Reflection Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words - 27

Reflection - Essay Example She was objectified and deemed only good for her physical features. A trend that has been a vice in all generations. Our music nowadays is full of explicit content. Songs describing women in a graphic and vile manner has filled our airwaves. What is even more distressiing is that women seem to enjoy this negative attention thus encouraging the men. Sara Baartman same as most Khoi-San women was well rounded with large buttocks, large breasts and an elongated labia. One can understand that the typical African woman in those days was a sight to behold but beauty should be admired and not ridiculed. We are all fearfilly and wonderfully made and in the image of God. His work should not be the subject of mockery and ridicule but we should simply marvel at it and be in complete awe. It is important to ask ourselves why men rarely are the subject of such acts of exploitation and abuse. Sara Baartman was born in South Africa and even while there she lived as a slave to a Dutch farmer in Cape Town. Sara was then promised great wealth if she moved to England Africa was by then referred to as the black continent mostly because its inhabitants were black. Even while she was living in her motherland she was still being subjected to racial discrimination as she worked as a slave, a role mainly played by Africans who were seen as the inferior race. It was unheard of that a white would be a black man’s slave. While in Europe, racial discrimination was at its peak at the time and Sara felt its full brunt. To the Europeans she was simply a weird specimen that was to be observed to staisfy their curiosity. No one amongst them ever made an attempt to learn about the Hottentot Venus a a person. Did she have a sense of humour? Was she temperamental? Was she intelligent? Very few attempts if any were made to learn more about her innerself. The curiosity was on her extraordinary physical features. But you have to wonder, because the

Future Municipal Financial Viability in Canada Essay

Future Municipal Financial Viability in Canada - Essay Example Definitely, I feel that municipal financial viability is an issue since improper tabling of policies may result to a negative business effect. For instance, the direct impact on Small, Medium, and Micro Enterprises by municipality policies on property valuation, user charge collection, and collection of levies makes businesses end up bearing not only the intended costs, which in this case are actual payment of services to a municipality, but also the unintended costs, which include effort and time required for tax administration. To add on policies pertaining to revenue, expenditure-related policies may also affect finances generated by businesses in a municipality. This, as a result, may lead to a positive or negative impact on SMMEs through regulation of supply chain management, and preferred procurement as well as credit control. Additionally, there are other challenges facing developing countries in the commonwealth in local government revenue terms. These include weak revenue ba se for local government leading to weak central government revenue base and lack of a municipal’s own revenue sources, which brings up inappropriate composition of revenues, especially balancing between grants and own revenue resources. Further, the way they interact and autonomous revenues where strong central control is posed on local government revenues is a challenge as well. Municipalities have several responsibilities. First, they have the function to ensure urban and town planning, and regulate use of land and building construction. Moreover, they must ensure economic and social development planning, fire services, ensuring supply of water for domestic, industrial and commercial purposes. A municipality relies heavily on revenues generated through taxation and user charges/fees. It too heavily depends on transfers from central government and/or contribution from donors. These factors will significantly determine the future municipal financial viability in Canada (Sanct on and Young, 2009). Some of the strategies, which should be employed to ensure proper municipal financial viability, are as follows. First, the intergovernmental fiscal transfers’ reform program should be implemented. These reforms focus on simplifying and rationalizing transfers to municipalities and introducing a period of allocation of these transfers to stabilize municipal budgeting processes by improving predictability. Second is transparency, which opens access to information about how municipal finances are managed will give a clear outlook to every citizen allowing no room for misuse. Third, the program of budget reform which greatly focuses on improving allocation of resource planning and management. Further, having accountable decision-makers who can accept responsibility for their own actions and using contestability as a competition tool to achieve money value. It is essential to come up with a municipal support program to provide technical assistance to municipa lities in financial management areas. Bringing up new, legislated and refined national policies aimed at improving the flexibility of the legal framework within a municipality resulting to improved leadership, management and accountability in municipal governments could play a key role. Still revenue enhancement program nationally coordinated and aiming at assist municipalities with revenue