Why is education important in order to achieve the MDGs

The Millennium Development Goals ( MDGs ) are eight international development ends that were established after the 2000 Millennium Summit in which United Nations Member States and International Organisations consented to accomplish by the twelvemonth 2015 ( United Nations Millennium Development Goals, 2010 ) . The MDGs set clip edge marks in bettering societal and economic conditions in the universe ‘s hapless states, which advancement towards cut downing income poorness, hungriness, disease, deficiency of equal shelter and exclusion, while advancing gender equality, wellness, instruction and environmental sustainability. They besides embody basic human rights so that each individual on the planet has the right to wellness, instruction, shelter and security ( Ki-Moon, 2010 ) . Three major countries of Humanity are focused in the MDGs: First, reenforcing human capital by bettering substructure, and increasing societal, economic and political rights, specifically concentrating on increasing the basic criterions of life ( United Nations, 2006 ) ; Second, bettering substructure through increasing entree to safe imbibing H2O, energy and modern information communications engineering, magnifying farm end products through sustainable patterns, bettering transit substructure, and continuing the environment ; and eventually the societal, economic and political rights, including authorising adult females, cut downing force, increasing political voice, guaranting equal entree to public services, and increasing security of belongings rights. The ends are intended to increase an person ‘s human capablenesss and progress the agencies to a productive life ( United Nations, 2006 ) . As persons moving together we have the power to take action and influence the procedure of making the MDGs by 2015 ( End Poverty Millennium Campaign, 2010 ) . Education is of import in accomplishing these ends. A basic instruction of a good quality is necessary for developing an apprehension of the universe and the possibilities it provides, and for being able to work efficaciously within it. Without the cognition and assorted accomplishments developed through schooling and basic instruction plans, the chances for persons and the ability to move independently are greatly reduced ( UNESCO, 2010 ) . Escalating the motion towards instruction MDGs will take straight to an acceleration of many of the other MDGs ( 2010 MDG SUMMIT, 2010 ) . In this essay I will explicate why instruction is of import in order to accomplish each of the eight millenary development ends. The first end of the millenary development ends is to eliminate utmost poorness and hungriness. Poverty forces kids out of school displacing their instruction driving them into the low paid work force because parents can non afford to educate them. Haines & A ; Cassels ( 2004 ) explain that one twelvemonth of schooling can increase a individual ‘s net incomes by 10 % with each extra twelvemonth of schooling raising the mean one-year GDP by 0.37 % . Accessible instruction can assist feed an faultless rhythm of enhanced growing and an elevated decrease in poorness, helping the hapless and profiting society as a whole. Education provides people with the accomplishments and cognition they require in order to increase income and develop employment chances. By educating the hapless, adult females and vulnerable groups it opens doors to occupations and recognition and has the potency for economic growing. With rigorous Torahs on compulsory instruction the millenary development end to eliminate utmost poorness and hungriness should be accomplishable in the hereafter. The 2nd MDG is to accomplish cosmopolitan primary instruction. Every kid regardless of where they live deserve the right to an instruction. The Development Education online Depository ( 2010 ) province that cosmopolitan primary instruction involves come ining school at an appropriate age, come oning through the system and finishing a full rhythm of primary instruction. By eliminating primary school fees 1000000s of kids worldwide have the opportunity to derive literacy and numeracy accomplishments increasing the per centum of educated people in the universe, increases the chances for employment and a stable hereafter for many kids which in manus will assist in accomplishing the MDG of accomplishing cosmopolitan primary instruction. The 3rd MDG focuses on advancing gender equality and authorising adult females. Attaran ( 2005 ) province that there are 759 million people in the universe that can non read or compose, and of those people two-thirds are female. Females face many barriers to education in several states around the universe, runing from negative attitudes to the load of family work and distance to school. In order to right the balance instruction needs to be made a precedence, particular attempts such as using female instructors, back uping hapless households and doing the instruction system girl-friendly could assist in advancing gender equality and in authorising adult females. Severine & A ; Shahani ( 2009 ) claim that there is a strong correlativity between educating females and an addition in adult females ‘s net incomes, improved kid and household wellness and nutrition, an addition in school registration, protection against HIV infection, higher maternal and child life anticipation, reduced birthrate rates and delayed matrimony. Equal schooling for both male childs and misss is the foundation for development in accomplishing the MDG of advancing gender equality and authorising adult females. The 4th MDG purposes to cut down child mortality. Supplying instruction to girls provides a great opportunity of endurance to her kids in the hereafter. Severine & A ; Shahani ( 2009 ) claim that a female parent with secondary or higher instruction more than halves the hazard of kid mortality compared to a female parent with small or no instruction. As mentioned above there is a strong connexion between educating females and higher maternal and child life anticipation every bit good as betterments in kid and household wellness and nutrition, they are besides more likely to immunise their kids. Educating adult females, with at least primary instruction, the MDG of cut downing child mortality is more likely to be achieved. The 5th end purposes to better maternal wellness. Maternal instruction is one of the strongest counterpoisons to childbearing-related hazards ( United Nations, 2010 ) . By educating females it enables them to do improved wellness associated determinations, fewer female parents would decease and the MDG of bettering maternal wellness would hold a greater opportunity of being achieved. The 6th MDG intends to battle HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. Education is the key to battling HIV/AIDS, malaria and many other diseases. Education establishments take a cardinal function in the bar of HIV and other catching diseases as they can make out to a big figure of people, promoting positive attitudes and behaviors supplying them with the cognition and accomplishments to cut down their opportunity of undertaking HIV. School wellness plans are besides ideal in supplying consciousness and hygiene patterns to assist contend malaria and other diseases. Haines & A ; Cassels ( 2004 ) province that adult females with an instruction higher than primary degree are five times more likely than literate adult females to be cognizant of and cognize about HIV/AIDS. Education offers an of import step of protection against HIV and other diseases. The MDG for cosmopolitan primary instruction is estimated to forestall 700, 000 new HIV infections each twelvemonth ( MDG Monitor, 2007 ) . It is claimed that instruction reduces the exposure of misss, and each twelvemonth of schooling offers greater protective benefits. Education is the best vaccinum against HIV and Aids and other diseases it is besides the most cost effectual manner to accomplish the MDG of battling HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases. The 7th MDG is directed at guaranting environmental sustainability. Education for sustainable development ( ESD ) can assist us to populate sustainably. ESD is defined by UNESCO as the purposes to assist people to develop the attitudes, accomplishments and cognition to do informed determinations for the benefit of themselves and others, now and in the hereafter, and to move upon these determinations. By supplying instruction for environmental sustainability it besides educates pupils on cardinal issues including poorness decrease, sustainable supports, planetary heating and clime alteration, gender equality, corporate societal duty and the protection of autochthonal civilizations ( TeachMDGs, 2010 ) ESD will let persons to do determinations that meet the demands of the present without compromising those of future coevalss. Education is indispensable for guaranting environmental sustainability. The 8th and concluding millenary development end is directed at developing planetary partnerships for development. Developing states financially can non supply cosmopolitan primary instruction for free to their people. Therefore a planetary partnership is needed to make full the fiscal spread for instruction so that globally the education-related development ends can be achieved. And if underdeveloped states make instruction a precedence they can so in bend hike their economic system, which can assist to accomplish all of the millenary development ends. Teaching and larning in schools should take to heighten accomplishments, cognition and behavior related to the millenary development ends. Schools should be after their course of study so that content covered increases the impact that instruction has on the MDGs. Such as, in order to battle child mortality and to change female authorization, course of study on cleanliness, sanitation, and steps to minimise contagious diseases. In the instance of environmental sustainability the school should include plans such as the demand to conserve H2O and trees. To better the nutritionary position of the pupils the school can present meal plans to guarantee the pupils have atleast one nutritionary repast each twenty-four hours. Schools can besides advance gender equality by the different functions that school leaders take. Positive behavior aimed at accomplishing the MDGs can be learned and reinforced throughout instruction. By presenting grownup instruction and literacy plans for both work forces and adult females can supply chances for employment, bettering labour productiveness and presenting plans such as H2O and sanitation. The impact of grownup instruction for adult females can ensue in lower kid mortality rates and higher degrees of maternal wellness. With the completion of secondary instruction adult females are more likely to seek out prenatal attention and better medical intervention, are more likely to direct their kids to school, and have greater economic chances that will relieve poorness and hungriness. All in all grownup instruction in occupational and life accomplishments will positively impact the millenary development ends. 2010 should non be the beginning of the ‘new and unsure ‘ journey towards the millenary development ends, instead it should be the ‘refueling ‘ point on this ocean trip that has been traveling on for the past 10 old ages. The following five old ages complete the journey in accomplishing the MDGs by 2015. With the execution of the millenary development ends in school course of studies globally the program to make the finish should be accomplishable.ResourcesAttaran, A. ( 2005 ) . An Immeasurable Crisis? A Criticism of the Millenium Development Goals and Why they can non be Measured. PLoS Medicine 2 ( 10 ) 318. Development Education on-line Depository. ( 2010 ) . Making Global Connections through Education. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //www.developmenteducation.info// Haines, A. & A ; Cassels, A. ( 2004 ) . Can the Millennium Development Goals Be Attained? British Medical Journal, 329 ( 7462 ) 394-397. MDG Monitor. ( 2007 ) . Quick Facts. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //www.mdgmonitor.org/country_progress.cfm? c=BEN & A ; cadmium Moon, K. ( 2010 ) . Millennium Goals. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //www.un.org/millenniumgoals/bkgd.shtml Severine, D. , & A ; Shahani, L. ( 2009 ) . An Introduction to the Human Development and Capability Approach: Freedom and Agency. Sterling, VA: Earthscan. TeachMDGs. ( 2010 ) . The Millennium Development Goals. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //teachmdgs.net/// United Nations. ( 2006 ) . The Millenium Development Goals Report: United Nations Development Program. Retrieved from www.undp.org/publications/MDGReport2006.pdf United Nations Millennium Development Goals. ( 2010 ) . Acme on the Millenium Development Goals. Retrieved from hypertext transfer protocol: //www.un.org/milleniumgoals/

