Wednesday, July 31, 2019

Effects of Child Abuse

Outline. The Effects Of Child Abuse. Introduction : Child Abuse is any physical and emotional mistreatment of a child. It is prominent in the form of injuries or how a child behaves. Child abuse can cause severe damage to the abused child even when the child has grown into an adult. This is because they have to deal with the psychological, physical and behavioural effect that is resulted from the abuse. Point 1 : Livestrong states that the physical injury of a child is the most obvious result of child abuse.Examples of physical injuries are bruises or broken bones. Point 2 : As indicated by Livestrong’s article titled â€Å"Causes and Effects of Child Abuse†, the child abused also suffers from psychological effect. Examples of psychological effect would be the feeling of isolation, fear, distrust, depression and low self-esteem. Point 3 : Livestrong also points out that an abused child will also undergo behavioural symptoms.Examples of behavioural effects are delinquenc y, teen pregnancy and teen drug issues. Conclusion : To sum it all up, an abused child goes through a difficult life due to the physical, psychological and behavioural trauma. They often feel insecure, worthless and alienated from the society. We as a part of society should be aware of our actions towards children and how others treat children as they grow into adulthood according to how they are treated by those around them.So let’s think of the children. Do you want your children to go through life like that? Pre-writing. The Effects Of Child Abuse. Physical Effects : – Physical injuries : bruises or broken bones. – Shaken baby syndrome – Impaired brain development – Long term problems with cognitive, language and academic abilities Psychological Effects : * Feel isolated * Fearful * Untrusting * Depression Behavioural Effects : * Delinquency * Teen pregnancy * Teen drug The Effects Of Child Abuse.

Tuesday, July 30, 2019

The Health Nutritional Education

When parents send their children off to college, they might entertain the notion that their little darlings, having been brought up with the four basic food groups, will continue to practice impeccable dietary habits. Little do they know that their children skip meals, guzzle soda by the case, subsist on a diet that would make a mother cringe (Baker 12). Quick and easy meals are most attractive to students, so the microwave plays a major role in student's living habits. One half of all students say they use a microwave everyday, reports Roper CollegeTrack, an annual survey of student's behavior and attitudes. When college students arrive on campus there are so many changes they must go through. The simple fact of not being home can cause major amounts of stress, therefore changing a young-adult's eating habits. From my personal experiences as a college student, I have seen one of two things happen to students: they either gain weight or lose weight. When I came to college I weighed 150lbs. By the time I went home for my first Christmas break I weighed 173lbs. I got bigger, but not necessarily fatter. I weighed more, but my pants fit more loosely. A steady diet and consistent physical activity are the two keys to keeping the body you want during the most hectic, unstructured time of your life. My roommate played football with me my freshman year and weighed approximately 280lbs. He decided not to play anymore and wanted to lose weight. He began to workout and dieting right. He now weighs approximately 245lbs. This is a prime example of knowing what is right to eat for you. College students who leave home to live on campus or in an apartment face a period of transition during which they must assume greater responsibility for themselves, and this includes responsibility for their nutrition and dietary habits. Differences in dietary habits among college students have been well documented. Several factors have been shown to influence food selection, including gender, the desire to lose weight, age, academic major, and body-image perception. The location of residence has also been shown to influence food selection, but the relation between food selection and nutrient intake has not been documented (Beerman 1). For many students, living on a university campus is a traditional period between living at home with parents and living independently. Food decisions are among the newest responsibility that many students' face. Because new eating habits developed during these years, both negative and positive, are likely to be maintained, nutrient education effects have been targeted towards this group. The amount of information that people know about nutrition does not always affect what they eat. Many college students who do not major in nutrition take a course in basic nutrition, and the changes in student's concerns, habits, and knowledge of nutrition because of taking such a course were studied. Not all college students are required to take a nutrition course as a requirement to complete their degree. I believe that it would make a major difference in eating habits of many college students if they did. I took a â€Å"mini poll† in Whiteford Hall. I asked twenty different girls what their biggest nutritional fear of coming to college was. All twenty girls said that they were scared to get fat or gain weight. I asked them if they were going to take this nutrition course any time during their education here. Only seven said they would consider taking the course. I have not yet completed this course, but I have learned so many new things about my body and the way the works. Now I feel that I can lead a healthy life from the knowledge I have accumulated from this course. Upon completing a basic nutrition course, students felt that they had learned a lot about nutrition, but only 45 percent said that they made changes in their eating habits because of this. The only statistically significant change in food habits was the tendency to drink low-fat milk. Most also decreased their use of vitamins and mineral supplements (Mitchell 7). The Basic Nutrition course for the non-nutrition major may be the most widespread, in-depth means of teaching nutrition to college students. This course provides both academic and practical nutritional education, so the teaching is complicated by the need â€Å"to create informed consumers who value good nutrition and consume nutritious foods throughout their lives. Classroom tests measure textbook nutritional knowledge, but the practical application is not measurable. Several studies have found that nutritional knowledge is not predicting of dietary practices (Mitchell 8). I don't agree with this statement. I believe that the more nutritional knowledge that you have, the better you will eat. If you know something is bad for your body, I'm sure you will refrain from eating it. You might not totally remove it from your diet, but you will probably lower your intake of the specific item. If you have no knowledge of the nutritional value of what you eat, you will have no chance of being a healthy person. College is a very demanding time in your in your life, both physically and mentally. You need all of the help you can get. Having a consistently healthy diet can play a major role in your college existence. You need the right type of energy to complete all of your daily tasks. If you have no knowledge of dietary requirements or the nutritional value of different foods, you can not make the right decisions for food consumption. College students indicated that the greatest value of improved nutrition was better health in the future. This should be considered in motivating students to make dietary changes (Mitchell 8). Vegetarian eating habits are popular among college-aged and teenage people. About 15 percent of the 15 million college students eat vegetarian meals. However, vegetarianism is more popular among women than men. 50 percent of women ages 18-19 believe in vegetarianism. Many young vegetarians choose not to eat meat in order to reduce the intake of fat, but some will occasionally eat meat. However, young vegetarians definitely do not prefer vegetarian-style meat products (Walker 6). To many Americans, the term â€Å"vegetarian† conjures up images of hippies noshing on tofu and brown rice. But a new generation of vegetarians may bring meatless eating out of the extreme and into the mainstream. The new bastions of vegetarianism are college campuses (Walker 7). Young women seem to be driving the trend toward meatless eating. Nearly 50 percent of women college students say vegetarianism is in compared with the 33 percent of men students, according to Roper CollegeTrack. Pamela Limpitt, food service purchasing director for the University of Pennsylvania, agrees: â€Å"I'd say 9 in 10 of our vegetarian students are women (Walker 12). A survey of young female athletes at a midwestern university reveals that nutrition knowledge is positively related to healthy eating practices. Data on these two indicators were collected to compare nutrition between female high school and college athletes in 1992. Analysis shows that the older athletes had more accurate nutrition knowledge and better eating habits than their younger counterparts. Moreover, a significant proportion indicated that they often turn to their coaches and trainers for this type of information, suggesting that physical education teachers can shape nutrition attitudes (Buch 1). Coaches and others who work with athletes must teach young people how to select nutritious foods that will promote a lifetime of good health. Young female athletes' concerns about weight and body image strongly influence their eating practices. Knowledge alone is not enough to ensure good dietary habits. Attitudes also affect behavior (Buch 2). Nutrition knowledge is positively associated with age, education, dietary pattern, sources of nutrition education, and length of time in a sport (Frederick & Hawkins, 1992; Perron & Endres, 1985). Other important factors, such as concern for weight and the dependence on others for food selection, also affect food consumption (Barr, 1987). Athletes are always concerned with their performance and how to improve it. They may work to improve their technique, lift weights, or add the right nutrients in their body to perform at optimum levels. The only problem is that any athletes do not have the proper nutritional knowledge to make the right dietary decisions. For example, to build one pound of lean tissue, an athlete must consume approximately 98 grams of protein and 2,800 calories for extra energy to synthesize muscle (Williams, 1988). If this were the athlete's goal for a week it would mean 14 grams of protein and 400 calories per day in addition to the usual diet. Fourteen grams of protein can be obtained in two glasses of milk or two ounces of lean meat. With a small amount of additional protein and enough fuel from complex carbohydrates, muscle building can occur. This is all very simple if you have the knowledge. Most athletes think that for muscle building you must take supplements or just eat a lot in general. This is why nutritional education is so important for an athlete to succeed in a very competitive age of sports competition. College is a very hard time for a young adult to be worrying about too many things at once. They have been fed all of their lives and been taught what is good and what is bad for them. There are some many outside factors that make your food selections for you. Many of these choices, you have no control over. That is why I believe nutritional knowledge is so very important in a college student's survival. If you eat the right things you will have no weight or health problems. A good diet can ensure a long energetic life. During your college years you need all of the energy you need to pull â€Å"all nighters† during exams and when writing nutrition papers. The more knowledge you have the better your body will feel and the healthier you will be.

