The Substance Abuse Of Heroin By Scott Calvert - 990 Words

The movie industry has involved the use of drugs, sex, violence over the years to increase the thrill of movies. Realistic depictions or not, movies with any of these three categories have been frequently viewed and accepted in our culture. With movies creating false â€Å"fictional drugs,† along with amplifying the side effects of prescription drugs, it is crucial to critique what is actually true or not. Whether or not the drug’s effects are medically correct has been glanced over by many. Directed by Scott Calvert in 1995, the movie The Basketball Diaries focuses on the substance abuse of heroin by the main character, Jim. Jim, a high school all-star basketball player becomes addicted to heroin. He tries to hide his addiction, but it becomes quite prevalent when it begins to overtake his life entirely. To begin with, Jim reflects on his first experiences with heroin and refers to it as a â€Å"chippy† habit. He isn’t aware of the addictiveness of this p otent drug, which shortly becomes habitual. His addiction leads to him being kicked off the basketball team, out of his own house, and then desperate on the streets of New York City alongside of his friends. This substantially progresses his addiction, resulting in him passing out in the snow one night. Thanks to Jim’s former basketball friend, Jim is forced to withstand from heroin. Jim become extremely agitated from withdrawal and escapes to look for some more. Jim later finds himself in a six-month rehab, which he notes â€Å"the

Level 3 Childcare Unit1 Essay - 6759 Words

Unit 1. Understanding child and young person development. 1. Explain the sequence and rate of each aspect of development from birth – 19years. The word development refers not to the physical growth of children and young people, but to the skills and knowledge that they are developing. When looking at child development it is divided into the following areas – Physical Development Refers to learning how to master physical movement. Fine motor skills These involve the small muscles of the body used for hand –eye co-ordination, writing and grasping of small objects. Gross motor skills These include the large muscles used for sitting, standing, crawling, and walking.†¦show more content†¦Social/emotional and behavioural Trying to stay near their parents or carer. 1 year At 1 year, babies are able to sit up and feed themselves using fingers. They also know what they like and do not like, food that they don’t like usually ends up on the floor. Babies are now able to understand more of what is going on and communicate with long strings of babble. Physical Standing up and holding on to furniture. Cognitive Recognising routines of the day (e.g. becoming excited when having a bib put on or seeing the bath) Communication Fingers pointing at objects to draw an adult’s attention to them. Social/emotional and behavioural Need to stay close to parent or carer and anxiety when approached by strangers. 18 months At 18 months children start to want independence they cry and protest if something that they want is not given to them. Their language skills are still developing and most children will be able to use several words. Toddlers can be restless and change moods quickly, they also become distressed when left in unfamiliar places with unfamiliar adults. Physical Sitting and pushing off with legs on sit –and –ride toys. Cognitive Enjoyment of posting toys. Communication Less babble and more recognisable words. Social/emotional and behavioural Interest inShow MoreRelatedEssay on A Marketing Case Study on Axis Communications5143 Words   |  21 PagesINTRODUCTION†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.3 2. SITUATION ANALYSIS†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦..4 3.1 External Analysis.....................................................................................................4 3.2 Internal Analysis......................................................................................................8 3.3 SWOT Analysis.........................................................................................................9 3. 3.1 The New

