Jon Kabat-Zinn Essay Example

Jon Kabat-Zinn Essay Jon Kabat-Zinn, in his most recent book: Coming to Our Senses: Healing Ourselves and the Mind Through Mindfulness is an important addition to the concept of self discovery. In an age when more and more people are looking for the all healing â€Å"self help book,† Kabat-Zinn offers a  more serious and scholarly look at the benefits of meditation, motivation, mindfulness and the ability to use them in every day life, not just to avoid stress in one’s life, but to reach a higher plain of understanding that is beyond what society has trained our minds to absorb every day. Kabat-Zinn teaches the reader to retrain their mind and to erase the years of harmful conditioning that many in the West have experienced. Kabat-Zinn brings together the many understandings of the self, not just from the Buddhist definitions but uses Western thinkers as well as cites them in his arguments. Some of his favorite Western sources included Einstein and Henry David Thoreau to name only a few. In the end, a book is most successful when the reader can take away from the work of the author, something of practical use in their life. Coming to Our Senses is one such book. In the areas of conflict  and conflict resolution, empathy, mindfulness, meditation and the authenticity of one’s self, Coming to Our Senses offers a helpful guide and reminder of what one can truly be when they allow their mind to be relaxed, void of any outside factors and to let it roam free from any such impediments. Only then can the self become alive and be allowed to roam free and which will help the individual to reach their full potential in all of the above mentioned categories. One of the most important points that Kabat-Zinn includes in his book is the concept of meditation. He defines meditation as: â€Å"a way of being, or, you could say, a way of seeing, a way of knowing, even a way of loving.†[1] In much of this chapter in meditation, Kabati-Zinn tries to dispel the common myths and misunderstandings about meditation which are so very common in Western thought. The growth of yoga and other alternative ways in which to become mentally and spiritually well, it has made some progress in pealing away the erroneous assumptions about meditation. In the event that the reader is not aware of this recent growth, Kabat-Zinn repeats what meditation is not: â€Å"Meditation is not relaxation spelt differently†¦. Mindfulness is the embrace of any practice, pain, or anguish, or for that matter boredom or impatience of frustration or anxiety or tension in the body†¦Ã¢â‚¬ [2] Kabati-Zinn goes on to try to explain meditation as: â€Å"It is the non- clinging, and therefore the clear perceiving and the willingness to act appropriately within whatever circumstance are arising that constitute this way of being that we are calling meditation.†[3]   Kabati-Zinn repeats that meditation is not just the ability to flip a switch in the brain and somehow, one is in a perpetual state of meditation. This is a simplified and incorrect belief on meditation and one which is perpetuated by the media and the culture of the West. Kabat-Zinn has been credited with trying to bridge the gap between the Western and Eastern thought and through his series of books on meditation and the self, many believe, has come very close in achieving this most lofty goal. We will write a custom essay sample on Jon Kabat-Zinn specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now We will write a custom essay sample on Jon Kabat-Zinn specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer We will write a custom essay sample on Jon Kabat-Zinn specifically for you FOR ONLY $16.38 $13.9/page Hire Writer My personal experience on meditation, I used to think, was relatively new. In a sense, I was enjoying the benefits of meditation without making a conscious effort to be meditating. This seems to be the reality of many people in America. Americans are now busier now then at any time in history. Despite having more cost and time saving appliances at our disposal than ever before, Americans have used these inventions to actually make people busier today than in the past. This, often times, leads to stress and therefore the need for periods of meditation are that much more important. Even as a teenager, I enjoyed being busy and productive but could not cope with my every day requirements and needs unless, at some time during that day, I was alone with my thoughts. Quiet walks at night, regardless of the weather, in which the events of the day are summed up and reflected upon, was always an essential part of my day. I discovered that those days in which I felt that I did not have the time for such things, I end up being more irritable and made careless decisions in the coming days. The positive effect of meditating on the events of the previous day or week and attempting to group them in a passive and indirect way, completely in tune with the guidelines of meditation, I found to be advantageous in every sense of the word. Therefore, not only is my opinion favorable towards the need for meditation, but I have seen it first hand in my own life and there existed a major difference in the level of happiness that I had when I made a habit of setting aside a portion of the day in which to meditate around my thoughts or more commonly, to just let my mind roam free; completely void of the numerous stimuli which often times, impedes one’s level of happiness in their daily lives. One of the next concepts which Kabat-Zinn covers in his book Coming to Our Senses is the idea of mindfulness. â€Å"Mindfulness meditation is most commonly taught and practiced within the context of Buddhism, its essence is universal†¦ Yet it is no accident that mindfulness comes out of Buddhism, which has as its overriding concerns, the relief of suffering and the dispelling of illusions.†[4] In this, Kabat-Zinn ties in the usefulness of mindfulness and meditation as it relates to the health and well being of the body and mind. In the introduction, Kabat-Zinn reminds the reader: â€Å"The journey towards health and sanity is nothing less than an invitation to wake up to the fullness of our lives as if they actually mattered.†[5] In a day when the cost of health care is skyrocketing and drug companies are charging insane amounts on single prescription doses; so much to the degree that often times, people have to chose between eating that day or taking one of the do zens of medications that their doctor has prescribed for them; not only for a month but many times, for the rest of their lives and as a result, placing the individual in a perpetual state of fiscal, mental and physical dependence upon an outside source other than one’s own mind. Kabat-Zinn teaches that through the preventative measure of defeating stress and in the pursuit of a deeper understanding of one’s own self, many of these diseases can be avoided. In each of the eight major sections of the Coming to Our Senses, Kabat-Zinn explores the many different areas of one’s ability to heal oneself. The power of the mind and the advantages of it being in a continued restful state, according to Kabat-Zinn, are advantageous on many different levels. In the spirit of this, Kabat-Zinn has developed an eight week program in which many of these issues are tackled. In 1979 I started a Stress Reduction Clinic. Thinking back to that era, I ask myself now, What stress? so much has our world changed since then, so much has the pace of life increased and the vagaries and dangers of the world come to our doorstep as never before. If looking squarely at our personal situation and circumstances and finding novel and imaginative ways to work with them in the service of health and healing was important then, it is infinitely more important and urgent now, inhabiting as we do a world that has been thrown into heightened chaos and speed in the unfolding of events, even as it has become far more interconnected and smaller.†[6] Its main focus is stress, the individual being able to identify it and to avoid its physical and mental dangers that stress can lead to in the individual. Kabat-Zinn also writes: â€Å"Thich Nhat Hanh, the Vietnamese Zen master, mindfulness teacher, poet, and peace activist, aptly points out that one reason we might want to pra ctice mindfulness is that most of the time we are unwittingly practicing its opposite. Every time we get angry we get better at being angry and reinforce the anger habit. When it is really bad, we say we see red, which means we dont see accurately what is happening at all, and so, in that moment, you could say we have lost our mind. Every time we become self-absorbed, we get better at becoming self-absorbed and going unconscious.†[7] This moves into the practical use of being mindful of one’s own self. This will become truer, I feel, once I get older but it is a well established fact that stress leads to a wearing down of the body and as a result, makes the individual more suspect able to sickness and disease. This is an opinion of Kabat-Zinn to which I completely concur with as I have experienced such events in my own life and as a result, with the help of Coming to Our Senses, is more likely to identify these stressors in my life and their effects upon my own life. One example of this would be the time in which I was studying for my finals during on particular semester. I had made the mistake of many of my classmates in the fact that the knowledge that the final would be comprehensive was told to us a full month before the final was to be administered. I had been careless in my preparation for these examinations and had not used my time wisely or effectively. As a result, and which millions of college students from around the world have experienced as well, I was stressed out and rushed during that last week leading up to finals.   I was worried about the marks that I would receive in these classes; all of which were difficult classes which did not deal with my subjects of familiarity. As a result, during that last week, I was short tempered, was prone to anger and did not have a complete control of my emotions and senses. However, what would be a more lasting effect would be the average marks which I received on my exams as well as being physically and mentally run down by the time the process was complete. I did not have a heart attack or suffer a mental breakdown; two of the more serious results of an overstressed life, but by the end of final’s week, and perhaps even in the middle of my exams, I felt sick and run down. I had experienced high levels of stress in my life which affected my sleep pattern. This in turn, affected my mental and physical state which resulted in receiving only average marks on my exam. This did not stop the worry and st ress in my life but perpetuated it as I now began to worry about how these low grades would impede my future academic career and if it would help to set the course for a less than stellar academic career. Within this experience, there are obvious elements of responsibility and the importance of planning but there will also occur in one’s own life, elements of stress which came about from no fault of the individual. In those instances as well as in situations which could have been avoided, being in touch with one’s mindfulness and knowing the role that it plays in one’s life, is not only helpful, but essential according to Kabat-Zinn, if the individual wishes to remain mentally and physically stable. Another main point of Coming to Our Senses by Jon Kabat-Zinn is the idea that successful meditation and mindfulness is not an easy process which many believe to be so. This is an all important process which requires constant attention and effort on the part of the individual. If the book could be summed up in three words, they would have to be: â€Å"Stop, look and listen!† as these are repeated in Coming to Our Senses.   Successful meditation, despite there existing more knowledge on the subject than ever before in the West, is met with more hurdles and challenges than ever before as there are more stressors and competitors for an individual’s time than ever before. In one of the most important and insightful passages in the book, Kabat-Zinn gives what may seem to be a simple recipe for contentment but is really a profound statement and one which many people will try but fail to truly achieve: â€Å"So, from the point of view of awareness, any state of mind is a med itative state. Anger or sadness is just as interesting and useful and valid to look into as enthusiasm or delight, and far more valuable than a blank mind, a mind that is insensate, out of touch. Anger, fear, terror, sadness, resentment, impatience, enthusiasm, delight, confusion, disgust, contempt, envy, rage, lust, even dullness, doubt, and torpor, in fact all mind states and body states are occasions to know ourselves better if we can stop, look, and listen, in other words, if we can come to our senses and be intimate with what presents itself in awareness in any and every moment.†[8] When this is realized and understood, the individual possesses a profound advantage over his neighbor who does not realize that often times, people are their worst enemy. When one is able to listen to one’s own self to a greater degree, than that same individual cannot help but listen to others more deeply in the process. This is very helpful in conflict and conflict resolution. Often times, disputes between individuals or even entire countries, can come from an inability or unwillingness to fully listen to the other side. All over the world, disputes are beginning and often times, will have lasting effects, all because the individuals involved were not willing to listen to the other side. Kabat-Zinn, when talking about the importance of mindfulness, states: â€Å"By the same token, it has an equal capacity to influence the larger world within which we are seamlessly embedded, including our family, our work, the society as a whole and how we see ourselves as a people, what I am calling the body politic, and the body of the world, of all of us together on this planet. And all this can come about through your own experience of the practice of mi ndfulness by virtue of that much embedded ness and the reciprocal relationships between inner and outer, and between being and doing.†[9] It is important and many would say, self-evident that one recognizes the importance that mindfulness has, not only with then individuals involved, but in relation to the conflicts which currently plague the world. In the same way, one who implements these practices into their own daily lives, will have a greater sense of empathy towards others. Kabat-Zinn states: â€Å"See if you can give yourself gifts that may be true blessings, such as self-acceptance, or some time each day with no purpose. Practice feeling deserving enough to accept these gifts without obligation-to simply receive from yourself, and from the universe.[10] In this sense, people who respect themselves more, cannot help but respect others in the process. This also ties into the need for meditation as only in those quiet and personal times of soul searching can one free their minds in order to concentrate on their relationship with themselves and others. Through self evaluation, one can then be more readily available to possess empathy for others. Those who know nothing of themselves and their senses, cannot hope to learn and communicate the hurts of others in any consistent and successful way. This, at least, has been my exp erience. Stress and an individual’s inability to know one’s self, is at the root of many problems, both mentally and physically, internally and externally, within a community and the world. Stress leads to a disconnect from the senses as well as the inability to listen to the needs of one’s own mind and body. Kabat- Zinn writes in Coming to Our Senses as a fitting summation: â€Å"But for the particular exploration we will be undertaking together in these pages and in our lives, I find it is both useful and illuminating to draw upon the work of those special people on our planet who devote themselves to the language of the mind and heart that we call poetry.†[11] In the same way some of the great navigators explored the world or how scientists explore aspects of this world which will forever remain a mystery to the lay observer, it is thus, equally important for the individual to explore their own mind through meditation and mindfulness. This will not occur overnig ht and the process is much more arduous than popular culture may lead the individual to believe. However, Kabat-Zinn believes, that those who seek the truth within their own mind and who implement mind-body therapies within their own lives, will not only have an advantage over those who do not, but will be able to communicate on a higher plane with those who practice similar techniques and thus,   will come to a deeper understanding of one’s own self as the true ability of each individual’s five separate senses. In order to achieve this, constant and consistent effort on the part of the individual is required. However, Kabat-Zinn believes that the effort is easily worth the reward.