Monday, July 29, 2019

Status of ASEAN integration process Research Paper

Status of ASEAN integration process - Research Paper Example Despite of the expansion of ASEAN, its working principles and objectives remained unchanged throughout this time. ASEAN is considered to be an intergovernmental organization where its foreign minister is allowed to take decisions on the basis of unanimity and consensus. It can be observed that the strategic presence of US in the discussed regions cannot guarantee the security of States present in Southeast Asia, especially in the areas of terrorism, conspiracies and non-conventional threats. The development of ASEAN may be slow and gradual but it has consistently being demonstrating an uphill shift from concentrating on stability and regional peace to much closer economic integration. The vision of the ASEAN goes far beyond the two pages of the Bangkok declaration that was set in 1967. The ultimate goal of the declaration is to accomplish an integrated ASEAN community that is based on common regional identity. Keeping into consideration the problems and downturns that affects an organization, several scholars argue that achieving successful integration is unlikely for ASEAN. There are difficulties and obstacles laden on the route of integration, which needs to be cleared urgently. However in the last few decades, ASEAN has successfully achieved in the areas of prosperity, security and stability of the region. It has also successfully promoted economic development and regional co-operation. It was in the name of the ASEAN unity that Southeast Asia left its economic rival ry far behind. It has also taken a lead for creating ASEAN regional forum, whose purpose is to engage all its Asian-Pacific neighbors for the first time, for conducting discussions in the form of structured dialogues on a number of Asian security issues (Guan). The 23rd ASEAN summit was held on 0ctober 9, 2013. The discussion in the Summit was held under the theme of â€Å"Our

Sunday, July 28, 2019

Dispute Resolution Process Paper Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Dispute Resolution Process Paper - Essay Example Presently, the dispute resolution process in my organization is largely guided by the conditions as mentioned in the appointment letters or contracts as devised and executed by the company’s top brass managers. The process is modeled in a top down fashion, where in the case of a dispute issues are resolved professionally on the basis of the hierarchic positions of the disputing individuals. Such a dispute resolution paradigm can, thus, be identified as a human resource management based organized process guided in the conventional lines of conflict management. In a more complicated conflict situation, the company prefers to act along the â€Å"Dunlopian integrated system† (Colvin 2012, p. 459) of dispute resolution. Suggestible Alternative Dispute Resolution Approaches Alternative dispute resolution processes that can be suggested in this context involve essentially individualized considerations and concepts. As a whole, the current dispute resolution system of my organi zation is based on older concepts of industrial relations. But in the 21st century, individualized labor management appears to be more practical and potentially productive. At the first place, information and communication technology (ICT) has revolutionized present day workplace. Now there is a lot more scope of one to one interactions between peers. Also, superiors can interact with their subordinates on an individual basis with the help of techniques like social networking, online chatting, etc. Brett et al (2007) have explained the importance and inevitability of the utilization of ICT methods for resolving disputes and facilitating the dialogue in case there is a conflict. Further in my personal opinion, I believe that a policy of talking to the other party first can settle disputes before they surface. According to Colvin (2012), the new labor management conception in the USA is a lot more individualized. As such, emotional quotient and soft skills too can be highly fruitful a nd can help us before disputes reach serious dimensions. In the case of a conflict, if everyone is groomed to be good listeners beforehand, then we, the employees, can start a dialogue process on our own without an actual intervention of the higher management. Recommended Areas of Improvement There are two main recommended areas of improvement. Firstly, I think that my organization should now implement available ICT techniques more seriously with the specific consideration to the issues as related to the greater dispute resolution paradigm. For example, if the higher managers give at least a weekly feedback to their subordinates in a regular and periodic manner, then the subordinate staff can have a better understanding of both the good and bad things they do. And to facilitate such a kind of ICT powered individualized process of a periodic communication; we can induct ideas from the work of the scholars like Brett et al (2007). Secondly, the higher management should now consider ar ranging training sessions for the staff. All the staff must be given classroom lessons in soft skills at least once in a fortnight. In the view of the new labor management paradigm that gives an excessive importance to one to contact and dialogue, an increasing emotional quotient is critical and special soft skills training for all the staff of different departments can be rewarding. Another important aspect of necessary dispute resolution techniques might involve contract management set along strictly legal lines. My organization has set up contractual agreements with several workers. So, particularly in case of employment conflicts and confusions, the actual contract documents can be referred to. Scholars like Faems et al (2008) have given contextual suggestions

High School Model Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

High School Model - Research Paper Example (http://www.mdrc.org/publications/388/overview.html) Ninth Grade Success Academy: Form groups or teams up to 180 first year students with their teachers (four or five) to create their own program and schedule, which has its own faculty and management team. Catch-Up Curriculum and Extra Help: Catch up curriculum include math and English classes for those who are weak prior to preparation. The extra help consists of seminar and extra course which are usually held on summer , Saturday and after hour class. Twilight School: An alternative after-hours program is conducted in the building for students who have serious attendance or discipline problems or who are entering the school from prison or suspension from another school. Technical Assistance: Technical assistance from TDHS organizational and instructional facilitators ranges from 10 to 40 days per year, depending on local circumstances, and costs between $10,000 and $50,000. In addition, the school must fund the full-time program facilitator (or 0.5 FTE if two schools in a district are implementing). This typically costs between $60,000 and $80,000. Professional Development: The school must fund one to two teachers from the local district who serve as curriculum coaches. English and math teachers will need to receive the local rate for attending up to 25 hours of professional development. Curriculum Materials: The cost of texts and materials for 500 ninth-graders taking Transition to Advanced Mathematics, Strategic Reading, and Freshman Seminar courses is approximately $35,700 the first year and $17,000 the second year. For upper grade English classes, Partner Discussion Guides and student worksheets for Student Team Literature are

Saturday, July 27, 2019

Aspiration Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Aspiration - Essay Example Aspiration could be consequential and come with the risk of leading to a type of pneumonia known as aspiration pneumonia. Aspiration is generally being identified to be common in some people than others. For example, patients who suffer dysphagia stand a higher risk of being affected with aspiration and on a very regular basis. Dysphagia could pose a risk to patients because it is the difficulty in swallowing and such difficulty commonly leads to misplacement of food or fluid particles. It is also said that the male to female ratio of risk is 2:1 (Medscape, 2012). What this means is that there are more males who are at risk to aspiration than females. It is for this reason that the control of aspiration is an important issue to health practitioners. Symptoms of aspiration are varying and often dependent on the level of risk. Most commonly however, aspiration will be characterized by coughing, choking, fever, chills, leakage of food from mouth, shortness of breath and wet voice after swallowing (University of Wisconsin, 2012) The National Safety Council is quoted as stating that choking is the forth leading cause of unintentional injury death (Medscape, 2012). There are other critical effects that adults and other sufferers of aspiration face. Some of these include a permanent expansion of one’s lungs or trachea (Selius and Subedi, 2008). Once such permanent damages take place, the resorting long term consequence is that there could be the development of dyspahgia, which in its self is a risk factor to getting aspiration. Practitioners often want to use the term conservative management because they have a feeling that aspiration is best treated when taken care of at the initial stage. To this effect, some of the treatments prescribed include the need to place children in upright positions, not putting children in seated position after ninety minues of feeding, raising head of bed to 300,

Friday, July 26, 2019

Obesity Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 4

Obesity - Essay Example In airplanes, they should be forced to buy double seats to allow them and other passengers to travel comfortably. Those who feel aggrieved by such radical measure should look for other means of transport or board a private plane Jim is ethical because he does not steal the software but he is rather given for the being a member of the BB network. Secondly, utilitarianism demands that people act on the basis of the greater good. In this setting, it is clear that the process of procurement of software by their company is hectic, and therefore to increase their efficiency Jim and his colleagues, they opt to download software. Lastly, by telling the truth to Thelma, Jim is ethical. Thelma is being harmed because she her moral principles on copyrighted product are also being violated. In addition, the software companies lose sales because of such networks. Thus, Thelma and software companies are the major victims. Having software in BB implies that people have the privilege of accessing or downloading them. Hence, these are acting ethically in the sense that they follow the required procedure to obtain software via BB. Further, it is the easiest or the fastest way to obtain software because it takes care of people who cannot afford to buy software. In addition, these people do not hack sites for software but rather share what they have between each other. Thelma has a choice of either not associating with site if she feels it is unethical or be part of the network if she can justify the actions and values based on utilitarian principle. However, considering her first reaction she ought not join the network at

Thursday, July 25, 2019

What specific impact does the media have on the development of Research Paper

What specific impact does the media have on the development of - Research Paper Example The big question is are the media contributing positively in the development of this cadre of population. The answer is no, as it is now apparent that the media particularly the internet has made the moral turpitude of the teens to be put to doubts and ascertained that this is the avenue through which they explore and practice illicit behaviors. It is not accurate to state that media does not have any meaningful contribution in the lives of the teens, as it does influence many things with positive outcomes, an example of the case in the US where adolescent obesity has been mitigated through the media. Notwithstanding, when critically evaluated it will be found that the same media has also contributed negatively in the lives of the teens by exposing them to issues related to sex, an example is the phonographic videos in the internet. Teens have also fallen into the trap of engaging in the illicit activities following the kind of advertisement they are accorded in the media; therefore, the media has both positives and negatives influences to the teens. According to research, it has been proven that the teens with computer and laptops in their room demonstrate remarkable improvement in their performance in academic work. This is attributed to the fact that by having computers, they not only have the ease to reach information through the internet but also get motivated and spend more hours reading information in the internet. Television show are also rated to have the best educational session on several issues that even the parent might not be having good grasp of knowledge about. In a close supervision then, television can prove to be one of the best informative media on relevant issues to the teens. An example is the show by Dr. Oz and Oprah It is a fact that the reading culture is threatened with the technological advancement today. Most of the teens demonstrate a very poor reading culture that needs to be reinforced. The print media

