Competition is Great, but not Perfect :: essays papers

Competition is Great, but not Perfect In the United States today, the economy is one of the most important things to stabilize and maintain. The economy is this capitalistic nation in a way. As the economy has gone over the many years, so has the country. A good example of that is the Great Depression; everyone in the United States was doing great with the Bull Run of the market and the abundance of jobs. Then things started to change for the worst; the economy fell out with the great crash of the bare stock market and along did the people. Everything crumbled like stale bread, including people lives and families. Not until businesses rebuilt themselves and competition returned that the economy finally turned around. The country and the people, upon whose backs’ it rests finally, turned around also, pulling out of the Great Depression and returning this nation to its greatness. In the article â€Å"Competition is Great Game Plan, but not Perfect,† the author M. Ray Perryman states that the economy is doing well due to the competition between companies and firms as the title might indicate (Perryman 1). Although he states that the competition which fuels our economy has problems, like creating monopolies and companies that dominate markets, identifying them early and becoming aware of them we will be able to keep our economy on the path that it is on (1). Mr. Perryman supports this claim by using such strategies as common sense in his reasonability, relevance, and confidence by using his own voice in this successful essay. In speaking to the American public through his article, Mr. Perryman uses the rhetorical strategy of common sense and reasonability when he states such things as, â€Å"It (competition) lowers prices, enhances consumer choice, promotes innovation and forces us to use our scarce resources very efficiently† (1). This strategy works for him in because it makes a lot of sense that competition would do these things for us. Companies competing for business must always try to undercut the opponent’s prices and costs, with this more choices will be created. Another example of Perryman’s use of the common sense rhetorical strategy is when he states, â€Å"The information and technology revolution of today, which I believe to be in its infancy, is creating a wider gap between the ‘haves’ and ‘have nots’ and is likely to eliminate or greatly reduce the need for many relatively unskilled occupation (and more than a few skilled ones) over the nex t few years† (2).

Millennium Development Goal and Bangladesh

Report on 2012 Millennium Development Goal (MDG) and Bangladesh The Progress of Bangladesh on MDG A report submitted to the Department of Economics, AIUB, as a course requirement of Economic Geography, Fall semester 2012| | Prepared & Submitted byTeam : HISTORYNazmun,MdIstiakAlam, NusratKhan,Jahirul Islam Akhter, Sheikh TurashaShuvo,Shariar Al AminAshraf, Taskia| | Course teacherRAFIQ, FARHANAFaculty Department of Economics| | Date of submission| 28 November 2012| | | American International University-Bangladesh (AIUB)| 28 November 2012 RAFIQ, FARHANA Faculty Economics DepartmentAmerican International University – Bangladesh. Subject: Submission of Report Dear Madam, We have the pleasure to submit this report entitled â€Å"Mdg and progress of bangladesh† which has been prepared in part-fulfillment of the requirements of the Final Examination Economic Geography. We have discussed on our report about MDG’s and its progress in Bangladesh. We also have shown the wor ldwide progress of MDG. Finally, we are truly grateful to you for giving us this pleasant opportunity to work on this report. The entire group contribution has led to the successful completion of this report.Despite our all possible attempts, certain deficiencies may reside and we sincerely regret this. Best Regards, 1. Nazmun,MdIstiak ID:11-19119-22. Alam, Nusrat ID: 11-19192-23. Khan,Jahirul Islam ID: 11-18219-14. Akhter, Sheikh Turasha ID: 11-19261-25. Shuvo,Shariar Al Amin ID: 11-18231-15. Ashraf, Taskia ID:11-19115-2 | ACKNOWLEDGEMENT First and foremost, we would like to thank to our course instructor of this Economic Geography course RAFIQ, FARHANA for the valuable guidance and advice. She inspired us greatly to work in this report. Her willingness to motivate us contributed tremendously to our work.We also would like to thank her for her valuable time by helping us for this report. This research report would not have been possible without the support of many people. Our thank s and appreciations go to our classmates for making the semester period truly enjoyable. And we would also like to thank our almighty for helping me carry through this massive task. Summary The main objective of this report is to discuss