How will this affect you as a future teacher and being able to integrate faith, learning, and work?

/in /by

College of Education Dean,( Dr. Critchfield, )shares more about the mission of the EDU-330 course and vision for classroom teachers as global thinkers. After viewing the Dean’s message, describe how your own faith, spiritual outcomes, and cultural background taught you about respecting others or valuing individual differences. How will this affect you as a future teacher and being able to integrate faith, learning, and work? Choose a classmate’s post and respond. If your classmate was a student in your classroom, how would you advocate for equity and social justice through multicultural education for this student? (Please cite with Apa and have about 150 words)

Gilbert’s Entrepreneurial Family Case Study

/in /by

The writing assignment will demonstrate writing across the curriculum by responding to the following topic in a 4 to 5 page paper. Your paper must include at least five external scholarly journal references. You are also required to create a PowerPoint presentation containing at least five slides with audio. A Word file as been added to the assignment to show you how to add audio to your PPT slides. A separate Assignment link is available to submit the PPT slide. In Additional Resources, there are APA 6th ed. guidelines to assist you in formatting your paper.

 

Topic: Chapter 11 Case Study: The Gilberts: An Entrepreneurial Family

 

 

CASE STUDY: THE GILBERTS: AN ENTREPRENEURIAL FAMILY

© 2008 Philip J. Adelman and Alan M. Marks

Harvey and Deanne Gilbert were both born and raised in Kansas City, Missouri.

Harvey attended the University of Missouri in Kansas City, majoring in pre-med, and

then completed medical school at the University of Missouri in Columbia. Deanne

graduated from the University of Missouri with a degree in elementary education and

began her teaching career in Raytown, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City. During

Harvey’s junior year in college, Harvey and Deanne were married. While Harvey attended

medical school, Deanne taught fifth grade in Centralia, Missouri. Following

graduation from medical school, Harvey was commissioned as a lieutenant in the U.S.

Navy and completed his internship at the Oakland Naval Hospital. He spent 1 year in

Vietnam as a physician on a troop transport ship. On returning from Vietnam, he was

stationed in Stockton and San Diego, California. While stationed in Stockton, Deanne

taught sixth grade at Colonial Heights Elementary School.

Harvey had spent 4 years as a physician in the Navy. After leaving the Navy, he

became a resident in radiation oncology at Mt. Zion Hospital in San Francisco. After

Deanne and Harvey had their first child, Jill, Deanne gave up teaching to be a fulltime

stay-at-home mom to Jill and her younger brother, Jason. Harvey continued his

studies, doing research at Stanford, and completed his training in radiation oncology at

UCLA in 1973.

Harvey began practice at the Kaiser Hospital in Los Angeles and worked for

them for about 9 years. The Gilberts firmly believed in the time value of money

and the power of investing. They saved a percentage of their income from the time

they were married. They always paid themselves first and invested their money,

primarily in stock and mutual funds, which they selected carefully. They always

invested the maximum in retirement accounts and fully funded their 401(k) and

self-directed IRA.

Then Harvey entered private practice in a community hospital in Los Angeles for

another 10 years as director of a regional cancer center. When Jill entered college at

USC, Deanne determined that student housing in the area was rundown and not very

safe, so she decided to buy a piece of property that Jill could live in while attending the

university. She worked with several brokers until she found a piece of property that

she really liked. When her friend Diane Futterman, another physician’s wife, found out

what she was doing, she wanted to work with Deanne and they formed a Subchapter

S corporation to purchase affordable rental housing for students in the USC area.

They bought houses and remodeled them to meet their own high standards; furnished

them; installed security systems, including bars on the windows and security doors; and

rented to students. In the first year, they bought one house; the next year, they bought

three more houses. Deanne and Diane invested primarily in student housing and then

gradually expanded into apartments and rental real estate. The work in the corporation

was divided very carefully, with both partners doing what they were most interested

in and did best. Diane specialized in contracts and the legal aspects of the business,

whereas Deanne specialized in the physical maintenance, decorating, and security ofthe units. They prided themselves in offering safe, affordable, and secure housing for

students and tenants in the Southern California area.

By 1992, both of the Gilberts’ children had settled in the San Francisco area.

Deanne and Harvey moved to northern California in 1993 to take advantage of an

opportunity for Harvey to practice in the Modesto area. In 1997, Harvey and Deanne

decided to go out on their own and build a cancer center in Lodi, California, where

Deanne became the office manager and Harvey was the primary physician and medical

director. The decision was made early on to stay in the specialty of radiation

oncology with their services being used by several health plans, HMOs, and other

physician groups. Between 1997 and 2004, the center grew from 4 employees to 12.

In 2004, the radiation facility was sold to a national radiation oncology organization

with Harvey continuing as the practicing physician and Deanne as the manager. When

the center was sold, all the original investors were paid off.

Harvey and Deanne were retained by the purchasing entity to continue their

roles as medical director and office manager. The acquisition agreement also provided

them with the opportunity to participate in profit sharing, and as such, they have continued

to participate in the revenues of the practice.

