great potential in the market. These shows always create a desire among the youth to find a way of investing their income in the existing firms instead of starting high-risk businesses.

How ADX Can Support Young People to Start Investment in Stock Market

Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange can start successful initiatives that can help in attracting young investors into the stock market. According to Kelly (2010), young people have always been ignored when it comes to investing into the stock market. However, a new trend is emerging, especially in the United States and Europe, where young individuals start from a scratch and struggle through to become successful millionaires because of their business minds.

Facebook as a brand has already overtaken some of the best-known brands in the market such as the General Motors, Emirates Airline, and even PepsiCo (Becket, 2012). Facebook is an initiative of young people who believed that they could make it through in business. This justifies the need for this stock market to reorganize its strategies so that it can attract this new market niche. However, it is a fact that most of the youths may need some form of support in order start investing in the stock market.

Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange should start by engaging the stockbrokers to lower the rates they charge on their clients. These young investors should find it easy to buy and sell their shares without being levied exorbitant charges that may lower their profits.

According to Kelly (2010), most of the first-time investors in the stock market are always interested in the short-term investments because they want to test the market. When the fees charged by stockbrokers are high, then these new investors may not benefit from their investments. Reducing this fee will help these young investors benefit from their investments in the stock market.

The management of Abu Dhabi Securities Exchange may also consider petitioning the government to eliminate or lower taxes on the young investors. At this young age, these investors may need any form of help to boost their morale in investing in the stock market. The reduced taxation will help in increasing their profits in the stock market.

Successful Investors Who Made It into the Stock Market at Young Age

According to Bogle (2013), one of the best ways of motivating the youth into acting upon a given issue is to inform them of people who took the same path and achieved success. It is very important to identify some of the people who made it through in the stock market at a young age. It will offer these young people in Abu Dhabi an assurance that will encourage them to invest in the stock market.

Rachel Fox is a 16-year old American investor who has been very successful in the New York Stock Exchange for over the last few years. According to Macke (2014), Fox was a successful actor who started earning her own income at a very tender age. She would keep all her earnings in the bank account as per the advice given by the mother. At a tender age of fourteen, she decided to venture into the stock market with her income. That was in 2012.

The main challenge that she had to face at this tender age was her inexperience and limited knowledge in the stock market. She was a professional actor and new very little about trading in the stock market. In fact, Macke (2014) says that the only knowledge she had about stock market was from the episodes in her plays when she developed interests in this sector.

She had to rely heavily on the stockbrokers and her parents in order to invest her income wisely. Her tight schedule was also another challenge she had to deal with. She was still a student, an actor, a singer, and a guitarist (Macke, 2014). She had to give attention to all these areas, the fact that limited her time to learn more about stock market investment.

However, she believed that this was the best form of investment because it needed little of her attention. Macke (2014) also notes that the very first investment that Fox made was a total mess. She bought the stock at $ 2, but the value kept own depreciating and currently it is trading at a penny. However, she never gave up.

She went on and invested in other stocks, especially in the high-end jewels. This proved very successful. Her investment in the stock market started doubling, and currently, her earnings from acting and music is only a small fraction of what she gets from the stock market. Her success in the stock market has seen her become a blogger who offers young investors tips they can use when going to the stock market.

Michael Blanch flower is an Australian real estate investor who started his stock investment at the age of 19 years in 2003 (Field, 2014). The scholar notes that Michael gained interests in the real estate at a tender age. However, he did not have the right skills to venture into this business directly. His capital was also barely enough to start the investment. His main challenge at this age was the expertise needed to start a firm in this demanding industry.

Many financial institutions also considered him too young to be given a loan. He, therefore, decided to invest the little money he had in the stock market. He was very lucky because the demand for housing in Australia at this time was on the rise. He earned attractive interests, which he ploughed back.

He would increase his shares in the market every time he earned income from his regular job. His success in Australia convinced him to try investing in New York Stock Exchange. The results he got were amazing. Field (2014) says that Michael is currently one of the most successful NYSE traders in the real estate sector.

How ADX Can Educate and Attract Rural People into Stock Market

For a long time, trading in the stock exchange has been regarded as a preserve for the rich urban dwellers. However, people living in the rural set-ups in this country also have the capacity to invest in Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange. ADX needs to find a strategy of educating and attracting them so that they may find a reason to invest in this market. One of the best ways of doing this is through advertisements. ADX can use television commercials to educate the public on how to invest in the stock market and the benefits that comes with it.

ADX can also convince stockbrokers to set up offices in the densely populated rural settings so that their services are brought close to the people. This way, the rural investors can find it easy to visit these offices, ask relevant questions, and start investing in the Abu Dhabi Stock Exchange without having to travel to the city.

References

Becket, M. (2012). How the stock market works: A beginner’s guide to investment. London: Kogan Page.

Bogle, J. C. (2013). The little book of common sense investing: The only way to guarantee your fair share of stock market returns. Hoboken: Wiley.

Field, T. (2014). NZX looks to attract young investors. Web.

Hart, C. M. (2005). I want to make money in the stock market: Learn to begin investing without losing your life savings. Denver: Outskirts Press.

Kelly, J. (2010). The neatest little guide to stock market investing. New York: Plume Book.

Macke, J. (2014). 16-Year-Old Actress Turns into Stock Day Trader. Web.

Thomas, R. G. (2011). Free capital: How 12 private investors made millions in the stock market. Hampshire: Harriman House.

Introduction

Youths in United States are the future employees of various companies. Their age which normally ranges between 16 and 27 are mostly students or fresh graduates. At their age, they always want to be employed and be able to acquire the relevant skills which are greatly demanded by the employers. The youth always wants to be employed at a part time or seasonal basis since they still have to continue with their studies. The high cost of living has forced the youths in the United States to seek for employment after skull on daily basis or over the weekends and majority of them during their summers.

Discussion

The jobs availability for the youths is of great concern to the entire economy. If the economy is not performing well then the demand for employment will decrease, hence the youths employability will be decreased. The youths are exposed to many challenges in the US, unemployment being one of them. The youths supply for employment always is higher over summers. It’s due to this high number of the willing young people to work that the employers also exploits them with little wages and poor working conditions. When there is high supply of the youths, their demand by the employers will be less or the rules of the employment will fluctuate and mostly to the advantage of the employer.

The youths accessed to the job depends on the economic situation of the country. This will greatly determines the performance of the companies hence if well performing and the situations are favorable, their abilities to hire youths is enabled. Employment of youths in the United States depends on the availability of more resources and tasks to be executed. The employers have always targeted the availability of youths during summers hence at this time there are more jobs being created by the employers so as to reduce the number of jobless youths in the country.

Getting a first summer job for the youths in the United States is somehow complex than 50 years ago. This is because there are many people who have acquired the relevant credentials hence locking out quite a good percent of the youths as unemployed. The employers have valued the possession of certificates so much hence students will be relatively harder for them to get jobs than the adults. Employers also have concentrated on people who have knowledge and experience on the relevant fields which they are seeking employees. This will really reduce the number of the youths accessing the employment.

There have been various changes in the youth’s employment since 2001 across the gender. More women have been accessed to summer jobs than the male counterparts. This is a situation which is totally opposite from that which was experienced in the early 1980s. There has been an overall drop in the employment of youths in country which is reflecting that there increase deindustrialization in the economy. The crisis also in the year 2008 saw a lot of young people being unemployed from 2007 to 2009 summer period. There overall unemployment rate was affected by the economic crisis which hit the entire world. Most youths resulted to the crime activities as indicated that a higher percentage of youths were jailed for breaking the law over this period of unemployed youths (Krugman & Wells, 2009).

The youths have their needs to satisfy hence their demand for employment is due to the normal and basic necessities such as food, entertainment, clothing, and the educational fees. The chances of youths being employed depends on the type of industry and the overall performance of the economy. The employers also have a speculative way of projecting the cost associated with one employee from the insurance cover, daily allowances, and probably the wage rate.

Job satisfaction is very important in the employment sector. Most employees are not satisfied with their jobs especially the tasks they do. Employees are not being given specific roles to execute in the workplace hence their job dissatisfaction increases. The employees need to be given challenging tasks in line with their profession; they want to have excellent relationship among themselves and to the employer which they rarely come across.

