Avoiding the Retirement Bust Essay -- Expository Classification Essays

Avoiding the Retirement Bust    A recent Gallup poll indicates that nearly 75 percent of 30-to-49 year olds worry about not having enough money to live a comfortable retirement. In addition, 60 percent of those polled say they don't earn enough money to save for retirement. What do these recent polls suggest about many of the baby boomers' financial concerns? Fortunately, for those individuals who are inclined to take charge of their own destinies, several types of tax-deferred retirement savings exist. The government introduces these various retirement savings options to meet the specific needs of three distinct groups of income earners: the self-employed, employees of businesses offering retirement savings incentive plans and just about anyone else who has earned income and is interested in saving for the future.    The first type of option is known as either a Keogh or a Simplified Employee Pension (SEP) plan. These retirement savings plans were created for individuals who either have self-employment income or are partners in their own business. In bo...

What Were the Problems Facing a Newly Independent India After the Partition of 1947

August, 14, 1947 and August, 15, 1947 the Indian partition of 1947 was created and it granted Indian its freedom from its 350 year of British ruling. After India’s freedom was granted it was divided into two states which were Dominion of Pakistan later known as Islamic republic of Pakistan and Union of India later known as Republic of India. Right after the partition of 1947, it declared that it was leader or King of the state to decide if the state should follow the Muslim or a Hindu religion. This Policy separated the people of India and Pakistan, and caused a lot of hatred between both sides.This policy also cause huge problems because some states would have a huge population of Hindus, and the king would be Muslim which made Hindus follow the beliefs and religious acts of the Muslims. Since this policy was cause of the partition of 1947 it made Muslims in India to migrate to Pakistan, and Hindu’s in Pakistan migrate to India, in between this transition or migration, there were many riots, looting, and rapes which left both countries in devastation and a breakdown of the civil government.The breakdown of the civil government, made it impossible for an army to restore order preventing any crimes such as murders or arson by locals. The newly formed governments were completely unequipped to deal with migrations of such staggering magnitude, and massive violence and slaughter occurred on both sides of the border. Estimates of the number of deaths range around roughly 500,000, with low estimates at 200,000 and high estimates at 1,000,000. If there were an army to restore order there would be less people killed during this tragic event.Hindu Sindhis would have remained in Sindh following the Partition, if wasn’t for the violence that erupted, when massive amounts of Urdu speaking Muslims started pouring into Sindh. They began attacking the Hindu population. Before the announcement of the Partition, there were 1,400,000 Hindu Sindhis in their a ncestral land Sindh. However, in a space of less than a year approximately 1,200,000 Hindus Sindhis fled their homes, most of them leaving with little more than the clothes on their bodies.The province of Bengal was divided into the two separate entities of West Bengal which went to India, and East Bengal which went to Pakistan. East Bengal later was renamed to East Pakistan, and later became the independent nation of Bangladesh after the Bangladesh Liberation War of 1971 also known as the indo-Pakistan war of 1971. Kashmir was created in 1846 after its victory in the first Angelo-Sikh war. Kashmir was a princely state in the British Empire in India. The princely state lasted until 1948.After the Indian partition of 1947 was pass it gave princely states of India a choice to move to India or Pakistan or stay independent. The ruler of Kashmir wanted to remain independent which led to a war which is known as the Indo-Pakistani War of 1947 which was fought between Pakistan and Indian ov er the region of Kashmir. The war lasted a year and it was first war between the two newly independent nations. Early November 1947, India attack successfully broke through enemy defenses.Even though the attack was such an early success the Indian army suffered a setback in December of that year because of logistical problems. These problems gave the forces of Azad Kashmir to take the initiative and force the Indian troops to retreat from the Border States which the war was taken place. Azad Kashmir was also known as free Kashmir because it was part of Kashmir that was under control by Pakistanis. By spring of 1948, the Indian had another offensive to retake some of the ground that it had lost.Fearing that the war might move into Pakistan property, the Pakistani army became more actively involved. As the