Jubilee Essay

â€Å"Jubilee† is a narrative written by Margaret Walker and was first published in 1966. The writer, instructor as well as intellectual was born in 1915 and is best recognized for her civil war narrative Jubilee as well as for her influential anthology of poems concerning ethnic assertion. Walker’s narrative is one of the initial tales to present the African-American’s nineteenth century experience within the South from a feminine as well as a black’s perspective. The narrative won the Houghton Mifflin’s Literary Fellowship Award, and is a fictionalized explanation of the life of Margaret Duggans Ware Brown, Walker’s great-grandmother who was born in Dawson in Terrell state as a slave and lived during reconstruction inside South West Georgia. The narrative is based on tales Walker’s maternal grandmother narrated to her. (Walker. M, 1999) The seriously celebrated historical narrative/long fiction centers on the story of Vyry, a bi-racial slave in the Civil War in America and deals with a number of subjects like racism, freedom, slaves or slavery, Civil war, women, christianity, reconstruction, African- Americans among other major themes. The narrative is set in Georgia and afterward in diverse sections of Alabama during the mid-1800s prior to, during, as well as following the civil war. The following is an explanation of the setting in place and time, the manner in which the author takes the reader there, the major characters, the history studied from the narrative, what the reader can study concerning civil war, slavery and reconstruction, whether the author views slavery as paternalistic or autocratic as well as what the narrative states concerning why reconstruction was not successful.

Health Promotion in Nursing Practice Essay

Health promotion has become a key part of healthcare in today’s health industry. Promoting healthy lifestyles and behaviors and prevention of disease has shifted to a forefront position in the arena of healthcare. Health promotion is defined by the World Health Organization as â€Å"the process which enables people to improve control over the determinants of health and as a result to improve their own health.†(Jadelhack, 2012, p. 65) Promoting wellness and developing strategies to obtain this including confrontation of obstacles and barriers to wellness has become mainstream in nursing practice. Nurses now incorporate areas of education, practice, methodology, and research which has set them at the cutting edge in health promotion. Studies have shown that health promotion is highly cost-effective and as health costs rise, targeting diseases that are preventable such as hypertension, obesity, diabetes, COPD, and communicable diseases such as Hepatitis and HIV can greatly diminish healthcare costs. Promoting prevention rather than just curing disease after it occurs will reduce healthcare costs exponentially. In the past, nurses provided patient education arranged at teaching patients how to manage current illness, the focus was on the present. In today’s nursing the focus is now on maintaining optimum health and behaviors that promote healthy lifestyles in effect heading off disease before it occurs. The spotlight is now on future health and management of wellness and on remaining healthy. In order to do this, nurses must possess a strong understanding of the disease process and interventions that can be made in order to guide the patient and communities. They also must be well educated and knowledgeable in evidence-based practice and methods to coach and teach patients as well as  family members. Nurses play a key role in guiding decisions in health by individuals, families and communities. They must understand theories, models and practices and be equipped to implem ent interventions as well as evaluate effectiveness and redesign the approach to meet the desired outcome. As people become more aware of the benefits of good health and aware of their own health, community wellness is likely to improve. In order to facilitate and implement these changes, information delivery must be adequate and appropriate. Nurses must be educated in the delivery of health education and equipped to head off barriers to learning before they happen. Understanding cultural diversity and learning models promote better education of patients and communities. Advocating for healthy behaviors and lifestyles must be implemented and promoted at every contact with the patient. This is already seen in action by incentives for smoking cessation and weight loss by organizations and insurance companies. The public must be given the appropriate tools to enable them to make the changes necessary to promote wellness goals. In addition, optimizing opportunities during patient contact must be made. Every contact is an opportunity to advance healthy behaviors and to education patients and f amilies. Clinic visits alone should not be the only interaction nurses utilize to address health promotion. Dressing changes, injections, home health visits, and telephone contact are all optimal times to promote healthy behavior and educate patients. The platform for teaching comes in many settings for nurses and must be utilized to the highest extent possible. Health promotion comes in three formats, primary, secondary, and tertiary. The first level of health care, or primary prevention is provisioned to promote health and prevention of disease. The second level or secondary prevention is aimed at early identification of disease. Targeting high risk individuals in which the disease process has not yet manifested itself in order to promote measures that minimize the effects of disease. The third level of health care is known as tertiary prevention. This level of care involves care of disease that is already established. It works to restore the best level of function and disease management. It also promotes diminishing any further advancement of the disease process. The main difference bet ween the three levels of care is primarily the extent of disease and the level of affliction faced by the patient. Primary level of care deals mainly with  healthy individuals who have not yet displayed evidence of disease. This level deals with lessening the propensity for disease through methods such as vitamins, immunizations, weight control, smoking cessation and other healthy lifestyle behaviors. The secondary level addresses care geared towards maintaining the level of health the patient is currently at and preventing advancement of disease. An example of this would be a patient who has a family history of hypertension whose blood pressure readings are increasingly elevated. Health promotion would be designed to avoid onset of the disease as well as health lifestyle changes to limit the already present risk. In tertiary prevention, care involves addressing health conditions and disease that have already manifested. The goal of this level is to return the patient to an optimal level of functioning and preventing further progression of the disease. Support of the patient’s current health status and educating them to prevent complications as a result of the disease. This is demonstrated as educating a Hepatitis C patient on the importance of discontinuing alcohol consumption and safe sex practices to prevent transmission and coinfections. The nursing role extends well beyond primary care and basic skills. Health promotion is a progressive way nurses can assist patients, providers and communities in implementing and advocating for wellness and prevention of disease. References Baker, D. (2007). Media Review: Health Promotion in Nursing Practice. Retrieved from http://www.acme-articles.com/article/Healthcare_Systems/Health_Promotion_In_Nursing_Practice/87821 Jadelhack, R. (2012). Health Promotion in Nursing and Cost-Effectiveness. Journal of Cultural Diversity, 19(2), 65-68. Retrieved from http://eds.a.ebscohost.com.library.gcu.edu:2048/eds/detail?vid=3&sid=ac36e1ac-7283-45be-9086 d4f5b296ea41@sessionmgr4001&hid=4205&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWRzLWxpdmUmc2NvcGU9c2l0ZQ==#db=ccm&AN=2011602897 Lopes M., de Fatima Antero Sousa Machado, M., Barroso, L., Macà ªdo, E., Costa, R., & de Sousa Furtado, L. (2013). Health Promotion in the Perception of the Strategy of Family Health Nursing Professionals. 14(1), 60-70. Retrieved from

