The Impact of Child Physical Abuse on Academic Achievement...

The Impact of Child Physical Abuse on Academic Achievement and Behavior In modern society, a child’s performance in school is considered an indicator of their abilities to create a successful future. Most children receive the love and support from their parents which contributes to adequate school performance. However, for children who are physically abused, school can add an incredible amount of pressure to an already stressful life. In regards to this paper, the term child physical abuse refers to the intentional acts of injury or harm to a person under the age of 18 by a parent or caregiver. These acts can be caused by and not limited to: hitting, slapping, kicking, stabbing, or burning. Krase (2011) mentions that educators and†¦show more content†¦Buckle et al. (2005) concluded that children experienced child physical abuse were at a great risk for physical health problems. In addition to this, physical abuse can lead to brain damage and mental retardation (p.1042). The risk of brain damage and retardation is astounding because not on ly would this affect a child’s school life, but it would also affect their life as a whole. A child in a mainstream class that suffers brain damage due to a physical abuse incident may be placed in a special education class after the incident. This could be detrimental to their academic success and mental health. Boden, Horwood, and Fergusson (2007) examined the correlation between the child physical abuse and the education achievements later in childhood. Boden et al. (2007) found that due to injuries sustained during the incidents of abuse, physically abused children had lowered reading ability, had lower IQ scores, and did not complete a higher level of education (1111). This study illuminates the fact that the physical abuse not only affects the child at the moment the abuse happens, but has long lasting negative consequences. 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Cafs Half Yearly Notes Free Essays

CAFS HALF YEARLY NOTES * Parenting Caring Becoming Parents and Carers: Parenting: The process of raising and nurturing children in a family Caring: The process of looking after the needs and wellbeing of another person due to their age, illness and/or disability Biological parents: The parent who has provided the genetic material, either sperm or ovum, to create a foetus. Pregnancy Planned Pregnancy: Planned pregnancies involve a strategic choice on when to parent * There are physical, emotional and economic impacts that result form this decision * A planned pregnancy is generally better for both the parents and child Unplanned Pregnancy: * May result from poor knowledge about contraception or the fertility cycle or failure with contraception methods * Become pregnant due to a consequence of tragic circumstances such as rape Assisted reproductive technologies: * In-vitro fertilisation (IVF) and gamete intra-fallopian transfer (GIFT) are examples of assisted reproductive technologies . This means assistance in terms of expertise and technology is used to aid conception. We will write a custom essay sample on Cafs Half Yearly Notes or any similar topic only for you Order Now Social Parents: Many individuals have parenting responsibilities towards a child with whom they do not share a genetic relationship. Adoption: * Adoption is the process by which legal responsibility of parenting of a child is given to a family or parent other than the biological parent. There are 3 types of adoption: 1. The child is already placed with prospective parents, such as a step-parent 2. Local adoption overseas adoption . Adoption of a child with special needs Legal Implications: * Adoption Act 2000 (NSW) Family Law Act 1975 (Commonwealth) * All legal rights and responsibilities are transferred from the birth parents to the adoptive parents * The change in parenting is permanent, so the birth parent loses all rights to the child. They may maintain the right to information and contact * The adoptive parents must be either married or in a de-facto relationship; or the step-parent must have lived with the child for 2 years or more Social Implications: * Society’s changing attitudes has resulted in fewer adoptions, due to greater acceptance of single mothers the use of the contraceptive pill * Decision of telling the child that he or she is adopted can be distressing to adoptive parents * The child must overcome feelings of rejection by birth parents * Adoptive child verses the biological child acceptance if the parents have other children Fostering: Fostering provides an alternative living arrangement for children whose parents are temporarily unable to care for them in their family * The caregivers are volunteers who are paid a fortnightly allowance to help them meet the needs of the child * Foster care can range from a few days to a few years and includes: * Temporary care, * Respite care * Pre-adoptive foster care * Long term care * A child must be put into foster care if: * They are considered to be at risk of harm Their basic physical and emotional needs are not being met * There may be risk of ab use or exposure to domestic violence Legal Implications: * Foster care is regulated by legislation, such as Children and Young Persons (Care and Protection) Act 1998 (NSW) * Any person fostering children who is not related to them must have a licence to foster. In NSW a license is issued by the Department of Community Services about various parenting issues * The foster carer make medical decisions or take legal proceedings on behalf of the child Social Implications: Carers must encourage contact with the young persons birth family and accept that he or she will most likely return to their birth family * 30% of foster children have been abused in their biological family * Problems between biological family and the foster child may force the foster family to take a restraining order Step Parenting: * When a man or woman married or forms a de-facto relationship with a partner, who has a child or children from previous relationships, they become a step-parent * New family members need to be accepted, roles and responsibilities must be shared Legal Implications: A step parent has no legal responsibility towards the child * A step-parent who has acted as parent to a child for a long time, and who is now being divorced from the biological parent, may have visitation rights if judge decides that is best for the child’s interests * If a child is adopted by a step parent, rights and inheritance from biological parents are lost Social Implications: Community perception often holds that an intact original nuclear family is superior to any variety of blended family; a stepfamily may be seen as ‘deficient’ form of a nuclear family * Conflict can occur between the child and step parent, primary relationships and responsibilities become a blur * Partners may have different visions of family life and parenting styles that may need to be discussed * Poor relationships with step parents are recognised as a significant factor in causing young people to leave home, with unresolved family issues Surrogacy: * An arrangement made between a couple who cannot have a baby and a woman who gets pregnant on the couples behalf. The child is handed to the couple after delivery * A woman may need a surrogate If she is: * Infertile * Suffers from a serious medical condition * Uncontrollable diabetes * Cardiomyopathy * Moderate renal failure Surrogacy often means IVF treatment as the surrogate mother may use donor ova or sperm or the partners own egg sperm * The infertile couple must apply to adopt the child to be listed on the birth certificate as the child’s legal parents * The court must get consent from the surrogate mother to give up parental rights Legal Implications: * Surrogacy is legally a ‘grey’ area in NSW, it is neither prohibited or encouraged * Very specific criteria needs to be established for both parties based on a honour agreement that is not legally binding * Payment cannot be made Social Implications: * The surrogate mother may have an ongoing attachment to the baby after giving birth * If the surrogate mother goes back on the agreement, there may be great disappointment between the parties * Community accepted may be mixed, as surrogacy isn’t a widely accepted practice * Surrogacy is very costly and may affect the parents economically * Social parents may change their mind and leave the baby with the surrogate mother who may not have the adequate resources or family support Carer Relationships: Carers are people who look after the needs and wellbeing of another person due to their age, illness and/or disability. Carers may be paid or unpaid. Many circumstances may be planned and lead to a person requiring care, these included: * A planned pregnancy * Adoption or fostering * Grand parenting * Looking after an aged parent Some circumstances may be unplanned and are unexpected and thus afford fewer preparations: * An unplanned pregnancy * Grand parenting * Health problems * Accident * Birth abnormalities When the caring role has been planned, decision-making will most likely be difficult-especially during initial stages * Both planned and unplanned care may require the primary carer to reallocate household roles Voluntary Carers: * Voluntary carers are unpaid, they are regularly family members (parents, partners, siblings, friends or children) * Carers may undertake the caring role for a few hours a week or all day everyday * Some carers are eligible for government benefits * Voluntary carers are often women, with 71% of primary carers 54% of all carers in Australia being women Paid Carers: Paid carers undertake the role of caring as a form of employment and therefore receive financial payment * Types of paid carers can include: * Family day carer * Nanny * Doctor * Foster carer * Teacher * Nurse * Palliative carer Managing Parenting and Caring Responsibilities: * With effective management strategies, a person is more likely to be able to achieve goals * Physical, social, emotional and economic changes will need to occur during preparations for becoming a parent or carer Physical preparations: Biological Parenting: * Optimise physical health before conception and during pregnancy * Maintain a healthy, balanced diet and develop awareness of special needs during pregnancy * No use of alcohol or tobacco and other drugs * Participate in regular exercise * Attend regular paternal courses to learn about physical and emotional needs during pregnancy and birth * Attend regular appointments with a general practitioner to monitor the baby’s growth and development and undertake ultra sounds and other tests Social Parenting: The physical preparations for social parenting are often similar to the first 4 points of biological parenting Caring: * Participate in regular exercise to maintain optimum physical emotional health * Maintain a healthy, balanced diet to ensure physical needs are met as caring can place a strain on wellbeing * Practise safe lifting skills to assist with the mobility needs of the dependent * Practise how to give an injection or use an oxygen mask * Investig ate and install physical aids in the home, such as railings and ramps Social preparations: Biological Parenting: * Attend prenatal classes to meet others in the same situation- these friendships may continue after delivery * Investigate child friendly social activities in the local area * Locate parenting groups in the community * Organise baby free-time with partner Social Parenting: * Develop relationships with other parents, such as through child’s sport and recreational activities * Locate parenting groups in the local community * Arrange child-free time with partner to develop and maintain own relationship Caring: * Enlist the support of family members Identify necessary support groups, such as carers of people with dementia or cancer * Be aware of support groups, that cater for cultural and language differences * Let close friends know about the situation Emotional preparations: Biological Parenting: * Discuss moods and emotions with partner, family friends * Investigate and practice relationship techniques Social Parenting: * Discuss the concerns, fears and thoughts with the partner and other parents to identify with others and gain insight into possible actions and solutions * Recognise if help is required from a formal or informal support network Caring: Enlist in a support group to deal with varied emotions * Make friends with others in a similar situation-often carers lose touch with family and friends * Grieve for changed personal situation but be aware of potential for depression and sources of help Economic preparations: Biological Parenting: * Plan for financial management; prepare and stick to a budget * Analyse and adjust finances, such as mortgage payments * Investigate maternity and paternity leave and provisions in the workplace * Investigate payments from Centrelink Social Parenting: * These actions are similar to the ones above Caring: Plan for financial management; prepare and stick to a budget * Analyse and adjust finances, such as mortgage payments * Investigate leave provisions in the workplace Factors influencing re source management in the caring relationship: * The values and goals of parents and carers within relationships, such as families, provide the incentive for management and will therefore impact decision-making * Age, skills capabilities and special needs of the dependent will influence both the resources identified by the parent or the carer and the strategies selected to effectively manage their parenting or caring role Age: The age and maturity of the dependent will determine the level of care required * If a child has a disability or illness, it may not be possible to leave them on their own at any time * An aged person may not require care just because they are elderly Skills Capabilities: * Once the dependent has developed a variety of personal skills and capabilities, it will be possible for he or she to contribute to the relationship and management resources * Skills may need to be interchanged or substituted Special Needs: * Special needs can refer to those of the dependent or the carer and can affect what services are needed either temporarily or permanent * Modifications mays be needed for housing in the form of ramps and railings * The parent may have the special needs and the young person is responsible to act as a carer * Services such as Centrelink payments may be required Resources: * The resources that require management and prioritisation most often are time, energy, finance and housing. Access to services such as support networks is vital * Negotiating and using these resources can lead to difficulties in the caring relationship Time: * The personal care of dependents, such as feeding and washing * Developing close relationships * Communicating and sharing activities * Personal pursuits (transporting children to sports training) Energy: * Feeding, changing and playing with infants * Transporting adolescents to leisure activities Shopping and providing house maintenance for an a ged parent * Feeding and lifting a child, such as one with a cerebral palsy Finance: * Finance is required to access many other resources required for parenting and caring such as material goods and formal support networks * Circumstances of the dependent relationship will determine the demands on finances Housing: * Suitable housing is required to meet the needs of the dependent and carer * The family home may require modification Other housing choices can include a hostel or nursing home Access to Services: * Educational: schools and pre schools * Health: doctors, hospitals, early childhood centres * Homecare assistance: Meals on Wheels, home care * Recreational: libraries, sporting clubs and dance groups * Financial: Centrelink * Housing: Department of Housing, nursing homes and hostels, Ronald McDonald houses * Transport: community transport, maxi-taxis * Spiritual: church, synagogues, mosques Management strategies: The actions that will assist when the management of a specific situation is required * Strategies may be utilised together to achieve the desired goal: * Management decisions involve the use of resources to achieve goals * The two most important factors that affect decision-making are the values of the family and the resources available to them * Values determine that goals will be set and resources determine how well the goals will be achieved * Management strategies that are a starting point for action as the need to be applied to situations that are in need of managing: * Identifying values Setting and prioritising goals * Establishing standards * Identifying resources and using them wisely * Maintaining a positive attitude * Encouraging cooperation * Aiming to have flexible attitudes when necessary * Sharing role allocation * Having effective time management * Developing sound planning procedures * Establishing routines * Using a problem-solving approach Recognising ‘change’ not whether it is good or bad Parenting and caring re lationships: Roles in Parenting and caring: * A variety of people play a role of parenting and caring within society. This role is associated with meeting the needs and wellbeing of the individual in care, as well as modelling behaviour that is acceptable to the wider society. Individuals and groups who adopt roles: Parents: Biological and social parents play an important role, the importance of providing love, support and encouragement as well as providing physical needs * Overtime the parenting role is increasingly shared between parents compared to the past as the female taking responsibility of the care of the child at home * Non- custodial parent: the one who may have the child visit on the weekends and holidays parents (divorced/separated parents) Grandparents: * Child-rearing: passing on family traditions and culture * Children develop special affection for and interest in their grandparents * Increase emotional wellbeing, self-esteem, self-confidence * Grandparents may meet the needs of family members by assisting in childcare for their grandchildren * Valuable in providing economic, social emotional support Relatives, including siblings: Members form extended family can provide support to parents by being alternative role models meaning for sporting activities or leisure * Many adolescents take on responsibility for younger siblings baby sitting, transport, cooking Teachers, including childcare staff: * Physical needs providing play activities and encouraging a balanced diet * Intellectual needs teaching skills and knowledge * Social needs providing encouragement and support in learning to work ith others, following school rules and resolving conflict * Cultural needs teaching children about the culture in which the way th ey live, history traditions * Emotional needs developing self-esteem of students through recognition and rewards, as well as teaching resilience and coping skills * Spiritual needs some schools a particular faith is taught and students have the opportunity for prayer, worship and fellowship Paid Carers: The most convenient and expensive form of childcare is a nanny, the child can develop a bond with parents are constantly absent * Carers provide assistance to the aged, chronically ill or disabled Homecare helping with cooking and housework Significant others: * Doctor can provide immunisation and treat illnesses within children or assist with mental health issues * Neighbours and friends may provide practical assistance or occasional care for children if parent needs to run an errand * Social workers improve the socio-emotional wellbeing of a child or dependent by explaining the situation. The assist with the child, dependent, parent or carer to develop strategies to deal with hard situations Significance of gender roles and parenting: * The mothers roles was originally: nurturing and feeding while the father was the provider and the disciplinarian * It has dramatically changed. E. g. fathers can receive paternity leave, to allow the bonding process with his child to begin earlier. Men also participate in more tasks at home to make sure the household functions correctly * Discipline and financial providers are seen as more shared responsibilities in contemporary families Factors influencing parenting and caring relationships: Age: * Age of parents and carers can influence the relationships developed with those in their care * With age comes experience * Older adults may have carefully planned for parenting to occur at a time when finances and relationships are stable * Size of age gap can influence the relationship when the age gap is smaller, closer relationships can develop Culture and religion: Many people are born into a culture which beliefs and customs are passed from one generation to another * Persons culture can be significant influence on nurturing and the development of parenting and caring relationships as sharing culture and belief can be a source of bonding * In the multicultural society conflict can erupt in relationships when cultural norms are different to one another * Adolescence and early adulthood can be a time when people are searching for identity, with religious exploration being a part of the process * Carers need to respect the religion and values of their dependents observant of their faith Education: * The form of education may very from formal schooling to specific courses offered at TAFE. An educated parent or carer is more likely to be aware of support services available and have the confidence to use them * If a carer is formally qualified or has significant experience in caring, the dependent will usually have a higher quality of care offered Gender: * Because of socialisation, people of different genders behave distinctly and this carries through parenting and caring roles * A child’s concept of ‘female’ and ‘male’ develops from observing parents behaviour * Demonstrating flexibility in household responsibilities linked to gender roles, reflects in less conflict and greater cooperation * Expectations of parents hold for their children will influence their interaction with them and the other gender * In caring professions such as nursing, teaching and social welf are majority are females Previous experience and upbringing: If a person comes from a positive family life and experiences this will be repeated for their own children feel more secure and valued and leading to stronger bonds * Negative experiences may lead the parent to reconsider the values from their own experience and upbringing Socioeconomic Status: * Is influenced by the income received, level of education the occupation of the parents * Some parents with high incomes are forced to work longer hours with less involvement in their children’s lives * A lower socioeconomic family enjoys low-cost recreational activities, such as bowling or camping opportunities for effective bonding and communication Media: The media pervades all aspects of life in our society, individuals are exposed to behaviours and opinions that are expressed on television, radio internet * Parenting and caring relationships may emulate interactions in relationships in the media without even realising that they are doing so * Internet websites such as Facebook and MySpace can interrupt with ‘family time’ Style of parenting: Authoritarian: * characterises a demanding and inflexible parent who usually has a preconceived goal to achieve * allow children to put little input into decisions that may affect them * this can result in the child being resentful and distant * ‘My way or the highway’ Democratic: * this style invites all family members to have a say in decisions made * children feel appreciated, especially when their ideas form part of the solution How to cite Cafs Half Yearly Notes, Essay examples

