Essays on Ivon's Blog

The Bureaucratic Theory of Max Weber

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Thu, 05 Jan 2023 00:00:00 +0800

The fate of our times is characterized by rationalization and intellectualization and, above all, by the disenchantment of the world. (Weber)

How does an organization work? The hierarchy of an organization or a company should have clear rules positions and powers. Instead of hiring employee by having the inside track, the ability of a person is more important. He is the founder of Bureaucratic School of Classical Organization Theory. Weber’s management theory is beneficial to the large organization such as the government because he made a clear rules of an organization and explained how they should behavior in detailed.

Max Weber. Wikipedia.

First of all, Max Weber indicated the connection between Protestantism and Capitalism. Maximilian Karl Emil Weber was born in 1864. His parents are all Protestants. He joined “Verein für Sozialpolitik” in 1888 and proposed the concept of “Wertfreiheit” which said that conducting researches should be subjective, not objective, especially in sociology studies.

In 1905, he published “Die protestantische Ethik und der Geist des Kapitalismus” In his book, he stated that there is a connection between Protestants and Capitalism to some extents. It is the doctrine of the Capitalism that empower the development of Capitalism. For example, he quoted what Benjamin Franklin once said:

Remember, that time is money. He that can earn ten shillings a day by his labor, and goes abroad, or sits idle, one half of that day, though he spends but sixpence during his diversion or idleness, ought not to reckon that the only expense; he has really spent, or rather thrown away, five shillings besides.

He also argued that according to Protestants religious, an individual was religiously compelled to follow a secular vocation (German: Beruf, English: “calling”) with as much zeal as possible. A person living was more likely to accumulate money. That is, Weber combined economic sociology and the sociology of religion, emphasizing the importance of cultural influences embedded in religion as a means for understanding the genesis of capitalism.

Second, he started to conduct new researches and developed his theory of bureaucracy, also known as rational model.

He indicated that the bureaucracy is “based on the general principle of precisely defined and organized across-the-board competencies of the various offices” which are “underpinned by rules, laws, or administrative regulations.”

This also includes two actors, the public sector and private sector. He wrote the three essences of the private sector:

A rigid division of labor is established that clearly identifies regular tasks and duties of the particular bureaucratic system.
Regulations describe firmly established chains of command and the duties and capacity to coerce others to comply.
Hiring people with particular, certified qualifications supports regular and continuous execution of the assigned duties.

Also there are nine principles of bureaucracy:

Specialized roles
Recruitment based on merits
Uniform principles of placement, promotion, and transfer in an administrative system
Careerism with systematic salary structure
Hierarchy, responsibility and accountability
Subjection of official conduct to strict rules of discipline and control
Supremacy of abstract rules
Impersonal authority
Political neutrality

The Power of Non-Violent Actions

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Wed, 28 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0800

Introduction
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100 years ago, India was one of a colonies of The Great Britain. Under the rule of the British, the Indians were discriminated and got massacred. Therefore, in 1919, Mahatma Gandhi started Satyagraha, also known as “Non-cooperation movement” in search of the independence of India.

Mahatma Gandhi. Wikipedia.

The central concept of the movements were non-violent actions of fighting with the British government, such as not paying taxes, not going to public school, etc. Eventually, Gandhi was sent to prison because of these campaigns, but the government was forced to amend new law to let the Indians have more civil rights. Non-violent actions are good methods to win justice and protect people’s rights. Though during the movement of India independence, violent actions still happened a lot in the India. But it was still a good examples of how people fight with the unreasonable power, so did the Martin Luther King perform in the civil rights movements in 1960s. Hence, the successful non-violent actions should be practiced in the first place, which could be performed in many ways and a variety of goals, and these campaigns can help people to gain the power and protect their rights.

Motivation of people
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The first cause of successful nonviolent actions is motivations of people and society. The motivations are originated from people’s willingness. In his article “Agents of Change and Nonviolent Action,” Hardy Merriam (2008) writes that “nonviolent action is based on the insight that power in a society is ultimately derived from people’s consent and obedience” (p. 165). That is, the desire of changing is originating from people’s minds. So, people do nonviolent actions to change the world. Apart from the people’s mind, the power of society is another important cause.