Over his years in practice, Harvey was continually asked for recommendations

regarding long-term care and assisted living; thus the idea of the Gilbert Guide was

developed and founded by the entire family. By this time, their daughter Jill, a graduate

of USC with more than 10 years of experience in the film industry, and their son

Jason, a graduate of UCLA with many years of experience in the area of strategic planning,

operations, finance, and product management, were looking for a new venture.

Gilbert Guide, Inc. was developed to address the dire need for comprehensive and

practical consumer guides for long-term care planning in every major metropolitan

area in the United States. Founded by the Gilbert family—Jill, Jason, Deanne, and

Harvey—the Gilbert Guide has grown from its inception in 2003 as a groundbreaking

guidebook setting new standards and criteria for assessing the quality of the many types

of long-term care available to become the biggest senior care site on the Web, offering

an even wider range of resources to help families and caregivers in their time of

senior care need. This is truly an entrepreneurial family venture, with their daughter

Jill as president and CEO, their son Jason as COO and CFO, and Harvey as medical

and policies director. The Gilbert Guide can be found on the Internet at http://www.

gilbertguide.com.

1. How much of the Gilbert’s success do you attribute to their persistence?

2. How important do you believe the Gilbert’s investments and understanding

of time value of money contributed to their overall success?

The assignment will be evaluated according to the following Writing Assignment Grading Criteria:

Guidelines Writing Assignment Grading Criteria
 

Content (60%)

 ·     Response demonstrate a clear understanding of the key elements of assignment questions.

·     Responses thoroughly cover the elements in a substantive manner.

·     Response demonstrates critical thinking and analysis.

·     Content is complete and accurate.

·     Introduction and conclusion provides adequate information on the given topic.
 

Organization (20%)

 ·     Paper structure is clear and easy to follow.

·     Ideas flow in a logical sequence.

·     Introduction provides a sound introduction to the topic and previews major points.

·     Paragraph transitions are logical and support the flow of thought throughout the paper.

·     The conclusion thoroughly reviews the major points.
 

Writing Style, Grammar,

 

APA Format (20%)

 ·     Sentences are well constructed, complete, clear, and concise.

·     Words used are specific and unambiguous.

·     The tone is appropriate to the content and assignment.

·     Grammar, spelling and punctuation are correct.

·     APA guidelines (6th edition) are followed, such as headers, citations, references, etc.

·     Effective use of aids, such as sections, summaries, table of contents, indices, and appendices (if appropriate)

 

Attitude Of Millennial Generation Towards Cryptocurrency

/in /by

Chapter 4 Data Analysis

In this study, it is mentioned that the advancement and rise of cryptocurrency would place the world economy a different position. The rate of adoption has made the cryptocurrency to rule the world, and certainly has the potential to become the de facto standard of currency in the future. While the case certainly points to proper regulation and jurisdictional control as noted from the reviews of literatures, which has already pointed out with regards to the standing research questions. But, the fact of the matter remains that any research is its own entity, and while literature may point out the correctness and the possibility of multiple train of thoughts with a unifying theme or concept, it is still a part of the entire process.

This chapter takes under consideration a primary form of research to collect authentic data from the general public in order to connect to the themes alluded in the literature review comprehensively. These takeaways have essentially shaped the very foundation of the tool used to collect primary data for this research through straightforward and consented interviews from people chosen on the basis of certain demographic needs and assignations. An overall format of the interview process shall be discussed, but is mentioned below for better scaling and understanding respectively.

· Awareness, knowledge and personal experience with cryptocurrency.

· Trust and possibility of investing one’s own finances to the system in any shape or form.

· Factors contributing to making the investment in cryptocurrency.

· Possibilities and Impact upon society as a whole.

Through these overall themes and takeaways covered, now comes the time about how exactly one could analyse the data obtained. One thing of note is that almost all information is more of a qualitative kind with open ended questions allowing a greater possibility of what can be answered and taken under due consideration. Quantitative data analysis would require data that would be intrinsically objective and simple to map, which is not the case in this scenario whatsoever. Therefore, the primary focus should be to implement more of a qualitative analysis, and judge in the accordance to the information obtained in the literature review.

4.1 Aim

The aim of the report is data analysing of a qualitative research, which involved an interview process of eight different individuals selected on the basis of them being the primary audience with whom the research is concerned: millennials. The kind of attitude and the reflection of the people, which is exhibited is mentioned in this part of the report, realistically traces some takeaways and themes established in the literature review to be the core aspects of the research. On such behaviour is exhibited by the investing of one’s own money, which might be taken in terms of behavioural attitudes. These are specifically captured in the interview process itself through explorative questions after the primary ones so that the data obtained is contextually founded on a rather strong premise. Therefore, people focus much more on the challenges and principles that usually go inside the process of decision-making, the researchers have tried to analyse in the interviews themselves what motivations could be behind them.

The factors that lead to the growth and development of the blockchain in light of all the regulations and the risks associated is reflective, and done through a considerable application of empathetic understanding. Millennials and cryptocurrencies have a seemingly deeper bond or connection with each other just like past generations have had with the inventions, themes and events of their own time. They were connected to each other on numerous technological factors that include different kind of innovations which are done in the past just like the steam engine and the car and the television and the gun. In future generations, this entire thing shall go through a big transformation. The objective of the study shall help in predicting how these kind of changes shall take place and what does it mean for both.