Essay Outline on Music Example For Students

Essay Outline on Music People do not choose to be influenced by music, as music is scientifically influential to the human brain. Alternate, Ion. The formative function of musical interactions within social identity. Geopolitics, History, and International Relations 3. 1 (201 1): 215+. Academic Ennoble. Web. 17 Jan. 2013. We turn to music, we need it, because of its ability to move us, to induce feelings and moods, states of mind. Burses notes that the human brain is uniquely configured to process music, and that music processing prepares, stimulates, and organizes the brain in beneficial ways. Miniaturist, David (2010), Music as Speech: A First Amendment Category unto Itself, Federal Communications Law Journal 62(3): 680. Music is an independent form of expression that functions on many levels. Music is not only a crucial tool in maintaining and developing individual autonomy, but also a force in societal and cultural change. Music is a platform from which to challenge normative cultural standards as w ell as a platform for individuals to sample and choose various musical expressions in pursuit of self-realization. In a way, the ability of music to foster individual privacy and community participation simultaneously sakes it a particularly democratic mode of speech. Ill. Music does not only have a mental draw, it also has an emotional draw which causes people to act passionately about the ideas that are instilled in them through music. Letann., Ion. The Social Functions Of Music: Articulating The Dynamic Relation Between Music And Society. Contemporary Readings In Law Social Justice 1. 2 (2009): 141-145. Academic Search Complete. Web. 14 Jan. 2013 Hobby claims that philosophy and music inspired many of Mans creations: his works include harmonically rich and chromatically ambiguous music. Hoecakes maintains that Invasions contemplates musics relationship both to language and to the moment: music is a universal language that animates the spirit indefinitely. Turing divides sound recording into high fidelity and studio audio art. Adorn points out Essay Outline on Music By Assimilate Leland, J. Rap And Race. (Cover Story). Newsweek 119. 26 (1992): 46. Masterful premier. Web. 16 Jan. 2013. With Bill Clinton attacking Sister Goulash, and Dan Equally Joining the police of America in condemning Ice-T, pop music careered into national politics last week. And it did so as a stand-in for an inconvenient topic that had been looming over the making all along: race. If the politicians werent ready to get dirty on the subject, the music sure was. While plain talk about race and our real racial divisions has been absent from the campaign, it has become the rhetorical center of pop music.

Rome and Han Ccot free essay sample

Rome and Han China are different in the ways how their slaves were treated. Overall, they were ultimately more similar because of the importance of trade and family. Slaves in Ancient Rome were treated very harshly. They were put in gladiator fights to the death against fellow slaves and occasionally lions for the entertainment of the community, although it was against the law for a citizen to kill another citizen’s slave. Also, 10% of the populations of Rome were slaves, which means if one died, they could be easily replaced. In contrast, only 1% of Han China’s populations were slaves. They were much more valued and thus their owners treated them better. There were two kinds- Privately Owned and State Owned. These slaves could pay for freedom, or be freed by their master or the emperor. It was against the law to kill these slaves at all. Trade in Rome was thought to be beneath the occupation of landholding, although they continue to practice trade throughout Roman history. We will write a custom essay sample on Rome and Han Ccot or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The Senate was not allowed to participate in commerce because they were too prestigious to be affiliating with it. Similar to Han China, agriculture was a much better occupation than trade. Merchants, however wealthy, were looked down on because they looked like they could surpass social boundaries because of their riches. In Ancient Rome, loyalty to family and state was highly important. The nobles of Rome were constantly reminded to be aware of their fathers and grandfathers successes. We know this because the term pietas; meaning â€Å"dutifulness†; depicts these values. Also, we know of these the importance of family because typically at a Roman funeral, they would exhibit masks’ of their ancestors and their deeds. This regard to ancestors resembles that of Confucianism, which was highly practiced in Han China. The core of Confucianism was known as â€Å"filial piety†, meaning the respect and obedience that children owed their parents.

Free Essays on Cullturall Diversity

Free Essays on Cullturall Diversity Cultural Diversity By: Norm Pervis Doing Business in the Middle East Presently Bahrain, Egypt, Iraq, Iran, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen are the 14 nations in the Middle East. The majority of Middle Easterners share in common the Arab culture, language and religion. It is especially important to take note of the Islamic belief. "Islam means the act of giving one's self to God or Allah" (Harris the others are from other Gulf countries, Pakistan, Iran and India. Although English is widely understood, Arabic is the official language. Most Emirates, approximately 96%, are Sunni Muslims (the remaining 4% are considered Hindu), and their paramount vi...

Dolphin Facts

Dolphin Facts Dolphins (Odontoceti) are a group of 44 species of toothed whales or cetaceans. There are dolphins in every ocean on Earth, and there are freshwater species of dolphins that inhabit rivers in South Asian and South American. The largest dolphin species (the orca) grows to more than 30 feet long while the smallest, Hectors dolphin, is just 4.5 feet in length. Dolphins are well known for their intellect, their gregarious nature, and their acrobatic abilities. But there are many lesser-known qualities that make a dolphin a dolphin. Fast Facts: Dolphins Scientific Name: Odontoceti  Common Name: Dolphin (Note: This name refers to the group of 44 species classified as Odontoceti; each has its own scientific and common name.)Basic Animal Group:  MammalSize: 5 feet long to over 30 feet long, depending on the speciesWeight: Up to 6 tonsLifespan: Up to 60 years depending on the speciesDiet:  CarnivoreHabitat:  All oceans and some riversPopulation:  Varies per speciesConservation  Status:  Bottlenose dolphins are considered to be of Least Concern, while about 10 species of dolphins are listed as Severely Threatened.   Description Dolphins are small-toothed Cetaceans, a group of marine mammals that evolved from land mammals. They have developed numerous adaptations that make them well suited for life in water including a streamlined body, flippers, blowholes and a layer of blubber for insulation. Dolphins have curved beaks which means they appear to have permanent smiles. Dolphins evolved from land mammals whose legs were underneath their bodies. As a result, dolphins tails move up and down as they swim, whereas a fish’s tail moves from side to side. Dolphins, like all toothed whales, lack olfactory lobes and nerves. Because dolphins do not possess these anatomical features, they most likely have a poorly developed sense of smell. The snout of some oceanic dolphins is long and slender due to their elongated, prominent jaw bones. Within the dolphins elongated jaw bone sits numerous conical teeth (some species have as many as 130 teeth in each jaw). Species that have prominent beaks include, for example, Common Dolphin, Bottlenose Dolphin, Atlantic Humpbacked Dolphin, Tucuxi, Long-Snouted Spinner Dolphin, and numerous others. The forelimbs of a dolphin are anatomically equivalent to the forelimbs of other mammals (for example, they are analogous to arms in humans). But the bones within the forelimbs of dolphins have been shortened and made more rigid by supporting connective tissue. Pectoral flippers enable dolphins to steer and modulate their speed. The dorsal fin of a dolphin (located on the back of the dolphin) acts as a keel when the animal swims, giving the animal directional control and stability within the water. But not all dolphins have a dorsal fin. For example, the Northern Rightwhale Dolphins and the Southern Rightwhale Dolphins lack dorsal fins. Dolphins do not have prominent external ear openings. Their ear openings are small slits (located behind their eyes) which do not connect to the middle ear. Instead, scientists suggest that sound is conducted to the inner and middle ear by fat-lobes located within the lower jaw and by various bones within the skull. Tunatura/Getty Images Habitat and Distribution Dolphins live in all of the world’s seas and oceans; many inhabit coastal areas or areas with shallower water. While most dolphins prefer warmer tropical or temperate waters one species, the orca (sometimes called killer whale) lives in both the Arctic Ocean and the Antarctic Southern Ocean. Five dolphin species prefer fresh to salt water; these species inhabit rivers in South America and South Asia. Diet and Behavior Dolphins are carnivorous predators. They use their strong teeth to hold their prey, but then either swallow their prey whole tear it into small pieces. They are relatively light eaters; the bottlenose dolphin, for example, eats about 5 percent of its weight each day. Many species of dolphins migrate to find food. They consume a wide range of animals including fish, squid, crustaceans, shrimp, and octopus. The very large Orca dolphin may also eat marine mammals such as seals or marine birds such as penguins. Many dolphin species work as a group to herd or coral fish. They may also follow fishing vessels to enjoy the waste thrown overboard. Some species will also use their flukes to beat and stun their prey. Reproduction and Offspring Most dolphins become sexually mature at between 5 and 8 years old. Dolphins give birth to a single calf once every one to six years and then feed their babies milk through their nipples. Dolphin pregnancies range in length from 11 to 17 months. Location can make an impact on the gestation period. When a pregnant female is ready to deliver, she separates herself from the rest of the pod to a location near the waters surface. Dolphin calves are usually born tail first; at birth, calves are about 35–40 inches long and weigh between 23 and 65 pounds. The mother immediately brings her infant to the surface so it can breathe. Newborn calves look a bit different from their parents; they typically have dark skin with lighter bands which fade over time. Their fins are quite soft but harden very quickly. They can swim almost immediately, but do require the protection of the pod; in fact, young dolphins are typically nursed for the first two to three years of life and may stay with their mothers for up to eight years. Georgette Douwma/Getty Images   Species Dolphins are members of the order Cetacea, Suborder Odontoceti, Families Delphinidae, Iniidae, and Lipotidae. Within those families, there are 21 genera, 44 species, and several subspecies. The species of dolphins include: Genus: Delphinus Delphinus capensis (Long-beaked common dolphin)Delphinus delphis (Short-beaked common dolphin)Delphinus tropicalis. (Arabian common dolphin) Genus: Tursiops Tursiops truncatus (Common bottlenose dolphin)Tursiops aduncus (Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin)Tursiops australis (Burrunan dolphin) Genus: Lissodelphis Lisodelphis borealis (Northern right whale dolphin)Lssodelphis peronii (Southern right whale dolphin) Genus: Sotalia Sotalia fluviatilis (Tucuxi)Sotalia guianensis (Guiana dolphin) Genus: Sousa Sousa chinensis (Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin)Subspecies:Sousa chinensis chinensis (Chinese white dolphin)Sousa chinensis plumbea (Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin)Sousa teuszii (Atlantic Humpback Dolphin)Sousa plumbea (Indian Humpback dolphin) Genus: Stenella Stenella frontalis (Atlantic spotted dolphin)Stenella clymene (Clymene dolphin)Stenella attenuata (Pantropical spotted dolphin)Stenella longirostris (Spinner dolphin)Stenella coeruleoalba (Striped dolphin) Genus: Steno Steno bredanensis (Rough-toothed dolphin) Genus: Cephalorhynchus Cephalorhynchus eutropia (Chilean dolphin)Cephalorhynchus commersonii (Commerson’s dolphin)Cephalorhynchus heavisidii (Heaviside’s Dolphin)Cephalorhynchus hectori (Hector’s dolphin) Genus: Grampus Grampus griseus (Risso’s dolphin) Genus: Lagenodelphis Lagenodelphis hosei (Fraser’s dolphin) Genus: Lagenorhynchus Lagenorhynchus acutus (Atlantic white-sided dolphin)Lagenorhynchus obscurus (Dusky dolphin)Lagenorhynchus cruciger (Hourglass dolphin)Lagenorhynchus obliquidens (Pacific white-sided dolphin)Lagenorhynchus australis (Peale’s dolphin)Lagenorhynchus albirostris (White-beaked dolphin) Genus: Peponocephala Peponocephala electra (Melon-headed whale) Genus: Orcaella Orcaella heinsohni (Australian snubfin dolphin)Orcaella brevirostris (Irrawaddy dolphin) Genus: Orcinus Orcinus orca (Orca- Killer Whale) Genus: Feresa Feresa attenuata (Pygmy killer whale) Genus: Pseudorca Pseudorca crassidens (False Killer whale) Genus: Globicephala Globicephala melas (Long-finned pilot whale)Globicephala macrorhynchus (Short-finned pilot whale) Superfamily: Platanistoidea Genus Inia, Family: Iniidae Inia geoffrensis. (Amazon river dolphin).Inia araguaiaensis (Araguaian river dolphin). Genus Lipotes, Family: Lipotidae Lipotes vexillifer (Baiji) Genus Pontoporia, Family: Pontoporiidae Pontoporia blainvillei (La Plata dolphin) Genus Platanista, family: Platanistidae Platanista gangetica (South Asian river dolphin)Subspecies:Platanista gangetica gangetica (Ganges river dolphin)Platanista gangetica minor (Indus river dolphin) Conservation Status The Baiji has suffered dramatic population declines over recent decades due to pollution and heavy industrial use of the Yangtze River. In 2006, a scientific expedition set out to locate any remaining Baiji but failed to find a single individual in the Yangtze. The species was declared functionally extinct. Dolphins and Humans Humans have long been fascinated with dolphins, but the relationship between humans and dolphins has been complex. Dolphins are the subject of stories, myths, and legends as well as great works of art. Because of their great intelligence, dolphins have been used for military exercises and therapeutic support. They are also often kept in captivity and trained to perform; in most cases, this practice is now considered to be cruel. Sources Dolphin Facts and Information, www.dolphins-world.com/.â€Å"Dolphins.†Ã‚  Dolphin Facts, 4 Apr. 2019, www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/group/dolphins/.NOAA. Dolphins Porpoises.†Ã‚  NOAA Fisheries, www.fisheries.noaa.gov/dolphins-porpoises.