problem escalated more and more, the Indian leadership was quick to realize that the war could not be brought to an end unless Pakistan stops aiding the Azad Kashmir forces. The Ind ian government sought United Nations mediation of the conflict on December 31, 1947. There was some opposition to this move within the cabinet by those who did not agree with referring the Kashmir dispute to the United Nations.The United Nations mediation process brought the war to an end on January 1. The mediation force Pakistan to retreat its forces, while letting India to maintain some strength of its forces in the state to preserve some law and order. It gave Pakistan two-fifths of Kashmir and India maintaining the remind three fifths of Kashmir which included the most populous and fertile regions. This war caused 1500 soldiers died on each side. On August 5, 1965 the second Indo-Pakistani war took place. The conflict was also over Kashmir, it also started without a formal declaration of war.The war was started by Pakistan, Pakistan also though it was great timing to start this war with India because they assumed that India’s military would be unable to defend against a quick military campaign in Kashmir. The first major battle in this war between Pakistan and India took place on August 15, when Indian forces scored a major victory after a prolonged artillery barrage and took over three important mountains positions in the northern sector. A month later, Pakistan counter attacked, which moved the war near Tithwal, Uri, and Punch.This attack provoked India to thrust into Azad Kashmir. India also had other forces gain position on other mountains and eventually took over Haji Pir Pass which was eight kilometers into Pakistan territory. India’s claiming Haji Pir Pass, made Pakistani move all forces to the southern sector in Punjab, to catch Indian forces of guard which was a success and India suffered a heavy loss. On September 20th the UN passed a resolution which called for a cease fire which ended the war on September 23. India lost 3,000 and Pakistani lost 3,800 during this war.Both sides signed a declaration on January 10, 1966 which requir ed both sides to move all positions that was held during the war. The declaration also reached an agreement on the new cease fire line on June 30, 1965. The Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 was a nine month long conflict between the people of then East Pakistan and the military rulers of Pakistan, which ended in two week long armed conflict between Mukti Bahini aided by India against Pakistan in December of 1971. India intervened on behalf of East Pakistan, later Bangladesh, in its civil war with West Pakistan.The war began as the Pakistani Civil War . A conflict between the traditionally dominant West Pakistanis and the East Pakistanis whose Awami League party had won the most seats in the 1970 Pakistani election and who claimed the right to form the government. The largely West Pakistani military was called in by President Yahya Khan. After several days of rioting on the morning of March 25 the citizens of Dhaka woke to discover the city shut down by the military. Mass arrests of dissid ents began, and attempts were made to disarm the East Pakistani members of the armed forces.The Awami League was banned and its members began to flee into exile in India. As the month progressed the situation developed into a full scale civil war. The West Pakistani army began killing thousands and the East Pakistanis armed themselves forming Mukti Bahini guerilla group. Ziaur Rahman, a major in the Pakistani army formed a government in exile in India and proclaimed an independent Bangladesh. The East Pakistan Rifles, an elite paramilitary force defected and joined the rebellion. On December 3 the Pakistani air force launched sorties on eight airfields in northern India.It was based on the Arab- Israeli six day war and the success of the Israeli preemptive strike. The Indians had anticipated such a move and the raid was a resounding failure. The next day the Indian forces responded with a coordinated and massive air, sea, and land assault on East Pakistan. Against the West the India military mounted smaller probing attacks designed to pin down Pakistani forces. In the East a five pronged land assault quickly routed the Pakistani forces. The Indians repeatedly broke through Pakistani defenses and outflanked and outfought the Pakistani defenders.On December 16 the Pakistani forces in East Pakistan surrendered. The next day Indira Gandhi announced a unilateral cease fire, to which Pakistan agreed. In conclusion I think the aftermath partition of 1947 was horrible and led to many wars. As you can see three different wars took place and two of the war’s conflicts were almost the same. I felt all these problems should have been handled a little differently meaning without the wars because it led to many deaths. But in the end of the wars it reached to an agreement and most of the agreements were successful.