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

Education Policies Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Education Policies - Essay Example Every successive government views education as a field for change as public opinion and support for educational development is always guaranteed. Therefore, every government promises to lift standards, enhance achievement and schools. While methods and initiatives differ with every political party, the issue of improving schools has been a regular policy objective in many countries (Townsend, 2007). All around the world, governments are trying out to new policies to deal with innovative technologies, new world order and a dynamic global economy. All through the post-war period, there have been numerous efforts to improve the UK education system, frequently with a clear objective to try and make it more effective (Machin & Vignoles, 2006). It is believed that education plays a significant role in facilitating economic growth, equality of opportunity and social justice (Townsend, 2007). Over the last two decades, there has been an unparalleled growth in public interest in education, wh ich has given rise to a number of policies such as SureStart, Every Child Matters (ECM), Education Maintenance Allowance (EMA), expansion Higher Education, etc. Trowler (2003:95) defines education policy as â€Å"†¦ a specification of principles and actions, related to educational issues, which are followed or which should be followed and which are designed to being about desired goals.† The definition clearly illustrates that fact that policy is a process, something which is dynamic and not unchangeable. Trowler (2003) further suggests that the ‘dynamic’ comes from: political and educational conflict; interpretation of policy and the practical implication for individuals involved at all levels of the education system. Thus a working and debatable definition of the education policy-making process could be the historical, social and political processes that shape a theme or issue within the education system (Trowler, 2003). Ozga (2000) suggests that policy ca n be viewed directly in terms as the actions of government, intended to secure certain results. Similarly, it can be considered a process rather than a product, entailing negotiation, opposition or resistance among various segments who might not be a part of the formal machinery of official policy making. Ozga (1990) asserts that educational policy is not an impartial creation and it is also not created entirely at a single level without finding the middle ground with others. In theory, McLaughlin (1987) shows that policy implementation studies demonstrates how the transformation of policy into practice is distinguished by â€Å"bargaining and negotiation† and how policy as enacted varies from policy as designed. Research further demonstrates the way officially formulated educational policies are adapted, sometimes altered, when executed in schools and classrooms (Coburn, 2001). Moreover, policies are challenged, interpreted and performed in a variety of areas as words and me anings of policymakers do not always transform directly and clearly into institutional operations. They are inflected, thought over, opposed and misinterpreted, or in a few cases simply prove impracticable. It is also essential not to misjudge the logical rationality of policy (Ball, 2008). State constitutions designate different institutions with task and official authority for education policymaking. In the modern world, constitutional power and responsibility might be the only complete

Tuesday, July 23, 2019

New Article Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

New - Article Example The main objective of this paper is to provide vivid explanations about the reason behind leaking pentagonal papers by Snowden. With the increasing advent of technology in an individual’s life, it is considered that crime rate is also increasing at a great extent. Additionally, it has also been viewed that the government of different countries are adapting new policies and implementing new policies to safeguard the civilians from the increasing crime around the globe. However, it has been ascertained that though the federal body are implementing new policies to safe guards the people from foreign enemies but the new polices are violating the basic freedom of the people. For instance recently it has been witnessed that Snowden a former employee of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and an technical contractor for the National Security Agency (NSA) has leaked pentagonal papers that helped the United nations (U.S) intelligence organizations to track the outgoing calls, monitors e-mail and usage of internet of almost all Americans directly violating the freedom of an individual to provide security. Further more, it has been revealed that Snowden also leaked the pentagonal papers relating the Vietnam War (Starr and Yan, â€Å"Man behind NSA leaks says he did it to safeguard privacy, liberty†). The major player that can be witnessed in the case is Edward Snowden and the United Nation’s government that developed programme that tracked phone calls, and monitors e-mail of the civilians violating the freedom of the civilians with the prime motive of providing them security. Freedom and security are considered to be two vital aspects in every individual’s life. It is also the duty of the government to safe guard its people by implementing police and laws that would not result in taking away the freedom and would also provide security to the civilians. However, in this case it has been observed that the U.S government was collecting and tracing phone calls

Monday, July 22, 2019

Equal Opportunity in Early Childhood Essay Example for Free

Equal Opportunity in Early Childhood Essay Children should be treated and respected as individuals in their own rights. Like any individual, children have rights to shelter, food and education. They too should be treated fairly and equally. Many a times, we have failed to recognise these needs and as adults, we think we know best for the child. If we are able to recognise these rights, it will greatly assist in a childs development both emotionally and spiritually. According to Bruce and Meggit (2002), equality of opportunity means opening up access for every child and family to full participation in early childhood services. There can be no quality in early childhood services unless there is equality of opportunity. Children should not be denied of their rights based on their race, nationality, gender or abilities, boys and girls should not be treated differently. Also, equal opportunities can be defined in general as not discriminating a person by his or her race, gender, family orientation or whether they belonged to the minority in the society. I truly agree with this statement and advocates for equal opportunity to be practiced in every way. It is now the 21st century but can we safely say that children in this world are treated equally? Some parents tend to treat their children differently if they are a boy, especially in the Eastern culture; succession is through boys instead of girls. Several parents have stereotyped the colours that their children should wear, boys should be in blue and gals should be in pink. Stereotyping basically means unduly fixed mental impression (Oxford, p. 546). Society too, plays a role in influencing the parents when it comes to bringing up their children in this part of the world and to a certain extent the childrens interest will be sacrificed. Children are expected to excel academically and those who do not will be branded as slow and they will be frowned upon by the society due to the competitive environment. Parents are ? pressured to have an academically sound child and as a result, children will feel ? inferior if they are unable to excel academically and this would hinder their fitting into the society in the future. In order to uphold the rights of the children in the world, UNICEF introduced the Convention on the Rights of the Child which was adopted by Unite Nations General Assembly on the 20th November 1989. (http://www. unicef. org/malaysia/UNICEF_FS_-_Understanding_the_ CRC. pdf). There are four principles that the Convention rests on and they are; non discrimination, best interests of the child, the childs right to life, survival and development and respect for the views of the child . (http://www. unicef. org/malaysia/UNICEF_FS_-_Understanding_the_ CRC. pdf ). The main idea of having this convention is to recognize that children should be treated fairly as human beings and they should be brought up in a safe and conducive environment in order for them to realize their full potential in life. Malaysia signed the convention in March 1995 and being a multi cultural country that also advocates for human rights has made many changes to its legislation to adopt the convention especially in the area of education and healthcare. However, a question that many Malaysians will ask today; are the changes sufficient to provide the children in Malaysia equal rights? Here, let us look into the two major areas to analyse the impact of the convention on Malaysias legislation concerning children. According to article 28 of the CRC, The child has a right to education, ? (CRC, p. 19). Malaysia however has reservation on seven articles and article 28 is amongst them. The preschool education is Malaysia is under the responsibility of a few government departments and social agencies such as the Ministry of Health, Ministry of National Unity and Social Development, Ministry of Rural Development and also several states departments (http://porta;. unesco. org/education/en/ev. php-URL_ID=46167URL _DO=DO_TOPICURL_SECTION=201. html) Under the Child Care Centre Act 1985, there are 2 categories of childcare centre, one being a home based childcare centre which takes in less than 10 children. The other being an institution based centre which caters for 10 or more children (The Star, 24th March, 1996). The curriculum guidelines of pre-schools are guided by the Ministry of Education and it has to provide a holistic development of the child being in social skills, intellectual skills, physical skills and spiritual skills (www. unesco. org/wef/countryreports /malaysia/Rapport_1. html) which is in accordance to article 29 of the CRC (CRC, p. 21) Due to the increasing awareness of the importance of early childhood education and also the increase in women joining the workforce, many private childcare centres have sprung up especially in the urban areas. These centres are mostly run by the private sectors that cater to mostly working parents from the middle to high income families and they charge a fee for their services. For the poor or rural areas children, the pre school programs are run by the government agencies and to a certain extent Non Government Organizations (NGOs). (http://unescodoc. unesco. org/images/0012/001279/127984e. pdf). The next area that Malaysia made changes to embrace the principles in the Convention is the healthcare policy. Child mortality in Malaysia has decreased significantly due to the effective healthcare programs that the government has implemented since the First Malaysia Plan 1996 (http://www. unicef. org/malaysia/ /children_4162. html). The most widely available health care service in Malaysia is public hospitals and for the rural community, there are over 1600 community health clinics (http://www. childpolicyintl. org/countries/Malaysia. html). Generally, children in Malaysia are provided with very comprehensive health services from vaccination to clean water supply and also sanitation. The government has taken steps to promote health programs to children in the rural areas integrating the promotion of health in its rural development strategies and programs. This is in accordance to Article 24 of the CRC where it states The child has the right to the highest standard of health and medical care attainable. Although Malaysia has taken various measures to improve its education system to embrace the CRC, sad to say that there are still children in Malaysia who are deprived of the right to education. This is especially apparent in vulnerable groups like children from the indigenous populations and also children in the rural areas. The indigenous children in Sabah and Sarawak have very little access to education and the curriculum in government schools do not cater to them culturally. Also, Malaysia has lifted its reservation on Article 22 which guarantees the childs rights seeking refugees status in 1995 but until today, there have not been changes when it comes to undocumented children (New Sunday Times, June 25th 2006). Undocumented children basically mean children who are born in Malaysia to migrant parents. Children in this category are deprived of education due to fact that they are not even recognized as Malaysian citizen. Although children in Malaysia are rather well taken care of in terms of healthcare services, there are still children who do not have access to their basic needs like healthcare. These are children born to poor parents, sex workers, alcoholics and sex workers. (New Straits Times, p. 19). Also, with the increase in HIV/AIDS cases in Malaysia and many children and women from the rural areas are still complacent of this disease. A childs formative years are extremely important as it will affect their growth in the later years. If Malaysia sees the significance of its younger generation, the government should seriously look into its commitment to uphold the Convention guidelines Firstly, awareness amongst the community is extremely important if Malaysia seeks to promote equal opportunity in the early childcare settings. Government should take steps to promote awareness amongst the people in order to change their attitudes towards children and this can be done by including the CRC as part of the school curriculum (The Star, p. N47). Secondly, early childhood education should be made compulsory to all children in urban or rural areas and available to all children in regardless of their background as every child has the right to education. Curriculum for children below the age of four should also address the current issues like AID/HIV and sex education. Materials and books used in the early childhood education should contain pictures of the different ethnic group in Malaysia. Activities organized by the childcare centre should be diversified as this would promote respect of various cultures amongst the children. More importantly, the curriculum should be sensitive to children from various cultural backgrounds especially the indigenous group. After all, Malaysia takes pride in its diversity of culture. Teachers in the early childcare sector should be trained in gender studies and also human rights (http://www. europeanchildrensnetwork. org/resources/infoDetail. asp? ID =12592). As childcare practitioner, the attitude of the person is utmost important in making sure that children under their care is not being discriminated. They have to be fully aware of the childs rights in order for the child to grow up in a positive environment as it is damaging for the child development. A childs potential to learn and develop their full potential should not be limited by prejudice (http://ferl. qia. org. uk/content_files/resources/organisations/caderdale_ council/sharon_chapman/equalops/prejandisc. htm).

