Tourism and Social Exclusion in the Dominican Republic

Latin American Perspectives http://lap. sagepub. com/ Tropical Blues : Tourism and Social Exclusion in the Dominican Republic Amalia L. Cabezas Latin American Perspectives 2008 35: 21 DOI: 10. 1177/0094582X08315765 The online version of this article can be found at: http://lap. sagepub. com/content/35/3/21 Published by: http://www. sagepublications. com On behalf of: Latin American Perspectives, Inc. Additional services and information for Latin American Perspectives can be found at: Email Alerts: http://lap. sagepub. com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://lap. sagepub. om/subscriptions Reprints: http://www. sagepub. com/journalsReprints. nav Permissions: http://www. sagepub. com/journalsPermissions. nav Citations: http://lap. sagepub. com/content/35/3/21. refs. html Downloaded from lap. sagepub. com at University of Sheffield on September 8, 2011 Tropical Blues Tourism and Social Exclusion in the Dominican Republic by Amalia L. Cabezas Tourism development is the backbone of many Carib bean economies, and its advocates argue that it contributes to sustainable development, the alleviation of poverty, and integration into the globalized economy.Scholars and activists, in contrast, point to tourism-related ecological deterioration, profit leakage, distorted cultural patterns, rising land values, and prostitution. They suggest that tourism perpetuates existing disparities, fiscal problems, and social tensions. Examination of tourism development in the Dominican Republic indicates that it deskills and devalues Dominican workers, marginalizing them from tourist development and sexualizing their labor.The majority of people are relegated, at best, to positions of servitude in low-paid jobs in the formal sector, unemployment, or unstable activities in the informal sector that include the commoditization of sexuality and affective relations. Keywords: Tourism, Caribbean, Dominican Republic, Capitalism, Social exclusion In A Small Place, the Caribbean writer Jamaica Kincaid elaborates on the inequities of tourism (1988: 18–19): â€Å"Every native of every place is a potential tourist, and every tourist is a native of somewhere. But some natives—most natives in the world—cannot go anywhere. They are too poor. They are too poor to go anywhere. In international tourism, only some people are able to travel and experience a respite from the crushing banality of their lives; others, too poor to go anywhere, are relegated to servicing the needs of foreign travelers. Travel and tourism are among the most important economic activities of the global economy not just for the transnational monopolies that control them but also for those who dream of traveling and perhaps being able to turn someone else’s commonplace reality into the source of their own pleasure. This is the reality of the tropical blues. Tourism development is the backbone of many Caribbean economies.For the small island nations, tourism today represents what sugar wa s a century ago: a monocrop controlled by foreigners and a few elites that services the structures of accumulation for global capitalism. 1 Can tourism change the economic context of small nation-states in the Caribbean by creating possibilities for the population to improve its standard of living? Tourism promoters, policy makers, experts, and development officials certainly think so. They Amalia L. Cabezas teaches at the University of California, Riverside, and is a coordinating editor of Latin American Perspectives.She thanks the Centro de Promocion y Solidaridad Humana (a nongovernmental organization working in Sosua, Puerto Plata, and the surrounding communities) and the Movimiento de Mujeres Unidas for research assistance. LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES, Issue 160, Vol. 35 No. 3, May 2008 21-36 DOI: 10. 1177/0094582X08315765  © 2008 Latin American Perspectives 21 Downloaded from lap. sagepub. com at University of Sheffield on September 8, 2011 22 LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES hav e historically made enthusiastic claims about the positive impact of tourism on host societies.From fostering world peace to preserving biodiversity and indigenous cultures, tourism has been considered a panacea for societies’ ills (Castellanos de Selig, 1981). More recently, tourism has been seen not only as generating foreign exchange and employment but also as contributing to sustainable development, the alleviation of poverty, and integration into the globalized economy. Governments and multilateral organizations such as the Inter-American Development Bank, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, and United Nations development agencies promote tourism as a viable mechanism for economic and social development.It is easy to understand why so much hope is riding on tourism. Tourism is a vital component of the spread of global capitalism. It accounts for one-third of the global trade in services and is expanding at twice the growth rate of world output (El Beltagui, 2001). Tourist arrivals, which stood at 25 million in 1950, are projected to reach 1. 6 billion by 2020 (WTO, 1999). According to the World Travel and Tourism Council (WTTC, 2005), the travel and tourism industry accounts for US$4. 4 trillion of economic activity worldwide. In the Caribbean region, tourism development is of paramount importance as an indispensable source of foreign exchange (ILO, 2001). Judged by the International Labor Organization as the most tourism-oriented region in the world, the Caribbean is a region where a fifth of the gross domestic product is produced for tourists, directly or indirectly, by one out of every seven workers (ILO, 2001: 119). Scholars and activists working in the field of tourism are much more critical of tourism than policy makers and politicians.In the past three decades, assessments of tourism’s socioeconomic impact have included discussions of ecological deterioration, profit leakage, social displacement, distorted cultural patter ns, rising land values, drugs, and prostitution (Harrison, 1992; Crick, 1996; Pattullo, 1996). Tourism has also been linked to the creation of demand for foreign-made goods, consumerism, the commodification of culture, trafficking in women and children, internal migration, and the disruption and corruption of traditional values and behaviors (see, e. g. McElroy, 2004; Mowforth and Munt, 1998; Pattullo, 1996). Furthermore, scholars postulate that tourism perpetuates existing disparities, fiscal problems, and social tensions (Britton, 1996; Greenwood, 1989). Given such incongruities in opinions and assessments, I seek to examine the framework within which tourism development takes place and to explore why tourism has failed to raise the standard of living and create better life chances for people in the Caribbean region. The concern here is with the political economy of tourism development in the Dominican Republic.In this article I argue that the history of economic, political, and s ocial subjugation within the global capitalist system determines the institutional framework for the current tourism trade. I offer the interpretation that the international division of labor in tourism deskills and devalues Dominican workers, marginalizing them from the process of tourism development and sexualizing their labor. I am concerned with the impact of these processes on the most vulnerable elements of the population. This case study is based on fieldwork undertaken in the Dominican Republic.Beginning in 1997, participant observation was conducted on the Downloaded from lap. sagepub. com at University of Sheffield on September 8, 2011 Cabezas / EXCLUSION IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 23 northeast coast of the country in Puerto Plata and the neighboring beach resort developments of Playa Dorada and Sosua. Puerto Plata, a historic city with a population of over 60,000, was targeted for development during the boom in tourism growth in the 1970s. It is the oldest and one of the m ost developed tourism areas of the country, and it continues to grow (ASONAHORES, 2004).Its port attracts cruise lines, and it has an abundance of luxury resorts located east of the city in an area known as Playa Dorada. Sosua, a few kilometers up the coast, is a small beachside community settled by European Jews brought into the country by the former dictator Rafael L. Trujillo to â€Å"whiten the nation† (Symanski and Burley, 1973). It has many businesses owned by expatriates and continues to attract European travelers, many from Germany. The north coast area has a large transient population of internal migrants who come to work in the tourism industry, its informal trade, and the free-trade zone.My research was assisted by two nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) in Puerto Plata and Sosua that are concerned with community health. Taperecorded interviews were conducted in 1997 at a community clinic with women who identified themselves as sex workers, many of whom were affil iated with the Movimento de Mujeres Unidas (Movement of United Women—MODEMU), an NGO that advocates for the labor and human rights of women in the sex industry. Further research for this project was carried out in 2004, 2005, and 2007, including work in the capital city of Santo Domingo and in the nearby tourist beach resort of Boca Chica.Data collection involved interviews with hotel workers, sex workers, community activists, members of MODEMU, people involved in the informal economy, local businessmen, and tourists. STRUCTURAL INEQUALITIES AND THE CAPITALIST GLOBAL SYSTEM Tourism exists within a political-economic framework characterized by monopoly capital—a system of global capital that has evolved over the past 500 years and is in a new stage of accumulation characterized by the transnationalization of state formation, production, and consumption (Robinson, 2004; 2007).It is important to keep the colonial patterns of capitalist accumulation in mind when examining tourism development, since global inequities lie at the heart of the tourism project. The capitalist world system has continually expanded through access to cheap labor, land, resources, and markets. These processes are clearly evident in the commercial and organizational systems of the hospitality and travel industries. Transnational tourism reflects the asymmetrical distribution of power and economic resources between former colonies and their colonizers (Fanon, 1963).As Britton (1982: 355) declares, â€Å"The more a Third World country has been dominated by foreign capital in the past, the greater likelihood there is of the prerequisites for establishing a local tourist industry being present. It is metropolitan tourism capital that is the single most important element in determining the organization and characteristics of tourism in underdeveloped countries. † Time and resources have been important in the development of tourism, but so has economic power. While tourism is a global industry, the Downloaded from lap. sagepub. om at University of Sheffield on September 8, 2011 24 LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES majority of the receipts accrue to Europe and the United States (ILO, 2001; WTO, 2002). Indeed, the new forms of global capitalist domination, as manifested in the tourism and travel market, demonstrate that Dominicans face an â€Å"empire of global capital† (Robinson, 2007: 19). The Caribbean is thus relegated to a â€Å"pleasure periphery† within the international division of labor, a â€Å"host† region that accommodates leisure travelers and the demands of transnational corporations (Turner and Ash, 1975).The tourism industry in the global North emerged with subsidized state-led development. Growth in infrastructure and technology benefited from statesponsored research and development. In the 1950s the U. S. Senate authorized more than US$12 million to support the development of improved transport aircraft, and U. S. policy e ncouraged the development of civil aeronautics and air commerce both within and outside of the United States (Truong, 1990). The use of U. S. aviation equipment, U. S. eronautical procedures, and the English language as the world standard in aviation guaranteed the United States dominance in civil aeronautics globally. In Western Europe, the concept of â€Å"participatory enterprise,† by which airlines are owned in part or wholly by governments, helped to cover the losses incurred by the operation of unprofitable but strategically important routes (Truong, 1990). Both the United States and Western Europe subsidized and cultivated the global travel infrastructure and established the regulations and norms of the travel industry, facilitating their control and domination.Travel and tourism enterprises experienced rapid growth and expansion as they sought to capture the disposable earnings of wage workers in the booming economies of Western Europe and the United States during the late 1950s and 1960s. Their growth was enhanced by new patterns of production and consumption in the global North and the creation of social legislation ensuring holiday time off. It was advantageous for the United States to further its political and commercial interests in the Caribbean by promoting the growth of tourism as a form of economic development.As Truong (1990: 104) explains, The advocated tactical and strategic flexibility in the execution of civil aviation policy has been translated into the use of multilateral aid channels to cover U. S. interests and overt intervention in international aviation and tourism. The promotion of tourism itself mirrored the awareness of the relation between air transport and economic development. This intervention has two main advantages for the United States. From a commercial perspective, such intervention contributes to the strengthening of the U.S. position as a manufacturer and exporter of aircraft and navigation equipment. From a pol itical perspective, it helps to consolidate the direction of social and economic development in the third world, which benefits U. S. interests under a screen of peaceful understanding. In due course, the growth of the tourism industry became a â€Å"peaceful† method of attaining long-lasting political power and financial control in the markets and politics of the South (Lanfant, Allcock, and Bruner, 1995).The framework for the development of the travel and tourist industry impedes poor countries from generating foreign exchange, increasing employment, or promoting the participation of the most marginal segments of the community (Britton, 1996). It enables transnational corporations to use their superior technology, resources, and commercial power to control Third World Downloaded from lap. sagepub. com at University of Sheffield on September 8, 2011 Cabezas / EXCLUSION IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 25 tourist destinations.Tourism’s tendency to perpetuate patterns of econo mic dependency and vulnerability for developing countries is evident in the island nations of the Caribbean, where small local suppliers have limited access to tourist-generating markets monopolized by powerful wholesalers and retailers (Ashley et al. , 2006). Tour operators—a transnational industry based in Western Europe and the United States—can project an image of a country through worldwide marketing campaigns that ensure a steady flow of visitors. Because of economies of scale, they can control tourist packages and demote or promote particular destinations (Britton, 1996).They unite suppliers and consumers in the pursuit of profits and pleasure; with direct contact with travel consumers through vertically integrated travel agencies, they can control particular destinations and dominate the flow of visitors. They can pressure hotels to operate in certain ways and negotiate low prices, especially in beach resorts. They favor a standardized product, such as the all- inclusive deal, a comprehensively controlled tourist experience in which the familiarity of the brand and the security of the travel experience are more important than local differentiation. The all-inclusive tourist package allows tour operators and travel agencies to combine all of the components of a destination’s attractions—recreation, meals, food, lodging, and transportation—into a single product paid for at the point of origin. This limits the participation of local producers and confines the profits to the global North. As the Dominican Republic has adopted the all-inclusive model, the earnings per tourist have decreased: per-room spending has declined from a high of US$318 in 1982 to the current low of US$154 (UNDP, 2005: 73).The all-inclusive package is only one component of the revolution in information technology that has integrated travel and tourism into a circuit that combines air transport, sea cruises, tours, and car rentals into a worldwide mon opoly. Further vertical integration of airlines, car rental, and tour operators has been facilitated by the Internet. 4 Electronic commerce in tourism services, which represents a new possibility for online holiday booking for tourism providers, works to the disadvantage of developing countries, which have only limited access to the Internet.Other practices include the mergers of transnational corporate giants in the areas of technology, travel, hospitality, and media. HOTELS, CRUISE LINES, AND DISASTERS In an increasingly globalized industry, the trend in the hospitality industry is from independently owned and owner-operated hotels to the multinational hotel chains that have become the industry standard. In the Dominican Republic, hotels with more than 400 rooms have the highest and least volatile occupancy rates (UNDP, 2005: 75; Secretaria de Estado de Turismo, 2007).In the accommodations industry, an impressive amount of consolidation took place in the 1980s, resulting in hotel brands under fewer and larger corporate umbrellas. Major multinational hotel chains have been involved in important acquisitions and mergers (ILO, 2001: 38). Cendant, the largest hotel chain in the world, operates 6,000 hotels with 500,000 rooms. Some major hotel Downloaded from lap. sagepub. com at University of Sheffield on September 8, 2011 26 LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES corporations, such as Best Western, operate in almost 100 countries (ILO, 2001: 120). Since the mid-1990s, multinational hotel companies entering foreign markets have used consolidation strategies to strengthen their position vis-a-vis local markets. Furthermore, brand-name hotels promote themselves by advertising their own products—facilities, amenities, services, and prices—more than any particular country. Because so many corporations strive for a standardized and homogeneous product, one facility is the same as any other, regardless of geographic destination. The disdain for difference and diver sity is part of what some scholars have identified as the â€Å"McDisneyization† of post-tourism (Ritzer and Liska, 1997).The promotion of industry control through monopolistic practices is also noticeable in the increasing number of strategic alliances aimed at supplying diversified products and services that strengthen the hotel corporations’ market position. 