Arthur Miller’s Commentary Essay

Arthur Miller’s commentary helps our understanding of the play very much. Through more character detail he has made it possible for us to understand exactly how the different characters are feeling, and why they behave the way they do, as in the case of Abigail using the whole situation to her advantage, and being very manipulative and sly, all of which are characteristics that we don’t like in ourselves. For example, Abigail was using the whole situation to get back at John Proctor, she wanted him but he didn’t want her, and in trying to gain his affections, she involved all of the people of Salem. During the play Abigail had one goal (to get John Proctor) and she didn’t care how she achieved this. Throughout the play the contrast between light and dark is a prominent feature. In the footnote at the begging of act one Miller has used the image of light â€Å"There is a narrow window at the left. Through it’s leaded pains the morning sunlight streams. A candle still burns near the bed†¦ The room gives of an air of clean spareness.† This symbolises that everything is OK, there are no bad things happening. Light throughout the play is use to represent good. As the story line continues the mood and even the scenes themselves become darker and more evil, even the weather becomes more negative and depressing. Dark is used throughout the play to symbolise bad. For example, the courtroom is always dark; there are no open windows and no candles. In some cases certain characters bring light into a scene that was dark, like John Proctor. But when he is accused of witchcraft the light that accompanies him became a lot dimmer. I also think Arthur Miller makes it very easy for us to pick out good and bad characters at the beginning of the play. But some of the characters switch sides as the play goes on, at the beginning of the play I found Reverend Hale was very annoying. However as the play developed he was one of the people who could see sense in the situation. Towards the end of the play you could tell which characters were good, and which were bad. Arthur Miller also puts the audience in a very annoying position because we can see how wrong and how stupid the characters are being. The audience would get very angry at the fact that only John Proctor and Mr Hale can see sense, even though it takes two acts for them to see it. An example of this would be John Proctor’s reaction to Abigail stumbling in with a needle in her stomach, claiming that John Proctor’s wife is a voodoo witch. â€Å"Why she done it herself I hope you aren’t takin it for proof, Mister†. Abigail claims this to get back at John Proctor; the audience however are led to believe that she did it to herself, even though it is not actually said in the text. All of this would make the audience very angry, and would make us start to think why the characters aren’t doing anything about it. In this case I’m going to point out Judge Danforth because he is so wrapped up in his own little world and doing what he thinks is â€Å"right†. At first Danforth only frustrated me with his ignorance, but as the story line developed I found my frustration turning to anger and my anger into hate. Abby also frustrated me because she twisted the situation for her own benefit and to get at John Proctor  At the end of each act Miller leaves the play in a state of climax. At the end of act one Miller draws the curtain on the girl’s firing frantic and false accusations of witchcraft against many women in Salem, act three ends with the dramatic exit of Mr Hale â€Å"I denounce these proceedings, I quit this court!† Through this approach it always keeps the audience on the edge of their seats. It keeps the audience swept up in the story line, almost like a soap opera today, where each episode ends with a dramatic last scene (cliff hanger), and ensuring they watch the next episode because they want to know what happens, I find it very frustrating. In fact, The Crucible is very similar to a modern day soap opera, in that its success as a whole depends on how involved the viewers, or audience, become with the characters and the story line. I also think that because it is based on history, the story might not be true to word, which adds fascination. The play was not only written to record historical events in Salem but was also written to warn people of modern day witch hunts, such as the McCarthy â€Å"witch† hunt (1950’s) in which people were asked to turn in anyone who was a Communist at the time. The naming and shaming followed a similar pattern of that in Salem.

A Thousand Splendid Suns Reivew Essay

Macbeth is a Shakespearean Tragedy Macbeth is considered to be one of the greatest Shakespearean tragedies written by William Shakespeare. According to A.C. Bradley, it is the â€Å"most vehement, the most concentrated, perhaps we may say the most tremendous, of the tragedies† (Bradley 333). Macbeth, written by Shakespeare is a Shakespearean tragedy because it has a tragic hero, mathemata, and a hamartia. These three characteristics are crucial to have in a Shakespearean tragedy and prove that Macbeth is indeed one. More specifically, the tragic hero is one of the most important of the three because without the hero, sympathy cannot be evoked. Macbeth is a tragedy because it contains a tragic hero. In a Shakespearean tragedy, it is imperative that the tragic hero is of high estate, affects the whole nation and evokes pity and fear from the audience. The tragic hero in Macbeth is Macbeth himself. At the beginning of the play, Macbeth is introduced as the Thane of Glamis and â€Å"a general of extraordinary prowess† (Bradley 44) in Duncan’s army. When a battle takes place, Macbeth bravely defends Scotland in the battle and is victorious. When he returns home, King Duncan praises him: O worthiest cousin! †¦.Thou art so far before†¦. Only I have left to say, More is thy due than more than all can pay. (Shakespeare 1.4.17-24) Duncan states that Macbeth is his worthiest kinsmen and has done so much for him that he owes Macbeth more than he can ever repay. The audience can identify that Macbeth is a significant character of high estate because he is already Thane of Glamis, and is well respected by the king of Scotland. Macbeth’s high social standing evokes pity and fear from the audience because his sins and downfall are emphasized. The audience suspects him to be virtuous, therefore arousing fear when he commits sins. Also, he has a lot more to lose than a regular citizen; Macbeth eventually loses his mind, wife, house, reputation, and kingship. Since Macbeth is a character of high estate and evokes pity and fear for the audience, he is the tragic hero in Macbeth. Macbeth is also a tragic hero because he is a character of high estate in two additional ways. After the victorious battle, Macbeth is greeted by two noblemen of Scotland sent by the king: â€Å"He bade me, from him, call thee Thane of Cawdor. /In which addition, hail, most worthy Thane, /for it is thine† (Shakespeare 1.3.111-113).When the Macdonwald, the Thane of Cawdor, commits treason, he is executed and a new Thane is chosen. After hearing about Macbeth’s success in the battle, King Duncan appoints Macbeth as the new Thane of Cawdor. As a result of Macbeth’s nobility, loyalty and bravery, he earns his title as Thane of Cawdor thus proving he is of high estate. When King Duncan dies, Macbeth is chosen to be King of Scotland. Usually, when a king dies, their heir becomes king. However, since both of Duncan’s sons fled the country for their own safety, Macbeth is chosen to be King. This shows the audience that Macbeth is well respected by the citizens of Scotland because he appears to be the best king, second to Duncan’s sons. As the new King of Scotland, Macbeth’s fate evidently has an affect on the welfare of the whole nation. In conclusion, Macbeth is a tragic hero because he is of high estate in several ways, evokes pity and fear from the audience and affects the welfare of the whole nation. When the nation is negatively affected, order must be restored. This is done through the resolution of the plot, also known as mathemata. Mathemata is an extremely important characteristic of a Shakespearean tragedy because it re-establishes the moral order of the world in the play. In Shakespeare’s play, order is restored when Macbeth is killed: â€Å"Behold where stands/The usurper’s [Macbeth’s] cursed head. The time is free† (Shakespeare 5.8.55-56).Macbeth is considered as the evil defilement and ‘sickness’ of Scotland because he perpetrates a series of murders, and more significantly violates the natural order of the universe at the highest level by killing Duncan. Since Macbeth causes the entire situation â€Å"he must end in destruction and despair† (Ribner 57). At the end of the play when Macbeth ends in ‘destruction and despair’, Scotland is finally â€Å"cured† and order is restored. The natural order of the universe is also re-established because Malcolm replaces Macbeth’s position as King. Scotland is no longer ruled by  Macbeth’s tyranny; instead it is ruled by Malcolm, an extremely honourable man: Nay, had I power, I should Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell, Uproar the universal peace, confound All unity on earth. (Shakespeare 4.3.109-112) Although Malcolm may not appear to be virtuous in this scene, he is very much so. At the beginning of the play, Duncan does not test the loyalty of Macdonwald and Macbeth. As a result, Duncan is betrayed by these two men who appeared to be honourable. Malcolm learns from his father’s mistakes and tests MacDuff’s patriotism. Malcolm states he does not contain any qualities of a virtuous king and that he would destroy all peace on earth. When MacDuff has a passionate outburst, Malcolm reveals the truth that he is in fact an honourable man because he is able to identify that MacDuff is a â€Å"child of integrity† (Shakespeare 4.3.129). This proves that Malcolm is in fact a virtuous king because he is not easily fooled like Duncan. Instead, Malcolm is a cautious and knowledgeable man who is likely to be a successful king. With a new honourable and sincerely virtuous king, and the death of Macbeth, the order of the universe is finally restored and the play is resolved. Not only is the death of Macbeth recognized as the resolution of the plot, however, it is also recognized as his tragic end which is caused by a hamartia. For a play to be a Shakespearean tragedy, it must have a hamartia. A hamartia, also known as a tragic flaw, is a good quality in the protagonist which eventually goes somewhat awry and causes their disastrous demise. Macbeth’s tragic flaw is his ambition. Macbeth’s ambition can be recognized as a desirable quality because it causes him to be a great warrior. However, when Macbeth is told by the witches that he will become future king, he has thoughts of killing Duncan. Already, Macbeth’s ambition goes somewhat awry. At first, Macbeth states that he does not want to kill Duncan because â€Å"this Duncan/Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been/So clear in his great office, that his virtues/Will plead like angels†¦.† (Shakespeare 1.7.16-18) and admits that I [Macbeth] have no spur To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which overleaps itself And falls on the other. (Shakespeare 1.7.25-28) Macbeth realizes the only reason he has for murdering Duncan is his ‘vaulting ambition’ which does not rationalize the act of killing a virtuous king. Although Macbeth is aware that his vaulting ambition will only lead him to disaster, he still commits the crime. At this point, the audience is fully aware that Macbeth’s ambition is no longer a desirable trait because his ambition, â€Å"which is also his greatness, is fatal to him† (Bradley 9). His ambition allows him to â€Å"hide what the false heart doth know† (Shakespeare 1.7.92) and overcome the thought of killing a virtuous king. Although some scholars may say the witches and Lady Macbeth cause Macbeth’s downfall, he commits and instigates all of the murders himself; it is his own actions that lead him to his tragic end. If Macbeth was not so ambitious for status and did not allow his flawed trait to overpower his morality, he would realize it is irrational to kill the king. Without doubt Macbeth’s ambition acquires him kingship, however, it leads him to death of several innocent people and is the major cause of his downfall. Macbeth’s hamartia is also evident later on the play when he kills Banquo and attempts to kill Banquo’s son. After the witches predict that Banquo’s sons will become kings, Macbeth feels threatened as the new king of Scotland: â€Å"To be thus is nothing, but to be safely thus† (Shakespeare 3.1.54). Macbeth determines that the only way to be ‘safely thus’ is to kill Banquo and his son Fleance. Macbeth’s great ambition for power causes him to have a greed for power and stop at nothing to secure his position as king; even if it means he must kill his best friend and challenge fate: â€Å"Rather than so, come, Fate, into the list,/And champion me to the utterance!† (Shakespeare 3.1.77-78). Macbeth’s ambition causes him to believe he can defeat the prophecy of the witches. Macbeth believes that if he kills Banquo and Banquo’s sons, his position as king will be protected. However, by murdering more people, Macbeth’s life, conscience, and kingship is jeopardized instead. Eventually, Macbeth faces the consequences of his own  actions as a result of his ‘great’ ambition and is killed. If Macbeth was not so ambitious, he would realize it is impossible to defeat fate, ultimately preventing his tragic end. Although Macbeth’s ambition begins as a virtue, it goes wrong and eventually leads to his tragic end. All of Macbeth’s actions have led himself to his death and aroused several emotions within the audience; thus proving Macbeth has a hamartia and ultimately is a Shakespearean tragedy. Macbeth is said to be one of the last tragedies Shakespeare ever wrote. None the less, it â€Å"has increasingly impressed twentieth century critics† (Hawkes 50). Macbeth has a tragic hero of high estate and a hamartia that leads to the hero’s tragic end. Last but not least, when order is restored, there is mathemata. With the three most imperative characteristics of a tragedy, Macbeth fulfills the title as the â€Å"most vehement, the most concentrated, perhaps we may say the most tremendous, of the tragedies† (Bradley 333) and proves it is indeed a true Shakespearean tragedy. Works Cited Arif, G. M. Javed. â€Å"Macbeth’s Identity Crisis: Shakespeare as the Saviour.† Academia.edu. N.p., Dec. 2000. Web. 15 Dec. 2011. Bloom, Harold, ed. Major Literary Characters: Macbeth. New York: Chelsea House, 1991. Print. Bradley, A. C. Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, Macbeth. 2nd ed. London: Macmillan, 1905. Johnson, Vernon E., ed. Power in William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2009. Print. Shakespeare, William. The Global Shakespeare Series: The Tragedy of Macbeth with Related Readings. Eds. Dom Saliani, Chris Ferguson, and Dr. Tim Scott. Albany, N.Y.: International Thomson Pub Nelson Canada, 1997. Print.