Marketing Plan Critique Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Marketing Plan Critique - Essay Example However, these marketing plans have some shortcomings that should be identified and corrected if greater success is to be achieved. This essay is a critique of some marketing plans of Colgate-Palmolive Company. It seeks to provide some recommendations that address the solutions to the issues identified. The Marketing Plan of this company is structured to focus on promoting the brand in overseas market as well as ensuring product differentiation and positioning in order to best serve its customers and at the same time beat both its local and regional competitors. To meet these objectives, the company has used the technique of market segmentation in which it has sectioned its products as oral, personal care and household items. Although the company has made efforts to diversify, its major competitors such as Unilever have trimmed their products much more giving them greater advantages over Colgate. Consequently, Colgate has sought to promote its brand through advertisements. Unfortunately, the company does not do these adverts in local languages, unlike its competitors. Advertising in local languages makes the companies identify themselves with the target audiences (Cadogan, 2009, p. 112). Its geographic segmentation strategy in which it has sought to extend its operations to more th an two hundred nations has not been so beneficial because it has adopted a style in which it restricts sales of the same commodity in every country. Every country has a distinct product. This creates a gap as most customers are cut off from accessing products they could have seen or heard of in other countries. Colgate-Palmolive is a distinct profit-making organization that has got most of its plans and strategies right except a few that needs to be reconsidered. With such an incredible market share in top economies, the company can achieve more than what it has if the following recommendations are taken into consideration. First, the company should

Religions of the Common Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Religions of the Common - Research Paper Example Abraham, the first Patriarch is considered as the founder of Judaism, while Christianity on the other hand was founded by Jesus Christ in the 1st century A.D (ReligionFacts, 2013). Both religions are intertwined because both can trace their earliest beginnings from Abraham. Christianity literally means followers of Christ and those who follow His teachings. Judaism denotes the people who belong to the Jewish heritage or ethnicity and who mostly follow the law given to the Jews and Moses in the Old Testament. It also means those that belong to the tribe of Judah. Christ Himself was a Jew but ushered in the dispensation of Grace, coming into great conflict with those who believed in Judaism during hid days on earth. Christians have the belief that one God exists, and is in three persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. This is narrated in the Jesus’ great commission to His disciples in Mathew 28; 19 where new believers are to be baptized in the name of the Father, Son a nd Holy Ghost. Christians also believe in the Bible which they believe is God’s word revealed to man. Christians believe that the people who wrote the Bible had inspiration from God and thus they refer to it as the Word of God. Christians also believe in the deity of Christ, that He is the second of the Godhead and that He is equal to God (ReligionFacts, 2013).... oman Catholic division of Christianity, for example, writings of ecumenical councils and ancient church Fathers and creeds are included in the division’s beliefs and practices. Christians also have sacraments and ordinances like baptism and Holy Communion with the Roman Catholic and Orthodox divisions adding the sacraments of marriage, confirmation, penance, Holy orders and anointing of those who are sick (ReligionFacts, 2013). In all of the Christian divisions, prayer is given great preeminence though the order and conducting of the same has varies from division to the other. Christians believe that mankind inherited an original sin from their first parents Adam and Eve who sinned against God. Jesus Christ paid for sin by His death on the cross to reconcile man back to God as narrated in the Bible in scriptures in Romans 5: 17. Christians and mostly Protestants believe in salvation through the work the sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross and not by any other works or sacri fices (Horbury 2006). They believe that God redeems man through the work of the cross, giving them a new birth and new life, 2 Cor 5: 17. Christians also believe that there is a place of eternal fire known as hell which will be used to punish the unrighteous from everlasting to everlasting. They believe that man is destined to die, and after death there will be judgment, with those that are righteous going to heaven and those that will be not being condemned to eternal hell. The Roman Catholic division of Christianity teaches that some souls that will need cleansing will be taken to purgatory before being allowed into Heaven. Christians practice their worship in churches, chapels, cathedrals and Basilicas (Avery-Peck & Neusner, 2009). On the area of clothing, Christian divisions like orthodox