Motivation for the society
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The second cause of successful nonviolent actions is motivations of the society. In this case, people in society are forced to do some non-fierce actions. In her article “Eve’s Daughter,” Miriam Polster (2001) says that “The hero profoundly believes in the value and dignity of human life. The one act that most people would agree is heroic is risking one’s life to save another” (p.161). Though nonviolent activists should not resort to the violence, they may be hurt by the government. But people who participated in the nonviolent actions risk their life to fight the government in soft ways. In short, two of the basic elements of nonviolent actions can ensure the success of the nonviolent actions.

Short term goals
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The fist kind of goal of nonviolent actions is short-term goals. The main goal of this stage is to give pressure the government to compromise. BK Community (2013) writes in his article “30 Examples of Successful Non Violent Action” that the anti-nuclear power groups had campaigns against the start-up of various nuclear power plants across the US. Nonviolent activists should always know that their goal is to make the government to sit and start a conversation. Instead of causing riot, people who participated in nonviolent actions should keep calm. In short, the short term goal of nonviolent action is to negotiate with the government.

The Comparison and Contrast of A6M Zero and Ki-43 Oscar

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Mon, 12 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0800

Mitsubishi A6M Zero VS Nakajima Ki-43 Oscar.

Introduction
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In 1937, Imperial Japanese Army and Navy invaded China and start to bomb its cities. In the sky, China relied on volunteered pilots from USSR and the US to fight against Japanese aircraft. However, American were shocked by Japanese aircraft, which were very agile, good at dogfighting. The fastest P-40s could not catch them up in turning fights and always got shot down by Japanese fighters, Zero and Hayabusa. The codenames given by Allied forces were “Zeke” and “Oscar”. Zero and Oscar have some similar characteristics, but they also have significant differences.

Ki-43 Oscar. Wikipedia.

Please look at the following comparison chart:

A6M Zero VS Ki-43 Oscar. Author: Me

Similarities
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One of the similarities between the two aircraft is their air battle tactics. Before the Pacific War, both the Army and the Navy focused on turn-fighting tactics. Due to good battle records of last-generation biplanes in China, pilots preferred agile and light aircraft. It is because that a light and maneuverable aircraft can easily get to enemy aircraft’s six and shoot them down, while the enemy aircraft is hardly to dodge attacks. However, during the diving test of Ki-43, the prototype aircraft disintegrated in the air, so the Army gave up the extreme standard of turning time and strengthened the structure of the aircraft. In comparison, Zero’s designer did not notice the problem above during the test and have the aircraft have many holes on the structure to lighten its weight.

Aircraft Battle Tactic
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Another similarity of these fighters is their design. Because Japanese was good at producing air-cooled engine, few of the aircraft were powered by liquid-cooled engines, which was a mainstream in western countries. Both Zero and Oscar were powered by Nakajima Sakae engine(970 hp). The name differs from code given by the Army and the Navy. The Army called it “Ha-25”, whereas the Navy called it “Sakae”. Though the engine was considered of a copycat of the US Pratt&Whitney R1830 engine, but it was smaller, which is suitable for fighters.

Used for Kamikaze Attack
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Not only the Zeros but the Oscars were used for Kamikaze attacks. After defeat in Philippines, Japanese started asking pilots to do kamikaze, also known as suicide attack. Similarly, Zero and Oscar would carry one to two bombs, get close to US ships and dive into them. Unfortunately, in the late days of the war, Japanese aircraft could not match with the US aircraft due to technology differences. Neither the Army aircraft nor the Navy aircraft could destroy any big ships. Most ships sunk by kamikaze were destroyers and escort aircraft carriers.