about Millennium Development Goals and its Progress in Bangladesh. For making this report we have collected data from internet, books, teacher’s references.Our finding shows Achievement of the Millennium Development Goals lies at the core of UNDP’s mandate, and is the focus of much of our work. Accordingly, UNDP and our partners' results in the areas of governance, poverty reduction, environment, energy and climate change, disaster management, all contribute in different ways to the acceleration of MDG achievement. In particular, the â€Å"Support to Monitoring PRS and MDGs in Bangladesh† project supported MDG acceleration in Bangladesh between 2006 and 2011. This project will shortly be renewed.It is expected that the report wi ll help to know about the MDGs as well as the situation of our country of achievement. Contents SectionPage Number * Introduction†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 06 * Discussion (a) MDG †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 07 (b) Goals and Targets †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 07 (c) MDG and Bangladesh †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦. 14 (d) Progress of Bangladesh †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã ¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 15 * Conclusions†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 29 * Bibliography †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 30 List of Figures Bar Chart (1) †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 11 * Bar Chart(2) †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦ 12 * Bar Chart (3) †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. 13 Introduction The MDGs reflect a set of actions and targets contained in the Millennium Declaration that was adopted by 193 nations in 2002 based on the Millennium Declaration agreed in September 2000. Bangladesh has recorded impressive feats in pullin g people out of poverty, ensuring that more children, girls and boys, attend school, and have access to clean water. Considerable progress has been made in child survival rate. Bangladesh is among the 16 countries who have received UN recognition for being on track to achieve MDG4.There have been some improvements to address the country’s massive environmental challenges over the past decade as well. Out of the 52 MDG targets, Bangladesh is on track on 19 of them; and 14 of them need attention (2011 data). Although Bangladesh is on track to achieve the Net Enrolment target, the drop-out rates remain to high; Enrolling the last 10% of the children, ensuring quality of education for children who are already enrolled in schools, and promoting gender equity in tertiary education, remain as major challenges. The maternal mortality ratio of Bangladesh at 194 has shown a major turnaround.Performance on this goal which was lagging is a major achievement. The threat of climate change can also diminish the hard earned beneficial impacts of years of growth and development not just for the people in impoverished settlements along coastal belts and river banks, but for the entire nation. Achieving full and productive employment for all, including women and young people remains behind target. The labor force participation rate is low at about 51. 7% and women's participation although improving, is much lower at 23%. It is highly unlikely that Bangladesh will be able to ensure employment for all by 2015.Yet another challenge that Bangladesh faces is in addressing certain pockets of poverty that are lagging far behind with respect to the national averages and where the benefits of MDGs attainment need to be specifically reached. These areas include the urban slums, the hill tracts, coastal belts and other ecologically vulnerable areas. The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) are eight international developmentgoals that were officially established following the Millenn ium Summit of the United Nations in 2000, following the adoption of the United Nations Millennium Declaration.All 193 United Nations member states and at least 23 international organizations have agreed to achieve these goals by the year 2015. The MDGs were developed out of the eight chapters of the Millennium Declaration, signed in September 2000. There are eight goals with 21 targets, and a series of measurable indicators for each target. Goal 1: Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger * Target 1A: Halve the proportion of people living on less than $1 a day * Target 1B: Achieve Decent Employment for Women, Men, and Young People * Target 1C: Halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger Goal 2: Achieve universal primary education Target 2A: By 2015, all children can complete a full course of primary schooling, girls and boys Goal 3: Promote