Social Identity and the Service-Profit Chain Essay Example for Free

Social Identity and the Service-Profit Chain Essay MOS Article Review Social Identity and the Service-Profit Chain By Christian Homburg, Jan Wieseke Wayne D. Hoyer Journal of Marketing Volume 73(March 2009) It is very important to understand that if performance meets expectations, the customer is satisfied; if not, dissatisfaction results. Thus a core assumption is that by improving performance, firms can also increase satisfaction. Customers expect what they are now receiving and in a sense they keep upping the ante so it becomes increasingly difficult to meet or exceed customer expectations. Now there are two SPC paths: conventional and the social identity based path. Both of them are complementary. In other words firms that successfully manage both SPC paths tend to perform better than firms that are successful in only managing either the satisfaction or the social identity based path. The main elements of the social identity approach are self-categorization theory and social identity theory. Self categorization theory suggests that human beings have a need to simplify the social world by categorising people into groups. People perceive themselves as belonging to a particular group or category. According to social identity theory people strive for positive self-esteem and try to accomplish this by enhancing their social identity. Moreover it is true customers self-definitional needs can be partially fulfilled by the companies they patronise. For example users of Apple computers strongly identify with the company and this identification is related to how they define themselves as individuals. Thus customer-company identification helps a person clarify his or her self concept and to gain positive self-appraisal through a positive company appraisal. In today’s era of unprecedented corporate influence and consumerism, certain companies represent and offer attractive, meaningful social identities to consumers that help them satisfy important self-definitional needs. Strong identification occurs when company becomes personally relevant for consumers and personal relevance creates the potential for emotional reactions. Although some people perceive a close relationship between commitment and identification, there is consensus that identity and commitment are distinguishable in terms of their essential meaning. The key distinction is that identification includes both a self-definitional and an emotional meaning for a person while commitment does not reflect the cognitive element of psychological oneness and self definition that identification does. Hypothesis for the social identity based path of the SPC