The question of the whole research are directly correlated with the themes that constituted a great deal of importance in the entire chapter for literature review. This is mainly done to represent the sociological structure of the population of this generation. The crash including finance and the market volatility has usually resulted in a lack of trust towards the institutions related to finance. The millennials constitute the largest population group at the moment, and significant leaps and consolidations they may will certainly have a lot of impact and consequence upon the future. The entire presentation of cryptocurrencies’ influence upon society remains to be seen at large. However, the interviews conducted in this very regard would be a probable indication, which need to be properly analysed through qualitative principles of deduction, interpretation, comparison and scaling. For better understanding and comprehension of the public, interviewee names are not mentioned in this chapter for obvious concerns about privacy, and keeping the focus solely upon the issue at hand. For this reason, alphabetical order of names should denote a mirroring alphabetical progression of the individuals being referred to here. Since there may be a lot of instances of direct quotations, referring to the alphabetical order of names would trace the actual interviewees in an efficient way.

4.2 Findings

In the case of effective and interview research, it is very important to effectively analyse all of the probable points of question that the researchers first had as primary motivators for research. Leading from that, effective confirmation of what the playing factors are there in this regard are explored and found out about in the literature review. Data analysis primarily focuses these aspects, and the findings section is most obviously demarcated and separate with this very point of view in mind. The case for both these divisions are presented in the previous sections of the chapters. As noted earlier, however, that the actual findings of the research process are intrinsically qualitative in nature. This brings forward questions about their accuracy and authentication with regards to their veracity. While cases are taken on an actual basis, the researchers have confirmative evidence for the data mentioned down below in the form of audio recordings. However, chances are taken in facilitating the proper understanding by the reading audience as much as possible in association with the accompanying texts.

Awareness, knowledge and experience with cryptocurrency

The first part of the survey are effectively done to collect data about the worldview of the millennials, and to have knowledge about their knowledge about the entire topic of cryptocurrency. In the first finding, there is little doubt that the youth have a pretty basic but correct knowledge even when their intimacy with the concept does not go beyond colloquialism. Although detailed knowledge is not necessary for using a technology, but their basic premise and probable application is all what is actually needed, which is shown in seven out of ten cases in the interview. So, critics who have called the technology a niche preference is not entirely true about it. At least, among the current generation who are just starting to take the leadership and other responsibiliti8es in their own lives across society, cryptocurrency is not out of their radar by any possible means, and if it presents a more affirmative state in the future, it has a very real chance of constituting a definitive need for prominence.

Only about half of them, however, has had any real experience in dealing with, or having any kind of transaction with cryptocurrency in the first place. There are a number of reasons as to why people seemingly why such a high percentage have no possible experience with cryptocurrency as a system and a technology. Sometimes the cryptocurrencies do not cater to the needs and wants of the millennial or the people. In terms of many, security, or the lack thereof, is a primary motivation for people who do not want anything to do with cryptocurrencies in their very own lives. The following sentiment from the participant A is certainly a highlight of this very feeling or stance.

A: Unfortunately, I don’t have much experience in using cryptocurrency because maybe I don’t trust online sources much sometimes…Well, its quiet risky as there are high chances of getting hacked or probably not getting what you are been promised.

The reasons provided for the unpredictable dynamics that the millennial social dynamic is certainly of major importance to this very end. While millennials tend to have a pretty accurate picture cut into their minds and outlook of life, they also verily consider the dangers and threats possessed by such an offering with magnanimously dangerous financial pitfalls involved. However, is that the case in earnest? After all, there could be a case to be made for those who have, in fact, first hand in regards to the cryptocurrency technology widely available in the market. Here is what responder B had to say about his own personal experience.

B: Well when I started investing in cryptocurrency it was like a mid of 2017 so at that time crypto was still new and it was one of the highly one of the highest revenue generating industry so that is what you know attracted to me and I started doing it that way.

As noted from the response, the individual had already been under the process of investing his very own finances in the technology, and seemed to be aware of the contemporary exigencies involved. This is at a time when the case for cryptocurrencies was at its most critical downswing. However, his belief also shined through with his responses with facts about cryptocurrency in general, and what it means for the people engaging in them in a proper way. For the responder, C, the case remained positive even under the same conditions as noted from the following response described.

C: Oh, Yes I did trade in Bitcoins when they were at a good pace in rising. Bought it around 9000 USD. But I bought it in I mean another currency and not in Euros but another currency at 9000 USD and waited for a long to go up as they don’t rise in a very good pace and I sold off as the graph started falling. I sold off at round about 11,000/- to 12000/- USD so yes, I have a good experience in cryptocurrency trading. When they were at their peak.