Literacy Linguistic Usage

Literacy Linguistic Usage The concept of language is a complex one; it has been long ago discovered to be not isolated from the communicative situations and individual differences of speakers. The linguistic discourse has hence become a subject of close scrutiny, and the socio-cultural, individual, institutional and other implications of language usage have come to the forefront of scientific attention.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Literacy Linguistic Usage specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The connection of language, identity, and social practices of individuals has to be studied in the whole complicity of their revelations in the overall discursive essence. There is much empirical evidence nowadays on how identity is reflected through language, and on the ways language becomes and indispensible part of the human social practices and experiences. There are also findings on how the connection between language and identity can be used to enh ance language learning and acquiring linguistic proficiency. The article of Joseph (2006) summarizes the main ideas of how language has become a useful tool in both expressing one’s identity and evaluating the identities of other people on the basis of their language usage peculiarities. Joseph (2006) emphasizes the fact that language is now used more in the function of representation than communication, and that the transformation derives from the cultural and individual diversity of speakers evident nowadays. One more useful finding of Joseph (2006) is that the conventional vision of realization of only national identity in language is now actively debated because of the need to take into consideration the individual contribution every person makes into the linguistic usage and identity formation as well as realization through linguistic means. The opinion about language representing identity in action is shared by Lane (2009); the researcher has made this conclusion based on the results of the survey conducted with two immigrant Finnish groups residing on the territory of Canada.Advertising Looking for essay on linguistics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Their national identities reflected through language turned out identical, but the social practices they implied by language usage differed substantially, thus making them distinct. Therefore, individual identity becomes a significant component of linguistic usage patterns and is reflected though symbolic attributes in linguistic practices worldwide. Language is also based on identity realization through the individual practices and experiences, both within the language learning and usage framework and beyond it. This point can be well illustrated by the work of Darville (2009) proving that true literacy in language learning can be acquired only in case when learned items can be tied to the learners’ real life experience. It m eans that literacy should be perceived as practice, with the language representing a social construct that is exercised in the context of learners’ lives, perceptions, opinions and feelings (Darville, 2009). Another finding in the field of tying the learning process to the students’ identity is provided by Hamilton (2009) – the author investigates the role of individual educational plans, and the role of teacher as a mediator formulating the plan according to the students’ educational needs, ambitions, and state requirements. Another powerful work on the significance of identity considerations in language studies has been provided by Atwood (2007) – it is an account of the Nunavit training camp in which Indigenous women were taught their ethnicity, traditions, customs and crafts. At the same time, they were taught literacy, which was hard for teachers because of lack of self-esteem and understanding of the literacy’s importance for Nunavit w omen. It became possible to engage the camp participants in learning to write and read only when the parallel between their customs and literacy was drawn, making them realize the power knowledge could give them (Atwood, 2007). The author finally makes a conclusion that identity is a part of people that defines their paths, and the Nunavit historical context of oppression and traumatic educational experiences are also barriers in learning hard to overcome within knowing the history of each particular group.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Literacy Linguistic Usage specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More Finally, it is vital to apply the findings on the relationships between language and identity in the practical sphere of learning and teaching languages. The serious step forward was made by Fairbairn and Fox (2009) who outlined the major barriers in studying English for immigrants and non-citizens in Canada and the USA, an d marked the regressive attitude towards their cultural, social and individual identity taken by the North American governments. Their account shows how seriously the distinction in understanding and learning English is revealed by immigrants becoming victims of standardized and unified principles of learning and assessment. The set of key changes needed to restore the adequate access to English learning for non-English speakers is provided on the basis of identity, social background, and individual peculiarities’ considerations. This account proves that identity reveals itself in speaking one’s native language, and at the same time in learning a foreign language as well. The topic of learning a language being indisputably connected with social practices is pursued by Alderson (2006) in his overview of the diagnostic testing type and its role in the adequate language testing. The author makes the specific emphasis on the fields of knowledge tested by diagnostic and oth er tests, making a conclusion that the diagnostic test is of particular importance in language testing, providing the framework for assessment of the way students may apply their language knowledge, their reflection of knowledge obtained etc. Because of the long time it takes to take the test, and lack of facilities for testing at educational establishments, the diagnostic test is not popular with teachers; however, it possesses the highest potential in multi-faceted testing and adequate assessment of knowledge farther from the formalistic, unified testing types that do not reveal the true knowledge of students.Advertising Looking for essay on linguistics? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Drawing a conclusion from the present set of articles, one has to note the close, organic relationship existing between human identity, experience and language (often realized through human literacy). On finding out that relationship, researchers and practitioners in the field of linguistics have obtained a set of tools to assess the impact of identity on language usage, to identify the most constructive experience-based methods of learning and assessment. In addition, nowadays literacy linguistic usage are obtaining social significance, so the application of various communicative means as well as their choice by speakers may add much useful data for the applied linguistic research, and enrich the modern vision about the discussed relationship and its causes. References Alderson, J.C. (2006). Diagnosing Foreign Language Proficiency: the Interface between Assessment and Learning. London (UK): Continuum. Atwood, M. (2007). The Alphabet of Hope. Writers for Literacy. United Nations Edu cational, Scientific and Cultural Organization. Darville, R. (2009). Literacy as practices, teaching as alignment: A message in a bottle. Literacies, No. 10, pp. 14-18. Fairbairn, S.B., Fox, J. (2009).Inclusive Achievement Testing for Linguistically and Culturally Diverse Test Takers: Essential Considerations for Test Developers and Decision Makers. Educational Measurement: Issues and Practice, Spring 2009, pp. 10-24. Hamilton, M. (2009). Putting words in their mouths: the alignment of identities with system goals through the use of Individual Learning Plans. British Educational Research Journal, Vol. 35, No. 2, pp. 221–242. Joseph, J.E. (2006). Identity and Language. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, pp. 486-492. Lane, P. (2009). Identities in action: a nexus analysis of identity construction and language shift. Visual Communication 8(4), pp. 449-468.