6 The ILO (2001) indicates that major multinational corporations such as Hyatt and Starwood are partnering with Microsoft’s Expedia in the acquisition of new information and communication technology. In the distribution of products and cross-marketing between food service providers and hotels, Marriott and Hilton are now linked with Pizza Hut.Strategic alliances between multinationals also include distribution and cross-promotion between financial services, credit cards, and hotels. In this area, American Express is now working with Accor Hotels and Visa and American Express are partnered with Bass Hotels and Resorts. The consolidation of hotels and transportation means that some hotels, such as Cendant, have now partnered with more than 20 airlines. Cendant’s holdings also include vehicle rental companies, online ticket sales enterprises such as Orbitz and CheapTickets, and major resort condominiums and real estate holdings.In media and entertainment, the copromotion of hotels and films has combined the resources of industry giants such as Marriott and Bass Hotels and Resorts with ESPN, Discovery, and E-Entertainment (ILO, 2001: 3). The Disney Corporation, with its Caribbean Disney Cruises that target all age-groups, has been able to create all-encompassing corporate control by combining cruises and airfare with its own private depopulated Caribbean islands. 6 Disney cruises feature Disney merchandise, entertainment, and films. Through these methods, cruises operate as the ultimate product-placement scheme.This represents a significant impact on the region on a number of lev els. Not only is the Caribbean the most important geographic market for the cruise industry (ILO, 2001) but that industry is one of the most egregious violators of labor and environmental standards (Wood, 2000). For example, the majority of its workers come from Southeast and South Asia and are paid wages as low as US$1. 55 an hour (Wood, 2000). As a deterritorialized industry, cruise lines are able to evade labor standards such as minimum wage and restrictions on overtime that are established by national laws.The interaction with actually populated islands is limited to a few hours of shopping for souvenirs. Consequently, the overall market for cruise tourism in the Caribbean translates into lower earnings for the region, since its participation in the profits is restricted to, at best, a few hours of shopping in a port community. The increasing horizontal integration of the travel and tourism industry is manifested in the computerized reservation systems, with high access charges, that have rapidly become the industry norm. Tourism services are increasingly Downloaded from lap. sagepub. om at University of Sheffield on September 8, 2011 Cabezas / EXCLUSION IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 27 being purchased on the Internet via three main mechanisms: a computer reservations system known as Global Distribution Systems (GDS), third-party web sites such as Orbitz and Travelocity, and hotel- and airline-owned-and-operated direct booking. GDS is used primarily by tour operators and travel agents in destination countries to book not only travel and accommodations but other tourism products as well. The cost of GDS fees and technology is prohibitive for small and medium-sized enterprises.Orbitz, one of the two biggest online travel agents, is owned by the five biggest U. S. airlines—American, Continental, Delta, Northwest, and United. Travelocity is owned by Sabre Holdings, the world’s largest travel agent reservations system, and GDS (PSTT, 2004). At an impr essive rate, consolidation and strategic alliances by multinational corporations have limited the opportunities for small and medium-sized suppliers in the tourism industry, thereby restricting access to profits to those aligned with transnational capital.With few alternatives, largely because of their lack of technological development and capital, small nation-states cannot eliminate these powerful intermediaries and deal with tourists directly. A number of other structural issues are associated with the vulnerability of Caribbean destinations and the impediments to their benefiting from tourism development. One alarming concern is the â€Å"leakage† of foreign exchange earnings in the amount of imported consumer goods required to sustain the tourism industry.As John Urry (1996: 215) explains, â€Å"Much tourist investment in the developing world has in fact been undertaken by large-scale companies based in North American or Western Europe, and the bulk of such tourist expe nditure is retained by the transnational companies involved; only 22–25 percent of the retail price remains in the host country. † A major problem is the high import content of construction material and equipment and the many consumable goods required to cater to the needs of tourists.It is difficult to bring local suppliers into the supply chain, since the goods required by tourists may not be produced locally, and, when they are, tourists tend to reject them (Ashley et al. , 2006). Another source of leakage is the repatriation of income and profits to metropolitan locations through generous tax incentives created to stimulate investment (Urry, 1996: 215). Finally, excessive reliance on one industry renders tourist destinations extremely vulnerable to external markets. Anything that weakens demand for a destination undermines the national economy.Circumstances such as the September 11 attacks and the weather can generate a considerable downturn in the tourism economy. With the acceleration of global climate change, the Dominican Republic, for example, is increasingly susceptible to more powerful and frequent hurricanes. Stronger tropical storms and the rise in sea levels could cause the disappearance and erosion of beaches? the main engine of the economy and a source of livelihood for the nation. Hurricane Noel in 2007 devastated parts of the islands, killing hundreds and generating an epidemic of leptospirosis. The minister of tourism, Felix Jimenez, reported that news of the epidemic had tainted the national image and that the images of Hurricane Noel’s destruction televised in Europe had led tour operators to cancel charter flights (Hoy, November 25, 2007). However, the majority of areas and people directly suffering from the catastrophic effects of the hurricane were those already living in extreme poverty, certainly not in tourist zones. Downloaded from lap. sagepub. com at University of Sheffield on September 8, 2011 28 LATIN AMERICA N PERSPECTIVESThe government appears more preoccupied with its image than with creating an infrastructure that reduces damage. One family of five, for example, has been living in a temporary shelter since Hurricane Jeanne destroyed their home in September 2004 (Listin Diario, November 20, 2007). INTERNATIONAL TOURISM IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC While Barbados, Cuba, and Jamaica developed their tourism infrastructure in the early twentieth century to accommodate North American travelers, the Dominican Republic did not become a tourist destination until close to 70 years later.The nation’s negative image during the era of dictator Rafael Trujillo reflected fear of a violent political system. 8 The political instability that followed the U. S. assassination of Trujillo in 1961 and the subsequent invasion and occupation by 23,000 North American troops did not support an alluring image of a tropical paradise. The physical security of guests, an essential component in the packaging o f tourist destinations, could not be ensured.In 1966 Joaquin Balaguer, an old crony of Trujillo and an anticommunist ally of the United States, came to power through corruption and force. Balaguer’s regime, in concert with multilateral agencies, sought to capture the U. S. tourist market that had been temporarily displaced since the Cuban Revolution. Through World Bank loans and development packages, the productive structure of the country was transformed and its economic strategy redirected toward absorbing foreign investment in tourism. Tax concessions that amounted to more than 10 years of tax exemptions for investment in tourism development were established by Law 153-71. 10 International tourism in the Dominican Republic grew slowly at the end of the 1960s as a way of generating development without making large investments in manufacturing and technology. Since tourism relies on the packaging of natural assets, it was considered to support economic growth by using existi ng resources, such as sandy beaches, a warm and sunny climate, â€Å"friendly people,† and local arts and music (Tavares, 1993).In 1968 the Plan Nacional de Desarrollo established the outline of a strategy for the tourism sector (Castellanos de Selig, 1981). In 1971 the Central Bank established a department for the promotion of tourism development to be financed by the World Bank. Through loans and with the technical expertise of the World Bank and Inter-American Development Bank, in the 1970s the Dominican Republic began to move away from state-led industrialization and sugar toward tourism and free-trade zones (Atkins and Wilson, 1998).The acceleration of its incorporation into the global economy was facilitated by structural adjustment programs that, for example, devalued the Dominican peso in 1987 to help the country compete for foreign investment. Tourism rapidly displaced sugar as the main source of earnings, and by 1997 it was generating more than half of the countryâ €™s total foreign exchange (Jimenez, 1999). The government created generous tax concessions to stimulate foreign investment with the goals of producing employment, paying off the foreign debt, and generating revenue.In the long run, however, this approach failed to create sustainable development or to enhance the well-being of the Downloaded from lap. sagepub. com at University of Sheffield on September 8, 2011 Cabezas / EXCLUSION IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 29 majority of the population. National elites have benefited, as the increasing polarization of income indicates, but the majority of the population has been relegated to positions of servility in a competitive labor market that provides predominantly low-paid, seasonal, and unstable jobs.EXCLUSION AND MARGINALIZATION OF THE LABOR FORCE The exploitation of labor and natural resources in beachfront resorts is particularly acute on the north coast of the Dominican Republic, where the environment is showing signs of degradation due to the extensive development that has taken place in the area. Over 95 percent of the resorts operate under the all-inclusive enclave model (Departamento de Estadisticas, interview, ASONAHORES, October 2005), and over 60 percent also use time-share allocation (ASONAHORES, 2004). Enclave resorts have a reputation for being â€Å"gilded ghettoes†? egregated spaces that exclude Dominicans while providing luxury accommodations to foreigners. The resorts are small cities and, as such, are developed with all kinds of facilities (UNDP, 2005: 68). They represent foreign, exclusive spaces that keep tourists from seeing the local poverty that might make them uncomfortable and keep them from wanting to stay in the country. The latest development scheme, the 30,000-acre mega-resort Cap Cana, features four luxury hotels including the Ritz Carlton, apartments, villas, five golf courses, condominiums, boutiques, restaurants, a convention center, and a marina.This resort complex will tar get the high-end market instead of the mass tourism market that the country has sought for decades. These tourism compounds provide electricity, sewerage, paved roads, and running water for their pleasure- and leisure-oriented guests, but basic infrastructure development in the country remains chaotic, lacking planning, development, and environmental control. Shantytowns often lack plumbing, electricity, and paved roads. This neglect represents a hidden cost to the host society and a urther appropriation of social and environmental resources by foreign capital. 11 The United Nations Human Development Report for the Dominican Republic (UNDP, 2005) indicates that the tourism labor force is made up primarily of young women, over half of them younger than 39 and with fewer than eight years of schooling (UNDP, 2005: 77). The salary for tourism workers is below the national average (UNDP, 2005: 78), with women earning approximately 68 percent of a man’s salary in the industry.Women are nearly absent from supervisory and management positions. This reflects an industry norm, for, as the ILO (2001: 86) points out, women globally have little access to the higher levels of corporate management in the hotel, catering, and tourism sector. Globally, women also experience income disparities vis-a-vis men at all levels of hotel, catering, and tourism employment. They generally occupy the lower echelons in the tourism labor market, with few career opportunities and low levels of remuneration.While Dominican women experience greater vulnerability and gender discrimination in the workforce, Dominican men are displaced and excluded from employment and meaningful participation. Camilo, an informal tourist guide in his late twenties, has been working for the past 10 years in activities Downloaded from lap. sagepub. com at University of Sheffield on September 8, 2011 30 LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES connected with tourism. He and other guides idle outside of the Playa Dorada re sort complex hoping to befriend the rare tourist or, better, tourist group that ventures outside the all-inclusive beachfront compound on foot.The modus operandi of these well-dressed young men is to approach foreigners with multiple offers—for example, to dine with them at a typical Dominican restaurant, to show them around town, and to teach them how to dance merengue. The day that I met Camilo, he was angry to hear that resort’s management had been making disparaging comments about Dominicans during orientation meetings for their guests. He explained: I want to fight against the lack of information or disinformation about Dominicans and the Dominican Republic.I would like to have a crew secretly filming in the hotel, and I want to send that to the national media. The agents of these corporations are talking bad about us, about assaults, assassinations, and such things. We are walking guides; we provide a service. My friends and I speak different languages. Why is it that all the hotels and the travel agencies and the stores in the resorts have to use foreigners to work there? Why, if I speak German, I can defend myself in Italian, I am excellent in English? I can sell anything in German.It is something that I do not understand. If I go to Germany, they will not let me work. I used to sell horseback riding tours; now all those are owned by Germans. They are displacing us in our own country. Camilo’s statements address the massive displacement of Dominican workers. With the majority of resorts managed by expatriates, many of whom do not appreciate the cultural, social, and economic realities of the countries in which they work, locals are frustrated by the lack of respect accorded them by foreigners and the severe competition for the tourist market.Camilo had started out with a small business that took tourists on horseback riding trips and had been forced out of the market when the resorts begun offering these excursions to their guests. Such displacement has led many citizens to feel like foreigners in their native land. Most resorts keep the local populations out with security personnel and by requiring guests to wear wrist-bands during their stay. Treated like outsiders, Dominicans are turned away at the front gate unless they come as workers.This exclusion positions Dominican labor as a marginalized and deterritorialized workforce, performing roles and functions similar to those they would carry out as foreign, undocumented workers in Europe or North America. The common practice of the resort enclaves in the Caribbean region of recruiting top management and skilled labor from Western Europe and the United States means that Dominicans seldom work in positions of management or as chefs in the resorts, and, as Camilo mentions, they are even excluded from retail operations.These exclusionary practices marginalize the local population—not just the working class but also nationally trained executives and mid-l evel managers. Dominican men are relegated to service labor such as work in accommodations, reception, security, and grounds-keeping or, as Camilo does, scrape out a living in unstable and contingent activities in the informal sector. Gender also creates labor hierarchies within hotels. Dominican men are excluded from management, but gender stereotypes also give them access to positions with more opportunities for gratuities, such as bartender and luggageDownloaded from lap. sagepub. com at University of Sheffield on September 8, 2011 Cabezas / EXCLUSION IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 31 handler. Dominican women, in contrast, are employed in gender-designated positions of domesticity such as housekeeping. There are few opportunities for Dominicans to participate directly in the tourism economy. To escape this predicament, many cultivate relationships of companionship, friendship, and romance with tourists and other foreigners as a way to access the global economy, travel to the global No rth, and improve their lives.Many relationships between Dominican women and foreign men mingle intimate, affective relations with economic activity, but others emphasize payment for sexual services. While some studies indicate that Caribbean formal tourism workers have sex with tourists in the resorts (Cabezas, 2004; CEPROSH, 1997; Crick, 2001), many more reports reveal that it is people hustling in the informal economy who provide tourists with sexual and affective exchanges (Herold et al. 2001; Padilla, 2007; Gregory, 2007).In the Dominican Republic the young men are popularly known as sanky panky, heterosexually identified men who provide romance, companionship, and sex to men and women. These new sexual formations have also appeared in other touristdependent islands such