Sunday, July 21, 2019

Improving Eye Care In Rural India Communications Essay

Improving Eye Care In Rural India Communications Essay CATARACT refers to the clouding of the lens in the human eye, affecting vision. In the developing world, cataract is the cause for blindness in nearly half the blind population i.e. 50% of the recorded number of blindness cases. While problems of inaccessibility continue to plague many parts of the developing world nearly two-thirds of the population in many developing countries are unable to access quality medical resources infrastructure primarily because quality medical care or eye care in this case is still urban-centric all hope is not lost yet. In India too, where 90% of the cases are treatable, most Indians lack access to quality eye care. In the early 1990s, the country was home to a third of the worlds blind people and here too cataract blindness was the major cause in most cases. The World Bank decided to step in and help the Indian government deal with the problem, spending $144.8 million between 1994 and 2002 on the Cataract Blindness Control Project under which 15.3 million eye surgeries were performed. The World Bank-funded project was largely implemented in northern India and it helped reduce the incidence of cataract, in the states that were covered under this project, by half. But India is a very big country and it definitely needs a more sustainable approach to dealing with cataract blindness given that it has a sizeable ageing population. One such approach is the Aravind Eye Care System, a three-decade old campaign that has been fighting cataract blindness predominantly in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nad u. Working in the same direction is the L V Prasdad Eye Institue, operating from the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh. Both Aravind and LVPEI, setup in the mid 1970s and the mid 1980s respectively, have been focused on taking quality eye care to the rural masses from the very beginning, most of it free of cost. In the larger context, this paper discusses how private entrepreneurship is taking quality Eye Care to the rural masses in India. This paper will discuss the Eye Care delivery model aimed at fighting Cataract Blindness in the context of the Culture-Centered Approach (CCA). The Culture-Centered Approach advoates greater engagment with the local culture, â€Å"through dialogues with community members†, to ensure â€Å"equitable† and â€Å"accessible† healthcare across communities (Dutta-Bergman, 2004a, 2004b; Dutta and Basu 2007 as quoted in Dutta, 2008). Furthermore, this paper will use the Extended Technology-Community-Management (TCM) model (Chib Komathi, 2008) to explain the intersections between technology, community and the management of information communication technologies (ICT) in the context of the CCA and the Eye Care delivery model adopted by the private healthcare players i.e. the non-governmental organisations (NGOs). According to the TCM model (Lee Chib, 2008), the intersection of ICT characteristics of technology, along with the dimensions of software and hardware, project management dimensions of financial requirements, the regulatory environment, and stakeholder involvement, along with local community participation â€Å"will ultimately lead to sustainable ICTD interventions.† Culture-Centered Approach Globalisation has led to an increasing realisation that the Biomedical[6] model of healthcare is limited in scope when engaging in issues of global health (Dutta, 2008). Furthermore, Dutta (2008) says that many societies now feel the need to â€Å"open up the spaces of health communication to the voices of cultural communities† i.e. there is now greater awarness of the need for better engagement with marginalised communities. Culture is dynamic. That culture has an important role to play in health communication is better understood today. But this concept began attracting widespread attention only in the early 1980s, especially in the U.S. when healthcare practitioners felt a need to adopt multiple strategies to address the health-related issues of a multicultural population (Dutta, 208). â€Å"This helped question the universalist assumptions of various health communication programs† aimed at the developing nations and the so called third-world nations   (Dutta, 2008). The Culture-Centered Approach was born out of the need to oppose the dominant approach of health communication, located within the Biomedical model, where health is treated as a â€Å"universal concept based on Eurocentric[7] understandings of health-related issues, disease and the treatment of diseases† (Dutta, 2008). According to Dutta (2008), the CCA is a better alternative to understanding health communication because it is a â€Å"value-centered† approach. The CCA is built on the notion that the â€Å"meanings of health† cannot be universal because they are ingrained within cultural contextsm, he argues.  Ã‚   The CCA has its roots in three key concepts i.e. ‘structure, ‘agency and ‘culture. The term ‘culture refers to the local context within which so called health meanings are created and dealt with. ‘Structure encompasses food, shelter, medical services and transportational services that are all vital to the overall healthcare of various members of a community. ‘Agency points to the â€Å"capacity of cultural members† to negotiate the structures within which they live. It must be noted that ‘structure, ‘agency and ‘culture and entwined and they do not operate in isolation. Dutta (2008), in his book Communicating Health, further elaborates that the CCA throws light on how the dominant healthcare ideology serves the needs of those in power. Powerful members of society create conditions of marginalistaion. Therefore the focus of the CCA lies in the study of the intersections between ‘structure, ‘agency and ‘culture in the context of marginalised communities. To understand better the problems faced by the marginalised, the CCA advocates the healthcare practitioners engage in dialogues with members of the concerned community. Each community has its own set of stories to share and this is vital to understanding the local culture. The CCA also aims to document resistance, of any kind, to dominant ideologies as this helps strengthen the case of the CCA against the dominant healthcare model. The CCA, according to Dutta (2008), provides sufficient scope to study physician-patient relationships, in a bid to ultimately improve the healthcare deli very model. Adopting the CCA is just half your problem solved; the integration of the CCA with the Extended TCM model completes the picture.   The Extended TCM Model The TCM model (Lee Chib, 2008) argues that the larger question of social sustainability depends on both local relevance and institutional support. The TCM Model proposes that the intersection of ICT characteristics of technology, along with the dimensions of software and hardware, project management dimensions of financial requirements, the regulatory environment, and stakeholder involvement, along with local community participation, will ultimately lead to sustainable ICTD interventions (See Figure 1.1). The TCM model was further revised. Community was subdivided to include: modes of ownership of ICT investments and profits; training of community users both in the use and in technology management; and the basic needs of the community. Furthermore, Sustainability was also subdivided into financial and social (see Figure 1.2). Chib Komathi (2009) found that the TCM Model was inadequate as it could not examine the critical issue of vulnerability. Therefore, their study improved on this inadequacy by adding crucial factors and variables relating to vulnerability. They extended the TCM model, and called it the Extended Technology-Community-Management (Extended TCM) model (see Figure1.3).  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   This new framework on ICT planning accounts for community involvement, the management components, the overall design of technologies such as telemedicine or tele-consultation, and evaluation of existing vulnerabilities in the community where these technologies are implemented. It identifies four dimensions of vulnerabilities influencing technology implementation among the rural poor: economic vulnerability, informational vulnerability, physiological/psychological vulnerability, and socio-cultural vulnerability. Chib Komathi (2009) further explain each dimension of vulnerability: Physiological and psychological vulnerabilities refer to the physical and mental well-being of an affected person, or a specific community. Informational vulnerability deals with the access to and availability of information within affected communities. Informational resources include personal documents, books and critical data, opinion leaders and professional experts,. The lack of such resources affects the capabilities of people who are dependent on them. In a rural setting, informational vulnerability is further augmented by the low literacy levels and lack of pertinent â€Å"technological skills necessary to enable the learning and processing of information.† The economic vulnerability is sparked off by the loss of livelihood i.e. a loss of activities that otherwise financially support households and sustain economic growth in a rural setting. The socio-cultural vulnerability of communities is determine d by â€Å"the structure and values of a given society that define human relationships in communities.† Hierarchies in any society (gender, race, religion, caste, age and class egalitarianism within communities) or a community often dictate access to resources and assets, and the decision-making power of people. Cataract Blindness in India At the outset, one has to understand the sufferings of the blind in India, in a rural setting blindness, irrespective of the cause, results in a loss of livelihood for an individual. In rural India, like elsewhere, this would translate into one less earning member in the family, making the blind person a burden to his/her family. This leads to a loss of dignity and status in the family. In effect, blind people in rural India, like in many other societies, are marginalized. Enter Aravind and LVPEI, who continue to strive to help blind people in rural India and empower them by giving them back their sight. There are many causes of blindness, like Diabetes for instance. But Cataract is one of the leading causes of blindness in the developing world. Records in India show that Cataract is the most significant cause of blindness in the country (Nirmalan et al. 2002 Murthy et al. 2001).Cataract, reports say, is responsible for 50 to 80 per cent of the bilaterally blind (Thulsiraj et al. 2003 Thulsiraj et al. 2002).The elderly are more at risk of developing Cataract. India aims to eliminate needless blindness by 2020 in line with ‘Vision 2020: the right to sight initiative, launched jointly by the World Health Organisation (WHO) and the International Agency for Prevention of Blindness (IAPB). Many organisations worldwide are also working in the direction of eliminating needless blindness (Foster, 2001). The government in India and the World Bank launched the Cataract Blindness Control Project in seven states across India in 1994.From close to 1.2 million cataract surgeries a year in the 1980s (Minassian Mehra 1990), Cataract surgical output tripled to 3.9 million per year by 2003 (Jose, 2003). In 2004, World Health Organization (WHO) data showed that there was a 25 per cent decrease in blindness prevalence in India (Resnikoff et al. 2004) the reason(s) could be the increase in Cataract surgeries countrywide. But there is a larger problem here, that of population growth. The aged population in India (those aged over 60 years) population which stood at 56 million people in the year 1991 is expected to double by the year 2016 (Kumar, 1997). This ‘greying of Indias population only suggests that the number of people ‘at-risk of developing Cataract is constantly on the rises. In the larger sense, this paper aims to show how private entrepreneurship in India is taking quality eye care to the rural masses in that country. This paper aimed to discuss the same through two case studies, that of the Aravind Eye Care system as well as the L V Prasad Eye Institute (LVPEI). Unfortunately, email correspondence with LVPEI failed to elicit responses from this organization. Given the limitations of this study, including time constraints, this paper will explain the Aravind Eye Care system in the context of rural Eye Care in India and the fight against Cataract Blindness all this within the framework of the CCA. Furthermore, this paper will critique the business model of NGOs like Aravind in the context of the Extended TCM model, including whether for-profit organisations are using the rural masses to support their business model. In particular, what is the role of the healthcare provider in this case disseminate knowledge to the grass-roots or live-off their healthcare delivery model? Aravind Eye Care Dr. G. Venkataswamy had a very simple vision when he first setup Aravind Eye Care in 1976: â€Å"Eradicate needless blindness at least in Tamil Nadu, his home state, if not in the entire nation of India.† Aravind began as an 11-bed private clinic in the founders brothers house in the southern Indian city of Madurai. Today, the Aravind Eye Hospital (AEH) at Madurai is a 1,500 bed hospital.   In addition to Madurai, there are four more AEHs in Tamil Nadu (Aravind.org) with a combined total of over 3,500 beds. By 2003 the Aravind Eye Care System as we know it today was up and running. The System continues to operate under the aegis of a nonprofit trust named the Govel Trust it comprises of a manufacturing facility (for manufacturing synthetic lenses, sutures, and pharmaceuticals related to eye care); eye hospitals; education and training (graduate institute of ophthalmology); research facilities (complete with an eye bank);) and a center for community outreach programs (Prahlad, 2004). A typical day at Aravind now has doctors performing about 1,000 surgeries including free surgeries; 5-6 outreach camps in rural areas where about 1,500 people are examined and close to 300 people are brought to an AEH for eye surgery (TED, 2009). How does Aravind do it? The organisation has setup ‘vision centers or clinics in remote villages, fitted with basic eye care equipment. Each clinic is manned by an ophthalmic assistant and â€Å"these clinics perform basic examinations; prescribe corrective lenses and treat minor ailments.† If an eye ailment can be cured by the application of eye drops, these clinics are equipped to do so.   For more complicated cases, such as Cataract Blindness, the patient consults an ophthalmologist based at an AEH in a nearby city via the videoconferencing route. If the patient needs corrective surgery, he/she is asked to hop onto a bus waiting outside the ‘vision centre that takes them to the nearest Aravind base hospital. The patients are operated upon the following day; they spend a day in post-operative care and then take a bus back to their villages all free of cost (Laks, 2009).[8] But it wasnt all gung-ho in the beginning; more hard work than anything else. There was no specific Outreach team. Everyone in the pool was asked to participate in Outreach programme. â€Å"In the beginning (in 1976-77) Dr. V and a small team would visit villages and conduct eye screening camps. Those who required Cataract surgery would then be advised to visit the base hospital for surgery. But Dr .V found that a majority of those advised to undergo surgery would dropout, owing to socio-economic factors like fear of surgery; lack of trust on restoration of sight; no money to spend for transport, food and post operative medical care and (their) resistance to western medicine,† according to the head of Outreach activities at Aravind, R. Meenakshi Sundaram in his email response to my queries. These barriers were gradually addressed through various strategies. â€Å"We decided to involve village chiefs and local organizations to take ownership of the Outreach programmes, in terms of identifying the right location for the Eye Camp and providing the required support facilities. Their help was key to community mobilization. We organized a team to standardize the quality in Eye Care service delivery. Furthermore, Dr. V focussed his attention on building hospitals like ones home where we normally expect basic culture and values,† said Mr. Sundaram. â€Å"Fear of surgery was a common barrier in addition to other factors. Perhaps the acceptance for surgery was low in the beginning. But it was constantly explained at the community level whenever camps were organized as the programme aims to serve people at large. Particularly, in the year 1992 the Intra Ocular Lens (IOL) was introduced and the rural community did not believe in having a ‘foreign particle in their eyes. We came across a lot of myths. Those issues were addressed thru counselling,† added Mr. Sundaram. Realizing the impact of counselling, a cadre was developed within the System in 1992 and seven counsellors were trained in the first batch of counsellors training. They were given a basic orientation about common eye problems with a special focus on IEC. ‘Patient counsellors i.e. patients who had undergone eye surgery were asked to help the Outreach team. â€Å"They played their role in explaining eye problems in the local language and tried to help others realize the consequences of failing to accept surgery. Considering the myths, a real IOL was used as education material to help the rural folk understand the concept of the IOL,† Mr Sundaram said. The number of counsellors has steadily risen ever since and stands at 179 at present. How is the Aravind Eye Care System possible? Financial self-sustainability was the primary focus from day one at Aravind. Initially, the organization was given a grant by the government to help subsidize the treatment costs for eye camp patients (Prahlad, 2004) and the Govel Trust also pledged properties to raise money from banks in the early days. Prahlad (2004) states that the Madurai AEH, the first, was always self-supporting as far as recurring expenditures were concerned. Within the first five years of operation, the Madurai AEH had accumulated surplus revenues for further development and for the construction of four other hospitals in the Tamil Nadu state. He adds that over the years, the patient revenues generated from its five hospitals located in five cities finance the Aravind Eye Care System to a great extent. Furthermore, Aravind has also taken to the management-contract route and it manages two hospitals outside of its home-state. While city folk are charged market rates for each consultancy and for surgery, patients in remote villages pay just Rs. 20 for three consultancies or SGD 0.60. (TED, 2009). Those who can afford to pay, the urban folk who visit Aravinds hospitals in urban locations on their own, do not get discounted rates. Such a system of cross-subsidies ensures that only 45 percent pay while the rest are not charged at all i.e. about five out of every 10 patients examined at Aravind can be provided free eye care, including eye surgery (TED, 2009). A cross-subsidising financial model is not the only mantra[9] to Aravinds success. Having been in the business of delivering quality Eye Care for over three decades now, the System is well-positioned to leverage on the Aravind brand-name to attract donations. Over the years, the organization has received international recognition for its work and this includes the 2008 Gates Award for Global Health, and this years Conrad N. Hilton Humanitarian Prize that carries a US$1.5 million cash award. Last but not the least is the money that flows into Aravind in the form of specific project-funding. One such sponsor is the London-based ‘Seeing Is Believing (SiB) Trust, a collaboration between Standard Chartered Bank and the International Agency for Prevention of Blindness (IAPB). Since 2003, ‘Seeing is Believing has grown from a staff initiative to raise enough money to fund a cataract operation for each member of the Bank to a US$40 million global community initiative. I wrote to Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) asking them why they decided to partner with Aravind and LVPEI. â€Å"LV Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad, as well as Aravind Eye Hospital are premier eye care institutes in the country.   India has a vast geographic spread and both these institutions work in different geographic zones of the country.   LVPEI is prominent in the south-eastern states of the country while Aravind is prominent in the southern states of India,† said Pratima Harite, Manager (Sustainability), Corporate Affairs- India in her email response to my queries. The rationale behind the India Consortium Project is the ‘vision centre concept that a significant proportion of eye problems corrected or detected at the primary care level has substantial savings to the individual and to the communities.   â€Å"Based on the success of LVPEIs Vision Centre model, the India Consortium Project proposed scaling up the development of Vision Centres in a co-ordinated matter in six states across the country.   For this, LVPEI sought support from four key implementing partners premier eye care institutions themselves across the country,† added Ms. Harite. Singapores Temasek Foundation (TF) part-funds SiB activities in India, particularly in capacity building i.e. in enhancing the training component of the SiB programme. Is this a viable business model? Aravind has perfected the model over the last three decades. They have the technology, behind the video consultation, in place â€Å"a low-cost wireless long-distance network (WiLDNet)† put together by the Technology and Infrastructure for Emerging Regions (TIER) research group at the University of California, Berkeley, California, USA.[10] This was done to overcome the issue of zero internet connectivity or slow connections that do not support video consultations in remote villages (Laks, 2009). In 2004, a mobile van with satellite connectivity was introduced to facilitate Tele-Consultations. The Indian Space Research Organisations (ISRO)[11] help was sought to this extent. The ‘vision centres can easily communicate with the base hospital (some 30 to 40 kms.) via satellite. These ‘vision centres effectively address the issue of accessibility, affordability and availability of quality Eye Care. â€Å"A series of centres were started across the Tamil Nadu state. Each base hospital is connected with a group of vision centres. At present, we have 10 ‘vision centres that operate on WiFi. The rest run on BSNL[12] broadband connections,† Mr Sundaram said. Aravind has the delivery system in place. A sound understanding of the local culture that in many cases is averse to western medicine and where modern-day medicine is not the first and only option to treat any disease or ailment. Why would a villager trust a doctor who drives down one fine morning and says he would like to operate upon them? Aravind begins by appointing a volunteer group for each community; some of these volunteers are further trained to serve as ophthalmic assistants and even as nurses in Aravinds hospitals. In a rural setting, rural folk trust their friends, neighbors, and their own people first. It is about creating ownership to the problem, like Mr. Sundaram said, and then partnering with the community to solve the problem. Aravinds financial results for the year 2008-09 were healthy. It raked in (income) US$22 million and spent (expenditure and depreciation) US$ 13 million.[13] Discussion That Aravind and other NGOs working in a similar direction, like LVPEI for instance, use the Culture-Centered Approach, as elaborated by Dutta (2008), in delivering quality eye care to rural India is quite clear. Aravind, in particular, has successfully integrated the CCA with the Technology-Communication-Management (TCM) model, as elaborated by Lee Chib (2008) to create a sustainable model for Eye Care delivery. ‘Accessibility and ‘affordability are the key factors in such healthcare models. In taking this route, one has to ensure that the technologies chosen for the job are cost-effective and easy to implement because capital expenditure and operational expenditure do play a vital role in determining the cost of healthcare services. Aravind has been able to keep the cost of Eye Care delivery considerable low consistently for many years now. Critics argue that organizations like Aravind are feeding-off their model. At this point, it is important to understand the ground-realities. In India, the divide between the urban ‘haves, and the rural ‘have-nots is only getting wider with each passing year. According to UN projections released 2008, India would urbanize at a much slower rate than China and have, by 2050, 45% of its population still living in rural areas (Lederer, 2008). The Government in India is not doing enough to address the plethora of health issues that plague [the various regions and communities in] the country. The flagship scheme to improve healthcare services in rural India, the National Rural Health Mission    launched in 2005 as a seven-year programme has many of its goals yet to be achieved, and the government is now considering extending it to 2015, according to recent media reports. Despite many a government claims and many a government schemes several villages in states across India co ntinue to depend on the private sector for quality healthcare or in this case Eye Care. Given this situation, Aravind and LVPEIs work in the direction of providing affordable Eye Care and free eye surgeries to five out of every ten patients they examine is a commendable feat.   A second question raised in this study is, what is the role of the healthcare provider in this case disseminate knowledge to the grass-roots or live-off their healthcare delivery model? Aravind is doing its part in disseminating knowledge to the grass-roots. Most ophthalmic assistants who man the ‘vision centers are community members trained by Aravind. But one has to understand that the act of knowledge dissemination in a remote rural setting has its challenges i.e. tackling illiteracy, basic awareness among others and these challenges cannot be addressed in just a few years. The India Consortium Project, sponsored by SCB and Temasek Foundation, set a target to set up 40 ‘vision centres by 2010. So far, 32 ‘vision centres are operational and the remaining will be operational this year, according to Ms. Harite.   On the flip side, a study by Murthy et al. (2008) argues that the goals of the ‘Vision 2020: the right to sight initiative to eliminate Cataract blindness in India by the year 2020 may not be achieved. But this should not deter those working in this direction. Both the public and the private sector must continue to fight Cataract Blindness because that is the only way to tackle the problem at hand. Last but not the least, this study recommends that NGOs operating in the healthcare space look at both the CCA and the TCM model to ensure better service delivery. References Chib, A. Komathi, A.L.E. (2009). Extending the Technology-Community-Management Model to Disaster Recovery: Assessing Vulnerability in Rural Asia. Submitted to ICTD 2009. Dutta, M. J. (2008). Communicating Health. Polity Press, Cambridge, U.K. Foster A. (2001).Cataract and Vision 2020 the right to sight initiative. British Journal Ophthalmology, 85, 635-639. Jose R, Bachani D. (2003). Performance of cataract surgery between April 2002 and March 2003. NPCB-India;2:2. Kumar S. (1997). Alarm sounded over Greying of Indias population. Lancet, 350, 271 Lee, S., Chib, A. (2008). Wireless initiatives for connecting rural areas: Developing a framework. In N. Carpentier B. De Cleen (Eds.), Participationand media production. Critical reflections on content creation. ICA 2007Conference Theme Book (pp. 113-128). Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Lederer, E.M. (2008). Mint. Retrieved April 16, 2010, from http://www.livemint.com/2008/02/27231012/Half-the-world8217s-populat.html Laks, R. (2009). Videoconferencing and Low-cost Wireless Networks Improve Vision in Rural India. Comminit.com. Retrieved April16, 2010, from http://www.comminit.com/en/node/301452/307 Minassian DC, Mehra V. (1990). 3.8 Million blinded by cataract each year: Projections from the first epidemiological study of incidence of cataract blindness in India. Br J Ophthalmol, 4, 341-3. Murthy GV, Gupta S, Ellwein LB, Munoz SR, Bachani D, Dada VK. (2001). A Population-based Eye Survey of Older Adults in a Rural District of Rajasthan: I, Central Vision Impairment, Blindness and Cataract Surgery. Ophthalmology, 108,679-85. Nirmalan PK, Thulasiraj RD, Maneksha V, Rahmathullah R, Ramakrishnan R, Padmavathi A,et al. (2002). A population based eye survey of older adults in Tirunelveli district of south India: Blindness, cataract surgery and visual outcomes. Br J Ophthalmol, 86, 505-12. Prahlad, C. K. (2004). The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid. Wharton School Publishing, Pennsylvanial, U.S. Resnikoff S, Pascolini D, Etyaale D, Kocur I, Pararajasegaram R, Pokharel GP,et al. (2004). Global data on visual impairment in the year 2002. Bull WHO, 82, 844-51. TED. (2009). Thulasiraj Ravilla: How low cost eye care can be world class. Retrieved April 16, 2010, from http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/eng/thulasiraj_ravilla_how_low_cost_eye_care_can_be_worl