So, in this case, it might seem that the scenario of cryptocurrency is certainly applicable for such individuals in the generation who are immediately attracted to the entire predicament. As noted from the responses, the people who have experience dealing withcryptocurrency are fully confirmed about all the dangers and risks involved. But, it would seem that their foresight is telling them to go with it anyways because of future projections of possibilities in store. All in all, it seems that the very reason for which half of the audience is attracted towards cryptocurrency also constitutes the sole factor in play as to why the other half shies away from it. The issues of trust and confidence, especially in terms of financial actions, is a very complicated issue for millennials. But, the primary motivator why so many are actually attracted towards it, is because of its threatening nature to the real world financial scenario, which is seemingly quite bleak and dangerous at the same time.

Trust and Possibility of Investing into cryptocurrency

Investment in stocks and bonds are said to be interesting as it is greatly dependent upon the level of trust and confidence exhibited by those actually participating in it. One should be aware of how to play cards well in terms of a large number of factors as presented by such a widespread and uniform mode of technology as cryptocurrency. If the probable limitations is not corrected or alternated in the most affirmative fashion then the value of the cryptocurrency as it has happened with the first and most realistic realization of the technology, known as Bitcoin, experienced unpredictable fluctuations in terms of their values in the market, and what their actual worth finally came to be. It comes as no surprise that cryptocurrency can be treated as a traditional stock and bounds, which is notable why the traditional financial institutions have been so reticent about this revolutionary technology in the past. There are a lot of knowledge that must be properly understood, and not all of them are going to be positively affirming across every instance of a transaction. In terms of actual cases, it would seem that a great deal of erosion, which is a fifty-fifty case, as noted before, among the millennials at the very least. Most, however, seem to come from an affluent position, and are expecting some definitive changes in future. These changes should lead to a better sense of regulating and controlling what is basically an entire format of currency in itself. However, incidental input from the interviews does require mentioning for proper showcasing of this very feeling. The response from A is certainly encapsulating to this very end, and it is quite evident from her response.

A: I find investing in stocks or bonds quiet interesting. It’s like you should know which proper company you should invest and keeping in mind economic and financial status. It is almost a gamble. You should know how to play your cards well.

Her responses show a frank clarity of the basic consideration that any member of the general public should display, especially with regards to the entire process of stock of investing itself. If the particular point of the investment shows something positive in terms of the future, which essentially means growth and capitalization, there is no reason why one should not do it. She was also able to display the difference between investing in bonds and stocks, and cryptocurrency by and large; while fully completing reasons as to why the case rests with the latter. This feeling was also captured by interviewee E who has an extended experience of investing into the technology close to six or seven years from the time this interview was conducted.

E: I have been doing Cryptocurrency for quite some time. Six to seven years already. I know about Bitcoins and their market. I know the technology behind it. I invest in coins like Ripo I have Ethereum, Bitcoins. I could tell it in details and knowledge….Yea, I wouldn’t invest if the market is rising, I would be selling if the market is rising….Well, it’s market supply and demand, at this point right now, till late in December 2017. It was obviously like 20000 the rate was hyped and once people started selling the market come down. It’s trading psychology how people think about the market, some people say it’s well trading, a lot of well-traders would lead the coin. Just a number of different factors.

It is quite evident that the individual not only has an extensive history with cryptocurrency, but also with investing in general. The input showed as to what the exact differences are, but also predicts how everything is guided by market principles, and the demands of need and supply. Better regulation and control is at the forefront of the considerations, and it also gives insights about how the entire situation and option about personal investment could be extremely profitable on one hand, while also fraught with danger on the other. It essentially shows why so many people would be extremely unwilling to invest just because of the psychology involved in the investing game, which resembles very much like gambling, at least on the part of who is spending. The case for many rests with the fact the unregulated nature of what the technology holds for the society is a great factor. However, in the future if proper measures are, in fact, taken, these individuals would not have a problem about investing upon such a promising offer. This is quite effectively noted by interviewee G who has not a whole lot of information about the entire concept.

G: I may try to – but I just feel that it is very volatile and it is unregulated so it depends upon the risk appetite of every person. I am a little more conservative when it comes to finances and because cryptocurrency is not regulated anywhere in the world I will not be very much interested in investing in cryptocurrency in the future as well.

The case for investing upon the rising industry of cryptocurrency is certainly an important factor, which will probably guide the possibilities and extent of its intrusion to the social fabric. However, several issues in regards to legitimacy and regulation is currently limiting it in terms of fully appealing to a larger audience. Proper steps and unique ideas are required, just like they have been for the invention of technology in question.

Factors contributing to making the investment in cryptocurrency

Cryptocurrency has attracted a lot of people for the purpose of financial investment. Some of the major and popular examples of the cryptocurrency are Bitcoin, verge and litecoin etc. The internet is flooded with news about people who have gained extreme successes in this field, and many investors are really very interested in entering the world of cryptocurrency but there are also some risks related to it in this field. The dynamics involving the exchange rate can only be determined by the supply and demand policies. However, a great deal of transactions through cryptocurrency has also denoted critical and significant influence with respect to security and authentication. The development of cryptocurrency market is usually conditioned by all the oppositions on the traditional foundations which involves economy. Wanting the independence, as well as securities and other facilitations must be cheaply implemented and assured all across the board. The transactions usually lay foundations that are solid for the development for the market of cryptocurrency. This is going to improve certain spheres and fields of life only for the users that are ordinary. This also helps in making the business far more transparent and efficient at the same time. If it is stabilized finally, then it may finally give rise to a new economic scenario. This is what responder D had to say about his experiences with personal investing into the cryptocurrency technology.