The Strategic Position of E-Bay Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

The Strategic Position of E-Bay - Essay Example In the end, this report recommends that eBay develop and implement a business to business exchange. The success and even the mere survival of a business organization are strongly linked to its ability of utilizing its core competencies in crafting an efficient strategy as a response to the trends and challenges in its business environment. The phenomenal success of eBay is one of the most documented dotcom stories as it features the specific factors that an online retailer needs in order to survive. However, with the maturity of its market, the online auction store is threatened by a market slowdown and other environmental pressures (Thomson, Strickland, and Gamble 2006). Thus, the organization needs to put in place a strategy which can bolster its growth. The financial situation of eBay can be best understood by using an annual statement analysis which considers the trend and the significant financial ratios of the business organization. Appendix 1 highlights the computed financial ratios of eBay based on the audited annual report that it filed in the SEC during 2005. During 2005, eBay generates total revenue of $4.55 billion, a double digit growth of 39% from the 2004 level. Of this, 82% accounts for gross profit, 32% translated into operating income, and 24% is recorded as net profit. eBay finances its resources with less risky equity. In fact, the company has a resource structure of 15:85 in favor of stocks. This implies that the online auction firm has a relatively smaller amount of interest obligation which it can easily pay with its huge income. The company can more than pay off its immediate obligation, having a current asset account which is more than twice its current liabilities. eBay, though, has a low return to equity of 11% (see Apendix 1). 3.2. Marketing Analysis The phenomenal success of eBay is directly linked to its efficient marketing strategy. The business organization segments its market according to their interests into six categories namely, bargain hunters, hobbyist and collector buyers, professional buyers, casual sellers, hobbyist and collector sellers, and power and corporate sellers (Thomson, Strickland,& Gamble 2006). Being an online operator, eBay has succeeded to provide a user friendly website with unique features to make buying and selling easier and more convenient to customers. As a global player, eBay captures each locale through the use of customized platform that reflects the unique culture, values, and language of each country (eBay 2007). The company succeeds in satisfying the needs and wants of its various customers through the provision of venue where buyers and sellers can find the items that they want with the price that

Remediation technologies Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Remediation technologies - Assignment Example The pests have become more resistant to the crop and caterpillars are growing at an alarming rate. The caterpillars have invaded farms in large numbers and their growth is making an ecological imbalance in the ecosystem. The sizes of caterpillars have drastically changed. Each caterpillar is now larger and more destructive. Attempts to spray them with chemicals have been futile as they are more resistant to pesticides. Farmers who adopted the crop now depend more on pesticides than ever before and in turn pollute the environment on a larger scale. The nation is facing shortage of food after the pests destroyed large tracks of corn. To try to rehabilitate the environment that is being destroyed it is important to withdraw the GMO corns from the fields and apply Monitored Natural attenuation (Direitos). This will control the modification of caterpillar genes and in turn control their numbers. The move will also reduce the use of pesticide and reduce the levels of pollution in the environment. This method is suitable since the impact is not so big and it is the cheapest in rehabilitation. The method also does not require a lot of attention allowing the community to proceed with other economic activities. Direitos, Terra de. In historic ruling, Brazilian court bans release of Bayer GM corn. 13 March 2014. 15 April 2014

Chilean Mine Collasp Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Chilean Mine Collasp - Essay Example for the public and those directly affected to attribute such unfortunate events to the negligence of the firm involved, delivering such a message can be instrumental in either supporting this opinion or denouncing it. If the firm chooses to deliver the message in a more personal way, especially to the families of the victims, it will seem more caring and compassionate rather than just wring a letter or an email. The same case may apply to the way the news are delivered to the other employees. As Gibson (2011) asserts, the bearer of the message is as important in determining how the message will be received as the way the message is delivered. In such a situation, leadership will be expected to be seen at sight and the message will need a senior person to deliver the news. If a junior employee or junior member of the management is used to deliver the message, the message may be taken less seriously and may also lead to people regarding the firm as uncaring, unconcerned and irresponsible. The need to have a senior member of the firm such as the CEO address the issue in a direct and personal manner, will be important in showing that the firm is concerned and that all necessary actions will be taken to contain the current situation as well as prevent such an incident from coming again. As soon as there is a designated person to communicate the message, the rest of the firm, especially the junior staff, should be instructed not to comment on the subject. This will be important to avoid the situation discussed above, and also to avoid contradicting reports that can make the firm to seem to be hiding something. Definitely, emotional and psychological support will be necessary to help the customers cope up with the bad news. A councilor or a psychiatrist may be needed to help in supporting these families, and make sure that they are able to take the news without having a major breakdown. More importantly, they will need to be clearly informed without hiding anything