as Jamaica (rent-a-dreads), Barbados (beach boys) and Cuba (pingueros and jineteros) (Hodge, 2002). Although many men are able to exploit foreigners’ fantasies of racial eroticism to enhance their life ch ances and masculinity, women who use intimate relationships with foreigners to support their households bear a heavy burden of stigma and riminalization (Cabezas, 2004; 2005). It is primarily working-class women of color who bear the burden of state-inflicted violence, harassment, extortion, and rape (Cabezas, 1999; 2005). Miriam, a 23-year-old mother of two, had one child when she met the father of her youngest, a vacationing African-American police officer from New York in his late thirties. John visits Miriam often and sends approximately US$60 a month to support his eight-month-old daughter. However, Miriam must continue to seek out relationships with foreign and local men to supplement his support.Her oldest daughter has liver disease, and the doctor visits and medication are costly. She tells me fearlessly, â€Å"From luck and death no one can escape. † Johanna, a 20-year-old single mother of two, cannot find any type of work that would allow her to support her mother a nd two children. She was fired from her job as a waitress when she got pregnant and began selling sex to foreign men who live or vacation in Boca Chica. Her aim is to meet a tourist who will provide her with travel to a foreign country. Any place is better than here,† she tells me. When I asked her if she was frightened by reports of sex trafficking or other forms of exploitation that could potentially take place in a country where she knows no one, she looked down and replied intensely, â€Å"I have to assume that risk, because here I am going to either go crazy or die of hunger. † HIV/AIDS Discussions of travel associated with work or leisure have increasingly pointed to the risks involved in mobility and HIV/AIDS. 2 Paul Farmer (1992) has argued that the HIV virus was introduced to Haiti by gay North American men vacationing on the island, and the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre indicates Downloaded from lap. sagepub. com at University of Sheffield on September 8, 2011 32 LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES that this is true for the Caribbean as a whole (Camara, 2001) and that the countries that are the most economically dependent on tourism in the region have the highest prevalence of HIV cases (Camara, 2001; Padilla, 2007: 171).Padilla (2007) maintains that tourism in the Dominican Republic â€Å"continues to function as an important source of new infections, exerting an ongoing influence on the scope and impact of AIDS in specific locales. † This assertion is confirmed by the UNDP report (2005: 85), which indicates that the areas with the highest incidence of HIV in the country are also those with the highest rates of tourism. However, there has been little prevention education targeting tourism-sector workers.Padilla argues that this is because of the fear of fostering a negative image that could potentially â€Å"contradict the escapism, exoticism, and consequence-free environment that compose at least part of the tourism package offered to foreigners† (2007: 172). The women informants for my study, who worked primarily with tourists, were adamant in attesting to their use of condoms and resistance to offers of unsafe sex for higher compensation. Mari explained, â€Å"This is my body; it is the only thing I can count on to support my children.I’m not going to risk everything for a few extra dollars. They can’t pay me enough. † Another woman exclaimed, â€Å"If I get sick, are they going to take care of me? Are they going to take care of my children? † These statements are representative of what many women told me; however, a few caveats are in order. First, the women I interviewed were associated with MODEMU and CEPROSH, two organizations that provide peer-to-peer safer-sex education. Also, Puerto Plata has a governmentmandated policy of condom use in sex establishments (Haddock, 2007).These women were educated and aware of the dangers of unprotected sex. Secondly, most of the women id entified with the term â€Å"sex worker,† meaning that many of their relations with foreigners were direct sex-for-money exchanges. Women who engage in less rigidly structured and more ambiguous relationships, in which the conditions of the exchange deemphasize economic factors, may take more risks to prove that they are not â€Å"from the street. † Research from the Caribbean also confounds easy assumptions about sexual identity, sexual practice, and HIV/AIDS.Padilla’s (2007) research in the Dominican Republic and that of Fosado (2004) and Hodge (2002) from Cuba testify to the difficulty of categorizing the mode of HIV transmission in these countries as â€Å"heterosexual,† given the growth of same-sex male sex work with tourists. The political economy of tourism serves as the context for straightidentified men to engage in same-sex relations with foreign men to support wives, girlfriends, and families. The notion of sex workers as vectors of disease als o needs to be reexamined. My research with 30 women infected with HIV/AIDS, who worked in sex stablishments serving a predominantly Dominican clientele in Santo Domingo, indicates that all were infected by their husbands or regular boyfriends, with whom they did not use safer-sex techniques. Thus far, all the women that I have interviewed claim to use condoms for protection with their clients and to let their guard down with regular partners. Third, many of the young single workers are internal migrants to tourist areas and are more likely to engage in riskier practices and have a less stable lifestyle (UNDP, 2005). There are few educational and prevention programs to target this population.These are two areas in which more research is needed. Downloaded from lap. sagepub. com at University of Sheffield on September 8, 2011 Cabezas / EXCLUSION IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 33 CONCLUSION Few viable alternatives exist to the current structure of travel, leisure, and tourism, which consign s people in the South to poorly remunerated labor. The Dominican Republic, along with other Caribbean nations, attracts foreign investment by offering a low-cost labor force, tax exemptions, and other incentives, but tourism denies the majority of its working people â€Å"decent work. 13 The squeezing of labor power and natural resources has left the country with a massive tourism infrastructure, with more than 60,000 hotel rooms, and over 3 million pleasure visitors a year (Secretaria de Estado de Turismo, 2004–2007) in an ecology of disaster. These figures continue to grow every year without concern for the quality of life of Dominicans. The majority of people are relegated, at best, to positions of servitude in low-paid jobs in the formal sector, underemployment, or unstable activities in the informal sector that include the commoditization of sexuality and affective relations.Dominicans dream of being leisure travelers, holding decent jobs, and securing a better future f or their children, but the transnational tourism industry cannot provide them decent wages and higher standards of living. Various scholars have documented the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the Caribbean people in acting on the tourism infrastructure (Cabezas, 2004; Fosado, 2004; Padilla, 2007), but the opportunities and potential for significant democratization are modest or absent.Tourism may provide the opportunity for people from the global North to re-create themselves, but people from the South have access to this opportunity only through sexual exchanges that place their lives at risk. Reciprocal leisure travel is what every native needs to dispel the tropical blues. NOTES 1. Tourism and travel are considered export-oriented services. 2. Increasingly tourism is one of the world’s largest generators of jobs. The WTTC (2005) calculates that the sector accounted for 10 percent of total employment in 1997 worldwide and is expected to generate an estimated 328 million jo bs by 2010. . The UNDP (2005) is rather critical of the all-inclusive model of development in the Dominican Republic. It contends that this model offers a homogeneous product marked by the stereotypical image based on sun, sand, and sea, a tourism product with facilities that face away from local populations and one characterized by constant competition and lack of state regulation. While I support this spatially concentrated form of development and the general segregation of tourists from local populations, my point here is to express concern for the lack of human capital development of the population.Further, tourism development generally promotes a â€Å"slash, burn, and move on† approach to the environment. Leisure travel in the Dominican Republic follows the pattern of exploitation of natural resources and cheap labor prevalent in neocolonial regimes whereby transnational finance capital and local elites benefit from these structures and the local people are left to suff er the consequences. 4. According to one estimate, 33–50 percent of Internet use is based on tourism (ILO, 2001). 5. The trend in consolidation is evident in ILO’s data (2001). It maintains that in 1999 the 10 biggest companies controlled 2. 4 million rooms but by 2000 9 giants controlled 2. 98 million hotel rooms. 6. In the Caribbean, of the eight major cruise lines operating, â€Å"six own their own private islands which they include among their ports of call† (Wood, 2000: 361). 7. Leptospirosis is caused by a bacterium, Leptospira, that can be transmitted through exposure to water, food, or soil containing the urine of infected animals. The epidemic had killed 27 people by November 20, 2007. Downloaded from lap. sagepub. com at University of Sheffield on September 8, 2011 34 LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES 8. Trujillo was dictator from 1930 to 1961.His regime was characterized by extreme violence and repression, the massacre of 12,000 Haitians in 1938, and the ac cumulation of immense personal wealth. He created state structures and placed his cronies in offices within them to perpetuate his power (Betances and Spalding, 1995). 9. Various multilateral agencies created specialized units for the evaluation, approval, and funding of the projects of member countries. In the 1960s the Inter-American Development Bank, the U. S. Agency for International Development, and the World Bank, for example, directed their lending in Latin America toward tourism development (Monge, 1973).The Organization of American States also promoted financial resources for tourism development. All these efforts were enhanced in the Dominican Republic by Law 153, which granted tax concessions to tourism investors and corporations. Thus foreign entities took the lead in creating highly favorable conditions for foreign investment. 10. The legislation that governs these practices established an incentive system to stimulate development in the tourism sector by providing an i nitial 10-year 100 percent tax exemption on earnings, imports, and construction. 11.Environmental costs are borne entirely by the local population, since the enforcement of environmental regulations is nearly nonexistent (see UNDP, 2005: 86–87; Gregory, 2007). 12. The United Nations (2004) epidemiological report indicates that the Dominican Republic had an estimated adult rate of HIV infection of 1. 7 percent and Puerto Plata one of 8 percent. Recent reports suggest that the infection rate has been reduced to 0. 8 percent (Listin Diario, December 1, 2007), but the northeast coast continues to be one of the areas with the highest rates. 3. The term â€Å"decent work† is used by the ILO (1999: 4) to capture the notion of quality employment that can provide basic security to workers. REFERENCES Ashley, Caroline, Harold Goodwin, Douglas McNab, Mareba Scott, and Luis Chaves 2006 â€Å"Making tourism count for the local economy in the Caribbean: guidelines for good practice . † http://www. propoortourism. org. uk/caribbean/caribbean-whole. pdf. ASONAHORES (Asociacion Nacional de Hoteles y Restaurantes, Inc. ) 2004 Estadisticas seleccionadas del sector turismo ano 2004. Santo Domingo. Atkins, G.Pope and Larman Wilson 1998 The Dominican Republic and the United States: From Imperialism to Transnationalism. Athens: University of Georgia Press. Betances, Emelio and Hobart A. Spalding Jr. 1995 â€Å"Introduction: The Dominican Republic: social change and political stagnation. † Latin American Perspectives 22 (3): 3–19. Britton, Stephen 1982 â€Å"The political economy of tourism in the Third World. † Annals of Tourism Research 9: 331–358. 1996 â€Å"Tourism, dependency, and development: a mode of analysis,† in Yorghos Apostolopoulos, Stella Leivadi, and Andrew Yiannakis (eds. , The Sociology of Tourism: Theoretical and Empirical Investigations. New York: Routledge. Cabezas, Amalia Lucia 1999 â€Å"Women’s work is never done: sex tourism in Sosua, the Dominican Republic,† in Kamala Kempadoo (ed. ), Sun, Sex, and Gold: Tourism and Sex Work in the Caribbean. Boulder: Rowman and Littlefield. 2004 â€Å"Between love and money: sex, tourism, and citizenship in Cuba and the Dominican Republic. † Signs 29: 987–1015. 2005 â€Å"Accidental crossings: sex, tourism and citizenship,† in Marguerite Waller and Sylvia Marcos (eds. ), Dialogue and Difference: Feminisms Challenge Globalization.New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Camara, Bilali 2001 20 Years of the HIV/AIDS Epidemic in the Caribbean. Port of Spain: CAREC-SPSTI. Castellanos de Selig, Grethel 1981 â€Å"Bases para una politica nacional de desarrollo turistico y estategia para este desarrollo. † Paper prepared for the Second National Tourism Convention, Puerto Plata. Downloaded from lap. sagepub. com at University of Sheffield on September 8, 2011 Cabezas / EXCLUSION IN THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 35 CEPROSH (Centro de Estudios Sociales y Demograficos) 1997 â€Å"Encuesta sobre conocimientos, creencias, actitudes y practices acerca del SIDA/ETS en rabajadoras sexuales y hombres involucrados en la industria del sexo en las localidades de Puerto Plata, Sosua y Monte Llano. † MS, COVICOSIDA, Puerto Plata. Crick, Anne P. 2000 â€Å"Personalised service in the New Economy: implications for small island tourism. † Journal of Eastern Caribbean Studies 26 (1): 1–20. Crick, Malcolm 1996 â€Å"Representations of international tourism in the social sciences: sun, sex, sights, savings, and servility,† in Yiorgos Apostolopoulos, Stella Leivadi, and Andrew Yiannakis (eds. ), The Sociology of Tourism: Theoretical and Empirical Investigations.New York: Routledge. El Beltagui, Mamdouh 2001 The Imposed Globalization of the Tourism Phenomenon in WTO Strategic Group: Tourism in a Globalized Society. Madrid: World Tourism Organization. Fanon, Frantz 1963 The Wretched of the Earth. New York: Grove Press. Farmer, Paul 1992 AIDS and Accusation: Haiti and the Geography of Blame. Berkeley: University of California Press. Fosado, Gisela 2004 â€Å"The exchange of sex for money in contemporary Cuba: masculinity, ambiguity, and love. † Ph. D. diss. , University of Michigan. Greenwood, Davyd J. 989 â€Å"Culture by the pound: an anthropological perspective on tourism as cultural commodification,† in Valene Smith (ed. ), Host and Guests: The Anthropology of Tourism. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press. Gregory, Steven 2007 The Devil Behind the Mirror: Globalization and Politics in the Dominican Republic. Berkeley: University of California Press. Haddock, Sarah 2007 â€Å"Policy empowers: condom use among sex workers in the Dominican Republic. † Population Action International 2 (1). http://www. populationaction. org/Publications/ Research_Commentaries/Policy_Empowers/Policy_Empowers. df. Harrison, David 1992 Tourism and the Less Developed Countri es. New York: Wiley. Herold, Edward, Rafael Garcia, and Tony DeMoya 2001 â€Å"Female tourists and beach boys: romance or sex tourism? † Annals of Tourism Research 28: 978–997. Hodge, Derrick 2002 â€Å"Colonization of the Cuban body: the growth of male sex work in Havana. † NACLA 34 (5): 23. ILO (International Labour Organisation) 1999 â€Å"Decent Work: Report of the Director-General, International Labour Conference, 87th Session, Geneva. † http://www. ilo. org/public/english/standards/relm/ilc/ilc87/rep-i. tm 2001 Human Resources Development, Employment, and Globalization in the Hotel, Catering, and Tourism Sector. Geneva. Jimenez, Felucho 1999 El turismo en la economia dominicana. Santo Domingo: Secretaria de Estado de Turismo. Kincaid, Jamaica 1988 A Small Place. New York: Farrar, Straus Giroux. Lanfant, Marie-Francoise, John B. Allcock, and Edward M. Bruner 1995 International Tourism: Identity and Change. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. McElroy, Jerome L. 2004 â€Å"Global perspectives of Caribbean tourism,† in David Timothy Duval (ed. ), Tourism in the Caribbean: Trends, Development, Prospects.London: Routledge. Monge, Aquiles O. Farias 1973 â€Å"Fuente de financiamiento nacionales y extrajeras. † Paper presented at the Convencio ? n Nacional de Turismo Repu blica Dominicana, Puerto Plata, March 31–April 3. ? Downloaded from lap. sagepub. com at University of Sheffield on September 8, 2011 36 LATIN AMERICAN PERSPECTIVES Mowforth, Martin and Ian Munt 1998 Tourism and Sustainability: New Tourism in the Third World. London: Routledge. Padilla, Mark 2007 Caribbean Pleasure Industry: Tourism, Sexuality, and AIDS in the Dominican Republic.Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Pattullo, Polly 1996 Last Resorts: The Cost of Tourism in the Caribbean. London: Cassell. PSTT (Private Sector Trade Team) 2004 â€Å"Anticompetitive practices in the global tourism industry: implications for Barbados. † http://tradeteam. bb/cms/pstt/files/issues/Anticompetitive_Practices_Issue_Paper. pdf. Ritzer, George and Allan Liska 1997 â€Å"‘McDisneyization’ and ‘post-tourism’: complementary perspectives on contemporary tourism,† in Chris Rojeck and John Urry (eds. ), Tourism Cultures: Transformations of Travel and Theory.London: Routledge. Robinson, William I. 2004 A Theory of Global Capitalism. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 2007 â€Å"Beyond the theory of imperialism: global capitalism and the transnational state. † Societies Without Borders 2: 5–26. Secretaria de Estado de Turismo 2004–2007 Establecimientos de alojamiento turistico en R. D. Santo Domingo. 2007 Llegada mensual de pasajeros, via aerea, por nacionalidad. Santo Domingo. Symanski, Richard and Nancy Burley 1973 â€Å"The Jewish colony of Sosua. † Annals of the Association of American Geographers 63: 366–378. Tavares, Luis L.