This increases their dissatisfaction and may lead to high employee turnover since they have to change companies. The employees are not just after the pay, but good working conditions, their desire to grow in their line of profession and the advancement in life and work. If the employee does not get all these, in the workplace, the dissatisfaction will bring a lot of effects to the employer. In the US, many employers do not listen or offer the employees a chance to progress in their profession. This results in a high rate of employee turn over.

Employees in any organization are very important resources which have to be well taken care of at all times. After the end of recession, the company worst nightmare is losing its valuable resources such as the employees especially the young who are full of new ideas.

The youths in the US have been described to be the highest percentage of those who are searching for other openings elsewhere. More than half the employee turnover is of employees aged 16 years and 29. These are the young people who are looking for better opportunities at the work place especially after the economy has undergone some financial problems (Kates, 2010).

There should be policies which promotes the employees job satisfaction and reducing the employee turnover. The employer should at all times give the right job to the deserving person. This will enhances the quality of job done by the employees and relevant decisions will be made. The specification also as per the job descriptions is important. This will ensure that all the employees knows their roles and responsibilities hence their tasks will be enhanced and there will be a good job attachment. There should also be clear policies governing the succession plans in the employment especially for the core positions. The employees also need to be assured of their job security.

There has been increase in the youths who are in the market searching for jobs from 2.6 to 3.7 million in 2009. There are good policies set which make sure that a higher number of youths are employed hence, there are always high number of youths employed at this time over summers. The employed youths in the year 2009 rose to 19.3 million. The weak market conditions account for a higher percentage in the increasing rates of unemployment of the youths.

Conclusion

The economic crisis which began in the year 2007 is a major cause of the current youth’s unemployment. The more the number of youth’s employability, the more the income to the government through increase in the output and taxes. Employment has a positive effect on the gross domestic product (GDP).

References

Kates, S. (2010). Macroeconomic Theory and Its Failings: Alternative Perspectives on the Global Financial Crisis. Cheltenham: Edward Elgar Publishing.

Krugman, P., & Wells, R. (2009). Macroeconomics. New York: Worth Publishers.

Introduction

The purpose of this report was to identify the reason for the continued unhealthy lifestyle among the Singapore youth despite the government’s efforts to promote healthier diets and lifestyles and find viable solutions to the problem.

The report was requested by the Health Promotion Board (HPB) a government agency on July 1^st, 2009. The company that undertook the research is Research R-us, a highly reputable company in research services.

Background

Studies conducted have shown that the youth are at the risk of premature death due to an unhealthy lifestyle trend. This trend has put them at the risk of heart attacks, stroke, and other related illnesses. Singaporean youths are in danger too. A survey was done by HPB which randomly selected primary four students showed that they have health issues. Eighty were obese; six had Type 1 diabetes; twelve had mild hypertension and forty elevated cholesterol levels. Therefore HBP undertook a campaign to encourage students to lead healthier lifestyles but the trend has not changed completely and many youths are still in danger of premature deaths.

Methodology

Due to time and monetary constraints, the researcher used secondary data to compile this report. This involved reviewing articles, journals, and electronic materials especially the ones related to unhealthy lifestyles among school children and youths in Singapore.

Findings And Presentation

1. The youth are not concerned about their health because they feel invulnerable at their age but later in life they suffer.
2. Some youths engage in unhealthy lifestyles like smoking due to peers without realizing the danger they are exposing themselves to (Heng, 2007). Many Indian school-going children smoke as it is seen as fashionable.
3. Marketing of unhealthy foods to the youths is prevalent and it undermines all the efforts put in place by the government agencies to curb the habit. Global brands of junk food appeal at the expense of healthy foods (Unhealthy Foods, 2008).
4. Obesity in the youth is a global crisis that is escalating. The percentage for obesity in school children is 16.1% in Singapore, 14.3% in Thailand (Cook n.d).
5. Non-communicable diseases (NCDs) are on the rise in the Asia Pacific as a result of demographic and epidemiological transitions and are the leading causes of death (Noncommunicable Diseases n.d). For example, people move to towns and take up sedentary jobs, and are unaware of the danger these diseases pose. The graph below shows the number of people suffering from cardiovascular diseases and the figures rise in each consecutive year
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6. Some social norms view fat children as healthy and thin ones are considered to be sick thus children are given junk food to make them fatter (Noncommunicable Diseases n.d).
7. The food the youth love eating has sugar or salt above the recommended levels.
8. Poor diet, physical inactivity, hereditary genes, hormone imbalance, slow metabolism, environmental factors, friends, sedentary activities, and emotional problems (cook, 2009).

Analysis and Discussion

The youths are at risk of contracting heart diseases due to the modern lifestyle they are living. The primary causes of heart diseases have been made worse by the sedentary lifestyle of young people. Therefore exercise is almost non-existent for most youths. The problem is similar in both developed and developing countries. For instance, the USA has the highest number of obese children among the developed countries and studies have found that these children underperform in school. In the Singapore situation, most of the youths continue to become exposed to diseases because they want to do what everybody else is doing. For instance taking alcohol, smoking. Yet these habits have detrimental effects on their health. Countries have come up with school-based activities to encourage lifestyles among the youths because they are the future of the countries.

Conclusions

The youths are leading unhealthy lifestyles under the watchful eyes of their parents. Some parents allow their children to buy unhealthy foods probably because they do not have time to cook. The children are overweight due to the junk food they consume. They do not have enough knowledge about healthy eating thus are unable to make wise choices when it comes to food.

The era of information has also contributed to the problem of unhealthy lifestyles among the youths in Singapore. Most of the youths spend a lot of their free time sitting behind televisions, computers on social networks. These activities do not require much physical effort and therefore they gain extra weight.

The government’s efforts to reach the youth have not been very successful and more needs to be done to reverse the youths’ lifestyles.

Recommendations

1. The government should impose strict rules against the companies that market junk food to school children. They should stick to the recommended calorie levels and stop the use of cartoon characters and celebrities in food advertisements.
2. School lifestyles should be adapted in every learning institution. The lifestyle should aim to encourage the young children to avoid habits like: smoking, alcohol and drugs, sedentary lifestyle, poor dietary habits, and behavior that may lead to injury. These habits are the basis for unhealthy lifestyles that the youth learn early in life and carry them to adulthood. Thus it would be important to curb the problem at the roots.
3. Parents, teachers, and the governments should work hand in hand to reinforce healthy life practices. It has been found out that children are taught healthy eating habits yet some of their parents eat unhealthy food thus they do not heed the advice given.
4. The youths should be encouraged to seek help when they experience stress from the pressures of school, family, and friends. Schools should encourage the students to use the counseling services offered. This will help to reduce the depression of the immune system which leads to diseases.
5. Parents should be educated about the dangers of being overweight.

Reference list

Cook, D. n.d. Obesity Epidemic in Youth. Web.

Heng, C.H. (2007). The 14th Biennial School Nurses International Conference. Web.

Marketing unhealthy food to children in Asia Pacific (2008). Web.

Priority noncommunicable diseases and conditions n.d. Web.

Executive Summary

Youth’s Noise is a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization committed to educating local communities of the various health issues concerning the local population. The Youth’s Noise will provide the equipments and resources necessary for the youth, to create music videos with a goal of spreading awareness to the local community and perhaps to the world.

With a $15,000 grant, we will fund the first year of the program, in which high school freshmen will attend workshops, collect information on various health concerns to incorporate in their music videos, and lively perform in different communities in Washington, DC.

The economic and health issues faced by the LeDroit Park community are interrelated. One third of the LeDroit Park residents live in poverty. Lack of healthy food contribute to health problems because vital fruits, vegetable, and grains are replaced by inexpensive, high calorie starches and refined sugars (Corney 3).

In addition, inadequate diet among young adults increases fatigue, irritability, and difficulty concentrating. All students in this community are vulnerable, particularly high school students, as the physical and mental effects of insufficient nutrition are coupled with rapid developmental changes that lead to doubt about self worth and utility of formal education (Dunnavant 5).

Our proposed program will help high school students improve their own lifestyle and self esteem while spreading the awareness and educate in effective modern approach towards nutrition. Students will develop into community leaders through participating in spreading the message in videos and live performances.

It will also boost their confidence and give them the power make changes in the community and in themselves. A grant will enable us to hire coordinators, recruit participants, and fund media equipments to begin the end of various health issues in Washington, DC communities.

