Saturday, August 31, 2019
A Hmong Child, Her Doctors and American Tragedy Essay
Introduction            America is known for having a culturally diverse society. The Hmong Group is among the population of the said society. In the story entitled â€Å"The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down†, which was written by Anne Fadiman, the main character came from the said ethnic group. The Hmong ethnic tribe is known for their knowledge and practice of traditional and primitive medical processes in healing their sick members. Based upon their beliefs of spirits, they usually create their medical observations on the patients and later on apply the practices they know are needed for the patient’s recovery. The question is that â€Å"since their traditional practices have been proven effective for many members of their group for the past years of their history, does it guarantee that their ways of healing the patients that they treat are better than that of medical processes? Is there any possibility that the medical practices of the modern medicine be integrated with the cultural ways of the ethnic groups and still gain better results on the patient’s recovery later on? How effective could the said kind of medical processes be when it comes to actual application? These questions with regards to culture and its effect and influence towards medication would be the main topic of this paper and the subject of the discussions that would follow. About The Case            The story, as written by Anne Fadiman involves a young child who is afflicted with a serious illness. The girl’s name is Lia, a preschooler who has been experiencing developmental delay since she was in her younger years. As she grew up, she developed more serious health problems such as major seizures every now and then accompanied by several series of severe convulsions and cerebral Anoxia. Because of the said situation, the young child was profoundly impaired and physically incapable of doing the normal things that a young child naturally does. She was not playful and she had fewer chances when she used to react on the situations that are happening around her.            The parents of Lia, who were traditional Hmongs, believe in their cultural medication. Hence, whenever she passes out, or looses her consciousness, they claim that it is simply because she has ‘lost her soul’ and thus needs to  receive ritual practices to be able to regain her own self. For several times of having seizures, the ethnic elder of their tribe has tried reviving the young girl through ceremonial ministries and application of herbal medicines which were prayed over for her benefit.            Upon knowing this, the medical experts who used to handle Lia’s case before she went home believed that the further developments of her illness towards becoming worse was caused by the neglect of her parents in giving her anti-convulsant medications. The said anti-convulsants are known to be strong and really affect the system of the child as it tries to ‘repair’ the damaged brain tissues of the child every time she looses her consciousness.            Later on, the medical practitioners who were supposed to both evaluate and take charge of Lia’s health situation was moved to get the child from her parents and bring her to a medical center where they believed she could be more closely observed and cured as well.            However, the medical processes used by the said practitioners were not as successful as they believed it would be. As for a fact, the terminality of the case of Lia even pushed to a worst condition until her parents were advised to take her back home, especially when they started to believe that her case could not be met anymore and that there is only a little time left before she dies.            Upon coming home, the tribe or the ethnic group of Lia performed several rituals again which they strongly believed would help her recover. As a result [as the tribe members claim] is that the young girl did not die. However, she was brain dead. This means that although she still breaths, her brain does not function anymore making the other systems of her body useless as of the said moment.            Knowing the situation behind Lia’s case, a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) Protocol shall be created regarding her case. Hence, by doing so, the author of this paper hopes to help in turning the situation around by answering the question â€Å"What could have been done that could have contributed better on the progress of the healing process of Lia?†The DSM Protocol            The process of pre-medication and therapeutical approach towards the illness shall be applied on the DSM protocol that follows: Interview The interview shall be performed for the sake of creating a basis for the creation of the medical protocol that needs to be applied for cases such as that of Lia. The interview then would be addressed to several parties that are involved in the direct healing practice that needs to be applied for the patient. The said interview is subdivided into three major sections. Interview with the Parents of the Patient Since they are the ones who regularly attend to the patient and are also the ones who are directly affected by the illness of the child, it would be best to know how they are able to give the child’s needs amidst her health situation. It would also help if they would be asked on what kind of ‘home nurses’ they are to be able to meet the medical requirements of their child’s health status. The interview shall help the psychology experts to understand the environment of the child and thus identify what factors [may include emotional and social] affects the healing development of the patient. Interview with the Physician The Physician’s records as well as his own opinion towards the health situations of the patient are among the important sectors of this research. To be able to know the medical observations that they have done towards the patient’s situation, the development of the therapeutic process would be more practical and medically authorized. Interview with the Elders of the Ethnic Group An interview with the elders or the chief leaders of the ethnic group that the patient is joined with would help the person analyzing the situation to gain some knowledge about the basic cultural background of the patient and how the said traditional practices could be incorporated into the medical practice that would be applied to then patient afterwards. Tests The tests would involve oral, practical and medical tests: Oral tests This would be done with the patient [Lia]. This test would measure the development of the child with regards to the mental reasoning that she is able to use as she is asked some questions. [the author of this paper preempts that the patient is still at the first stage of her illness when she is still having slight seizures pertaining to the developing status of her illness. Practical tests This test involves both the parents and the child. They would be asked on how they are able to meet the challenges of the situation together. It should also include the ways by which they are able to treat their child during situations wherein their child experiences seizure and other health problems relayed to it. [It could be an inquiry on what they value better, the medical ways of healing their child or the traditional ways of dealing with the said health problem] Medical Tests The medical tests are almost the same as that of the interview with the physician attending to Lia’s case. Only this time, it would be based from the hard copy of the medical tests that have been made to identify the child’s sickness. Observation The observation on the patient would be based on both the written output of the interviews and tests that were done on the earlier part of the protocol, as well as with the actual observation of the situation of the patient during regular days. Life Records This mainly involves the observation and analysis of the life of the child as an infant and how she was taken care of by her parents. It would also be a measure on how the tribe tried to help in the child’s recovery through the application f traditional practices and cultural beliefs. This would allow the one working on the analysis to understand the possible sources of the aggravating health situation of the child. Assessment This process involves a more in depth observation of the situation. Assessment of the results that were collected would be incorporated within the healing [therapeutic] processes of medicating the patient. Clinical Inference After all the processes are done, it could be expected that the clinical application of the healing process could already be done.  The pre-trial and the actual application would help the patient, the relatives and the physicians involved in the case understand the importance of working together to be able to complete the healing process.            With the application of the said protocol comprising of six major processes, it could be noticed that the author of this paper aims to integrate some of the cultural practices within the healing process not only to avoid ethical issues and cultural conflicts in the progress of the healing the patient but also to evaluate ways buy which some of the cultural practices of the said ethnic group could help in the process of healing. Hmong Cultural Sensitivities            There are three major ways by which the Hmongs treat their patients. Most often, they tend to base this from their own diagnosis of the situation. As for Lia’s case, they believed that every time she passes out or losses her consciousness, she looses her soul. Thus they have to apply the three major practices to be able to regain her back. The three practices are as follows: Herbal Medicine application (A leaf that has been prayed over is applied on Lia’s body to regain her strength) Ceremonial Ministrations of a traditional practitioner (involves the prayers ad some group rituals that the ethnic tribe does to call the spirit of Lia back to her body) Sacrificing of Animals (Most often that not, this rituals are focused towards the gods of the tribes as a way by which they ask for the guidance of their gods for assistance in healing the sick member of the group) With the three major traditional ways that the Hmongs use, it could be noticed that the most important factor there is that has strong possibilities of being incorporated in a medical process is the use of herbal medicine. The reason behind this shall be tackled in the paragraphs to follow.            ON HERBAL MEDICATION            Although man’s use of synthetic drugs is a modern medical development, plant extracts have been used as cures for common ills for thousands of years. Early Assyrian records describe the use of the common anemone to alleviate pain. And Egyptian medical papyri from the time of the Pharaohs reveal a widespread use of medicinal plants. (Duke, 54) The World Health Organization has recorded the use of about 20,000 medicinal plants worldwide. In Britain alone an estimated 6,000 to 7,000 tons of herbs are used annually as ingredients in some 5,500 different herbal products, and in the United States, it has been reckoned that over half of all doctors’ prescriptions are for medicines derived from plants. With as many as 250,000 known species of plants in the world, each possessing a potentially unique chemistry, scientists constantly look for clues to find useful medicines (Mowrey, 87). One of the obvious ways is to study how people treat ailments using plants growing in their locality. The discovery of cocaine started with the observation that chewing coca leaves deadened hunger pangs and eased fatigue. By isolating and modifying the structure of the cocaine molecule, chemists produced a synthetic derivative for use as a local anesthetic. Much valuable information on the use of plants is still filed away in botanical collections. Scientists who spent over four years examining 2.5 million specimens in the Gray Herbarium and Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University were able to pinpoint more than 5,000 plant species previously overlooked as potential sources of medicines. (Duke, 54) Another line of inquiry compares the chemical contents of plants. If one species contains useful compounds, related species may also be valuable. When work on a north Australian tree, the Moreton Bay chestnut, isolated castanospermine, a poison displaying antiviral activity, botanists searching for related trees suggested looking at the South American Alexa. (Chevallier, 63) It could be noted that the use of herbal medicines could out do some of the effects of the strong anti convulsant medicines that Lia received from her physicians. Hence, through the incorporation of herbal medication in the healing process it could be expected that the process would yield better results. New Culturally Sensitive Protocol            In any healing process, it should be realized that the involvement of the family, the relatives as well as the society that roams around the patient is a very important factor of the restoration process for the patient being treated Hence, in this section, a more culturally sensitive protocol shall be created: Creation of a Physician-Parent relationship This would help the physician and the parents of the patient work together through the incorporation of the cultural practices of the family in the medical process. The physicians must study if the herbal medicines would do no harm in reaction to the existing medical processes applied towards the patient. In a way, this could take time, but carefully considering things with regards the issues involved in the medication could even shorten the period of healing that is required for the patient. Integration of the Processes Close enough to the first stage; this involves more of the cultural or ethnic chieftains of the group where the patient belongs to. Their realization of the fact that some of their rituals may not be that applicable on the situation of the patient and thus would not be incorporated into the system, would help them cooperate with the healing process provided by the medical experts. Evaluation of the Strengths and Weaknesses of the New Protocol            As clearly seen, the process involves in depth study which may require time and stress on the physicians since they are at some point controlled with the way they are supposed to deal with the situation. However, thru realization of the fact that emotional and social acceptance is important for the patient’s recovery would enable them to meet with the said challenge to their profession.            However, if carefully applied, this process could help both parties [medicine and culture] see the importance of each sectors of medication and thus create better ways of healing the patients based form then practices that both social sectors accept. Conclusion            In this analysis, it could be noted that at some point, giving importance to the cultural background as well as the cultural practices of an ethnic group with regards to medicine could help in the development of medical practices that are used towards patients today. It is seen that by doing so, the integration of two worlds to result to better medical development could be considered as a way by which medicine could further progress its practices.            After all, the ancient times when people lived longer lives and dealt with less complicated diseases, people appreciated herbal and other traditional ways of medication even before modern medicine was discovered. Going back to the original cure would sure not be a hindrance to further medical progress in the future. BIBLIOGRAPHY Anne Fadiman. (1998). The spirit catches you and you fall down. http://www.spiritcatchesyou.com/bookexcerpt.htm. (December 15, 2006). Growth House Incorporated. (1999). A Hmong Child, Her American Doctors, and the Collision of Two Cultures. http://www.growthhouse.org/books/fadiman.htm. (December 15, 2006). Books: Andrew Chevallier. (2000). Encyclopedia of Herbal Medicine: The Definitive Home Reference Guide to 550 Key Herbs with all their Uses as Remedies for Common Ailments. DK ADULT; Revised edition. James A. Duke. (1998). The Green Pharmacy: The Ultimate Compendium Of Natural Remedies From The World’s Foremost Authority On Healing Herbs. St. Martin’s Paperbacks. Daniel Mowrey. (1986). Scientific Validation of Herbal Medicine. McGraw-Hill; 1 edition.