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Although not everyone that comes across a stressor in life will experience a crisis, some are unable to cope with the stressor in a healthy manner and eventually succumb to a crisis. If this person does not receive the adequate crisis intervention during this state, he or she is likely to be unable to function at the level he or she had been functioning before the crisis. This will inevitably lead to additional crisis scenarios for every stressor they must face in life. This pattern can go on for many years until the person’s ego is completely drained of its capacity to deal with reality; often such people commit suicide, kill someone, or have a psychotic breakdown. † (Kanel, K. 2007). 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In order to be a successful crisis intervention counselor, the most important skills needed are listening to the client with a compassionate and empathetic ear. According to our textbook, the most basic skill of helping is listening. â€Å"Good eye contact, attentive body language, expressive vocal style, and verbal following are valuable listening tools. † (Kanel, K. 2007).Thi s implies that by listening to your client and demonstrating genuine care, sympathy and interest, you can build a trusting rapport with your client and enable them to truly open up to you. If you are unable to build this rapport, you will go nowhere with a client that is either too embarrassed or not confident enough in your ability to help them. It is critical to identify the client’s perception of the event in order to help them. This is what will tell you what the problem at hand truly is. By doing so, the counselor can help the client identify the problem and overcome their issues.I like to use the Cognitive Tree as a metaphor rather than as a guideline of sorts. You need to get to the root of the problem in order to determine how to fix it. If your roots are healthy, your branches will blossom. But if your roots are damaged and aren’t dealt with in a constructive and healthy manner, your branches will wither and perish. I would identify the precipitating event by directly asking the client why they came to see me. After this initial question, I would follow with several open ended questions in order to allow the client to not only describe what the problem is, but also how they perceive the problem to be.Questions like â€Å"What does this mean to you? † or â€Å"†What emotions are going on inside you? † can allow them to express in detail their perception, without making any assumptions for them. As with any patient/client relationships, there are several ethical considerations that should be paid special attention, and if any are present, should be reported immediately. These include any suicidal or homicidal thoughts or intents made clear by the patient. If it is a possibility that they may endanger their life or someone else’s life, this must be reported. Any forms of abuse are also not to be allowed or tolerated, much less encouraged.This includes child abuse, elder abuse and even spousal abuse. Whether the ab use is happening to them, someone else in their household or they are the abuser themselves, this is not to be taken lightly and would need to reported and fully investigated to ensure the best interests of the client as well as their immediate family. Substance-abuse issues also need to be addressed and in that case, adequate treatment would include detox and/or rehab services. Finally any medical concerns that may have arisen are also of concern and should be dealt with immediately.For instance, if since the event the client has become a hoarder or compulsive sex addict, these issues must also be dealt with appropriately. There are many methods of coping treatments available to your clients in today’s day and age. Most traditional forms of coping treatments are those such as support groups or 12-step groups, individual or family therapy, legal aid, or even reading self-help books. Preventative techniques of coping help the client prepare for future stressors in their lives and thus help them to be more able to cope with these stressors in a normal and healthy manner.I would most likely recommend the client to meditate daily in order to remain calm. I would also tell them to envision any stressors that can ever possibly arise and to already plan how they would react to it. For instance, if a client is scared that their husband may need to have a surgery performed, I would tell them to decide how they would deal with it if it does happen. By doing so, they will already begin to face their demons and it will not appear as scary as it did.So when it does happen, it lost all of the unexpected surprise element and can be easier to deal with. The most important thing I must keep in mind as I try to help patients cope with their crisis is that they can be the best counselor to themselves by pretending a friend of theirs was going through a similar situation. What advice would they give their friend? Odds are that is the best advice anyone can give them, so th ey might as well listen to their own advice.References Kanel, Kristi (2007). A Guide to Crisis Intervention. Belmont, CA; Cengage Learning.