Workers without Jobs

GAP cannot reflect positive or negative externalities Involve In the consumption and production UT these externalities do affect on people's living standard. Negative externalities such as pollution brings environmental costs to society but not calculated by GAP. Positive externalities such as technological advance benefits to society but it is not count in GAP. Economic well-being would be under-value or over-value if GAP is the only single measure of economic well-being. 3. Leisure helps people enjoy a better life.In countries with lower GAP, the welfare gain from leisure can compensate the welfare loss from low GAP. Explain why frictional and structural unemployment are unavoidable in most of the economies. There are always some workers without Jobs, even when the overall economy is doing well. For example, people now prefer cell phones from Apple than from Monika. Monika decides to cut down Its employees due to the decrease of revenue. It takes time for him (the worker) to search another job that is best suited for him. In this period when matching jobs and workers, he is unemployed and it is called frictional unemployment.Another example is that now most of the textile factories decide to move to mainland China. A worker in one of these factories loses her job, however, he Is unable to learn or change new working skills or knowledge on other specialist or other field. And therefore, she cannot find a new Job In her Orlando Industry and also in other industries. This imbalance between the skills and other characteristics of some workers and the needs of workers in the labor market causes unemployment called structural unemployment.When unemployment consist only frictional and structural unemployment, unemployment is at natural rate. In most of the economies, there are always some reasons causing frictional or structural unemployment. Employment rate never fall to zero it fluctuates around the natural rate of unemployment. Therefore, frictional and structura l unemployment are unavoidable in most of the economies. What are the three major functions of money? Discuss how these functions be affected by inflation. Account and a store of value.A medium of exchange is an item that buyers give to sellers when they purchase goods and services. When you buy a shirt at a clothing store, the store gives you the shirt, and you give the store your money. This transfer of money from buyer to seller allows the transaction to take place. When you walk into a store, you are confident that the store will accept your money for the items it is selling because money is the commonly accepted medium of exchange. A unit of account is the yardstick people use to post prices and record debts.When you go shopping, you might observe that a shirt costs $30 and a hamburger costs $3. Even though it would be accurate to say that the price of a shirt is 10 hamburgers and the price of a hamburger is 1110 of a shirt, prices are never quoted in this way. Similarly, if yo u take out a loan from a bank, the size of your future loan repayments ill be measured in dollars, not in a quantity of goods and services. When we want to measure and record economic value, we use money as the unit of account.A store of value is an item that people can use to transfer purchasing power from the present to the future. When a seller accepts money today in exchange for a good or service, that seller can hold the money and become a buyer of another good or service at another time. Money is not the only store of value in the economy: A person can also transfer purchasing power from the present to the future by holding monetary assets such as stocks and bonds. The term wealth is used to refer to the total of all stores of value, including both money and monetary assets.What assumptions are necessary to argue that the quantity equation of money implies that increases in the money supply lead to proportional increases in the general price (a) Discuss two reasons why the GAP deflator gives a different rate of inflation than the ICP does. 1. 12 PEP (6 marks) (b) Explain the likely effect of a binding minimum wage on the unemployment rate. (5 marks) (a) Suppose an economy that is initially at full employment faces a tremendous drop n imports. I.

Case Study Analysis Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Case Study Analysis Paper - Essay Example He succeeded in recruiting fifteen trainees. He scheduled the trainee orientation to start from 15th of June. The new recruits were expected to be on job by the month of July. Carl Robins didn’t think of the essentials for the scheduled training till Monica Carrolls enquired about training schedule, orientation, manuals, policy booklets, physicals, drug tests, and a host of other issues. Carl Robins still didn’t do the review of the schedule and didn’t update its progress. When later in May, he checked the new trainee file to finalize the paperwork needed for the orientation, he found that some of the new trainees did not have applications completed or had their transcripts on file, and none of them had been sent to the clinic for the mandatory drug screen. He also found that there were only three copies of the orientation manuals and even they were not properly arranged. When he checked the training hall he found that Joe, from technology services was setting up computer terminals. When the event log was looked into, it was found that the training room was already reserved for the entire month of June for computer training seminars for the new database software implementation and was not available for the orientation to be conducted. The basic problem that the whole process faced was the lack of experience of Carl Robins as a recruiting officer. Though he managed to do the campus recruitment resulting in the intake of fifteen trainees, he couldn’t arrange properly for the processes leading to their intake. His inexperience stopped him from doing accurate planning for the training of the intakes. He also didn’t take advice from superiors or referred any previous records to get acquainted of the key procedures involved. Carl Robins didn’t take care to have a proper schedule for the whole process. The basic theory of bifurcation of the whole target into differentiated processes and planning them separately

Financial Analysis on Nokia from 2008 to 2009 Research Paper

Financial Analysis on Nokia from 2008 to 2009 - Research Paper Example The Working Capital ratios indicate how well the company is able to manage its working capital. "The asset management ratios are also known as working capital ratios or the efficiency ratios. The aim is to measure how effectively the firm is managing its assets." (Netcom, n.d.)The following are some of the working capital ratios which indicate the efficiency of the company in managing its working capital. Liquidity ratio is defined "as a class of financial metrics that are used to determine a company's ability to pay off its short-term debts obligations.Generally, the higher the value of the ratio, the larger is the margin of safety that the company possesses to cover short-term debts." (Investopedia, 2009) The above table indicates that the company has efficiently managed its working capital during the year ending September 2009 as compared to the year 2008. Nokia is maintaining a comfortable current ratio and the current ratio of 1.5 implies that the company has sufficient current assets situation which will enable the company to meet its current liabilities without any problem. However, the company has increased its long-term debts during the year 2009 with the result that there is an increase in this ratio. This implies that the company will incur additional interest costs on borrowed funds. The cash flow to debts situation has therefore moved to an adverse situation in 2009 as co mpared to the earlier year. In 2008 the cash flow position of the company was comfortable enough to settle the short-term and long-term debts in just 7 months. Whereas, with the increase in long-term debts and the cash flow from operations it would take approximately 3.8 years for the company to settle the debts. This is not a good position from the equity shareholders' point of view. However, the purpose for which the long-term funds were mobilized is to be ascertained for a proper justification for the increase in debts. The number of days sales outstanding is another working capital ratio that indicates the efficiency of the working capital management of the company. This ratio has changed from the previous year figure of 70 days to 83 days. This implies that the company has not been able to collect the outstanding accounts receivable as efficiently as it was doing in 2008. However, the increase in credit sales might be another reason for the change in this ratio. When the company has offered more liberal credit terms to its distributors and dealers in order to boost its sales, that situation might have resulted in increased debtors and the consequent increase in the number of days sales outstanding. A weaker sales environment is indicated by the increase in the number of days inventory expressed as a ratio to the cost of goods sold. There is an accumulation of inventory due to lower sales which is indicated by the change in this ratio. Â  

The Gattaca and Brave New World Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

The Gattaca and Brave New World - Essay Example According to the research findings, it can, therefore, be said that both the movie Gattaca and book â€Å"The Brave New World† have a character who share similarity and at some points expressing different opinions. The main characters in these artworks are similar in the sense that they are portrayed as strong characters that readily rebel against their own societies. After the encounter with DNA in a black market, Vincent decides to change his identity to a famous astronaut making everyone view him as an â€Å"invalid†. This character accomplished this transformation only after realizing that he has more strength than his brother is, particularly after defeating him in their swimming game. John and Bernand also rebel against their society form reading and thinking people. The writing by John Stuart Mill that â€Å"it is better being a human being who is dissatisfied than a pig who is satisfied† may be qualitatively analyzed to satisfy the status of humanity to t hat of a pig or better describe the dissatisfying nature of humans. The book The Brave New World and movie Gattaca artistically create fictional places that satisfy the needs and the desire of humanity; nonetheless, with prices to pay. These stories reveal the achievement in the field of science, especially in biology and genetics. However, the social progress within their storylines presents the sense of individualism, discrimination, and the loss of personal freedom, particularly among those who are not biological elites. Both stories are dealing with the potential imperfections of utopia; therefore, they are entirely referred to dystopias. Moreover, they as well real the optimistic visions by which societies are striving to achieve, but they never tend to achieve the same desires or goals.

