Just how easy is it to improve your position in society?

Abraham Lincoln once said: “in life, everyone should be able to improve their condition”. This means that the best society is one where people can improve their social and economic standards and have a real chance to realize their true potential. But just how easy is it for poor, disadvantaged people to rise to the top of society?

A number of recent reports appear to show that it is not very easy at all. Many developed societies in the world are rather static. In other words, it is very difficult for poor people to improve their position. The children of poor parents tend to grow up to be poor parents too. At the same time, wealthy, educated parents have children who grow up to be wealthy and educated.

The Unites States is a country which has always encouraged people to improve their condition in society. But surprisingly, the United States is one of the most static of the developed societies. In America, it is therefore very difficult for poor people to find important jobs and become wealthy. In an article in the New York Times, David Brooks writes: “In America we still have a meritocracy. The most qualified people get the best jobs. But at the same time, we have a very static society. At the top end of society, we have a well-educated upper middle class. These people live in areas with good schools. Their children go to the best universities. When they grow up they get good jobs. Their children also go to good schools and get good jobs. So the cycle repeats itself all over again.”

The situation in Britain is similar. It is true that in the post-war period of the 1950s, there was a lot of mobility. The children of poor families often succeeded in getting skilled or professional jobs. In turn, their children were more highly educated and also had good jobs. But since the 1970s, society in Britain has become more static. Various governments have tried to make British society more mobile, but they have not succeeded. Still today, the children of poor, uneducated people grow up to be poor and uneducated. At the same time, children in wealthy families grow up to be well educated and have the best jobs.

It seems that family background is still very important in influencing a young person’s chances of success. Wealthy, educated people have many advantages. For example, wealthy people often have a lot of useful contacts that can help their children find work. Contacts are very important in helping people find work. Often, people need work experience to find a good job. The first step for a young person is to be offered a work placement. Often these work placements are not advertised so only people who have the right contacts can get them.

The education system also influences social mobility. The children of wealthy parents often go to expensive private schools. These children have a much better chance of going to the best universities and to get the best jobs. It is a fact of British life that about 90% of the top people in politics, the law, the armed forces and business all went to private schools, and most of them went to either Oxford or Cambridge University.

It is a good thing if people can improve their position in society. It is good in a moral sense as well as a practical sense. In a moral sense, a mobile society is a fair one. Everybody has the same chance of getting a better position. Also, in a mobile society, the most important jobs should be done by the best people. For these reasons, most governments try to promote mobility in a society. However, in the last 30 years, no government in Britain has succeeded in making the country a more mobile one.

Experts agree that there is no easy solution to the problem. Education is very important, of course. A child’s early education is especially important. This is why the British government would like to increase the availability of nursery education and to improve teaching standards in nursery schools. Education after the age of 16 is also important. When young people leave school at 16 without qualifications, it is very hard for them to find interesting, well-paid work.

One proposal to improve education is to pay good teachers more money. But this idea is not popular with most teachers because they do not like the idea that people who do the same job should get different rates of pay. Another proposal is to improve careers advice to young people in school. In this way, they will better understand the opportunities that exist and the qualification that are needed.

Family background remains very important in influencing a young person’s chances of improvement. Families that encourage learning and help their children at school give their children a better chance of success. But the problem is that too many families do not understand the importance of education. Children in these families miss big opportunities to develop and grow as individuals.

It is not easy to find ways of helping families encourage their children to learn and to have ambitions for success. Some people have suggested that parents should attend lessons on how to be good parents. But a lot of people don’t agree with this idea. They say that the government should not interfere in private family life.

Certainly, it is good to live in a society that allows people to improve their position, but it is not so easy to put into practice.

Vocabulary:

Static

Mobility (from mobile)

Placement

Meritocracy (from merit)

Questions:

1. What about families who think their children need to be working to help make money for survival? Do they necessarily have the opportunity to go to school?

