Tuesday, January 28, 2020

My Trip to Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island Essay Example for Free

My Trip to Mackinaw City and Mackinac Island Essay This tourist location is nationally known. Thousands of people a year come to Mackinaw City to enjoy the view of Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. They also come to drive across the five mile long Mackinaw Bridge. It is a small town with hotels on every street. As I first arrived into Mackinaw City I noticed the Mackinaw Bridge far off in the distance. The colors of the bridge were a pale peach color with a hint of pale yellow. The bridge was always visible from any part in Mackinaw City because of how big it was and how tall it stood. As I looked around I saw hundreds of hotels surrounding the roads. Going down the road hundreds of people were walking to places whether it was to go to get ice cream or to go to a small grocery store. Hotels were lined up on the shore of Lake Huron. Luckily, we were staying at one of those hotels. The people there were very nice and courteous. As we walked into our hotel room, which was on the third floor, the light from outside shined through the balcony doors. I walked out on the balcony and on my left you could see the Mackinaw Bridge clear as day and on he right you could see all the ferries headed to Mackinaw Island. After we got settled in we headed down to the beach. The water was freezing cold but it was still fun because every time a ferry passed by huge waves of water would travel up to the shore and crash into it. I was excited because the next morning we got to take a ferry under the Mackinaw Bridge and to Mackinaw Island. The ferry went fast and there was a lot of wind which made it colder than it actually was but it was still fun! As we got further away from Mackinaw City the more you see of it. It was a beautiful sight. As the ferry got closer to Mackinaw Island you could see more and more people walking around the island. There were no cars at all, all there was, was trolleys being pulled around by horses. Entering the island you notice the buildings are very historic and old. There were a ton of hills. The island is like one big circle. A small beach area was on the island and in the distance you could see the Mackinaw Bridge. As the sun was shining down on the island it make the lake glisten and it made it bluer than it would be if it was cloudy. The streets were filled with people riding bikes and getting on the trolleys. While you were on the island you could walk up a bunch of stairs up to Fort Mackinac. It is a historical landmark where the attack of 1812 happened. As you walk around Fort Mackinac you see a group of people reenacting the historical event that happened there. Being that far up on a hill, you could see all of Mackinaw Island. The sun made everything shine brighter. Going here was very relaxing and you werent worried about anything. It was like all that weight got lifted off your shoulders and you were free to have fun and do what made this a very memorable vacation for me, which I will never forget.

Monday, January 20, 2020

Analysis of the First Paragraph in Porter’s Old Mortality :: Porter’s Old Mortality

Analysis of the First Paragraph in Porter’s Old Mortality First, I would like to make some broad generalizations about Katherine Anne Porter’s stories. The selections of stories that I have read could be considered stories about transition, passage from an old world to a new. There is a prolific amount of life and death imagery related to changes from slavery to freedom, aristocracy to middle-class, and birth to death. Her stories contain characters from several generations and the narratives move through out this multi-generational consciousness. The stories are as much about antitheses as the move from tradition to modernity or new ideas/ideals. The narrative perspectives illustrate the chasm between old and young/old and new. I believe the opening text of â€Å"Old Mortality† illustrates both the conflicting views of different generations/values and ideals as well as the attempt to understand and resolve each other’s opposite. The first paragraph gives the reader a description of Aunt Amy. It is difficult to distinguish who the narrator of the text is at this particular point. It is neither Miranda or Maria nor the Grandmother. It would appear to be an omniscient narrator of no relation to the characters. Yet, the narrator displays the affect of both the young girls’ feelings and thoughts about Aunt Amy’s picture as well as the Grandmother’s perception of Amy. While the first sentence is mostly objective description, the second sentence is full of the affectation of a subjective point of view. Aunt Amy is described as wearing a â€Å"white collar [that] rose from the neck of her tightly buttoned black basque, and round white cuffs set off lazy hands with dimples in them, lying at ease in the folds of her flounced skirt.† Words like â€Å"tightly,† â€Å"lazy,† and â€Å"ease† seem to describe what would be considered the traditional concept of the Southern woman. The wealthy Southern female is conservative, pure, fragile, peaceful, and delicate. These descriptive words could be viewed as an alignment with the traditional Southern view of women; therefore Amy is â€Å"beautiful and charming† in the eyes of the Grandmother and â€Å"every older person† and â€Å"everyone who had known her.† However, within those same words there appears the rather opposite yet still highly subjective view of t he young girls who are attempting to reconcile the new values and ideas of the present with the old traditions of the past. The words â€Å"tightly,† â€Å"lazy,† and â€Å"ease† could be seen from the young girls perspective as negative descriptions suggesting boundaries, confinement, limitations, and exclusion.

Sunday, January 12, 2020

Microcredit In Bangladesh

Microcredit programs have provided a hugely positive impact on third world and developing nations where employment opportunities are limited due to the collapsed and limited economies of these countries. What microcredit programs entail is the issuance of small loans to individuals who would not normally qualify for a loan because their lack of employment and collateral assets make them poor candidates in the eyes of financial institutions. Microcredit loans look past the risk involved regarding the issuance of the loan and provide initial venture capital to impoverished people start a small business. Of all the countries where microloans have proven successful, it would be the country of Bangladesh. Throughout its history, Bangladesh has suffered tremendously from a variety of maladies that have lead to its current economic depression. Under British colonial rule, the population suffered massive famines; and in the 1970’s a series of natural disasters lead to even further economic despair. Today, Bangladesh currently suffers from a severe overpopulation situation that has further pushed economic disaster. Because of its severe depression, Bangladesh was essentially the trial location to test of the feasibility of microcredit loans. Organizations such as Grameen Bank have special programs to provide charitable loans to Bangladesh and the bank has documented the proof that these loans are successful. According to Grameen Bank: Lasting peace can not be achieved unless large population groups find  ways in which to break out of poverty. Micro-credit is one such means. Development from below also serves to advance democracy and human rights†¦.. Every single individual on earth has both the potential and the right to live a decent life. Across cultures and civilizations, Yunus  and Grameen Bank have shown that even the poorest of the poor can  work to bring about their own development. Microcredit programs have proven successful as a means of providing underprivileged people with an opportunity to rise out of a disadvantaged position. In fact, these programs have been so successful that many banks have started to reconsider the people of Bangladesh as â€Å"high risk† candidates for loans. That is, because the microloans have proved successful, there is a belief on many bank’s part that money lent to the people will return (with interest) when the borrower launches a successful business. The Microcredit Summit Campaign details a popular success story: With a gift of 10,000 CFA ($US 16) in 1994 from her father, [Yama Laye] set up a small table to sell essentials such as tea, sugar, salt, matches and sweets by the roadside. The profit she made never exceeded 500 CFA ( $.80) per day. Almost all her profits were spent on the purchase of essential food for her husband and her six-year-old child. Yes, all it took was a mere $16 to set in motion the ability for a family to be able to purchase the essential items needed for survival, a purchases that would not have been possible in the absence of the $16 grant. If anything, the microcredit loans have shown that there is always hope and there is always an answer, provided people work in concert together to find sane, sensible, effective means of solving a problem. In a way, Microcredit programs are a unique mix of financial philanthropy and human rights and it is a unique mix that has repeatedly been proven as successful. Works Cited Microcredit Summit Campaign. (2005) Results Educational Fund. 22 October 2006. URL http://www.microcreditsummit.org/newsletter/ borrower-Yama.html What is Microcredit? (January 2003) Muhammad Yunus. 22 October 2003. URL http://www.grameen-info.org/mcredit/index.html Â