gender equality and empower women * Target 3A: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by 2005, and at al l levels by 2015 Goal 4: Reduce child mortality rates * Target 4A: Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate Goal 5: Improve maternal health Target 5A: Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortality ratio * Target 5B: Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases * Target 6A: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS * Target 6B: Achieve, by 2010, universal access to treatment for HIV/AIDS for all those who need it * Target 6C: Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and other major diseases Goal 7: Ensure environmental sustainability Target 7A: Integrate the principles of sustainable development into country policies and programs; reverse loss of environmental resources * Target 7B: Reduce biodiversity loss, achieving, by 2010, a significant reduction in the rate of loss * Target 7C: Halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation (for more information see the entry on water supply) * Target 7D: By 2020, to have achieved a significant improvement in the lives of at least 100 million slum-dwellers Goal 8: Develop a global partnership for development Target 8A: Develop further an open, rule-based, predictable, non-discriminatory trading and financial system * Target 8B: Address the Special Needs of the Least Developed Countries (LDC) * Target 8C: Address the special needs of landlocked developing countries and small island developing States * Target 8D: Deal comprehensively with the debt problems of developing countries through national and international measures in order to make debt sustainable in the long term * Target 8E: In co-operation with pharmaceutical companies, provide access to affordable, essential drugs in developing countries * Target 8F: In co-operation with the private sector, make available the benefits o f new technologies, especially information and communications Progress towards reaching the goals has been uneven. Some countries have achieved many of the goals, while others are not on track to realize any.A UN conference in September 2010 reviewed progress to date and concluded with the adoption of a global action plan to achieve the eight anti-poverty goals by their 2015 target date. There were also new commitments on women's and children's health, and new initiatives in the worldwide battle against poverty, hunger and disease. From next page, we have shown some statistics about progress of MDG all over the world. Description Here is the percentage of adjusted net enrolment ratio in primary education: In case of the developing countries Enrolment ratio in primary education in 1990s was 82% while in 2008 it was 89%. In case of the developed countries Enrolment ratio in primary education in 1990s was 97% while in 2008 it was 96%.In case of the world Enrolment ratio in primary educ ation in 1990s was 84% while in 2008 it was 90%. Bar Chart (1) Description This is the percentage of people earning less than $1. 25 a day. In the year 1990 58% sub Sahara African are earning less than $1. 25 a day. & In year 2005 the percentage was only reduce by 7% Which show that the progress is not good. On the other hand, In the year 1990 60% of eastern Asian is earning less than $1. 25 a day. While in the year 2005 the percentage was reduce by 44%, which is very high. Bar Chart (2) Description This is the percentage of mortality under five years old per 1000: In case of the developed countries in 1990s the number was 12 & In 2008 it was 6In case of the developing countries in 1990s the number was 100 & In 2008 it was 72 Here we found huge deference between the developed & developing countries. Bar Chart (3) MDG and Bangladesh The Government of Bangladesh is committed to achieve the MDGs within the given timeframe. The recently approved Sixth Five Year Plan (2011-2015) titledâ €  Accelerating Growth and Reducing Poverty† has laid out the operational details on the country’s endeavor to move forward with a view to achieving the â€Å"Vision 2021† of the Government. The Plan has integrated the Millennium Development Goals within the broader agenda of the economic and social targets.The Sixth Plan has adopted a holistic approach to reduce poverty and improve other social indicators, with special attention provided to remove the regional disparities in development. The beauty of implementing the 6th Plan is that in pursuit of achieving national development goals, the MDG will also be achieved as the terminal year of both the milestone goals coincides. The recent progress report of MDGs in Bangladesh 2011, shows that Bangladesh has achieved remarkable progress in the areas of primary schooling, gender parity in primary and secondary level education, lowering the infant and under-five mortality rate and maternal mortality ratio, improving immunization coverage and reducing the incidence of communicable diseases. The recent data reveal that incidence of poverty has been declining at an annual rate of 2. 