Differences
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Despite the similarities in air battle tactics and designs, there are differences between two aircraft. Armaments

How did the RAF win the Battle of Britain

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Fri, 09 Dec 2022 00:00:00 +0800

This year (2021) is the 81th anniversary of the Battle of Britain. On 15th September 1940, The Battle of Britain Day was officially named by Royal Air Force because they claimed it was a victory over the Luffwaffe (German Air Force). It was the first fight majorly fought by air forces, and the biggest aerial bombing campaign. The victory of the UK can result from the fights of Royal Air Forces and the highly effective air defensive network.

Heinkel He-111. Wikipedia.

Royal Air Force prevented German from invading The United Kingdom. In 1940, Allied and French forces got beat by German Forces. After allied troops has retreated from Dunkrik, Adolf Hitler has made a plan called Unternehem Seelowe in order to invade Great Britain. At first, Luffwaffe delivered many bombers such as Junkers Ju-88, Henkiel He-111, Donier Do-17 to France. Since bombers took off from bases which were closed to Strait of Dover, the mainly raiding targets of Luffwaffe were London and other coastal cities. Though Luffwaffe conducted a lot of air raids against British industrial targets for several months, the British didn’t surrender, especially those fighters — Royal Air Force pilots of Supermarine Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane. Because over a year, Luffwaffe could not gain the air superiority, Führer was forced to canceled his operation of landing on Great Britain.

owever, not only the RAF pilots but also people of the so called Dowding system contributed to the victory of the Battle of Britain. “The battle of France is over, I expected the Battle of Britain is about to begin.” Winston Churchill said in June 18, 1940. Before German started to attack the UK, the British had done many defensive measures for the war by creating home guards and building coast crusts. What’s more, the British brought radars and fighters into a unified defensive system. Hence, there were many causes of the winning of the battle.

One of the main cause of victory was RAF pilots and their fighters. In 1940, Messerschmitt Bf-109 was the backbone of Luffwaffe. It was a fast, single-seat fighter. The E variants, which equipped with two MGFF20mm cannons and two 7.7mm machine guns, were the most advanced aircraft in Europe sky. In contrast, RAF was on the way of fastening the production of newly counterparts of Bf-109, the Supermarine Spitfire Mk.I because most of RAF squadrons were equipped slow, but reliable Hawker Hurricanes. Though British fighters were outnumbered by Luffwaffe, they didn’t give up any chance and keep intercepting German bombers. Pilots from Ukraine, French, Canada and Poland joined the battle, fly with British pilots for they were in the same boats with The British, even though some of them couldn’t speak English.

Another cause of the lost of Luffwaffe was their bad strategies. Bf-109 could escort bombers to London, but its flight length was rather short, that is, fighters could only dogfight with British fighters for 10 minutes. After that fighters must retreat quickly or they would fall into the sea and pilots would be captured by the British. What’s more, although twin-engined heavy fighter Bf-110s were able to escort bombers, they could not dogfight with Spitfires. Thus, without cover from fighters, bombers became lambs to be slaughtered by the British fighters. Because He-111s only had small caliber defensive machine guns, while the Spitfires were equipped with 2 times of machine guns (8x 7.7mm Vickers) and 4 times for the Hurricanes (12x 7.7mm Vickers) As a result of short flight range of escort fighters, more and more bombers were easily got shot down, mostly by Hawker Hurricanes.

Analyzing the Elements in Children’s Books: The Wind in the Willows

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Sat, 25 Jun 2022 13:00:00 +0800

Student: Ivon Huang
National Pingtung University
June 2022

Abstract
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Reading children’s literature is beneficial to readers, both children and adults, since it makes readers to understand other people’s feelings. Also, young readers can achieve a positive mental thought from observing actions of characters in the children’s books. For readers who want to select qualified children’s literature book for their children, this study analyzed three elements of children’s literature. They are the round characters and the flat charters, two different kinds of conflicts and explicit theme of children’s literature. These elements can be used to find the qualified children’s books.

The famous British children book “The Wind in the Willows” by Grahame, Kenneth (1908) was selected for studying. In this study, the researcher would analyze the elements of children’s literature in The Wind in The Willows. The major finding is that the round characters, such as Toad, would make changes after conflicts. Also, flat characters are also important to the story since they could push the story moving forward. What’s more, round characters are dynamic who have the capacity of changing in the story. This would lead to the explicit theme of the book: the friendship among round characters. These findings proved the qualified children’s literature elements do exist in The Wind in The Willows. It is helpful for people who are interested in children’s literature.