Consumer decision making Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Consumer decision making - Essay Example n opportunity to get in touch with the foreign products and they got enough opportunities to compare the quality and prices of the domestic products with that of the foreign products. Such evaluation from the part of consumers may often change their buying habits. Online marketing and e-commerce are growing day by day and based on that the purchasing decisions of the consumers are also changing. In many cases, a purchasing situation occurs out of the fear of losing social recognition or once the existing product goes out of order. Some of the people have blind belief in brand values while others are more practical. Some consumers may seek further assistance from the supplier to improve the performance of the product they purchased. This paper briefly analyses the consumer decision making attributes. Recognition is a primary psychological need for human beings and hence most of their purchasing decisions were influenced by their desire to get recognition from others. Most of the consumers feel inferiority, if they possess old goods. In many cases, consumers postpone their purchasing decisions until they acquire ample financial resources for executing the purchasing. Once the consumer feels confidence about his/her financial abilities, the next step is to gather information about the product he/she wants to purchase. â€Å"Sources of information could be family, friends, neighbours who may have the product you have in mind, and alternatively you may ask the sales people, or dealers, or read specialist magazines. You may even actually examine the product before you decide to purchase it† (Consumer Buying Behaviour, n. d) Most of the people rely on, advertisements in television, news papers, Super markets and internet for the information regarding the product they want to pu rchase. They will collect information from the friends also. The User’s comments will always be valued more than anything else. Once ample information is collected about a particular product, most

Quality improvement and evolution over the last 10 years in United Essay

Quality improvement and evolution over the last 10 years in United Arab Emirates - Essay Example In addition, suppliers have also recognized that quality acts as a differentiating factor between what they offer and what their competitors offer (Knowles, 2012). In the last ten years, the quality differentiator in the UAE has reduced greatly between competing services and products with the maturation of Quality Management. Organizations in the UAE, as well as other countries in the Middle East, have raised their quality standards through various initiatives to meet customer demands and international standards. Three of the most widely used Quality Management tools include the ISO 9000 series, the Six Sigma, and the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence, especially for organizations with American business connections like Sheikh Khalifa Medical City. By the, late 1990s, Quality Management had become a mainstay in most organizations and those in the UAE were not an exception. With the beginning of the 21st century, there was a maturity of the quality movement in the UAE, whic h saw evolution of new systems of quality beyond the foundations laid by early Oriental practitioners like Japan. One example of this maturation was the revision of the ISO 9000 series of international standards that increased client satisfaction emphasis (Knowles, 2012). The ISO 9001:2000 was integrated by UAE organizations to replace the earlier ISO 9003, ISO 9002, and ISO 9001. This version sought to centralize the process management process, while demanding the involvement of executive management in the integration of business systems quality. It also sought to ensure that quality functions were not delegated to junior managers. Performance-metrics was another goal of the improvement. Another improvement was made in 2008 with ISO 9001:2008, which clarified the requirements that were in existence (Knowles, 2012). The Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence has also matured in the UAE for organizations that run in partnership or are owned by US. This quality standard serves v arious purposes; including aiding organizations in assessing efforts ate quality improvement and identification of improvement opportunities, facilitating information sharing and communication, and as a tool for performance and quality management (Knowles, 2012). The standard’s integrated approach seeks to ensure that organizations deliver improving stakeholder and customer value, as well as improved capabilities and effectiveness of the organization. This quality standard added healthcare to original organization categories in 2005. Finally, the Six Sigma methodology is a quality standard whose main aim is to reduce defects and improve the bottom line. It uses data to achieve quality that is near-perfect and has evolved greatly in the last 20 years. In the last 10 years alone, it has matured to include consultancy, training, and implementation of the tool as a methodology, a metric, and a management system (Knowles, 2012). These quality initiative movements have had various successes with regards to their effectiveness. They allow organizations to strengthen their position competitively, while also offering the organizations adaptability to conditions in changing markets and regulations by the government, especially in the UAE where q number of organizations are foreign-owned. In addition, on top of increasing organizational productivity, they enhance the image of those that use them in the public eye,

Human intellectual curiosity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 6500 words

Human intellectual curiosity - Essay Example Geography is also the study of the planetary variation of both natural and human phenomena on Earth. Study of Geography is as old as human history. It was systematically studied by the ancient Greeks, who also developed a philosophy of Geography. The most prominent of them were Thales, Eratosthenes, Aristotle, Strabo, and Ptolemy. The Romans also made contributions to Geography by doing the mapping of previously unknown lands. The Arabs also bequeathed in the progress of Geography during the Middle Ages. Human beings have always been involved in pondering over Nature. The real initial recorded achievements were those of the Greeks. Thales was the first philosopher whose mythology was used to explain the nature of the physical world. He introduced Geometry and was a prominent astronomer. He was also the first man who started the real process of pondering and predicting. Raphael Sanzio was the great painter and philosopher whose name is used for the famous "Raphael's The School of Athens". During those days of the 16th century, the meaning of the great old ages was being rediscovered and absorbed in Europe. His painting shows the constellation of great Greek philosophers in a beautiful way. The two great scholars, Plato and Aristotle, are present at the centre of his painting. Plato and Aristotle were two of the great Greek philosophers. ... , with Plato holding his hand upright as if to indicate, "Look to the perfection of the heavens for Truth," while Aristotle holds his arm straight out, implying "Look around you as if you would know the Truth." Plato was also a good astronomer. He was among the first few great scientists who studied the sky with his limited resources and revealed many facts that are still relevant with some minor amendments. Meterorologica, 340 B.C. Aristotle's Meteorologica is considered to be the oldest study on meteorological subjects. The bulk of information proved incorrect according to modern research, but it was considered to be authority in those days up to recent years. The Greek philosophers developed their theories just by observation and mere intellectual pondering, but they never did any experiments to prove them. Yet their theories -while not quite correct- helped a great deal in the foundation of the modern scientific knowledge. For example, some theories and theorems by the great philosopher Pythagoras are still relevant. Plato was deeply interested in Pythagoreanism, even though he was reserved about him. He only mentioned him once by name in all his writings, and all we are told then is that he won the affections of his followers in an unusual degree by teaching them a "way of life," which was called Pythagorean. Aristotle also wrote a special treatise on the Pythagoreans, which has not come down to us, but som e of its quotations are found in later writers. These are of great value as they deal with the religious side of Pythagoreanism. Antikythera Mechanism. The level reached by the Greeks in Astronomy and Engineering is impressively shown by the Antikythera mechanism. In 1901, divers working off the isle of Antikythera found the remains of a 2,000-years-old