6 percent in Bangladesh during 1991-1992 to 2010. If this trend continues, the target of halving the population living under the poverty line would be achieved well before 2015. However, achievement of the hunger target might be difficult to attain due to volatility of the commodity prices and the challenges of underemployment. Progress of MDGs in Bangladesh * Goal 1: Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger Bangladesh is well on track to achieving Goal 1 with poverty coming down to 31. 5 percent in 2010. Also, the average annual rate of poverty reduction has been above rate required to meet the 2015 target. The poverty gap ratio has also decreased dramatically. Current StatusTarget 1.A: Halve, between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people whose income isless than $1 a day. 1. 1: Proportion of population below national upper poverty line, percent (38. 7 in 2008 bylinear extrapolation; 41. 2 in 2009 by household self-assessment)Status: on track1. 2: Poverty Gap Ratio, percent (9 in 2005)Status: on track1. 3: Share of poorest quintile in national consumption (NA)Target 1. B: Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, includingwomen and young people. 1. 5: Employment to population ratio, percent (58. 5 in 2006 and 59. 3 economically activein 2009)Status: needs attentionTarget 1. C: Halve between 1990 and 2015, the proportion of people who suffer fromhunger. 1. : Prevalence of underweight children under-five years of age (6-59 months), (45% asof 2009)Status: needs attention1. 9: Proportion of population below minimum level of dietary energy consumption, (40%as of 2005)Status: needs attention * Goal 2: Achieve Universal Primary Education While a significant 95 percent has been achieved in terms of primary school enrollment, dropout rates remain high and therefore primary school com pletion rate low. Progress has been made in adult literacy 58 percent in 2010 but additional effort is needed to reach the target. Current StatusTarget 2. A: Ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be ableto complete a full course of primary schooling2. : Net Enrollment Ratio in Primary EducationBenchmark: 60. 5 in 1991Current status: 91. 9 (2008)Target : 100Status : on track2. 2: Proportion of pupils starting grade 1 who reach grade 5Benchmark: 43. 0 in 1991Current status: 54. 9 (2008)5Target : 100Status : needs attention2. 3: Literacy rate of 15+yrs olds, women and men (%)Benchmark: 36. 9 in 1991Current status: 58. 3 (2007)Target : 100Status : needs attention * Goal 3: Promote Gender Equality & Empower Women Bangladesh has achieved gender parity in primary and secondary education together with being on track with respect to percentage of women employed in agriculture sector. Current StatusTarget 3.A: Eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education preferably by2005 and to all levels of education no later than 20153. 1a: Ratio of girls to boys in primary education:Benchmark: 0. 83 in 1991Current status: 1. 01 (2008)Target : 1Status : Achieved before 20153. 1b: Ratio of girls to boys in secondary educationBenchmark: 0. 52 in 1991Current status: 1. 2 (2008)Target: 1Status: Achieved before 201573. 1c: Ratio of women to men in tertiary educationBenchmark: 0. 37 in 1991Current status: 0. 32 (2006)Target: 1Status: needs attention3. 2: Share of women in wage employment in the non-agricultural sectorBenchmark: 19. 1 in 1991Current status: 24. 6 (2008)Target: 50%Status: needs attention3. 3: Proportion of seats held by women in national parliamentBenchmark: 12. in 1991Current status: 19 (2009)Target: 33%Status: needs attention * Goal 4: Reduce Child Mortality The country is on track with regard to achieving this goal. Significant strides have been made in all three indicators and if the trend sustains, the country will meet t he 2015 target well ahead of schedule. Current StatusTarget 4A: Reduce by two-thirds, between 1990 and 2015, the under-five mortality rate. 4. 1: Under five mortality rate (per 1,000 live births)Benchmark: 146 in 1991Current status: 53. 8Target: 48Status : on track4. 2: Infant mortality rate (per 1,000 live births)Benchmark: 92 in 1991Current status: 41. 3Target : 31Status : on track4. 3: Proportion of 1 year-old children immunized against measlesBenchmark: 54 in 1991Current status: 82. Target : 100Status : on track * Goal 5: Improve Maternal Health This goal has been a major turnaround and is now truly a track to be achieved by 2015. Current StatusTarget 5. A: Reduce by three quarters, between 1990 and 2015, the maternal mortalityratio. 