Saturday, July 20, 2019

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt Essay -- Midni

Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The book Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was written by John Berendt and was 388 pages long. This was a non-fiction story of the beautiful town of Savannah, Georgia. John Berendt was a reporter who lived in New York and one night while dinning out he realized that one plate of food cost him the same amount of money that it would to fly to Savannah. So he did and he found himself in love with the city and stayed. It is a spellbinding story peopled by a gallery of remarkable characters: a fading belle who packs a pistol in her dà ©colletage; a charming, piano-playing con man who moves like a hermit crab from one empty showplace house to the next, accompanied by his high-living entourage and pursued closely by his creditors; a moneyed dowager who conducts business from a cruising Mercedes limousine; a sour alcoholic inventor who claims to own a vial of poison so powerful that it could kill off the entire city; a voodoo priestess in purple shades; and a foul-mouthed black drag queen who passes so convincingly for a woman that she is able to extort abortion money from the parents of her white boyfriend. With these and other people from savannah, Berendt reviles his alliances and enemies in the town where everybody knows everybody else.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The exciting colorful town of Savannah is said to be the main character in this Novel, but the main character was actually John Berendt, he was the narrator and main character . He was a reporter from New York who made savannah and the people in Savannah his interest, his home, and his life. He learned all about this secluded city through observation, meetings, and gossip. He was an intelligent man who always knew where to be at the right time. There was this one scene in the book where he was having an interview with Jim Williams when Danny Hansford walked in, in a tirade, with a shirt on that said F-U on it. Well earlier that day his other friend Joe Oldem had been talking about this strange man who woke up in his bed with that same thing printed on his shirt. John was in the right place at the right time to put two and two together. Jim Williams was the other major character in this book, he was an antique dealer who owned one of the nicest homes in Savannah. He was a major ... ... job at it. The strongest features of the book was the way he described the people and the city as being one, The weakest part of the book was that the actually story of the murder didn’t start until the second part of the book. If I was the author I would probably incorporate more of the murder story line into the first part of the book and introduce the character’s throughout the whole book not just the first part ( the book was separated into a part 1 and part 2).   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  The ending of Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil was very satisfactory, Jim was found not guilty of Danny Hansfords’s death. Jim threw his first Christmas party of the year for the first time in 8 years, where he found himself remaking the guest list. Then at the very end he died, I believe that it was ideal for him to die, it was uncanny though that he died in the same place that he would of died 8 years ago if Danny had shot and killed him like he intended too. After Jim’s death Savannah was still the same. It was growing inward away from the real world, living in its own. The book starts with the town and ends with the town and I found that to be very satisfactory.