Introduction

Researches have shown that malnutrition remains one of the greatest concerns for the residents of LeDroit Park, Washington, DC (Riggs 98). Poor nutrition affects the health of young people living in the community, leading to a range of health concerns, including fatigue and problems with concentrating, as well as irritability and unwillingness to socialize (Budianto para. 2). Though the area is environmentally safe (Benfield para. 3), nutrition issues affect it deeply.

Therefore, the key purpose of the study is to prove that the incorporation of youth initiative into the set of measures used for addressing poor nutrition issues within the area will change the situation drastically. The objectives of the research, in their turn, concern the identification of the key steps to be taken in order to hold the event, the budget of the performance, the ways for attracting young people to the show and the location of the key health concerns to address in the course of the event.

It should be born in mind that the community, which the research is targeted at, is rather homogenous. As the graph below shows, Caucasians and Africa Americans make most of the population of the area (Butler 2), whereas American Indians, Native Hawaiians and other ethnicities are below the 5% threshold (“Ledroit Park, Washington, DC Demographics” para. 2).

As far as the gender issues are concerned, though, the area in question can be considered rather homogenous, with male to female ratio making 0.9 (“Ledroit Park, Washington, DC Demographics” para. 1).

Speaking of housing, living in the community is rather expensive, as the price is 2.6% higher than the average one in Washington. As the table below shows, the median rent is also rather costly, averaging to $1,350 (“Ledroit Park, Washington, DC Housing & Real Estate” para. 1). Compared with the rest of Washington ($1,200), the price seems rather high.

The crime rates within the specified area are rather high, with theft and burglary prevailing (“Washington LeDoit Park” para. 1). Therefore, the security levels must be increased in order to facilitate safety of the participants.

The education level is, in its turn, also comparatively high, with 75.1% of the population having completed college, and 4% getting a doctorate (“Ledroit Park, Washington, DC Education – Colleges & Universities” para. 3), which allows for hoping that the event will have a tangible effect on young people’s concern about the issue and make them research the problem in order to be more aware of it.

Scope

The project must be arranged on a rather large scale. Thus, it will be possible for the entire community to be reached. Among the key goals of the project, attracting young people’s attention to the malnutrition issues, promoting healthy eating habits and providing young people with the access to the information on the topic must be listed.

It should be born in mind that the feedback from the young people participating in the event, as well as those, who will attend the performance, will be required. Therefore, after the event is over, it will be necessary to conduct a series of interviews among the young people, who joined the performance.

As far as the schedule is concerned, it will be desirable that the event could be held at the following time: 9.00 a.m. – 6.00 p.m. Thus, the target audience will be capable of attending the event and giving their best to it. As a result, maximum turnout and an increase in engagement can be expected. It is suggested that the schedule should be organized in the following manner: the event will open with a small performance by the guest celebrity.

Next, a series of performances by the local young people will take place. Afterwards, a short break will occur, in the course of which young people will be provided with brochures and booklets on nutrition rules. Then, a series of performances by the guest celebrities featuring he local young performers will be carried out.

Detailed Budget

As far as the budget is concerned, it is necessary to bear in mind that there are only $15,000 at the disposal of the event organizers. Hence, the necessity to take all possible costs into account and distribute the finical resources carefully emerges. The following distribution of the finances seems quite legitimate:

Salaries: $ 5,000

Materials: $ 1,000

Facilities (Rent): $5,000

Transportation: $ 500

Duplication: $ 500

In-Kind Contributions: $ 3,000

Staffing

It will be necessary to hire the staff that is knowledgeable in nutrition and healthcare. To be more specific, the following specialists will be required: Events Organizors, Wellbeing Advisor, Leisure Assistant, Healthcare Workers, Clinical Education Specialists, Nutrition Specialists, and Care Assistants. the specialists in question will be recruited by placing advertisements online.

In addition, it will be required to take a range of precaution measures in order to make sure that the people hired for the job, in fact, meet the demands that their position will presuppose, and be capable of handling their responsibilities. Hence, it will be imperative to check the specified experts’ previous career record In addition, none of the people hired for the event may have a previous criminal record.

Though the event in question is designed specifically for the area in question, i. e, the needs and concerns of the people living in LeDroit Park, it will be reasonable that collaboration with several powerful organizations should be established. Thus, it will be possible to boost the process of raising awareness and, thus, help not only the LeDroit park people, but also all American communities with a similar concern.

Consequently, the cooperation with Arcadia Center for Sustainable Food & Agriculture, So Others Might Eat (SOME), Children’s National Medical Center, Mautner Project of Whitman-Walker Health and Food, Research, Action Center (FRAC) (Center for Community Engagement and Service 1–5) should be established.

It is expected that the Ronald McDonald House will be rented for holding the event. Therefore, all those interested in the subject matter, as well as the people willing to contribute or participate, may contact the organizers of the event with the help of the following information:

Conclusion

There is no need to stress the fact that dieting issues in general and the problems regarding fatigue, problems with concentration, irritability and other issues related to malnutrition have become a major concern for the residents of LeDroit Park in Washington, DC. More to the point, the concern for malnutrition and the effects that it has on young people has spread beyond the specified community and reached the statewide scope.

Seeing that neither nursing specialists, nor the local authorities have coped with the problem, it can be assumed that young people themselves will be able to handle the problem. By having young people take part in the event, one will be able to make a difference in the realm of healthcare.

The event of this scale may not be he enough to draw to attention of the entire United States to the concern, yet it will help turn some heads in the LeDroit Park, therefore, disclosing the shocking truth about the malnutrition issues and helping young people recognize the problem and, thus, learn to address it.

Works Cited

Benfield, K. “The Greening of DC’s LeDroit Park Neighborhood (Featuring a Baptist Church, a Farm, & HRH The Prince of Wales).” Natural Resources Defense Council. 2011. Web.

Budianto, A. “Program Provides Food, Farming Education to Urban Poor.” Voice of America. 2012. Web.

Butler, L. Howard University Cancer Center: Just a beginning. 2010. Web.

Corney, J. State of Washington, D.C.’s Neighborhoods. 2010. Web.

Dunnavant, J. Urban Development, Cemeteries, and a Need to Remember. Gainesville, FL: World Sustainability Forum. 2011. Print.

“Ledroit Park, Washington, DC Demographics” Area Vibes. 2014. Web.

“Ledroit Park, Washington, DC Education – Colleges & Universities.” Area Vibes. 2014. Web.

“Ledroit Park, Washington, DC Housing & Real Estate” Area Vibes. 2014. Web.

Riggs, Frank D. Public and Private School Choices in the District of Columbia. Washington, DC: Diane Publishing, 2001. Print.

“Washington LeDoit Park” Spot Crime. 2014. Web.

When defining or identifying certain characteristics within an Asian gang, many seem consistent but not always one-hundred percent accurate. First off, gang members are all male. There are females that hang around the Asian gangs, live in the same residents as gang members, even carry firearms for their boyfriends, but are never involved with criminal activities. Most commonly, female associates of Asian gangs are there usually to distract police officers or offer some sort of getaway once a crime has been committed.

Asian gangs tend to recruit members between the ages of twelve and seventeen. Like most other forms of gangs, younger children are more easily persuaded to join than the older crowd as most of the time it is the leaders of each gang that are in there twenties to early thirties. It is very common for the younger gang members to carry out random acts of violence (Chin, 1990).

Other characteristics include that most gang members are high school dropouts, with very few, if any, attend high school and keep an active gang membership. Most often this is due to that fact that when many Asian immigrants arrive in North America they have weak English skills and struggle in both school and the social aspects of life in an English speaking culture. Constable Albert Ku of the Edmonton police department reported on the youths that “they concluded that they don’t want to work in the restaurants and the laundries like the old Chinese guys,” (Runner, 2000).

Even though it has been noticed that Asian gang members go to great lengths to concealing their gang affiliation, most gangs do tend to favor the color black. This can include black boots, black shirts, or black leather jackets. Members tend to dress well and maintain a very high-class look with their dress style. As for distinctive markings, Asian gangs tend to lean toward scarring or mutilation opposed to ink tattoos to create specific gang markings.

Asian gangs use scarring as a method of marking, the most popular method used is cigarette burns. Every different style of markings have there own distinctive meaning to each Asian gang. Burns on the hand can be commonly associated with Filipino street gangs. Burns on forearms are Vietnamese or Cambodian. Burns on upper arm are usually Chinese, and when it comes to female branding, the most common area is either ankles or feet. Also, each of these markings has a certain explanation to each member. Single burns often represent a willingness to engage in criminal activity (Haddigan).