Request for Proposals (RFP) Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Request for Proposals (RFP) - Assignment Example The research will then culminate in recommendations for improving the system. Some of the objectives for the study are as outlined below Online systems of education have to be improved regularly in order to incorporate new and emerging technologies that enhance the ability of the students to get the most from online courses. In the past few years, several systems such as Moodle and Socrates have emerged, each focusing on different aspects of online education. In addition, social media, video conferencing technologies, and messaging technologies such as Whatssap have also emerged as key elements in communication; hence, influencing education. It is crucial for online courses to incorporate all these elements in order to be more effective. The changing technological environment makes it necessary for online courses to be dynamic if they have to continue being relevant into the future. One key element is usability. This concerns the ability of students to access information about their courses and shares the information through various online platforms such as the website (Collins, Weber, &Zambrano, 2014). Such mediums of communication have to be responsive to the needs of the students besides making it easier for them to access and share course content. Online courses have become very popular today as more people gain access to the internet. In addition, the flexibility with which online education brings in terms of time and place of study has helped attract many students to use the online platform. However, changes in technology have made it necessary for providers of online courses to change their strategies from time to time to make the systems more responsive to the needs of students. In this regard, it is critical to improve the usability of online course programs to enhance communication and exchange of ideas among students as well as with the instructors(Collins, Weber, &Zambrano,