Friday, August 30, 2019
Richard Meier’s Douglas House
1- Where? This Project, just as many other Richard Meier projects, is built within a heavily contrasting context of nature, hovering over the shores of lake Michigan. The white reinforced concrete and glass are easily distinguishable from it’s exuberant background heavy in shades of green which invokes a sense of being deep within a forest, away from all man made things, making the project all the more contrasting and also creating a sense of privacy for the entire property which is seldom achieved through other methods.This natural environment plays a key role to the house, as it provides astounding views of lake Michigan and the vegetation surrounding it from the more public sectors making up the house. Concerning the atmosphere of the house it is of great interest the clear separation of public and private spaces in the house. The living room receives a great amount of sunlight creating a very contemplative atmosphere, which is the result of the conscious arrangement of fur niture and other elements in the direction of the natural beauties surrounding the house.As previously mentioned, the house is built within a context of nature and relies heavily on the contrast it’s white reinforced concrete walls will provide against the house’s natural background with changing colors around the season. It is built with the intention to be as close to it’s natural environment as possible, with as few trees as possible removed to make way for the construction of the house, it is lodged overlooking lake Michigan. So steep is the fall of the land from the road down to the water that the house appears to have been notched into the site (Meier & Partners.Online. ). The house has a very simple intention in respect to type, to be a comfortable place to live, separating successfully the public and private areas of the house, exposing the living room and other public spaces to astonishing natural views we can appreciate from the inside the house thanks to the prominent glass panels facing them, while the more quiet and private sector of the house is hidden from this view and closer to the street on the backside of the building, bringing together under the same roof the two different kinds of spaces needed for a house to be truly complete. – When? The Douglas House is the culminating work of the first period of Meier, where all the ideas developed in the experiments in single-family homes resulted in a more balanced and imaginative structure. Built in the 1970's, it became a symbol of that period of rationalism. It is an architectural piece very closely associated with the period of time it was created, a true symbol of it’s time. Meier was able to capture the powerful tendencies of the time with his personal touch and a revolutionarily modern angle from which we can very still learn very much today.The memory the house emerges is one of the modernist movement in the seventies, it brings thoughts of the time when mod ernism was beginning and being experimented with evoked by the house’s purity and whiteness, common in Richard Meier’s architecture 3- How? In this house, Meier proposes formal, space-rich compositions. He organized the internal space such that the small, tight main entrance opens into a large space encased in glass. This style allowed him to express various themes: the contrast between light and shadow, the change in spatial scale, and access via ramps, bridges and stairs.A skylight running nearly the full length of the roof deck focuses sunlight into the living room reinforcing the separation between the public and private sectors of the house (Meier ; Partners. Online. ). The exposure to sunlight the public section of the house has helps differentiate and bring a different mood to the separate spaces of the house, light is a definining element in this project which allows for the view and the public area to be really shine and stand apart from the opposite section o f the house.The house’s color or lack thereof is part of a usual attribute in Richard Meier’s architectural work, his aesthetics focus on clean lines and a strong sense of function. The lightness to his architecture of planning grids, his play of light and shadow and the absence of any color but white are a mechanism for purification. His white, block-like structure can’t get more white. â€Å"Whiteness is perhaps the memory and the anticipation of color. Has claimed Richard Meier on interviews. The color white has become a symbol of modernismo in architecture thanks in no small part to him. Here we see the whitness of Meier’s projects illustrated in his Modern White Beach House. There is much to observe in the shape of Richard Meier’s Douglas House, The shape is a large white prism that emerges from between the trees, further intensifying the concept of the house’s dependance and unity with it’s environment.The back of the house is a closed facade with small openings while the front features with large glass panels offering extensive views over the horizon. The shape and arrangement of the windows are in strict compliance with the privacy required in each area of the home. 4. – What? The function of the house is clearly intended to be for a single family, with all the necessary spaces required for the commodity of the family, and a very interesting combination of public and private spaces in the house that are very clearly separated.The function of the house defines a great part of the creative process, and ultimately shapes a great deal the way the house turns out from an architectural standpoint. The character of the house, is defined by the materials used in it, it’s form and function all describe the type of structure it is intended to be by the architect. Richard Meier’s signature of sorts can be seen here as the Douglas House shares several attributes with many other Richard Meier wo rks. 5. – For Who?Use is fairly clear in this structure, it is meant as a home for a single family, this mans everything designed in the house has the final objective of being useful or adequate for a single family, every part of the house must have the family’s best interest in mind, just as is the case with Richard Meier’s planning of the Douglas House User in this case is again a reference to the expected future occupants of the architectural piece; the entirety of the house’s design is oriented in order to fit those needs of the people who will be living there when the house has been finished . – With What? Beginning with reinforced concrete, Meier makes desired subtractions from the volume but maintains the glass structure independently of the foundation. The house is positioned on a very inclined plane, which makes it necessary for the structure to be very resistant and to be planned in such a way that it can maintain the level of the house, having foundations that reach deep under the ground. Bibliography Rodolfo Barragan An architectural score: Recording and reading orchestrating an architectural experience Chicago, Illinois May 2008Adrian Forty Word and Buildings: A vocabulary of Modern Architecture Thames ; Hudson USA 2008 Meier, Richard /preface by Richard Meier ; essays by Paul Goldberger and Joseph Giovannini ; afterword by Joseph Rykwert.. Richard Meier : Houses and Apartments. New York, NY: Rizzoli International Publications. , 2007. Richard Meier architect : 1992-1999 / Richard Meier / essays by Kenneth Frampton, New York: Rizzoli, 1999 Douglas house, Harbor Springs, Michigan, design: 1971; completion: 1973; architects: Richard Meier and Associates. Magazines J. Michael Welton. Under Waterfront. †Dwell October 2011: 118-124. Author: Giovannini, Joseph, Source: Form: pioneering design 2007 May-June, p. 50-57 Document: English Author: Stephens, Suzanne, Source: Architectural record 2003 Mar. , v. 191, n. 3, p. 65-66,[68,70] Document: English Web Pages Elizabeth Edwards. â€Å"Step Into The Douglas House, a Richard Meier Renowned Home in Harbor Springs. â€Å"Mynorth. com. 2010. Traverse. September 6 2012 http://www. mynorth. com/My-North/February-2010/Step-Into-The-Douglas-House-a-Richard-Meier-Renowned-Home-in-Harbor-Springs/.Perez , Adelyn . â€Å"AD Classics: Douglas House / Richard Meier†28 May 2010. ArchDaily. Accessed 09 Oct 2012. Glei, Jocelyn K. â€Å"Richard Meier ; Partners Architects: Limitations Are An Opportunity†20 June 2009. 99u. Accessed 12 Nov 2012. http://99u. com/articles/6883/Richard-Meier-Partners-Architects-Limitations-Are-An-Opportunity â€â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€Ã¢â‚¬â€œ [ 2 ]. Nature invoked to justify artistic license. The sixteenth-century garden of Italy, like the Villa Lante, (†¦ had aimed to make out nature works that demonstrated the superior po wer of human intellect and artifice over nature’s inability to attain beauty when left to itself. Andre Felibien. (Forty, 227) [ 3 ]. Atmospheres are percieved through human emocional sensibity. This form of perception Works incredibly quickly and humans evidently need it to help them survive. Humans are capable of immediate appreciation of a spontaneous emocional response of accepting or rejecting things in a flash (Zumthor, 2006, 13) (Barragan, 89). [ 4 ]. Context.The task of the architectural project is to reveal, through the transformation of form, the essence of the surrounding context. V. Gregott, 1982 introducing to French edition of Gregotti 1966, 12 (Forty, 132) [ 5 ]. Type. In the pursuit of meaning. The two remedies to this lay in the revalorization of ‘type’, and in the configuration of ‘context’ [ambiente] as part of architectural. â€Å"Ultimately, we can say that type is the very idea of architecture, that which is closest to its esse nce†A. Rossi 1966, 1982, 41. (Forty, 309 and 304) [ 6 ].Time is constituted not by the movements of objects but by the multiple structure of the threefold present, a structure of human experience. The representation of time in threefold present retains the notion of time as linear succession. By Saint Augustine(Barragan, 67) [ 7 ]. Memory â€Å"This secondary pleasure of the imagination proceeds from the action of the mind, which compares the ideas arising from the original objects, with the idea that we receive from the statue, picture, description, or sound that represents them†(†¦ The concept of empathy which reincorporates an emotional state or physical sensation projected upon the object of attention and popularized within architectural literature by Geoffrey Scott in The Architecture of Humanism (1914)†¦ Wilson. (Barragan, 92) [ 8 ]. Architecture is at all times the simultaneous visualization of these three ideas of space: of a three-dimensional coordi nated space, of place, and of the four dimensional space-time continumm. (Van De Ven, 46. ) (Barragan, 59. ) [ 9 ]. Light.When an architect finally discovers that light is the central subject of Architecture, that is when he o she has began to understand something and begun to be a real architect (†¦ ) Not for nothing does the sun rise ever day. Alberto Campo Baeza. (Barragan, 71) [ 10 ]. Color can be understood through the optics and phsiology of visual perception as well as the physics of Light and wave lenght. In visual perception, a color is almost never as it really appears. In order to use color effectively it is necesary to recognize that color continually deceives visual perception. Barragan, 77) [ 11 ]. Form in antiquity. Plato and Aristotle. For Plato form provides the solution to a complex of problems; Form is apprehended by opinion with the aid of sensation. (Forty , 150) [ 12 ]. In English-speaking countries between about 1930 to 1960 ,â€Å"functional†beca me a catch-all term for modern architecture (Fory, 186) [ 13 ]. The charactr of his [the architect’s] work must refer solely to construction, and costruction to the idea which is to be expressed and to the material which is at his command for the purpose (Fory, 130) [ 14 ].Architecture is produced by ordinary people; Therefore it should be easily comprehensible to all. It is base don a Lumber of human instincts, on discoveries and experiences common to all of us at a very early stage in our lives (Rasmussen, 14) [ 15 ]. What the â€Å"user†is meant to convey in architecture is clear enough: The Person or persons expected to occupy the work (Fory, 317) [ 16 ]. Structure in relation to architecture has had three uses. Any building in its enteriety , the system of support of the building,