Walker Evans Essay Example for Free

Walker Evans Essay Walker Evans was born on November 3, 1903 to Walker Evans II and Jessie Crane. He belonged from a well to do family who had a good earning back ground. He was best known for his documentation on the Great Depression. Most of his work was done from a 810 inch Camera. He died on April 10, 1975. Walker Evans was both an excellent art photographer and a great documentary photographer when he was working for the FSA photography unit in the 1930s. Perhaps this resemblance between documentary and modernist art photography can be explained by an analogy: modernists apply the documentary impulse to the world of nature, objects, and architecture by finding fresh visions of things that have been ignored, devalued, or taken for granted just as documentary photographers present new insights about people who have been ignored, devalued, or taken for granted. (Rachleff, Melissa, 7-8) Of all the documentary photographers, Walker Evans attracted the greatest attention. The issue his critics were most concerned with was that of the style less style. This was appropriate because Evans strove for the appearance of stylelessness. It was a concept he had gotten from reading Flaubert during his time in Paris in the mid-twenties. Evans said he admired Flauberts realism and naturalism both, and his objectivity of treatment; the non-appearance of the author, the non-subjectivity. (Rachleff, Melissa, 9) He did not take Flauberts apparent objectivity literally, however, nor did he have any pretense to objectivity himself. What Flaubert showed Evans was that art could adopt a style that mimicked the objective manner of strictly utilitarian documents without sacrificing aesthetic taste? Evans could adopt a documentary style without giving up his standards of formal design. I cant stand a bad design or a bad object in a room, (Rachleff, Melissa, 11) he said, and when something was wrong, he changed it. He also occasionally arranged people into what appear to be candid compositions, and when shooting interiors, he often used a flash, although he disguised its effects in his prints. Evanss critics in the thirties were fooled. They were ready to believe that he had achieved a truly style less style. Lincoln Kirstein, who helped organize a major show of Evanss work at the Museum of Modern Art in 1938 and who also wrote the after word for the accompanying book, American Photographs, led the way in establishing the myth of Evanss stylelessness? The greatest photographers, Kirstein said, achieve a large quality of eye and a grand openness of vision that, rather than giving their work the mark of individual distinction, gives it a generalized look as if it were all the creation of the same person or even, perhaps, the creation of the unaided machine. (Lincoln Kirstein, 192) In Kirsteins estimation, Evans was precisely this kind of great photographer. He recognized the futility of developing emotional response for its own sake, and he saw the significance of focus matter. In fact, said Kirstein, it is the creative selection of subject matter that really counts in photography, and in Evanss work, the wave-length of his Kirstein went on to discuss the frontality that gives Evanss work such a powerful sense of objectivity: The most characteristic single feature of Evans work is its purity, or even its puritanism. It is `straight photography not only in technique but in the rigorous directness of its way of looking. All through the pictures in this book you will search in vain for an angle-shot. Every object is regarded head-on with the unsparing frankness of a Russian ikon or a Flemish portrait. The facts pile up with the prints. (Lincoln Kirstein, 192) In fact, there are a few angle shots in American Photographs, but the point is well taken. Evanss frontal views appear clinical. Other reviewers of American Photographs echoed Kirsteins assessment. Thomas Dabny Mabry, an associate director at the Museum of Modern Art who had helped organize Evanss show there, wrote, Seemingly he arranges nothing, changes nothing, implies nothing. . . . The purity of Evanss work is not only apparent in the straight, unadorned technique, but in the point of view. . . . [The photographs] are never staged. He shows in all his work a reverence for the inviolable history of the object before him. Martha Davidson described Evans as almost always coldly objective and his pictures as free from falsification, exaggeration or distortion. (Thompson, J. , 149) Kirstein acknowledged, in passing, the influence on Evans of Stendhal, Flaubert, Degas, and Seurat, and in so doing he hinted that Evans had deliberately created his style. But the brief suggestion of an artistic personality was quickly obscured by a return to the theme of unvarnished truth: The pictures of men and portraits of houses have only that `expression which the experience of their society and times has imposed on them. (Thompson, J. L, 192) Kirstein also saw a moral component in Evanss work. He described Evans as a member revolting from his own class, who knows best what in it must be uncovered, cauterized and why. The societal sores Evans saw were the same wounds of industrialization that Stieglitz and his circle had protested. Kirstein wrote of the exploitation of men by machinery and machinery by men, (Lincoln Kirstein, 193) and of the vulgarity of mass culture. Although this tone of social criticism is unmistakable in Evanss pictures, his book is not a call to action; it is not a book that points to problems that can be solved by abolition of the sharecropper system, the establishment of work projects or migrant labor camps. It is rather suggested a book that testifies to waste, selfishness, and internal cultural rot. Testifying to these ills was, in itself, a moral act. This was not a view shared by everyone. For Edward Alden Jewell, Evanss testimony appeared so clinically detached as to be purely aesthetic and not moral at all. Jewell apparently saw in Evans something akin to the aesthetic vision described by Roger Fry, a vision that takes in everything with complete equanimity, without moral responsibility, completely freed from the binding necessities of our actual existence. Any moral implications drawn from Evanss pictures, said Jewell, are the spectators, not Evanss. (Blinder, Caroline, 149) Lionel Trilling also addressed the issue of Evanss moral vision in a review of Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, a book of photographs by Evans and Agee that presented Evanss photographs without any captions, followed by Agees lengthy text detailing the lives of three families of white, Alabama tenant farmers. Trillings review of the book is one of the few that gives equal weight to Evanss photographs and Agees text. The question he asks regarding both is how is the middle class to feel about the underprivileged? Trilling concludes that Agee, motivated by guilt, ennobles and thus falsifies the image of his subjects. He is able to acknowledge some of their very obvious faults, such as their racism, but he cannot acknowledge any of the more subtle manifestations of meanness of spirit that Trilling is certain are present in these people, just as they are present in any group of people. Trilling does not suggest that Evans does reveal the sharecroppers meanness, but he judges Evans to be more truthful than Agee and more tasteful, by which he means more tactful, just, aware, and respectful. Trilling is unusual in that he claims no objective detachment for Evans: You cannot be cool about misery so intense, (Blinder, Caroline, 150) he writes. Unlike other critics, he sees that Evanss rendition of the truth is a product of his intense interaction with his subject and not the result of a clinical eye. Trilling confesses that he cannot analyze Evanss taste and cannot say what the morality of his vision is made of in technical and aesthetic terms, but he does, nevertheless, point out one significant aspect of Evanss moral vision. Referring to the portrait of Mrs. Gudger, which impressed him more than any other, Trilling explains that by allowing his subject to compose herself before the camera, Evans allowed her to defend herself against itas she would not have been able to do had the picture been candid-and in so doing, she gained dignity. Trilling wrote, With all her misery and perhaps with her touch of pity for herself, [she] simply refuses to be an object of your `social consciousness; she refuses to be an object at alleverything in the picture proclaims her to be all subject. (Blinder, Caroline, 151) Evans enhanced the sense of truth in his art not through the illusion of the style less style, but by acknowledging his presence, by showing his hand. In addition to the morality of clear vision, one can recognize in Evanss pictures a set of permanent symbols of the culture. Kirstein was not claiming for Evanss photographs the transcendent universality that Stieglitzs critics claimed for his pictures, but he did see Evanss work as transcending the moment. Evanss pictures as quintessential examples of synecdoche such that the single house, the single street, strikes with the strength of overwhelming numbers. The work is a monument to our moment. (Lima, Benjamin, 102) The pictures in American Photographs showed bumps, warts, boils and blackheads of the American physiognomy, and that these were the characteristics of a submerged fraction of the culture rather than representative of the whole. Williamson did not question the truthfulness of any of the individual pictures Evans published, but he did imply that Evanss choices of subjects revealed a political bias. But Williamsons has been a minority view. As John Szarkowski wrote in 1971, Beyond doubt, the accepted myth of our recent past is in some measure the creation of this photographer, whose work has persuaded us of the validity of a new set of clues and symbols bearing on the question of whom we are. Whether that work and its judgment was fact or artifice, or half of each, it is now part of our history. (Lima, Benjamin, 103) Bibliography †¢ Rachleff, Melissa, Scavenging the Landscape: Walker Evans and American Life. Journal Title: Afterimage. Volume: 23. Issue: 4. Publication Year: 1996. Number: 7+.