Frogs :: essays research papers fc

Frogs are needed for everyday life. They are part of pond life. Each animal is important because even in the pond, there is a food chain. Frogs are amphibians, animals that spend half of their lives under water, and remainder on land. The first frog appeared in the early Jurassic period about 200 million years ago.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Frogs live on every continent except Antarctica, but tropical regions have the largest amount. Like all amphibians, frogs spend half their lives near water because they must return to the water to lay their eggs. Frogs live underwater mostly when the are growing up to be an adult frog and when they are laying their eggs. When they hatch under water they are tadpoles and the breath with gills and swim using a tail. As they mature they loose their tail and they develop to be able to breathe air. During an extensive period of heat, a drought, frogs can enter a period of damancy similar to hibernation called starvation. Most of the frogs live in tropical and semitropical regions, most species of frogs breed in the spring or in early summer. Although the different species my vary in size and color, mostly all frogs have basic body structure. They have large hind legs, short front legs and flat head and body with no neck.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Most frogs have teeth only on their upper jaw. Toads swallow their prey in one piece. To aid in the swallowing process, the frog’s eyes sink through the openings in the skull and force the food down its throat. Frogs eat insects, catching them with their long sticky tongue. They also eat small fish and worms. They also absorb concentrate to make them stronger, and toxins (poisonous substances) in their fatty tissues.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Since the 1980’s scientists have noted the decline of many frog species. People do not know for certain what has caused these declines. A possible factor is pollution, disease, habitat destruction, and acid rain. Another factor may be the thinning of the earth’s protective ozone layer, which allows more harmful ultraviolet radiation from the sun to reach the earth. Because frogs have thin, moist skin and an aquatic tadpole stage, they are easily affected by pollution and changes in the environment.

Friday, July 19, 2019

Free Color Purple Essays: The Power of Women :: Color Purple Essays

The Power of Women in The Color Purple   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Despite the odds women can overcome all obstacles.   In the past, women have desperately struggled because they were belittled by men.   They were thought of as ignorant beings that only knew how to manage housework.   In The Color Purple, by Alice Walker, sexism was interrelated in the novel.   Throughout the story, several women were extremely mistreated by men.   Their experiences were considered trivial because they were always subordinated to them.   Through the collection of letters that Celie wrote, the reader could see the development of a frightened young woman who had little regard for herself and of another, Shug, who struggled to become a successful woman.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   In fact, Celie nearly struggled for her happiness her entire life.   When she was only a little girl, her stepfather sexually abused her.   He then sold her to a man named Mr. ____ who had no intention of loving her, â€Å"No matter what I’m thinking.   No matter what I feel.   It just him† (Walker 69).   Mr. ____ verbally and physically abused her.   He expected her to manage all the housework and demanded that she took care of his kids, â€Å"They look at me there struggling with Mr.____ children† (Walker 45).   If Celie refused, she was punished.   Through all these traumatizing events, Celie lost respect for herself and forgot how to love.   Her life was full of darkness without a single trace of light.   However, Celie met a woman named Shug who gave her the courage to fight for what she believed in.   Shug taught her how to laugh and play and showed Celie a whole new perspective of life.   Shug constantly reminded Celie to speak out if something was bothering her and to not do anything that she did not feel like doing, â€Å"†¦say whatever come to mind, forgit about polite† (Walker 75).   Cel ie was no longer afraid of Mr. ____.   She stopped doing housework and left the dwelling to start her own business, â€Å"You a lowdown dog is what’s wrong.   It’s time to leave you and enter into the Creation.   And your dead body just the welcome mat I need† (Walker 207).   She realized that women do not need men to survive because they can manage on their own.   Celie was a brand new woman.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Moreover, Shug was a successful and powerful woman.   She was a desirable blues singer who was creative and smart.