2. Can you think of any special public programs that help encourage education among children of poorer families?

3. Do you think there is something else other than a lack of education that is preventing people from climbing the social ladder?

http://www.english-magazine.com/wjhdy/tucms/&demo/articles/article15/article.html

For most people the waste they eject from their bodies is something they don’t bother thinking about once they’ve shut the toilet door behind them.

But there are some who think human waste could be a major part of a stable gas supply. Just as long as we can overcome our prejudices.

The UK has to ensure that, by 2020, 15% of the energy it produces comes from renewable sources. This, combined with government plans to reward those who pursue this route sooner rather than later, has led to a surge in interest in deriving power from the euphemistically termed “sewage waste”.

With many energy experts already looking forward to the end of North Sea gas, much will hinge on the stability of supply from Russia and the Middle East. Uncertainty could be a driver for the exploration of alternative sources of gas.

The UK produces 1.73 million tonnes of sewage sludge every year, which the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs says could potentially be used to produce biogas.

Anaerobic digesters

And, this summer British Gas, in partnership with Thames Water and Scotia Gas Networks, plan to be the first to start piping biomethane, derived from fecal matter, into the national network and straight back to the homes of 130 customers in Didcot in Oxfordshire.

Anaerobic digesters – carefully managed bacteria – are already used to turn feces into a means of generating electricity, but the additional plant that British Gas will install will clean up the spare biogas and turn it into biomethane which can be used on household hobs and in gas central heating.

It is a way of turning methane into something useful and something which will prevent the displacement of fossil fuels

The whole process should take about 23 days from flush to finish and since the infrastructure is already in place, British Gas say that the test customers would not notice any difference in the final product.

The most crucial thing for many consumers will be the issue of smell. The new biomethane will smell just like the standard natural gas supply.

Anaerobic = relating to, involving, or requiring an absence of free oxygen
Prejudices = preconceived opinion that is not based on reason or actual experience
(this is an important word, how else can we talk about the concept of prejudice?)
Hinge = a central point or principal upon which everything depends.
Hob = stove

1.    Is this a good source of energy? Will humans produce enough waste to sustain this poo power?
2.    Do you think the process of converting fecal matter into energy will be a high-energy process? Meaning, will it use a lot of energy just in the conversion process?
3.    What other ideas do you have that relate to this concept of using waste and turning it into power? Could this be done with ordinary waste such as trash? Recyclables? Even toxic waste?
4.    Do you think there will be a difference in smell and its ability to provide energy?

5. Act as though Brazil needs this energy source in order to continue powering the country. How can you make this idea sound appealing to them? Talk about the process and how it will be equal to fossil fuels in terms of usage and smell. Use these references below to show that other countries are already utilizing this new alternative energy source.

POO POWER !
In Oslo biomethane is used to power public buses
False Creek Energy Centre in Vancouver used human waste to ensure athletes stayed warm during the Winter Olympics
In Rwanda, prisoners’ waste is used to generate the heat to cook their food

Assessing a Teacher’s Value

With students everywhere being tested annually for academic progress, it may not be a surprise that the data would eventually be used to evaluate the effectiveness of their teachers.

Michelle A. Rhee, the schools chancellor in Washington, fired about 25 teachers this summer based in part on their poor ratings from a “value-added” analysis of scores – an increasingly popular and controversial method of rating teacher performance.

The Los Angeles Times recently published value-added ratings for 6,000 third-, fourth- and fifth-grade teachers based on students’ English and math test scores over seven years. The analysis looks at individual students’ past test performance and projects how they should do the next year. The difference between the child’s actual and projected results is the estimated “value” that the teacher added during the year.

Critics say this approach paints an unfair picture, and can be dependent on the kinds of students a teacher is assigned. But supporters say it is merely one factor that should be considered in evaluating teachers and identifying those who need training and help.

How should this information be used?

What are the strengths and pitfalls of this kind of measurement?

If it has flaws, can it be improved and made into a worthwhile tool?