Personal Reflections On Stereotyping Of Ethnic Minorities Social Work Essay

Personal Reflections On Stereotyping Of Ethnic Minorities Social Work Essay   Ã‚  Through the process of  reviewing my journal entries, I was overwhelmed by incidents I went through. I realized some unfortunate and unintentional racism and microaggressions in my journals.   I noticed that resulted in producing weak and imperfect assumptions.   According to Sue and Sue, Microaggressions are brief, everyday exchanges that send denigrating messages to a target group like people of color, women and gays (2007. Chap5).   It was obvious I did things according to my own culture and somehow disregarding others cultures unintentionally.   Added to this, I found out that I was immature and unfair to make conclusions without further scrutiny. Scrutinizing all these non-stopping cultural thoughts, I started to think if I am culturally knowledgeable enough to be a counselor who got the necessary skills and means to work effectively with clients from multicultural backgrounds. Trough my previous journal review, I began to think about the reason why I struggle to bring up these multicultural calamities. Being hesitant on how I am going to provide therapy despite existing diversity issues. Despite all the readings, guest speakers and activities conducted in class, I find I still have some prejudice and assumptions in my subconscious mind such as homosexuality, which is challenging according to my religious beliefs as a Muslim. As a professional therapist, it will be helpful to get rid of these feelings and always stay away from being prejudiced against persons practicing different habits and beliefs. Sue and Sue said that the belief in the inferiority of others as well as the belief that one has the power to oblige certain standards upon others of another culture is also witnessed (SS 4). The ethnocentric monoculturalism mindset that Sue and Sue discussed in chapter four both shocks and amazes me.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Reading my journal entries helped me to reconsider the decisions and stereotypes I made about other ethnic minorities and especially homosexual communities. As a result of the journal reading, what are the measures that would help to avoid these stereotypes, perceptions, and beliefs do we hold about culturally diverse groups and may help us to maintain an effective relationship?   (SS 2)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   As far as my feelings are concerned, I was very frustrated and feel guilty and ashamed of being careless about a variety of multicultural minorities. Besides, it is not fair not to scrutinize these cultural calamities and not to withdraw from others and their situations and circumstances. This curiosity developed in me a sense of appreciation to tolerate these differences and willingness to find out more about my biases willing to work hard in order to be more aware of my weaknesses and change them. Feelings of shame and pride are mixed in the individual and a sense of conflict develops  Ã‚   (SS 10)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Identity was given a generous part in my previous journal entries as I dedicated more space and time for better understanding of myself. More than that, the conversation I had with my colleagues, guest speakers, and class instructor as well as through readings, helped me to define my identity within my family and other groups in which I have belonged, especially the Muslim communities. This considerable wind of change actually taught me to not take cultural issues for granted anymore, to spend more time and effort figuring out who I am. However, it is still hard to devote completely to accept given cultural differences and to solve identity issues. But, it was comforting that Slavic people had been referred to as such a strong religious affiliations and characterized as a cornerstone of their identity (MGG 52, pg. 713. In dealing with multiracial backgrounds and issues, it is awkward to ask coworkers or individuals from different counties quest ions like Where are you from? or What are you? because asking questions about ethnicity generates a sense of being offended and differentiated, and it is sometimes perceived as rude, insensitive, ambiguous and misconstrued. However, the idea is certainly not to make the person feel questioned or offended or attacked when asked about their ethnicity (SS 18). Maria Roots Bill of Rights (SS 18) is a great inspiration to me since it gave me a much greater understanding of what we ask multiracial people to do when we ask about their heritage and expect it to fit within the monoracial classification system. Conceptualizing identities and giving them more focus is a good idea (SS 18; Torres, Jones, Renn). It is crucial for more understanding of the topic of identity development.   Personally, I still need to fully recognize and improve my own understanding of myself, my background, and my culture. Added to this the feeling of guilt was also common in my journal entries, and Sue and Sue stated that without such an awareness and understanding, we may unintentionally discriminate among multicultural groups. When this happens, we may become guilty of cultural oppression and be a threat to multicultural minorities (SS 10) I did feel guilty about many things, but it is very significant to be aware of this problem now in order to avoid it in future confrontations. Personal Reflections on My Experiences This class was an important step in my journey in life; it helped me to recognize many unintentional biases and stereotypes.   It was a positive influence on me by improving my competencies, increasing my vigilance and cultural sensitivity. Yet, there is still a threat of underpathologizing a clients symptoms without taking into consideration cultural backgrounds. More than that, the understanding of a clients cultural context, having knowledge of culture-bound syndromes and being aware of cultural relativism, are challenging because, being oversensitive to these factors, the therapists pathology might be influenced negatively. As a result, this process ends up underpathologizing disorders (SS 4)   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It is fundamental to put up with and value the difference of other cultures, and this class helped me also to think about it seriously as I believe during this short semester I achieved a level of cultural sensitivity and awareness by discussing the IDI Profile which presented information about how to make sense and how to react and treat these cultural similarities and dissimilarities.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Emotions such as anger, sadness, and defensiveness took a part of the discussion about experiences of race, culture, gender, and other socio demographic variables (MGG 1). These feelings can either improve or reduce the understanding of the notion of multicultural calamities. That is why I believe this class was very important to take. As a professional, working with a multicultural population, I am sure that I need to know that I am different and how to deal with it in an appropriate way. Moreover, in my little work experience, I worked with many different people who are from diverse cultures and that led to some challenging times to understand each other in the beginning in terms of language, eye contact, and sometimes body language. I have discovered that by making statements of similarity, I have the possibility to share our differences that can influence my professional and personal life. Discussing the language difficulty openly with a client may be a beneficial tactic in the future.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚      Working with older adults was a good point that Sue and Sue covered in their book. They are aware that it is important to critically evaluate our own attitudes about old adults and their daily attitudes and concerns. Sue and Sue stated some legal and ethical issues that should be in mind while dealing or working with older adults (e.g., competency issues). Older adults need care and respect in terms of their mental status, and as a counselor, I have to know how to deal with those people in professional way.    The disabled population is another community that I learned to be aware of how to work with. Three models of disability affecting individuals were presented in the Sue and Sue book. First, the moral model is a defect considered a sort of sin or moral lapse. Second, the medical model is represented as a defect or loss of function that resides in the individual. Finally, the minority model is seen as an external problem involving an environment that fails to provide a shelter for individuals with disabilities. (SS 26) I learned that I have to treat people regardless of disability status with the same expectations and gather information about my clients disability. Those people gave me strength.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It was also interesting to be aware of social class issues, and this class was beneficial in helping us as future professionals to figure it out. As discussed in chapter 12 in Sue and Sue, Multicultural counseling and therapy must be about social justice, providing equal access and opportunity to all groups; being inclusive; removing individual and systemic barriers to fair mental health treatment, and insuring that counseling/therapy services are directed at the micro, meso, and macro levels of our society (SS 12.)   I learned that as counselors, we need to be hard working and supportive for immigrants and offer needed services for minorities and provide for local, state, and federal immigration laws. It is a big challenge to be able to work within different cultures setting, but keeping up will help people face all the barriers coming in the future.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Within my family, I feel powerless. I still have some issues that cannot be discussed with them, and most of these are cultural issues that I cannot change immediately always lead to conflict. The issues range from the handling of emotions, such as being able to express anger or shame about specific things, or being able to talk loudly about making my own decisions such as my relationship with the person who I choose to live who is from another culture.   I learned also that sometimes, even the married couples of similar backgrounds; they may still face some intercultural concerns. However, relationships from multi cultural backgrounds reach to the edge of success and go beyond given culture differences.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  As far as my IDI-personal plan is concerned, I mentioned that culture is about the rules of how to function within cultural context. Within the process of understanding these cultural differences and rules, I was somehow sensitive to those rules, but it is an important factor that participated to ameliorate my cultural awareness. I think I need to learn more effectively about my own culture including history and rules of myself and my family. The encapsulated Marginality part in my IDI- personal plan signified that I am trying to figure out how to correlate my intercultural beliefs with my identity and how to make such transition. This condition transition between culture and identity is referred to as Adaptation and Integration. To demonstrate this transition, I am saying to myself, Who I am? compared to What is my true culture? like my Berber origins compared to other cultures in my country. Another brief statement in my IDI-personal plan stated that I avoid learning about other cultures and ignore their history.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The profile also shows that I may have a commitment to the idea that people from other cultures are like us, or those people should share the same set of universal values I have. I may also have difficulties in identifying important cultural differences that influence intercultural relations, and I need to resolve these issues before I can exercise my greatest potential of intercultural competence (Bennett Bennett, 2002).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In my professional part of my IDI-Personal plan, I mentioned that I have to be able to experience the existence of other cultures and I should be sensitive and aware in order to be effective with my clients.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚     It terms of working with people of color, it is useful to discuss the reaction of the client to a professional who is from a different ethnic background (e.g. Sometimes clients feel uncomfortable working with a counselor of a different race) and be aware of mistrust and work to earn a clients trust (SS 14).  Ã‚   It is very significant to comprehend the dissimilarities, assist the clients to be relaxed in working with me as a professional, and be trusted and well-liked. Assessment of the Effectiveness to date of The IDI-based Personal Development Plan    My IDI Individual Profile helped me reflect on my experiences around cultural differences and similarities. As I reviewed my IDI profile results, I considered past situations in which I attempted to make sense of cultural differences and similarities; this can assist me discover statements that may have guided my actions in these situations. Moreover, I need to focus on a situation I am presently facing.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The IDI-based personal plan helped me to learn more about my own culture. I was surprised when I read the outcomes of my IDI result, especially in terms of being aware of my biases that I was thinking were strengths.   In my developmental task, I stated that I have to recognize cultural differences that are escaping my notice. I have to learn more about my own culture especially its heritage. I will explore my own culture by gathering necessary information. The IDI gave me the chance to be more conscious of who I am and where I came from. Steps to continue developing my sensitivity to difference and cultural competence   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   I need to continue developing my sensitivity to difference and cultural competence and be able to work successfully with clients from diverse ethnics and cultural backgrounds. I need to continue developing awareness by recognizing the value of population diversity.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   It is correct that one cannot discover everything about other cultures. However, I need to get awareness about other groups. I also need to separate my religious insights and respect others religion beliefs. I need to recognize and be mindful of who I am and where I came from. I need to be aware of my privilege as an educated person in my family. Finally, in order to continue developing my own sensitivity to difference and cultural competences, I have to recognize how my culture is viewed by others. I need to attend workshops and seminars about other cultures. I need to learn about others culture by watching documentaries and movies as much as possible. Visiting other countries and participating in its cultural events and festivals, and sharing experiences with other people will be a very effective plan.