An Analysis Of Glocalization And Social Welfare Politics Essay

An Analysis Of Glocalization And Social Welfare Politics Essay This term paper is on the topic Glocalization and Social Welfare. In this paper, the focus is what glocal means and how it works in the delivery or upholding social welfare. The term Glocal basically refers to the merging or blending of local and global forces: global in local or local in global: either way it refers to the forces of global and local acting together. By social welfare it is understood that it means something affecting the society, public goods as in something that the society needs or is affected by it. In the context of glocalization; social welfare is understood as how local and global actors or forces come together to uphold social welfare aspects like health, the people, the ecology, women and working class, specifically aiming towards the third world countries. This paper takes into account glocal forces as actors like NGOs and other organizations formed with the initiative of local and global forces to counter the ill effects of globalization on society and uph old social welfare from the local and in the global context. INTRODUCTION: To understand the concept of Glocalization, an understanding of globalization as a process is to be gained. Since glocalization has basically two positions, both defined by the concept of globalization. The two statuses of Glocalization are: Firstly, glocalization can be seen as a result of and an alternative to globalization, and secondly, it may also be referred to as an opposition to globalization. Since most of the scholars involved in explaining glocalization, has often taken the understanding that it emerged because of the grave problems and the negative impacts or consequences of the globalization process. Globalization as a process of integration and interconnectedness in terms of economic, social and political forces has led to various outcome. It has led to greater interaction among states and also led to the increase of non-state actors like transnational corporations and multinational corporations in the economic sector all around the world. And it also brought a decrease in the role of the state and led to the emergence and proliferation of a number of NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and non-state actors in the economic, political and social sectors which operated and had implications on the global and the local arena. Such interaction of the global and local forces is termed as glocalization, the interaction of local-level government with the state and the interaction of this state and its representation in the international/global arena is what glocalization captures. Glocalization basically refers to the interaction or a blending of the local forces with the global forces, or vice-versa, impacting and influencing the other sector. Glocalization in terms of the social aspect basically refers to the impact of globalization on social aspects such as culture, and also in terms of social welfare it relates to the forces involved in the matters of rights, education, women and children and also the ecology. Insecurity is what its based on; earlier insecurity existed only in military terms; of one country going into war with the other; however the concept of security and insecurity now deals with other sectors i.e. the non-traditional security relating to the environment and others. Globalization increa sing the interaction among nations and bringing about a homogeneous notion of culture, security and economy has now led to a proliferation in matters of insecurities. It has added more problems to the world today. Globalization and increasing economic interconnectedness was supposed to be directed towards the entire world contributing to world economy in order for everyone to be well off, however such economic accomplishments have only been diverted mostly towards the developed or the rich countries, thereby it is felt that globalization has increased the level of poverty mostly in the already poor developing or underdeveloped or undeveloped countries, especially the third world countries. When the arguments of the hyper globalists are taken we see that globalization was intended on creating one world, a homogeneous entity. Homogeneous in terms of economy, political and socio cultural aspects, glocalization on the other hand has been seen to emphasize heterogeneity; mainly in terms of culture the term associated would be Creolizaiton- referring to the evoking of cultural fusion and the emergence of new cultures across the globe. Other synonyms for glocalization of culture, and creolization would be mixture or hybridization. On cultural terms we see glocalization to stand contrary to what globalization advocates. One definition of glocalization to be noted is; Glocalization can be defined as an interpretation of the global and the local, resulting in unique outcomes of different geographic areas, it emphasizes global heterogeneity and tends to reject the idea of the West/ Americanization. The concept of glocalization is seen to be contrary to Modernization Theory, which dealt with issues of central concern in the West and the rest of the world to blindly follow the West. Tony Blair, Globalization as a process has been termed as an irreversible and an inevitable process: Bill Clinton, Globalization is not a policy choice, it is a fact. This shows that the west had too much faith in the process of globalization and its impacts. Therefore, it is here that glocalization provides for a critique and an alternative to the globalization, since globalization now is taken as an important process and many have ignored the problems caused by it, glocalization theorists point out to these problems and therefore formulate their idea of the concept that developed. Economically, glocalization would mean the local control of the economy and fair distribution locally. Technology and Information to be encouraged to flow when and where they could strengthen the local economies. The problems of globalization, first would be that with its idea of liberalization, increases the integration of markets and also increases interference. Colin Hines mentions that this leads to reduction of democratic controls over economic affairs, international competition leads to increases interference and therefore leads to erosion of social welfare standards and an environmental regulation with regard to international trade is lost. The burden basically falls on the third world developing countries. In this context what Hines suggests is localization, that is the seen as an alternative to the problems created by globalization, by localization, Hines means which reverses the trend of globalization by favoring the local. Why the critique of globalization emerged, was because with the principles of integration and interconnectedness globalization was to provide an overall development, that is development of countries all over the world, a global process of development was to foster growth in the economic, political and social sector of the entire nation states. However this was not so, instead it has been pointed out that there was a global rise in inequality, declining social and environmental conditions and a loss of power by the sovereign state, local governments and citizens and the major beneficiaries of these processes were the Transnational Corporations (TNCs) and the multinational corporations (MNCs), there was a sharp increase in underdevelopment and underpayment. In the 1 960s the income of the richest fifth of the worlds population were 30 times greater than that of the poorest fifth, and in 1991 it was over sixty times and the 1998 report by United Nations, it was seventy-eight times high. In the 1990s the International Labor Organization reported that one third of the worlds population were underemployed. The 1990 report by the International Labor Organization mentioned that one-third of the worlds population were underemployed.1 Globalization therefore was seen to have negative impacts on nation states, the gap between the rich and the poor were widening. Globalization stands for delocalizaiton i.e. displacement of activities which were local and turning it into a world-wide activities. Globalization stood for the lifting of social activities out of the local knowledge and placing them in networks in which they are conditioned by and condition world-wide events. The process of globalization stands for homogenization, where the processes around the world become one and the same for all the countries. Global actors or institutions like the TNCs engage themselves in different countries, however they do not totally bring about homogenization, certain companies do get involved and adapt to local conditions to maximize local demand for products and service and to minimize their chance of being discriminated against by trade and investment. This is known as Glocalization, defined as a companys attempt to become acc epted as a local citizen in a different trade bloc and little control is given to the area of strategic concern. On economic matters, due to globalization the delocalization gaps between the rich and the poor countries are widening. GLOCALIZATION AS A PROCESS: Glocalization involves the blending of the global and local forces. Its evolution was based on a Japanese term Dochakuka which meant the adoption of farming technique to ones local condition. In the business world the term actually mean global localization, according to Wordspy, glocalization refered to the creation of the products or services intended for the global market, but customized to serve the local cultures, in social sciences the term used or a synonym for glocalization is indigenization. 2 Ronald Robertson has been an important figure in the study of globalization. For him, globalization was not a recent phenomenon, it has existed as a part of the modernization theory, with its emphasis on convergence and homogenization (basically westernization), and he mentioned globalization as the interpenetration of the universalization of the particularization and the particularization of universalism. Globalization and glocalization was to be thought of as interdependent processes, Robertson argued that local and global instead of constituting analytical opposites locality can be regarded, with certain reservations, as an aspect of globalization. 3 Hines, Colin. 2000. Localization: A Global Manifesto, London: Earthscan. Khondker, Habibul.H. Glocalization as Globalization: Evolution of a Sociological Concept, Bangladesh e-journal of Sociology, Vol.1, No.2. July 2004. Eade, John. Living the global City: Globalization as a local process, Routledge Publ. Robertson mentions glocalization to be an accurate term to describe the global/local relationship. There exits the globalization of the locality and the localization of what is global. As such the processes are that of macro localization and micro globalization. Habib in his work Glocalization as Globalization: Evolution of a Sociological Concept, cites examples of such micro globalization and macro localization. For the former he cites the example of social movements like the feminist and the ecological movements which start in small local spaces and then gets expanded to a larger area, also a global arena. Contrary to this view of globalization and glocalization being interdependent processes is the view of the likes of Midgley, who view globalization to be harmful for local economies, as they undermine the role of the sovereign states and uphold the roles of corporations and also create unemployment and poverty in various parts of the world. They believe that globalization leads to a lack of accountability in the new emerging era and as increased economic forces and complex international relations make it difficult to identify the source of the problem, as such so assigning of little responsibility to nation state or companies for any harm that maybe inflicted upon society as a whole and therefore scholars prefer glocalization to enhance the social welfare of citizens. In the era of globalization the role of the state in the social arena is decreased and therefore glocalization here presents a potential to create new social actors and structures that are essentially local in spirit and global in character capable of responding to local social problems brought on by neglect of welfare state in a format backed by global insight and power. Philip Hong and In Han Song suggested development of a globalized social policy assisted by and international organization that together can establish and advocate a common set of solutions to increase global pressures and create opportunities for investing more in such things as education, employment and vital public services. Through this top-down approach of global forces acting at local levels, authors argue that glocalization of social work might offer a means for advancing local welfare and contribute the strength needed to comfort increasing complex global social problems more pronounced into the future. Glocalization and social welfare can be assessed through the analysis of civil society organizations and the Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs). Glocalization for social welfare through NGOs etc. means pressing for certain rights, protecting the local globally/from global to local/going local. Local government officials have been the most useful when they have supported local problem solvers. What Hines suggested was localization which mean de-globalization i.e. the reversal of the process of globalization, turning back everything under local control and local management, which now seems quite possible since globalization has been an age old phenomenon and has brought about innumerable changes which cannot be reversed, as it is difficult to reverse or its removal or reversal is undesirable since globalization has not only had negative effects but positive ones too. As such its reversal would not really be feasible. So glocalization serves as a suitable policy process, since it doe s not demand for a reversal of the globalized process but emphasizes the combined functioning of both the local and the global forces, neither complete globalization nor completes localization, it serves as a neutral policy, gaining from both aspects. It is said that glocalization provides for a blend of local and global forces and in the name of such a blend an example that can be cited is that of the United Nations (UN). The UN being an international/ global organization comprised of member countries from all over the world provides policies for social welfare sectors like that of health, education, environment, rights, the question of women and children and culture. The impact of UN policies are great, it looks into matters which have effect on local levels as well, citing example of the Millennium Development Goals(MDGs), formulated in terms of eradicating poverty, promoting proper health and education, ecological protection and others have been adopted by member nations and these MDGs have also been taken up on state level. According to Scholte, glocalization involves the formulations of certain rules and regulatory institutions for better governance of local agendas with respect to global matters. It is argued that the global governance institutions lack the kinds of formal accountability that national and local governments can provide. World bodies like Commonwealth, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) and the World Bank, they all lack popularly elected executive and therefore this hampers accountability. Insufficient accountability compromises most problems like poverty, inequality, environmental defense, disease and violence are not effectively addressed or eradicated. Therefore through civil society organizations help could be provided, however the sceptics argued such civil society organizations run by elites would further increase the problem of accountability. Contemporary society operates through global frames alongside