How big each gang is varies among groups. The average size of an Asian gang tends to be roughly twenty to fifty hardcore members (Chin, 1990). There are also times when gang conflict is intense in some areas, and some gangs are forced to seek reinforcements from other cities. The organizational structure tends to have four or five leaders who are often referred to as “tai lou,” or “big brother.”

This distribution of power is set by the Triad (or tongs) with the intentions that the leaders will oppose other leaders to make sure decisions are made for the best interest of the gang. As the gang leaders follow in power to the Triad, the associate leaders follow to the commands of the gang leaders. Their job is to look over the street soldiers, who are the working members of the gang that are at the bottom of the command chain. Their jobs are mainly to guard the streets, including gambling houses, nightclubs, prostitution rings and other crime outfits, as well as commit the actual crimes. Among the ordinary members on the bottom, there are those who are known to the gang as “shooters.”

These are the individuals, or thugs, who carry out the gang’s assaults. There is always one member within the gang that acts as a treasurer and maintains a count over the gang’s funds (Chin, 1990). This money is usually used towards rent, food, guns, bail, lawyer’s fees, and miscellaneous expenses. Within apartment buildings that are occupied by Asian gangs, one of the main purposes it serves as is for a gun and ammunition storage area. None of the leaders of the gang live in these facilities, but visit frequent to make sure everything is maintained. The tongs and members of the Triad are hardly ever seen (Chin, 1990).

Compared to the American Mafia, the Chinese Triads and their member exhibit a level of discipline and obedience unparalleled by any other group (Quinn, 2001). Foot soldiers are sworn to secrecy and according to Asian gang researcher Hal Quinn of McLean’s Magazine, “put the Triad’s interests above those of their families and even their own lives.” With vast networks ranging from American and Canadian cities to Hong Kong and other Eastern ports, along with strong financial backing, the Triads are responsible from mainly the smuggling of heroin and illegal immigrants into North America (Kaihla, 2001).

When asking the question on what causes Asian youths to join delinquent gangs, several researchers and criminologists have found three main factors; school problems, family problems, and the lack of employment opportunities. Along with these factors, the isolation and disorganization of the Chinese communities make it easy for gangs to prey on alienated youths (Le, 1999). It is no secret that Asian people show certain brilliance when it comes to academic achievement (Winkel, 2001).

But surveys show that most of these students are either born in North America or came to North America before their adolescent years. Those who do not come over as teenagers face problems with the language barrier, and usually drop out of high school. However, a few cases have shown that Asian gangs were formed in the schools where racial tensions were high and troubled students grouped together because they shared many educational problems.

The Asian Gang Profile for Investigators and Law Enforcement Officers shows that it is the family that is the most important social unit with Asian people (Haddigan). However, with new adjustments of living standards in North American society, the family is not always intact. Usually the family cannot afford to send everyone at once overseas to North America. Even if both parents do make it over, they barely see their children because of the long work days they have to put in just to survive in the new country. With this going on, the children are left alone most of the time and this leads a void in their lives when it comes to having a good role model in their lives.

This is a prime gateway to delinquency in not only Asian gangs, but other ethnic minority gangs as well. When young Asian immigrants are forced to or lead to dropping out of high school, they cannot take their problems to their parents. This once again is due to the fact that the parents are working such long vigorous hours; these youths tend to seek support from understanding peers who share similar problems. Eventually with these youths not being in school, they tend to find new places to hang around such as local coffee shops or arcades. Some are hired to run errands for the higher organized crime bosses in the area. These are prime steps that lead juveniles to a gang life (Le, 1999).

The final main factor that has influence on Asian youth and gang affiliation has to deal with employment opportunities. It is easy figure out that without a high school education, one would have limited or few good job opportunities, and with the language barrier experienced by many Asian youths, job opportunities are limited to low-income, minimum-wage jobs such as kitchen help or cooks.

Local Asian employers also prey on these types of workers because they can take advantage of cheap labor and avoid paying for insurance or benefits (Le, 1999). Many Asian immigrants really have no choice in this matter because most are unaware of the labor laws in North America. With all of these factors playing key roles in young Asian youth’ lives it is no wonder they look for an alternative, often found in gang life.

With youths the prime targets to recruiting into a gang, various methods are used to persuade them into the gang. With Asian gangs, they can be known to show both subtle and crude methods in their recruiting process for potential members. Gang recruiters may entertain the young recruits by showing them to expensive cars, flashing money around, or the companionship of teenage girls. According to Susan Moran of the Insight on the News, pretty Asian women in light, loose-fitting outfits cater to the young prospects in restaurants and massage parlors in the local Chinatown (Moran, 2003).

Those who are impressed with these types of bribes usually join the gang without much persuasion, however, those who are unimpressed or those who show no interest in joining the gang are often assaulted by gang street soldiers. By instilling fear upon the youth it shows them that they will be safer in the streets as part of the gang rather than to be alone. Once a youth decides to make that commitment to joining an Asian gang, his next step is to go through an initiation ceremony (Le, 1999).

Each initiation process differs from gang to gang, but what was found with Asian street gangs were that the ceremony is performed in a highly respectable and traditional manner. Initiation includes oaths of loyalties and blood ties and those that stray from the gang will be certain for death (Chaze, 2003). This and other ceremonies are usually passed down through Triad subcultures.

What usually distinguishes each gang from one another is usually the type of crime that they are involved in. Many Asian gangs tend to engage in a wide range of criminal activities including extortion, prostitution, gambling, and drug trafficking. However, robbery still maintains to be the most prominent form of Asian gang-crime activity. Various forms of robbery include break and entry into jewelry stores and Asian-owned restaurants, and using stolen or counterfeit credit cards to purchase expensive items for resale on the black-market (Kaihla, 2001).

The most common style of robbery amongst most Asian gangs is home invasions. As many profitable Asian business men are commonly know to keep large amounts of money in their homes rather than banks, Asian gang members often raid their houses and assault the homeowners until they receive the money. In one particular case a Vietnamese storeowner lost over $130,000 in one night and commented that the “gangs know who keeps money at home,” (Kaihla, 2001). When Asian homes are robbed, a close friend or member of the family is usually responsible for tipping off the invading gang, telling them precisely where the valuables are stored and when to break in (Long, 2002).

Drug trafficking is another instrumental criminal activity associated with Asian gangs The most popular drug sold and smuggle by Asian gangs is unquestionably heroin, as the majority of the heroin imported in to North America comes from either Thailand or Hong Kong. In recent years law enforcement has specifically targeted Asian gang smuggling of heroin but they have been unsuccessful in completely stopping their control of the heroin drug trade. Active drug smugglers, originally from Hong Kong, are now permanent American or Canadian residents. (Chin, Ko-Lin 2000). Once the drugs arrive in North America, they are swiftly distributed among to the youth gangs to be sold on the streets.

Prostitution rings have also been established by several mainstream Asian gangs. Massage parlors, barbershops, acupressure clinics, nightclubs, and modeling studios throughout the United States and Canada serve as fronts for Asian prostitution (Moran, 2003).

Moran states that “The gangs supply the houses with new girls, provide them with clients and protect them from extortion by other gangs and bust by the police.” The elders and member of the Triads are known to pay Asian parents for their unwanted children. Those that are extremely young are sold to pedophiles in Bangkok while the others are smuggled into the United States.

Bruce Nichol, coordinator for the Immigration and Naturalization Service on the Interagency Violent Gang Task Force claims that “The Triads are definitely involved in smuggling young Fukienese females into the United States for the purpose of prostitution.” Moran’s research suggests that of the estimated 100,000 Asians that are illegally smuggled into the United States each year, over 10 percent are women and of those, approximately 70 percent become prostitutes for Asian Gangs (Moran, 2003).

Gambling rings associated with Asian gangs are another steady and reliable source of income for many prominent Asian gangs. Makeshift casinos located in backrooms and basements of restaurants and cafes play host to high stake gambling houses. These outfits can generate up to $50,000 for the house as hundreds of thousands of dollars change hands throughout the night (Kaihla, 2001).