D: Today’s generation, their investing in Bitcoin and all because it all depends upon the popularity of the product in that generation the popularity of the property and goldand now it’s the Bitcoin and this you can say of derivative products.So it all depends on the popularity of the product and its risk and reward factor.

There are a number of factors which contribute in the growth of the cryptocurrency, one involves investing in the Bitcoin. The popularity of Bitcoin is tantamount to the fact that popularity with regards to investment is dependent upon the clashing factors of advantages and risks involved, as well as their realization in terms of scalability. Before Bitcoin, however, there were popular avenues for investment in such non-transitory assets like property or gold. Investment involves the risks and the rewards associated with it, and not just the popularity of Bitcoin, but it nevertheless possesses some form of influence regardless of this very fact.Cryptocurrency is essential to the millennial generation at large because when it is made, all kinds of transactions are stored in what is generally touted as publicly accessible ledger. All possible identities related to the owners of the every unit is usually encrypted for ensuring the legal status of keeping the records. It is because the currency is holistically decentralized, and ownership does not translate to irreparable forms of control and change. This certain doubt, and the indecisive factors resulting from it is greatly apparent from the response mentioned down below.

G:I think it was a sudden exposure or over publicity or a or I could say a sudden marketing of Bitcoins essentially which is lead to lot of people like wanting to invest in cryptocurrency which led to an increase in demand and thereby, because of that there was a sudden increase in the demand and the market value of Bitcoin was way above the normal average. So it was more of my understanding a more of marketing gimmick and just an increased awareness. Only after bitcoins market value went a lot up, people started realizing or they started understanding what cryptocurrency is.

His response to the factors contributing to the investment includes the popularity, as well as the sudden start of marketing in the Bitcoins, which helped people investing to the cryptocurrency in the first place. A lot of demands has led to the increase in the value of the market to an unprecedented extent, and has motivated even more people to invest. The demand is usually above the average thing. The awareness is increased. However, because of the fact that so much of its stock is dependent squarely upon the factors of rises and falls in the market, its value has become intrinsically uneven even to a standard extent. This makes the entire predicament vulnerable to extreme fluctuations in terms of price and value, which can greatly affect the perception in terms of getting into investment drastically. Without a proper approach to control and regularizing the system, the constantly increase in size also may indicate the situation to be even more unpredictable- a factor that is generally considered to be a detriment by all investors.

Possibilities and Impact upon society as a whole

Cryptocurrencies have dominated the headlines in the past couple of years because of the rise of it. More and more people are adopting the ways and methods of transferring the value and which is resulting in the markets getting disrupted. The people has adopted to the technology named blockchain and the products that are innovative, and are builtupon it. The assets which are digital and the value-exchange mechanisms that are growing towards the change that is dramatic and which involves the methods of transactions in the daily lives of the people. The entire financial industry is usually disrupted which led to the tremendous growth of the cryptocurrencies but this did not only affect this industry only. The media has a huge impact in contributing to the growth and popularity of the cryptocurrency. Cryptocurrencies are having huge impacts all over the world and is very popular in certain countries as well. Media coverage is also one of the major reasons behind the spread of the popularity of the bitcoins. This fact is quite evident by the response of individual E as stated below, which specifically assesses the social impact that cryptocurrencies have had over the world at large.

E: Social impact… it naturally won the way the people behave with it in our generation people are becoming more and more cashless and payments through cryptocurrency, another social impact would say change in the way new generation sees investment in a different way….Cryptocurrency also has a negative social impact I don’t know if you are aware the Crypto boom so that definitely had a negative social impact. So you know a lot of people invested in Cryptocurrency and Bitcoins was also used for payment of the black market. Buying drugs and etc. So that side I think is other side of the impact and the negative side.

Her responses are quite clear in this field. Social impact also means the possibilities related to it. In this generation which seems to be quite deprived in the financial fields. People, who are deprived of much cash flow, rely hugely on the bitcoins which cryptocurrency. Social impact mean show the public has accepted it or perceived it. The way people are seeing the impact which results in the change in the new generation. According to the response of the above person, there are negative impacts of this cryptocurrency as well. Crypto boom is considered to be a negative impact on the society. Though a lot of people has invested in cryptocurrency and also bitcoins, which are even associated with the payment in the black market which is a dangerous impact. The purchase of drugs also has a negative impact on the society. Hence it is inferred that there are not only positive impact but also negative impact on the society.