APN Leader Interview Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

APN Leader Interview - Research Paper Example Morris A. Magnan. Dr. Morris is an advanced practice nurse in the field of clinical nurse specialist (CNS) and the recipient of the clinical nurse specialist research award of the year 2009. The purpose of the interview would stimulate the interest of the student nurses as well as nurse practitioners on the significance of advanced nurse practitioner. The interview is equally purposed to pinpoint the influence nursing has on health sector delivery coupled with the necessity of research in nursing as a means of improvement in the standards of nursing care delivery. Through an interview with an advanced specialist in nursing, other upcoming nurses can learn through the experience and accumulation in knowledge of other fellow nurses (Varkey, Reller, & Resar, 2007). An interview held with Dr. Morris A. Magnan in his office at the college of nursing research center at Wayne state university revealed a composition of nine core competencies in advanced nurse practice that are important in his specialty as a clinical nurse specialty. Below is part of the documented interview that highlighted the significance of the core competencies in his specialty. (At 9:00am in Dr. Morris A. Magnan’s office in Wayne state university department of nursing sciences. The office is visibly organized with a couple of paperwork sorted in different trays on the table. On the wall hang three charts with the one behind Dr. Morris demonstrating mechanisms with which pressure sores can be prevented especially in the geriatric patients. Dr. Morris formally invites me to his office signifying the need to begin the interview.) Dr. Morris: Nursing is undeniably a significant profession in health care delivery. With the improvement in technology and changing in lifestyle, there is continuous diagnosis of new infections and conditions. The future of nursing will thus depend on the

What do you consider to be the major issues facing pblic education Essay

What do you consider to be the major issues facing pblic education today. Address one of the issues in depth, outlining possible causes, effects and resolutions - Essay Example Furthermore, recent budget cuts have even taken place as a result of economic recession. The consequence of decline in public education budget is that teachers are not being paid on time and due to this several teachers have stopped teaching at public schools. The qualities of education being provided to those who are dependent on public schools have even declined as a result of loss of quality teachers. One solution is to increase the budgets for public education by decreasing the budgets allocated to other sectors. Another solution is online education as it requires lower amount of investment (Christensen 1). A third solution is to provide underdeveloped teachers with appropriate training so the quality of education can be increased. One of the significant issues experienced by public education is decrease in the allocation of budget towards education sector. This is a major problem faced by modern day society as due to this issue, the future of society is at stake. Various solutions such as adoption of online education can be implemented to solve this

How Online Technologies Have Changed People Experience Life In The Essay

How Online Technologies Have Changed People Experience Life In The Digital Age - Essay Example They are more likely to be distracted by new events. This can in some ways make those individuals less productive than individuals who concentrate on single tasks. Multi-tasking was a term that was created for PC units that are capable of completing multiple tasks simultaneously. Unfortunately for humans, our brains do not function in a manner that allows us to multi-task. The author provided an example of attempting to check your email and search the web at the same time. One does not surf the web while checking their email, rather they check their email, then surf the web, then check their email again, and back to surfing the web. This is the empirical proof that individuals do not multitask, but rapidly task switch. Peter Suderman explains that we have transitioned from a world where the internet would merely engage in passive marketing techniques to a world of push marketing. There is no where an individuals can hide on the internet from some form of marketing. It is inevitable t hat whatever form of advertisement will find its way directly to the desktop of an individual. Such a vast sea of data has conditioned the minds of the readers and now as humans we find it impossible to break out of the habits that the digital age has conditioned us into. Suderman explains how reading in such environment causes humans to only take in small fragments of information as their eyes jump all around the screen on computers taking in small bits of data. He further explains the implications in his life as he finds it harder to concentrate on reading a book because his eyes have been conditioned to move all around the page just as it was reading from a computer screen. Rosen furthers this analysis by indicating that humans take in small fragments of information and are most intrigued by the information that is specific to their lives and the information that they created. While this has allowed individuals to more quickly consume information it has failed to make humans more empathetic for one another. The problem then arises in our ability to sense the feelings of our fellow man. While a website can inform humans about a genocide occurring on the other side of the world, we now only process it as just that, information. We don’t empathize with the humans who are in constant danger. Cowen seemingly breaks into this analysis and indicates how the internet is in fact lengthening our attention span. This is because our life is dictated by the narratives in which we have access to through personal contact, but rather we are able to seek access to any particular narrative we find interesting via the internet. This is important because individuals are able follow singular stories for extended periods of time. This is important because all information is merely at your fingertips. While individuals are not able to multi-task due to the limitations of attention, the internet has allowed tasking for individuals to become increasingly effective. While som e may argue that the fast paced structure of the web overloads the mind with data, others indicate that this infrastructure allows humans to quickly sift through undesirable data and focus on that which is most important to them. In the digital age it is becoming information is becoming more and more rapid, while some of the community contends that individuals are becoming less and less empathetic, others conclude humans have always showed selective attention and chose

New Media and Consumer Behaviour Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