Positive deviance study of malnutrition

Positive deviance study of malnutrition Introduction Malnutrition is the underlying cause of every one out of two deaths in children under 5 years of age. Bryce J, Boschi-Pinto C, Shibuya K, Black RE, and the WHO Child Health Epidemiology Reference Group. WHO estimates of the causes of death in children. Lancet 2005; 365: 1147-52. It is a largely preventable cause of over a third-3.5 million- of all child deaths. Four-Fifths of undernourished children live across 4 regions-Africa, Asia, Western Pacific and the Middle East-. These are high priority nations for action. The first of the millennium development goals was to half between 1990 and 2015 the proportion of people who suffer from hunger. U.N.Mellinium Project 2005. Halving hunger:It can be done. London and Sterling, VA:Task force on hunger, 2005. Nutrition is a neglected aspect of child health which is not justifiable as we know that it is a major risk factor for disease. Lopez AD, Mathers CD, Ezzati M, Jamison DT, Murray CJL. Global and regional burden of disease and risk factors, 2001:systematic analysis of population health data. Lancet 2006: 367:1747-57. Inappropriate feeding practices and their consequences are major obstacles to sustainable socioeconomic development and poverty reduction. Governments will be unsuccessful in their efforts to accelerate development in any significant long-term sense until optimal child growth and development, especially through appropriate feeding practices, is ensured. WHO Global Strategy on Infant Young Child Feeding Report of the Secretariat 55th World Health Assembly, April 2002(5) The indicator by which progress is measured is the prevalence of underweight in children under five, specifically, the percentage of children aged 0-59 months who fall below minus two standard deviations from the median weight for age of the standard reference population. http://www.unicef.org/progressforchildren/2006n4/index_undernutrition.html World Bank Report on 11th May 2006, there is a dominant focus on food supplementation that detracts from aspects that are more crucial for improving child nutritional outcomes, such as improving mothers feeding and caring behavior For example, only 40 percent of Indian mothers practice exclusive breastfeeding. Also delivery of services is not sufficiently focused on the youngest children (under three), who could potentially benefit most from ICDS interventions Growth-faltering starts during pregnancy, and approximately 30 percent of children in India are born with low birth weight, and by the age of two years most lifetime growth retardation has taken place, and is largely irreversible The flowchart below depicts the interactions between underlying and immediate causes of malnutrition The Positive Deviance concept which forms the basis of this study focuses on two direct behavioural causes of malnutrition at the household level, namely inadequate dietary intake and disease prevention. This study measures childhood malnutrition using the new growth standards that have been recently released by the World Health Organization. The new standards are based on children from Brazil, Ghana, India, Norway, Oman and the US and adopt a fundamentally prescriptive approach designed to describe how all children should grow rather than merely describing how children grew in a single reference population at a specified time. Garza C, de Onis M. (for the WHO Multicentre Growth Reference Study Group). Rationale for developing a new international growth reference. Food Nutr Bull 2004; 25 (Suppl. 1): S5-14. Magnitude of Malnutrition Malnutrition is a widely prevalent problem in India and one of astonishing magnitude. According to the National Family Health Survey 3 (NFHS III, 2005-06), about a third of Indias children are born underweight, about 44 percent of children under five are underweight, 48 percent are stunted, 20 percent are wasted and 70 percent are anaemic. NFHS II (1992-93), more than half (53%) of children below four years of age are under nourished. In 1998, 29.1% children between 1-5 years of age suffered from moderate and 12.3% from severe under nutrition. This shows only a gradual decrease in the prevalence of under nutrition in India over twelve years. Nutritional adequacy is one of the key determinants of the health and well being of the children. Under-nourishment not only retardsphysical developmentbut also hampers the learning and cognitive process, leading to sluggish educational, social and economic development, according to Sanjeev Kumar in his study Malnutrition in Children of the Back ward States of India and the ICDS Programme. According to the NFHS III data, Tamil Nadu, although considered one of the better performing states, recorded to have nearly 35% of its rural children as undernourished. This value was certainly lower than the national rural average of 49%, but according to the NNMB survey based on the NCHS standards in 2001, there was a rise in the levels of severe malnutrition in both boys and girls in the under 5 age group in Tamil Nadu Therefore the focus of this study is to investigate how some children living in the same surroundings escape the ill-effects of malnutrition and thrive in spite of poverty and limited resources, and use these practices to eliminate malnutrition among the rest. The Positive Deviance Approach and its benefits Positive Deviance is based on the fact that solutions to some community problems already exist within the community and need to be discovered. It is a strength-based or asset-based approach based on the belief that in every community there are certain individuals (Positive Deviants) whose special, or uncommon, practices and behaviours enable them to find better ways to prevent malnutrition than their neighbours who share the same resources and face the same risks. Through a dynamic process called the Positive Deviance Inquiry (PDI), these practices are discovered to contribute to a better nutritional outcome in under nourished child This intervention is designed to enable families with malnourished children to learn and practice these and other beneficial behaviours. The programme actively involves the mother and child in rehabilitation and learning in a home like situation and work to enable the families to sustain the childs enhanced nutritional status at home. The typical session consists of nutritional rehabilitation and education over a twelve-day period followed by home visits. The development of a community-based nutrition rehabilitation model called PD/Hearth was promoted by USAID and other international organizations such as UNICEF. The Hearth approach In the Hearth approach, caregivers of malnourished children practice new cooking, feeding, hygiene and caring behaviours shown to be successful for rehabilitating malnourished children. The selected practices come from both the findings of the Positive Deviance Inquiry and emphasis behaviours highlighted by public health experts. The Hearth session consists of nutritional rehabilitation and education over a twelve-day period followed by home visits. The Hearth approach promotes behaviour change and empowers caregivers to take responsibility for nutritional rehabilitation of their children using local knowledge and resources. After two weeks of being fed additional high-calorie foods, children become more energetic and their appetites increase. Visible changes in the child, coupled with the learning by doing method, results in improved caregiver confidence and skills in feeding, child care, hygiene and health-seeking practices. Improved practices, regardless of mothers education levels, enhance child growth and development. This approach successfully reduces malnutrition in the target community by enabling community members to discover the wisdom of Positive Deviant mothers and to practice this wisdom in the daily Hearth sessions. Positive Deviance/Hearth is an effective tool in discovering the solutions from within. Need for the Study Maternal and child under nutrition is highly prevalent in low and middle income countries like ours, resulting in increased mortality and overall disease burden. It is well recognised that among the basic and underlying causes of under nutrition include environmental and economic factors with poverty having a central role. Thus for a sustainable solution to this very common problem, there needs to be an ecological and holistic approach rather than the current and commonly used approach of the government giving supplementary feeds to those who are malnourished. The latter approach not only puts a financial strain on the government but also make the community members dependent on this external aid. Therefore this study concentrates on identifying affordable and sustainable solutions within a community which can be used to prevent undernutrition. This approach is also not resource hungry unlike the traditional approaches where the focus is on finding and fixing what is wrong and missing in the community rather than identifying what is already working and build on the strengths of existing healthy practices within the community that is protecting them from undernutrition even though they are faced with same constraints of resources. This approach is known as the Positive Deviance approach. Knowledge shared through this approach not only changes behaviour but also changes how a community perceives malnutrition and their ability to change the situation. The Positive Deviant approach has been shown in other studies and projects to quickly eliminate malnutrition and through the sustainable new behaviour; the younger siblings have also received these benefits. Positive deviance is a successful approach to decrease malnutrition and has enabled hundreds of communities the world over to reduce and prevent malnutrition. This approach is also culturally acceptable which helps bring about change in our society. However, there are only a few studies that use this concept to reduce malnutrition in India, whereas the potential here is very high. And , although Tamil Nadu has shown gains in terms of reduction of the problem of malnutrition, it still has a high percentage of malnourished children and therefore this study was undertaken to estimate prevalence in fourteen villages within the rural field practice area of the department of community medicine of PSG Institute of Medical Science and Research and explore the feasibility, sustainability and effectiveness of combating the problem by using the Positive Deviance concept and approach. Tamil Nadu has a high prevalence of malnutrition. Recently, there has been a paradigm shift in the primary focus from Management of Malnutrition to Prevention of Malnutrition. Towards achieving this, strategies and activities have been proposed under various components for the year 2006-07 with priority for greater attention on the health and nutritional status, by the Government of Tamil Nadu. One of the guiding principles suggested to help achieve Malnutrition free Tamil Nadu, is effective nutrition intervention, and communication to bring about behavioural change. To help achieve this goal, this study was undertaken in fourteen villages under the rural field practice area of the department of community medicine of PSG Institute of Medical Science and Research using the Positive Deviance concept. Objectives To estimate the prevalence of under 3yrs undernutrition in 14 villages of Vedapatti. To identify Positive Deviant practices in the community. To rehabilitate undernourished children identified in the most affected village. To reassess families at their homes after 6 months and ensure sustainability of Positive Deviant practices. Review of literature Classification of under nutrition Under nutrition is defined as the outcome of insufficient food intake and repeated infectious diseases. It includes being underweight for ones age, too short for ones age (stunted), dangerously thin for ones height (wasted) and deficient in vitamins and minerals (micronutrient malnutrition) according to UNICEF. Low weight for age is termed as underweight. Weight for age classifications are widely used in assessing nutritional status of children as it gives a picture of both acute and chronic onset malnutrition. The earlier classifications include Gomez, Indian Association of Paediatrics, and Welcome. These classifications use different reference standards, but the current recommended standards are the WHO references. This study uses the WHO references to classify underweight. In a study done by Bridget Fenn and Mary E. Penny across three countries, fewer children were classified as underweight according to the WHO classification when compared to the NCHS reference standards. Another study done by Marc-Andre Prost et al showed contrasting results. The WHO standards gave a prevalence of underweight 3.6 times higher early in infancy,0 4 months (6.1% against 1.7%) and half the estimated prevalence of the NCHS reference in the second half of infancy, 11 15 months(6.6% against 13.6%) Implication of New WHO Growth Standards on Identification of Risk Factors and Estimated Prevalence of Malnutrition in Rural Malawian Infants Marc-Andre ´ Prost1*, Andreas Jahn1,2, Sian Floyd1, Hazzie Mvula2, Eleneus Mwaiyeghele2, Venance Mwinuka2, Thomas Mhango2, Amelia C. Crampin1,2, Nuala McGrath1,2, Paul E. M. Fine1, Judith R. Glynn1 In a study done by P.R. Deshmukh et al , in Anji, Maharashtra, the prevalence of underweight as assessed by WHO standards was significantly lower when compared with the assessment based on NCHS reference (p0.05). Newly Developed WHO Growth Standards : Implications for Demographic Surveys and Child Health Programs P.R. Deshmukh, A.R. Dongre, S.S. Gupta and B.S. Garg Prevalence of under nutrition The World Bank estimates that India is ranked 2nd with 47% after Bangladesh for the most number of children who suffer with malnutrition (in 1998). The prevalence of underweight children in India is among the highest in the world, and is nearly double that of Sub-Saharan Africa with dire consequences for mobility, mortality, productivity and economic growth. According to the National family health survey -3 the percentage of under 3 children who were underweight in Tamilnadu were 33.2 % (31.3% in the urban areas and 34.8% in rural areas) The National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau observed that in about 40% of the households, the intake of dietary energy by preschool children was inadequate. About 55% of the preschool age children were underweight, 52% were stunted and 15% were wasted. In a study done by Bhanderi D et al, the prevalence of under weight (wt. for age below 2SD) was 43.67%. An epidemiological study of health and nutritional status of under five children in semi-urban community of Gujarat. Bhanderi D, Choudhary SK. A study done to find the prevalence of malnutrition in Uttar Pradesh showed that the maximum over all prevalence of malnutrition was in the age group of 13-24 months. The maximum number of grade IV malnutrition was found in the age group 25-36 months. Harishankar, Shraddha Dwivedi, S.B. Dadral, D.K. Walia, Nutritional status of children under 6 years of age Indian Journal of Preventive and Social Medicine. Vol. 35 No.3 4 2004 Methods of assessing