Child Labour Essay Example for Free

Child Labour Essay I.INTRODUCTION In a developing country like the Philippines, the child labor phenomenon remains widespread. Today, we find hundreds of thousands of Filipino children being deprived of the oppurtunity to share in the prospects of development. The door of the opportunity is close on them simply because their â€Å"childhood is wasted in premature work (ILD 1994) rather than nurtured in school and at play. And doubtedly, many stand witnesses to this bleak scenario in the workforce. How the lives of this children are apparently placed at risk and how they are clearly cheated of their basic rights and privileges have stimulated a sounding call for an immense public awareness and a prolific action on the child labor issue. Child labor is a â€Å"long standing problem† (ILO 1993: 26), that has been rapidly creaping from the midst of economic, social, and moral crisis. Hence, this papers generally aims to propagate awerness about child labor particularly, the current situation her in 6the Philippines. It has three major objectives. First, it intense to present current facts and data about the child labor condition in the Philippines. Second, it attempts to discuss significant points about the child labor issue. And finally, it aims to waken concern individuals and bring fort a worth while realization, concern, and utmost action and this matter. A.What is child labor? Filipinos re smilingly wide aware of the prevalence o child labor here in the Philippines yet, knowingly or unknowingly, many remain inadequately informed and aware of child labor’s real score. The idea of child labor would concretely leads us to a common general notion, that is, children being abuse through forced labor. This is the concept, which inevitably sticks to anyone who hears about the issue. Hence, we must remember that child labor implies a broader concern so purposely, there is much to be adhered about child labor and what it substantially means. To further understand this concern, let us set answers to these questions: When is child labor considered ethical? Illegal? Child work refers to gainful work of children below15 years of age ( Torres 1995 :2). It means the production of goods and services either on a full-time or part-time basis as performed by children in both the formal and informal sectors. Recent studies in the Philippine noted child participation in the following areas of work: agricultural plantations, small handicraft shops, home-based sub-contracting industries, commercial establishments, household’s street trades, and other small-scale business ventures. Work among children, is not wrong. Children, as part of the traditional Filipino culture are taught to work at an early age by their families. This true particularly in Philippine agricultural communities were farming is considered a family affair and the farm household is equivalent to one production unit (Torres 1995:2). Work for children however, becomes unacceptable and objectionable if it falls under any of the following circumstances. One, if the work is hazardous to the help and morals of the children such as night work, heavy work, or work in the streets which exposes the children to drug abuse and sexual encounters. Two, if the conditions of work are exploitative, as in instances when they require long working hours, provide low pay, and are used as substitute for adult labor. And lastly, if the work prevents children from obtaining education which is their right and privilege in any society (Torres 1995: 2). Child labor is the illegal employment of children below the age of 15, where they are not directly under the sole responsibility of their parents or illegal guardian or the latter employs other workers, apart from their children, who are not members of their families or their work endangers their life, safety, health, and morals or impairs their normal development including schooling. It also includes the situation of children below the age of 18 who are employed in hazardous conditions. (Representatives 1994:3) B.What is current child labor situation in the Philippines? The current child labor situation in the Philippines has recently raced enormous concern. In the 1995 Children Survey conducted by DOLE, results revealed that about three in every twenty children have worked in the past year. Males compromised two-thirds of the working children. The proportion of working males increases with age. Looking at the sex ratio, the ratio of working male to every one hundred working female increases from 171 for age group 5 to 9 years to 181 for age group 10 to14 years. The absolute increase doubles as the children reach the working age of 15. For age group 15 to17, there are 200 working males for every 100 working females or 2 males for every1 female. (NSO 1995). Working male children out number females in both urban and rural areas. 2/3 of working children lives in the rural areas. This maybe due to unpaid farm work participated in by family members during planting and /or harvesting seasons. Based on the1995 children of the Philippines Survey, Only 69.8% reported to have attended school during school years 1994-1995 and 1995 to 1996. They compromised mostly of male working children (62.5%), out numbering the female working children (38.5%). Working children from the rural areas have higher school attendance (67.3%) tha those from the urban areas (32.7%). Most of these working children reported the same kind of problems encountered in schooling. Ranked, as the first three problems were high cost of school supplies/books/transportation’s, school distance from the residence is too far, and difficulty in catching up with lessons (NSO 1995). Working children inevitably experience multiple work-related problems. Only 2 out of 10 children express that they did not encounter any problem in relation to their work. The rest, however, said that they experienced one or more work –related problems. Among these problems experienced by them are  coming home exhausted from work, doing heavy physical work, work being stressful, boredom from work and that their work is risky or dangerous. (NSO1995). Children remained in the workforce for a common significant reason. Survey results showed that majority or 60.1% of the total working children who prefer to remain in the workforce sited improvement in the living conditions of their households as the main reason for working. In the urban areas, only 56.4% cited improvements in living conditions as the main reason while in the rural areas, the proportion reaches 62%. This is following the notion that families in the urban areas have better living conditions than those in the rural areas. These facts and data justify the growing concern of children labors prevalence to the present Philippine society. C.Why is child labor very rampant in our Philippine society now a days? The prevalence of child labor in the Philippines has been attributed to multiple factors. While poverty is apparently the principal factor. The Philippines being a third world country, â€Å"Child labor is symptomatic of broader social disorganization resulting from urbanization, industrial development, and economic recession, and the shifting models of production† (Torres 1995: 3). With the advent of economic globalization, awareness of the incidence of child labor in the third world nations is growing rapidly in the industrialize counties as the Philippines. Hence, Many Filipino many children work for the very reason that their families are poor. Though poverty is the most significant cause of child labor, other factors greatly contribute as well. Cultural values may also drive children in to employment. Children in Filipino farm agricultural households are expected to participate in farm production. Parents also affirmed that teaching children hoe to work is important and they introduce â€Å"Work – related task as if it work play activities† (Torres 1995: 3). This scenario is likely triggered by the traditional Filipino values of close families ties and  kinship by which each family member is expected to contribute to help keep the family moving and survive. These persuasions make easier for children to accept work as part their routine. It is also a question of social attitudes. The fact that many children work because there is a little else they can do is an educator of ill social attitudes. Schools are unavailable, in adequate or expensive; the education, which is provide is a related to the world of work. The structural adjustments program, which many third world countries have under taken, has also unfortunately ment as serious cut back in investment in the social sector. Political condition also interacts with economic factors that make child labor possible. Counter-insurgency campaigns have lead to dislocation of families, and the lost of parents forcing children to work for their own survival. Undoubtedly, many Filipino children are victims of this grim political manipulation. On the demand side, research show that many children hired because they are more easily exploited than adults are. Employers prefer children because they are docile, In capable of collective bargaining and willing to work to support their family or simply to survive. To have child labor means lower cost because children never complain with very low wages (Weissman 1997: 18). All these, including other minor factors, play a productive part in rapid increase of child labor cases in the country. D.What is the risk faced by working children? Working children inevitably faced intolerance risk. Of millions of children who are working many toil in â€Å"Slave-like† (ILO 1993:54) or Hazardous conditions. There are all too many children in the work force that faced physical risk and hazard to their physical, social, intellectual and psychological development. Survey results revealed that many Filipino working children have suffered from work –related injuries such and other  various risks are affected by this condition: The attention span of children is usually limited and their judgement of dangerous situations may not be to develop. As they are not experience enough to cope with job responsibilities, ling hours of work and other job stresses that normal adults can cope within their daily chores, the impact of psychosocial stresses on a child in understandable more pronounced (GUST 1993:78). In the mere sense, the consequences are intolerably traumatic and devastating. These case of Filipino child: A Filipino, barely ten years old, lost her sight, when another worker carelessly threw his cigarette but near a mound of gun powder that she was inserting into colorful bits of paper. The gunpowder exploited and with it went her sight. Working in sub-human conditions, these children’s health soon gave way†¦ (Junior citizen Ed. 1996:2). Many types of work affect the intellectual and psychosocial development of the child.† Work is detrimental to a child if it deprives him of his normal leisure, play and recreation, worse if he is deprived of his basic rights of education, parenting, and protection â€Å" (Gust 1993:78). Such adverse conditions have been observed in bonded labor such as seen in feudalistic agriculture, in the participation of children in Muru-ami fishing and in domestic work. The projected psychological effects on working children was shown in this specific study: A study on the psychological profile of ten scavenger children from the Smoky Mountain in the Philippines was conducted in 1992. The results showed low levels of intellectual functioning of the scavengers of different age levels. It also demonstrated and inverse relationship between age and intelligence quotient. That is, the intellectual scores of children decreased as age increased. To a certain point, there can attributed to the  children’s preoccupation with survival and lack of learning opportunities. (Gust 1993:81) Aside from these risks, we cannot do away with the fact that poor working conditions of children often bring along infectious illnesses. Combined with malnutrition, toxic substance used at work affect several organ systems like the brains and nerves sometimes irreversibly. Some researchers make then point that the unhealthy sanitation, over crowding, poor ventilation, and extremes of temperatures in the work environment are aggravated by poor conditions in the living environment therefore, making working children more susceptible to new infectious illnesses and injuries, and other work-related ailments. Descriptive studies of hazardous and demonstrates the different types of risks: First, there is the â€Å" hazardous process†. Muro-ami fishing which practice in few fishing towns involves deep-sea diving without the use of protective equipment. This method was reported as a notoriously hazardous process resulting in drowning, deaths and rapture eardrums. Second, there is the exposure of children to adverse physical working environment. Exposure to organic dust is widespread in farms and plantations and tha prevalence of respiratory diseases is high. Children also work in repair shops, woodwork and in construction with constant exposure to dust and fumes. Third, children are exposed to dangerous substances in both formal and informal sectors. No personal protective equipment’s where given to the children who often handle chemicals with bare hands which was seen among those working in scavenging, in dumpsites, in gold processing, in leather industry, in garage, and in gasoline work. (Gust 1993: 80) No work is too difficult for these children despite the great risk on their lives. Nevertheless, this makes child labor a visible act of exploitation. E. How can we eliminate child labor in our Philippine society? The problem is huge, needless to say, the weapon in store must be equally extensive if not, stronger than the problem itself. All working children are basically at risk: the ultimate object of society should therefore be the elimination of child labor. However, the problem of child labor will not be solving overnight. It is â€Å"a large and complex problem† (ILO1994: 4). Some aspects of which are probably not yet capable of solution, for example, until a better knowledge and understanding can be gained, or until further progress has been made in addressing underlying social, cultural or economic factors. Given the multiple, over lapping causes at child labor, no single approach will and the scourge (Weissmen! 997:16). The resources available for combating child labor are glaringly in adequate when set against the magnitude of the problem. But no progress will be made at all unless start is made somewhere. Ideally, the Philippine government has already recognize the need to establish priorities and the Philippine plan of action for children has set targets for the protection and rehabilitation of abuse and exploited working children and for banning of children in hazardous occupations or situations, with priority being accorded to disadvantaged, depressed, and undeserved families and communities. The Government-UNICEF child labor Plan of Operation also establishes priorities for action. There emphasis action at the local level, without which no strategy to combat child labor will be effective. And with the formation of the â€Å"Sagip Batang Manggagawa†, and Inter-agency Quick Action Program (SBMQAP), the Philippine government has apparently taken the challenge in astounding force. The said program is established to respond to cases of child laborers in extremely object conditions and shall be responsible for the provision of various services in relation to the search and rescue operation. Elimination of child labor may justify seem impossible. Truly, our chances are slim, but there is hope. With these dynamic forces at hand, we can all look forward to a better and ideal future for the Filipino children. II. CONCLUSION: Child labor is an apparent hindrance to the economic, social, and moral development of the people and this country. This very uncharacteristic scenario in the workplace gradually yet tremendously cripples the country’s economy, destroys the ethical course of society, and deflates the standards of moral values. Nevertheless, â€Å"that trend is a human tragedy†(Senser 1997: 18). A manifestation of the world’s cruelty to the young and the innocent is what child labor is at its least. The children, being â€Å"the most vulnerable group in the society, who are unfortunate victims of this inhuman condition have been greatly deprived of the incalculable chances they ought to venture. Sad to say, our very own Philippine society has failed to provide the teeming Filipino children that exceptionally ideal community they all deserve. Yet, what soothes us the least is the fact that the child labor situation in our country has not been left in the rug and forgotten. After all, we dream of nothing less butter to hold strong in our pursuit of saving the Filipino children from falling into this bleak exigency. â€Å" Let not young souls be smothered out before. They do quaint deeds and fully flaunt their price. It is the world’s one crime its babes grow dull† (Linsay1997: 9) Bibliography :  ·Gust, E. 1993. Safety and Health Hazards to Working Children, Bangkok: International Labour Office  ·International Labour Organization. 1994 . Attacking Child Labour in the Philippines: and Indicative frame work for Philippine-ILO Action Geneva ; International Labour Office  ·International Labour Organization 1993. Inter-Regional workshop on Improvement of Effectiveness of Enforcement of Child Labour Legislation. Bangkok International Labour Office.  ·Lindsay, Vachel 1997 The Leaden- Eyed , Sunstar, May24, page 9.  ·National Statisticas office. Children of the Philippines Manila 1995  ·Senser, Robert A. 997 Global Economy and Child labor. Sunstar, May 26 pages 1 and 8.

George C. Wallace Essay -- essays research papers

George Wallace The 1960's were characterized as an era full of turmoil. During this era, one of the most controversial topics was the fight over civil rights. One of the key political figures against civil rights movement and pro-segregation was George Wallace. Wallace represented the racist southern view. Many Americans were segregationist, but Wallace was adamant about the topic. Many established political figures were assassinated, during the 1960's. Martin Luther King, JFK, and RFK were all positive visionaries caused controversy throughout that decade. George Wallace was against the modern government, pro-middle class, and against civil rights. Wallace and many other visionaries were cut down to early in life. Wallace was not killed by the assassin's bullet but his political career was changed. The attempt on Wallace's life left him a broken man in a wheelchair. People remembered the George Wallace who smoked his cigar and denounced the State Department as communist. Wallace was a feared polit ician who lived in a state full of beatings and problems. Racism was the norm and Wallace took full advantage of this ploy to gain political attention. George Corley Wallace was born on August 25, 1919. While attending Barber County High School, he was involved with boxing and football. George even won the state Golden Gloves bantamweight championship not once but twice. Wallace then attended the University of Alabama Law School; this was the same year his father died. Wallace was strapped for cash, so he worked his way through college by boxing professionally, waiting on tables, and driving a taxi. He received his degree in 1942 from the University. After receiving a medical discharge from the U.S. Air Force, he returned to Alabama. In 1946, Wallace got a job as an assistant to the attorney general for the state of Alabama. Wallace polled to become state representative of Barbour County. During his jaunt as a state representative, he had a number of highlights. They included bills that issued in the industrial era that attracted hundreds of new industries. He was also involved with the GI and Dependents Scholarships Act that provides widows and children access to trade schools and colleges. Wallace entered the governor's race in 1958. Patterson ran on the Ku Klux Klan ticket; Wallace refused it. The NAACP endorsed Wallace for governor. Wallace lost the g... ...o say, "I'm sorry." The leaders accepted his change in heart but they could never fully forgive him. Former Governor George C. Wallace of Alabama, who built his political career on segregation, died September 13, 1998 at Jackson Hospital in Montgomery. He was 79 and had been in declining health since being shot in his 1972 presidential campaign. Wallace, a Democrat who was a longtime champion of states' rights, dominated his own state for almost a generation. He also became the only Alabamian ever sworn in for four terms as governor, winning elections in 1962, 1970, 1974, and 1982. He retired at the end of his last term in January 1987. George Wallace was a man of his era who grew up under racist conditions. After the assassination attempt Wallace was a changed man. Later in his life, he admitted that he was wrong for being a segregationist. He has always said that he was not a racist, but he was for segregation. This visionary was responsible for the Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act, and Civil Rights Movement. Although he did not want them, his actions dictated the results of these Acts and changes. His dreams died, but they established rights for all minorities.

An Educational Article for the 21st century Essay

Australian Ambassador to the Philippines Bill Tweddell and Philippine education officials opened recently the Assessment, Curriculum and Technology Research Centre (ACTRC). Located at the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Education building in Diliman, Quezon City, the facility will focus on research in support of the Philippines’ implementation of the K to 12 program, which is covered by a law recently signed by President Aquino. Tweddell, Education Secretary Armin Luistro, Commission on Higher Education Commissioner Cynthia Bautista, UP president Alfredo Pascual, other education officials and members of the academe attended ACTRC’s opening. The Australian government gave the P150-million grant for the establishment of the center in support of the country’s basic education reform program. ACTRC will focus on curriculum development, school assessment and the application of technology in upgrading the education system. â€Å"Australia strongly supports the Philippine government’s efforts in implementing the K to 12 program. Investing in a quality education system will provide better opportunities for all and a pathway out of poverty for the most disadvantaged,† Tweddell said in a statement. ACTRC will bring together the Philippines’ and Australia’s top research institutions—the UP College of Education and the University of Melbourne’s Assessment Research Centre— in â€Å"grounded research and evaluation activities in the areas of assessment, curriculum and technology as they relate to the implementation of the Philippine government’s K to 12 program.† Through grant-funding, the Australian Agency for International Development would support the center’s first three years of operation, the Australian embassy said. â€Å"Australia shares the Philippine government’s vision that K to 12, if implemented well, will bring the Philippines’ school system closer to international standards. The interaction of curriculum, assessment and the use of technology are important facets of a successful education program,† Tweddell said. â€Å"The curriculum is the blueprint of an education system. Assessment provides a picture of where we are in that blueprint today. Technology enables the curriculum to respond to the needs of the 21st century,† he added. K to 12 is the Aquino administration’s flagship education reform program that aims to improve the quality of Philippine high school graduates by spreading the clogged 10-year curriculum over 12 years. In essence, the program hopes to give Filipino youth longer time to learn and prepare for life after basic education, whether they hope to go on to college or find employment after graduating from high school. â€Å"The University of Melbourne and its Graduate School of Education is proud to be associated with this major initiative to inform the Philippines’ education and research communities. The center will provide an opportunity to put into practice evidence-based research outcomes through its collaborative activities with the Philippines’ Department of Education,† said Professor Field Rickards, dean of the Graduate School of Education of the University of Melbourne. UP College of Education dean Rosario Alonzo said the facility and the collaboration it allowed would help promote the professional development of the UP faculty. â€Å"This is crucial to the university’s (UP) fulfillment of its mandate as a research university,† she said. A. Summary of the Article The article discussed how the Australian Government supports the implementation of the K to 12 Program here in the Philippines. It is also written how they believe that the new curriculon that was founded by the current administration will make the Philippines educational system closer to the international standards. B. Words that I have learned from the article Academe – The academic environment or community; academia. Assessment – The evaluation or estimation of the nature, quality, or ability of someone or something: â€Å"the assessment of educational needs†. Collaboration – The action of working with someone to produce or create something. Crucial – Decisive or critical, esp. in the success or failure of something. Curriculum – The subjects comprising a course of study in a school or college. Facets – A particular aspect or feature of something. Implementation – the act of accomplishing some aim or executing some order C. Ideas I have learned about the article At first i thought that K to 12 program was a bad idea, because it prolongs the years of study of students like me and making it a little much of a burden to my parents because of the added budget for the tuition but when i read articles pertaining to K to 12 implementation such as the likes of this one I simply realize that it isnt such a bad thing after all. I mean 2 years of added time is just a little sacrifice of what can be a result of a better future plus when you know that there are countries, like Australia, that are willing to support us on this kinds of program makes us a little more confident with ourselves that we can be more of a competative player in the international playfield when it comes to education. D. Comments about the article The article was really informative. For me, reading this article changed my point of view on K to 12 program and it also boosted my morale when i read the line â€Å"Australia shares the Philippine government’s vision that K to 12, if implemented well, will bring the Philippines’ school system closer to international standards.† because it gave me a heads up of what can be my potential in the future. E. Resources Site link: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/412557/center-to-give-research-support-for-k-to-12#ixzz2blPK2DsX

