Knowledge Essays (681 words) - Scientific Method, Free Essays

Knowledge Essays (681 words) - Scientific Method, Free Essays Knowledge is good for human being because I can use it to make anything to support my live better. However, knowledge is nothing to compare to imagination in human society. Imagination is used when I am curious about a problem, and I want to know and to understand how it happens. After I understand it, I put all its information into knowledge that can be easily understood for other people. If I put a condition or a rule into the imagination of a phenomenon, I have a hypothesis that guilds me understand the phenomenon deeply. A hypothesis is the first step to invest a phenomenon. A hypothesis helps me to focus on one path when I invest a phenomenon. During an investigation, I will discover many unexpected events that could distract my thoughts about my first goal, and I will waste more time. For example, my friend and I have a race to see who is first at home from our school, and he walks to home while I use a bike. The result is he wins. In my thoughts, walking cant be faster than a bike because I know the road well, so I want to know how he did it. I see three paths that are new roads in front of me when I walk to home, and I need to decide which path I go. On the chosen road, I see a walking path and a bike path, and there are many bikes to use if I chose bike path. If I use bike, I change the tool to go home from feet to bike, and it changes the purpose when I walk to home, so I keep walking. There is a new shortcut that is easy for walking to go straight to my house from the road, and it takes a long time if I use a bike. The hypothesis I make at the beginning is walk to home to see if its faster than a bike, and I prepared myself to have a solution for walking problems. Moreover, a hypothesis helps me to prepare many solutions if there is a problem in an investigation. To have a hypothesis in an investigation, I need to assume the problem behavior is similar to other problems I faced, so I can prepare better solutions. Back to the home walking example, I planned to walk home and chose one of three paths, so I need to make sure my safety because of the new path. During the time, I could observe the new environment to update my information. I guess my friend uses a shortcut to be faster than me, so I watch carefully around me and find one. That shortcut has a high rock wall that is hard to get through by a bike, but its easy for feet. If I dont have any hypothesis how my friend does it, I cant find the shortcut by observing everything on my path. In addition, a hypothesis helps an investor to have different views about a phenomenon. With different views, the investor can understand phenomenon more clearly and get a better picture about it. Back to my walking home example, I can see a shortcut easily because I assume there is one. However, if there isnt any shortcut, so I need to think any possible ways, such as the shortcut could be replaced by a very high wall or my friend goes through a house by back door. For each view, I need to examine to find an accepted solution how my friend can walk to home fast while I ride a bike. Indeed, a hypothesis gives an investor a first step of research, good preparations for investigations problems, and good views to understand a phenomenon deeply. A hypothesis could make a strange thought, but it could make an unexpected result that an investor tries to find. However, the investor needs to have a testable hypothesis rather than a fancy one. When the investor can prove his testable hypothesis, he has one step to get close to the phenomenons fact.