To Nap or Not to Nap

A recent Times article, ”No Time for Downtime,” chronicled a side effect of habitual digital multitasking: people whose brains are constantly stimulated in this way forfeit the downtime that might improve their ability to learn, remember information, and come up with new ideas.

Some researchers say that one solution to this bombardment is to encourage the practice of napping — whether at school or at work or at home.

Should people be encouraged — by their doctors, employers, teachers — to take short naps during the day? Would people be more productive if they did?

George Frey/Bloomberg NewsHome construction at the Split Rock development in St. George, Utah, in May.

How has the collapse of the housing market changed people’s attitudes toward homeownership and their expectations for how they will live? Is the yearning for a McMansion on the edge of a corn field really dead?

In his column on Monday, David Brooks said that when the economy tanked, the “great age of headroom” — supersized houses being the main example — came to an end. “The oversized now looks slightly ridiculous,” he writes, and “social norms have since changed.”

Some urban planners and housing market analysts say that demographic trends back up that thesis: the housing landscape that emerges from the recession, they say, will be driven not only by older empty nesters who don’t like to drive at night anymore but also by Generation Y, the millennials who grew up in supersized houses in far-flung suburbs and who want to live differently, at least as long as they are childless. But historians and other experts on sprawl are not so sure.

What will the housing landscape be, if and when the market recovers from the recession?

What should government’s role be in promoting where and how Americans live?

Los Angeles is a big city. There are millions of people here. But thousands of people have no home.

They are homeless people.

 They live on the sidewalks. They sleep on the sidewalks. They are called street people. They don’t have cars. They have shopping carts. They fill the carts with their belongings. They put their extra clothes into the carts. They put their blankets into the carts.

Many homeless people live downtown. They live near the newspaper building. They live near the courthouse. They live near fancy condos. They have no money. They sit on the sidewalk all day.

 People walk by them. They ask people for money. People say they don’t have any money.

 There are missions downtown. These missions feed homeless people. They give them free lunches. They feed them every day. Some missions have beds.

 Homeless people sleep in these beds. But there are more homeless people than beds. There are not enough beds for the homeless people.

 So most homeless people sleep on the sidewalk. They sleep next to their shopping carts.

http://www.rong-chang.com/ne/es/es113.htm

            April Gariepy, 30, wheeled her bike beneath the white tent on Saturday afternoon looking for a wire basket she could attach to her handlebars. A moment later, Sharika Barrow, 17, approached, gazed at the shelves of books, clothing and other items displayed beneath the tent, then wondered aloud what sort of place she was visiting.

            “It’s a free store,” Ms. Gariepy replied, having made that determination herself just a few moments earlier.

            After browsing, the two emerged from beneath the tent without selecting anything but both said they would probably return.

            “I just came from the Brooklyn Flea,” Ms. Gariepy, said. “This is kind of like the same thing, but everything at the flea is higher priced.”

            For six weeks, a group of people have been engaged in an unusual project in Bedford-Stuyvesant that they are calling the Brooklyn Free Store, where everything is available for the taking and nothing is for sale.

            The name of the store is painted on a purple banner hanging from a chain link fence fronting a bare dirt lot on Walworth Street, near De Kalb Avenue. Behind the fence a blue plastic tarp is stretched over a white tent, covering an array of items stacked atop sheets of weathered plywood.

            A handwritten sign reads “Take what you want. Share what you think others may enjoy (not limited to material items).”

            There were cans of green beans and a pair of used brown wingtips beneath the tarp on Saturday, along with a used toaster oven, a flashlight and a galvanized metal bucket.

            There were books by such disparate writers as Plato (“The Republic”) and Tina Brown (“The Diana Chronicles,” which details the life and times of the former Princess of Wales).

            And there were dozens of items of clothing, including a brown fur coat and matching hat.