nutritional status Nutritional assessments can be done by both direct and indirect methods. The method used can result in a wide variation in the prevalence of malnutrition. P. Mohanan et al in their study evaluated the efficacy of Body Mass Index, Mid-Arm Circumference and Weight-for-age in detecting Malnutrition in terms of sensitivity, specificity and predictive value and concluded that weight-for-age is the best indicator. P.Mohanan, A.Kamath, B.Motha, M.Philip. Evaluation of Anthropometric Indices of Malnutrition in under-five children. Indian Journal of Public Health 1994 July-September;28 (3); 91-94. A Comparison of Anthropometric Methods for Assessing Nutritional Status of Preschool Children in the Philippines was done to identify the most reliable anthropometricmeasurements that reflect nutritional status and the Dugdales nutritional index, weight/height, was a reliable measurement for malnutrition. This is exceptionally useful when the age of the child is not know. A Comparison of Anthropometric Methods for Assessing Nutritional Status of Preschool Children: The Philippines Study Marilyn D. Johnson, MS,William K. Yamanaka, PhDandCandelaria S. Formacion, MS Factors associated with malnutrition Gender A case-controlled study conducted in a rural area in Tamil Nadu, India, on 97,000 children showed that female gender was a significant risk factor for malnutrition. YALE JOURNAL OF BIOLOGY AND MEDICINE 70 (1997), pp. 149-160. Copyright C 1997. All rights reserved. A Case-Control Study of Maternal Knowledge of Malnutrition and Health-Care-Seeking Attitudes in Rural South India Kaori Saito, Joshua R. Korzenika, James F. Jekel and Sara Bhattacharji Also another study in Tamilnadu on a total of 2954 children attending the TamilNadu Integrated Nutrition Project (TINP), showed that there was an association between female sex and malnutrition. In this study the malnourished children were referred to as negative deviants. Use of Positive-Negative Deviant Analyses to Improve Programme Targeting and Services: Example from the TamilNadu Integrated Nutrition Project MEERA SHEKAR, JEAN-PIERRE HABICHT AND MICHAEL C LATHAM Girls showed only a slightly higher level of prevalence of malnutrition in the study done by The Research and Special Studies Division of the Department of Census and Statistics, Sri Lanka A study done in the slums of Chandigarh on 1286 preschool children found no significant gender difference. This study shows similar reports as our study in Vedapatti. H.M. Swami, J.S.Thakur, S.P.S.Bhatia, Vikas Bhatia. Nutriotional status of preschool children in an ICDS block of Chandigarh. Journal og Indial Medical Association; 99(10): 554-556 The sex of the child was found to be significantly high in association to malnutrition. The percentage of female children that were malnurished was higher in school going children. Epidemiology of malnutrition in a rural field practice are of Navi Mumbai By Sumedha Joshi and Santosh S. Walgankar Indian Journal of Preventive and Social Medicine Vol 35, 1 and 2, 2004 Mothers Literacy The Research and Special Studies Division of the Department of Census and Statistics, Sri Lanka, undertook a methodological study to investigate the prevalence of malnutrition in children under five years of age, and the factors contributing to such a situation. The study found that 25% of pre-school children that were undernourished had mothers who had not gone beyond the primary level of school education. The effected proportion dropped to 11% when the mother has had at least secondary education. Mother literacy was found in this study to have a positive effect on bringing down the incidence of malnutrition in socio-economically backward villages around Agra. Positive Deviance determinants in Young Infants in rural Uttar Pradesh by Vani Sethi1, Sushma Kashyap1, Veenu Seth1 and Siddharth Agarwal, Department of Foods and Nutrition, Lady Irwin College, New Delhi, India. Indian Journal of Pediatrics Volume 74, June 2007. Sandip Kumar et al in a study among 600 under 5 children in West Bengal showed that illiteracy of both parents was a significant risk factor for malnutrition. Sandip Kumar Ray, Anima Halder, Biswajit Biswas, Raghunath Mishra, Satish Kumar. Epidemiology of Under Nutrition. Indian Journal of Pediatrics 2001 November: 68:1025-1030. Socio-economic status This study in 2003 on 4187 children showed contrasting results in Nigeria. The southeast and southwest regions had large inequalities between the poor and the rich whereas northeast and northwest regions had a considerably small gap between the rich and the poor on malnutrition. Using extended concentration and achievement indices to study socioeconomic inequality in chronic childhood malnutrition: the case of Nigeria Olalekan A Uthmancorresponding author1,2 A study done in 1000 under 5 children in Rajasthan showed that 82% of the malnourished children belonged to the socio economic classes 4 and 5. Nutritional disorders in rural Rajasthan A.L.Soni1, R.N.Singh1and B.D.Gupta. Indian Journal of Peadiatrics, May, 1980,Vol 47: 199-202. A case-control study of maternal knowledge of malnutrition and health-care-seeking attitudes in rural Tamilnadu, showed that socio-economic status was a stronger risk factor for malnutrition than health-care availability and health-care-seeking attitudes. A case-control study of maternal knowledge of malnutrition and health-care-seeking attitudes in rural South India, Saito K,Korzenik JR,Jekel JF,Bhattacharji S. Birth order The study done by Vani Sethi et al also evaluated other factors that contribute to malnutrition in the society and found that third or earlier born infants escaped malnutrition Positive Deviance determinants in Young Infants in rural Uttar Pradesh by Vani Sethi1, Sushma Kashyap1, Veenu Seth1 and Siddharth Agarwal21Department of Foods and Nutrition, Lady Irwin College, New Delhi, India. Indian Journal of Pediatrics Volume 74, June 2007 Another study in Uttar Pradesh observed that grade III malnutrition was absent in the children whose birth order was one and two. A significant rise in Malnutrition was found in the children of birth order IV and above. Health and Population Perspectives Issues 4(2):106-112, 1981 A community based, cross-sectional study was conducted in the Mollasimla village of Hooghly district of West Bengal, showed a significantly higher proportion of malnutrition was found to be present among female children of higher birth order and those belonging to families with lower per capita income compared to the males. Gender inequality in nutritional status among under five children in a village in Hooghly district, West Bengal. Dey I,Chaudhuri RN. PROTEIN ENERGY MALNUTRITION IN CHILDREN A CASEFOR THE NEED OF A PLANNED FAMILY Deoki Nandan*, J. V. Singh** and B. C Srivastava A study done by Harishankar et al showed that the highest percentage of malnourished children was seen in the first born children (47.2%) and the least in children with birth order 3 and above (17.8%) Harishankar, Shraddha Dwivedi, S.B. Dadral, D.K. Walia,Nutritional status of children under 6 years of age Indian Journal of Preventive and Social Medicine. Vol. 35 No.3 4 2004 Spacing The same study in Uttar Pradesh, by Deoki Nandan et al also studied the relationship to spacing and malnutrition showed that there was a direct association between Protein energy Malnutrition and less spacing between sibilings. Health and Population Perspectives Issues 4(2):106-112, 1981. Protein Energy Malnutrition In Children A Case For The Need Of A Planned Family Deoki Nandan*, J. V. Singh** and B. C Srivastava Studies using Positive Deviance concepts The successful application of the PD approach has been documented in more than 41 countries in nutrition and a variety of other sectors from public health to education to business. Positive deviance is not specific to nutrition practices, but can be used for many other behaviours. Ref:http://www.positivedeviance.org/PD_Evaluation_Report_for_DEPKES_FINAL.pdf Positive Deviance was used in two Colombian hospitals to combat the spread of MRSA Infection. All hospital staff up to the security guard involved themselves by reminding the visitors to practice good hand hygiene. As a result the infection rates have dropped down my more than 75% from 1.1 infections per 1000 patient days to less than 0.2 infections per 1000 patient days. Ref: http://www.positivedeviance.org/projects/healthcare.html?id=49 In West Bengal, India, ICDS has undertaken pilots projects in the use of the PD approach in Nutrition and Child Care Program (NCCP) in 4 districts to improve the nutritional status of children under three years of age. The projects substantially decreased the number of malnourished children by promoting good care practices. The PD informed project enabled families to break the dependence on donated food, by identifying cheap locally available and bringing it daily to the NCC session to prepare and feed their malnourished children. Every month the malnourished child is weighed and in most cases, mothers find their children gaining weight between 100 and 600 gm. Ref:http://www.positivedeviance.org/projects/nutrition.html?id=77 Ref:http://www.unicef.org/india/nutrition_1557.htm In 1990 Save the Children initiated a PD program in Viet Nam to enable poor villages to address the pervasive problem of childhood malnutrition. At that time 60% of children under the age of 5 suffered from malnutrition in Viet Nam. The initial pilot project was in the first 4 villages. In each of the villages, six of the poorest families with well nourished kids were chosen and caretakers were questioned and observed. In every instance where a poor family had a well-nourished child, the mother or father was collecting tiny shrimps or crabs or snails (the size of one joint of one finger) from the rice paddies and adding these to the childs diet along with the greens from sweet potato tops. Although readily available and free for the taking, the conventional wisdom held these foods to be inappropriate, or even dangerous, for young children. Along with these food and atypically strict hand hygiene in 5 of the 6 PD households, other positive deviant behaviors emerged, involving frequenc y and method of feeding and quality of care and health-seeking behaviors. Through the PD inquiries, community members had discovered for themselves what it took for a very poor family to have a well-nourished child. Rehabilitation started as for two weeks every month, mothers or other caretakers would bring their malnourished children to a neighbors house for a few hours every day. Together with the health volunteer, they would prepare and feed an extra nutritious meal to their children. This showed great success by reducing malnutrition by as much as 80%. The project was then applied in large scale reaching more than 2 million people and in 250 communities and sustainabily rehabiliteted 50,000 malnourished children under the age of 5. This is probably the best known and best documented large scale application of PD. Ref: http://www.positivedeviance.org/projects/nutrition.html?id=105 In Nepal a PD project to cover more than 8000 children under 3 years of age from 15 very disadvantaged communities was started with an aim of reducing child malnutrition in a sustainable manner. Positive practices regarding child feeding, caring, health seeking and maternity care are identified from the poor families having well nourished children through the PDI and then are made accessible to the families with malnourished children through a learning by doing process. Ref: http://www.positivedeviance.org/projects/countries.html?id=82 In the year 2000 a Positive Deviance Inquiry to identify specific behaviors and strategies that contribute to healthy pregnancy outcomes amongst poor women was conducted. The inquiry determined that mothers-in-law played a central role in assisting women in obtaining medical care. Low-income women with weight gain greater than 1.5 kg per month in the second trimester of pregnancy reported multiple antenatal care contacts, increased rest during pregnancy, and more consumption of meat and vegetables. These results were incorporated into a program for 200 women that resulted in a decrease in the prevalence of low birth weight. Ref: http://www.positivedeviance.org/projects/public_health.html?id=117 The following is illustrative of the impact of Positive Deviance over the last 15 years: Sustained 65 to 80% reduction in childhood malnutrition in Vietnamese communities, reaching a population of 2.2 million people. Significant reduction in childhood malnutrition in communities in 41 countries around the world. Reduction in neo-natal mortality morbidity in Pashtun communities in Pakistan and minority communities in Vietnam with near universal adoption of protective behaviors and social change. Estimated 50% increase in primary school student retention in 10 participating schools in Missiones, Argentina. Community intervention methods to combat under nutrition Traditional nutrition interventions include growth monitoring, counselling and the provision of supplemental foods and micronutrients But over decades the weighing of children undertaken by several National health ministries has brought little or no change to the nutritional status. In fact, in a study done by Sridhar Seetharaman, in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, it was found that the Mid Day Meal did not make any appreciable and significant impact on improving the nutritional status of the children. Impact Of Mid Day Meal On The Nutritional Status Of School Going Children, Sridhar Seetharaman, NIRD, Hyderabad Zulfiqar A Bhutta et al used a cohort model to study the interventions that affect maternal and child undernutrition and nutrition-related outcomes. The interventions included promotion of breastfeeding; strategies to promote complementary feeding, with or without provision of food supplements; micronutrient interventions; general supportive strategies to improve family and community nutrition. They found that these interventions could reduce stunting at 36 months by 36%; mortality between birth and 36 months by about 25%; and disability-adjusted life-years associated with stunting, severe wasting, intrauterine growth restriction, and micronutrient deficiencies by about 25%. Prof Zulfiqar A Bhutta PhDa, Tahmeed Ahmed PhDb, Prof Robert E Black MDc, Prof Simon Cousens PhDd, Prof Kathryn Dewey PhDe, Elsa Giuglianif, Batool A Haider MDa, Prof Betty Kirkwood PhDd, Saul S Morris PhDd, Prof HPS Sachdevg, Meera Shekar PhDhand for the Maternal and Child Undernutrition Study Group, Lancet Volume 371, 8 February 2008, Pages 417-440 Reasons for age selection Care is an important determinant of nutritional status. It determines the delivery of food and health care resources to the child by optimizing the existing resources to promote good health and nutrition in children. Ramakrishnan U. UNICEF-Cornell colloquium on care and nutrition of the young child-planning. F Nutr Bull 1995; 16: 286-92. The first two years of life are the window of opportunity to prevent early childhood undernutrition that causes largely irreversible damage. This is proved by the following studies across the world. Study shows more benefit from reaching all at-risk children