C: Oh. That’s the beauty of it. There is no government intervention, there is no bank needed which means we in future if we use this technology we won’t be dependant on them. Given the number of years of democracy, our government political views Right now it’s not best, very hard to trust them for obvious reasons and once we don’t need them would be more okay to more easily be able to do business as that will be more dependant on you. And the party which is interested and there is no third party no exchange, there will be no government intervention as is mostly it is positive but the risky part is people would be then able to trade sinful goods what I mean like drugs, weapons they would find a way to trade that as well and since it is all digital chance of tax fraud in that so someone is using cryptocurrency to trade in sinful goods could be tracked down easily. They have found the ways to do that and if any change in that technology is that you are asking changes in that system could be tracked down easily.

The possibilities and the impacts which are mentioned by the above speaker are also taken to consideration. The impact has beauty and transparency attached to it. Banks is not needed, so the idea of dependency is not coming into picture. There is no third party involved and because of this there is so much of good impacts on the society. Along with the positive parts, negative traits are also involved which result in cryptocurrency being a risky measure and the society should know the demerits attached to it. Right from the start, cryptocurrency or Bitcoin has been involved with the more parties and places that are shunned by the general online public. This is known as the ‘dark net’, a part of the internet where regulations and security protocols do not work. In such cases, one can even claim that cryptocurrency has evoked the largest negative fallout imaginable just because people have come to connect these very aspects with the overlying issue of trading in cryptocurrency. Speaking about social impact, it would seem that any cryptocurrency inventions has to specifically evoke an overwhelmingly positive feel and outcome for it to have a decidedly appeal to the public in general. It shall remain to be considered as a niche appeal format of currency until then, and as long as that perception exists, the viewpoint of having a large scaled positive impact would continue to be as it is at present.

Caste Discrimination

/in /by

The Persistence of Caste: The Khairlanji Murders and India’s Hidden Apartheid

1. Cover

2. Preface

3. Introduc�on Caste: A Historical Outline

4. Beyond Varna: Caste in the 21st Century

5. The Poli�cal Economy of Atroci�es: The Shaping of the Macabre Spectacle

6. An�-Atrocity Law:Mi�ga�on and its Malcontents

7. The Khairlanji Murders:Genealogy and A�ermath

8. Post-Khairlanji:A Chronicle of Repression

9. Mass Media:Massive Prejudice

10. Atroci�es by the State:Neoliberalism, Naxalism and Dalits

11. Exploding Myths:Globaliza�on, Civil Society and the Bahujan

12. Chapter 10

 

 

 

Preface Anand Teltumbde’s analysis of the public, ritualistic massacre of a dalit

family in 21st century India exposes the gangrenous heart of our society. It contextualizes the massacre and describes the manner in which the social, political and state machinery, the police, the mass media and the judiciary all collude to first create the climate for such bestiality, and then cover it up. This is not a book about the last days of relict feudalism, but a book

about what modernity means in India. It discusses one of the most important issues in contemporary India.

— A rundhati R oy , author of The God of Small Things

This book is finally the perfect demonstration that the caste system of India is the best tool to perpetuate divisions among the popular classes to the benefit of the rulers, thus annihilating in fact the efficiency of their

struggles against exploitation and oppression. Capitalist modernization is not gradually reducing that reality but on the opposite aggravating its

violence. This pattern of modernization permits segments of the peasant shudras to accede to better conditions through the over-exploitation of the

dalits. The Indian Left must face this major challenge. It must have the courage to move into struggles for the complete abolition of caste system, no less. This is the prerequisite for the eventual emerging of a united front of the exploited classes, the very first condition for the coming to reality of any authentic popular democratic alternative for social progress. This book provides a wonderful analysis towards this understanding. I would

hope to see it read by every Indian activist and also foreigners who do not see how odious the caste system is.

— Samir Amin , Director of Third World Forum, Dakar, Senegal

Teltumbde has created a solid corpus of work that bears witness to the degradation of Indian democracy, and to the capacity of Indian socialism.

India’s revolution… is sharpened on the anvil of Teltumbde’s thoughts.

— Vijay Prashad , author of The Darker Nations: A People’s History of the Third World

 

 

 

Introduction Caste: A Historical Outline Turn in any direction you like, caste is the monster that crosses your path.

You cannot have political reform, you cannot have economic reform, unless you kill this monster.

B.R. Ambedkar

India’s caste system has always bewildered the world. Much has been written about it; more still awaits the writing. Many scholars have tried to fathom its origins but have ultimately contributed only further conjecture. Many have tried to define it but have failed to capture its complexity. For most, it was a relic of Indian feudalism which, it was thought, would disappear once capitalism was established. Writing in 1853, the year the railways were introduced in India, Karl Marx prophesied that the new mechanized transportation system would catalyse the collapse of caste. Today, India has the world’s second largest railway network and has created, since Independence, a sizeable infrastructure for capitalist industry. But all that could not kill caste, which proved more than capable of adjusting to the new reality. After Independence in 1947, rural India was transformed through a modernizing project that included, among other things, land reforms and the capital-intensive technologies of the Green Revolution in agriculture. Capitalist production relations came to the villages and seemed to shake the caste structure to its roots – but caste survived nonetheless.

Since the mid-1980s, a now neoliberal India has taken remarkable strides towards globalizing its economy and, with an impressive recent growth record, has increasingly been projecting itself as an emerging superpower. The world is dazzled by its success. Caste was expected to fall away under pressure of the global order. That has not happened. On the contrary, it appears to have grown far more vicious, if caste atrocities are taken as a proxy measure.