            Organizers of the store said it was intended to demonstrate the feasibility of recycling and to offer an alternative to mainstream capitalism. It has no owners or customers, only participants, say the people who started it. Because everything there is free, the store has no official hours and it is never locked.

            “New York is world renowned for having the best garbage,” said Myles Emery, 34, an organizer of the store. “There could be free stores everywhere.”

            Most of the items in the store are donated and a few of them are gleaned from a wealth of serviceable objects that are discarded on the streets each day. The number and nature of the items beneath the tarp vary, organizers said, adding that people have dropped off a digital camera, an electric stove and a TiVo with a recording capacity of 40 hours.

            Some of those who started the Free Store in early July had also played a role in operating an earlier incarnation, which was run out of a storefront in Williamsburg from 1999 until 2005. Both stores drew inspiration from the original Diggers, a group of agrarian utopians in 17th-century England, as well as from another group that adopted the same name more than 40 years ago and opened storefronts in San Francisco and in New York where items were dropped off and picked up without any money changing hands.

            About two dozen people stopped by the Walworth Street store over the course of four hours on Saturday. Some merely looked. Krissa Henderson, 25, from Bushwick, took some gardening books. Gregory Coleman, 54, from Bedford-Stuyvesant, left with wool socks.

            Others arrived to drop things off. Caryn Prescott, 41, donated some clothes and cosmetics, and Eddie Ballard, 34, from Crown Heights, who came across the store by chance, contributed a recyclable tote bag he happened to have with him, mainly out of a sense of admiration for the project.

            “There is something about the communal aspect of this place that appeals to me,” Mr. Ballard said. “I felt like I wanted to give something just to be a part of it.”

1. Does this sound cool to you? Or do you think they just have a lot of junk there?

Write down the new words in SENTENCES:

Some of these words have different meanings that are dependent upon the entire phrase:

Write their definitions:

Take out

Take with

Take it along

Take it (road)

Drop

Drop by

Play

Play with

Play around

Stop

Pick

Pick off

Pick off

Come

Come by

More Phrasal verbs

1. ASK OUT – I’m going to ask her out.

2. BACK UP – The senator backed up the President’s economic plan.

            – BACK OFF – Jenny told her friend Sally to back off when she tried to steal Jenny’s boyfriend.

- In what other situation would you tell someone to back off?

3. BLOW OUT – He blew out the match after lighting the stove.

            – The light blew out.

4. BLOW UP – The war plane fired a missile that blew up the bridge.

            – Jenny blew up at Sally when she found out that Sally was a liar and had already slept with her boyfriend!
Who have you blown up at in the past?

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5. BREAK IN – 1. Before you feel comfortable in your new shoes, you have to break them in.

How else can we use “break in?”

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6. BREAK OFF – The U.S. broke off relations with Cuba in the 1960’s.

Have you ever had to break off a relationship with someone?

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7. BREAK UP – Break up the chocolate in small pieces.

How else do we use this word?

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8. BRING ABOUT – Economic problems brought about the devaluation of the Brazilian real

9. BRING FORWARD – The meeting has been rescheduled for an earlier time. They decided to bring it forward one week.

- Please bring forward the evidence you have for your case.

10. BRING IN – Please bring in all your paperwork so we can finish the hiring process.

11. BRING UPON. You brought these problems upon yourself.

# BRING UP – 1. Parents are responsible for bringing up their children.

-         He brought up an interesting subject in the meeting.

Use Bring up in 3 different ways in your own sentences below.

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12. BRUSH OFF – The Pentagon brushes off criminal complaint against Rumsfeld

13. BURN DOWN – The fire burned down the house in a short time.

 14. BURN UP – We burned up all of the wood in the fireplace.

            – It’s so hot out here I’m burning up!!

15. CALL OFF – I’m going to call off this date because I think this guy is creepy.

Have you ever called something off? A meeting? A date? A vacation?

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16. CALL UP – I’m going to call up my man tonight.