Keywords: children’s literature, conflicts, round character, explicit theme, flat character

Chapter One Introduction
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Why should we read children’s literature? Imagine being a child who can barely speak and express his or her feelings, so that he or she would need something to help him or her to develop skills of speaking and writing. This could be done in many ways, by reading children’s literature, especially those were written for children, are very useful to them. Lukens (2007) suggested that while children developing their language skills, they will be able to express their emotions in better ways and understand other people’s feelings (Lukens, 2007, p.xxiv). Besides, the adults would also benefit from reading and evaluating children’s literature. Thus, they would learn how to select qualified children’s books for their children to read. Also, adults could understand the views of children from these works.

The purpose of this research is to analyze the elements of children’s literature books: Character, conflicts and theme. These literary elements made qualified children’s books. What’s more, readers will know to evaluate and select good children’s literature books for their children. The researcher selected the well-known British children’s literature book: The Wind in The Willows for studying. It was a children’s literature book by British author Kenneth Graham which was published in 1908. The story is mainly about the friendship and adventures of four animals. These characters have different kind of personalities which will cause many conflicts, battles among all characters in the story. Hence here comes three research questions of this study:

Electronic Waste Goes to Developing countries

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Thu, 16 Jun 2022 06:01:30 +0800

Imagine this: In order to go to pay your tuition, you have to pick up valuables for reselling in landfills every day. Many rich countries, including Taiwan, illegally export their electronic-wastes to poorer countries to deal with. This makes these countries become recycler’s dump site extensions. We should recycle electronic wastes decidedly, or they will destroy our Earth. I will focus on three major negative impacts of electronic waste: How does it harm , local environment, global economy and the local worker’s rights.

1. Effect on the Environment
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Improper disposal of e-waste has bad impact on the Earth. Most of e-wastes contains toxic materials such as lead, zinc, nickel, chromium. After being deposited in landfills, the toxic materials contaminated land, water and the air. In the documentary “Toxic City in Ghana”, a German expert stated “The recommendations of WHO of lead in part of soil is 100. And in here there are 3000 of them.” Besides, Mijke Hertoghs of UN’s ITU indicated that developed countries that signed the Basel convention have their own recycle system, while in many countries don’t. In Ghana, waste-pickers who live next to landfills are inevitable to suffer from infertility, miscarriage, tumors, endocrine diseases and birth defects. To sum up, without formal recycling system, the environment will be devastated by e-wastes eventually.

2. Effect on Global Economy
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E-wastes that buried in landfills leads to globally economic loss. A UN report indicated that every year, at least 10 billion dollars’ worth of precious metals are dumped. The total value of these is estimated at US$47 billion, which is greater than GDP in most countries. But another report said that only 17.4% of 53 million tones was recycled in 2019, just $10 billions of precious metals were recycled. This leads to $47 billion economic loss and lots of precious metals. In short, e-wastes that are not properly recycled can harm global economic to some degree.

3. Violations of Local Workers’ Rights
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Rights of e-waste recyclers who are exposed to dangerous toxins are sacrificed. E-waste industry in developing countries is a surviving matter. Because of the lack of formal recycling system, 40% of workers who work in landfills in Ghana are children. While in India, about 35,000 to 45,000 children involving in “waste-pickers”. What’s worse, workers do not have technologies to process e-wastes in a responsible manner. Men and children use primitive skills to extract metals. Thus, they are more likely to develop chronic diseases. Plus, only a little they will earn from reselling precious metals. In Guiyu, China, e-waste pickers earn $1.50 a day, according to ILO’s report. In brief, worker’s rights in developing countries were not guaranteed because of informal recycling system.

