Unit-2 Text-2 Three Days to See-Helen Adams Keller

Unit-2

THREE DAYS TO SEE

                                 -Helen Keller

Helen Keller became totally blind and deaf at the age of nineteen months following an illness. Mrs. Anne Sullivan Macy, her teacher in her childhood, opened the outer world to her and made her life worth living.

Though deprived of the light of the world and the gift and blessings of sight, Helen Keller had the awareness of the pleasures and beauty of the world. Her heart longed to see all things. After all, if one had determination and a sense of purpose, closed doors would open. She knew how to see her sight. She would urge people blessed with sight to awaken their inactive and lazy faculties. If she were given three days to sight, she would illustrate how she would make use of her eyes.

On the first day of sight, Helen Keller would see all the people and her teacher who made her life worth living with kindness, gentleness and companionship. Thus, she expressed her gratitude to all those who helped her. After all, ingratitude is the greatest sin.

Helen Keller was a voracious reader and had a number of books read to her by others. She treated these books as a great shining lighthouse that revealed to her human life and human spirit. In fact, Helen Keller was an intense human being with concern and compassion for the poor and the underdog. She would like to see the patient horses ploughing in the field and living close to the soil and toiling in the city. Helen Keller would like to visit slims, factories, parks where children played and foreign quarters to see sights of happiness and misery and understand how people worked and lived. She knew that happiness and misery were part of life. To close her eyes on them was like closing the eyes on the heart and the mind. So, she always kept her eyes open wide. She was also conscious of comedy in the human spirit. That was the reason why she wanted to see funny plays in the theater.

Helen Keller would urge all those who had eyes to see things with a sense of urgency so that whatever they saw would become dear to them. Then a new world of beauty would open itself before them.

Since a thing of beauty is joy forever, Helen Keller, with an aesthetic sense, would like to go to the New York Museum of Natural History and the Metropolitan Museum of Art to witness the progress of man in the material aspects of the world and the various aspects of human spirit respectively. She was a lover of art which had a meaning for her. She would probe into the soul of man through his art.

Blindness and deafness were by no means matters of disadvantage to Helen Keller. She was courageous, dynamic, imaginative and intelligent. She exploited her short comings and turned them into her best gifts through which she mastered life and the world. She proved that she was greater than those that had sight and hearing. In short, she conquered the world. She stood like a rock and weathered the storm. She was by no means a pessimist and a fatalist, but an optimist. Though outwardly blind, Helen Keller developed an inner vision of life. What is more, she used her talents for the good of others. When she saw smiles, she was happy. When she saw serious determination, she was proud. When she saw suffering, she was compassionate. A lone and blind woman, she set an example to others and gave hope to the hopeless. She was a humanist.

Unit-2, Text - 1 Risk Management

Unit-2 Text-1

Risk Management

India is a major resource center for big corporations around the world. India has a huge labour market. So many business houses rely on this country for their manufacturing operations. However, taking the services of Indian labourers is fraught with many risks at various levels. Particularly there are social issues that have an adverse effect on the status of India as a resource center for big foreign corporations.

One of the social issues involved is the use of child labour and sweatshops. Another adverse issue is safety. If safety of workers is not taken care of, there will be problems in three core business areas, namely, brand reputation, operational efficiency and revenue generation.

The fact that manufacturing operations are risky and unsafe was proved when there was major fire accident in a cracker unit at Sivakasi in September 2012. The fire took the lives of 38 workers and destroyed the factory. The fire quickly spread to a number of adjoining factories and burned the recent stock of fireworks manufactured. The heat was so intense that many local villagers were hurt. The fire and flames lasted five hours. The firefighters struggled hard to put out the fire.

In South Asia, te working conditions in factories are horrible. They are all death traps for workers. The exit points are closed in many factories. Since the workers enter the factories, they can not go out because the exit points are locked. Basements of the factories are used as storerooms for highly inflammable raw materials. Fire escapes are not installed and smoke alarms and sprinkler systems are totally absent. Safety measures are strictly implemented in America and other developed countries. They will be horrified by the conditions in South Asia. In fact, fire services in South Asia are among the least developed in the world. Therefore, they are prone to accidents and disasters. Specially, industrial zones in India encroach into residential slum areas. Disasters are possible in such areas.  In Bangladesh, there were more than six hundred deaths caused by factory fire accidents in five years. In spite of all these disasters and deaths, foreign corporations employ manufacturers of other countries since labour charges are low here. It is very important that the developed countries must extend their risk management efforts to the suppliers and partners in South Asian countries and other regions. If this is not done, the foreign corporations have to incur heavy revenue losses.

Criminal negligence seems to be the cause of factory disasters in India and other countries. As a result, India’s reputation is damaged. India must create a safe work environment in the fabric and textile factories before fire accidents occur.

It is clear that outsourcing and the third party companies extend much benefit to the businesses in developed countries, but financial and social risks must be tackled first. The relationship must be mutually beneficial. The foreign corporations must assess and monitor the risks from time to time and develop good and helpful risk management strategies.