Economics of the War on Terrorism :: 9/11 Recession Essays

The choice to bomb the World Trade Center was more than symbolic. The collapse of the towers coincided with a slowing global economy and was probably intended to cause as much economic as physical harm. The crisis will have deep economic repercussions in a number of areas; while some parts of the economy will be hurt, other sectors may actually benefit, and it is possible that increased defense spending could stimulate the slowing economy in the short run. A global economy requires openness and speed, whereas increased security often entails putting up barriers and walls. The war on terrorism will also dramatically increase security costs at every level. America's distant global commitments may become enormously expensive and draining. The war on terrorism will decrease consumer spending, the stock market, exchange rates, airline costs, and immigration rates. Furthermore, how will a slowing global economy respond and deteriorate the slowing American economy? The terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center will cost New York’s economy up to 105 billion dollars and 115,000 jobs. Allen Hevesi, the city comptroller, did a recent report of the breakdown of some costs: Rebuilding the World Trade Center as smaller buildings will cost 6.7 billion; Repairing and restoring other damaged buildings will cost 5.3 billion; Value of equipment, vehicles, computer systems destroyed will cost 12 billion; Lost wages using estimate of 5,600 people will cost 11 billion; Clean-up and stabilization of WTC site will cost 9 billion; City government overtime, vehicle losses, road building will cost 7 billion; Spending by private owners on repairs will cost 1 billion; Treating injured, loss of income from injuries will cost 3 billion; Lost business and economic activity will cost 21 billion; Lost rent for damaged buildings will cost 1.75 billion; Lost wages because of companies leaving New York will cost 3 billion. The city will need additional federal ai d to recover. The long-term impact of the attacks depends on how quickly the nation’s economy recover and the decisions on where to locate by the companies. The city initially paid for clearing the area and the most visible portion of the cleanup, which was nearly a half a million tons of steel, concrete and debris. The World Trade Center attacks were said to be hurting the civilian economy in ways that merely a military engagement like the Persian Gulf War didn’t. MSNBC news reported that because of its global scale and long-term nature, the war on terrorism will cost more than the Persian Gulf War, which totaled about $80 billion in constant fiscal-year 2002 dollars.

Reminiscencia de la infancia: el caso de un escritor de los siglos XX y :: Foreign Language Spanish Essays

Reminiscencia de la infancia: el caso de un escritor de los siglos XX y La primera primera ficcià ³n narrativa de Medardo Fraile, uno de los maestros de la Edad de Oro del cuento espaà ±ol contemporà ¡neo, surgià ³ a la edad de cinco aà ±os. La temprana edad de su escritura nos lleva a investigar sobre los hechos que acompaà ±aron su infancia y que pudieron despertar en à ©l esa necesidad de crear. La lectura de su obra narrativa, vinculada a su biografà ­a, asà ­ como alguno de sus numerosos artà ­culos, nos confirman el efecto que produjo en Medardo Fraile nià ±o la ausencia de su madre, fallecida meses antes del surgimiento de ese primer cuento. En el artà ­culo â€Å"Crà ³nica de mà ­ mismo y alrededores† el escritor nos dice: â€Å"Hasta los cinco aà ±os, mi vida estuvo condicionada por la enfermedad de mi madre, que murià ³ a los treinta y tres aà ±os de una cardiopatà ­a de tipo reumà ¡tico cuando yo tenà ­a cinco† (70). En su novela Autobiografà ­a encontramos este mismo hecho transformado en ficcià ³n: Al llegar al portal se soltà ³ y subià ³ la escalera a saltos. La puerta estaba entornada. La empujà ³ y se lanzà ³ a la alcoba a besar a su madre. Abrià ³ la puerta y vio el cuarto vacà ­o y el balcà ³n de par en par y, en un rincà ³n un montà ³n de lana. Alguien le llevà ³ al comedor, mientras el beso que le corrà ­a prisa dar, ahorrado tantos dà ­as, se le anudaba incrà ©dulo en el cuerpo, en el vacà ­o, en el aire. (236-37) Los sentimientos de ausencia y soledad producidos en el jovencà ­simo Medardo Fraile por la muerte de su madre, influyen decisivamente en el desarrollo de su oficio, primero en Espaà ±a, y posteriormente, a partir de 1964 en el Reino Unido, donde vive en la actualidad. En â€Å"El interà ©s del Psicoanà ¡lisis para la Està ©tica† (1913) Freud nos recuerda que hay conexià ³n entre las impresiones infantiles y los destinos del artista y sus obras, como reacciones a tales impulsos. La muerte de la madre de Medardo Fraile constituye un momento crucial aunque todavà ­a temprano del desarrollo de su escritura, en ese despertar de su mente creadora. En â€Å"Mà ¡s de cien cuentos en busca de su autor† el escritor nos describe ese momento inicial de ficcià ³n narrativa: El primer cuento que recuerdo –y si lo recuerdo serà ¡ por algo–, lo hilvanà © en Madrid, oralmente, a los cinco aà ±os, en un banco de la calle Princesa. Mi madre habà ­a muerto meses antes y yo vivà ­a en nuestra casa con mi padre, casi siempre ausente, y mi madrina. Aquel dà ­a salà ­ de mi colegio necesitando un paà ±uelo, no sà © por quà ©.

Clinical Governance

Principles of clinical governance:Working in a critical care department with a 150-bed capacity was challenging for me as aclinical nursing manager. One of the struggles was controlling the infection rate in thedepartment it is need to be minting and working to reduce the high rate so is not easy toachieve. For example, the report for one of the infraction control indicators showed that therate of central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLABSI) was high. Clinical governance plays an important role in improving healthcare systems by enhancing and maintaining the continuity of the healthcare provided, creating an evidence-based framework for managing the healthcare provider, refining professional performance by providing scientific resources, and minimising the risk to the patient. It is also important to guarantee patient satisfaction (Kapur, 2009).Working with the clinical governance department lead to the idea for reducing the high rate of CLABSI by using bundles to monitor staff members during insertion of the central line and to make sure that is the blood instruction with the clean producer. The care bundles are providing the evidence based interventions by collecting the interventions in one protocol, that will help to get an excellent outcome (Fulbrook & Mooney, 2003). The result of implementing bundles was excellent, and the rate of CLABSI went down by 50% in the first month, and within three months the rate had dropped by more than 80%. Staff role in ensuring quality and safety:the quality of the nurses' work and safety of patients is essential toproviding excellent care to patients. nurses are the major part of health care providers andit is essential that they take care of preventing medical errors and maintain patient safety. The clinical manager has the role to ensure that bundles were properly implemented and supervised by using one staff member in each shift to check the bundles to verify that all of the health care providers were committed to the bundles instructions. This helped to ensure consistency in the quality of care provided to the patients.(Barbara et al., 2014) Empowering consumers:empowering nurses to take a more active role in their healthcare experience canlead to providing better healthcare. I believe that requiring continuing education allows thenurses to improve their expertise. Furthermore, having nurses share their knowledge isimportant because it helps them to become role models. Nurses must belief in their value andmake sure they apply what they belief in realty to provide better care for patients. Also,creating a positive communication environment is crucial to improving the relationshipbetween patients and nurses, which is reflected in the healthcare outcome. Improving thepersonal – central can have a significant impact on delivering excellent healthcare.The prerequisites for a professional nurse focus on the nurse's attributes and include beingprofessionally competent, having developed interpersonal skills, being committed to the job,being able to demonstrate clarity of beliefs and values, and knowing oneself (Tanya V.McCance, 2006). The empowerment is most successful when it is internal, ratherthan external. Therefore, nursing students must be taught how to empower themselves a supported. Empowering nurses can lead to promote health care and that will reflect in patient health.