# CALM DOWN – They’re having an argument. Let’s calm them down. 

# CARRY OUT – The manager has an assistant to carry out general tasks like typing and answering the telephone.

            – Carry this tv out of my room, my arms are too weak.

# CHECK OUT – Where did you get this information? I’ll check it out

           http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/16/nyregion/16free.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=In%20Brooklyn%20Store,%20Everything%20Is%20Always%20100%%20Off&st=cse

The buyout marks the largest leveraged acquisition of a fast-food chain ever, and the second for Burger King in the last eight years.

The whopper-maker’s possible new owner, 3G Capital, is backed by a number of wealthy Brazilians, like Jorge Paulo Lemann, Marcel Telles and Carlos Alberto Sicupira who plan to expand Burger King’s foothold internationally, especially in Latin America and Asia.

Burger King, often abbreviated as BK, is a global chain of hamburger fast food restaurants headquartered in unincorporated Miami-Dade County, Florida, United States.

The company began as a franchise restaurant chain, based in Jacksonville, Florida in 1953, named Insta-Burger King. After the company ran into financial difficulties in 1955, its two Miami-based franchisees,David Edgerton and James McLamore, purchased the company and rechristened it Burger King. Since that time, the company has used several variations of franchising to expand its operations. Burger King Holdings Corporation is the parent company of Burger King; in the United States it operates under the Burger King Brands title while internationally it operates under the Burger King Corporation banner.

3G Capital Management LLC is a global value-oriented investment company that seeks to invest in a concentrated portfolio of high-quality publicly-traded businesses. The firm’s objective is to deliver above-average capital appreciation to its clients over the long-term while maintaining below-average risk profile. To accomplish this objective 3G Capital Management LLC pursues the strategy of investing in equities of well-managed fundamentally solid companies that are trading at a substantial discount to their intrinsic (private market) value.

The deal is the largest leveraged buyout of a fast-food chain ever, according to the market researcher CapitalIQ, and the second for Burger King in the last eight years.

3G Capital decided upon Burger King as a potential investment several months ago and began a series of friendly discussions with the fast-food chain’s management.

3G managing partner Alexandre Behring said that the iconic name of Burger King, its strong franchise network and exciting product offerings were perfectly suited for the Brazilian firm’s business thrust.

However, analysts were quick to note that the deal was forged amidst the continuing sales declines of Burger King in North America where the company draws almost 70 percent of its overall revenues.

Just last week, the company issued a gloomy projection that sales would continue to suffer at the start of the new fiscal year as it cited that instability in the prices of wheat and beef could greatly impact its first half results.

Burger King is expected to receive $24 per share for a total of $3.26 billion from 3G under the deal, registering a 46 percent premium from its share values prior to the takeover talks, though the company’s stocks had spiked to a high of $22.06 in April and even settled to $23.59 following the announcement of the deal.

Both companies said that the deal would be finalized by the fourth quarter of 2010 with 3G first set to start its tender by September 17 and in between, Burger King could still exercise its right to entertain rival offers until October 12.

Burger King was bought in 2002 by TPG Capital, Bain Capital and Goldman Sachs but it went public again in 2006 while its probable new owner, 3G Capital, is mainly investing on consumer-focused firms.

Questions.

1. What is a fast-food restaurant? Do you know of any restaurants like this in Brazil?
2. What is the economic impact of this buy over? your opinion.
3. Do you think the Brazilian company will do a better job at managing Burger King? Why? Why not?

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/03/business/global/03burger.html?_r=1&src=busln

http://www.3gcapital.com/index.php

BILL GATES' SPEECH TO MT. WHITNEY HIGH SCHOOL in Visalia, California.

Love him or hate him, he sure hits the nail on the head with this!

To anyone with kids of any age, here's some advice. Bill Gates recently gave a speech at a High School about 11 things they did not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

Rule 1: Life is not fair -- get used to it!

Rule 2: The world won't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping -- they called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you are. So before you save the rain forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. Do that on your own time.