social spaces. Along with local NGOs there also exists inter-regional associations like the European Union, Southern Common Market (MERCOSUR), ASEAN ( Association of South East Asian Nations), Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) which has been termed as the most developed interregional arrangement. Along with this there exists trans-localism, with groups like UCLG- United Cities and Local Governments, ICLEI, local governments for sustainability. Therefore global governance involves international institutes, inter-regional institutes and trans-local institutes, and good governance in this respect means that these institutes as actors are answerable for its action to the beneficiary for whom they are acting. Glocalization brings out the best in dealing with the local problems with tis reference to global issues though civil society. Such CSOs as human collectivity, people relate to one another on the basis of openness, tolerance, respect, trust and non-violence. Secondly, also a political space where citizens congregate to deliberate upon actual and prospective circumstances of their collective life. The qualities of civil society initiatives like peace movements, human rights advocates, advanced dignity of disabled persons, indigenous populations, outcasts, people of color, sexual minorities and women, citizen campaigns for animal rights and ecological integrity. Certain NGO staff members have represented several small island states in multilateral negotiations on climate change- in china and parts of Africa the relationship between civic groups and the state has sometimes been so close that the associations in question have been dubbed as GONGOs-Government organized NGOs. Some environmental organizations have held observer status in the body that oversees implementation of 1987 Montreal Protocol on substances that Deplete the Ozone Layer, the Codex Alimentarius Commission- a Rome based supra-state agency on world food standards and the International Organization have consulted global companies in the process of setting norms. Each country, the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child- has always received an alternative report from civic groups. By 1990, most major UN organs had established a special division for liaison with NGOs. Marrakesh Agreement establishing WTO provided for appropriate arrangements for consultation and cooperation with NGOS. Suggestions for proposals regarding a Peoples Assembly or chamber of companies to be created in the UN alongside General Assembly of States have been made. NGO forums exercised notable influence on declarations and programs of action at various UN sponsored global issue conferences of 1990s. New politics emerged when several civic groups channel important part of their efforts to shape official policy though supra-state agencies as through governments. This has been apparent in environmental regeneration, autonomy of indigenous people, position of women, opportunities for the disabled and world peace. E.g. Movement for the survival of the Ogoni people (MOSOP) created in 1990. MOSOP used support of trans-border environmental, religious, human rights organizations. In other words, it is possible in contemporary politics for grassroots groups to advance their causes though coalitions with NGOs, global governance agencies and even global companies. Two private sector policy makers have been influential in influencing many programs at low levels, these are namely: Ford Foundation and World Economic Forum. Ford Foundation established in 1936 to fund social programs in Michigan. Its funds and grants were to go to NGOs and were to be free from the scrutiny of the state governments. 1960s, ford foundation played a major role in educating development economists, promoting Green Revolution in agriculture, sponsoring population control programs and linking environment and development policies. World Economic Forum, was launched in 1971 was instrumental in launching the Uruguay Round of World Trade negotiations and helped forge links between local and global capital in China, India, Latin America and Russia and post-apartheid South Africa. World Economic Forum also addressed inter-state conflicts with conciliation attempts in affairs as the Arab-Israeli and Greeco-Turkish disputes. Non-official initiatives in environmental regulation are the Ford, Packard and Rockefeller foundation supported major conservation programs. In 1980, World Conservation union (IUCN) and WWF collaborated with UNEP to launch a World Conservation Strategy that developed guidelines for states. World Resources Institute (WRI) formulated the Tropical Forestry Action Plan in 1980 jointly with the UN Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and UNDP. International Council of Science Union plays an advisory role to the World Meteorological Organization and UNEP in setting up and Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 1988. The Secretariat for the Convention on International Trade in endangered species of wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) has worked in close cooperation with the IUCN and the WWF. IUCN, WRI and UNEP jointly organized the Bio-Diversity Conservation Strategy Program. NGOS and emancipatory new social movements provide a progressive way forward to more effective and just regulation. Lena Dominelli mentions that initiatives have to be taken to engage in mutual exchanges between local and global players. Locality specific versions of social work was directed to be a resistance to the homogenizing trends embedded in social relations driven by profit motives and the desire of entrepreneurs to appropriate other peoples labor, material resources, geographic spaces and intellectual property. Human, social and environmental degradation is increasing and despite government rhetoric about equal opportunity, elimination of poverty particularly among children within the UK, and on a global scale of twenty-eight billion people expressed and agreed at World Summit for Social Development in Copenhagen in 1995 and Millennium Development Goals pronounced at the UN. The roles of associations like the IASSW International Association of Schools of Social Work, International Council on Social Work (ICSW) and the International Federation of Social Workers (IFSW), promoting cross border solidarity in matters of this kind. The benefits of globalization have been contested by anti-globalization movements which demanded economic growth should sustain human beings and the environment in which they live rather than gathering profits for the few. International organizations include such as the Red-Cross OXFAM, and the Save the Children are NGOs that practice on issues like poverty, disasters and health matters, mostly associated with aid and relief. The American New Deal under Franklin D. Roosevelt was nearest the USA could come to guaranteeing provision for families with dependent children and for older people. The concerns with extreme levels of deprivation and threat of social disorder and devastation by second world war especially Europe were picked by Roosevelt and other at United Nations and led to an agreement around Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). UDHR covered civil, political and social rights including the right to welfare. In addition to the organizations of the UN system and the Washington-based financial institutions, such as the international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) like the Human Rights Watch and CARE, such transnational corporations as Shell and Citibank, and global media like the BBC and CNN exerted a growing influence on state policies, and also brought to a large extent the proliferation in the number of NGOs. The involvements of such actors are basically a part of the good governance agenda. They help especially in the Third World and Eastern Europe to bring about changes, certain scholars have been critical of the World Bank intervention in these countries, and mentioned that instead of good governance, what World Bank policies have led to is bad governance. As such, UN commentary on good governance has led to certain ideas namely, the universal protection of Human Rights; non-discriminatory laws; efficient, impartial and rapid judicial processes; transparent public agencies; ac countability for decisions by public officials; devolution of resources and decision making to local levels from the capital and meaningful participation by citizens in debating public policies and choices.4 A report from UNDPs Regional Bureau for Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States emphasized the prerequisites for equity, legitimacy and efficiency: A legitimately strong government can be described as one that commands sufficient confidence in its legitimacy to allow for a strong civil society, and for a network of non-governmental institutions and regulations that ensure the development of a well-functioning economic system, the strengthening of democratic procedures and a widespread participation by people in public life. Giving the state a role to play in the domestic arena may lead to capacity building; in such a way there may be more effective partnerships and institutions internationally and at home, emphasized by the World Development Report 1997. UNDP has since the early 1990s shifted from traditional public sector management to addressing sensitive issues of governance as the human rights etc. And thus emphasized on capacity building; with this emphasis on capacity building for civil Weiss, Thomas.G. Governance, Good Governance and Global Governance: Conceptual and Actual Challenges, Third World Quarterly, Vol. 21. No.5. (Oct.2000).pp. 795-814. society and the private sector has mean that the UN system has a comparative advantage in many of the developing countries. Good governance entails the working of state and civil society actors closely together, Mahbub ul Haq has given the concept of good governance as to be directed towards the notion of human development and thereby leading to Humane Governance. This humane governance has also been emphasized by J.A. Scholte in his book Globalization: a critical introduction, he has mentioned the various issues as insecurities, basically as a result of globalization. Such insecurities are not that of traditional security in terms of the military security and defense but this includes that of Ecological integrity, Health, Poverty, Employment, Working conditions and identity and local knowledge. We can make out from these various insecurities that Scholte talked in aspect of social welfare. The emphasis is on the negative impacts of contemporary globalization on human security. ECOLOGY INTERGRITY: The global environmental issues have become a very critical source of insecurity, global capitalism or global races for capital and development have been particularly harmful for the ecology. Such race have particularly been harmful for the countries of the South, since most ministries have abandoned the environmental projects and policies in an effort to achieve the fiscal targets connected with globally sponsored structural adjustment programmes. Environmental issues are a very good example of how local and global forces interact with each other or affect each other. Various movements at the local level for environmental protection have been raised against the global forces which push countries towards the process of development which are harmful to the ecology of the country. To cite an example would be the Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) in India. A fight a dam Sardar Sarovar Dam to be built on the river Narmada in Central India, this NBA consisted mostly of peasants and tribals, le d by people like Baba Amte and also later activists like Medha Patkar were successful in fighting against the project which was to be funded by the World Bank. They were successful in stopping the Bank from funding the project and thereby got the project banned. This NBA was able to succeed in their efforts since they were able to well-establish links with environmental groups overseas. The Japanese environmentalists persuaded their government not to advance money for the Narmada Valley Project and also US groups were sympathetic to the cause and were also able to persuade their government to do the same. Support from environmentalist from both these countries also helped to persuade the World Bank to give up on the project.5 Environmental issues in industrialized countries had to do with the quality of life, whereas in Africa, Asia and Latin America it mostly was based on survival, the rights to live and work in a healthy environment, the responsibility to protect habitats, livelihoods and systems of life support from contamination, depletion (extraction), and destruction, and also the determination to restore or rehabilitate what has already been harmed. These are the issues that the countries of the South face in terms of ecology, and more sensitive to this issue have been women, ecofeminism as can been referred to. There are inter-linkages in the experience of grassroots environmental movements worldwide namely: the struggle to save old growth forests in Europe, womens initiatives to secure Rangarajan, Mahesh. Environmental Issues in India, Chap.22. Dorling Kindersley (India) Pvt. Ltd. safe food supplies in the industrial core of Poland, community efforts in Spain to fight toxic waste dumping, womens movements to retain access to land and forest resources in Kenya, and womens participation in the struggles of the rubber tappers union to protect their forest homes and work places in the Brazilian Amazon.6 Women carry a disproportionate share of responsibilities for resource procurement and environmental maintenance however they have very limited rights to determine the future of resource availability and environmental quality. Women have been at the forefront of emerging grassroots groups, social movements and local political organizations engaged in environmental, socio economic and political struggles. These phenomena are not localized; it is taking place around the world. Sound environmental policies and practice are required in order to achieve sustainable development. In this respect there are certain assumptions that are given: firstly that the involvement of women in collective action around the world, there are critical linkages between global environmental and economic processes and the recent surge in womens participation in public for a, particularly in relation to ecological and economic concern. This surge in womens activism is a response to actual changes in local enviro nmental conditions as well as to discursive shifts toward sustainable development in national and international political circles. Secondly, relates to women are beginning to define their identities and the meaning of gender through expressions of human agency and collective action emphasizing struggles, resistance and cooperation, and also have now included womens knowledge, experience and interests as a worldwide phenomenon, and that the process and results in any one place reflect historical, social and geographical specificity. There are various victories claimed by womens participation in environmental protection at local levels; namely the widespread planting of tress by the Womens Green Belt movement of Kenya, the protection of the Himalayan forests from timber concessionaries by the Chipko Movement in India, in North America grassroots movements led by women have prevented the disposal of toxic wastes. International level organizations that bridge the gap between local and the global have been Womens Congress for a Healthy Planet, WEDO- Women, Environment and Development Organization; WEDNET- Women, Environment and Development Network; and Worldwide Network for women all bring concerns of these locally based movements to national and international policy fora. Global Governance of ecological matters has made notable advances, even though the UN Charter of 1945 did not mention environment, but UN-