As Asian crime syndicates are growing in city centers throughout the continent, it seems that stopping this relatively new phenomenon is far from happening. Most of the criminal activity performed by Asian gangs is hard to keep track as most of the violence happens in the Asian community amongst other Asians. In many cases those that fall victim to the crimes are not likely to report it, often due to the fact that they are scared of what the gangs may do to them if they are reported. Another reason may be that they are unwilling to admit that they’ve been a victim and that they are afraid to be looked at as a shame in the community, as most Asian immigrants struggle for respect and acknowledgment in North America. (Lee, Bill 2004)

Threatening the lives of the victims along with excessive physical violence also has a very persuasive impact on the silence of many victimized Asians. Law enforcement struggle to successfully rid our nations of Asian gang violence as steps have been taken to prevent or stop Asian gang activities throughout North America. Community relations and education are two important steps in solving this problem as many Asian immigrants fear police officers and need to be educated that law enforcement officers are there to help.

Cultural awareness is another area that has been recognized as an area of improvement as many officers dealing with crime in the Asian community are unaware of the different cultures associated with it (Le, 1999). Asian gang crime is an area of gang related violence that is self contained and only affects the lives of others when “it would spill out of its geographical and ethnic boundaries,” (Runner, 2000). Regardless of its impact on the entire society, the Asian gang scene is one of the most organized gang scenes and continues to threaten the lives of many.

References

Chaze, William L. (2003). Asian gangs stake out turf in US. US News and World Report. V97 p82.

Chin, Ko-Lin. (2000). Chinese Subculture and Criminality: Non-Traditional Crime Groups in America. Westport, CT. Greenwood Publishing Group Inc.

Kaihla, Paul. (2001). Terror in the streets: ruthless Asian gangs bring a new wave of violence to Canadian cities. MacLean’s. v104 n12 p18.

Lee, Bill. (2004). Chinese Playground: A Memoir. San Francisco, Rhapsody Press.

Long, Patrick Du Phuoc (2002) The Dream Shattered: Vietnamese Gangs In America. Boston: Northeastern University Press

Moran, Susan. (2003). New world havens of oldest profession. Insight of the News. v9 n25 p12.

Quinn, Hal. (2001). Empire of the triads: an Asian mafia flexes its muscle. MacLean’s. v104 n12 p24

Runner, Paul. (2000). The death of Crazy Jimmy tells us a lot about Asian drug gangs. Alberta Report. v26 i46 p2.

Winkel, George. (2001). Straightening out the bell curve. Web.

Zhu, Lipping. (2005). No Need To Rush: The Chinese, Placer Mining, and the Western Environment. Web.

Youth Culture

Youth culture is a modern terminology, and it has become a common means for understanding the identity of youth. Is there a concept of youth culture or youth subculture as such? What is the essential way of understanding the true youth identity? How does the concept of youth relate to the concept of culture? How is the youth positioned in relation to childhood and adulthood? These form the indispensable questions relating to the concept of youth culture, and it is most vital these are responded with most certainty to understand the actual human aspects as they relate to the important concept of youth and youth identity. In the modern world, there are ways by which the concept of youth is comprehended, and one of the essential aspects of this comprehension is relating this with the concept of youth culture. The impact of globalization and the emergence of the modern culture have retained their most powerful hold on the concept of youth in its relation to the community and the culture.

The positioning of the concept of youth in the most primary aspects of its behavior is the trend of the time. “If childhood means acceptance, and adulthood means conservatism, youth means rebelliousness. Youth are seen as the part of society that is most likely to engage in the process of cultural borrowing that is disruptive of the reproduction of traditional cultural practices, from modes of dress to language, aesthetics, and ideologies. From Japanese punk to Australian hip hop, youth subcultures are seen as being implicitly rebellious, born as much from a desire to reject the generation that went before them, as from identification with what they have become.” (Heaven & Tubridy). Therefore, the concept of youth is one of the most significant concepts that call for a detailed analysis. Accordingly, the focal concern of this paper has been to accurately comprehend the concept of youth culture and to find out the exact means of finding meaning to the youth identity on the background of the modern concepts and percepts of youth subcultures.

As we begin exploring the concept of youth cultures and their relation to various human elements, it is pertinent that we define the concept of youth culture most appropriately. To be exact, the term youth culture is of modern origin and seems to cover myriads of aspects in modern man’s life. “The notion of a youth culture was developed from the psychological term ‘adolescence.’ Whilst the latter suggested that the key to understanding youthful behavior lay in physical bodily changes and emotional upheaval surrounding the onset of puberty, the idea of a youth culture suggested that such behavior was caused by social and economic change. In 1942 the American sociologist Talcott Parsons coined the term ‘youth culture’ to isolate the supposedly unique and highly distinctive behavior patterns that were thought to be emerging amongst American ‘adolescents.’ (Muncie, 2004, p.156).

Remarkably, such an understanding of youth culture does not respond to the essential questions concerning youth identity. However, it is significant that the explanation points to the essential question concerning the role of the changing social and economic situations on youth culture. The emerging social situation all through the world is the right framework to establish a significant understanding of the youth culture. Mostly, the concept of youth culture itself, as in the case of other social concepts, is a construct of the society and the culture, which act as the fundamental powers behind the construction of human theories and ideologies. When considering this determining force of the society and culture along with the fact that youth are the most important social actors, we can correlate the concept with prominent issues of the modern world such as resistance, popular culture, gender, sexuality, family, school, work, politics, violence and changing practices such as dating. This is a significant framework to understand the concept of youth culture.

As we have already remarked, there have been various ways to understand the concept of youth culture. It is essential every effort explain this dominant concept relates to the sociological concepts of youth identity. In an analysis of the post-modern tendencies of youth interaction with the world, it is significantly noted that the youth identity is comprehended effectively in terms of the subcultures it forms. This has been one of the most notable ways of understanding the concept of youth culture. “Considerable work has been carried out empirically on subcultures and on youth cultures. There has been a recognition that links have to be made between sociology and the relations of class in an industrial society, and this means the relations with adults and the total relations of these groups to the means of production.

Many studies explore the impact of societal reaction, or the meaning of style, or the effects of the neighborhood, of immigrant culture, of femininity or popular manufactured culture, and these are now being related to the struggle for space within dominant ideologies.” (Brake, 1980, p.176). Therefore, the youth subculture is the result of a continual struggle for an individual space within the construct of the society. This need for a ‘room of its own’ was necessitated by the societal positioning of the youth in relation to childhood and adulthood. Many of the essential investigations of youth culture point to the social nature of youth within the subculture of youth. Thus, the subculture of youth is represented through very many ways, including the practice and culture of the most popular graffiti and hip-hop songs and the culture of technology-mediated modes of communication among the younger generation, such as the practice of text messaging, emailing, etc. may be best comprehended as the result of a societal makeup or construction of youth culture by the existing social culture.

It is, therefore, essential that factors that contribute to the growth of youth subcultures. There are various aspects of the modern world that go into the making of a youth subculture. “Caught up in an age of increasing despair, youth no longer appear to inspire adults to reaffirm their commitment to a public discourse that envisions a future in which human suffering is diminished while the general welfare of society is increased… the relations between youth and adults have always been marked by strained generational and ideological struggles, but the new economic and social conditions that youth face today, along with a callous indifference to their spiritual and material needs, suggest a qualitatively different attitude on the part of many adults toward American youth – one that indicates that the young have become the lowest national priority.” (Epstein & Giroux, 1998, p.25-26). This marked difference between the social factors and the existing youth concepts and identity confront mutually, and we may attempt to explain the youth subculture in this background. Therefore, one of the essential remarks about the practice of the social construction of separate and distinguished youth culture is that the concept of youth has been affected by the existing paradigms of the social structure and social culture.

In the modern world, the concept of youth culture is understood in terms of what the youth of the present day are constructed by the societal perception of youth. Thus, whenever there were attempts to isolate the youth identity from the general structure of the society, the result has been such which harms the existence of social harmony. The construct of youth subculture, therefore, becomes a powerful tool to explain the prevalence of issues and problems related to youth behavior. “For many youths, especially those who experience ruthless subordination and oppression, nihilism often translates into senseless violence, racism, homophobia, drug addiction, date rape, suicide pacts, escalating homicide rates, and a refusal to participate in building communities of hope and alliances with other oppressed groups.” (Epstein & Giroux, 1998, p.26). Ultimately, it is, therefore, necessary to comprehend that the concepts of youth, youth culture, and youth subculture are essentially the construct of society and societal norms.