5. 1: Maternal mortality ratio (per 1,000 live births):Base year 1991: 574Current status: 348Target : 143Status : needs attention5. 2: Proportion of births attended by Skilled Health Personnel (percent):Base year 1991: 5Current status: 24Target : 50 Status : needs attentionTarget 5. B: Achieve, by 2015, universal access to reproductive health. 5. 3: Contraceptive prevalence rate (%)Base year 1991: 40Current status: 60Target : 100Status : needs attention5. : Adolescent birth rate (per 1,000 women)Base year 1991: 77Current status: 60Target : -Status : needs attention5. 5A: Antenatal care coverage (at least 1 visit) (%)Base year 1991: 28Current status: 60Target : 100Status : needs attention115. 5B: Antenatal care coverage (4 or more visits) (%)Base year 1991: 6Current status: 21Target : 100Status : needs attention5. 6: Unmet need for family planning (%)Base year 1991: 19Current status: 17Target : 7. 60Status : needs attention * Goal 6: Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria and other diseases Bangladesh has made some progress in combating the spread of malaria with the number of prevalence dropping from 776. 9 cases per 100,000 in 2008 to 512. 6 in 2010. Current StatusTarget 6.A Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS6. 1: HIV prevalence among population aged 15-24 yearsBase year: 0. 005Current status: 0. 319 (2007)Target: HaltingStatus: on track6. 2: Condom use at last high-risk sexBase year:Current status: 44-67%Target:Status: need attention6. 3: Proportion of population aged 15-24 years with comprehensive correct knowledgeof HIV/AIDSBase year:Current status: 15. 8 (2006)Target:Status: need attentionTarget 6. C Have halted by 2015 and begun to reverse the incidence of malaria and othermajor diseases6. 6A: Incidence of malaria per 100 000 populationBase year: 776. 9 (2008)Current status: 586. 0 (2009)Target: 310. Status: on track6. 6B: Death rate associated with malaria per 100,000 populationBase year: 1. 4 (2008)Current status: 0. 4 (2009)Target: 0. 6Status: on track6. 7: Proportion of children under-5 sleeping under insecticide-treated bed netsBase year: 81% (2008)Current status: 81% (2009)Target: 90%Status: on track136. 8: Proportion of children under-5 with fever who are treated with appropria te antimalarialdrugsBase year: 60% (2008)Current status: 80% (2009)Target: 90% (By 2015)Status: on track6. 9A: Prevalence of tuberculosis per 100,000 populationBase year: 639 (1990)Current status: 412Target: 320 (50% reduction)/HaltingStatus: 36% reduction/on track6. B: Death rate associated with tuberculosis per 100,000 populationBase year: 76 (1990)Current status: 50 (2008)Target: 50% reductionStatus: 35% reduction/on track6. 10a: Proportion of tuberculosis cases detected under DOTSBase year: 21% (1994)Current status: 70% (2009)Target: 70%Status: achieved/on track6. 10b: Proportion of tuberculosis cases cured under DOTS:Base year: 71% (1995)Current status: 92%Target : >85%Status: achieved/on track * Goal 7: Ensure Environmental Sustainability While significant progress has been made in terms of access to safe drinking water and sanitary latrines in urban areas, the same remains a challenge in rural areas.Also maintaining wet-lands and bio-diversity is still a challenge. Current St atus7. 1: Proportion of land area covered by forestCurrent status: 19. 2% (Tree density > 10%),Target: 20% (Tree density> 70%)Status: needs attention7. 2: CO2 emissions (metric tons per capita)Current status: 0. 30Status: on track7. 3: Consumption of ozone-depleting substances (metric tons per capita)Current status: 127. 88Target: 0,15Status: on track7. 4: Proportion of fish stocks within safe biological limitsCurrent status: 54 inland fish species & 16 marine species are threatenedStatus: need attention7. 5: Proportion of total water resources usedCurrent status: 6. 6% in 2000,Status: needs attention7. : Proportion of terrestrial and marine areas protectedCurrent status: 1. 78% terrestrial & 0. 47% marine areas protected (2010),Target: 5%,Status: needs attention7. 7: Proportion of species threatened with extinctionCurrent status: 201 inland, 18 marine & 106 vascular plants are threatened,Target: improvement of ecosystems for protection of species compareto 2000 situation,Status: ne eds attention7. 8: Proportion of population using an improved drinking water sourceCurrent status: 86%Target: 100%,Status: needs attention7. 9: Proportion of population using an improved sanitation facilityCurrent status: 89%Target: 100%,Status: needs attention7. 0: Proportion of urban population living in slumsCurrent status: 7. 