New Media and Consumer Behaviour - Essay Example This paper provides a critical discussion of how the presence of social media influences or shapes consumer behaviour with real-world examples of social media as a contemporary marketing and relationship-building tool. The dynamics of social media and consumer psychology Smith (2009) identifies that blogging, video-sharing and social networks are entering mainstream and are no longer a niche market activity in multiple demographic groups. User-generated content materials have improving the ability of consumers to publish their opinions about products and services and also improve the relationships with the global and local communities. Social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter allow for instant publication of thoughts and ideas whilst also providing consumers with a new visibility, especially related to video-sharing, that fulfils their needs for affiliation. Bainbridge (2009) informs that consumers are also demanding portability with their electronic devices, thus advance ments in smart phone development and similar devices give portable access to social networking to serve as a form of diary for their current thoughts and impressions on a variety of different subjects and social commentaries. This contemporary access to new media is effective in satisfying consumers of many different socio-cultural and socio-economic backgrounds due to inherent needs and motivations that are shared by virtually all consumers globally. â€Å"A whole range of psychogenic drives stems from our social environment, culture and social group interactions† (Evans, Jamal & Foxall, 2009, p.5). These psychogenic drives are status-related needs or simply finding a sense of serenity regarding one’s place in the social stratification system. According to psychologists, one of the basic motivational drivers is the establishment of a sense of belonging, believing that one must be recognized by peers and general society through group affiliation. Under most models, est ablishment of higher-order psychology cannot be established without this affiliation. â€Å"The satisfaction of the need for esteem produces self-confidence, prestige, power and control† (Gambrel & Cianci, 2003, p.146). People in global society also need to feel as though they are having an impact on their environment as it relates to power and control (Gambrel & Cianci). These inherent needs for recognition from society and peers are also present in youth consumer markets. According to Berten & van Rossem (2008) adolescents are especially influenced by peer relationships and feedback with whom they have strong interpersonal connections as well as their desired reference group. This is important to understand as it relates to youth markets since they are considered to be â€Å"one of the most cynical, fast-moving and fragmented markets brand owners can hope to crack† (Forsey, 2009, p.21). Usually trend conscious, the youth market is a concentrated user of social media and thus understanding their psychological make-up is important to critically assess the role of social media for modern marketing practices. Therefore, it should be said that social media is not just a recreational past-time anymore for youths and older target markets, but represents a lifestyle activity that is mainstream and a conventional social outlet. Through the use of

Access Control and Policies Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

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Marketing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 9

Marketing - Essay Example I feel so passionate about the motorbike particularly considering the shape which almost resembles the cheetah’s speed. The motorbike just seems comfortable and enjoyable to any rider who loves sporting. The Ducati monster would not be assumed by anyone who loves sports especially because of its unique sport nature. What interests me most is the styling of the motorbike which provides a comfortable feeling when the rider is exposed outdoors. The lovely color of the motorbike would actually attract attention of everyone who adores colors even if the person does not love motorbikes. The Ducati Monster motorbike makes me have a real natural taste of an animal ride thus prompting me to feel like it is actually a lifestyle I should adopt. The Ducati Monster motorbike seem to be the fastest motorbike from the advertisement and this makes me cherish it even more because I can ride faster than vehicles. The motorbike shape which looks like the Cheetah’s shape makes it look very flexible especially while moving past many vehicles. Motorbikes normally give me freedom and enjoyment I love more so when I bring things into focus while riding. I find it enjoyable to see nature around and appreciate the beauty of everything around me while riding. While on the motorbike, I really feel in control of almost everything around me. ... This shoe can really inspire and communicate a lot of information to the audience. The green color of the shoe simply makes it look very natural and nature friendly. The color makes it look very cool and comfortable to the wearer. The advertisement is very clear and the writings are too big to be avoided. I love the shoes because they are very comfortable especially while playing. I do cherish sports so much and any sportswear particularly from Nike Company. The company has a record of making some of the best brands of shoes and I am one of its loyal customers. Associating me with Nike Inc. is a good experience and privilege to me. I love being regarded as someone in the high status and that is exactly what I get from the shoes. These shoes’ comfort that is derived from their design and material used to manufacture it may really improve an athlete’s performance and reduce foot injury. These shoes are very flexible and simple thus enabling flexible performance as toes wi ll be able to stretch and clasp. The TOMS advertisement does not impress me but I have a friend called Sam who really loves stylish shoes. The guy is just crazy about fashion. He would always want to match the shoes with his clothes. He really enjoys going out with friends while in the latest fashion shoes or clothes. Sam loves recognition while in the group particularly if someone would just appreciate his attires. He is an individual who can take even 30 minutes thinking about what to wear for an occasion or on a weekend. These shoes are really the best fit for Sam and I have seen him with a few pairs of these kinds. The shoes actually match his casual wears such as jeans and linen trousers. The advertisement by TOMS can