Analysis of Russia Federation Essay -- International Government

ANALYSIS OF RUSSIA FEDERATION Russia is a developing democracy government that uses hard and soft powers to navigate the tradition of the ever evolving landscape of a new democracy. According to Kegley and Blanton, soft power is defined as the â€Å"ability to exercise international influence that is increased when a country’s values and conduct are respected throughout the world†. Also define hard power as the ability to exercise â€Å"international influence by means of a country’s military capabilities†. Smart power is another layer of a combination of hard and soft power that for this article will be left out. In reviewing the applications of where and how the power is being used in Russia, the levels of analysis will help to clarify each level of government’s powers hard and soft. At the International System level of analysis one for Russia the Non-Government Originations and the Government Organizations the government organizations are higher. Russia as an international power based on our text is bipolarity. Russia in recent years has join alliances with Brazil, India, and China this alliance is called BRIC. This alliance would be a hard power to help each of these states to have a greater influence on the global policy future and the international economy (Kegley and Blanton). Also, based on research for the failure rate of multinational organizations expanding in Russia is due to the differences in culture and the corrupt business system of bribery especially of the local business owners. The local business owners hold most of the natural resources from the government communist democracy sell off (Fay and Denison). NGO’s have experience some limited success in the area of human rights. Based on the history of Russia i... ... Effectiveness: Can American Theory Be Applied in Russia? Carl F. Fey and Daniel R. Denison Organization Science , Vol. 14, No. 6 (Nov. - Dec., 2003), pp. 686-706 Published by: INFORMS Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/4135128 Foreign Assistance, International Norms, and NGO Development: Lessons from the Russian Campaign Lisa McIntosh Sundstrom International Organization , Vol. 59, No. 2 (Spring, 2005), pp. 419-449 Published by: The MIT Press Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3877910 Hard and Soft Power WP 283,286 Chipman, J. (2011) Prospect Magazine, Who holds the power. Issue 190,14 December 2011. http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/2011/12/who-holds-the-power/ http://www.state.gov/r/pa/ei/bgn/3183.htm#profile Glenn E. Curtis, ed. Russia: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1996.

Kite Runner Essay

In The Kite Runner, there are many examples of cruelty towards either the characters or their race as a whole. Two examples of cruelty include when the Afghanistan soldiers pick on Hassan, and one of them states that he has had sex with Hassans’ mother, and the other example is Amir setting up Hassan for stealing, in order to get rid of him. In the first example, the soldiers refer to Hassan as â€Å"You! The Hazara! † The lack of a noun here, i. e. Hassan’s name, demonstrates that Hazaras are treated as second class citizens, and aren’t deserving of being called by name. This has the effect of making Hassan appear to be an outcast, and it makes the reader feel sympathy for him, at being treated so harshly. The use of the sexually suggestive hand gesture by the soldier, when he’s making fun of Hassan because he had sex with his mother, again backs up the idea of Hazara’s being second class citizens. The metaphor â€Å"what a tight little sugary cunt she had† is used in a derogatory sense to further emphasise the contempt which Hazara’s had to endure back in 1970 Afghanistan. This achieves the effect of making the reader feel indignant at how Hassan is being treated, and that it is completely unjustified and is basically an advanced form of bullying. When the soldiers address Hassan, one of them says â€Å"Look at me when I’m talking to you! †. This is an imperative sentence, as the soldier is ordering Hassan to look at him, instead of requesting that he does so. The soldier is being demanding due to the fact that he believes his race is the superior race in comparison to the Hazaras, and that Hazaras always have to obey orders given to them, without question. In the second example of cruelty, Amir wonders to himself â€Å"how and when I’d become capable of causing this type of pain† As this is told via a first person perspective, it really helps the reader to understand what Amir is feeling, which emphasises the sense of cruelty, as the character who has committed the cruelty himself realises what he has done. Also, as he is speaking the past tense, with the use of the word â€Å"When†, it suggests that he wants to know what changed him to be so cruel. The use of the simple sentence â€Å"That was when I understood the depth of the pain I had caused†, is a great way of displaying the cruelty which Amir has shown in setting Hassan up for stealing his watch and money, and the sentence after it â€Å"not even Ali’s paralysed face could mask his sorrow† ,also helps to show this. These two simple sentences suggest that Amir realises that there is no justifying what he has done, that all he feels is relentless guilt, and that there is no other way of evaluating his decision. In conclusion, these two examples are strong demonstrations of the cruelty displayed in the Kite Runner, as they cover racism, which is shown in the first example, and in the second example, the words used e. g. â€Å" depth of the pain I had caused† clearly display Amir’s feelings of cruelty at what he himself has done.

Christmas Meaning

The message:†Best wishes for a Merry Christmas &a prosperous new year â€Å"wishes it audience a cheerful, hopeful and joyous festive seasons and also wishing its audience a fruitful year. Christmas tree is a symbol of renewal and victory we know that in this period it will be the end of the year and we will be starting a new year soon. It’s also symbolises everlasting light and life. Christmas tree also set a colourful theme for the Christmas season.Lights and ornaments represents glory since us Religious people will believe that Jesus Christ is born in this time and also the Star on top the tree symbolises the start that was above the stable that Jesus Christ was born in. The gifts will catch the shopper’s eye as they will know it that time of the year to spoil their loved ones with gifts. Candles represent warmth in our houses during Christmas season and the spirit of togetherness as we also know it as family time and time of sharing love.The gifts also symbol ises those that were given by the 3 wise men to Jesus Christ on the days he was born and also that God gave us his son as gift to us to be our saviour. Kids will also won’t be able to contain their excitement because they’ll know by seeing this image it means Christmas is near and gifts are coming ,But then again it all about peoples beliefs, upbringing and their viewpoint .Those who don’t believe won’t notice any difference except another spending holiday and time off from work . Most of us feel that the festive season won’t be complete without seeing this image or any other images related to this ,as we normal take it as an indicator that it that time of the year, whether we believe in Christmas or not.