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You can choose the title - Essay Example re the ones that develop such simulations, the simulation is usually influenced by the knowledge and biasness of the designers which may lead to difficulties in learning. It has been observed that designers are the ones that are provided with frequent opportunities to learn rather than the users. By making constant change in the simulation, the designer may be able to understand the requirement and will eventually lead to the increase of their skills and experience. For a designer to develop a simulation can become quite easy if the designer have sufficient knowledge regarding the simulation along with the experience to understand the complexity and realism so that the objectives of the simulation could be met cost effectively. The designer must take into consideration that simulation should not be too simplified that it may disrupt the learning process of the students. On the other hand, experiential learning is an active learning process as it focuses on the theme ‘learning by doing’. Since this is an ongoing process, it requires constant facilitation through coaching and support along with personal interest to participate in the process. By such support, the learner may be provided with an opportunity to identify the reasons for failure through feedback by the expert couching the learner. For a business game simulation to be successful, motivation is required among participants. In order to motive the participants, certain theories were proposed. The theories proposed included goal setting theory, Maslow’s need theory, and Herzberg theory along with other theories of motivation. For an effective learning process, time is the most important factor for achieving the goals and objectives of learning. For the goals and objectives of the students to be accomplished, feedbacks and debriefings from the facilitator or expert is crucial as based on such feedbacks, participants become motivated and self-satisfied with the environment for learning. In order to

An investigation in to a link between emotional intelligence and Dissertation

An investigation in to a link between emotional intelligence and leadership stylea study in the public sector of South Africa - Dissertation Example However, in the advent of â€Å"emotional intelligence†, the element of human emotions and its effect on self and other people have been seriously considered as an essential factor in leadership. It has brought about a trend in the academic, corporate and political world, bringing a new dimension in the way things are run in organisations affecting company philosophy, policy, mission and vision. In the public sector, with leaders being targeted with scandals about corruption and greediness, good governance needs to be reinstated. Mokgolo et al. (2012) contend that relevant studies on leadership add knowledge that can elevate public service practices with the implementation of effective leadership, retention of valuable staff and quality of service delivery. Such relevant studies include the possession of emotional intelligence in good leadership. Statement of the Problem This study will investigate the possible links between emotional intelligence and effective leadership styl es that may be applicable in the public sector. Specifically, it will explore how it can be applied to the public sector of South Africa. Aims and Objectives The research purports to establish strong links between emotional intelligence and leaders who may be identified as effective and efficient by their subordinates. It will gather sufficient evidence from available literature as well as get first-hand information from subordinates and constituents of public sector leaders in South Africa. It aims to seek a clearer perspective on the importance of emotional intelligence in leadership. It hopes to be a useful resource to future leaders to guide them in the right path in leading the organizations they will be tasked to lead to success. Methodology This qualitative study investigates the importance of emotional intelligence in successful leadership and management in the public sector. Going beyond the surface in the review of literature, this study will probe beneath the issue of lea dership in organisations and delve into the emotional intelligence of leaders or the lack of it. Primary sources will be respondents’ answers to open ended questions in a questionnaire about the leadership styles of the leaders in their respective departments, further elaborated on in a focus group interview conducted on a later date. Secondary sources will be information culled from the literature review. Both sources shall be cross-referenced in a quantitative analysis of the themes that may surface from the questionnaires and focus group discussion. Literature Review Much research has been devoted to the topic of leadership. Yukl (2006) presents a comprehensive collection of studies on leadership, identifying various approaches to leadership. The behavior approach studies the leader’s typical pattern of behaviour to manage and lead. The power-influence approach takes on a more leader-centered perspective in that power is used not only to manage subordinates but also to influence peers, superiors, and even people outside the organization. The situational approach sees leadership as affected by contextual factors such as characteristics of followers, nature of the work performed, the type of organization and the nature of the external environment. Finally, the integrative approach involves more than one type of leadership variable and incorporates other perspectives of leadership (Yukl, 2006). In most of

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New advancements in police technnologies - Research Paper Example Administrators must be well skilled in getting technology over a diversity of financial sources. There are several new advancements of police technologies that are currently used. These new technologies as force manifold that progress competence, usefulness as well as officer safety in a various ways. This paper outlines some of these advancements. The first one is the Crime Acts. Currently, there is an influx of a total of flashlights with every an altered specific wavelength intended to perceive hair, fibers, as well as body liquids at crime acts. These lights permit a crime act to be handled quicker and extra methodically than previously. Places formerly inaccessible for influential fluorescence inspection are now available. The compactness of the current crime act inspection light sources brands the furthest of countryside locations. -the second technological advancement is the Car Camera Systems, which has an advanced an appreciated tool to check and ensure a high degree of offi cer expertise (Rostker, 2008). The aptitude to record video film of events involving the public from a patrol car perspective has proven invaluable in such matters as traffic stops, criminal investigations and arrests, internal affairs, and training. These systems are constantly improving and becoming more cost effective. From the time the first in-car cameras were installed to document roadside impaired driving sobriety tests, the cameras have captured both intended and unintended video footage that has established their value (Rostker, 2008). Various video recordings have resulted in convictions; many provide an expedited means to resolve citizen complaints, exonerate officers from accusations, and serve as police training videos. Occasionally, a video ends up on the evening news, as a humorous excerpt on other television programs. Similarly, there is the Photo Implementation Systems, which are automatically generated in red light color defilements and as a result importantly reco ver security for the proceeding public. Presently there are a number of trustworthy merchants of photo implementation systems accessible to societies. In addition, Searching for Individuals are current imaging strategies usually organized for the exploration and liberation assignments where arenas, as well as other topography can be perused very quickly. Specific rate is the exploration of compact brush or even wooded parts where conservative explorations can be problematic. Correspondingly, imagers can be casted off to exploration to dark constructions and new parts for defendants who are walloping and endeavoring to escape anxiety. This device cans as well elite up a heat autograph on the pulverized where a suspect was formerly walloping. Another technological advancement is the Evidence and Deterrence whereby crime acts inquiries are as well assisted by the systems in skimming for physical indication (Raschke, 2009). Also imagers can perceive bothered surfaces for crypts or even other parts that must been excavated up in an effort to hide the bodies, indications, as well as objects. This device can as well scam thoroughfares for exhaust tracks and other scripts which are not noticeable to the bare eye. Preemptive imager investigation allows officers to scam communal parks, communal streets, backstreets and bays lots, communal constructions, conveyance passageways, as well as other

State the different steps involved in a confirmed documentary letter Essay

State the different steps involved in a confirmed documentary letter of credit, with payment terms of ninety days sight. Then compare and contrast documentary collections and documentary letter of credit - Essay Example Afterwards, the beneficiary or the seller then transports the goods and comes up with the documents required to support the letter of credit. It is after presenting the relevant documents to the advising bank or the confirming bank that the documents can be processed for any payments to be done (Barru, 2005). The confirming or advising bank scrutinizes the documents to establish compliance with the provided letter of credit. In the event that the details are correct, the advising or confirming bank can put claims of funds through either obtaining a debit from the issuing bank’s account, waiting for some period of time to allow the issuing bank to remit or through any other bank as per the requirements of the credit. After this, it will be upon the advising or confirming bank send the documents to the issuing bank which again examines the papers for compliance and in case there are no complications, the issuing bank debits the account of the buyer. Finally, the issuing bank performs yet another duty of sending the documents back to the buyer (Azar & Abdallah, 2015). One of the similarities between the documentary collections and letters of credit is that the execution of both of these payments is performed by the banks. Moreover, documents are very essential in both of the payments and this becomes the second similarity between the two methods of payments. The third similarity is that both of these documents are governed by rules of trade which are accepted internationally (Barru, 2005). While the letters of credit majorly fall under the governance of UCP 600, cash against documents payments in this case referred to as documentary collects fall under the governance of the rules outlined in URC 522 (Ilie, 2015). For the letters of credit to be opened by the bank that issues them the applicant must be willing to accept the banks request to open them or in other

Frequency Distributions Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Frequency Distributions - Essay Example Initially, there was a bimodal distribution, showing that students were grouped into those that understood better (scores that clustered around the top of the scale) and those that did not understand as well (scores clustering near the lower end of the scale). By the second week, the two groups of students did combine into one unified group; but the majority still did have trouble grasping the concepts in class. A minority of students did far better than the rest and got high score; while the majority still scored towards the lower side of the scale. Scores from the third week show that the class as a whole was starting to make sense of the concepts being taught, and were improving in their understanding. This can be understood from the movement of the majority of the scores from below the 50% mark to very close to the 50% scores point. By now, about half the class understood the concepts reasonably well, scoring above average, and only half the class was struggling and scoring less than average on understanding the concepts. This trend again changed in week 4; where a negative skew showed that now a majority of students had caught up with the concepts being taught in class; and only a minority was still scoring low on the scale while the majority was scoring towards the higher side.

Review of a Reading Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Review of a Reading - Essay Example For this reason, the author says that, the concept of designing strategy for a business organization must address the whole business organization. Consequently, the author says that, strategy in business must be formulated at three independent levels, i.e. corporate level, business level, and functional level. A critical analysis of this view by the author shows that the author’s conception of strategic management is right. This is because strategic management affects all facets of a business organization unlike other areas of business. The author of this reading defines strategic management as the process of creating interdependent activities that will enable an organization to compete successfully. The author goes on to say that, for most business organizations, creating the interdependent activities is the difficult part. An evaluation of this view shows that author’s views on this point are true. This is because harmonizing various portfolios of a business organization to operate with synergy is quite a challenging task; it normally requires skills in management and leadership to create such synergy in an organization with different portfolios. In the assigned reading, the author discusses in details the corporate Level Strategy and the scope of corporate level strategy. According to the author, corporate level strategy sets the overall direction for the whole Company. The author recognizes specific tasks and questions to that are unique to corporate level strategy. Expressed as questions, the author argues that the scope of corporate level strategy is: To explain further the actual meaning of corporate level of strategy, the author explains in details the meaning of each of the four questions; the author uses a concrete case of the Pepsi Company to demonstrate how the four questions of corporate level strategy are applied in actual situation. The author begins by explaining how the Coca-Cola Company has applied the