The subcultures, including the youth subculture, within the culture are the result of several factors, and the dominant value system of the society is an influential element in the makeup of these subcultures. “In any complex, stratified society, there are several cultures which develop within the context of a dominant value system. The dominant value system is never homogenous; instead, there are constant modifications and adaptations of dominant ideas and values.“ (Brake & Brake, 1985 p.6). There are various aspects of the society and the social value system that go into the making of youth subculture, and therefore it is necessary that the concept of youth is determined after acquiring the right perception of these factors. This explains the reason for the stereotyped concepts of youth culture.

The concept of youth and that of the youth subculture depends very much on the societal factors that are the significant force behind the construct of the concept of youth. “Constructed primarily within the language of the market and the increasingly conservative politics of media culture, contemporary youth appear unable to constitute themselves through a defining generational referent that gives them a sense of distinctiveness and vision…” (Epstein & Giroux, 1998, p.25). In this perception of the subculture as it exists in the cultural framework of a society, it is also necessary that we understand the different perceptions regarding the subcultures.

As has been mentioned early, the youth subculture is the construct of society and the mainstream culture. There are times that the youth subcultures, due mainly to the way it has been framed and constructed, turn to be anti-social and problematic. “Subcultures exist at the cultural fringe and are typically anti-establishment and confrontational. Subcultures are frequently portrayed as dangerous by the mainstream media and are typically associated and confused with delinquency… Divested of their extreme stylistic alterity and transformed into a consumable object by fashion, music, and other cultural industries, subcultural styles are frequently appropriated by, and thereby integrated into, dominant culture. To say that subcultures are typically anti-establishment and confrontational is not to say that such practices are always conscious and considered critiques of the dominant culture. Cultural practices that oppose dominant culture in this way are more properly referred to as counter-cultures.” (Heaven & Tubridy). Thus, the youth identity has got multi faces which also suggests that the framing of the youth culture within the most appropriate way is necessary for the youth to be useful members of society.

Through the investigation, it has been found out that there are various ways in which the concepts of youth, youth culture, and youth subculture are comprehended in modern society. The theories of the social construction of youth very well establish the concept of youth culture and the framing of youth subculture as it turns the youth top the right paths of social construction is the need of the day. It is because the construction of stereotyped youth culture within society turns the youth into being socially harmful, and this will affect the existence of the society. Therefore, in the modern world, the essential need of society is the construction of a youth culture that, instead of harming the very existence of society, joins the efforts of social building.

Reference

Heaven, Cara., & Tubridy, Matthew. 11. Global Youth Culture and Youth Identity, Web.

Muncie, John. (2004). Youth & Crime, ebrary.Inc. Sage. P.156.

Brake, Mike. (1980). The Sociology of Youth Culture and Youth Subcultures, Routledge, p.176.

Epstein, Jonathon S., & Giroux, Henry A. (1998). Teenage Sexuality, Body Politics, and the Pedagogy of Display” in Youth Culture: Identity in a Postmodern World, Blackwell Publishing, p.25-26.

Epstein, Jonathon S., & Giroux, Henry A. (1998). Teenage Sexuality, Body Politics, and the Pedagogy of Display” in Youth Culture: Identity in a Postmodern World, Blackwell Publishing, p.26.

Brake, Mike., & Brake, Michael. (1985). Comparative Youth Culture: The Sociology of Youth Culture and Youth Subcultures in America, Britain and Canada, Routledge. P.6.

Epstein, Jonathon S., & Giroux, Henry A. (1998). Teenage Sexuality, Body Politics, and the Pedagogy of Display” in Youth Culture: Identity in a Postmodern World, Blackwell Publishing, p.25.

Introduction

The culture industry thrives on shocks to the existing norm. The norm is to compel members of the society to seek newer ideals as presented solutions to the problems identified by the interested parties in the cultural industry. Without constant inputs of shocks to create moral panics, the cyclic progression of the culture industry would be impossible. To affect the societal order, moral panics are presented as public reactions fronted by political interests and the media. They highlight the negative effects of a given societal ill and promulgate it as a threat to the good of society.

Youth subculture in the context of social culture

The description of social culture among scholars is a contradiction of two types of thoughts held by different groups. One group portrays the middle class as the dominant culture and the other portrays the middle class as a working-class or mass culture (Thornton & Gelder (eds.) 1996). Furthermore, supporters of one thought dismiss the existence of the other. Youth subculture exists in all societies, it may be observed as an organization of a new culture or a disorganization of the existing cultures.

A common characteristic of young people all over the world is their refusal to identify with work and instead choose associations that identify with leisurely activities often prioritizing money and free time. As a youth, individuals are no longer tied much to their parents and on the other hand, have yet to assume full responsibilities of adulthood. As a result, youth enjoy a momentary reprieve from necessity and can afford to resist aesthetically social aging.

The embrace of the youth subculture or the construction of a personal culture is appealing on the outside. A deeper look reveals an underhand of the popular media and interests that drive such media in influencing the acceptance of the subculture of youth as mainstream. The youth being the consumers of the culture have to decide on having the fun that the subculture is portrayed to have and on the other hand have doubts about the real benefits of enjoying something just because everyone else is doing so, without an actual capacity to determine the real benefits of the cultural engagement.

For culture to exist it has to be experienced and before reaching the perfect expression, people undergo sufferings and contradictions on imperfect expressions so as to have a context to relate the good life they enjoy. Considering this fact then, it appears that culture cannot be the representation of the mere existence categories as portrayed by the media industry. Instead, culture if it exists, is dynamic and forms its own context and categories as much as it exists in other contexts and categories. Using the cultural description of an orderly grouping of behaviors is not conclusive.

For people to accept a new order or culture prescription, the new order has to possess visible effects on the individuals and their interaction with other human beings. What exists today as portrayed by the culture industry is an ideology of conformity instead of consciousness. New culture purports to present an alternative to the conscious discrimination of order. It stresses the fact that to embrace it, one has to discard their consciousness. Plato maintained that such a forceful order is not fit for human beings. He argued that when something is subjectively untrue and bad for human beings, it could not turn out to be objectively true and good (Adorno 1991).

As noted by Adorno (1991), the culture industry today follows the direction of powerful interests and offers exhortations to ensure that human beings subscribe to their concoctions. These concoctions are far away from anything blissful and offerings of moral responsibility.

There is a tendency of the culture industry to view contemporary society as putting more emphasis on power yet in a real sense they have no power. As it appears, the masses would have fully accepted the construction presented by the culture industry but their spirituality and unconscious doubts serve as a barrier. The stakeholders of the culture industry, having taken note of the barrier, continue to push small segments of its ideology into the behavior of the masses through its various means such as media.

Individuals praising the culture industry constructs of a good life would argue that if everybody toed the line of the ideas presented by prominent personalities, then the whole world would be a good place to be are wrong. The good life presented by the prominent figures of the culture industry exists in the absence of a good life for the masses. In this case, the masses have to be living a bad life for the prominent person to be visible as enjoying a good life. The result of this misconception is a cyclic quest for the good life driven by the deception of the masses and the interests of the culture industry and on each cycle, the magnitude of depression grows.

Moral Panic and youth culture

In the ‘moral panic’ thesis, society solves its anxiety and uncertainty problems by identifying scapegoats to blame for the cause of the problems (Muncie & McLaughlin (eds.) 1996). The society goes ahead to concentrate on the distinguishing factors of the identified scapegoat rather than the causes of the problem identified. Solutions presented then aim at purging out the scapegoat rather than purging out the causes of the problem from the society.

As the process proceeds from one stage to another, new issues are identified. A new process is initiated similar to the previous one and the result is a deviancy amplification spiral as described by Muncie and McLaughlin (1996). The culture industry as described above relies on the media to distort initial events by having biased coverage, which results in the amplification of the problem and creates a moral panic in the society. The rise of moral panic further prompts the media to cover the moral panic and this forces the political authority to take action against the identified scapegoats.

Youths often become the red herring of the societal problems because of their subculture characterized by refusal to conform to norms. Their identification as different makes them easy targets for scapegoating. The matter is further reinforced when the target group also falls under a minority category of the society such as immigrants. For example, in poor neighborhoods, youths just like anyone else face poverty, social deprivation, and class inequality.