Indeed, caste has showed an amazing resilience. It has survived feudalism, capitalist industrialization, a republican Constitution, and today, despite all denial, is well alive under neoliberal globalization.

 

 

Caste and the Indian Diaspora

In the globalized, transnational world of the twenty-first century, the need for an accurate understanding of this vicious institution can never be over- emphasized. A call for international recognition of caste as a racist violation of human rights has been addressed to the world community, not once but twice in the last decade – it went ignored in both the resolution adopted by the 2001 World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Related Intolerance held in Durban and in the outcome document of the Review Conference held in 2009. The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, declared in 2009 that ‘the time has come to eradicate the shameful concept of caste,’ and that ‘the international community should come together to support these efforts as it did when it helped put an end to apartheid.’ 1

It is such international pressure that led to the introduction of the Equality Bill in the UK parliament in March 2010, a bill that outlaws discrimination based on caste and is likely to become the first piece of legislation in the world to treat caste as an aspect of race. In 2009, the UK’s Anti Caste Discrimination Alliance (ACDA) conducted a study that showed how 58 percent of the 300 people surveyed had been discriminated against because of their caste, while 79 percent said they did not think the police would understand if they tried to report a caste-related ‘hate crime’. 2 However, the Indian government has always managed to successfully oppose the terming of caste-based discrimination as racism – this would perhaps have been different had there been a more widespread comprehension of the issues at stake.

Caste is neither so ‘country-specific’ nor, from a Western perspective, so distant an issue as may be thought. It has been carried far beyond the borders of the subcontinent with the spread of the Indian diaspora. 3 Wherever Indians have gone, it has followed them; wherever they have settled, caste has also established itself. Some scholars hold that it is Hinduism – an ‘ethnic religion’, unlike other major faiths – that is a key element in defining the Indian diaspora. 4 Arguably, this ‘key element’ can be discerned as caste, which other scholars unequivocally name as providing a more enduring marker of diaspora identity than religion. 5 The

 

 

important thing to note is that caste in the diaspora is not confined to intra-community relations alone; it notionally extends, in the minds of its practitioners, beyond their boundaries to incorporate the population native to their adoptive place of domicile.

The manifestation of caste within the diaspora depends upon the position occupied by the dispersed groups within the hierarchic caste continuum. Where dispersion happened at its lowest band, as in South Africa, Malaysia and other countries where those of Indian origin are largely descended from colonial indentured labour, caste manifests least as compared to places that received dispersion at higher strata. In South Africa or Malaysia, for example, caste identities are not dominant – among other reasons because their maintenance was of little value to the migrants to these places, drawn as they were from the lower ranks of the caste hierarchy. 6 That, however, did not prevent the small segment of higher caste migrants from keeping their distance from the ‘lowly’ labouring classes, diasporic as well as black. In East and West Africa, Indian trading castes, settled in these parts for over a century, have fastidiously preserved their caste existence, even to the extent of recreating the abominable practice of so-called untouchability – in the absence of actual ‘untouchables’ (or ‘dalits’ as they are prevalently called in India), 7 this degraded status has been accorded to the native black population. A similar development is observable in Europe, where, during the post- World War II reconstruction effort, many dalits migrated and settled as workers. In America and Canada, South Asian immigrants from both dalit and nondalit backgrounds mostly arrived in pursuit of higher education and settled later in modern professions; these segments are, by and large, more sophisticated than those in Africa and Europe, yet the problem of caste continues to manifest itself among them, even if in subtler terms.

Caste, Varna and Jati

The word ‘caste’ (from the Latin castus ) was loosely applied to the Hindu system of social stratification by the sixteenth-century Portuguese, India’s first modern European colonizers. Since casta in Portuguese means ‘pure’ or ‘chaste’, the word connoted the Portuguese understanding of the phenomenon as being akin to race, species or lineage, as they thought the

 

 

system was intended to preserve purity of blood. A more particularized view emerged with later European observers 8 who became aware that, while systems of social division have existed throughout history across the world, the form prevalent in India was not to be found anywhere else. 9

Caste, as such, is a form of social stratification involving a mode of hierarchically arranged, closed endogamous strata, membership to which is ascribed by descent and between which contact is restricted and mobility impossible. 10 The Indian word for caste is jati. When we refer to ‘caste’, we really speak of jati, although many tend to confuse it with varna , which refers to the basic ‘classes’, four in number, established in Hindu scripture. 11 The chaturvarna or four-varna system enshrined a hierarchical segmentation of society into the following primarily professional orders: brahmins (the priestly castes), kshatriyas (the warrior/fighting castes), vaishyas (the business/trading castes) and, at the lowest rung, shudras (the working classes: artisans, agriculturists, food gatherers, hunters, fisherfolk and the like). 12 While there are only four varnas as given in Hinduism, there are thousands of jatis. These may have evolved as subdivisions of particular varnas, but by the present day, they have developed characteristics very distinct from their originals.