Thursday, July 18, 2019

High School Start Times

Abstract The debate of what time should high school start has been at large over the past couple decades. Some schools are willing to try the later start time and some are not. Research and studies of schools that start later have proven many positive opportunities for high school students. The later start times will help reduce the risk of sleep deprivation, depression, and other health concerns amongst teens. It will also help reduce absences, increase their school performance, and allow students to get the recommended amount of sleep that their bodies need.My sources include case studies of schools that have tried the later time and research of teenager sleep patterns. As children get older their school time starts earlier every few years. Elementary school’s average a start time around 9:45 a. m. , middle school at 8:00 a. m. , and high school at 7:30 a. m. However, as children get older they usually stay up later because if technology and their bodies being capable of sta ying awake longer resulting in a lesser amount of sleep than is required.With delaying the start time for high school students there is the opportunity to improve grades, reduce the risk of depression, and reduce the risk of sleep deprivation. The issue of school start times has been moiled over for many years now. Schools that have always started early may be skeptical to switching their start time even though research has proved that later start times can be beneficial to the students. Once schools try a later start time for a period of time many keep it because it has so many positive opportunities for the high school students.The later start time not only has proved positive amongst the students, but also among the parents. One study conducted in the Minneapolis School district surveyed and found that, after one year, 92% of parents indicated that they preferred the later start times (2004). Many people are skeptical at first of the switch but if you look at the research and stu dies done, it is obvious that the benefits far outweigh the negatives of a later start time. As stated, when children get older they tend to stay awake longer however they do not understand that they are at risk of sleep deprivation.Sleep deprivation is an overall lack of the necessary amount of sleep. When kids have sleep deprivation they have symptoms that include but are not limited to impairments in mood, attention and memory, behavior control, quality of life, lower academic performances and decreased motivation to learn (2010). Children don’t understand the results of staying up the extra hour to watch a television show or play a video game. The effects are potentially much worse than just everyday mood and academic performance. Sleep deprivation can also cause kids to become unhealthier.This results in an increased risk of weight gain, lack of exercise, and lack of stimulants. Overall, sleep deprivation could cause children to potentially ruin their school career which could affect their future chances of getting into college. The easy argument to avoid sleep deprivation is to make kids go to bed earlier. However, today children have more video games, televisions, and phones in their bedrooms than prior years making it much harder for kids to go to sleep once in their room. The average teenager will stay up for an additional hour every night causing them to lose a total of one night’s sleep over a period of a week (2012).Telling your children to go to bed earlier and even making them get into their beds won’t force them to go to sleep due to modern technology. Also, studies on adolescent sleep patterns show that for biological reasons, teenagers generally cannot go to sleep earlier than 11 p. m. (1999). This also makes it quite difficult for teens to get in bed early enough to sleep the required amount for optimal health and wellness, which is between 8 to 10 hours, especially when the students have to wake up and be at school so ea rly.By pushing school back an hour would allow students to have a better chance of decreasing their chance of getting sleep deprivation. Starting an hour or two later than the average start time would allow high school students to get a full night sleep, thus affecting their overall performance in school and enabling them to make better grades. Evidence has shown that adequate sleep improves performance on a variety of tests of memory, concentration, problem solving and attention, as well as reducing depression and irritability (2004).When allowing children to have a full night sleep it sets them up for future endeavors and is more realistic of a schedule compared to the average adult having a nine to five job. This would be an ideal way to get them in a routine for life outside of school and provide ample opportunity to do better in school. When making the change from starting school from the original start time to an hour later there would be several changes a family could have to make to their everyday schedule.While kids who have the opportunity to take the bus to school should not be inconvenienced by the time change it would affect those who live outside the school district. For these children who have to get a ride to school every day may need to find an alternate mode of transportation due to their parents work schedule. Also parents with non-regular schedules may have to find alternative modes of transportation for their kids. This could also become an inconvenience if there are no friends or family available to help to transport.Changing the start time may become a hassle for the parents and making it almost impossible to get their kids to school on time. While most kids do well in school, generally it is those who study harder that have the better grades. While studying harder could be an answer to getting better grades, as it has been proven, studying harder won’t make kids focus and concentrate better in school. If students could take in mo re information during class, it would result in a better understanding of school lessons and conclude to a better academic performance.Being late to the first class of the day or even missing it completely is something that occurs frequently amongst high school students. Missing that first class can hurt a child’s grade and GPA which is very important during high school. Starting school later, even a half hour later, will allow students an adequate amount of time to get themselves ready and be at school on time. Teachers from a Rhode Island school who tried the later school time reported a 36% decrease in absences or tardiness for the first class of the day (2010).Dr. Robert Vorona said â€Å"Beyond the impact on driving, early start times probably affect other areas calling for research on how they affect teenagers’ moods, tardiness, and academic performance (Holohan, 2013). † Many studies and researchers have proved that having early school start times increas es the amount of absences and tardiness amongst the students. Thus by delaying the start time will reduce the number of students tardy or absent and also allow them to have a better chance of passing their early morning classes.Some people might think that being absent or late is the fault of the student or their parent. They may think that students should still be able to wake up and get to school on time even with an early school time. Many factors play into this though. Students could have fallen asleep late making it difficult to wake up, missed their alarm, or even missed the bus because of waking up late. Some students have parents who are already at work when they wake up to get ready in the morning. Not having a parent at home in the morning can be ough on a child and make it difficult for them to get out of bed. This makes it very easy for a child to sleep in and miss class. It is easy to say that students should get to school on time but there are many different factors th at go into a morning routine that allow, or don’t allow, students to make it to school on time. During high school, students are more likely to experience some type of depression due to relationships, athletics, schoolwork, etc. A major contributor to depression would be having a lack of sleep.A school in Providence Rhode Island tested students when they started school at 8:00 and when they started at 8:30. They found that by having an extra half hour of sleep the number of students that had depression decreased a significant amount from 66% to 45%. Judy Owens, who conducted the study, stated â€Å"A modest start time delay was associated with a significant increase in self-reported sleep duration and a decrease in a number of daytime sleepiness. Perhaps more importantly, students rated themselves as less depressed and more motivated to participate in a variety of activities† (2010).Depression can weigh a kid down and not allow them to do well in school. It is importan t for high school students to get their sleep because about 50% of high school students can drive. A study was done between two high schools that had an hour and twenty minute difference in start time. The school that started later had 41% less crashes than the school that started earlier. The researchers concluded that the students from the school which started earlier were sleep deprived and resulted in them driving more recklessly than the students who started school later.When looking at driving compared to sleep it becomes a more serious issue and this is because there are other people’s lives at risk other than the person who is sleep deprived. Not only does this issue of school start time greatly influence a student’s education but more importantly it plays a factor in their physical wellbeing as they drive to school each morning. A small private high school in Providence, Rhode Island conducted a pilot study that confirms many of the benefits of delayed school start times. A study conducted by Judy Owens, MD, a sleep expert with Hasbro Children’s Hospital had the school delay their normal start time, 8 a. . , to a new start time of 8:30 a. m. The study also had students, with parent permission, participate in an e-mail survey that would help to measure the sleep patterns and behaviors of the students. The study showed that students across all grades (9 to 12) had an average increase of 45 minutes of sleep per night. It also showed significant decreases in the students who felt that they â€Å"rarely/never† got enough sleep, which was 69% to 34%, and significant decreases in the students who felt that they â€Å"never† were satisfied with their sleep, which was 37% to 9%.The study also found other health related issues and how a later start time can decrease those problems. The school had a significant decrease from 66% to 45% of students who felt depressed. The health center at the school reported a drop from 15% to 5 % of fatigued-related complaints and a 56% decrease in requests for â€Å"rest passes. † The teachers also reported that there was a 36% reduction in absences or tardiness for the first class of the day. This Rhode Island study is one of many that have found many benefits to a later school start time for high school students (2010).If you agree that school start times should be later then you can, and should, get involved. There is a website call Start School Later (www. startschoollater. net) that is all about how to get schools to start later and why they should start later. Their mission is â€Å"Start School Later is a coalition of health professionals, sleep scientists, educators, parents, students, and other concerned citizens dedicated to increasing public awareness about the relationship between sleep and school hours and to ensuring school start times compatible with health, safety, education, and equity. They have an immediate goal of trying to present our national petition to legislate a minimum earliest start time to decision-makers in Washington, DC. The Start School Later group also has four long term goals: Advocate for legislation to ensure evidence-based school hours at the national, state and local level. Provide support and guidance to local communities working for later school start times. Serve as an information clearinghouse by collecting and consolidating information and data about school start times and efforts to change them.Build public understanding about the relationship between sleep, school start times, and physical, psychological, and educational well-being. To get involved with the Start School Later campaign, go to their website and sign the petition or donate to the cause. If you would like to become more knowledgeable about the effects of school start times on students and how later times are beneficial, you may also visit their page and read facts and statistics that researchers have found and read success stories of schools that have already started their schools at a later time.There are many positive opportunities that can occur from starting school later. Students have the opportunities to improve their grades, reduce their risk of depression, reduce their risk of sleep deprivation, and many other positive outcomes that will be a result of the extra amount of sleep students may get because of the later school start time. Many schools have switched to a later start time and have found many benefits for the students because of it. If this growing number of schools have already pushed back their start times and experienced the numerous benefits from it, then why hasn’t this become a standard on a national level yet?References â€Å"All About Sleep. † KidsHealth – the Web's most visited site about children's health. N. p. , n. d. Web. 31 Oct. 2012. . Build our school schedules on sleep. (2004, Feb 22). Lansing State Journal. Retrieved from http://search. proquest. com. prox y. davenport. edu/docview/438903324? accountid=40195 Dubocovich, Margarita L. , et al. â€Å"The impact of school daily schedule on adolescent sleep. † Pediatrics June 2005: 1555+. Expanded Academic ASAP. Web. 28 Oct. 2012. Holohan, Ellin. â€Å"Earlier School Start Times Endanger Teen Drivers. † Teen Driving. Ed.Michele Siuda Jacques. Detroit: Greenhaven Press, 2013. At Issue. Rpt. from â€Å"Early School Start Times May Raise Risk of Teen Car Crashes. † 2010. Gale Opposing Viewpoints In Context. Web. 28 Oct. 2012. â€Å"Insufficient sleep and early school start times contribute to teenage health issues. † Chattanooga Times/Free Press [Chattanooga, TN] 30 Mar. 2012. General Reference Center GOLD. Web. 28 Oct. 2012. â€Å"Later School Start Times May Foster Better Students; High school pushed back start of day by 30 minutes, with good results. † Consumer Health News [English] 5 July 2010.Health Reference Center Academic. Web. 28 Oct. 2012. â€Å"L ater school start times may improve sleep in adolescents and decrease risk of auto accidents. †   NewsRx Health  (Jan 4, 2009):   164. Nursing Resource Center. Gale. Davenport University. 28 Oct. 2012 Moon, Mary Ann. â€Å"More data back value of later school start times. (CHILD/ADOLESCENT)(Report). †   Clinical Psychiatry News  38. 10   (Oct 2010):   23(1). Nursing Resource Center. Gale. Davenport University. 28 Oct. 2012 â€Å"New study confirms positive effects of delayed school start times. † Health & Medicine Weekly 19 July 2010: 1.Print. â€Å"Physician continues to push for later school start times. †Ã‚  Northwest Florida Daily News  [Fort Walton Beach, FL] 18 Nov. 2010. General Reference Center GOLD. Web. 28 Oct. 2012. â€Å"Research Finds High School Students May Get Better Grades If They Get More Sleep†¦ † Health and Wellness 1 (1999): n. pag. Davenport University. Web. 31 Oct. 2012. â€Å"Start School Later – About Us. †Ã‚  Start School Later – About Us. N. p. , n. d. Web. 10 Dec. 2012. Teen sleep: Why is your teen so tired? – MayoClinic. com. † Mayo Clinic. N. p. , n. d. Web. 30 Oct. 2012.

Wednesday, July 17, 2019

How I Learned to Sweep by Julia Alvarez Essay

1. In which form is the verse write (for example, is it a sonnet? destitute verse? Lyric song This verse form was written in 1996 in a conventional style form. The metrical composition has 39 lines.2. What is the setting and social context of the metrical composition?The setting and social context of this metrical composition is in America in the mid(prenominal) 90s when the war in the Far East was going on as it is stated in the poem. It takes mail in her home or flatcar or wherever she stays. She is living with her mummy because her mammary gland orders her to sweep the floor. 3. Does the poem pose a rhyme scheme? If so, what is it? The poem doesnt really demonstrate a rhyme scheme. It is written in a pretty straight forward matter. 4. evidence out any similes that you encounter in the poem. How do they stand to the boilers suit nub of the poem? at that place ar some(prenominal) similes present in the poem. One is when her contract says she wants to be up to (p) to eat dinner off that table. She was implying to her daughter that the floor was dreary and that it needed to be clean. It was indirectly said. some other simile is when it says, Her floor was as clean as a just process dinner plate (Line 13). This implied that she had cleaned the floor so good that it was as clean as a clean dinner plate. another(prenominal) simile was when it said, I watched a 12 of them die- as if their dust fell by the screen (Line 29).This implied that the violence that she was witnessing on video recording was so brutal and affected her that she matte up that she had to clean intemperateer. To get rid of the move dust that she imagined. All these contributed to the overall kernel of the poem because it makes you be able to heap some of the scenes and events that stool be unverbalized to understand if they werent written in that way. 5. layer out any metaphors that you have in the poem. How do they contribute to the overall means of the poem? The metaphors that were in the poem were the same as the similes. They contribute to the overall importee of the poem because without metaphors one would not be hooked to what they are reading. toilsome to imagine what the rootage is talking near is crucial when writing poetry, as it is ordinarily a short piece and olive-sized instances of events that happen. 6. Point out any instances of embodiment that you find in the poem. How do they contribute to the overall essence of the poem? The completely instance of personification that I can find in this poem is when her mom inspects the carry and says that she did a good job.Her fine words were Thats beautiful. There is not much personification in this poem otherwise. Personification contributes to the overall meaning of the poem because when you are referencing someone or something that is of importance it is important to tie that to something else that resembles that importance. 7. Point out any imagery that you find in the poem. How do they contribute to the overall meaning of the poem? There are many examples of imagery in the poem. When referencing to the war and how she swept harder and faster after imaginativeness the soldiers dead ashes coming through her TV screen. Much of the imagery found in the poem was the same that was found in the simile and metaphor.They contribute to the overall meaning of the poem because without imagery one could not relate to a poem. It would be very difficult. With so many examples of imagery in this poem I was really able to imagine the outcome and overall meaning of the poem. 8. Are there other instances of metonymic language that you see (metonymy, synecdoche, symbols, archetypes)? Discuss. After looking for over the poem several time there were no other instances of figurative language that I could see. 9. Who is the speaker in the poem?What is the significance of the person who is talk? The speaker in the poem is the author. It is written in first person. I count the fact that the speaker is the author makes it to a greater extent real and personable. The story is probably something that the author experienced first hand. It makes it harder to write about someone or something when you havent experienced it first hand. 10. What is your personal reply to what happens in the poem? My personal reaction to what happens in the poem is good. I conjecture she learned a lesson of hard work and doing what you are told. There are batch out there serving our bucolic and making sure we are synthetic rubber and we should do our part to work hard and be good citizens.Works CitedAlvarez, Julia, How I Learned to Sweep. Approaching Literature. Ed. gumshoe Schakel and jack Ridl. Boston Bedford/St. Martins, 2008. 650