Thursday, August 29, 2019
Essay On Green Essay
If we judge the colour green from the colour psychology perspective, we learn that green balances the heart and emotions and thus create the equilibrium in heart and brain. From the meaning of colour perspective, green is the symbol of growth, colour of spring and symbolizes renewal and rebirth. It is the sanctuary away from the complexity and stresses of the modern lives and the tranquility of the calm, fresh and greener area. I have my wall painted in green colour and it is generally believed that green is an eye friendly colour unlike red. The mild green colour is a popular colour which does not look too violent or too dull. I liked this colour even in my childhood and that I can be sure from the dominant green usages in my childhood paints. My teachers sometimes laughed at my weakness on green colour when I painted a green sun and green moon. I still remember I pained a green alien and that painting became very famous among our friends. I am not quite sure how my fascination started growing on green colour but I guess I started liking this colour as I had spent my childhood in an area where green was the most dominating colour. This was the colour of nature and I was surrounded by the beauty of nature. I noticed in my childhood that green is the colour for living and yellow and red means dying, specifically for the trees and plants I had. May be this idea influenced my preference of colour. May be this choice is not directly related to any of my experience and reflected in a later stage as part of my individuality and personal preference. Whatever is the reason, I guess Green is a colour of profound importance and is my favourite colour.
Wednesday, August 28, 2019
Sustainability and the Green Supply Chain Essay - 1
Sustainability and the Green Supply Chain - Essay Example In light of the concern for environmental safety, businesses are giving increasing importance to take environmental friendly initiatives in their operations. There are a number of driving forces for the companies to implement green supply chain in their business practices. The implementation of green supply chain and other environment friendly practices not only add to the corporate social responsibility portfolio of the company but also enhance sustainability and competitive advantage in the changing global scenario. The major international businesses have successfully implemented business practices such as eco-efficiency, cleaner production systems and an effective environmental management system in their processes. The major drivers influencing the use of environmental friendly processes are regulatory compliances, risk management, increasing efficiency and market expectations. The use of a supply chain environmental management (SCEM) starts from identifying suppliers pertaining t o the environmental performances and conducting the business in the proper manner to maintain adherence with the regulatory requirements. The implementation of the green supply chain management plays the most important role in ensuring that all the environmental concerns are addressed along with maximizing the efficiency and sustainability of the business. The green supply chain is adopted by businesses to decrease the environmental risks and increase the profits and market share for the business. In the recent few years it has been clearly observed that the businesses which are able to minimize the ecological impacts of their production processes and which have implemented the concepts of recycling wastage and environmental management have been able to expand their business and also displace the players who have not maintained an efficient environmental performance in their processes. Discussion Sustainable and green supply chain management has emerged as necessary approaches for t he businesses to remain environmentally sustainable as well as maintain their competitive advantage. The implementation of a green supply chain management in a business benefits the business in a number of ways the most critical being achieving sustainability (Florida, 1996, pp.80-105). The use of a green supply chain management system is a complex process starting with the identification of key processes, adherence to the environmental laws, assessing the benefits to the environment and the society, designing an efficient performance measurement system, evaluating alternatives for suppliers, vendors and distributors and implementing procedures for improvement (Beamon, 1999, pp.332-342). The different environmental management practices adopted by a business have a significant effect on the operation as well as the performance of the business (Erasmus, 2000, pp.28-33). The evaluation of the environmental approaches taken up by organizations has shown significant relationship between the environmental management system
The state of Human Rights in Arab countries Research Paper
The state of Human Rights in Arab countries - Research Paper Example such, their political systems and the means by which existing law impacts upon the way in which issues such as human rights are understood oftentimes have not had time to evolve; at least in the way that other political systems throughout the world have been able to define themselves with respect to the interpretation and understanding of human rights. Essentially, these more recent developments and relatively new and â€Å"young†political systems within the Arab world have effectively created a situation in which many of the Arab states have been reticent to adopt or otherwise engage with widely established norms or agreements concerning the application and provision of broader human rights.1 Thus, the overall level of ratification that many of these states have engaged with is abysmally low as compared to other regions around the globe. Interestingly, recognizing this deficit, there have been several futile attempts by certain Arab states to adopt an Arab charter of human r ights; one that would leverage a fundamentally different and cultural interpretation of human rights based on a shared identity, religion, and culture that is more or less uniform throughout these Arab states. In terms of a case in point analysis, it should readily be noted that in almost all Arab states there exist â€Å"laws of suspicion†and/or â€Å"preventative measures†that significantly stipulate that certain actions must be taken against individuals as a means of preventing the â€Å"potential†for the commission of certain crimes. Naturally, this free criminal behaviour interpretation of the means by which the law should be enforced is substantially different from the way in which many other societies throughout the world seek to punish crime and seek to improve society as a whole. Interestingly, beyond merely contradicting the norms and mores of many nations with respect to human rights, these regulations, evident in nearly each and every predominantly Arab nation, are also often
Tuesday, August 27, 2019
Week 3 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words
Week 3 - Essay Example e employees who belongs to different backgrounds like nursing, biomedical science, epidemiology, medicine, physics, social science, healthcare management, information technology, patient risk and safety management, medical informatics, and other areas. Their mission is to help the patient treat them by providing highest standards of cost-effectiveness, quality and safety. To attain this they do research, provide education and engage in consultancy. It has been given a federal patient safety organization by department of Health and Human Services of U.S (Kongstvedt, 2012). In today’s world the quality improvement and risk management efforts in a healthcare organization are now falling behind patient safety and ways to deliver medical care more effectively and efficiently so as to ensure that the healthcare organization can deliver high quality and safe care of the patients. The American Society for Healthcare Risk Management have described that there is great importance in the evolution of quality improvement and risk management. They pointed out that information between the quality managers and risk managers are too rarely exchanged between them. Hence the collaboration between them is nonexistent and very minimal. In Past times, organization had legal department and chief operating officer handling the risk management. Chief medical director is concerned with looking after the patient safety issues. Because of organizational hierarchy overlap of quality functions and risk management is not possible between them and it does not allow any shari ng of data to occur between them. Risk management deals with examining a particular issue like increase in the number of emergency department claims. After analyzing a number of Emergency department claims, it might be seen that the cause of increase in claims is due to inadequate communication of instructions given to the patient at the time of discharge (Wolper, 2010). Again after evaluation of quality improvement it
Monday, August 26, 2019
Movie Carrie Review Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words
Carrie - Movie Review Example On one hand, he understands that Carrie White's night of revenge is motivated by the brutality of her classmates. On the other hand, his exoneration of Carrie is equalled in his contempt for the boy-men, girl-women who torment her. King's truest sympathies are always with the high school rejects; they are not only victimized by the cruelty of the majority, but because of their status as pariahs they often possess a level of intelligence and sensitivity sadly missing in their more popular peers. Carrie becomes doubly pitiful, because ... she can only wait to be saved or damned by the actions of others. Her only power is her telekinetic ability, and movie eventually arrives at the same point: King seems most unfavorably inclined toward the superficially well-adjusted, popular student with an overly active libido and a underdeveloped value system. His class presidents, football quarterbacks, and prom queens bear an unmistakable resemblance to the street punks who attend the same school system as a stopover on their way to jail: both groups of adolescents have completely severed their bonds with childhood innocence. In their vicious lust to exploit sex, alcohol, and violence (for they inhabit an exclusively physical plane of existence), their behavior is modeled on an extreme conception of adulthood. They want all the pleasure of worldly experience, with none of the responsibilities. Thus, they are simply young versions of the corruption which animates King's adult society. Horror films like Carrie is, primarily, produced and consumed by men. Why should this be It would seem that the experience derived from horror fiction (as opposed to the experience of horror in "real life") is peculiarly fascinating to men, or rather to the masculine subject, i.e. the subject constituted as masculine through the particular nature of his/her experience, particularly in early childhood. For the masculine child, the movement away from the mother, expressed as it is through abjection and the passage through the Oedipus complex, seems to be more traumatic than for the feminine child. For the feminine child there remains at least a possibility of reunion with the mother through identification; also, the feminine subject is actively encouraged to retain links with the maternal semiotic through the cultivation of such qualities as "intuition." The masculine subject by contrast depends for his very identity on the effectiveness of his repression of the maternal semiotic and o f desire for the mother. Carrie is dominated by those images of waste, putrefaction and decay which can be associated with abjection: these are, so to speak, the staple of horror. When we think of "the horrid" we picture blood, corpses, the violation of bodily limits. Via these images horror fiction returns us to the scene of primary horror in the abjection of the mother, a scene which, however, particularly for the masculine subject, possesses fascination, the power of the taboo. Images of abjection lead the masculine subject back not only to the movement away from the mother but also to the original repressed desire for the mother, which returns with all the force of the repressed, of that which can be allowed no place in adult life. Carrie seems to be designed