Examinnig Social Exclusion Faced By Elderly People Social Work Essay Essay Example

Examinnig Social Exclusion Faced By Elderly People Social Work Essay Essay Example Examinnig Social Exclusion Faced By Elderly People Social Work Essay Essay Examinnig Social Exclusion Faced By Elderly People Social Work Essay Essay This instance analyze intends to analyze the demographic factors that are likely to hold an impact on societal exclusion, and in this instance with respect to aged people in modern-day society. It is important to analyze alterations within the British lodging policy since 1979 in order to measure the current state of affairs that aged people are faced with. Over the past few decennaries lodging jobs have affected cultural minorities, mentally sick persons and adult females ; nevertheless this instance survey will concentrate entirely on the surveies stand foring such claims in relation to aged citizens. However, one of the effects of presenting the term social exclusion was that it led some people to presume that low income and disaffection were basically unconnected and that each could be considered individually when developing policy.A This, in bend, led to the inclination in some circles to downgrade the importance of turn toing issues of low income, on the evidences that its consequence was merely to restrict the stuff goods that a family could get instead than holding any broad societal impact. In order to turn to sociologically the deductions that the British Housing Act has had on the aged in relation to lodging and societal exclusion it is important to reexamine the policy itself to turn to the constructions and hence any reverberations ; at the bend of the millenary there were more people populating in or on the borders of poorness that at any clip in British history. Harmonizing to this most strict study of poorness and societal exclusion of all time undertaken, by the te rminal of 1999 about 14 million people in Britain, or 25 % of the population were objectively populating in poorness. ( Pantaziz, p1 ) Furthermore, believing sociologically the issue of societal exclusion must be addressed as it is a cardinal sociological argument in modern times. The older coevalss in our societies are capable to societal exclusion in many ways, for illustration ; not surprisingly poorer pensionaries, peculiarly older pensionary twosomes are by and large more likely to describe being excessively old, ill, vomit or disenable to take part in societal activities. ( Pantaziz, p451 ) Thus an association can be made between lodging jobs and societal exclusion as they both come under the umbrella of poorness. It is evident that if older members of society can non afford to partake in common societal activities they will go stray from society. Furthermore, a study carried out by The Age concern in 2002 found that one in three older people felt that fright of offense affected their quality of life and made them experience lonely and stray. ( Pantaziz, p451 ) Therefore, one can presume a nexus between the quality of lodging for older citizens and where their home is situated, frequently in low-level parts of communities, where the hazard off offense is increased. Consequently poorness is clearly a major cause of pensionary exclusion ; it is associated with restricted public-service corporation service usage, increased debts, inability to entree aged services, inability to take part in common societal activities and increased parturiency, societal isolation and deficiency of societal support. ( Pantaziz, p451 ) In add-on, the type of lodging aged occupants live in are frequently highly old belongingss with old adjustments and are in hapless fix, yet they do non hold the financess to modernize or do such fixs and are hence viewed as life below the poorness line due to the status of their belongingss. The statistics below from The Office for National Statistics 2006 depict how the quality of life does fall with age and this can be linked to the type of lodging an single lives in. Quality of life of people aged 50 and over by age measured by CASP-19 tonss, England, 2006 For adult females, the overall quality of life additions between the age groups of 50-54 and 55-59 but thereafter lessenings with age. For work forces there is a similar form but it occurs somewhat subsequently. The overall quality of life additions between the age groups of 55-59 and 60-64 but so decreases with age. In other words, for both adult females and work forces, the quality of life tonss decrease from province pension age onwards with the fastest diminution happening after the age of 70. ( National Statistics Online 2006 ) This could so intend that regardless of the lodging and fiscal state of affairs elderly citizens may happen themselves in, they will ever be given to lose their quality of life with age as a natural impairment. In order to grok the consequence of The British Housing Policy since 1979 had on the aged with respect to lodging and societal exclusion, it is besides of import to recognize that welfare regimes play an of import function in diminishing the hazards of poorness and poorness related societal exposure among aged people. ( Avramor, p.36 ) However, the two chief boards of the lodging policy since have been, foremost, the thrust to widen proprietor business every bit far as possible and, 2nd, to retrench badly outgo on council lodging by raising rents, denationalization and cuts in bricks and howitzer subsides and investing. Housing policy has therefore played a direct function in the growing of both homelessness and term of office population by marginalizing renters and restricting the supply of societal rented lodging. ( Laybourn, p46 ) The work of Ray Forrest and Alan Murie has reviewed the widespread proviso of public lodging and notes how the of import alterations since 1979 include the sale of council lodging and other stairss taking to the privitisation of lodging have in fact had affects on the lodging of the aged. ( Van Vliet, p97 ) It can hence be acclaimed that the election in 1979 has had a important impact on lodging in this state, for illustration ; the decrease in the size of public lodging sector has become portion of a general scheme to restructure and cut down province proviso across the whole scope of public assistance beginnings, including instruction, wellness and lodging. Therefore with this ethos the proportion of aged families in income unstable conditions would stand at 30 per centum were it non for the benefits that supplement pensions and unequal incomes from work and private beginnings. But one time societal benefits are included, income precariousness among the aged falls to 22 per centum. ( Avramor, p.36 ) Furthermore while the auxiliary benefits system is rather effectual in comparative footings in the UK, the proportion of aged who remain in income precariousness conditions affects every bit many as three out of 10 aged families. ( Avramor, p.36 ) It is of involvement to research the effects that face non merely aged people but besides minority cultural older people. After researching this subject it has become evident that ; it is possible that the presence of older relations within the larger family is diagnostic of a deficiency of lodging for minority cultural older people. ( Somerville, p54 ) In add-on there has been an increasing organic structure of work that has examined the lodging demands of minority cultural older people. Blakemore and Boneham 1994 and Bright 1996 have studied the minority older people who are populating in sheltered adjustment ; it may be, nevertheless, that a greater precedence for many families is the proviso of adjustment that would let older people to populate with their households if they so wish. In these instances, it would be more appropriate to help the families to widen bing adjustment and to supply appropriate societal services support for older people within a family, instead than to su pply specialist adjustment, separated from households. ( Somerville, p55 ) Although despite considerable accomplishments in poorness alleviation, the aged are over represented among low income and hapless families. Sing the disadvantages experienced in regard of lodging and families durable goodss, we can detect both age and generational-based alterations in the perceptual experience of demands and outlooks, with the aged by and large being more satisfied even when they own seeable less than younger people. In developed states, societal exclusion lodging jobs by and large concern their comparative hapless who are to a big extent socially disadvantaged non-working or public assistance dependant. The societal exclusion lodging jobs particularly concern big low-cost lodging rental estates where renters are mostly confined in their ain excluded sub-society and this seems to be where a bulk of aged citizens live ; accordingly supplying a nexus between poorness, societal exclusion and lodging jobs for the aged. This instance survey outlines how aged citizens face and go on to confront a hapless quality of lodging and a sense of isolation and exclusion in modern-day society. Bibliography Avramov, D. ( 2002 ) People, human ecology and societal exclusion. Council of Europe. Fulcher, J A ; Scott, J. ( 2007 ) Sociology, Oxford. Oxford University Press. Glennerster, H. ( 2004 ) One hundred old ages of poorness and policy. Joseph Rowntree Foundation. Laybourn, K. ( 2003 ) Modern Britain since 1979: a reader. IB Tauris. Pantaziz, C. ( 2006 ) Poverty and Social exclusion in Britain: the millenary study. The Policy imperativeness. Somerville, P. ( 2002 ) Race, lodging and societal exclusion. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Somerville, P. ( 1998 ) Explanations of societal exclusion: where does lodging tantrum in? Housing Surveies, vol 13, no 4: 761-780. Vliet Van, W. ( 1985 ) Housing demands and policy attacks: tendencies in 13 states. Duke University Press. Office for National Statistics ( 2006 ) Focus On Older People ; hypertext transfer protocols: //www.statistics.gov.uk/downloads/theme_compendia/foop05/OlderPeopleOverview.pdf and hypertext transfer protocol: //www.statistics.gov.uk/cci/nugget.asp? id=2174 Office for National Statistics ( 2001 ) hypertext transfer protocol: //www.statistics.gov.uk/focuson/ethnicity/ A Case Study stand foring the lodging jobs encountered by black and cultural minority groups and backgrounds with mention to relevant elements of British Hosing Policy since 1979. This Case Study will besides show a clear apprehension of the construct of Social Exclusion experienced by the people within these groups, This instance analyze intends to analyze the lodging jobs that black and cultural minority persons are faced with in modern-day society. Ethnic minority workers were discriminated against in lodging, instruction and societal policy, and underrepresented in trade brotherhoods and political life. ( Laybourn, p.245 ) Furthermore ; While Britain in 1979 benefited from a richly diverse society, methods of battling the racism, favoritism and disadvantage that affected cultural grouping has non yet been developed. ( Laybourn, p245 ) The instance analyze intends to discourse the political and societal facets of the lodging state of affairs for black and cultural minorities. Social facets will concentrate upon societal exclusion and favoritism including both theories and statistics to expose sociological issues. The sociologist John Rex suggested that in lodging, employment, instruction and urban planning immigrant minorities from Asia, Africa and the West Indies have suffered disadvantage due to racial favoritism. Furthermore Rex and Robert Moore ( 1967 ) , in their well known survey on race dealingss in Birmingham unearthed how black and cultural minorities do in fact face societal exclusion with respect to lodging. The sociologists examined the function of urban gatekeepers, such as landlords, constructing society directors and lodging functionaries, in the distribution of adjustment. It is evident that the local authorization s processs for apportioning council lodging were peculiarly critical in finding which groups occupied which lodging in which countries ; eligibility for council houses depended foremost on being a occupant for five old ages and so on the figure of points accumulated, which took history of such affairs as bing lodging conditions, wellness and war service. ( Fulcher A ; Scott, p505 ) Furthermore Rex and Moore suggested how such standards necessarily disadvantaged the cultural minorities, who were forced into lodging houses by the five old ages abode regulation. Furthermore, when they had met this demand and had accumulated adequate points to do them eligible for council lodging, they by and large found that they were allocated hapless quality lodging in slum countries. Rex and Moore noted that the standards used by the Housing Visitor, who allocated Council Housing, were non made populace, and at that place was plentifulness of range here for favoritism on racial evidences. ( Fulcher A ; Scott, p505 ) The survey does show the restrictions in understanding cultural competition for countries. Such competition has occurred but within a model of local authorization ordinance and a construction of cultural relationships. ( Fulcher A ; Scott 2007 ) However, the standard antecedently used by local governments has since changed, yet this can give rise to a set of different jobs. Housing is now supplied and allocated on a footing of demand, but when locals have been waiting and are overtaken by an immigrants it causes much contention within a community. Within the United Kingdom, in-migration has been a cardinal political issue in recent old ages for a figure of grounds such as illegal in-migration, unemployment, offense and race relation issues. With mention to this survey it is noteworthy that lodging is another cardinal issue that has arisen within the subject of in-migration. It is necessary to see national statistics on lodging and cultural minorities to estimate the jobs of societal exclusion that they may be faced with and to detect how their populations may impact the type of quality of lodging that they inhabit. The diagram below depicts which cultural group has the largest families. Size of families can be related to lodging type and criterion and hence societal exclusion as larger households that are populating below the poorness line find themselves capable to favoritism. Average family size: by cultural group of family mention individual, April 2001, GB The information portrays how Asiatic families are larger than any other cultural groups. Households headed by a Bangladeshi individual were the largest of all with an mean size of 4.5 people in April 2001, followed by Pakistani families ( 4.1 people ) and Indian families ( 3.3 people ) . ( Office for National Statistics 2001 ) Furthermore the smallest families were found among the White Irish ( mean size 2.1 people ) . Black Caribbean and White British families were the following smallest, both with an mean size of 2.3 people. All these groups have an older age construction than other cultural groups, and incorporate a higher proportion of one-man families. Thirty-eight per cent of Black Caribbean families, 37 per cent of White Irish families and 31 per cent of White British families contained merely one individual. Merely 9 per cent of Bangladeshi families contained merely one individual. ( Office for National Statistics 2001 ) Somerville emphasises the statistics ; the lodging plac e of minorities consequences from a assortment of external forces, chiefly to make with the prejudiced behavior of persons and the actions/policies of lodging market establishments and exchange professionals. Therefore structural restraints take theoretical primacy over single picks. ( Somerville, p29 ) Thinking sociologically, in order to discourse how lodging jobs may socially except cultural minorities, statistics demoing the different types of house ownership amongst such minorities allows one to separate the current state of affairs in modern-day society and set up any tendencies. Home ownership: by cultural group, April 2001 Sarin Black African, Other Black and Bangladeshi families were the least likely to have their ain places. Around a one-fourth of Black African families ( 26 per cent ) and less than two-fifths of Other Black and Bangladeshi families ( 36 per cent and 37 per cent ) were home-owners in 2001. Black African and Bangladeshi families were most likely to be populating in socially rented adjustment. In 2001, around a half of Black African families ( 50 per cent ) and Bangladeshi families ( 48 per cent ) lived in socially rented adjustment. Between 1991 and 2001 place ownership rates fell for Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Black African families. During that period place ownership decreased from 82 per cent to 76 per cent for Indian families, from 76 per cent to 67 per cent for Pakistani families, from 44 per cent to 37 per cent for Bangladeshi families and from 28 per cent to 26 per cent for Black African families. ( National Statistics Online 2001 ) It is evident that the societal rented sect or plays an of import function in the lodging of cultural minority families. This is peculiarly true for African Caribbean families ; 45 per cent of whom are housed by local governments or lodging associates harmonizing to the 1991 Census compared with 24 per cent of white families. ( Somerville, p77 ) Social exclusion faces many cultural minorities within the UK today ; this instance survey has proved such issues. A survey by Patterson ( 1963 ) depicts how Brixton in cardinal Lambeth had important degrees of in-migration from the West Indies that began in 1948. Poor economic chances in the country among the black and white populations led those who felt themselves to be different from one another to come into struggle over economic resources. The chief country of competition and struggle between black and white occupants was lodging. As a consequence of wartime devastation, there was a general deficit of lodging in the country. As a consequence, African Caribbean migrators were concentrated in the worst and comparatively expensive lodging. Therefore, housing segregation and the differing experiences of those in the black and white communities has a footing for serious cultural misinterpretation and provided fertile land for the growing of ill will and struggle. ( Fulcher A ; S cott, p219 ) This therefore reiterates the societal exclusions that cultural minorities face in modern-day society and how lodging state of affairss heightens such exclusion. This instance survey outlines a few cardinal issues that face cultural minorities within Great Britain today. It has been established that as a societal group they face stigmitisation in society, in peculiar where lodging is concerned. The Labour authorities elected in 1997, did non explicitly deny the being of poorness as its conservative predecessors had done, it recongised the beings of important want in income, assets and living conditions. ( Fulcher A ; Scott 2007 ) This want has non, nevertheless, been seen as a consequence of inequality as such. Rather it is seen as reflecting procedures of societal exclusion, a societal procedure that minoritie still face today.