Adolf Loos, Belle Epoque Architect and Rebel

Adolf Loos (December 10, 1870–August 23, 1933) was a European architect who became more famous for his ideas and writings than for his buildings. He believed that reason should determine the way we build, and he opposed the decorative Art Nouveau movement, or, as it was known in Europe, Jugendstil. His notions about design influenced 20th-century modern architecture and its variations. Fast Facts: Adolf Loos Known For: Architect, critic of Art NouveauBorn: December 10, 1870 in Brno, Czech RepublicParents: Adolf and Marie LoosDied: August 23, 1933 in Kalksburg, AustriaEducation: Royal and Imperial State Technical College in Rechenberg, Bohemia, College of Technology in Dresden; Academy of Beaux-Arts at ViennaFamous Writings: Ornament Crime, ArchitectureFamous Building: Looshaus (1910)  Spouse(s): Claire Beck (m. 1929–1931), Elsie Altmann (1919–1926) Carolina Obertimpfler (m. 1902–1905)Notable Quote: The evolution of culture is synonymous with the removal of ornamentation from objects of everyday use. Early Life Adolf Franz Karl Viktor Maria Loos was born December 10, 1870, in Brno (then Brà ¼nn), which is the South Moravian Region of what was then part of the Austria-Hungary Empire and is now the Czech Republic. He was one of four children born to Adolf and Marie Loos, but he was 9 when his sculptor/stonemason father died. Although Loos refused to continue the family business, much to his mothers sorrow, he remained an admirer of the craftsmans design. He was not a good student, and it is said that by the age of 21 Loos was ravaged by syphilis—his mother disowned him by the time he was 23. Loos began studies at the Royal and Imperial State Technical College in Rechenberg, Bohemia, and then spent a year in the military. He attended the College of Technology in Dresden for three years and the Academy of Beaux-Arts in Vienna; he was a mediocre student and did not earn a degree. Instead, he traveled, making his way to the United States, where he worked as a mason, a floor-layer, and a dishwasher. While in the U.S. to experience the Worlds Columbian Exposition of 1893, he became impressed by the efficiency of American architecture and came to admire the work of Louis Sullivan. American architect Louis Sullivan is most famous for being part of the Chicago School and for his influential 1896 essay that suggested form follows function.  In 1892, however, Sullivan wrote about the application of ornamentation on the new architecture of the day. I take it as self-evident that a building, quite devoid of ornament, may convey a noble and dignified sentiment by virtue of mass and proportion, Sullivan began his essay Ornament in Architecture. He then made the modest proposal to refrain entirely from the use of ornament for a period of years and concentrate acutely upon the production of buildings well formed and comely in the nude. The idea of organic naturalness, with a concentration on architectural mass and volume, influenced not only Sullivans protege Frank Lloyd Wright but also the young architect from Vienna, Adolf Loos. Professional Years In 1896, Loos returned to Vienna and worked for the Austrian architect Karl Mayreder. By 1898, Loos had opened his own practice in Vienna and became friends with free-thinkers such as philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, expressionist composer Arnold Schà ¶nberg, and satirist Karl Kraus. The intellectual community of Vienna at the time of the Belle Epoque was made up of many artists, painters, sculptors, and architects, as well as political thinkers and psychologists including Sigmund Freud. They were all seeking a way to rewrite how society and morality functioned. Like many of his colleagues in Vienna, Loos beliefs extended to all areas of life, including architecture. He argued that the buildings we design reflect our morality as a society. The new steel frame techniques of the Chicago School demanded a new aesthetic—were cast iron facades cheap imitations of past architectural ornamentation? Loos believed that what hung on that framework should be as modern as the framework itself. Loos started his own school of architecture. His students included Richard Neutra and R. M. Schindler, who both became famous after emigrating to the west coast of the United States. Personal Life While Loos architecture was explicitly clean in line and structure, his personal life was in shambles. In 1902, he married 19-year-old drama student Carolina Catharina Obertimpfler. The marriage ended in 1905 amidst a public scandal: he and Lina were close friends of Theodor Beer, an accused child pornographer. Loos tampered with the case, removing pornographic evidence from Beers apartment. In 1919, he married 20-year-old dancer and operetta star Elsie Altmann; they divorced in 1926. In 1928 he faced a pedophilia scandal after being accused of having his young, poor models (aged 8–10) perform sex acts, and the main evidence against him was a collection of more than 2,300 pornographic images of young girls. Elsie believed they were the same images removed from Theodor Beers apartment in 1905. Loos last marriage was at the age of 60 and his wife was 24-year-old Claire Beck; two years later, that relationship also ended in divorce. Loos was also quite ill through much of his creative life: he slowly became deaf as a result