Competition Freaks Essay Example for Free

Competition Freaks Essay According to Dr. Phil, Everybody likes to be a winner, but some people are competition freaks who have to be first, be the best or win at everything they do. This overly competitive nature oftentimes causes tension in their personal relationships. Love and competition are oil and water, they do not mix, Dr. Phil warns. He offers the following advice for competitive people who want to overcome their need to compete, and learn to relax and enjoy what they have. Being competitive in our academic, working and personal lives can be good for achieving success and moving into the ranks of glory and glamour. Competitive attitudes can help you to feel energized, able to take on challenging tasks and ready to achieve many things in life. However, competitive behavior that is not considerate of your well-being or well balanced in its application can take its toll, leading to self destruction and perhaps ostracizing the very people you care about the most. REFERENCE: http://www.drphil.com/articles/article/510 http://www.wikihow.com/Be-Competitive-in-a-Non-Destructive-Way 1. SELFISHNESS B. EFFECTS OF COMPETING 1. NEGATIVE EFFECT 1.1 SELF- HATRED Another risk of burying our competitive feelings is that we may turn them around and use them to feel bad about ourselves. A straightforward competitive thought like, â€Å"I hate that he is so smart and always says the right thing,† may turn into an attack toward our selves like, â€Å"You are so stupid. You never know what to say. He is so much more engaging than you.†Ã‚  When we turn against our competitive feelings, we turn against ourselves. We feel ashamed of who we are and what we want. Instead of seeking to emulate the people we admire, we simply tear ourselves down in relation to them. With so many negative manifestations of suppressing our direct competitive feelings, how can we face them more honestly and make sure to use them in healthy ways? First of all, we have to remember that feeling competitive is not about letting these emotions take over or ruminating in negative thoughts. It’s about accepting our naturally occurring competitive responses, feeling them fully and moving on. We can accept that we have these feelings a lot of the time. We can even have fun with them, letting ourselves have the nastiest thought possible, then letting that thought go. Doing this as an exercise can feel clean, healthy and even refreshing. As illustrated by the above examples, when we suppress our competitive feelings, they have a way of seeping into and influencing our behavior. Yet, each time we acknowledge that we have these thoughts, we can consciously choose how we want to act. We can be much more proactive in becoming the best version of ourselves, both accepting ourselves and evolving, as the motivated (and competitive) individuals that we inherently are. 1.2 JEALOUSY/BEING ENVY Competitive feelings can be full of jealousy. Allowing ourselves to have competitive thoughts will not leave us falling victim to unstoppable fits of envy or suspicion. When we hold back our healthy and natural competitive feelings, we strengthen the negative parts of those feelings –jealousy included. Instead of building a case against someone, we can face the reality of our feelings and adopt a healthier attitude. For example, a guy I know recently revealed to me a thought process he went through at a party with his girlfriend. He noticed that she was happily chatting with other people, including a few men throughout the night. At first he thought, â€Å"She is totally flirting with my friend. Why does she light up around him? Is she more into him than me? I should just dump her before she makes a fool out of me.† At a certain point, he realized that what he was really feeling was competitive. He wanted her to respond to him the way she was responding to other people at the party. His thinking quickly changed to, â€Å"I love when she is fun like this. I want to share that with her.† Instead of listening to  the voice in his head that told him to pull away and act cold to her, he joined her and engaged in joking around with her. By being lighthearted and fun himself, she was naturally drawn to him, and they were both able to feel closer and happier with each other. If he’d acted on his jealous insecurities, rather than admitting he felt competitive, he would have achieved just the opposite. 1.3 SELF-DENIAL One of the worst results of denying our competitive feelings is that it can cause us to reject what we really want in life. Because feelings of desire or jealousy make us uncomfortable, we may pretend that we don’t want whatever we once longed for anymore. If someone we had a crush on goes out with someone else or if a job we interviewed for falls through, we can easily turn against ourselves and become self-denying. Instead of thinking, â€Å"I really wanted that, and I’m furious that I didn’t get it,† we might think, â€Å"I don’t even care. I never really wanted that. I’m not going to put myself out there to embarrass myself again.† When we engage in this pattern, we become increasingly passive. Rather than going after what we desire, we avoid it, all in the interest of denying our â€Å"unacceptable† competitive feelings. REFERENCE: http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/compassion-matters/201309/the-benefits-feeling-competitive 2. POSSITIVE EFFECT 2.1 MAKES YOU PERSEVERE When you look at someone ahead of you and you do whatever it takes to catch up to them†¦that is the essence of perseverance. You don’t give up until you are at the top. Without competition, we would have no reason to persevere. We wouldn’t know our limits and how far we can stretch them. The rewards of perseverance are priceless and to experience such rewards, you need a reason, and competition is that reason. 2.2 HELPS ASSESS YOUR STRENGHTS AND WEAKNESSES Following up from my previous point, what you do notice is what you are doing right and what you are doing wrong. With competition, you have a way to measure how well or how poorly you are doing. Knowing what you are good at and what you are not is extremely important, because success is all about accentuating your strengths and hiding your weaknesses. How well you accomplish this determines how far you go. REFERENCE: http://www.ineedmotivation.com/blog/2008/05/7-positives-of-competition/