Academic Qualification Ensures Success in Life

He’s gone? Finnick asks, looking down at Boggs. I nod. We need to get out of here. Now. We just set off a streetful of pods. You can bet they’ve got us on surveillance tapes. Count on it, says Castor. All the streets are covered by surveillance cameras. I bet they set off the black wave manually when they saw us taping the propo. Our radio communicators went dead almost immediately. Probably an electromagnetic pulse device. But I’ll get us back to camp. Give me the Holo. Jackson reaches for the unit, but I clutch it to my chest. No. Boggs gave it to me, I say.Don’t be ridiculous, she snaps. Of course, she thinks it’s hers. She’s second in command. It’s true, says Homes. He transferred the prime security clearance to her while he was dying. I saw it. Why would he do that? demands Jackson. Why indeed? My head’s reeling from the ghastly events of the last five minutes†Boggs mutilated, dying, dead, Peeta’s homicidal rag e, Mitchell bloody and netted and swallowed by that foul black wave. I turn to Boggs, very badly needing him alive. Suddenly sure that he, and maybe he alone, is completely on my side. I think of his last orders ¦. Don’t trust them.Don’t go back. Kill Peeta. Do what you came to do. What did he mean? Don’t trust who? The rebels? Coin? The people looking at me right now? I won’t go back, but he must know I can’t just fire a bullet through Peeta’s head. Can I? Should I? Did Boggs guess that what I really came to do is desert and kill Snow on my own? I can’t work all of this out now, so I just decide to carry out the first two orders: to not trust anyone and to move deeper into the Capitol. But how can I justify this? Make them let me keep the Holo? Because I’m on a special mission for President Coin.I think Boggs was the only one who knew about it. This in no way convinces Jackson. To do what? Why not tell them the truth? Itâ₠¬â„¢s as plausible as anything I’ll come up with. But it must seem like a real mission, not revenge. To assassinate President Snow before the loss of life from this war makes our population unsustainable. I don’t believe you, says Jackson. As your current commander, I order you to transfer the prime security clearance over to me. No, I say. That would be in direct violation of President Coin’s orders. Guns are pointed. Half the squad at Jackson, half at me.Someone’s about to die, when Cressida speaks up. It’s true. That’s why we’re here. Plutarch wants it televised. He thinks if we can film the Mockingjay assassinating Snow, it will end the war. This gives even Jackson pause. Then she gestures with her gun toward the closet. And why is he here? There she has me. I can think of no sane reason that Coin would send an unstable boy, programmed to kill me, along on such a key assignment. It really weakens my story. Cressida comes to my aid again. Because the two post-Games interviews with Caesar Flickerman were shot in President Snow’s personal quarters.Plutarch thinks Peeta may be of some use as a guide in a location we have little knowledge of. I want to ask Cressida why she’s lying for me, why she’s fighting for us to go on with my self-appointed mission. Now’s not the time. We have to go! says Gale. I’m following Katniss. If you don’t want to, head back to camp. But let’s move! Homes unlocks the closet and heaves an unconscious Peeta over his shoulder. Ready. Boggs? says Leeg 1. We can’t take him. He’d understand, says Finnick. He frees Boggs’s gun from his shoulder and slings the strap over his own. Lead on, Soldier Everdeen. I don’t know how to lead on.I look at the Holo for direction. It’s still activated, but it might as well be dead for all the good that does me. There’s no time for fiddling around with the buttons, tr ying to figure out how to work it. I don’t know how to use this. Boggs said you would help me, I tell Jackson. He said I could count on you. Jackson scowls, snatches the Holo from me, and taps in a command. An intersection comes up. If we go out the kitchen door, there’s a small courtyard, then the back side of another corner apartment unit. We’re looking at an overview of the four streets that meet at the intersection.I try to get my bearings as I stare at the cross section of the map blinking with pods in every direction. And those are only the pods Plutarch knows about. The Holo didn’t indicate that the block we just left was mined, had the black geyser, or that the net was made from barbed wire. Besides that, there may be Peacekeepers to deal with, now that they know our position. I bite the inside of my lip, feeling everyone’s eyes on me. Put on your masks. We’re going out the way we came in. Instant objections. I raise my voice over th em. If the wave was that powerful, then it may have triggered and absorbed other pods in our path.People stop to consider this. Pollux makes a few quick signs to his brother. It may have disabled the cameras as well, Castor translates. Coated the lenses. Gale props one of his boots on the counter and examines the splatter of black on the toe. Scrapes it with a kitchen knife from a block on the counter. It’s not corrosive. I think it was meant to either suffocate or poison us. Probably our best shot, says Leeg 1. Masks go on. Finnick adjusts Peeta’s mask over his lifeless face. Cressida and Leeg 1 prop up a woozy Messalla between them. I’m waiting for someone to take the point position when I remember that’s my job now.I push on the kitchen door and meet with no resistance. A half-inch layer of the black goo has spread from the living room about three-quarters of the way down the hall. When I gingerly test it with the toe of my boot, I find it has the cons istency of a gel. I lift my foot and after stretching slightly, it springs back into place. I take three steps into the gel and look back. No footprints. It’s the first good thing that’s happened today. The gel becomes slightly thicker as I cross the living room. I ease open the front door, expecting gallons of the stuff to pour in, but it holds its form.The pink and orange block seems to have been dipped in glossy black paint and set out to dry. Paving stones, buildings, even the rooftops are coated in the gel. A large teardrop hangs above the street. Two shapes project from it. A gun barrel and a human hand. Mitchell. I wait on the sidewalk, staring up at him until the entire group has joined me. If anyone needs to go back, for whatever reason, now is the time, I say. No questions asked, no hard feelings. No one seems inclined to retreat. So I start moving into the Capitol, knowing we don’t have much time.The gel’s deeper here, four to six inches, and m akes a sucking sound each time you pick up your foot, but it still covers our tracks. The wave must have been enormous, with tremendous power behind it, as it’s affected several blocks that lie ahead. And though I tread with care, I think my instinct was right about its triggering other pods. One block is sprinkled with the golden bodies of tracker jackers. They must have been set free only to succumb to the fumes. A little farther along, an entire apartment building has collapsed and lies in a mound under the gel.I sprint across the intersections, holding up a hand for the others to wait while I look for trouble, but the wave seems to have dismantled the pods far better than any squad of rebels could. On the fifth block, I can tell that we’ve reached the point where the wave began to peter out. The gel’s only an inch deep, and I can see baby blue rooftops peeking out across the next intersection. The afternoon light has faded, and we badly need to get under cov er and form a plan. I choose an apartment two-thirds of the way down the block. Homes jimmies the lock, and I order the others inside.I stay on the street for just a minute, watching the last of our footprints fade away, then close the door behind me. Flashlights built into our guns illuminate a large living room with mirrored walls that throw our faces back at us at every turn. Gale checks the windows, which show no damage, and removes his mask. It’s all right. You can smell it, but it’s not too strong. The apartment seems to be laid out exactly like the first one we took refuge in. The gel blacks out any natural daylight in the front, but some light still slips through the shutters in the kitchen. Along the hallway are two bedrooms with baths.A spiral staircase in the living room leads up to an open space that composes much of the second floor. There are no windows upstairs, but the lights have been left on, probably by someone hastily evacuating. A huge television s creen, blank but glowing softly, occupies one wall. Plush chairs and sofas are strewn around the room. This is where we congregate, slump into upholstery, try to catch our breath. Jackson has her gun trained on Peeta even though he’s still cuffed and unconscious, draped across a deep-blue sofa where Homes deposited him. What on earth am I going to do with him?With the crew? With everybody, frankly, besides Gale and Finnick? Because I’d rather track down Snow with those two than without them. But I can’t lead ten people through the Capitol on a pretend mission, even if I could read the Holo. Should I, could I have sent them back when I had a chance? Or was it too dangerous? Both to them personally and to my mission? Maybe I shouldn’t have listened to Boggs, because he might have been in some delusional death state. Maybe I should just come clean, but then Jackson would take over and we’d end up back at camp. Where I’d have Coin to answer to.J ust as the complexity of the mess I’ve dragged everybody into begins to overload my brain, a distant chain of explosions sends a tremor through the room. It wasn’t close, Jackson assures us. A good four or five blocks away. Where we left Boggs, says Leeg 1. Although no one has made a move toward it, the television flares to life, emitting a high-pitched beeping sound, bringing half our party to its feet. It’s all right! calls Cressida. It’s just an emergency broadcast. Every Capitol television is automatically activated for it. There we are on-screen, just after the bomb took out Boggs.A voice-over tells the audience what they are viewing as we try to regroup, react to the black gel shooting from the street, lose control of the situation. We watch the chaos that follows until the wave blots out the cameras. The last thing we see is Gale, alone on the street, trying to shoot through the cables that hold Mitchell aloft. The reporter identifies Gale, Finnick , Boggs, Peeta, Cressida, and me by name. There’s no aerial footage. Boggs must have been right about their hovercraft capacity, says Castor. I didn’t notice this, but I guess it’s the kind of thing a cameraman picks up on.Coverage continues from the courtyard behind the apartment where we took shelter. Peacekeepers line the roof across from our former hideout. Shells are launched into the row of apartments, setting off the chain of explosions we heard, and the building collapses into rubble and dust. Now we cut to a live feed. A reporter stands on the roof with the Peacekeepers. Behind her, the apartment block burns. Firefighters try to control the blaze with water hoses. We are pronounced dead. Finally, a bit of luck, says Homes. I guess he’s right. Certainly it’s better than having the Capitol in pursuit of us.But I just keep imagining how this will be playing back in 13. Where my mother and Prim, Hazelle and the kids, Annie, Haymitch, and a who le lot of people from 13 think that they have just seen us die. My father. He just lost my sister and now ¦ says Leeg 1. We watch as they play the footage over and over. Revel in their victory, especially over me. Break away to do a montage of the Mockingjay’s rise to rebel power†I think they’ve had this part prepared for a while, because it seems pretty polished†and then go live so a couple of reporters can discuss my well-deserved violent end. Later, they promise, Snow will make an official statement.The screen fades back to a glow. The rebels made no attempt to break in during the broadcast, which leads me to believe they think it’s true. If that’s so, we really are on our own. So, now that we’re dead, what’s our next move? asks Gale. Isn’t it obvious? No one even knew Peeta had regained consciousness. I don’t know how long he’s been watching, but by the look of misery on his face, long enough to see wha t happened on the street. How he went mad, tried to bash my head in, and hurled Mitchell into the pod. He painfully pushes himself up to a sitting position and directs his words to Gale. Our next move ¦is to kill me. 1 That makes two requests for Peeta’s death in less than an hour. Don’t be ridiculous, says Jackson. I just murdered a member of our squad! shouts Peeta. You pushed him off you. You couldn’t have known he would trigger the net at that exact spot, says Finnick, trying to calm him. Who cares? He’s dead, isn’t he? Tears begin to run down Peeta’s face. I didn’t know. I’ve never seen myself like that before. Katniss is right. I’m the monster. I’m the mutt. I’m the one Snow has turned into a weapon! It’s not your fault, Peeta, says Finnick. You can’t take me with you. It’s only a matter of time before I kill someone else.Peeta looks around at our conflicted faces. Maybe you thi nk it’s kinder to just dump me somewhere. Let me take my chances. But that’s the same thing as handing me over to the Capitol. Do you think you’d be doing me a favor by sending me back to Snow? Peeta. Back in Snow’s hands. Tortured and tormented until no bits of his former self will ever emerge again. For some reason, the last stanza to The Hanging Tree starts running through my head. The one where the man wants his lover dead rather than have her face the evil that awaits her in the world. Are you, are you Coming to the tree Wear a necklace of rope, side by side with me.Strange things did happen here No stranger would it be If we met up at midnight in the hanging tree. I’ll kill you before that happens, says Gale. I promise. Peeta hesitates, as if considering the reliability of this offer, and then shakes his head. It’s no good. What if you’re not there to do it? I want one of those poison pills like the rest of you have. Nightlock. There’s one pill back at camp, in its special slot on the sleeve of my Mockingjay suit. But there’s another in the breast pocket of my uniform. Interesting that they didn’t issue one to Peeta. Perhaps Coin thought he might take it before he had the opportunity to kill me.It’s unclear if Peeta means he’d finish himself off now, to spare us having to murder him, or only if the Capitol took him prisoner again. In the state he’s in, I expect it would be sooner rather than later. It would certainly make things easier on the rest of us. Not to have to shoot him. It would certainly simplify the problem of dealing with his homicidal episodes. I don’t know if it’s the pods, or the fear, or watching Boggs die, but I feel the arena all around me. It’s as if I’ve never left, really. Once again I’m battling not only for my own survival but for Peeta’s as well.How satisfying, how entertaining it would be for Snow to have me kill him. To have Peeta’s death