of the syphilis he contracted in his early 20s, and he was diagnosed with cancer in 1918 and lost his stomach, appendix, and part of his intestines. He was exhibiting signs of dementia during his 1928 court case, and a few months before his death he had a stroke. Architectural Style Loos-designed homes featured straight lines, clear and uncomplicated walls and windows, and clean curves. His architecture became physical manifestations of his theories, especially raumplan (plan of volumes), a system of contiguous, merging spaces. He designed exteriors without ornamentation, but his interiors were rich in functionality and volume. Each room might be on a different level, with floors and ceilings set at different heights. Loos architecture was in stark contrast with the architecture of his Austrian contemporary Otto Wagner. Representative buildings designed by Loos include many houses in Vienna, Austria—notably the Steiner House, (1910),  Haus Strasser (1918),  Horner House (1921),  Rufer House (1922), and the Moller House (1928).  However, Villa  Mà ¼ller (1930) in Prague, Czechoslovakia, is one of his most studied designs because of its seemingly simple exterior and complex interior. Other designs outside Vienna include a house in Paris, France, for the Dada artist Tristan Tzara (1926) and the  Khuner Villa (1929) in  Kreuzberg, Austria. Loos was one of the first modern architects to use mirrors to expand interior spaces. The interior entry to the 1910 Goldman Salatsch Building, often called the Looshaus, is made into a surreal, endless foyer with two opposing mirrors. The construction of Looshaus created quite a scandal for pushing Vienna into modernity. Famous Quotes: Ornament and Crime Adolf Loos is best-known for his 1908 essay Ornament and Verbrechen, translated as Ornament Crime. This and other essays by Loos describe the suppression of decoration as necessary for modern culture to exist and evolve beyond past cultures. Ornamentation, even body art like tattoos, is best left for primitive people, like the natives of Papua.  The modern man who tattoos himself is either a criminal or a degenerate, Loos wrote. There are prisons in which eighty per cent of the inmates show tattoos. The tattooed who are not in prison are latent criminals or degenerate aristocrats. Other passages from this essay: The urge to ornament ones face and everything within reach is the start of plastic art. Ornament does not heighten my joy in life or the joy in life of any cultivated person. If I want to eat a piece of gingerbread I choose one that is quite smooth and not a piece representing a heart or a baby or a rider, which is covered all over with ornaments. The man of the fifteenth century wont understand me. But all modern people will. Freedom from ornament is a sign of spiritual strength. Death Nearly deaf from syphilis and cancer by age 62, Adolf Loos died in Kalksburg near Vienna, Austria, on August 23, 1933. His self-designed gravestone in Central Cemetery (Zentralfriedhof) in Vienna is a simple block of stone with only his name engraved—no ornamentation. Legacy Adolf Loos extended his architectural theories in his 1910 essay Architektur, translated as Architecture. Decrying that architecture had become a graphic art, Loos argues that a well-made building cannot be honestly represented on paper, that plans do not appreciate the beauty of bare stone, and that only the architecture of monuments should be classified as art—other architecture, everything that serves some practical purpose, should be ejected from the realm of art. Loos wrote that modern dress is that which draws least attention to itself, which is Loos legacy to modernism. This idea that anything beyond functional should be omitted was a modern idea worldwide. The same year Loos first published his essay on ornamentation, French artist Henri Matisse (1869–1954) issued a similar proclamation about the composition of a painting. In the 1908 statement Notes of a Painter, Matisse wrote that everything not useful in a painting is harmful. Although Loos has been dead for decades, his theories about architectural complexity are often studied today, especially to begin a discussion about ornamentation. In a high-tech, computerized world where anything is possible, the modern student of architecture must be reminded that just because you are able do something, should you? Sources Andrews, Brian. Ornament and Materiality in the Work of Adolf Loos. Material Making: The Process of Precedent, 2010. Association of Collegiate Schools of Architecture, p. 438Colomina, Beatriz. Sex, Lies and Decoration: Adolf Loos and Gustav Klimt. Thresholds.37 (2010): 70–81.Loos, Adolf. Architecture. 1910. Loos, Adolf. Ornament and Crime. 1908. Rukschcio, Burkhardt, Schachel, Roland L. (Roland Leopold), 1939- and Graphische Sammlung Albertina Adolf Loos, Leben und Werk. Residenz Verlag, Salzburg, 1982.Schwartz, Frederic J. Architecture and Crime: Adolf Loos and the Culture of the Case. The Art Bulletin 94.3 (2012): 437-57.Sullivan, Louis. Ornament in Architecture. The Engineering Magazine, 1892, Svendsen, Christina. Hiding in Plain Sight: Problems of Modernist Self-Representation in the Encounter between Adolf Loos and Josephine Baker. Mosaic: An Interdisciplinary Critical Journal 46.2 (2013): 19–37.Tournikiotis,  Panayotis. Adolf Loos. Princeton Architectural Press, 2002.