Sunday, August 25, 2019
Bias and Heuristics Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words
Bias and Heuristics - Essay Example In the scenario presented, the supervisor clearly demonstrates bias when he uttered his statements regarding the Volvo and its unreliability. To be more specific, the supervisor's heuristic or bias was the availability bias or error. According to the Wikipedia Encyclopedia, the availability bias is described as, "The distortion of one's perceptions of reality due to the tendency to remember one alternative outcome of a situation much more easily than another." (2006) Furthermore, one's judgment about the relative frequency of an event often depends upon the availability or accessibility of objects or events in the processes of perception, memory or construction in the imagination In the case of the supervisor, he only recalled the bad experience of his brother-in-law. He failed to take into account the experiences of the larger group of people who may have had experiences different from that of his brother-in-law. The reaction of the supervisor also demonstrates another bias. In particular, this is the base rate neglect bias. The base rate neglect, otherwise known as the base rate fallacy, explains how humans, in making inferences about probability, often tend to ignore the background frequencies. (Garns, 1997) In the case of the supervisor, this was clearly demonstrated because he failed to take into consideration the various reviews that were presented to him. He instead focused on one occurrence of the failure of a Volvo car. By doing so, the supervisor neglected the numerous data that supports the good performance of Volvo cars. He was influenced by the base rate neglect which led him to react in the way that he did. With further research suggesting that the initial recommendations regarding the superiority and reliability of the Volvo, one will one be led to deciding that the Volvo should be the car to buy. In making decisions, it is imperative that biases or heuristics are avoided as much as possible. Decision-makers must at all times remain as objective and logical as possible. Biases and heuristics affect the way people view situations and choices. In certain cases, heuristics simplify the decision-making process by making the situation appear simpler. However, there are cases when heuristics, when viewed in the wrong way, may lead erroneous judgments or decisions. With additional information supporting the earlier claim that the Volvo is the better choice, the main heuristic that one must employ is the representativeness heuristic. According to Garns, "An event is judged to be probable to the extent that it represents the essential features of the parent population or of its generating process." In other words, what this means is that a certain sample of the population has the essential features in order for it to be judged as representative of the entire population. In this case, the information gathered through further research may be used to judge the entire population of Volvo cars. Using such a sample as basis for judgment, one can conclude that Volvo cars are indeed reliable and mechanically superior over other brands. Knowing that the supervisor is insensitive to the base rate and judges based on available information, one possible course of action that maybe taken in order to convince him to agree to the purchase of Volvo cars is to present him with all substantial information. It is essential that the available information that the supervis
Saturday, August 24, 2019
Health Care Costs Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words
Health Care Costs - Assignment Example Physicians will benefit from the experience if they focus on a medical specialty that will lower the costs and improve health care quality with better patient outcomes (Porter & Teisberg, 2004). Health care reforms are expected to add 32 million people to those who are already covered and this will put new pressures on the system (Kovner & Knickman, 2011). There are ways to reduce costs like putting caps on prices and taxation of hospital income. Recommendation – one measure is tort reform (Brill, 2013) by re-inserting the â€Å"safe harbor†provision. This defense against medical malpractice lawsuits will address most of the costs involved in health care delivery by doing away with unnecessary procedures, tests, and treatments which are costly and being ordered by doctors just to be on the safe side. Feasibility – a â€Å"safe harbor†provision is viable because doctors will not be accused of medical negligence. If standards of care and treatment comply with benchmarks in medical practice and considered adequate, doctors will not charge so much or order so many tests. Hindrance – a barrier to this solution is political partisanship and strong political lobby. The medical-health care industry complex spent about $5.36 billion which is three times what is spent by the military-industrial complex for lobbying Washington so there is strong resistance. Address the central issue – implementing tort reforms will remove a major incentive for doctors to practice defensive medical practice by ordering so many unnecessary laboratory tests. This is one of the main cost drivers in health care and so tort reforms will encourage doctors to be more prudent; taxation will just make hospitals increase their billing to make up for the tax. If a cap is put on prices, it will not work either because quality might suffer as a result. Brill, S. (2013, February 20). Bitter pill: Why medical bills are killing us. Time Magazine. Retrieved
Friday, August 23, 2019
An evaluation of two primary sources in Nazi Germany Essay
An evaluation of two primary sources in Nazi Germany - Essay Example Goebells can be trusted to paint an accurate and reliable picture of the Ministry’s aims. Goebbels was knowledgeable on the media/manipulating press, in the full speech Goebbels points out that he is ‘from the press’2 and goes on to say that he wants the press to be involved in the ministry. Goebbels is persuasive, he claims alignment to the press, suggesting he’s one of them; then stresses the high importance and value of their role; essentially bolstering the troops and thus he comes across as an informed authority on the subject. The speech is represented slightly differently in different textbooks; presumably due to the translation from German to English. Whereas the Noakes and Pridham version says: ‘work on people until they have capitulated to us’3 – the David Welch version says: ‘work on people until they are addicted to us.’4 There is a subtle difference in meaning between these two translations, the first suggesting surrender, the latter suggesting devoted, and this must be borne in mind when interpreting the source. The final line of the document gobbet states: ‘tell the masses what they want,’5 this applies Antonio Gramsci’s term ‘hegemony,’ whereby the masses of society give their consent to the ‘direction imposed on social life by the dominant fundamental group.’6 It’s highly significant to the way in which propaganda works and influences. Goebbels is keen to make the distinction between enlightenment and propaganda, by defining propaganda in more positive terms as being active, something that persuades people to believe; whereby enlightenment is more of a passive process. The source has a wider significance when the events that occurred afterward are considered in hindsight. In March 1933 the Nazi’s were beginning to gain a political foothold, they’d achieved 288 seats, but had still failed to win a majority vote7. Propaga nda was intended to forge Nationalism, so that people would put aside any other separate defining social groups such as class or religion and instead focus upon the Nation. Goebbels was effective in setting up and directing the Nazi propaganda Ministry. In Goebbels’ speech he talks of wanting to put across propaganda in a current fashionable manner, radio was a key factor in this. Dr. Brian Currid in his chapter called ‘Radio, Mass Publicity and National Fantasy’ explains how German radio had begun 10yrs earlier than Goebells article, in 19238, and at that time mostly consisted of music and songs. Currid charts the change or reform of radio’s usage by the Nazis into something nationalized and states: ‘After the so-called Gleichschaltung, or consolidation, of the radio – the power of the Nazis to manipulate public opinion had reached unimaginable heights seemingly overnight.’9 Nanny Dreschler also suggests that the radio meant that †˜indoctrination and entertainment [could] be extended into the private sphere without difficulty.’10 On the 30th June, following Goebell’s speech, Hitler himself gave a speech which is a very similar source. This served to corroborate the Nazi party’s stance and lend support to Goebells, stating that as Minister, Goebell’s was: ‘responsible for all influences on the intellectual life of the nation, public relations for state culture’11 The second source is a local newspaper report from March 16 1934, a primary source from the time of the events
Thursday, August 22, 2019
Water first Essay Example for Free