Varna represents Hinduism’s hierarchical framework, but it is jati which really dictates the rules and regulations of life for the average Hindu. Each jati has its own special norms dictating permissible food, occupation, marriage, social interaction and so forth, and from each jati/caste come numbers of subcastes, making the whole system highly complicated. While the caste cluster within a varna easily admits the varna hierarchy, the castes within it contend among themselves for superiority, the more vigorously with those in their hierarchical vicinity. Perennial internal tensions paired with the jatis’ acceptance of their inferiority/superiority within the broad varna framework have lent the system its dynamism as well as its longevity.

The beginnings of the caste system are obscure and so is its evolution. There is a broad consensus, however, that it evolved through the varna system and reached its maturity between 600 and 200 Before Common Era. 13 Its laws were codified between 200 BCE and the second century CE

 

 

in the Manusmriti, or the Laws of Manu, ascribed to the mythological ancient lawgiver, Manu, who is credited with the creation of the Hindu social code. 14 Of the varnas, the brahmins occupied the highest place, being said to have materialized from the mouth of Brahman, the divine being. The origin of the kshatriyas and vaishyas was ascribed respectively to Brahman’s arms and thighs; shudras, the lowest of the order, were deemed to have sprung from his feet. Testifying to education’s primacy in ancient India (and to the system’s exploitative ingenuity), the three upper varnas were also given the name dwija , the twice-born, denoting the ‘second birth’ they were said to undergo at the upanayana ceremony, performed in childhood and marking their transition into the world of formal learning. This initiation, again, was the prerogative of only men. The ceremony and with it education were and are proscribed for shudras. Also debarred were the large numbers of people caste society excluded from its confines: its ‘outcastes’, those today called dalits.

An often-overlooked feature of caste society is that it did not actually include every member of a given population. No matter the despised position of those at the lowest end of the varna spectrum, to not find even such ‘inclusion’ was no blessing. Caste society did not cover India’s geographically isolated adivasis (its indigenous tribespeople, who lived in forests and in inaccessible mountain regions), and those who, though part of the economic system in terms of labour relationships, were excluded from all other interaction because they were ‘untouchable’ and even ‘unseeable’. Any contact with members of this group, even their sight, sometimes even their shadow, was held to be ritually polluting and abhorrent; elaborate purifications would be undertaken if such occurred.

To this group were assigned tasks such as the removal of waste (including human excrement from dry latrines), butchery, the flaying of animal carcasses for their hides, the making of footwear and the tending of funeral pyres – everything, in other words, that had to do with decay, death and the ‘unclean’. They lived segregated from the main population, on the fringes of villages and towns, and could not enter ‘pure’ environments such as schools or temples or go near public drinking water. These people were technically called the avarnas, i.e., those beyond the pale of the varna system (as contrasted with the savarnas, those within its fold),

 

 

although more derogatory epithets abounded. Later, as the various castes evolved, the avarnas remained ‘outcaste’. Their lives were, and in many places remain, wretched beyond description.

Classically, the system’s structure rested on a balance between the acquiescence of the non-privileged in the belief that they were fated to be oppressed and the conviction of the privileged that they had the right to be oppressive. The ideological power for this balancing is sourced from the Hindu religious and philosophical system through the twin doctrines of karma and dharma . These provided the justification for a person’s caste- assigned status by basing it on his or her karma (previous deeds, not only in this life, but, according to the doctrine of reincarnation, in previous ones as well), and held out the promise that if people observed their dharma (religious duty) by faithfully discharging their caste obligations, they would be born into a higher caste in their next birth. Another of the structure’s characteristics was its internal elasticity. It was not concerned with particular castes so long as they conformed to its own core logic. It could easily absorb a new group within a caste, create new castes and collapse or rearrange old ones. 15 This elasticity made it possible for caste society to survive upheavals in its history and effectively manage internal strain.

The commonplace understanding of the caste system as having held Indian society in fossilized form for over two millennia is therefore not quite correct. While it is accurate so far as the broad varna framework is concerned, the castes within this framework have been fluid. Many new castes were formed and many have disappeared; many split up and many merged with others over time in response to local political and economic demands. If caste society had not changed over the centuries, we would have found at least traces of today’s social structure in history. However, the fact is that it is so difficult from today’s perspective to comprehend the society of even a couple of centuries ago that to speak of there being no change in history is impossible.

Untouchability and the Constitution

The Indian Constitution abolished untouchability when it came into effect in 1950 and provided a fairly comprehensive scheme of positive

 

 

discrimination in favour of adivasis and dalits. Under it, these groups are recognized respectively as Scheduled Tribes (generally referred to by the acronym, STs) and Scheduled Castes (SCs). The terms derive from the enumeration of their communities in schedules prepared under the colonial India Act of 1935, 16 and were constitutionally adopted for the purpose of instituting protective and developmental measures in their favour. These included the policy of reservation, i.e., of keeping open a fixed percentage of openings in government-funded educational institutions and state employment only to disadvantaged groups. Reservation has had far-reaching impact, though not entirely or exclusively in the way envisioned (as we shall see in Chapter 2).