Evil and the Paradox of Omnipotence Essay Example for Free

Evil and the Paradox of Omnipotence Essay John Leslie Mackie, in his article â€Å"Evil and Omnipotence† states that the problem of evil is clearly stated using three essential parts of most theological positions, namely (a) that God is omnipotent, (b) that God is wholly good; and (c) that evil exists. Mackie also stated two additional principles that are commonly assumed in debating the problem of evil. They include (a) â€Å"that good is opposed to evil, in such a way that a good thing always eliminates evil as far as it can† and (b) â€Å"that there are no limits to what an omnipotent thing can do† (Mackie 90). Mackie explained that accepting the propositions stated above leads to the problem of evil. The propositions are contradictory to each other. Given the arguments above, a good and omnipotent being will eliminate evil completely. The existence of a good and omnipotent being and the existence of evil are absolutely contradictory. An adequate solution to the problem would be to accept that at least one of these propositions is false. Mackie explained that some solutions being offered are inadequate or fallacious in that they explicitly maintain all, but implicitly reject at least one of the constituent propositions—that is, at least one of the propositions appears to have been given up but is actually retained in such a way that it is reasserted in another context without further qualification. One of these fallacious solutions state that â€Å"good cannot exits without evil† or that â€Å"evil is necessary as a counterpart to good. † This solution sets a limit to the purported God’s omnipotence in that it implies that God could not create â€Å"good† without necessarily creating â€Å"evil. † This claim also implicitly states that good and evil exists side by side with each other and therefore contradicts the claim that good always eliminates evil. The problem presents further complications in that it proposes that goodness is an ontological principle from which an opposite must exist in order to be noticed by human perception. Mackie explained that â€Å"God might have made everything good, though we should not have noticed it if he had† if there were no concept of evil of some kind. Another fallacious solution states that â€Å"evil is necessary as a means to good. † However, it sets a limit to God’s omnipotence and presents complications in much the same way as the first fallacious solution does. A third solution stating that â€Å"the universe is better with some evil in it than it could be if there were no evil† is just a restatement of the first two fallacious solutions. The third solution is, however, more complex than the first two as it introduces concepts from which there arises degrees of good and evil, i. e. first-order, second-order and third-order. The problem lies in that some form of goodness have merely a derivative value, that God is concerned only with promoting good and not necessarily with eliminating evil, or that goodness of any degree still could not totally eliminate the existence of evil—problems that still contradict the claims of what â€Å"omnipotence† and â€Å"good† are. The fourth solution stating that â€Å"evil is due to human free will† still begs the question of God being omnipotent and wholly good. Theists argue that God has given humans free will to choose between good and evil and that the existence of evil could not be blamed to God. Free will leaves the possibility that humans may choose to do â€Å"evil. † Mackie however argue that if there is no logical impossibility that humans could choose freely to do good in one or several occasions, there is also no logical impossibility that they could choose to do good in â€Å"all† occasions. God’s failure to do this questions his omnipotence or his being wholly good. On the other hand, if God had truly created humans with a totally free will, it follows that God will not be able to control them in any and all circumstances, and therefore he is no longer omnipotent. This is what Mackie would like to call the â€Å"Paradox of Omnipotence. † Objections are made that states that while God has truly created humans with a totally free will, it does not necessarily mean he could no longer control them but instead, refrains from doing so. But then again, Mackie argues that there is nothing that stops God from intervening when he sees humans about to choose wrongly and begs the question of his being wholly good. Theists argue that the value of freedom to choose far outweighs the wrongness of choosing to do evil. Mackie replied by stating that this is in contrast to what the theists say about sin in other contexts and the only logical solution would be to maintain that God has created humans totally free in such a way that he could not control their wills. Mackie and Swiburne have different opinions on the free-will defense in that while Swiburne held that it is the perfect explanation why evil exists, Mackie held that it poses the Paradox of Omnipotence. Both are sound in their arguments. However, as Swiburne states that to say that God has given humans free will but yet would intervene once they choose to do wrong would be illogical—that is, if this will be the case, humans are not truly be free—Swiburne’s argument is more compelling. Mackie has not provided any real argument that could deny God being wholly good while still allowing evil to persist because of human free will, hence Swiburne’s argument also hold to be the stronger.