The Black Sea Region History Essay

The Black Sea Region History Essay On the south-western side of the hill surmounting Lake Ohrid, travelers will find oneof the architectural masterpieces of medieval Orthodox Christianity. The church, that was dedicated to St. John the Theologian, and also known as Kaneno, whose consecration dated back to no later than.1447, is usually known as a legacy of Medieval Slavic empire (whether one calls it as Bulgarian, or, Macedonian, depends on ones fancy). Taking into consideration, however, its unique style that reminds us a highly successful combination of Byzantine and Armenian architectural technologies, it seems more appropriate to calldt.as-a monument of the cultural integrity of the wider Black Sea rim. The Black Sea world, just like the church Kaneno, had been an artifact of cultural mixture, composed of various peoples of different faiths, vernaculars, customs and practices until the first decades of the twentieth century. They had been, moreover, living in a well-integrated and well-organized socio-economic entity that was tightly bound up by common water. Artisans of famous silver ornament in Trabzon would live on the Ukrainian wheat and Bulgarian wine, while the wealthy mercantile famnyin Odessa would enjoy their afternoon tea with dried figs from Anatolia. Life of the people around the Black Sea had been directly resting on the incidents at the opposite side of the water. They had kept watchful eyes on the course of event there. However, such a vivid image of the Black Sea region seems to be quite perplexing, if not alien, for us, people living in the twenty first century. Just like the record inscribing the name of the architect of the church Kaneno had been lost, our knowled ge on the Pontus world is too fragmented to envision a unified picture. The Pontus world also addresses us a perplexing question. Is it a mere accidental coincident that the three mercantile nations, Armenians, Greeks, and Jews, who had once been major lubricants for the organic mechanism in this world, suddenly disappeared from the Black littoral at the very moment when we lost the vivid image of this region? Armenians, Greeks, and Jews were all historical nations well-known by their conspicuous activities in commerce and financing. All of them had their residential centers around the Black Sea before the twentieth century. Armenians had been widely dwelling in the southern Caucasus and the eastern Anatolia, and displayed their strong presence in every commercial centre around the Sea. Greeks had densely populated in the Black Sea littoral as well, and often constituted plurality in major trade entrepots like Istanbul, Trabzon, Odessa, Varna, Constanta and Krasnodar. Until the last decades of the nineteenth century, majority of the world Jewry had lived in the Russian Black provinces and their hinterlands. However, it is an arduous work for us to trace out them on the contemporary ethnic map of the region. It seems as if they had taken away our memory of the region with them when they retreated to the backstage of history of the Black Sea. What kind of process of modern conceptualization prevents us from shaping integrated scenery of the Black Sea region in our mind? The easiest answer might be the one that seeks the root in the nationalization of history. By the word Cemomorski rajon, an ordinary Bulgarian will think of an area the word Karadeniz bolgesi. For both of them, cities like Kisinev, Akkerman, or Batumi are not the part of their Black Sea region, but some unknown foreign cities. The nation-state, as a model for historical thought, has obscured many elements. The area studies, self-styled inter-disciplinary science, seem to have overcome the narrowing views of the national history, as they claim to have adopted an approach that makes it possible to analyze more than one nation-state at the same time. However, they seem, to be suffering from the same type of shortcomings. As for the Black Sea studies, there are too many candidates for the possible frame work, Slavic Studies, Balkan Studies, Caucasus Studies, Russian (and Soviet) .Studies (or its new version Eurasian Studies), Turkish and Islamic Studies, or Mediterranean Studies, but none is enough to cover all aspects of the Black Sea region. In order to comprehend the Black Sea region, it might be necessary to mobilize several area studies, but at the same time, it would mean saturation of methodologies. Such inherent weakness of the area studies seems, partly; to come from their methodological ancestors. Disciplines like Slavic Studies or Russian and Eurasian Studies could not completel y cut off themselves with the tradition of Slavic philology. Both Turkish studies and Iranian Studies are, by and large, nd more than a dummy branch of the Orientalism (as its original meaning 6f the word). Area studies are still accompanying preconceptions that had been inherent to their methodological forefathers. Apart from methodological questions, it seems relevant to interrogate a primordial question: where, at all, is the destination of intellectual endeavors of the area studies, or more simply, for what purpose are they serving? Recent developments may suggest us a part of the answer. There took place a* drastic reshaping of the area studies after 1989. East European studies have already divided into Central European Studies and Balkan Studies. Former Soviet Studies have also transformed themselves into Eurasian Studies. As the change is apparently linked to the shift of geopolitical situation, the answer must be lying somewhere beyond the natural evolution of methodological thinking, or survival strategies of individual researchers. The recent change indeed bears marked similarities to the realignments of traditional disciplines and eventual crystallization into area studies after the World War II. Both of the cognitive processes went through strong impact of the hegemonic shifts that h ad reshaped geopolitical map of the globe. The shift inevitably brought the regions drastic changes. From economic point of view, each region had to modify its trade regulations, financial mechanism, monetary policy, and working practices to be fit into the new situation, thus, it precipitated changes in the structure, and even mode of production. Political systems were also required to accommodate themselves to the new relations. As these changes caused considerable stress to the society, social tissue had to undergo significant metamorphosis. The area studies analyze various aspects of these changes, and provide, as a whole, a systematic knowledge to cope with the new reality. Therefore, they are working, irrespective of the intension of individual researcher, for special concern of particular forces that have common interest in a certain form of regional division of labor. Indeed area studies seem to pay less attention to the phenomena that tend to slip out of the scope of their main concerns, especially those overlapping several areas. By reassessing historical narratives concerning three nations, this paper tries to demonstrate the significance of those phenomena that have been made invisible by the frame of cognizance which was formulated in the course of modernity. The Ottoman Conquest and the Black Sea regional economy The Black Sea and surrounding lands had been playing significant roles as a hinge that bound together the Mediterranean, Central Asian Steppe, and Indian-Middle East economies since antiquity. The economic wealth of the region was an important factor in the political and economic stability of the Macedonian, Roman, and. Byzantine Empires in the Classical and Medieval times. The Black Sea also formed one of the major arteries joining the Islamic world and north-eastern Europe, and served as an important commercial rout between the ninth to early thirteenth century. Within itself, the Black Sea region, together with the Aegean, had formed a closely knit economic entity, as the northern Black Sea region produced and exported grain, meat, fish, and other animal products, while the southern Black Sea and the Aegean exported wine, olive oil, dried fruit, and luxury goods in exchange [Kortepeter, 1966: 86; Peacock, 2007:66-67]. By the time the Byzantine control of the region collapsed at the beginning of the thirteenth century, the Black Sea trade had largely fallen into the hand of the Venetian and Genoese merchants. At first Venetians seemed to have taken upper-hand, but Genoa succeeded in gaining a t near monopoly over the Black Sea commerce after 1261. By the time, Genoa had been building up a network of its colonies covering all lands surrounding the Black Sea. The Genoese BlackSea Empire was, however, relatively short-lived, as there emerged a formidable power in the western corner of Anatolia at the end of the thirteenth century, and it was to bring the Italian hegemony in the Black Sea finally to an end in the course of fifteenth century. Starting as a small warriors state, the Ottomans followed a gradual, but steady course of territorial expansion during the first half of the fourteenth century. They were successful in intruding into the Balkans after crossing the Dardanelles in 1346. By the end of the century, the Ottoman sultans had established themselves firmly on the vast landmass lying at the both sides of the Straits. Although the Ottorrfans at first did not show much interest in controlling the Black Sea commerce, a clear Ottoman policy regarding the Black Sea began to emerge during the reign of the Mehmed II (1451-1481) [Kortepeter, 1966: 88]. Upon assuming the throne the throne, Sultan the Conqueror embarked on a series of campaign to destroy the Latin colonial empires in the eastern Mediterranean, as a part of his project to reassemble the former Byzantine territories. Especially after the takeover (ri AXrooTj) of the Byzantine capital in 1453, Mehmed II felt it necessary to establish a complete control over the resources of the Black Sea region for the reconstruction and development of his new capital. In 1459, the Ottomans first deprived the Genoese of Amasra, the most important port on the Anatolian Black Sea coast, as it formed, together with Caffa, the shortest route in the north-south communication in the sea. After the fall of Amasra, the Genoese colonies were confined to the north western corner of the Black Sea. The seizure of the main Genoese colony of Caffa took place in 1475. Caffa had long been the chief trade and manufacturing centre for the Genoese in the Black Sea. After the fall of Caffa, the Genoese gri p on the Black Sea considerably weakened and the Ottomans captured all of the Italian colonies