on my conscience for whatever is left of my life. It’s not about you, I say. We’re on a mission. And you’re necessary to it. I look to the rest of the group. Think we might find some food here? Besides the medical kit and cameras, we have nothing but our uniforms and our weapons. Half of us stay to guard Peeta or keep an eye out for Snow’s broadcast, while the others hunt for something to eat. Messalla proves most valuable because he lived in a near replica of this apartment and knows where people would be most likely to stash food.Like how there’s a storage space concealed by a mirrored panel in the bedroom, or how easy it is to pop out the ventilation screen in the hallway. So even though the kitchen cupboards are bare, we find over thirty canned goods and several boxes of cookies. The hoarding disgusts the soldiers raised in 13. Isn’t this illegal? says Leeg 1. On the contrary, in the Capi tol you’d be considered stupid not to do it, says Messalla. Even before the Quarter Quell, people were starting to stock up on scarce supplies. While others went without, says Leeg 1. Right, says Messalla. That’s how it works here.Fortunately, or we wouldn’t have dinner, says Gale. Everybody grab a can. Some of our company seem reluctant to do this, but it’s as good a method as any. I’m really not in the mood to divvy up everything into eleven equal parts, factoring in age, body weight, and physical output. I poke around in the pile, about to settle on some cod chowder, when Peeta holds out a can to me. Here. I take it, not knowing what to expect. The label reads Lamb Stew. I press my lips together at the memories of rain dripping through stones, my inept attempts at flirting, and the aroma of my favorite Capitol dish in the chilly air.So some part of it must still be in his head, too. How happy, how hungry, how close we were when that picnic baske t arrived outside our cave. Thanks. I pop open the top. It even has dried plums. I bend the lid and use it as a makeshift spoon, scooping a bit into my mouth. Now this place tastes like the arena, too. We’re passing around a box of fancy cream-filled cookies when the beeping starts again. The seal of Panem lights up on the screen and remains there while the anthem plays. And then they begin to show images of the dead, just as they did with the tributes in the arena. They start with the four faces f our TV crew, followed by Boggs, Gale, Finnick, Peeta, and me. Except for Boggs, they don’t bother with the soldiers from 13, either because they have no idea who they are or because they know they won’t mean anything to the audience. Then the man himself appears, seated at his desk, a flag draped behind him, the fresh white rose gleaming in his lapel. I think he might have recently had more work done, because his lips are puffier than usual. And his prep team really n eeds to use a lighter hand with his blush. Snow congratulates the Peacekeepers on a masterful job, honors them for ridding the country of the menace called the Mockingjay.With my Snow congratulates the Peacekeepers on a masterful job, honors them for ridding the country of the menace called the Mockingjay. With my death, he predicts a turning of the tide in the war, since the demoralized rebels have no one left to follow. And what was I, really? A poor, unstable girl with a small talent with a bow and arrow. Not a great thinker, not the mastermind of the rebellion, merely a face plucked from the rabble because I had caught the nation’s attention with my antics in the Games. But necessary, so very necessary, because the rebels have no real leader among them.Somewhere in District 13, Beetee hits a switch, because now it’s not President Snow but President Coin who’s looking at us. She introduces herself to Panem, identifies herself as the head of the rebellion, and then gives my eulogy. Praise for the girl who survived the Seam and the Hunger Games, then turned a country of slaves into an army of freedom fighters. Dead or alive, Katniss Everdeen will remain the face of this rebellion. If ever you waver in your resolve, think of the Mockingjay, and in her you will find the strength you need to rid Panem of its oppressors.I had no idea how much I meant to her, I say, which brings a laugh from Gale and questioning looks from the others. Up comes a heavily doctored photo of me looking beautiful and fierce with a bunch of flames flickering behind me. No words. No slogan. My face is all they need now. Beetee gives the reins back to a very controlled Snow. I have the feeling the president thought the emergency channel was impenetrable, and someone will end up dead tonight because it was breached. Tomorrow morning, when we pull Katniss Everdeen’s body from the ashes, we will see exactly who the Mockingjay is.A dead girl who could save no one, not even herself. Seal, anthem, and out. Except that you won’t find her, says Finnick to the empty screen, voicing what we’re all probably thinking. The grace period will be brief. Once they dig through those ashes and come up missing eleven bodies, they’ll know we escaped. We can get a head start on them at least, I say. Suddenly, I’m so tired. All I want is to lie down on a nearby green plush sofa and go to sleep. To cocoon myself in a comforter made of rabbit fur and goose down.Instead, I pull out the Holo and insist that Jackson talk me through the most basic commands†which are really about entering the coordinates of the nearest map grid intersection†so that I can at least begin to operate the thing myself. As the Holo projects our surroundings, I feel my heart sink even further. We must be moving closer to crucial targets, because the number of pods has noticeably increased. How can we possibly move forward into this bouquet of blinking lights without detection? We can’t. And if we can’t, we are trapped like birds in a net. I decide it’s best not to adopt some sort of superior attitude when I’m with these people.Especially when my eyes keep drifting to that green sofa. So I say, Any ideas? Why don’t we start by ruling out possibilities, says Finnick. The street is not a possibility. The rooftops are just as bad as the street, says Leeg 1. We still might have a chance to withdraw, go back the way we came, says Homes. But that would mean a failed mission. A pang of guilt hits me since I’ve fabricated said mission. It was never intended for all of us to go forward. You just had the misfortune to be with me. Well, that’s a moot point. We’re with you now, says Jackson. So, we can’t stay put. We can’t move up.We can’t move laterally. I think that just leaves one option. Underground, says Gale. Underground. Which I hate. Like mines and tunnels an d 13. Underground, where I dread dying, which is stupid because even if I die aboveground, the next thing they’ll do is bury me underground anyway. The Holo can show subterranean as well as street-level pods. I see that when we go underground the clean, dependable lines of the street plan are interlaced with a twisting, turning mess of tunnels. The pods look less numerous, though. Two doors down, a vertical tube connects our row of apartments to the tunnels.To reach the tube apartment, we will need to squeeze through a maintenance shaft that runs the length of the building. We can enter the shaft through the back of a closet space on the upper floor. Okay, then. Let’s make it look like we’ve never been here, I say. We erase all signs of our stay. Send the empty cans down a trash chute, pocket the full ones for later, flip sofa cushions smeared with blood, wipe traces of gel from the tiles. There’s no fixing the latch on the front door, but we lock a secon d bolt, which will at least keep the door from swinging open on contact. Finally, there’s only Peeta to contend with.He plants himself on the blue sofa, refusing to budge. I’m not going. I’ll either disclose your position or hurt someone else. Snow’s people will find you, says Finnick. Then leave me a pill. I’ll only take it if I have to, says Peeta. That’s not an option. Come along, says Jackson. Or you’ll what? Shoot me? asks Peeta. We’ll knock you out and drag you with us, says Homes. Which will both slow us down and endanger us. Stop being noble! I don’t care if I die! He turns to me, pleading now. Katniss, please. Don’t you see, I want to be out of this? The trouble is, I do see. Why can’t I just let him go?Slip him a pill, pull the trigger? Is it because I care too much about Peeta or too much about letting Snow win? Have I turned him into a piece in my private Games? That’s despicable, but Iâ €™m not sure it’s beneath me. If it’s true, it would be kindest to kill Peeta here and now. But for better or worse, I am not motivated by kindness. We’re wasting time. Are you coming voluntarily or do we knock you out? Peeta buries his face in his hands for a few moments, then rises to join us. Should we free his hands? asks Leeg 1. No! Peeta growls at her, drawing his cuffs in close to his body. No, I echo. But I want the key.Jackson passes it over without a word. I slip it into my pants pocket, where it clicks against the pearl. When Homes pries open the small metal door to the maintenance shaft, we encounter another problem. There’s no way the insect shells will be able to fit through the narrow passage. Castor and Pollux remove them and detach emergency backup cameras. Each is the size of a shoe box and probably works about as well. Messalla can’t think of anywhere better to hide the bulky shells, so we end up dumping them in the closet. L eaving such an easy trail to follow frustrates me, but what else can we do?Even going single file, holding our packs and gear out to the side, it’s a tight fit. We sidestep our way past the first apartment, and break into the second. In this apartment, one of the bedrooms has a door marked utility instead of a bathroom. Behind the door is the room with the entrance to the tube. Messalla frowns at the wide circular cover, for a moment returning to his own fussy world. It’s why no one ever wants the center unit. Workmen coming and going whenever and no second bath. But the rent’s considerably cheaper. Then he notices Finnick’s amused expression and adds, Never mind.The tube cover’s simple to unlatch. A wide ladder with rubber treads on the steps allows for a swift, easy descent into the bowels of the city. We gather at the foot of the ladder, waiting for our eyes to adjust to the dim strips of lights, breathing in the mixture of chemicals, mildew, an d sewage. Pollux, pale and sweaty, reaches out and latches on to Castor’s wrist. Like he might fall over if there isn’t someone to steady him. My brother worked down here after he became an Avox, says Castor. Of course. Who else would they get to maintain these dank, evilsmelling passages mined with pods?Took five years before we were able to buy his way up to ground level. Didn’t see the sun once. Under better conditions, on a day with fewer horrors and more rest, someone would surely know what to say. Instead we all stand there for a long time trying to formulate a response. Finally, Peeta turns to Pollux. Well, then you just became our most valuable asset. Castor laughs and Pollux manages a smile. We’re halfway down the first tunnel when I realize what was so remarkable about the exchange. Peeta sounded like his old self, the one who could always think of the right thing to say when nobody else could.Ironic, encouraging, a little funny, but not at anyo ne’s expense. I glance back at him as he trudges along under his guards, Gale and Jackson, his eyes fixed on the ground, his shoulders hunched forward. So dispirited. But for a moment, he was really here. Peeta called it right. Pollux turns out to be worth ten Holos. There is a simple network of wide tunnels that directly corresponds to the main street plan above, underlying the major avenues and cross streets. It’s called the Transfer, since small trucks use it to deliver goods around the city. During the day, its many pods are deactivated, but at night it’s a minefield.However, hundreds of additional passages, utility shafts, train tracks, and drainage tubes form a multilevel maze. Pollux knows details that would lead to disaster for a newcomer, like which offshoots might require gas masks or have live wires or rats the size of beavers. He alerts us to the gush of water that sweeps through the sewers periodically, anticipates the time the Avoxes will be changi ng shifts, leads us into damp, obscure pipes to dodge the nearly silent passage of cargo trains. Most important, he has knowledge of the cameras. There aren’t many down in this gloomy, misty place, except in the Transfer.But we keep well out of their way. Under Pollux’s guidance we make good time†remarkable time, if you compare it to our aboveground travel. After about six hours, fatigue takes over. It’s three in the morning, so I figure we still have a few hours before our bodies are discovered missing, they search through the rubble of the whole block of apartments in case we tried to escape through the shafts, and the hunt begins. When I suggest we rest, no one objects. Pollux finds a small, warm room humming with machines loaded with levers and dials. He holds up his fingers to indicate we must be gone in four hours.Jackson works out a guard schedule, and, since I’m not on the first shift, I wedge myself in the tight space between Gale and Leeg 1 and go right to sleep. It seems like only minutes later when Jackson shakes me awake, tells me I’m on watch. It’s six o’clock, and in one hour we must be on our way. Jackson tells me to eat a can of food and keep an eye on Pollux, who’s insisted on being on guard the entire night. He can’t sleep down here. I drag myself into a state of relative alertness, eat a can of potato and bean stew, and sit against the wall facing the door. Pollux seems wide awake.He’s probably been reliving those five years of imprisonment all night. I get out the Holo and manage to input our grid coordinates and scan the tunnels. As expected, more pods are registering the closer we move toward the center of the Capitol. For a while, Pollux and I click around on the Holo, seeing what traps lie where. When my head begins to spin, I hand it over to him and lean back against the wall. I look down at the sleeping soldiers, crew, and friends, and I wonder how many of us will ever see the sun again. When my eyes fall on Peeta, whose head rests right by my feet, I see he’s awake.I wish I could read what’s going on in his mind, that I could go in and untangle the mess of lies. Then I settle for something I can accomplish. Have you eaten? I ask. A slight shake of his head indicates he hasn’t. I open a can of chicken and rice soup and hand it to him, keeping the lid in case he tries to slit his wrists with it or something. He sits up and tilts the can, chugging back the soup without really bothering to chew it. The bottom of the can reflects the lights from the machines, and I remember something that’s been itching at the back of my mind since yesterday.Peeta, when you asked about what happened to Darius and Lavinia, and Boggs told you it was real, you said you thought so. Because there was nothing shiny about it. What did you mean? Oh. I don’t know exactly how to explain it, he tells me. In the beginning, everything was just complete confusion. Now I can sort certain things out. I think there’s a pattern emerging. The memories they altered with the tracker jacker venom have this strange quality about them. Like they’re too intense or the images aren’t stable. You remember what it was like when we were stung? Trees shattered.There were giant colored butterflies. I fell in a pit of orange bubbles. I think about it. Shiny orange bubbles. Right. But nothing about Darius or Lavinia was like that. I don’t think they’d given me any venom yet, he says. Well, that’s good, isn’t it? I ask. If you can separate the two, then you can figure out what’s true. Yes. And if I could grow wings, I could fly. Only people can’t grow wings, he says. Real or not real? Real, I say. But people don’t need wings to survive. Mockingjays do. He finishes the soup and returns the can to me. In the fluorescent light, the circles under his eyes look like brui ses.There’s still time. You should sleep. Unresisting, he lies back down, but just stares at the needle on one of the dials as it twitches from side to side. Slowly, as I would with a wounded animal, my hand stretches out and brushes a wave of hair from his forehead. He freezes at my touch, but doesn’t recoil. So I continue to gently smooth back his hair. It’s the first time I have voluntarily touched him since the last arena. You’re still trying to protect me. Real or not real, he whispers. Real, I answer. It seems to require more explanation. Because that’s what you and I do. Protect each other.After a minute or so, he drifts off to sleep. Shortly before seven, Pollux and I move among the others, rousing them. There are the usual yawns and sighs that accompany waking. But my ears are picking up something else, too. Almost like a hissing. Perhaps it’s only steam escaping a pipe or the far-off whoosh of one of the trains ¦. I hush the grou p to get a better read on it. There’s a hissing, yes, but it’s not one extended sound. More like multiple exhalations that form words. A single word. Echoing throughout the tunnels. One word. One name. Repeated over and over again. Katniss. 