Water first Essay The film captures the inspiring story of Charles Banda, a man who has dedicated his life to providing clean and safe water to the people of Malawi. It was this dedication that saw him turn down a political office offer from none other than the country’s president. If you were to ask anyone in Africa what a political appointment means in that side of the world then you would understand the depth of his commitment to provide water to the impoverished citizens of Malawi, a poor sub-Saharan nation of 12 million people with serious water deficiency. However, back to the film, and something one gets from the film is how grave the consequences of not having water are. The film avoids going in to those morbid details that have sometimes characterized films coming out of Africa and other third world countries. The film captures the green countryside showing a large water reservoir then moves on to show girls moving in a brownish environment (a symptom of dryness) carrying heavy loads in their heads- presumably water. Another scene shows a girl drawing water from a shallow well. The water she is drawing cannot be particularly termed as clean by any standards. It may not even qualify to wash utensils in a lower class neighborhood in Harlem. There are many other scenes of interest, but in the overall, the director does present a picture of the situation as it is in a majority of the African nations and other developing countries without taking away too much of their dignity. In addition, the film also presents some crucial numbers such as the number of people lacking clean water. Relationship between water and the millennium development goals (MDGs) The millennium development goals were arrived at in 2000 by a United Nations declaration and it is envisioned that its targets are to be reached by 2015. There are 8 goals in total, and watching the film, I have a clear picture of the central role to be played by water in the attainment of each of the eight goals. There are two women in the film who give us the common diseases in their communities and among them; cholera and dysentery emerge as some of the most common. You will hardly hear of these diseases in the developed world, and even when they happen they do not come in catastrophic proportions. They are mostly isolated. Yet, for African countries such as Malawi, cholera epidemics are not uncommon. Of importance however, is how the girl child is affected by lack of water. Goal three of the millennium development goals is to promote gender equality and empower women. This goal cannot be achieved if the girls are going to continue carrying the heavy loads for long distances as we saw in the film. Unfortunately, most of the countries that are yet to achieve the MDGs are mostly composed of patriarchal societies. These societies hardly value the place of the woman and for that reason; the women are treated as second class citizens. They are mostly confined to lowly duties such as fetching water, cooking, washing utensils and taking care of small children. Men, on the other hand, get to do more valuable jobs, most of which concern taking care of property. In fact, in such societies, women do not own property-they are properties themselves. Most of the roles listed for women will need water to perform and it is therefore incumbent upon them to ensure that they have enough water supplies. Given that scenario, we can then expect that water shortages will hardly affect men because they have no urgent need for it. As we have seen from the film, it is the girl child who is always out in the wild going to fetch water and one wonders whether she has the same chance of doing well in school in comparison with the boys. Long term empowerment of women cannot be achieved if the girls do not have equal access to education like their male counterparts. Of course, much more than the mere provision of water has to be done, but it has to be the starting point. After providing the water, civic education may then be done to get the society to appreciate the role education will play in the life of the girl child. An equally important area covered by the film is goal number two. This is the area of achieving universal primary education. By this declaration, it is hoped that by the year 2015, primary education will be a universal right for every child. For the girl child however, the right to education must go beyond the promulgation of such a policy. They have more specialized needs in terms of sanitation and without water then their school attendance cannot be guaranteed especially during menstruation periods. That means that their rights to education cannot be guaranteed because of water. Has the United Nations been successful? So far, the UN has been involved in a number of initiatives aimed at easing the strain on the available water resources. It has even predicted that future wars will be fought over water resources as opposed to the current wars, most of which are based on territorial disputes. The issue of water shortage cannot be addressed wholly; it requires addressing the underlying issues that cause it. The range of factors may include global warming, desertification and rapid industrialization. Although the UN does not explicitly list water as a basic human right, it does include access to food as a basic human right. It is hard for food to exist without water and it can therefore be assumed that the UN considers water a basic human rights. It cannot however be said that the organization has been successful at addressing the issue of water accessibility in most of the developing countries. The film gives a figure of 1 billion people as being unable to access water because of their inability to afford it yet most governments are busy privatizing the provision of water. An important lesson from the film is that water provision should have a social approach. The waterman in the film has been largely successful in his efforts because his social approach has enabled him to mobilize substantial resources for use in the sinking of wells. The developing countries are clearly not prepared to commercialize the provision of water because a substantial part of its population still does not have access to it. To that end, the UN needs to do more to dissuade these countries from commercializing the provision of such a basic commodity. Would I recommend the film? The situation in Malawi is representative of how the general situation is in most of the developing countries and especially those in Africa. I would recommend the film to anyone interested in getting a feel of what the average person in a country without water is going through. Those of us in the developed countries take too many things for granted. Many cannot fathom life without the running water or electricity. Many of those in the developed world get to learn about the problems facing other citizens of the world from national geographic channels or Hollywood movies such as blood diamonds. Although they are made in Africa or whichever continent, their objectives are mainly commercial and may not therefore, have the patience or motivation to develop a wholesome picture of the situation. The film attempts to give a balanced view of the situation without having to apportion blame, either to the government or the communities. It simply calls our attention to the problems existing in these countries and leaves the rest to our own judgments. I therefore propose the film to anyone intent on understanding the development needs in these countries. Works Cited UNDP. Millennium Development Goals. 05 Apr 2010 http://www. undp. org/mdg/basics. shtml.
Wednesday, August 21, 2019
Steinbecks Of Mice and Men And Gary Sinise film version as Foundation for the story Essay Example for Free
Steinbecks Of Mice and Men And Gary Sinise film version as Foundation for the story Essay Steinbecks tragic and hard writing novel critique of the us in the 1930s. The everlasting novel is about two outsiders who are looking for a job on ranch so they can collect enough money to find there own place in this unforgiving world. The opening of the novel and the film differ from each other in many ways. The film has a tense and dramatic start where as the novel is set in a quiet and peaceful woodland area as Steinbeck sets the scene in clear detail. The film opens with chilling pace of music in the background while the credits appearing in white writing for a couple of minutes. Gary Sinise puts the credits at the beginning rather than at the end. As the music fades there is black background with the infrequent, faint beam of moonlight, streaming through the open cracks in the box car of a train. The camera shot focuses on a lonely person, crouched in the corner, looking by the expression on his face as if he has the weight of the world on his shoulders. This makes the audience curious about who the man is, which makes them want to watch on to find out the identity of this character. Suddenly the film explodes into colour in a dramatic style as a panic and stricken woman, with her dress ripped, runs towards a group of men working on a ranch. The next clip is of the group of men, carrying guns on horseback, chasing two un-armed men. These two men are Lennie and George, who are racing through the grassy fields and bushes. A sense of danger and threat is created as George is continually looking over his shoulder and pushing Lennie along as the men on horseback continue to hunt the two men. When George always look over his shoulder for Lennie in real life. It shows a mother always looking over her shoulder to see if her baby is all right. Both of the men fall into a stream and hide under the overgrown Weeds and grass from the Men. The men pass by the stream and this causes a sense of excitement within the audience. The first close up on Lennie shows us his big, worried eyes, like a child, The heavy breathing stops but both men remain silent, and as time goes by the crickets begin to chirp this shows that the men have stopped chasing them. The beginning of the novel is very different as Steinbeck opens the scene in the countryside close to the Salinas River near to Soledad in USA California. Steinbeck describes this in clear detail. He creates a very peaceful atmosphere by using words such as fresh and green with every spring and the leaves lie so deep and so crisp that a lizard makes a great skittering if he runs among them. Rabbits come out of the brush to sit on the sand in the evening. This is explaining how peaceful and quitter the atmosphere is. But the film shows an exciting chase in a tense and dangerous atmosphere. The first time you see Lennie and George in the novel they are nicely walking through the trees and drinking from the pool. His huge companion dropped his blankets and flung himself down as he drank from the surface of the green pool. This is another symbol of Lennie behaving like a child. As George settles back to relax and Lennie get his nerves we are shown how George blames Lennie for making his life difficult. Lennie is described in terms of an animal, bear-like. When we first see Lennie and George in the film they are running away from a Mob of ranchers. This show the audience they are criminals. In the film they are both wearing different clothes. George is wearing denim and Lennie is wearing dungarees to make him look like a big kid. This differs from the novel as Steinbeck has the two men in the same dress. Both were dressed in denim trousers and in denim coats with brass buttons. And they both wore black hats. The beginnings of the Steinbecks novel and Gray Sinsie film version are very different The film effects the story line by making Lennie and George look like criminals because they are running form a mob of ranchers the first impression you get is of the Lennie and George are bad people and they have done something very bad. Before when George is in the box car this draws the audience to the film but gives them difficulty to know if that character is this makes him look suspicious because when it goes into the scene where the women is running to the ranchers the impression the audience that George is the person that attacked her. The both lets us understand to like the characters of George and Lennie so we can be sympathetic towards them this is the reason why both start better of the foundation of the end of the story then the film the end of the novel is better because we grow to love the chanters and when George shoots Lennie I fell very up set because I had stared to like them like friends but the film is does not make u feel very sympathetic.