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

NOTE;

Whether the above strikes you as a clever, much-needed dose of realism for today’s youth or an unnecessarily vituperative browbeating, one thing you ought to be aware of is that Microsoft chairman Bill Gates neither wrote the words nor delivered them in a speech to high school students or anyone else. As happens with alarming frequency online, a text written by one person came to be falsely attributed to another and due to endless repetition the attribution stuck and became accepted as fact.

The text itself a pared-down version of an op-ed piece that appeared in the San Diego Union-Tribune on September 19, 1996. It was written by Charles J. Sykes, best known as the author of “Dumbing Down Our Kids: Why American Children Feel Good about Themselves, but Can’t Read, Write, or Add.” Drastically edited by person(s) unknown, it began making the email rounds under Bill Gates’ name in February 2000 and is still, far more often attributed to Gates than to Sykes — which is unfortunate, but, like the man said: Life isn’t fair; get used to it.

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl_bill_gates_speech.htm

Companies large and small continue to look for ways to promote their products and services during this tough economic recession. Even larger, national firms simply can’t afford to sink big bucks into marketing and PR these days. With diminishing marketing budgets and fewer resources, many companies are instead turning to guerrilla marketing to get their message out.

What is guerrilla marketing exactly? The concept was created and defined in 1984 by Jay Conrad Levinson, an accomplished former advertising executive responsible for helping to create brand icons like the Marlboro Man, Tony the Tiger and the Jolly Green Giant.

The goal of guerrilla marketing, whether it’s done on or off line, is to create unique, low-cost, thought-provoking concepts that catch a consumer off-guard, generating buzz and quickly going viral as a result.

Guerrilla marketing doesn’t revolve around tried and true techniques and strategies,” Levinson said. “Instead, it focuses on catching a consumer’s attention by staging PR stunts and encounters with a brand in public places, giving away products on the street, and using digital technology, social media and the Internet to engage the consumer and ensure a memorable brand experience.”

Examples of guerrilla marketing, some more memorable than others, are everywhere. In 2007, frugal furniture manufacturer IKEA staged a five-day guerrilla marketing campaign in New York City by giving makeovers to bus stops around Manhattan. Each bus stop was transformed into an IKEA furnished “room,” giving people a comfortable place to sit while they waited for the bus.

The company also placed IKEA dog bowls on the street for thirsty dogs and placed colorful pillows on park benches, encouraging people to take a load off. IKEA looped video of the makeovers on their website, which quickly went viral.

“For that campaign, IKEA was able to showcase how their products can make people’s lives easier,” Levinson said. “If you’ve got a product, think of creative ways to show consumers why what you’re selling will make their lives better.”
In 2008, Burger King employed street teams to drop wallets in major cities around the United States. When would-be Good Samaritans picked up the wallets, they found real dollar bills, coupons and free gift cards.

“This is guerrilla marketing at its best,” said Levinson. “The Burger King wallets were eye-catching and when they were opened by consumers, what they found inside inspired them to go to the restaurants. It also made for great word-of-mouth as consumers told others about the wallet they found in the street that day.”

But small-business owners beware: Guerrilla marketing can go horribly wrong if not executed properly. On January 31, 2007, magnetic light displays placed in and around Boston were mistaken for explosive devices. Several subway stations and a portion of Interstate 93 were closed as police were called in to remove and destroy the devices.

The suspicious objects turned out to be ads depicting characters from the animated television series Aqua Teen Hunger Force on Cartoon Network, owned by Turner Broadcasting. Two men were arrested as a result of the botched stunt and a slew of bad press attacking the company followed.

“If you’re going to use guerrilla marketing techniques, you’ve got to do it in a way that isn’t going to land you and your company in hot water,” Levinson said.

Questions:

• What do you think of this type of marketing?
• What about your company. Does it practice guerrilla marketing? Why?Why not?

link;

http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/08/23/1785466_p2/10-crucial-guerrilla-marketing.html