22The grace period has ended. Perhaps Snow had them digging through the night. As soon as the fire died down, anyway. They found Boggs’s remains, briefly felt reassured, and then, as the hours went by without further trophies, began to suspect. At some point, they realized that they had been tricked. And President Snow can’t tolerate being made to look like a fool. It doesn’t matter whether they tracked us to the second apartment or assumed we went directly underground. They know we are down here now and they’ve unleashed something, a pack of mutts probably, bent on finding me. Katniss.I jump at the proximity of the sound. Look frantically for its source, bow loaded, seeking a target to hit. Katniss. Peet a’s lips are barely moving, but there’s no doubt, the name came out of him. Just when I thought he seemed a little better, when I thought he might be inching his way back to me, here is proof of how deep Snow’s poison went. Katniss. Peeta’s programmed to respond to the hissing chorus, to join in the hunt. He’s beginning to stir. There’s no choice. I position my arrow to penetrate his brain. He’ll barely feel a thing. Suddenly, he’s sitting up, eyes wide in alarm, short of breath.Katniss! He whips his head toward me but doesn’t seem to notice my bow, the waiting arrow. Katniss! Get out of here! I hesitate. His voice is alarmed, but not insane. Why? What’s making that sound? I don’t know. Only that it has to kill you, says Peeta. Run! Get out! Go! After my own moment of confusion, I conclude I do not have to shoot him. Relax my bowstring. Take in the anxious faces around me. Whatever it is, it’s after me. It might be a good time to split up. But we’re your guard, says Jackson. And your crew, adds Cressida. I’m not leaving you, Gale says.I look at the crew, armed with nothing but cameras and clipboards. And there’s Finnick with two guns and a trident. I suggest that he give one of his guns to Castor. Eject the blank cartridge from Peeta’s, load it with a real one, and arm Pollux. Since Gale and I have our bows, we hand our guns over to Messalla and Cressida. There’s no time to show them anything but how to point and pull the trigger, but in close quarters, that might be enough. It’s better than being defenseless. Now the only one without a weapon is Peeta, but anyone whispering my name with a bunch of mutts doesn’t need one anyway.We leave the room free of everything but our scent. There’s no way to erase that at the moment. I’m guessing that’s how the hissing things are tracking us, because we haven’t le ft much of a physical trail. The mutts’ noses will be abnormally keen, but possibly the time we spent slogging through water in drainpipes will help throw them. Outside the hum of the room, the hissing becomes more distinct. But it’s also possible to get a better sense of the mutts’ location. They’re behind us, still a fair distance. Snow probably had them released underground near the place where he found Boggs’s body.Theoretically, we should have a good lead on them, although they’re certain to be much faster than we are. My mind wanders to the wolflike creatures in the first arena, the monkeys in the Quarter Quell, the monstrosities I’ve witnessed on television over the years, and I wonder what form these mutts will take. Whatever Snow thinks will scare me the most. Pollux and I have worked out a plan for the next leg of our journey, and since it heads away from the hissing, I see no reason to alter it. If we move swiftly, maybe we can reach Snow’s mansion before the mutts reach us.But there’s a sloppiness that comes with speed: the poorly placed boot that results in a splash, the accidental clang of a gun against a pipe, even my own commands, issued too loudly for discretion. We’ve covered about three more blocks via an overflow pipe and a section of neglected train track when the screams begin. Thick, guttural. Bouncing off the tunnel walls. Avoxes, says Peeta immediately. That’s what Darius sounded like when they tortured him. The mutts must have found them, says Cressida. So they’re not just after Katniss, says Leeg 1. They’ll probably kill anyone. It’s just that they won’t stop until they get to her, says Gale.After his hours studying with Beetee, he is most likely right. And here I am again. With people dying because of me. Friends, allies, complete strangers, losing their lives for the Mockingjay. Let me go on alone. Lead them off. I’ll tra nsfer the Holo to Jackson. The rest of you can finish the mission. No one’s going to agree to that! says Jackson in exasperation. We’re wasting time! says Finnick. Listen, Peeta whispers. The screams have stopped, and in their absence my name has rebounded, startling in its proximity. It’s below as well as behind us now. Katniss. I nudge Pollux on the shoulder and we start to run.Trouble is, we had planned to descend to a lower level, but that’s out now. When we come to the steps leading down, Pollux and I are scanning for a possible alternative on the Holo when I start gagging. Masks on! orders Jackson. There’s no need for masks. Everyone is breathing the same air. I’m the only one losing my stew because I’m the only one reacting to the odor. Drifting up from the stairwell. Cutting through the sewage. Roses. I begin to tremble. I swerve away from the smell and stumble right out onto the Transfer. Smooth, pastel-colored tiled streets, just like the ones above, but bordered by white brick walls instead of homes.A roadway where delivery vehicles can drive with ease, without the congestion of the Capitol. Empty now, of everything but us. I swing up my bow and blow up the first pod with an explosive arrow, which kills the nest of flesh-eating rats inside. Then I sprint for the next intersection, where I know one false step will cause the ground beneath our feet to disintegrate, feeding us into something labeled Meat Grinder. I shout a warning to the others to stay with me. I plan for us to skirt around the corner and then detonate the Meat Grinder, but another unmarked pod lies in wait.It happens silently. I would miss it entirely if Finnick didn’t pull me to a stop. Katniss! I whip back around, arrow poised for flight, but what can be done? Two of Gale’s arrows already lie useless beside the wide shaft of golden light that radiates from ceiling to floor. Inside, Messalla is as still as a statue, poise d up on the ball of one foot, head tilted back, held captive by the beam. I can’t tell if he’s yelling, although his mouth is stretched wide. We watch, utterly helpless, as the flesh melts off his body like candle wax. Can’t help him! Peeta starts shoving people forward. Can’t!Amazingly, he’s the only one still functional enough to get us moving. I don’t know why he’s in control, when he should be flipping out and bashing my brains in, but that could happen any second. At the pressure of his hand against my shoulder, I turn away from the grisly thing that was Messalla; I make my feet go forward, fast, so fast that I can barely skid to a stop before the next intersection. A spray of gunfire brings down a shower of plaster. I jerk my head from side to side, looking for the pod, before I turn and see the squad of Peacekeepers pounding down the Transfer toward us.With the Meat Grinder pod blocking our way, there’s nothing to do but fire back. They outnumber us two to one, but we’ve still got six original members of the Star Squad, who aren’t trying to run and shoot at the same time. Fish in a barrel, I think, as blossoms of red stain their white uniforms. Three-quarters of them are down and dead when more begin to pour in from the side of the tunnel, the same one I flung myself through to get away from the smell, from the† Those aren’t Peacekeepers. They are white, four-limbed, about the size of a full-grown human, but that’s where the comparisons stop.Naked, with long reptilian tails, arched backs, and heads that jut forward. They swarm over the Peacekeepers, living and dead, clamp on to their necks with their mouths and rip off the helmeted heads. Apparently, having a Capitol pedigree is as useless here as it was in 13. It seems to take only seconds before the Peacekeepers are decapitated. The mutts fall to their bellies and skitter toward us on all fours. This way! I shout , hugging the wall and making a sharp right turn to avoid the pod. When everyone’s joined me, I fire into the intersection, and the Meat Grinder activates.Huge mechanical teeth burst through the street and chew the tile to dust. That should make it impossible for the mutts to follow us, but I don’t know. The wolf and monkey mutts I’ve encountered could leap unbelievably far. The hissing burns my ears, and the reek of roses makes the walls spin. I grab Pollux’s arm. Forget the mission. What’s the quickest way aboveground? There’s no time for checking the Holo. We follow Pollux for about ten yards along the Transfer and go through a doorway. I’m aware of tile changing to concrete, of crawling through a tight, stinking pipe onto a ledge about a foot wide. We’re in the main sewer.A yard below, a poisonous brew of human waste, garbage, and chemical runoff bubbles by us. Parts of the surface are on fire, others emit evil-looking clou ds of vapor. One look tells you that if you fall in, you’re never coming out. Moving as quickly as we dare on the slippery ledge, we make our way to a narrow bridge and cross it. In an alcove at the far side, Pollux smacks a ladder with his hand and points up the shaft. This is it. Our way out. A quick glance at our party tells me something’s off. Wait! Where are Jackson and Leeg One? They stayed at the Grinder to hold the mutts back, says Homes. What?I’m lunging back for the bridge, willing to leave no one to those monsters, when he yanks me back. Don’t waste their lives, Katniss. It’s too late for them. Look! Homes nods to the pipe, where the mutts are slithering onto the ledge. Stand back! Gale shouts. With his explosive-tipped arrows, he rips the far side of the bridge from its foundation. The rest sinks into the bubbles, just as the mutts reach it. For the first time, I get a good look at them. A mix of human and lizard and who knows what else . White, tight reptilian skin smeared with gore, clawed hands and feet, their faces a mess of conflicting features.Hissing, shrieking my name now, as their bodies contort in rage. Lashing out with tails and claws, taking huge chunks of one another or their own bodies with wide, lathered mouths, driven mad by their need to destroy me. My scent must be as evocative to them as theirs is to me. More so, because despite its toxicity, the mutts begin to throw themselves into the foul sewer. Along our bank, everyone opens fire. I choose my arrows without discretion, sending arrowheads, fire, explosives into the mutts’ bodies. They’re mortal, but only just. No natural thing could keep coming with two dozen bullets in it.Yes, we can eventually kill them, only there are so many, an endless supply pouring from the pipe, not even hesitating to take to the sewage. But it’s not their numbers that make my hands shake so. No mutt is good. All are meant to damage you. Some take your life, like the monkeys. Others your reason, like the tracker jackers. However, the true atrocities, the most frightening, incorporate a perverse psychological twist designed to terrify the victim. The sight of the wolf mutts with the dead tributes’ eyes. The sound of the jabberjays replicating Prim’s tortured screams.The smell of Snow’s roses mixed with the victims’ blood. Carried across the sewer. Cutting through even this foulness. Making my heart run wild, my skin turn to ice, my lungs unable to suck air. It’s as if Snow’s breathing right in my face, telling me it’s time to die. The others are shouting at me, but I can’t seem to respond. Strong arms lift me as I blast the head off a mutt whose claws have just grazed my ankle. I’m slammed into the ladder. Hands shoved against the rungs. Ordered to climb. My wooden, puppet limbs obey. Movement slowly brings me back to my senses. I detect one person above me.Pollux. Peeta and Cressida are below. We reach a platform. Switch to a second ladder. Rungs slick with sweat and mildew. At the next platform, my head has cleared and the reality of what’s happened hits me. I begin frantically pulling people up off the ladder. Peeta. Cressida. That’s it. What have I done? What have I abandoned the others to? I’m scrambling back down the ladder when one of my boots kicks someone. Climb! Gale barks at me. I’m back up, hauling him in, peering into the gloom for more. No. Gale turns my face to him and shakes his head. Uniform shredded. Gaping wound in the side of his neck.There’s a human cry from below. Someone’s still alive, I plead. No, Katniss. They’re not coming, says Gale. Only the mutts are. Unable to accept it, I shine the light from Cressida’s gun down the shaft. Far below, I can just make out Finnick, struggling to hang on as three mutts tear at him. As one yanks back his head to take the death b