Shareholder Wealth Maximization And Stakeholder Capitalism Model Economics Essay
Shareholder Wealth Maximization And Stakeholder Capitalism Model Economics Essay The Anglo-American markets are described by a philosophy that a firms objective should follow the shareholder wealth maximization (SWM) model. Anglo-American is defined to mean the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. This theory presumed that the firm should try to maximize the return to shareholders, as measured by the total of capital gains and dividends, for a certain level of risk. On the other hand, the firm should minimize the risk to shareholders for a given rate of return. The SWM model assumes as a universal truth that the stock market is efficient. The share price is always correct because it reflects the expectations of return and risk as perceived by investors. It quickly incorporates new information into the share price. Share prices, in turn, are considered as the best allocators of capital in the macro economy. The SWM model also treats its definition of risk as a universal truth. Risk is defined as the added risk that the firms shares br ing to a diversified portfolio. The total operational risk of the firm can be eliminated through portfolio diversification by the investors. Therefore, this unsystematic risk, as known as diversifiable risk, the risk of the individual security, should not be a prime concern for management unless it increases the prospect of bankruptcy. Systematic risk, as known as non-diversifiable risk, the risk of the market in general, cannot be eliminated. This reflects risk that the share price will be a function of the stock market. Corporate wealth maximization model In contrast to the SWM model, Continental European and Japanese markets are characterized by a philosophy that a corporations objective should be to maximize corporate wealth. Thus, a firm should consider shareholders on a par with other corporate interest groups, such as management, labor, the local community, suppliers, creditors, and even the government. The goal is to earn as much as possible in the long run, but to maintain enough to increase the corporate wealth for the benefit of all interest groups. This model is also called the stakeholder capitalism model. The definition of corporate wealth is much broader than just financial wealth, such as cash marketable securities, and unused credit lines. It includes the firms technical, market, and human resources. as a result, it goes beyond the wealth measured by normal financial reports to take in account the firms market position as well as the knowledge and skill of its employees in technology, manufacturing processes, marketing and administration of the enterprise. The corporate wealth maximization (CWM) model does not assume that equity markets are either efficient or inefficient. It does not really matter, as the firms financial goals are not fully shareholder-oriented. In any case, the model assumes that long-term loyal shareholders should influence corporate strategy, not the transient portfolio investor. The CWM model assumes that total risk, that is, operating and financial risk, does count. It is a specific corporate objective to generate growing earnings and dividends over the long run with as much certainty as possible, given the firms mission statement and goals. Risk is measured more by product market variability than by short term variation in earnings and share price. Comparison of Shareholder Wealth Maximization and Stakeholder Capitalism Models Shareholder Wealth Maximization Model Stakeholder Capitalism Model Based on the assumption of share price efficiency i.e. the share price in the market reflects intrinsic value and shareholders wealth No assumption on share price efficiency Firms objective is to maximize shareholders wealth by achieving the highest possible total return to equity (including both capital appreciation and dividend distribution) Firms objective is to maximize corporate wealth but return to equity is constrained by the interest of other stakeholders such as creditors, employees, governments, etc. Only systematic risk is a prime concern for management as unsystematic risk is supposed to be diversified Total risk (operating and financial risk) is considered by management Corporate strategies are directed by the board on behalf of shareholders Corporate strategies are influenced by long-term stakeholders rather than mobile portfolio investors Journal 2: Shareholder Wealth Maximization According to the maximization model, there are three types of maximization in a company, which are shareholder maximization, stakeholder-owner maximization and total stakeholder maximization. Shareholder maximization is a particular case of stakeholder-owner maximization, where only the pure owner interest as supplier of risk-capital is considered in the maximization. The stakeholder-owner has particular resources and interests which are important for the commitment of other stakeholders and thus for the economic performance of the venture as a whole and for the distribution of stakeholder benefits. Examples of such stakeholder-owners would include managers within the company who were also shareholders or suppliers who had an interest in the ownership of the company. Total stakeholder maximization includes the advantages for all groups, such as employees, local communities, shareholders, suppliers, customers, investors and partners. Among the three maximization of a company, shareholder wealth maximization plays a significant role and indeed more important than the other two, which are stakeholder-owner maximization and total stakeholder maximization. Many assume that total stakeholder maximization is the most important maximization for a company, yet in reality, such maximization is not easy to achieve. Under the new field of corporate social responsibility, many company are encourage to take the interests of all stakeholder (not only shareholder) into consideration during their decision making process. This is a process where the conflict of interest between shareholder and stakeholder eventually happen. For example, if the general public is part of the stakeholder considered under corporate social responsibility (CSR) governance, a conflict might occur when the company decide to carry out operation that would increase the profit of the company, specifically shareholder but at the mean time the operation may c ause more pollution to the environment, which is at the disadvantage of the public (the stakeholder). In short, total stakeholder maximization can be hard to achieve as a profit and earning for a group of the stakeholder (shareholder) can sometime be the disadvantage and loss of another group of stakeholder (group other than shareholder) or vice-versa. The general type of maximization that companies pursue is stakeholder-owner maximization. Maximization of shareholder value is actually a special case of stakeholder-owner maximization. Under restrictive assumptions, the shareholder maximization is larger or equal to stakeholder-owner maximization. Generally, the main objective of most companies is to maximize its value to its shareholders. Value is represented by the market price of the companys common stocks, which is a reflection of the firms investment, financing, and dividend decisions. Otherwise, the companies should minimize the risk to shareholders for a given rate of return. In reality, companies are more concern about shareholder wealth maximization as this is what the company is portraying to the public. Take an example, if a company focus more on its stakeholder-owner maximization rather than the shareholder wealth maximization, the shareholder (including general public who own an amount of the stock of the company) m ay gain less or no profit and in some cases even suffer a loss. In this situation, it can bring a negative influence to the perspective of others towards the company which will then lower the value of the company and in the long run, curbs the development of the company. In conclusion, shareholder maximization is more important than the others. This is because shareholders are solely the holder that finance a company or provide finance for a company development. However, stakeholder-owner maximization too must be taken into consideration as they may be the human resources or the resources that mainly contribute to the performance of a company. Journal 3: Is Shareholder Wealth Maximization immoral? Shareholder Wealth Maximization A company that implements shareholder wealth maximization indicates that its goal of management is strive to maximize the return in term of capital gain and dividend paid to its shareholders. The ultimate objective of all activity within the firm is the maximization of shareholder wealth. However, financial economists should be increasingly aware of growing dissent from, or at least equivocation on, that standard finance definition of corporate objectives. The idea in shareholder wealth maximization model is that shareholders are the group that take the greatest risks and thus deserves special treatment is a fiction. In shareholder wealth maximization model, managers make decision on the basis of stock price maximization. The first myth is that making decisions on the basis of stock price maximization is amoral, that is morally value neutral. The second myth is one commonly held by business ethicists, namely, that decisions premised on shareholder wealth maximization are strictly immoral. The myth that making decision on the basis of stock price maximization is morally value neutral held by financial economists because belief in it can exempt them from any moral self-examination. Shareholder wealth maximization serves as a conduit of ethics rather than a net determinant of ethical behaviour. Besides, every firm strive to pursue shareholder wealth maximization leads to maximum aggregate economic benefit, they think that its not just benefit to the shareholder but also the society. This will come about as scarce resources are directed to their most productive use by businesses competing to create wealth. The implication of such a defense is that shareholder wealth maximization is morally neutral. In addition, a manager acting in accordance with shareholder wealth maximization is not exercising any particular moral judgment. For example, the manager makes decision that act in the interests of whoever has the greatest economic influence on the companys stock price. On the other hand, the business ethics literature clearly rejects shareholder wealth maximization as an ultimate justification for decisions in business, and they apparently proffer some more ethereal, less material ultimate justification as an alternative. Besides, as a justification for behavior, shareholder wealth maximization is rarely sanctioned by business ethicists because this model just emphasis on the interests of shareholders. This model focuses on the equity market value which is revealed in the companys stock price. A manager pursuing shareholder wealth maximization is concerned with anything that affects the company value. In fact, stock price is increasingly being determined by a series of intangible factors such as employee relations, credit quality, environment sensitivity, product reliability, cultural sensitivity and whatever society values. A management group that is insensitive to the needs and concerns of stakeholders will not flourish financially and, of course, a company that does not flourish financially will not be able to help stakeholders. So, shareholder wealth maximization is not morally neutral and not simply immoral. It neither favors strictly material objectives, nor does it unfairly favour stockholder over other stakeholders. In accepting shareholder wealth maximization as the objectives, business professional should not abrogate all moral common sense when making any decisions. Only through sound moral judgment on the part of individual managers can the organizational premise of shareholder wealth maximization be morally justified. Journal 4: Globalizing Asia: Towards a New Development Paradigm Journal 5: The U.S. Capitalism Model Has Failed Stakeholder Capitalism Model Stakeholder capitalism model says that company should make decisions by taking into account the interests of all the stakeholders in the firm. Stakeholders include all individuals or groups who can significantly affect the welfare of the firm in the aspects of not only the financial claimants, but also employees, management, customers, local community, supply chain members, local or national government and creditors. One of the important variables in this model is considering all stakeholders interest as they are people who support and sustain the company. In the stakeholder capitalism model, it is argued that firms should pay attention to all their supporters that can affect the firm. Managers and boards of directors of company have vital roles on making decisions that suit multiple competing and inconsistent constituent interests. However, there are different demands and interests from stakeholders. Customers want low prices, high quality, expensive service and so on. Employees want high wages, high quality working conditions, and fringe benefits including vacations, medical benefits, pensions and the rest. Suppliers of capital or known as shareholders want low risk and high returns. Communities want high charitable contributions, social expenditures by firms to benefit the community at large such as build hospital, donation, stable employment provided, increased investment, and so on. In making these critical decisions, company must specify how to make the tradeoffs between these often conflicting and inconsistent demands from vario us stakeholders. Many managers and directors of organizations still embrace stakeholder capitalism theory even will be failed at last if they are competing with firms that are behaving so as to maximize value. The theory allows managers and directors to manage company resources in the way they like because the management of the resources in stakeholder capitalism model is inexplicable. Therefore, this allows self-interested managers to pursue their own interests at the expense of society and the firms financial claimants. It may permit managers and directors to invest in their favourite projects that diminish firm value. As a result, agency cost increases because management of company does not act in shareholders interest. Management is given free authority to do almost whatever they want to. So, they may not follow or implement what shareholders require them to do. The other variable is free power. Managers are empowered to exercise their own preferences in spending the firms resource. If the manage ment uses the authority given wisely, company will sustain growth and vice versa. I would prefer stakeholder capitalism model because not only owners, investors, and managers able to share profits but also employees, suppliers and other individuals or groups that related to firm. In stakeholder capitalism model, employees are involved in management decisions and profit distribution. The benefit of the stakeholder capitalism model is cooperative relationship between employees and management that allows steady productivity for sustainability of the firms. If there is few goals such as maximize profits, market share, growth in profits, and others, this will make management has no idea what to achieve. The management cannot focus on a single goal thus makes the firm inefficient. As to solve this, firm can specify the tradeoffs among different groups of stakeholders. Effects of the decisions no matter good or bad that are affecting firm are listed out. For example, cash flow, operating and financial risk which are the main concerns of every corporation. Another variable is single goal. Single goal set allows company to concentrate on accomplishing single purpose as to satisfy stakeholders interest and it requires a deep knowledge on choosing the single goal to achieve.