Biography of Mary McLeod Bethune

Biography of Mary McLeod Bethune Mary McLeod Bethune spent her life educating and working to earn human rights for African Americans. She was an educator, advocator, leader, and humanitarian that dedicated many years to equality and the uplift of African-Americans lifestyles. She felt that education and access to knowledge was the only way to battle adversities that were crippling the black community. Bethune took on and accomplished many great tasks as an African-American woman in hopes of proving that one person can make a powerful positive impact on society. She was born on July 10, 1875 in Mayesville, South Carolina to Samuel and Patsy McLeod. Mary McLeod was the fifteenth of seventeen children. Both her parents had been slaves, but after emancipation they acquired land and began instilling vital attributes within their children. As a child Mary worked the cotton field, witnessed her parents provide religious and food services to others, and helped her mother with the laundry that she did for local white people. One day Bethune had an experience that would motivate her to become an educated African-American woman. While delivering the laundry with her mother to a white employer Mary McLeod picked up a book the customers granddaughter lashed out telling her to put the book down because blacks could not read (Bolden, 1998, p.94). Historian John Hope Franklin said, education was the greatest single opportunity to escape the indignities and proscriptions of an oppressive white south (Bolden, 1998, p.95). The pain young Mary felt on that day inspired her to take an interest in education and provoked the need to overcome oppression. Mary attended a local Presbyterian missionary school during her early years. Around the age of twelve Mary McLeod received a scholarship to attend Scotia Seminary in Concord, North Carolina. Merry Chrissman, a Quaker, wanted to give a promising student a chance at continuing education by paying their tuition for a year. Emma Wilson, Marys teacher from the missionary school, choose her as the recipient (Wilds, 2004, p.24-25).At Scotia, Mary McLeod had her first educational experience with white people. According to Wright (1999, p.9) Mary stated the following in regards to education at Scotia it: broadened my horizon and gave me my first intellectual contacts with white people, for the school had a mixed faculty. The white teachers taught that the color of a persons skin has nothing to do with his brains, and that color, caste, or class distinctions are an evil thing. Seven years later Mary McLeod Bethune graduated from Scotia. Years at the Christian school had reinforced her faith and Mary decided that she wanted to be a missionary in Africa. Mary began attending the Moody Institute for Home and Foreign Missions, in Chicago. At Moody Mary was the only African-American student, but this time helped her realize that black and white people could live and work together with objectivity (Johnson-Miller, 1998). Marys requests to be a mission were denied by the institution (Bolden, 1998, p.98). Reasons behind this decision by the institute were that there were no openings for Negro missionaries in Africa (Wright, 1999, p. 5). Mary describes this as the greatest disappointment in my life (Wilds, 2004, p. 26). Mary prevailed over this disappointment and decided that instead of teaching Africans she would begin working with African-Americans. So under the instruction of Lucy Laney Mary McLeod started teaching at Haines Institute, in Augusta, Georgia. During this time Mary McLeod and Lucy Laney were dedicated to supporting the derelict children in this low-income community. Other black communities that Mary traveled to and taught in were Sumpter, South Carolina, Savannah, Georgia, and Palatka, Florida. In Palataka, Florida McLeod organized the Mission Sabbath School for the poorest children. (Hine, Brown, Terborg-Penn, 1992, p.114). Mary McLeod met Albertus Bethune during her time at the Presbyterians Kendall Institute in Sumter, South Carolina. They married in 1898, and had one child Albert McLeod Bethune (Hine et.al, 1992, p.114). Their marriage was not jovial, and the Bethunes separated in 1907. Albertus Bethune died in 1918. While advancing blacks Mary did not incorporate marriage and fa mily often, they were secondary institutions. Her failed marriage may have been the reason behind this. Albert McLeod Bethune never finished college and was unsuccessful at several jobs. In 1920 he had a son, Albert McLeod Bethune Jr., which Mary adored. She adopted him and reared him, Albert McLeod Bethune Jr. went on to get a Masters Degree in Library Sciences and worked as a librarian in Daytona beach at the institution his grandmother founded (Hine et.al, 1992, p. 114). Many blacks were heading to Floridas east coast to do railroad construction, so Bethune followed with aspirations of opening a school in the area. The conditions of the blacks in Daytona stunned her. She recalled, hundreds of Negroes had gathered in Florida for construction work. I found there dense ignorance and meager educational facilities, racial prejudice of the most violent type crime and violence (Wright, 1999, p.7) Bethune knew that this was the place to began making a change. On October 3, 1904 Bethune founded the Daytona Educational and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls. She modeled her school after her alma mater, Scotia Seminary. According to Jessie Carney Smith (2001, p.68) Mary stated that she started the school with five little girls, a dollar and a half and faith in God. The early days were quite difficult; Mary McLeod begged for rudiments and gathered dry goods boxes for benches. However with help from Daytonas black leaders and influential white men and wo men the school excelled. In 1905, it was chartered as the Daytona Normal and Industrial Institute for Negro Scholars. Stressing religion and industrial education the students were active participants in the production and handling of food to meet needs and provide income to the school. There were many volunteers and less regular teachers, who were paid from fifteen to twenty dollars a month with board included (Wright, 1999, p.7). Her plan for the school was to have the girls educated on how to upkeep the home, which would include sewing and cooking so they would have skills to be hired as a maid, cook, dressmaker and above all a teacher. Financial assistance was low but a creative Bethune explored many avenues to gain aid. She organized a choir that gave concerts in churches and hotels to bring in money. Bethune became familiar with important businessmen such as, Thomas White, John D. Rockefeller, Henry J. Kaiser and James M. Gamble, though these financial undertakings. These men took notice in Bethune and her school, provided funding, and eventually formed her board of trustees (Wright, 1999, p.8). The institute continued to expand as Bethune advocated for her students and the necessity for blacks to have access to the same levels of education as whites. She wanted to prevent limitation and offer blacks a chance at becoming productive members of society. In 1923 the Daytona Institute merged with the coeducational Cookman Institute in Jacksonville, Florida (Smith, 2001, p.68). Combined they became known as Bethune-Cookman College (BCC). The unification could not have come at a better time. With the onset of the Great Depression Bethune might have not been able to weather the storm along, but as a determined woman she did take necessary precautions to keep the school running; such as cancelling athletic and social affairs, slashing salaries and cutting courses (Hine et.al, 1992, p.116). She believed that Bethune-Cookman College was the only option that many blacks had to attend college, and if the white colleges could make it through the depression she knew her school could as well. In 1942 Bethune-Cookman became a four year college, but the school never lost sight of Bethunes founding principle of combining religion, vocational program, and academia. Bethune had accomplished an amazing task by starting with a school for destitute youth but in the end cultivating a senior college. Mary McLeod Bethune was seeking to make change during a time of great oppression and she faced great resistance to social change by many whites around here in the southern states. Nothing deferred her from her dream of educating and improving the lives of black women. Despite threats from the Ku Klux Klan she led a successful black voter registration drive. She wanted her students and other black women to rise above barriers placed on them by society (Sicherman et.al, 1980, p.77). She established herself as a strong black woman and did not let the Jim Crow laws or persistence of whites to keep blacks in low-end jobs slow her down. Establishing a school was the foundation of Bethunes prominence in the womens club movement. From 1917-1924 Bethune served as the president of the Florida Federation of Colored Women. As president of this organization Bethune was faced with three main issues World War I (WWI), female enfranchisement , and rehabilitative services for delinquent black girls. In response to Americas entry into WWI Bethune promoted canning and preserving food, making articles for soldiers and their families, and assisting the Red Cross. In accord with the Nineteenth Amendment to the constitution voter rolls became open to women in Daytona. Despite the Ku Klux Klans attempt to sway and impede Bethune organized and registered herself, her entire faculty and staff, and other local black women (Hine et.al, 1992, p.118). Continuing with her legacy of offering chances to young women Bethune began to tackle the issue of a rehabilitative environment for delinquent black girls. Black female juvenile delinquents w ere placed in prison with adult lawbreakers, because there was not a facility that was for unruly black female youth. However there was a facility for white juvenile delinquent youth, the Industrial School in Ocala. In response to this the Florida Federation of Colored Womens Clubs launched an alternative facility for up to twelve residents in Ocala (Hine et.al, 1992, 118). Bethune opened the new Industrial School on September 20, 1921. This facility was directly funded by Bethune and a financial campaign until the late 20s when the state finally began funding this facility. Florida had been funding the Industrial School for white juvenile delinquents since 1913(Hine et.al, 1992, 118). Bethune believed that these young girls needed direction that they were not getting in the state prison in Raiford. She developed this facility in attempt to continue reducing unfairness and inequality that black women endured from systems in America. While heading the Florida Federation of Colored Wo mens Clubs Bethune founded the Southeastern Federation of Colored Women in 1920. Through this organization Bethune created relationships with open-minded white women for common welfare (Hine et.al, 1992, p.118).Contributing leadership for the womens general committee of the regional Commission on Interracial Cooperation was a great feat for the Southeastern Federation of Colored Women (Hine et.al, 1992, .118). Bethunes presence, values, and drive were unavoidable when she became president of the National Association of Colored Women (NACW). According to Sicherman et.al (1980 p.78) reaching presidency of the NACW was the highest office that a black woman at this time could aspire to reach. NACW was the premier black womens organization. Bethune benefited directly from working with the NACWs white counterpart the General Foundation of Womens Clubs. During her presidency of this association Bethune used her girls school as a base for NACW civic and charitable work (Hine, 1992, p117). As president of the NACW, Bethune worked intensely on projecting a positive image of black women to whites. She wanted to create roles for black women in both national and international arenas, she stated to her members, we must make this national body of colored women a significant link between the peoples of color throughout the world (Smith, 2001, p.70). Bethunes statement showed how advanced and limitless her thinking was as an activist. She wanted black women to understand that any goal was attainable. Bethune enhanced this organization by revising the constitution, improving their periodical, National Notes, and exemplifying great communication. The organizations first fixed headquarters was established in Washington, D.C. under Bethune (Sicherman et.al, 1980, p.78). The NACW was the first all-black organization operating in the nations capital with other white national organizations. Working with the NACW had halted Bethunes focus on black womens presence in national affairs. Bethune wanted black women to play a tangible role in the legislative process involving individual and family survival. Bethune felt the best way to reach this point was to establish an organization that encompassed all existing national womens organizations (Hine, 1992, p.120). NACW continuously declined her emphasis upon a cohesive body. Realizing that NACW was deeply involved in local issues, and did not grasp her hopes for black women on a national level Bethune fashioned her own vision. In December of 1935 Bethune founded the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW). NCNW united major national black womens association (Sichermen, 1980, p.80). In Bethunes fourteen year presidency she focused the councils activities on segregation and discrimination, on cultivation of international relationships, and on national liberal causes. Increasing the membership Bethune made chapters of NCNW in majo r cities. By the end of her term Bethune had developed a council that included twenty-two national womens organizations, academic sororities, Christian denominational societies, fraternal associations, auxiliaries, and eighty-two local councils (Hine, 1992, p.120). She also established headquarters for the NCNW in Washington, DC., employed a full-time staff, and initiated the Aframerican Womens Journal. With the NCNW Bethune brought visibility to black women in the nations capital, through the Conference on Governmental Cooperation in the Approach to the Problems of Negro Women and Children. During these conferences sixty-five women of African descent met with the government employees to discuss incorporating black females into social bureaucracies. In 1941 the War Department accepted NCNW as a member of its womens advisory council (Hine et.al, 1992, p.120). Acceptance by the War Department allowed organized black women to participate in government programs. This accomplishment gave the NCNW more leeway in endorsing federal employment, effective enfranchisement, anti-lynching, and internationalism. Bethune fought to diminish racist practices and gender prejudices through conferences, petitions, and civil service reform. The NCNW took a commanding stand on women in the military. Their goal was reached in all services in 1949 when the womens Marine Corps admitted a black applicant (Hine et.al, 1992, p.120). Bethunes inner workings with the Franklin Roosevelt Administration helped her rise the NCNW to great heights. Mary McLeod Bethune met Eleanor Roosevelt at a luncheon at Franklin Delano Roosevelts mothers house. They became allies forming a bond that would work to improve Blacks opportunities on a national level. Eleanor Roosevelt advocated on behalf of blacks and Bethune to her husband and other politicians many times. During the Depression the Black community felt like it was being ignored within the national relief plan the FDR was implementing. According to Wright (1999 p. 10) The Negro press told Eleanor that the only way the Negro is going to get fair treatment is for the government to see to it that a strong, capable Negrois appointed to get things moving in the right direction for Negro relief. Bethune was that strong and capable Negro, so Roosevelt asked her to accept an appointment on the advisory board of the National Youth Administration. NYA was established in 1935 to aid young people ages sixteen to twenty- four during the Great Depression (Smith, 2001, p.70). This was the first post filled by a black woman in the history of the United States. Bethune and her staff educated millions of underprivileged children and she enrolled 600,000 students in the classes NYA was offering in her first year. When Roosevelt created the office of Division of Negro Affairs of the NYA he made Bethune the director (Wright, 1999, p.10). With this position through the New Deal Bethune continued to resolve disagreements between her white colleges and black constituents. According to Smith (2001, p. 71) Bethune brought great assets to this position her charismatic personality, platform style, insight into race relations, abilities to influence people, and well known reputation. In attempt to pool the individual talents of all the Blacks in Roosevelt administration Bethune created the Black Cabinet. The Black Cabinet offered an esteemed Black presence in politics at the capital, and coordinated government programs for Blacks. Bethune saw that Blacks were included in all new progra ms that the NYA offered. The Civilian Pilot Training Program included six black colleges offering flight instruction. Their programs laid the foundation for black pilots in the military (Hine et.al, 1992, p.125). Bethune left government when the NYA was eradicated in 1944, but she never ended her fight for the black race. She fought discrimination within the armed forces, serving as a Special Civilian Assistant to the war department. Bethune served as a US delegate and she represented the NAACP at the first meeting of the United Nations. She was also on President Trumans Committee for National Defense (Wright, 1999, p.12) n her late seventies Bethune returned to her cottage on the Bethune-Cookman campus. She died at the age of 79 from a heart attack on May 18, 1955 (Smith, 2001, p.72). Mary McLeod Bethune was an eminent leader that served on many councils and boards in addition to the organizations that she had initiated; President of the National Association of Teachers in Colored schools, vice president of the Commission on Interracial Operation, and president of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History. Her advocation was important to the National Urban League, Southern Conferences for Human Welfare and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (Sicherman et.al, 1980 p.78).Bethunes lifelong dedication to Christian faith and social services left a legacy of spiritual and social transformation. Her school that began as a rented cottage with five students but grew to become a senior college, Bethune-Cookman College, is the only historically Black college founded by a Black woman that continues to thrive today. Bethune inspired and became a role model for her students as she battled not only the issue of race but gender as well. B ethune had learned in her days at Scotia Seminary that whites and blacks could work together, often serving as the only Black woman in many committees the unequal distribution of Blacks in policy making arenas only inspired Bethune to continue encouraging Black women to reach new heights. Never halted by others disproval or lack of support Bethunes goal were limitless for Black women. She went from a little girl in Mayesville to a powerful advisor of President Roosevelt during the Depression and President Truman. Holding positions such as the Director of the Division of Negro Affairs of the NYA and presidency in the NCNW allowed Bethune to speak of the injustices that Blacks faced in employment, enfranchisement, social welfare policies, and education. She led many women out of jobs of servitude and introduced them to education. Bethune knew that education was essential it was the only way to improve the state of the black community. Bethune labored for equality during an era when there was no national concern regarding the lower status and conditions of blacks. References Bolden, Tonya. (1998). And Not Afraid To Dare: The Stories of Ten African-American Woman (pp.91-101). Scholastic Paperbacks Bostch, Carol Sears. (2002). Mary McLeod Bethune http://www.usca.edu/aasc/bethune.htm Hine, Darlene Clark, Brown, Elsa Barkley Terborg-Penn, Rosalyn (1992). Black Women in America (pp.113-128).Indianapolis, IN: Indiana University Press Holt, Rackham, (1964). Mary McLeod Bethune A Biography. Garden city, NY, 23 Johnson-Miller, Beverly. (1998). Mary Bethune. http://www.talbot.edu/ce20/educators/view.cfm?n=mary_bethune Sicherman, Barbara, Green, Carol Hud, Kantrov, Ilene, Walker, Harriet. (1980). Notable American Women the Modern Period: A Biographical Dictionary (pp.76-80). Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press Smith, Jessie Carney. (2001). Black Heroes (pp. 66-72). Canton, MI: Visible Ink Press Wilds, Mary. (2004). I Dare Not Fail: Notable African American Women Educators (pp. 24-24). Greensboro, NC: Avisson Press, Incorporated Wright, R Brian (1999, April 27). The Idealistic Realist: Mary McLeod Bethune, The National Council of Negro Women and The National Youth Administration (pp.1-12).Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg, Virginia