8 %,Status: needs attention * Goal 8: Develop a Global Partnership for Development Penetration of telephone lines and internet, particularly cell phone usage, has increased to a great extent but youth employment rate is still low. | | As clearly identified during the recent MDGs needs assessment and costing exercise, Bangladesh needs more resources to achieve MDGs. Immediate efforts need to be undertaken by development partners to examine the gaps and renew efforts to support critical MDG-oriented sectors. At the same time, the imbalance between loans and grants should be addressed by increasing the share of grants in ODA.In Bangladesh there have been numbe rs of policies, strategies, and implementation programmers, activities and interactions and debates surrounding the MDGs. In fact MDGs have emerged a way we are travelling through to the one goal of peace, prosperity and humanity. Conclusion Theatre for Humans believes the Millennium Development Goals are at the very heart of the stories to be portrayed in its’ inaugural production and will strive to bring these goals to the attention of as wide an audience as possible in order to further the dialogue needed for change. Adopted by world leaders in the year 2000 and set to be achieved by 2015, the MDGs are both global and local, tailored by each country to suit specific development needs.They provide a framework for the entire international community to work together towards a common end – making sure that human development reaches everyone, everywhere. If these goals are achieved, world poverty will be cut in half, tens of millions of lives will be saved, and billions more people will have the opportunity to benefit from the global economy. The MDGs are evident in the national planning framework. The revised National Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper has adopted a holistic approach to reduce poverty and improve other social indicators to achieve the MDGs, with special attention to the lagging regions. Overall Bangladesh’s progress might be slow, but in some sector like child mortality, improvement of maternity health, primary education etc has the fast progress.So it is a positive sign that we can achieve the goals, might not in 2015 but in near future definitely. Bibliography * https://www. google. com/search? num=10&hl=en&site=imghp&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1366&bih=593&q=mdg&oq=mdg&gs_l=img. 3†¦ 1994. 2403. 0. 2934. 3. 3. 0. 0. 0. 0. 205. 276. 1j0j1. 2. 0†¦ 0. 0†¦ 1ac. 1. DQ5fVJymYv8 * https://www. google. com/search? num=10&hl=en&biw=1366&bih=593&q=mdg&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=iw&ei=SlGzUPjhNsTQrQfh5YCYCg * http://en. wikipedia. o rg/wiki/Millennium_Development_Goals * http://www. undp. org/content/undp/en/home/mdgoverview. html * https://www. google. com/#hl=en&tbo=d&output=search&scl

The Punctuation Effect Definition and Examples

The use of laughter as the oral equivalent of punctuation at the end of a spoken phrase or sentence. The term punctuation effect was coined by neuroscientist Robert R. Provine in his book Laughter: A Scientific Investigation (Viking, 2000). See Examples and Observations, below. Examples and Observations [Uncle Emil] was a big, rough, hearty man who was missing one whole finger and part of another from accidents in the steel mill, and his language was goodhearted, loud, punctuated by laughter, and not at all suited for Sunday school. (Michael Novak, Controversial Engagements. First Things, April 1999) During conversation, laughter by speakers almost always follows complete statements or questions. Laughter is not randomly scattered throughout the speech stream. Speaker laughter interrupted phrases in only 8 (0.1 percent) of 1,200 laugh episodes. Thus, a speaker may say, You are going where? . . . ha-ha, but rarely You are going . . . ha-ha . . . where? This strong and orderly relationship between laughter and speech is akin to punctuation in written communication and is termed the punctuation effect. . . .The punctuation effect holds for the audience as well as for the speaker; a surprising result because the audience could laugh at any time without speech-related competition for their vocalization channel. No audience interruptions of speaker phrases were observed in our 1,200 laugh episodes. Its unclear whether the punctuation of speech by audience laughter is cued directly by the speaker (e.g., apostphrase pause, gesture, or laughter), or by a brain mechanism similar to that pr oposed for the speaker that maintains the dominance of language (this time perceived, not spoken) over laughter. The brains of speaker and audience are locked in a dual-processing mode.