Tuesday, August 20, 2019
Free Essays: Nature in Dickinson’s Poetry :: Biography Biographies Essays
Nature in Dickinson’s Poetry The Imagery of Emily Dickinson, by Ruth Flanders McNaughton, in a chapter entitled "Imagery of Nature," examines the way the Emily Dickinson portrays nature in her poetry. Dickinson often identified nature with heaven or God (33), which could have been the result of her unique relationship with God and the universe. There are a lot of religious images and allusions used in her poetry, such as the rainbow as the sign of the covenant God made with Noah. Dickinson always held nature in reverence throughout her poetry, because she regarded nature as almost religious. There was almost always a mystical or religious undercurrent to her poetry, but she depicted the scenes from an artistic point of view rather than from a religious one (34). One of the most obvious things that Dickinson did in her poetry was paying minute attention to things nobody else noticed. She was obsessed with the minute detail of natureâ€â€paying attention to things such as hills, flies, bumble bees, and eclipses. In these details, Dickinson found "manifestations of the universal" and felt the harmony that bound everything together (33). The small details and particulars that caught her eye were like "small dramas of existence" (39). Each poem was like a tiny micro-chasm that testified to Dickinson’s life as a recluse. Dickinson’s created "dramas" were not static, but everything from the images she used to the words she chose for impact contributed to a "moving picture" (39). In the following poem, Dickinson writes how nature acts as a housewife sweeping through a sunset: She sweeps with many-colored brooms, And leaves the shreds behind; Oh, housewife in the evening west, Come back, and dust the pond! You dropped a purple ravelling in, You dropped an amber thread; And now you’ve littered all the East With duds of emerald! And still she plies her spotted brooms, And still the aprons fly, Till brooms fade softly into stars And then I come away. Dickinson artistically shows the "sunset in terms of house cleaning" (36). The themes of domestic life and housewifery are displayed in the preceding poem. Only somebody with the observational powers and original creativity like Emily Dickinson could see something so unique and refreshing in a sunset.
Monday, August 19, 2019
Sexually Transmitted Diseases :: essays research papers
Sexually Transmitted Diseases Sexually Transmitted Diseases STDs, a.k.a venereal diseases, infectious diseases passed from one person to another during sexual contact. STDs are the most common infections known. More than 12 million people in the United States, including 3 million teenagers, are infected with STDs every year. The United States has the highest STD rate in the world about one in ten Americans will contract an STD during his or her lifetime. People who do not know they are infected risk infecting their sexual partners and, in some cases, their unborn children. If left untreated, these diseases may cause pain or may destroy a woman's ability to have children. Some STDs can be cured with a single dose of antibiotics, but AIDS cannot be cured. Those most at risk for contracting STDs are people who have unprotected sexâ€â€without using a condom, people who have multiple partners, and people whose sex partners are drug users who share needles. Static’s show that A mericans between the ages of 16 and 24 are most likely of catching STDs than older adults, because younger people usually have multiple sexual partners than an older person in a long-term relationship. Teenagers may be embarrassed to tell their sexual partners they are infected Teenagers may also be embarrassed or unable to seek medical attention for STDs. This means that they only more likely to pass the disease to other young people and have a greater risk of suffering the long-term consequences of untreated STDs. STDs are transmitted by infectious bacteria, viruses, parasites, fungi, and single-celled organisms called protozoa that live in warm, moist parts of the body, like the genital area, mouth, and throat. Most STDs are spread while having sex, but oral sex can also spread disease. Some STDs are passed from a mother to her child while pregnant, when the disease enters the baby's bloodstream, during childbirth as the baby passes through the birth canal, or after birth, when t he baby drinks infected breast milk. AIDS can be transmitted by blood contact such as open wounds, between people who share infected needles or received through an injection of infected blood. Some people believe that STDs can be transmitted through shaking hands or other casual contact, or through contact with inanimate objects such as clothing or toilet seats, but they can’t. Chlamydeous, is from trachoma is bacterium, is the most commonly transmitted STD in the United States.
Sunday, August 18, 2019
Bellamys Looking Backward: 2003 - 1887 :: Looking Backward Essays
Edward Bellamy's Looking Backward: 2000-1887 was an attempt to show Americans who desired the utopian sense of community what it could truly be. Looking Backward addressed the yearnings of a society stricken by economic panics and social collapse by proposing an Eden-like community in which war, hunger, greed and malice were eradicated from society. While the story followed the wonderment of Julian West as he awoke in a Boston of 2000 AD after 113 years of sleep, the text focused on Bellamy's description through the kindly and omniscient character, Dr. Leete of a "post-revolutionary" society which emancipated the individual from the horrors of capitalism. As the story progresses, it becomes obvious that Bellamy is simply trying to suggest ways in which to improve his own society at the time whether it be politics or business practices. The first thing Julian inquires about his the problem of labor strikes, something very prominent in his time due to the newly formed labor unions. â€Å"The National Labor Union (NLU) hailed the virtues of a simpler America, when workers controlled their workday, earned a decent living, and had time to be good citizens†(Davidson, Nation of Nations, 626). Dr. Leete explains that with generous capital, any worker with a decent idea can become his own boss and the need for unions and strikes desisted. This was something that had begun occurring already in Bellamy’s time, as had monopolies. This was the second step in the eradication of strikes as companies began to aggregate and form large syndicates. Finally, the largest syndicate of all, the government took over all industry. â€Å"When it was proposed that the nation should assume their functions (corporations), the suggestions implied nothing impractical even to the timid†(Bellamy, Looking Backward, 67). With this in mind, Julian asks who the enemies of the government are, whether they are other nations or natural ills. Dr. Leete responds with the mind-blowing realization of a perfect society. â€Å"We have no wars now†¦but in order to protect every citizen against hunger, cold, nakedness, and provide for his physical and mental needs, the function is assumed of directing his industry for a term of years†(Bellamy, Looking Backward, 68). The next major question was unemployment. During the any era, this is always going to be problem. Though a person who is educated can generally get a job, an uneducated person can only do menial labor.