ite, something bizarre happens. It’s as if I’m Finnick, watching images of my life flash by. The mast of a boat, a silver parachute, Mags laughing, a pink sky, Beetee’s trident, Annie in her wedding dress, waves breaking over rocks. Then it’s over.I slide the Holo from my belt and choke out nightlock, nightlock, nightlock. Release it. Hunch against the wall with the others as the explosion rocks the platform and bits of mutt and human flesh shoot out of the pipe and shower us. There’s a clank as Pollux slams a cover over the pipe and locks it in place. Pollux, Gale, Cressida, Peeta, and me. We’re all that’s left. Later, the human feelings will come. Now I’m conscious only of an animal need to keep the remnants of our band alive. We can’t stop here. Someone comes up with a bandage. We tie it around Gale’s neck. Get him to his feet.Only one figure stays huddled against the wall. Peeta, I say. There’s no respo nse. Has he blacked out? I crouch in front of him, pulling his cuffed hands from his face. Peeta? His eyes are like black pools, the pupils dilated so that the blue irises have all but vanished. The muscles in his wrists are hard as metal. Leave me, he whispers. I can’t hang on. Yes. You can! I tell him. Peeta shakes his head. I’m losing it. I’ll go mad. Like them. Like the mutts. Like a rabid beast bent on ripping my throat out. And here, finally here in this place, in these circumstances, I will really have to kill him. And Snow will win.Hot, bitter hatred courses through me. Snow has won too much already today. It’s a long shot, it’s suicide maybe, but I do the only thing I can think of. I lean in and kiss Peeta full on the mouth. His whole body starts shuddering, but I keep my lips pressed to his until I have to come up for air. My hands slide up his wrists to clasp his. Don’t let him take you from me. Peeta’s panting hard as he f ights the nightmares raging in his head. No. I don’t want to ¦ I clench his hands to the point of pain. Stay with me. His pupils contract to pinpoints, dilate again rapidly, and then return to something resembling normalcy.Always, he murmurs. I help Peeta up and address Pollux. How far to the street? He indicates it’s just above us. I climb the last ladder and push open the lid to someone’s utility room. I’m rising to my feet when a woman throws open the door. She wears a bright turquoise silk robe embroidered with exotic birds. Her magenta hair’s fluffed up like a cloud and decorated with gilded butterflies. Grease from the half-eaten sausage she’s holding smears her lipstick. The expression on her face says she recognizes me. She opens her mouth to call for help. Without hesitation, I shoot her through the heart. 23Who the woman was calling to remains a mystery, because after searching the apartment, we find she was alone. Perhaps her cr y was meant for a nearby neighbor, or was simply an expression of fear. At any rate, there’s no one else to hear her. This apartment would be a classy place to hole up in for a while, but that’s a luxury we can’t afford. How long do you think we have before they figure out some of us could’ve survived? I ask. I think they could be here anytime, Gale answers. They knew we were heading for the streets. Probably the explosion will throw them for a few minutes, then they’ll start looking for our exit point.I go to a window that overlooks the street, and when I peek through the blinds, I’m not faced with Peacekeepers but with a bundled crowd of people going about their business. During our underground journey, we have left the evacuated zones far behind and surfaced in a busy section of the Capitol. This crowd offers our only chance of escape. I don’t have a Holo, but I have Cressida. She joins me at the window, confirms she knows our loca tion, and gives me the good news that we aren’t many blocks from the president’s mansion. One glance at my companions tells me this is no time for a stealth attack on Snow.Gale’s still losing blood from the neck wound, which we haven’t even cleaned. Peeta’s sitting on a velvet sofa with his teeth clamped down on a pillow, either fighting off madness or containing a scream. Pollux weeps against the mantel of an ornate fireplace. Cressida stands determinedly at my side, but she’s so pale her lips are bloodless. I’m running on hate. When the energy for that ebbs, I’ll be worthless. Let’s check her closets, I say. In one bedroom we find hundreds of the woman’s outfits, coats, pairs of shoes, a rainbow of wigs, enough makeup to paint a house.In a bedroom across the hall, there’s a similar selection for men. Perhaps they belong to her husband. Perhaps to a lover who had the good luck to be out this morning. I cal l the others to dress. At the sight of Peeta’s bloody wrists, I dig in my pocket for the handcuff key, but he jerks away from me. No, he says. Don’t. They help hold me together. You might need your hands, says Gale. When I feel myself slipping, I dig my wrists into them, and the pain helps me focus, says Peeta. I let them be. Fortunately, it’s cold out, so we can conceal most of our uniforms and weapons under flowing coats and cloaks.We hang our boots around our necks by their laces and hide them, pull on silly shoes to replace them. The real challenge, of course, is our faces. Cressida and Pollux run the risk of being recognized by acquaintances, Gale could be familiar from the propos and news, and Peeta and I are known by every citizen of Panem. We hastily help one another apply thick layers of makeup, pull on wigs and sunglasses. Cressida wraps scarves over Peeta’s and my mouths and noses. I can feel the clock ticking away, but stop for just a few mome nts to stuff pockets with food and first-aid supplies. Stay together, I say at the front door.Then we march right into the street. Snow flurries have begun to fall. Agitated people swirl around us, speaking of rebels and hunger and me in their affected Capitol accents. We cross the street, pass a few more apartments. Just as we turn the corner, three dozen Peacekeepers sweep past us. We hop out of their way, as the real citizens do, wait until the crowd returns to its normal flow, and keep moving. Cressida, I whisper. Can you think of anywhere? I’m trying, she says. We cover another block, and the sirens begin. Through an apartment window, I see an emergency report and pictures of our faces flashing.They haven’t identified who in our party died yet, because I see Castor and Finnick among the photos. Soon every passerby will be as dangerous as a Peacekeeper. Cressida? There’s one place. It’s not ideal. But we can try it, she says. We follow her a few more blocks and turn through a gate into what looks like a private residence. It’s some kind of shortcut, though, because after walking through a manicured garden, we come out of another gate onto a small back street that connects two main avenues. There are a few poky stores†one that buys used goods, another that sells fake jewelry.Only a couple of people are around, and they pay no attention to us. Cressida begins to babble in a high-pitched voice about fur undergarments, how essential they are during the cold months. Wait until you see the prices! Believe me, it’s half what you pay on the avenues! We stop before a grimy storefront filled with mannequins in furry underwear. The place doesn’t even look open, but Cressida pushes through the front door, setting off a dissonant chiming. Inside the dim, narrow shop lined with racks of merchandise, the smell of pelts fills my nose.Business must be slow, since we’re the only customers. Cressida heads straight for a hunched figure sitting in the back. I follow, trailing my fingers through the soft garments as we go. Behind a counter sits the strangest person I’ve ever seen. She’s an extreme example of surgical enhancement gone wrong, for surely not even in the Capitol could they find this face attractive. The skin has been pulled back tightly and tattooed with black and gold stripes. The nose has been flattened until it barely exists. I’ve seen cat whiskers on people in the Capitol before, but none so long.The result is a grotesque, semi-feline mask, which now squints at us distrustfully. Cressida takes off her wig, revealing her vines. Tigris, she says. We need help. Tigris. Deep in my brain, the name rings a bell. She was a fixture†a younger, less disturbing version of herself†in the earliest Hunger Games I can remember. A stylist, I think. I don’t remember for which district. Not 12. Then she must have had one operation too many and crossed the line into repellence. So this is where stylists go when they’ve outlived their use. To sad theme underwear shops where they wait for death.Out of the public eye. I stare at her face, wondering if her parents actually named her Tigris, inspiring her mutilation, or if she chose the style and changed her name to match her stripes. Plutarch said you could be trusted, adds Cressida. Great, she’s one of Plutarch’s people. So if her first move isn’t to turn us in to the Capitol, it will be to notify Plutarch, and by extension Coin, of our whereabouts. No, Tigris’s shop is not ideal, but it’s all we have at the moment. If she’ll even help us. She’s peering between an old television on her counter and us, as if trying to place us.To help her, I pull down my scarf, remove my wig, and step closer so that the light of the screen falls on my face. Tigris gives a low growl, not unlike one Buttercup might greet me with. She slinks down off he r stool and disappears behind a rack of fur-lined leggings. There’s a sound of sliding, and then her hand emerges and waves us forward. Cressida looks at me, as if to ask Are you sure? But what choice do we have? Returning to the streets under these conditions guarantees our capture or death. I push around the furs and find Tigris has slid back a panel at the base of the wall.Behind it seems to be the top of a steep stone stairway. She gestures for me to enter. Everything about the situation screams trap. I have a moment of panic and find myself turning to Tigris, searching those tawny eyes. Why is she doing this? She’s no Cinna, someone willing to sacrifice herself for others. This woman was the embodiment of Capitol shallowness. She was one of the stars of the Hunger Games until ¦until she wasn’t. So is that it, then? Bitterness? Hatred? Revenge? Actually, I’m comforted by the idea. A need for revenge can burn long and hot. Especially if every glance in a mirror reinforces it.Did Snow ban you from the Games? I ask. She just stares back at me. Somewhere her tiger tail flicks with displeasure. Because I’m going to kill him, you know. Her mouth spreads into what I take for a smile. Reassured that this isn’t complete madness, I crawl through the space. About halfway down the steps, my face runs into a hanging chain and I pull it, illuminating the hideout with a flickering fluorescent bulb. It’s a small cellar with no doors or windows. Shallow and wide. Probably just a strip between two real basements. A place whose existence could go unnoticed unless you had a very keen eye for dimensions.It’s cold and dank, with piles of pelts that I’m guessing haven’t seen the light of day in years. Unless Tigris gives us up, I don’t believe anyone will find us here. By the time I reach the concrete floor, my companions are on the steps. The panel slides back in place. I hear the underwear rack bein g adjusted on squeaky wheels. Tigris padding back to her stool. We have been swallowed up by her store. Just in time, too, because Gale looks on the verge of collapse. We make a bed of pelts, strip off his layers of weapons, and help him onto his back. At the end of the cellar, there’s a faucet about a foot from the floor with a drain under it.I turn the tap and, after much sputtering and a lot of rust, clear water begins to flow. We clean Gale’s neck wound and I realize bandages won’t be enough. He’s going to need a few stitches. There’s a needle and sterile thread in the first-aid supplies, but what we lack is a healer. It crosses my mind to enlist Tigris. As a stylist, she must know how to work a needle. But that would leave no one manning the shop, and she’s doing enough already. I accept that I’m probably the most qualified for the job, grit my teeth, and put in a row of jagged sutures. It’s not pretty but it’s func tional.I smear it with medicine and wrap it up. Give him some painkillers. You can rest now. It’s safe here, I tell him. He goes out like a light. While Cressida and Pollux make fur nests for each of us, I attend to Peeta’s wrists. Gently rinsing away the blood, putting on an antiseptic, and bandaging them beneath the cuffs. You’ve got to keep them clean, otherwise the infection could spread and† I know what blood poisoning is, Katniss, says Peeta. Even if my mother isn’t a healer. I’m jolted back in time, to another wound, another set of bandages. You said that same thing to me in the first Hunger Games.Real or not real? Real, he says. And you risked your life getting the medicine that saved me? Real. I shrug. You were the reason I was alive to do it. Was I? The comment throws him into confusion. Some shiny memory must be fighting for his attention, because his body tenses and his newly bandaged wrists strain against the metal cuffs. Then al l the energy saps from his body. I’m so tired, Katniss. Go to sleep, I say. He won’t until I’ve rearranged his handcuffs and shackled him to one of the stair supports. It can’t be comfortable, lying there with his arms above his head.But in a few minutes, he drifts off, too. Cressida and Pollux have made beds for us, arranged our food and medical supplies, and now ask what I want to do about setting up a guard. I look at Gale’s pallor, Peeta’s restraints. Pollux hasn’t slept for days, and Cressida and I only napped for a few hours. If a troop of Peacekeepers were to come through that door, we’d be trapped like rats. We are completely at the mercy of a decrepit tiger-woman with what I can only hope is an all-consuming passion for Snow’s death. I don’t honestly think there’s any point in setting up a guard.Let’s just try to get some sleep, I say. They nod numbly, and we all burrow into our pelts. The f ire inside me has flickered out, and with it my strength. I surrender to the soft, musty fur and oblivion. I have only one dream I remember. A long and wearying thing in which I’m trying to get to District 12. The home I’m seeking is intact, the people alive. Effie Trinket, conspicuous in a bright pink wig and tailored outfit, travels with me. I keep trying to ditch her in places, but she inexplicably reappears at my side, insisting that as my escort she’s responsible for my staying on schedule.Only the schedule is constantly shifting, derailed by our lack of a stamp from an official or delayed when Effie breaks one of her high heels. We camp for days on a bench in a gray station in District 7, awaiting a train that never comes. When I wake, somehow I feel even more drained by this than my usual nighttime forays into blood and terror. Cressida, the only person awake, tells me it’s late afternoon. I eat a can of beef stew and wash it down with a lot of wat er. Then I lean against the cellar wall, retracing the