Sexual Disorders Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words - 1

Sexual Disorders - Essay Example Nowadays, there is a universal framework of sexual disorders in terms of their causes, i.e. the scheme which will be presented below, can be applied to various forms of sexual imbalance. As Krueger and Kaplan write, Freudian approach to sexual dysfunction (Freud and his disciples identified sexual disorders as a result of incomplete Oedipus’ and Electra’s complexes in males and females correspondingly) is out-of-date, as psychodynamic perspective has already proved its inconsistency unless it is combined with social psychological views ( Krueger and Kaplan, 2000). As the scholars write, human matrix of sexual behavior underlies in the set of accepted sexual norms. â€Å"A forbidding, puritanical rejection of physical sexuality, including touching, by a parent engenders guilt and shame in a child and inhibits his capacity for enjoying sex and developing healthy intimate relationships as an adult. Relations with parents may be damaged by excessive emotional distance, by punitive behaviors, or by overt seductiveness and sexual exploitation† (Krueger and Kaplan, 2000). Fergusson adds to this viewpoint and claims that a number of sexual disorders are rooted in human guilt associated with masturbation (Fergusson, 1999), towards which the society has developed punitive attitudes so that the individual feels sexually marginalized (even though statistics suggests that about 97% males and 80% females satisfy their sexual needs on their own (ibid)) and thus impaired in terms of sexual performance. Furthermore, intensive and frequent sexual activity can also result in the ‘sexual tiredness’ and the emergence of sexual disorders, which serve the goals of sexual novelty and re-obtaining of intimacy (Federhoff et al, 1999). Furthermore, Federhoff and his colleagues hold that the gradual destruction of the bond between emotionality and sexuality leads to the mechanization of sexual life with following emergence of sexual

Lesson 13 discussion and assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Lesson 13 discussion and - Assignment Example Young minds often read too deep between the lines and might spoil their constructive thoughts on such material. Again I agree with Denver that the censors often misinterpret music and do not label them justifiably. Judging both the viewpoints, I believe that PMRC’s concern was not baseless but censors might discuss with the composers before labelling and perform a survey including young people as the sample set. Labelling and preventing access to children forcefully can do justice only when the children are not aware of the presence of such music. However advertisements and posters cannot always be hidden from their eye and in an age where access to drugs and other substance are common, access to music CDs etc are also not unimaginable. Also I believe there are serious problems to tackle among young people apart from music and videos. If the children should actually be stopped to access these products then they should be banned from stores altogether or kept in separate depart ment of a store marked only for adults. However this is often not possible. Hence labelling unnecessary keeps the lawyers busy and leads to unwanted expenses of the court at times instead of serving the intended