Saturday, August 17, 2019
American Square Dance
At one time, the square dance was omnipresent in rural America; but its golden age, if ever there was one, has passed. Today, it is noteworthy when a folklorist discovers a community with an unbroken tradition of square dancing, if only because it piques our interest as to why such practices endure in one place and not in another. Contemporary contexts for traditional square dance are, in fact, quite plentiful; but they persevere as isolated phenomena, largely hidden from the consciousness of the mainsream.The American square dance is the subject of a huge body of choreographic data, most of which was generated by dance educators and recreational specialists whose concerns lay apart from those of folklorists or ethnographers. Some of this descriptive material, especially some works published before World War II, are collections of regional repertoires and even, in a few cases, of localized traditions. Much of the dynamism of square dancing comes from turning motions, including rotati ons around a vertical axis and revolutions around the floor.In square dancing many rotations are energetic turns executed by two dancers together (not always opposite sex couples), but there are also more languid arcs circumscribed by enclosed circles of between three and eight dancers. In square dancing, women are often asked to make singular rotations or twirls, according to, on the one hand, traditional embellishments or, on the other hand, set variations taught by the local polka instructors. Most of the time, square dancers only step forward or stand in place.In a few instances, walking backward is called for, and a dancer will occasionally have to take a sideways step to the right or left. To accomplish this dizzying variety of spins and turns requires the manipulation of other parts of the body. The entire trunk is usually kept aligned with the line of gravity (and for all couple dances in general). It should also be noted that in the square dance walk, the dancer’s ce nter of gravity is moved slightly forward over the balls of the feet when compared to the ordinary walk.The kinesthetic sensation for the dancer is to feel as if his chest is leading the rest of his body. Arm movements in square dancing are important, but only in the context of reaching out to and grasping another dancer. The dancer reaches forward to join hands in one of three ways with another dancer, reaches to the side to hook elbows or put an arm around the waist of an adjacent dancer, or uses both hands or arms to grasp a dancer of the opposite sex in one of several stylized holds. These are known as the â€Å"swing†or â€Å"ballroom†, â€Å"courtesy turn†and â€Å"promenade†positions.Robert Bethke discusses square dancing in contemporary commercial or public settings in the Northeast, while offering very little movement data except to note the infrequency of square dances on the program in proportion to couple dances performed to popular or coun try music. What Bethke attends to is the dress and decorum of the dancers, their general age, the instrumental makeup of the band and the musical styles performed the participants’ levels of intoxication and the dancers’ incompetence relative to the past.Bethke goes into great detail on the repartee between the band leader and the audience, providing texts of some of the leader’s jokes. The inquiry on the history of square dance was first motivated in 1977 by the puzzle of why the German community around Hoagland took as its own an Anglo-American dance form. The cultural choices a folk group makes are historically conditioned. In the year previous to the first appearance of The English Dancing Master, the English and the Dutch had agreed on the borders of their North American colonies.Besides the Confederation of New England to the north and New Amsterdam in the Hudson Valley, the New World also had settlements of Swedes on the Delaware River and growing English colonies in Maryland and Virginia. In another thirty years, the first German immigrants would arrive, and, as the French consolidated their hold on the West, the first European settlement would be established at the headwaters of the Maumee River, near the Miami Indian village of Kekionga, the present site of Fort Wayne, Indiana.In the mid-eighteenth century, when the longways English country dance form was firmly established as the most popular form in European ballrooms, English emigration to the thirteen American colonies was in full sway. Along with the immigrants, and as a part of the continuing trade with the mother country, came terpsichorean skills, repertoire and paraphernalia. Not even the American Revolution disrupted these choreographic connections. Square dancing became a vital activity in nearly every rural nook and cranny through the first half of the twentieth century.In 1926, Henry Ford published â€Å"Good Morning†: After a Sleep of Twenty-five Years, Old-f ashioned is Being Revived, adding to a growing revival of interest in square dancing and other related forms of traditional American dance. In the twenties in New England, with an assist from the open air museum at Old Sturbridge, there was a growing awareness of that region’s vital and unique repertoire of country dances or contras (as cited by Tolman and Page).Indeed, Grace Ryan, a physical education instructor at Michigan’s Central State Teachers College, pioneered with an instructional manual on Dances of Our Pioneers, featuring the â€Å"quadrilles or square dances†which she collected at community dances and from local callers (Ryan). These efforts helped spark a square dance boom that was well underway in the late thirties when Lloyd Shaw, a Colorado high school principal, began to collect western figures that he taught to his students in place of the international folk dances promoted by other educators.Shaw’s performing square dancers from the Ch eyenne Mountain School garnered a great deal of renown for their exhibitions; and Shaw’s fame spread farther when he published these figures in 1939 in Cowboy Dances, an oft-reprinted volume. Besides the considerable impact wielded by his clear representation of seventy-plus figures, Shaw also sketched for Americans his view of the path traveled by this widespread variegated dance form: that the western square dance, one of three regional types, derived from an intermingling of the New England Quadrille and the running set from the southern highlands.Due to the prevalence of visiting couple figures in both the southeastern and western traditions, Shaw asserted that â€Å"the mainstream, I believe, heads in the Kentucky Mountains†(Shaw 27-31). This became the standard account of square dance history that would preface a multitude of instruction manuals published in the forties and fifties. Shaw was not alone, in those early days of the revival, in granting special stat us to the Southeastern square dance. J. Olcutt Sanders prepared a â€Å"Finding List of Southeastern Square Dance Figures†in 1942.He regarded the Southeastern square dance as a separate genre, referring to it variously as â€Å"the running set†and â€Å"the big set†, which could be characterized on the basis of internal evidence (Sanders 266). A decade later Elizabeth Burchenal extended this interpretation by crediting the supposed isolation of the southern highlands for the development of â€Å"our most indigenous dances,†including figures which â€Å"cannot be identified as transplantations†(Burchenal 20). By contrast, the Northeastern square dance, also called the New England quadrille, smacked of Gesunkenes Kulturgut.This was a cultural form that had trickled down to the folk from the cotillions and quadrilles of polite society in Europe and America in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Then, as the twentieth century dawned, the Weste rn square dance emerged as a composite of movements and calls from both the Southeastern and Northeastern traditions blended with newly invented figures. Springing from America’s pervasive frontier experience, the Western idiom embodied the traits of practicality and inventiveness that historian Turner offered as keys to the American character (Turner 61).Thus the Western square dance was too new and too recreational to be regarded by folklorists as a survival of the archaic rituals hypothesized as the ultimate source of folk dance. The social symbolism school of interpretation takes in a much narrower scope, focusing on the local community rather than on national culture. David Winslow (1972) argued that the square dance is a set of â€Å"highly ritualized behavior patterns and mental processes†that help maintain social solidarity.Drawing heavily on sociologist Emile Durkheim, Winslow showed that the square dance served three social functions: (1) a cohesive function that imparts a group consciousness or sense of community, (2) a revitalizing function that â€Å"helps the group to renew the sentiment it has of itself and of its unity,†and (3) a euphoric function that provides â€Å"a pleasant feeling of social well-being†(Winslow 252-261). Not only the social interaction that takes place at a dance event, but also the square dance itself helps maintain and revitalize the interpersonal networks that constitute a rural community.For each category of the social structure represented at an event-couples, genders and the entire assembly, the â€Å"dancing behavior can be seen as expressive of the solidarity of that social unity. †The pervasive circle motif found at all structural levels of the square dance is a choreographic expression of the basic principles of equality of participation and social unity that are cultural ideals for this dancing. The basic square dance form found in New York, Pennsylvania and Hoagland, Indian a alike requires four couples for each square set. With each couple forming one side of the square.Each dance comprises two alternating parts: the break and a distinctive figure. In the break, a formulaic combination repeated from dance to dance, all eight dancers in the set participate simultaneously in equivalent and complementary roles: â€Å"circle left all eight,†â€Å"allemande left your corner,†â€Å"grand right and left around the ring,†and â€Å"meet your partner and promenade home. †The distinctive figure, unique to each discrete dance, is led by every couple in turn as they visit around the set and dance a series of formulaic moves with each of the other couples.At the end of each couple’s performance of the figure, and at the end of each repeat of the break, couples end up in their â€Å"home†or starting position. This structure, as it is danced in Pennsylvania, encapsulates well the comfortable fit between cultural form and social organization. Bert Feintuch discovered that the same basic form was used in domestic square dance events in south central Kentucky before the 1930s. According to his interpretative model, the stylized movements in the four-couple square dance affirmed both the pragmatic primacy of the couple in the dance and the symbolic primacy of the couple in the community.Thus he concluded that neighbors â€Å"symbolically acted out their norms of community†through dances â€Å"in which couples were the basic unit and their social networks – their neighborhoods – were represented as a bound unit, the square†(Feintuch 65). Square dancing, which emphasizes equality and reciprocity, is a local tradition actively treasured by many. The square dance has a long history as the symbolic action of choice (a sign) strategically called on to encompass (an interpretant) the emergent community (an object). Works Cited: Bethke, Robert D. â€Å"Old-Time Fiddling and Socia l Dance in Central St. Lawrence County.†New York Folklore Quarterly 30 (1974): 163-83. Burchenal, Elizabeth. â€Å"Folk Dances of the United States: Regional Types and Origins. †International Folk Music Journal 3 (1951): 18-21. Damon, Stephen Foster. The History of Square Dancing. Barre, MA: American Antiquarian Society, 1955. Feintuch, Burt. â€Å"Dancing to the Music: Domestic Square Dances and Community in Southcentral Kentucky (1880-1940). †Journal of the Folklore Institute 18 (1981): 49-68. Jackson, Frederick. â€Å"The Significance of the Frontier in American History. †Frontier and Sectino: Selected Essays of Frederick Jackson Turner. Ed. Ray Allen Billington.Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1961. 37-62. Ryan, Grace L. Dances of Our Pioneers. New York: A. S. Barnes & Co. , 1926. Sanders, J. Olcutt. â€Å"Finding List of Southeastern Square Dance Figures. †Southern Folklore Quarterly 6 (1942): 263-75. Shaw, Lloyd. Cowboy Dances: A Coll ection of Western Square Dances. Caldwell, ID: Caxton Printers, 1939. Tolman, Beth, and Ralph Page. The Country Dance Book: The Best of the Early Contras and Squares. Brattleboro, VT: Stephen Greene Press, 1976. Winslow, David John. â€Å"The Rural Square Dance in the Northeastern United States: A Continuity of Tradition. †University of Pennsylvania, 1972.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)