in the Crimean and the Caucasus within a decade. The only remaining trade centers of significance were two Moldavian port cities, Kilia and Akkerman. Both of them fell to the Ottoman hand in 1484. In this way, by the beginning of the sixteenth century the Ottomans had turned the Black Sear into an Ottoman lake [Inalcik Quataert, 1994: 271-3; Kortepeter, 1966: 92-3]. i The Ottoman conquest brought about a new socio-economic system into the Black Sea region. Now, majority the coastal lands of the Sea were directly connected to the imperial capital, Istanbul, and a new regional division of labor was introduced in order to maintain this extraordinarily large city. Moreover, the Ottoman Empire employed a kind of command economy whose main purpose was to maintain its military predominance. Hence, the government put strong control over the transportation of manufactured goods and raw materials produced within its domain, imposing de facto ban on the export, while, on the other hand, it showed lavish attitude to the imported commodities that its lands could not yield. Under this regime, many parts of the empire constituted an autarkic economic entity. Hence, it was natural that the Black Sea region, along with other part of the Empire, constituted an integrated, but closed to outside, system. Non-Muslim Merchants as coordinating elements One of the most important changes that took place after the Ottoman conquest of the Black Sea region was the termination of the Italian predominance in favor of the native Ottoman subjects. Owing to the poor development of Muslim mercantile class at the beginning of the Ottoman-conquest in this region, it was the non-Muslims that took initiative in forming the: wider regional network. Already during the Italian rule of the Black Sea, the Greeks and other indigenous people, together with Jews and Armenians, played the role of middlemen and widely dwelled in the Genoese trade centers. Many of them were employed as apprentices in the Latin enterprises, and accumulated the knowledge of the business practices in the Levant trade. Even before the fall of Caffa, the Italians were losing their control of the oriental trade in the northern countries, and were being replaced by Ottoman subjects, mostly Armenian Christians, Greek Orthodox Christians and Jews. The Ottoman government found in them reliable traders and contractors as middlemen within the empire. Thus, non-Muslim merchants took advantage of the new opportunity of the closure of the Black Sea to the foreigners in the sixteenth century, and they made use of their privileged position to traverse the Ottoman domain, in order to organize trading networks across southern and western European cities [Kortepeter, 1966: 101; inalcik Quataert, 1994: 272, 209]. The first element that gained most from this new order seemed to be Greeks. The Greek merchants of this period widely operated in Ottoman inter-regional trade. They were in control of a significant portion of the commerce of the eastern half of the Balkan Peninsula. Greeks were particularly active in the Ottoman capital, as traders and sea captains, carrying grain from the Balkan coastal regions adjacent to the Black Sea. The Greek merchants, allegedly descendants of the Byzantine aristocracy, widely engaged in tax farming, large-scale trade and shipping both in international and domestic. However, after the execution of tfye great tycoon in the Greek community of Istanbul, Michael Cantakuzino  §aitanoglu in 1578, the predominant position of the Greek merchants in the imperial economy began to shake [Stoianovich, 1960: 241; Inalcik Quataert, 1994:517]. Instead of Greeks, Jewish bankers and tax-farmers surfaced as predominant elements in Ottoman finance and long-distance trade during the second half of the sixteenth century. The expulsion of the Marrano Jews from the Catholic countries especially contributed to the Jewish prosperity in the Ottoman economy. The Marrano Jews seemed to introduce into the Ottoman Empire the techniques of European capitalism, banking and the mercantilist concept of state economy, and played decisive role in the finances [inalcik Quataert, 1994: 212]. Jews also played a considerable role in the development of the Danube basin. As tax farmers, Jews were managing many Danubian ports and customhouses [Levi, 1982: 26-27]. But the Jewish domination of the Ottoman economy could not last long. Already in the 1650s, Jewish merchants had been less active in Ottoman territory than during the second half of the sixteenth century. The Jews were losing the functions that they had acquired in the sixteenth century, in cluding the farming of custom duties, minting, and the positions of money exchanger for the ottoman notables. Westward Jewish migration that occurred synchronously with the shift of the global economy to the trans-Atlantic trade was a part of reason. Another reason is the renewed expansion of activities of Greek merchants that forced many Jewish merchants out of Balkan trade [Panzac, 1992: 203; inalcik Quataert, 1994: 519]. The presence of the Armenian merchants in the Black Sea region had been strongly felt long before the Ottoman conquest. Armenians had settled in Crimea as early as the eleventh century [Panossian, 2006: 82]. They were important trade partners for the Nogays in the North Caucasus, and engaged widely in the transaction of slaves and large quantities of butter and furs [Kortepeter, 1966: 104]. They were predominant in the Moldavian [Lwow-Akkerman) route of trade during the fourteenth century, and obtained the trade privilege for all Ruthenia in 1402. The leader of the caravan on this route was always an Armenian throughout the fifteenth century. Until that time, Armenians had widely settled in the commercial centers in Crimea and Rumania. According to an Ottoman survey in 1520, there were 2,783 households in Caffa, out of which about 60% was Christian, mostly Armenian [inalcik Quataert, 1994: 280, 286]. The Ottoman conquest of the Black Sea region brought about more favorable conditions for the Armenian merchants. In the Ottoman Empire, Armenians, like Greeks, constituted a Christian community that was accorded with religious and judicial autonomies. Their religion also gave them easier access to the lands of Christian Europe. They had already firmly established themselves in southern Poland and Transylvania, and controlled local commerce. Making use of the Ottoman trade policy as the linchpin, the Armenian traders succeeded in building up their commercial network, extending as far as Venice and Central Europe. The Armenians could also make use of the rivalry between Ottomans and Russians in order to establish their new trade route. Several Armenian merchants played conspicuous role in the court of Ivan the Terrible, and further expanded their commercial activities as far as the northern end of the Grand Duchy of Moscow [Goffman, 2002: 15; Braudel, 1992: 155]. The Armenian merchants had another advantage, as they were going to expand their activities further in the east. The Armenian middlemen settled in Persia found in silk an eminently marketablecommodity. In the seventeenth century, the Ottoman Armenian merchants distinguished themselves by their association with an international trade network basing around New Julfa, a suburban city of Isfahan. Merchants from this city took an active role in the Iranian silk trade which spanned the globe from Narva, Sweden to Shanghais, China. In this way, the Armenian merchants had been successful in establishing their trading network stretching from China to Western Europe by the eighteenth century [McCabe, 2001]. In the course of their expansion, the commercial activities of three non-Muslim merchant communities widely transcended the Ottoman borders. It was, by no means, the loss of weight of the Ottoman commerce for them by the eighteenth century. The commerce on Ottoman territory continued to be crucial for the maintenance of these networks, as the goods they traded were often of Ottoman manufacture or had transited through the Ottoman state. The trade activities of Armenians, just like those of Greeks and Jews, remained intrinsic to the economic system of the Ottoman Empire, and the Ottoman wealth was central to their prosperity [Inalcik Quataert, 1994: 517-8]. As we have, hitherto, surveyed the significance of the non-Muslims merchants in the Ottoman Black Sea trade, it is necessary to emphasize that we should not downplay the importance of the Muslim merchants. Although they were late comers in this region, already in the fifteenth century, Muslim merchants had outnumbered the others at least in the southern section of the south-north trade over the routes of pursa-Istanbul-Caffa or Akkerman by sea and overland by Edime-Kilia-Akkerman [Inalcik Quataert, 1994: 278]. It seems probable that the role of the Muslim merchants constantly gained importance in the course of the sixteenth and seventeenth century, and eventually took over the non-Muslims, especially in the intra-regional trade. The position of the Muslim merchants in the intra-Ottoman trade was much stronger than the non-Muslims during the eighteenth century. The minorities almost always held only a secondary position in the domestic maritime trade. According to an Ottoman document of 1782 or a list of cereal ships to Istanbul provide us an interesting data that out of the total 56 names of merchants, 55 were Turks or other Muslims, only one was Greek or Albanian, and even he was associated with a Turk. The document also shows us that out of 158 ships captains, 136 (86%) were Turks or other Muslims, and 22 (14%) were Greeks or Albanians. Therefore, the Muslim merchants had secured almost total control over the supply of wheat to Istanbul by the Black Sea route [Panzac, 1992: 195, 203]. Socio-economic features of the non-Muslim merchant communities From historical point of view, merchants, especially those who engaged in cross-cultural- trade, possessed, more often than not, ambivalent characters. As frequenters in two or more distinct societies, they had to master several important knowledge and skills that were usually unfamiliar to those who lived inside a particular culture. So, they brought with them, not only a variety of foreign goods and wares, but new technologies and information. These cultural goods often catalyzed a transformation of the host society. In the case of the Ottoman non-Muslim merchants, they became major actors in a technological and cultural interplay between the Ottoman Empire and the rest of Europe. It wa,s their trading network that helped produce a uniform commercial method throughout ti?e Mediterranean