As a result, they tend to become aggressive as they seek solutions to their problems and would end up stealing and engage in harmful habits. Unfortunately, the news media takes the images of these youth and their dilapidated states and focuses on the means they use to support their lives such as stealing and peddling. The media would then generalize the single incidences as a breakdown of law and order.

In some instances, stealing would be referred to as mugging so that it warrants punitive sentencing as a drastic measure to rid the society of the youths who would now go under the description of criminal gangs. The coverage of criminal gangs and breakdown of law and order would then form the focus of media with comparisons with similar incidents in other geographical areas. This example highlights the powerful process of moral panic, which mobilizes popular approval and legitimacy in support of cultural industry interests (Muncie & McLaughlin (eds.) 1996).

Conclusion

The power to cause a moral panic embodies the ideologies of marginalization where certain actions are named, placed, and regulated (Mukherjee 1999). Public opinion is required to have the attention of the state and its intervention. The criminalization of the youth is one way in which the process of obtaining public opinion is orchestrated to underpin the control function of the state in a capitalist society (McCorkle & Miethe 2002).

Reference List

Adorno, T. W. (1991)The culture industry. Routledge, London.

McCorkle, R. C. and Miethe, T. D. (2002) Panic: The social construction of the street gang problem. Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ.

Mukherjee, S. (1999) ‘Ethnicity and crime’. Australian Institute of Criminology, 117: 1-6.

Muncie, J. and McLaughlin, E. (eds.) (1996) The problem of crime. Sage, London.

Thornton, S. and Gelder, K. (eds.) (1996) The subcultures reader. Routledge, London.

The selected article for week 4 analysis was about improving the workplace or organizational culture by servicing the needs of both the new and old employees. The article by Falkenrath (2010) discussed important issues that need to be factored by all human resource units to ensure productive and long-lasting manpower.

In its introductory bit, the author stressed that it is wrong for any company to come up with a similar set of needs and wants for motivating both the new and older generation employees. This is supported by the fact that the two sets of employees have varying needs and wants which ought to be captured separately.

For instance, while new employees may find it appealing to work longer hours on higher salaries, older employees who have embraced a similar trend in their youthful state would prefer non-monetary rewards to appreciate their services at the workplaces (Stark, 2010).

While giving the example of an aging and special group of the American population born in the period succeeding the World War II (Baby Boomers) which had witnessed an escalating reduction from workplaces, the article noted that there was need for the current management to understand the demographic factors such as age which were the root causes to the aging workers’ mass exodus from workplaces.

This is gotten from the notion that this part of the aging workforce is still needed to reinforce the newly recruited workforce in effecting increasing business tasks. The article went ahead to provide a summary of the following as some of the factors that can be embraced in motivating an aging workforce.

To start with, the article acknowledged the importance of adopting and embracing mentoring programs. These programs provide personal achievement to the mentor by allowing them to pass the acquired knowledge downstream to the younger workforce. Alternatively, these programs allow the learners to share their ‘new’ skills with the older generation thus enhancing the sharing of knowledge between the old and new generational workforce.

Stark (2010) revisited that praising and recognizing good behaviors can also act as a motivating factor for the older generation. In addition, I also learned that retraining older workers in applications that keep on changing such as technological applications help in motivating and widening their knowledge base.

This finding was supported in Stark’s (2010) article when he referred to it as the creation of excitement at workplaces. To him, providing training and getting workers involved in determining the company vision and set goals were key motivators.

Tellingly, allowing workers to balance and properly utilize the time spent at work and attending to other aspects of life (commonly called work-life balance) is a critical consideration for employees’ success (Stark, 2010). According to Landy and Conte (2009), this has the cost of improving their physical health and well-being (p.365).

Towards its end, the article stressed on the need of respecting the older employees by observing actions such as assigning them special projects to make meaningful contributions and not comparing their work habits with those of the energetic young force (Falkenrath, 2010).

Another key point stressed in motivating either aging or new generational employees is the adherence to the Equal Pay Act of 1963 in the USA. This act calls on employers to offer equal wages to men and women working in the same job group (McKay, 2012). It was also a learning point when the article went ahead to clarify that unequal pay was justified in instances where the job in question offers unrelated or unequal skill, effort, working conditions and responsibilities matrix (McKay, 2012).

References

Falkenrath, B. (2010). Workplace culture: Motivating an aging workforce. Web.

Landy, F.J. & Conte, J.M. (2009). Work in the 21st Century: An introduction to industrial and organizational psychology. John Wiley & Sons: USA.

McKay, D.R. (2012). Equal pay for equal work: The Equal Pay Act of 1963. Web.

Stark, P.B. (2010). What matters most to employees? Web.

Introduction

As observed in the B-Plan of ‘The Miracle Centre’ abuse is a vice which has become common in almost all segments of life. All groups of people in the society, ranging from the young to the old; both men and women, have been abused in one way or the other.

Abuse of any nature comes with serious implications to the victims, most of who are compelled to keep it as a secret rather than speak it out to the public, perhaps owing to possible threats from their assailants or as a result of stigmatization normally associated with the abuse. Those are some of the reasons that make it difficulty for us to deal with abuse in our communities.

It is for those same reasons why ‘Youth, Adult and Elderly Miracle Centre’ was established in Ohio, to help reduce all forms of abuse affecting various population groups in the society. To be able to achieve our organizational goals and objectives, we have unveiled a number of strategies to be applied in the publicity of our P-Plan to all relevant audiences.

Use of Effective MIS Systems

Effective and appropriate Management Information Systems are necessary for any organization that needs to achieve its objectives and goals (Moroney and Martin, 2009).

In this case, apart from having to publicize the Center, effective MIS systems will also be useful in researching and collecting of important feedback regarding abuse as an incessant vice in the society, so as to be able to establish stronger ways to counter its heightening implications to humans.

Moreover, accumulation and disbursement of the necessary data aimed at supporting the mission and vision of the Centre would be made much easier through the use of reliable and effective communication methods. Some of the crucial information that may be required here would include experts’ opinions and feedback on surveys, both of which are tailored to gauge the progress of the Center.

This performance and outcome measurement of information will be used to inform our plans and decisions for any possible improvements. It will be used in ensuring that the Centre’s contribution to the society actually meets the desired target.

Other significant information which may be of great use to the Centre would include things such as budget preparation capabilities, financial and accounting information, marketing and communication ways, and information regarding human resource management.

By trying to learn through the work of other related organizations via various MIS systems, the Centre’s steering panel would be better-placed in their management roles. All the relevant information would be acquired and conveyed to target audiences, through the chosen MIS system.

More importantly, the proposed system will also be used to market the Centre’s mission and vision to potential stakeholders and volunteers. Considering the above requirements essential for the success of the Miracle Centre, the chosen MIS system should be able to serve its purpose efficiently and effectively.

The type of system should be able to serve at least three crucial tasks as observed below. First of all, it should be able to generate all the reports necessary for routine and/or non routine management of the Centre. It should also be able to offer informed answers to questions regarding management. And finally, the system should be able to support decision-making approaches regarding the mission of the Centre.

The desired system should also be able to guarantee for online access to the Centre’s structure, mission, and its intended services by the outside community. Considering the aim of our organization, the MIS systems should be designed in a manner which allows the outside world to access it, where the target audiences can even make necessary modifications on the information.

In our case, a specially designed system such as an official website accessible by stakeholders and volunteers proves to be the most effective system. This will serve as the Centre’s primary medium of communication between stakeholders, staff, volunteers and other supporters of the project.

Through the system, all people and especially the stakeholders who’d be expected to play a significant role in the overall management of the Centre, would be able to access and respond accordingly to the provided information.

This way, the system provides a basis for collective decision-making, thus facilitating ways for efficient and effective management of organizations (Robey, 1999). This system of communication would be more cost effective in that, it will have to bring all the parameters under a single platform.

Relevant Stakeholder groups for this P-Plan

Stakeholder refers to an individual or a group of people having a considerable effect or influence to a business or organization (Foster and Jonker, 2003). Some of the key individuals and organizations expected to have a strong influence on this project include formerly abused individuals, volunteers, employees, government officials and peer advocates.

Each one of these groups fits well into the communication and marketing scheme of the project. Considering their connection or relationship to the force behind the Center’s mission, the stakeholders are expected to provide useful data or information to ensure that the Centre meets its target.