Pakistani Martyr Iqbal Masih

Pakistani Martyr Iqbal Masih The historical figure of importance, Iqbal Masih was a young Pakistani boy who was forced into bonded labor at age four. After being freed at age ten, Iqbal became an activist against bonded child labor. He became a martyr for his cause when he was murdered at age 12. Overview of Iqbal Masih Iqbal Masih was born in Muridke, a small, rural village outside of Lahore in Pakistan. Shortly after Iqbals birth, his father, Saif Masih, abandoned the family. Iqbals mother, Inayat, worked as a housecleaner but found it difficult to make enough money to feed all her children from her small income. Iqbal, too young to understand his familys problems, spent his time playing in the fields near his two-room house. While his mom was away at work, his older sisters took care of him. His life changed drastically when he was just four years old. In 1986, Iqbals older brother was to be married and the family needed money to pay for a celebration. For a very poor family in Pakistan, the only way to borrow money is to ask a local employer. These employers specialize in this kind of barter, where the employer loans a family money in exchange for the bonded labor of a small child. To pay for the wedding, Iqbals family borrowed 600 rupees (about $12) from a man who owned a carpet-weaving business. In return, Iqbal was required to work as a carpet weaver until the debt was paid off. Without being asked or consulted, Iqbal was sold into bondage by his family. Workers Fighting for Survival This system of peshgi (loans) is inherently inequitable; the employer has all the power. Iqbal was required to work an entire year without wages in order to learn the skills of a carpet weaver. During and after his apprenticeship, the cost of the food he ate and the tools he used were all added to the original loan. When and if he made mistakes, he was often fined, which also added to the loan. In addition to these costs, the loan grew ever larger because the employer added interest. Over the years, Iqbals family borrowed even more money from the employer, which was added to the amount of money Iqbal had to work off. The employer kept track of the loan total. It was not unusual for employers to pad the total, keeping the children in bondage for life. By the time Iqbal was ten years old, the loan had grown to 13,000 rupees (about $260). The conditions in which Iqbal worked were horrendous. Iqbal and the other bonded children were required to squat on a wooden bench and bend forward to tie millions of knots into carpets. The children were required to follow a specific pattern, choosing each thread and tying each knot carefully. The children were not allowed to speak to each other. If the children started to daydream, a guard might hit them or they might cut their own hands with the sharp tools they used to cut the thread. Iqbal worked six days a week, at least 14 hours a day. The room in which he worked was stifling hot because the windows could not be opened in order to protect the quality of the wool. Only two light bulbs dangled above the young children. If the children talked back, ran away, were homesick, or were physically sick, they were punished. Punishment included severe beatings, being chained to their loom, extended periods of isolation in a dark closet, and being hung upside down. Iqbal often did these things and received numerous punishments. For all this, Iqbal was paid 60 rupees (about 20 cents) a day after his apprenticeship had ended. The Bonded Labor Liberation Front   After working six years as a carpet weaver, Iqbal one day heard about a meeting of the Bonded Labor Liberation Front (BLLF) which was working to help children like Iqbal. After work, Iqbal snuck away to attend the meeting. At the meeting, Iqbal learned that the Pakistani government had outlawed peshgi in 1992. In addition, the government cancelled all outstanding loans to these employers. Shocked, Iqbal knew he wanted to be free. He talked to Eshan Ullah Khan, president of the BLLF, who helped him get the paperwork he needed to show his employer that he should be free. Not content to just be free himself, Iqbal worked to also get his fellow workers free. Once free, Iqbal was sent to a BLLF school in Lahore. Iqbal studied very hard, finishing four years of work in just two. At the school, Iqbals natural leadership skills became increasingly apparent and he became involved in demonstrations and meetings that fought against bonded child labor. He once pretended to be one of a factorys workers so that he could question the children about their work conditions. This was a very dangerous expedition, but the information he gathered helped close down the factory and free hundreds of children. Iqbal began speaking at BLLF meetings and then to international activists and journalists. He spoke about his own experiences as a  bonded child  laborer. He was not intimidated by crowds and spoke with such conviction that many took notice of him. Iqbals six years as a bonded child had affected him physically as well as mentally. The most noticeable thing about Iqbal was that he was an extremely small child, about half the size he should have been at his age. At age ten, he was less than four feet tall and weighed a mere 60 pounds. His body had stopped growing, which one doctor described as psychological dwarfism. Iqbal also suffered from kidney problems, a curved spine, bronchial infections, and arthritis. Many say that he shuffled his feet when he walked because of pain. In many ways, Iqbal was made into an adult when he was sent to work as a carpet weaver. But he was not really an adult. He lost his childhood, but not his youth. When he went to the U.S. to receive the Reebok Human Rights Award, Iqbal loved watching cartoons, especially Bugs Bunny. Once in a while, he also had a chance to play some computer games while in the U.S. A Life Cut Short Iqbals growing popularity and influence caused him to receive numerous death threats. Focused on helping other children become free, Iqbal ignored the letters. On Sunday, April 16, 1995, Iqbal spent the day visiting his family for Easter. After spending some time with his mother and siblings, he headed over to visit his uncle. Meeting up with two of his cousins, the three boys rode a bike to his uncles field to bring his uncle some dinner. On the way, the boys stumbled upon someone who shot at them with a shotgun. Iqbal died immediately. One of his cousins was shot in the arm; the other wasnt hit. How and why Iqbal was killed remains a mystery. The original story was that the boys stumbled upon a local farmer who was in a compromising position with a neighbors donkey. Frightened and perhaps high on drugs, the man shot at the boys, not intending to specifically kill Iqbal. Most people do not believe this story. Rather, they believe that leaders of the carpet industry disliked the influence Iqbal was having and ordered him murdered. As of yet, there is no proof that this was the case. On April 17, 1995, Iqbal was buried. There were approximately 800 mourners in attendance. *The problem of bonded child labor continues today. Millions of children, especially in Pakistan and India, work in factories to make carpets, mud bricks, beedis (cigarettes), jewelry, and clothing- all with similar horrific conditions as Iqbal experienced.