(Robert R. Provine, Laughter: A Scientific Investigation. Viking, 2000) [The] punctuation effect is highly reliable and requires the coordination of laughing with the linguistic structure of speech, yet it is performed without the conscious awareness of the speaker. Other airway maneuvers, such as breathing and coughing, also punctuate speech and are performed without speaker awareness. (Robert R. Provine in What We Believe but Cannot Prove: Todays Leading Thinkers on Science in the Age of Uncertainty, ed. by John Brockman. HarperCollins, 2006) Glitches in the Punctuation Effect The shared rhythm of laughter-inducing comments and responses--comment/laughter . . . comment/laughter, similar to a call-response pattern in gospel music--suggests a powerful, neurologically based attachment/affiliation dance in action, such as that described by Stern (1998).Others have noted, and Temple Grandin has described in her autobiography on dealing with her own autism, what happens when there is a glitch in this processing mode. Grandin says that being autistic has meant she is not able to follow the social rhythm of laughter. Other people will laugh together and then talk quietly until the next laughing cycle. She inadvertently interrupts or starts laughing at the wrong places . . ..(Judith Kay Nelson, What Made Freud Laugh: An Attachment Perspective on Laughter. Routledge, 2012) Filler Laughs When paying for food in Leipzig, I was struck by how much of my daily interaction was punctuated by laughter that was totally detached from what I was doing. I would buy some beer and cookies and give the clerk a twenty-euro note; inevitably, the clerk would ask if I had exact change because Germans are obsessed with both exactness and money. I would reach into my pocket and discover I had no coins, so I would reply, Um--heh heh heh. No. Sorry. Ha! Guess not. I made these noises without thinking. Every single time, the clerk would just stare at me stoically. It had never before occurred to me how often I reflexively laugh; only in the absence of a response did I realize I was laughing for no reason whatsoever. It somehow felt comfortable. Now that I’m back in the U.S., I notice this all the time: People half-heartedly chuckle throughout most casual conversations, regardless of the topic. It’s a modern extension of the verbalized pause, built by TV laugh tracks. Everyone in America has three laughs: a real laugh, a fake real laugh, and a filler laugh they use during impersonal conversations. We have been trained to connect conversation with soft, interstitial laughter. It’s our way of showing the other person that we understand the context of the interaction, even when we don’t. (Chuck Klosterman, Eating the Dinosaur. Scribner, 2009) Victor Borges Phonetic Punctuation [T]his punctuation effect is not nearly as strong as Provine has stated above. But his usage points out the possibility of other intrusions as well into spoken discourse, e.g., as in a statement such as The church bell just outside the window punctuated the pauses in their conversation. For the most part, however, punctuation remains part of the silent world of the written. The only exception to this that we know of is the extraordinarily idiosyncratic system of oral punctuation for spoken discourse devised by the comedian/pianist Victor Borge (1990), his so-called Phonetic Punctuation. His facetious explanation was that his system would prevent the frequent misunderstandings in oral conversations. He used brief vocalized sounds as intrusions into the speech stream for each of the types of punctuation as he read aloud. The effect was a cacophonous and unusually humorous chain of sounds that truly intruded upon the stream of spoken discourse and hacked it into small pieces. The extrao rdinary redundancy had the effect of reducing the message itself to background noise--for the sake of the humorous. And in the course of time, this presentation has become one of Borges most popular routines. (Daniel C. OConnell and Sabine Kowal, Communicating with One Another: Toward a Psychology of Spontaneous Spoken Discourse. Springer, 2008) Each of the pause markers we customarily use--commas, periods, dashes, ellipsis, exclamation points, question marks, parentheses, colons, and semicolons--suggests a different kind of beat. Victor Borge built a career on illustrating the differences among them with a comedy routine he called phonetic punctuation. As he spoke, hed sound out the punctuation marks we usually glide over silently. A period was a loud thwok, an exclamation mark was a descending squeak followed by a thwok, and so on.Maybe you had to be there. But from a writers point of view, Borge made an important point. Try following his lead and sound out each punctuation mark in your mind. Periods create the sharp, crisp break of a karate chop. Commas suggest the smoother rise and fall of a speed bump. Semicolons hesitate for a second and then flow forward. Dashes call a sudden halt. Ellipses ooze along like spilled honey. (Jack R. Hart, A Writers Coach: The Complete Guide to Writing Strategies That Work. Anchor Books, 2007)