and European worlds before the  ¦ nineteenth century [Goffman, 2002: 16]. On the other hand, every society that based principally on the production of use values would inherently harbor antagonism toward the merchant. Such hostilities were often boosted by the stresses that arouse in the course of cultural transformation. Therefore, the position of the cross-cultural merchants was constantly under the threat of eventual outburst of hatred against them. In order to avoid, or at least to alleviate, the tension with the host society, the merchant community had to be adaptive. In the case of the non-Muslim merchants in the Ottoman Empire, we can notice strong tendencies of compliance to the authority. Ottoman Jews and Greeks played major role in the finances during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and even later. They were the major players in the tax-farming, the most important means of capital formation at that time, and their accumulated wealth became indispensable for the state finances and the palace. In return for their service, the Ottoman government conferred them various privileges. Several Jews were appointed the court physicians and imperial treasurers. Greeks were employed as dragomans (official interpreter) and, later, rulers of Moldavia and Wallachia [Inalcik Quataert, 1994: 209], The Ottoman Armenians also played significant role in the palace. The upper strata of their community, often called as amiras, made their presence strongly felt in government as bankers or money lenders. In the tax farming, they provided the capital as sarrafs (bankers), and sold the commodities collected in kind as merchants. After the eighteenth century, they became instrumental in keeping the fragile Ottoman financial system functioning. It is symbolized by the fact that the prominent Dtizian family monopolized the position of superintendent of the state mint office from 1757 until 1880 [Panzac, 1992: 203; Panossian, 2006: 85]. Probably, the most important in this aspect was the role played by their religious authorities. The Ottoman government traditionally granted wide range of religious and judicial autonomies to its Christian and Jewish subjects, calling each of these congregations as millet. The Greek, Jewish, and Armenian mercantile class in Istanbul practically monopolized the posts of the highest priests of their millets, and did their utmost in preserving the imperial order, by securing the loyalty to the sultan among their coreligionists. Thanks to these endeavors, Jews and Armenians were often praised by the authority as millet sadakat, or loyal subjects. In the case of Greek Orthodox, they failed to win this title because of the several unruly elements like semi-nomadic mountaineers or provincial peasants with independent spirits, the upper strata of their community, however, generally earned high esteem among the Muslim authorities. In spite of such functions, non-Muslim merchants did not dare to go over a certain limit of the host societies, because over adaptation to the host society was suicidal to their existence. It would increase the tension with the other society where they made business at the same time. For example, the conversion to Islam might promise better position in the Ottoman society, but it would make very difficult, if not impossible, to earn by the international trade. Thus, probably the best strategy for the merchants was to blur the demarcation line with the host society by making their existence more and more vague and ambiguous. By doing so, they could expect more secure conditionsfor their survival. It was, therefore, no coincidence that the three non-Muslim merchant communities in the Ottoman Empire possessed marked characteristic of special multilingual!sm. As the other Jews in the Western Europe, Jews in the Ottoman Empire adopted the languages of the people among whom they lived. They could, usually quite fluently, communicate in Turkish and other majority languages, but they nevert fully assimilated linguistically to the host societies. The Romaniotes, who had long lived among the Greeks, adopted vernacular Greek as their communal language,.while the, Ashkenazi, East European Jews continued > to speak Yiddish in their home. The most influential element of the Ottoman Jews, the Sephardi, preserved medieval Spanish, where their ancestors had been living until the Catholic take-over. Moreover, all of these Jewish vernaculars contained significant portion of Hebraic expression. Thus, the dialect expresses the two contradictory tendencies: the integration to the surrounding soci ety and the isolation. The Ottoman Armenians shared the same characteristic. While they continued to use ancient Armenian as their spiritual symbol especially in their place of worship, almost all of them were either bilingual or, in some cases, monolingual speakers of Turkish. Turcophone among the Armenians was so strong that Vartan Pasa, an Armenian writer in the nineteenth century, in the preface to his History of Napoleon Bonaparte, justifies the fact that he had written this work in Turkish with the argument that the Armenians who knew ancient language (krapar) were very few and that the new literary language based on the vernacular was still not sufficiently developed thus, that the Turkish language was the best tool to the majority [Strauss, 2003:41, 55]. The case of Greeks was much more complicated, but it might show rather vividly the advantages of linguistic ambiguity for the prosperity of the mercantile community. During the Ottoman period, the word Greeks seldom denoted the linguistic community. Many Greeks in the Anatolian plateau spoke Turkish dialect, Karamanh, while the Greeks in Syria and Egypt used Arabic as their ordinary means of communication. The Greeks in the Balkans were more perplexing. There were many Greeks who spoke Bulgarian, Vlacho-Arouman, Albanian, and Turkish. The linguistic variety derived from the context that the communal identity of the Ottoman Greeks usually conflated with the Rum millet identity. Within the Ottoman Empire, the Greek Orthodox Christians, especially those who composed the urban strata, were collectively referred to Romans, members of the Rum millet, regardless of their ethnic origins. Such tendencies were strongly felt especially among the mercantile class. The notion of the Greek Orthodox Christian was indeed a social category. In many parts of the Balkans, contemporary denomination of nations, like Serbs and Bulgarians, denoted the peasants in particular locations. When Slavs moved into the urban space or became members of the middle class, they generally shifted their identity to Greek. The local Christian higher strata were Grecophone in Serbia. In the Bulgarian lands, the domination of cultural life by the ecumenical patriarchate led to the promotion of Grecophone culture in liturgy, archives, and correspondence [Roudometof, 1998:13-14]. The tendency became more conspicuous after 1750, when the prosperity of the Greek Orthodox merchants was reaching its peak. Owing to the predominance in trade, Greek became the primary language of commerce in the eastern Mediterranean, and Orthodox Christian merchants, regardless of their ethnic origins, generally spoke Greek and often assumed Greek names. The middle class Orthodox Christians were largely acculturated into the Greeks or under heavy Grecophone influences [Stoianovich, 1960: 291]. The ambiguity or ambivalency of the groups seems to have been felt stronger at such elements like new comers, lower members, and/or provincial elites, than at the centre of the community. For example, during the first half of the nineteenth century, the biiingualism, especially with the dialect spoken by the majority member of the surroundings, was more conspicuous among newly immigrated members from local villages than those who had lived in urban space for generations. It reflected in their identities that veteran urban dwellers were adamant in their Greek consciousness in contrast to the new comers with mixed identity with Bulgarian element [Markova, 1976: 43-54]. The same was true for the Greek ecclesiastic circle, where lower clergy tended to remain within the boundary of Metropolitan diocese, while the higher hierarchies rotated several dioceses of different Patriarchates. As a result, high dignities in the Church possessed deep-seated belief in the Hellenic nature of the Ortho doxy; ion the other hand, parish priests widely shared non-Hellenic culture with their parishioners. To summarize our discussion hitherto, the non-Muslim merchants in the Black Sea region bore the following attributes as groups. They were religious congregation as well as occupational category. As for the latter, they were, more often than not, engaged in external trade, or in other words, were agencies tonnecting different cultural, socio-economic entities. The members of these groups were usually quite proficient in special occupational expertise. They knew well specific business and social practices of various places, and they were multilingual for the most of part. They were generally more adaptive to the host society, and, at least on the surface, very compliant to the existing authority. The demarcation line between them and the other groups was vague, and often intentionally blurred. Their ambiguity or ambivalency was more intense, more strongly felt at peripheral or lower strata than at the core. Perhaps, this was the most important attribute that made possible the non-Musli m merchants to maintain their social and economic function, while preserving their identities, without provoking serious conflict with the host societies. The above mentioned characteristics of the Ottoman non-Muslim merchants might seem to fit well into a wider category of Diaspora merchants. But, at the same time, there arises an uncomfortable feeling to call those merchants who dwelled in their homeland as Diaspora, because, except for the Jews, many Greek Orthodox and Armenian merchants lived in the territory of their former Kingdoms or Empire. Moreover, there were many non-Mercantile members within the Greek Orthodox and Armenian communities in the Ottoman Empire (the Jews were exception in this case as well). It does not seem reasonable to separate the merchant groups from the peasant mass when we discuss them as ethno-religious communities. Taking into these inconveniences into consideration, it seems more pertinent to apply the old notion of people-class,1 proposed by Abram Leon, for the case study of the Ottoman non-Muslim merchants. In his work that examined the historical development of the Jewish communities in Europe, Leon 1 turned