Conclusion
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In conclusion, we should recycle e-wastes more aggressive or they will destroy our Earth. People should know what will their electronic devices go, and who and what will be affected. First, e-waste disposal in improper way will damage the Earth. Second, e-wastes that are not recycled are great waste of resources. Third, e-waste pickers’ rights got violated in the toxic working environment. Just like Pam Shoemaker once said “When you put the whole picture together, recycling is the right thing to do.”

Should Red Light District be set up in Taiwan?

infoivonblog.nkfjt@aleeas.com (Ivon Huang) — Wed, 16 Jun 2021 04:01:30 +0800

Chinese version

Lying and waiting is underprivileged groups’ deal. In order to improve and protect the rights of sex workers, Social Maintenance Act Article 91-1 legalized the red light district and it can be set up in Taiwan. However, there are still no red light district to be set up in Taiwan as most mayors opposed. In 2018, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said that because the case of setting red light district involved the Law on SOMA and other relevant laws and regulations, and it has not opened the addition of business items in the “sex work industry”. Eventually, the proposal of COWAS was declined. The further amendment of the law is necessary instead of hastily setting up red light district. Some mayors said that if the central government could make related measurements, they would not opposed to setting up red light districts. The Red light district should not be set up in Taiwan because of the unclear law management methods. I will focus on three aspects: the live hood of sex workers, health issues, society problems.

1. Live hood of sex workers
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Opponents claim that once the prostitution become a normal profession, the sex workers will be less likely to get exploited and have more stable income. It is true that the income of sex workers should be more stable because the prices are regulated by the government. However, though the prices becomes fixed, their income may not increase but get lower. Although ‘Measures for the Administration of Public Prostitution in Taipei City’ writes that “The pick-up fee is divided into A, B, C, etc. according to its regulations.”, sex workers still got exploited in Taipei red light district. In Amsterdam, sex workers need at least 4 clients a day to pay high rents and taxes since they are independent workers. Because of stigmatization of society and privacy issues, sex workers may not register and choose the illegal path. How can we say that the income of sex workers is deemed to increase if the red-light district exists? In conclusion, the live hood of sex workers will not be improved in red light district.

2. Health issues
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Opponents argues that red light district can lower the risk of transmit SPD because Article 91-1 of the SOMA writes that:” A sex service provider shall be registered, licensed and undergo health checkup periodically. One cannot deny that licensed sex workers would be safer than unlicensed for their customers. However the risks are still cannot be ignored. The periodically health check is only required for the prostitutes, but not required for the clients, even in the former sex zone in Taipei. And, 74% of sex workers were unaware of their HIV infection, although most reported they had done tests, according to a research. Gonorrhea, chlamydia, and syphilis are soon to show up in tests, however the most serious HIV takes at least four weeks to show up. Finally, sex workers may suffer from depression and post-traumatic stress, which leads to low confidence on leaving prostitution. In short, the lack of protecting measurements cannot protect sex workers and clients effectively.

Essays on Ivon's Blog

The Bureaucratic Theory of Max Weber

The Power of Non-Violent Actions

Introduction #

Motivation of people #

Motivation for the society #

Short term goals #

The Comparison and Contrast of A6M Zero and Ki-43 Oscar

Introduction #

Similarities #

Aircraft Battle Tactic #

Used for Kamikaze Attack #

Differences #

How did the RAF win the Battle of Britain

Analyzing the Elements in Children’s Books: The Wind in the Willows

Abstract #

Chapter One Introduction #

Electronic Waste Goes to Developing countries

1. Effect on the Environment #

2. Effect on Global Economy #

3. Violations of Local Workers’ Rights #

Conclusion #

Should Red Light District be set up in Taiwan?

1. Live hood of sex workers #

2. Health issues #

Introduction
#

Motivation of people
#

Motivation for the society
#

Short term goals
#

Introduction
#

Similarities
#

Aircraft Battle Tactic
#

Used for Kamikaze Attack
#

Differences
#

Abstract
#

Chapter One Introduction
#

1. Effect on the Environment
#

2. Effect on Global Economy
#

3. Violations of Local Workers’ Rights
#

Conclusion
#

1. Live hood of sex workers
#

2. Health issues
#