Stakeholders will always be the first to make crucial decisions about the management of the Centre, thus helping the project through its mission and goals. Apart from the kind of useful information which the stake holders can guarantee, they are also key players when it comes to provision of necessary resources, such as funding, which provides a strong economical basis for the project.

The following is a summary showing a brief overview of the expected stakeholders and a description of how each one of them fits into the communication and marketing scheme of the project.

Former victims of abuse

Formerly-abused individuals would have a strong influence in the overall promotion of the Centre’s mission, objectives and goals. These categories of persons would tend to have a view of life different from that of the other people in the society. In fact, former victims of abuse are clear manifestations of the painful implications caused to humanity by abuse.

Talking of any form of abuse, there is no one who can understand and describe it better, other than the victims themselves (Malley-Morrison, 2000). In this regard, formerly-abused victims are the right stakeholders here and their first-hand information regarding various forms of abuse fits well in the communication and marketing scheme of the project.

Volunteers

Wherever there is a project or activity aimed to improve or promote people’s lives, there will always be people who’d sacrifice to take part in the running of the program in exchange for nothing. Many volunteers would tend to term their services and contribution to goodwill organizations as nothing else but just ‘a gift to the beneficiaries of those organizations or projects.’

Considering the universal objective of our organization, there is much likelihood that a big number of people will express their intention to volunteer and take part in ensuring that the Center succeeds in its goals.

As far as our center is concerned, a volunteer is not only the person who comes out to support the project financially, but anybody who volunteers his/her will to offer useful information, either through the Centre’s official website or by responding to our surveys.

These interventions are likely to bear positive results through opinions and suggestions, thus contributing to a stronger Youth, Adult and Elderly Miracle Center. This way, the volunteers would have played a significant role in the overall success of the project.

Employees

Employees from various segments of the Centre can also be reliable stakeholders of this project. The fact that the employees are ever in touch with everything that takes place in the Centre, including all information leaving and entering the Centre, is a perfect reason why they should be identified as stakeholders. Their overall contribution to the Centre is ever expected and can enhance new approaches against all forms of human abuse.

As a matter of fact, employees will play a significant role when it comes to the organization’s communication and marketing. In most cases, employees would tend to act as the main linking channels between the Centre, the stakeholders and the entire community. For these respective roles, employees’ active involvement towards the Centre’s success in its goals and objectives can never be estimated.

Government Officials

As observed from the P-Plan, the government has tremendous influence and responsibility in safeguarding the community and in guiding the society into positive developments that would certainly take care of the people’s rights. The government, through its key officials should express its concern and exert considerable pressure in matters aimed at reducing or eliminating abuse in our society.

Government officials, especially the ministers and other high-profile personnel who are in charge of ministries and departments advocating for human rights can be good ambassadors of the Miracle Centre.

Apart from partnering and leveraging funds to help strengthen the Centre, the officials are likely to have an effective influence when it comes to selling the name of the organization across the borders, thus serving as ambassadors of good will for the Centre.

Peer Advocates

Advocates from various departments and organizations having a significant touch to the wider community can also be appropriate stakeholders for this Project. Good examples of peer advocates who can serve as stakeholders for the ‘Miracle Centre’ are the state departments who have been invited to partner with the Centre.

These would include the Department of Alcohol or Drug Addiction Services (ODADAS); Ohio Department of Mental Health (ODMH); Domestic Violence Shelters and Family and Children First Council (FCFC). All these organizations share a common goal of safeguarding the communities from the plight of abuse.

Therefore, their contribution and support in helping the Centre achieve its goals and objectives will be a welcomed approach. This could be through financial aid, informational support and any other useful way which could see the centre achieve its objectives in the long run.

Suitable Marketing or PR Tools and Methods

There are numerous tools and methods which can be applied in establishing a unique identity of the Centre across the states. One effective way is through the interactive media whereby various mediums of communication such as the radio, TV, and print are used to publicize the Centre’s mission and vision to the masses.

Use of posters and banners at significant zones is also an effective way to sell the organization to the people. Another way to market the organization would be through educational projects. This will see our employees, volunteers and stakeholders come out publicly to inform and to educate people on their rights as far as abuse is concerned.

Workshop presentation is another way that can be used to publicize and market any business or organization to the target audiences (Belch, 2004). Another reliable discipline to use here would be through modern social media such as Facebook and Twitter, among other social networking sites.

Conclusion

By using the right MIS systems and communication mediums, the Centre will be bound to establish a strong platform about its mission. As it would be observed from the P-Plan, collaborating with the proper stakeholders is the most critical decision that any good-will organization can take towards achieving its intended goals in the society.

Through this report, we get to see the benefits of applying effective and efficient MIS systems in business and how these can be utilized in bringing desirable outcomes to organizations.

As it is observed, all the intervention discussed in this case would play a significant role in promoting the mission, goal, and objectives of ‘The Miracle Centre’ in the fight against human abuse in the American society and the whole world in general. This way, the center would have achieved it mission to the global community.

References

Belch, G. (2004). Advertising and Promotion: An Integrated Marketing Communications Perspective (6 th Ed). New York: NY: McGraw-Hill.

Foster, D. and Jonker, J. (2003). Third generation quality management: the role of stakeholders in integrating business into society. Managerial Auditing Journal, 18 (4), 323-328.

Malley-Morrison, K. (2000). Young adult attachment styles and perceptions of elder abuse: A cross-cultural study. Journal of Cross-Cultural Gerontology, 15 (3), 163-184.

Moroney, R.,& Martin, L. (2008). Designing and Managing Programs: An effectiveness- Based Approach (3rd Ed). New York: Sage Publications.

Robey, D. (1999). User attitudes and management information system use. Academy of Management Journal, 23 (4), 527-538.

The modern marketing scene has been bombarded by a multiplicity of advertisements that ostensibly claim to market health products aimed at assisting the youth achieve trendy shapes and looks that are more mystical than real. Young men, in particular, have been brainwashed by some TV commercials to a point where they make it routine to take tens of Red Bull, Staminade, Powerade or Horlicks, thinking that they will not only gain that extra muscle in their biceps, but will look more invigorated and sharp (Chitra, 2009).

But while the youth drinks to their fulfillment, manufacturing companies do little to tell the youth that more is needed in the pursuit of the ideal body shape than mere sports drinks. The lack of adequate information points to a possible lapse in ethical marketing, and has led to frustration among the youth, who soon realize that attaining the shape they so much idolize boarders on the impossible.

While it may be legal for a company to produce and market sports drinks to the youth, there exists divided perceptions about whether such an endeavor is ethical. In ethical marketing, products should not only be safe and fit for proposed use, but the sponsors must never employ deceptive or misleading advertising methodologies (Mules, 2010).

The major bone of contention is that while the youth have every right to access objective information about these products, and indeed comprise a major target market, they lack knowledge as consumers, and can be more easily misled and stage-managed by the marketing techniques employed by some companies.

In marketing health drinks, sponsoring companies aim to influence brand awareness, inclination and faithfulness, and eventually the purchasing choices the youth make now and in the future (Mules, 2010). The products are promoted using a variety of channels such as TV, event sponsorship, web marketing, and use of famous celebrities. The major objective of these promotions is clear – to reach a broader youth audience.

The companies, however, fail to relay information that some health drinks have high concentrations of fat and sugar, and can easily lead to obesity. What’s more, while the sports drinks are marketed as a healthy option capable of promoting sporting performance, no information is availed as to whether a typical youth who exercises modestly really need to use these drinks (Mules, 2010).

Indeed, some analysts argue that sports drinks should only be intended for elite athletes, but for non-athletes, they are purely a source of harmful products such as excess sugar, salt, and caffeine.

The World Health Organization believes that a major contributing factor of obesity “…is the high degree of marketing of energy-dense, nutrient-poor foods and beverages which target the youth” (Mules, 2010, p. 4).

As such, companies promoting health drinks must exercise ethical marketing by availing information that will enable the youth make wise choices on their purchasing and consumption behavior. While promoting the products using masculine and well-shaped bodies is largely viewed as legal, care must always be taken not to mislead the youth about the nutritional benefits of a particular health drink.

Reference List

Chitra, C. (2009). The health-drink war. Web.

Mules, R. (2010). The ethics of marketing sports drinks to a youth market. BusiDate, 18(3), 2-5. Retrieved from Academic Source Premier Database.