Technological Development And The Third World Essay free essay sample

, Research Paper Technological Development and the Third World TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENT AND THE THIRD WORLD I wonder if people in Third World states know that they are considered the # 8220 ; Third World? # 8221 ; Do they use that term in mention to themselves? Do they hold any perceptual experience of the comparing, judgement and prejudice that goes into that statement? I # 8217 ; vitamin Ds like to believe that they don # 8217 ; t. In the movie about the Ladack people that we watched in category, it was mentioned that they didn # 8217 ; Ts have a word for poorness. No such word even existed in their linguistic communication. But that was before. It was before the invasion of other civilizations, and it was before they had anything to compare themselves to. And in comparing, they saw that, materially, they had less. And in that cognition, they believed that they, as a people, were less. In this essay, I will analyze 3rd universe communities and the relationship between technological development and environmental debasement. I will look foremost at the manner in which development occurred in the South, and the ground it happened the manner that it did. From at that place, I will demo how these methods of development proceeded to finally do widespread environmental harm and it # 8217 ; s consequence on the local people. . DEVELOPMENT: # 8220 ; WESTERN # 8221 ; STYLE When I refer to # 8220 ; the environment # 8221 ; , I mean non merely the home ground that worlds, workss and animate beings inhabit, but besides the physical, emotional and psychological attitudes that are encompassed by these in their day-to-day being. Development, by my definition, will accordingly mention to the technological promotion of a community every bit good as the improved position of worlds and other species. This is my definition, and one that others employ often now. However, the theoretical account I will be analyzing first is the development theory based on the economic # 8211 ; political system. # 8220 ; A typical western ( read: economic ) definition of development would be # 8216 ; an equivocal term for a multidimensional procedure affecting stuff, societal and organisational alteration, accelerated economic growing, [ and ] the decrease of absolute poorness and inequality. # 8217 ; # 8221 ; ( 1 ) The key accent in this statement is the phrase # 8220 ; economic growth. # 8221 ; In Europe and North America, development political relations has revolved around the economic facet of bring forthing excess, and deriving capital. Because of our comparatively rich land resource base, our method of technological development has been rather successful. Statisticss show us as high pay earners, affluent in public services such as wellness attention and instruction, low infant mortality rate, long lifetime, and high GNP per individual. Because of the comfort that our economic development has brought us, we have omitted the facet of development in respect to human psychological wellbeing and the saving of our natural milieus that should be concurrent with technological development. With ours as the lone current theoretical account of successful development, freshly industrialising states such as South and Central America, and Africa ( and up until rather late many Asiatic states ) attempted to accomplish consequences in the same manner. The job that ensued for these states was that alternatively of working easy towards their ends, they sold themselves to acquire in front economically. Alternatively of acknowledging the jobs that this method was doing and halting them, authoritiess and the affluent private sector, took control of the industry and continued to work it. With the rich in control, the poorer categories had small pick but to follow, and the downward spiral of poorness and instability began. HOW IT HAPPENED As the Third World states struggled to go # 8220 ; developed, # 8221 ; the rich states became involved in their personal businesss. Interest in the states arose chiefly because of the trade resources that these lands provided. The potency for net income became apparent because the new states were fighting with their economic system. They were sing internal agitation between their members and they needed money and resources to acquire started. Before they had a stable internal economic system, they were jumping into the international market and merchandising their resources for a speedy net income. Cash-cropping became a manner to come in the international sphere of market and trade, but the harm to the land took merely a few short old ages to be discovered, and by that clip luxuries had become # 8220 ; necessities. # 8221 ; People wanted the hard currency flow to go on and alternatively of happening ways to utilize their land sustainable, they continued hapless resource direction irrespective of the effects. Deforestation became another common pattern because of the demand forwood overseas. Export, although a apparently good development scheme, became damaging to 3rd universe states because it catered to the demand for certain points. Coffee beans are a big export point in South and Central America. With the lifting demand for java in North America, lt ;< br /> land that was antecedently used for agribusiness was taken over and used for turning java beans. The effects of this were twofold ; local people were enduring from deficiency of land to utilize for nutrient production, and the possible land was useless because of the cash-crops. ENVIRONMENTAL RESULTS OF TECHNOLOGY: Today A more current illustration of the technological development that is ensuing in environmental debasement is the abuse of resources. In Africa, industrial H2O pollution has become a widespread job. Third World communities don # 8217 ; t frequently have the consciousness that the South has about sustainable techniques and the importance of using them. Most people in North America live in metropoliss and have their H2O purified to a certain wellness criterion and brought to them. Peoples in the Third World use the river for lavation, imbibing and bathing. Dirty H2O leads non merely to damage of the ecosystems but besides to the wellness of those who use it. Another job is that states from the South have based their industry in developing states because they have lower environmental criterions. With the benefits of occupations and money that these companies bring, the host state will seldom dispute the damaging techniques that they use. # 8220 ; Pollution forms another major set of environmental jobs in the part. It used to be said that pollution is a job of the rich states, and that for the development states, development must come foremost and we can concern about the environment subsequently. Pollution and the deteriorating quality of life caused by environmental debasement in our part has shown how unsound this statement is. # 8221 ; ( 2 ) We no longer hold a pick but to turn to the jobs that adult male is making in nature and the environment. The alibi of development will no longer keep. # 8220 ; ( we, the ) people.. in Latin America are utilizing our best resources for the benefit of the rich states # 8211 ; exporting to them our energy, our fish, our natural stuffs and utilizing our labour resources to pull out and export these stuffs and all at low monetary values and hapless footings of trade. # 8221 ; ( 3 ) While our engineering is assisting the 3rd universe states in countries such as wellness and instruction, our ain desire for goods and net income prevent us from leting them their full potency. We create an economic system where we will make whatever it takes to acquire what we want. As an illustration, we of the developed states tell the 3rd universe that they should halt environmental harm, while it is our companies that are taking advantage of their low criterions. We tell them to halt cash-cropping, but we buy their java beans at any monetary value. With these hypocritical criterions, we will neer act upon them to turn their economic system about. As we our economically motivated in our ain involvement, they excessively need economic motive to alter their destructive wonts. Particularly since with us, their merchandises are chiefly # 8220 ; extras, # 8221 ; while for them, their trade of the merchandise is negatively act uponing their economic system and impacting their people. In Asia and the Pacific, urbanisation, modernisation, and engineering are making different environmental jobs. It is the job of human demand. Thousands of people have been displaced from farms because the authorities or the private sector expropriates them for industrial usage. Rich foodlands are being destroyed and turned into main roads, airdromes or dams.With no where to travel and no occupations, the people are migrating to the metropolis in hunt of places and employment. Slums and homesteader homes result with jobs of lifting offense and unhygenic populating conditions. This puts awful strain on both the human and physical environment, making a state of affairs with small hope for a successful hereafter. Solution To battle these crisis, we must follow some new behaviours. Our current theoretical account of development is demoing some obvious defects and it is apparent that it is the impact of engineering that has resulted in. environmental harm. But engineering is non the lone factor at mistake. It is the influence of engineering combined with human greed that has presented these complex homo and environmental jobs. Laws supervising pollution of the environment must be enforced, and followed every bit in all states. With the cognition that we now possess of the planetary pandemonium that is at manus, we have no alibi but to make so. The lip service that exists between the systems must besides be stopped. Sing non merely ourselves, but the endangered lives of others is indispensable to the continuance of our species as a whole. Our fortunate place in a developed state does non give us the right to make a hierarchy of our being as more of import than the life of another. Possibly, the lone manner that we are traveling to battle any of these jobs is by instruction. It will take more than a few dedicated people to alter the universe, but with the influence of many, anything is possible.

Sir Wilfrid Laurier Of Canada Essays - , Term Papers

Sir Wilfrid Laurier of Canada Laurier gained great achievement over his political years because he represented Canada as a whole. His family first came to Canada dating back to the time of New France and the early Montreal years. Laurier's father, a government surveyor and a genial, settled down in Canada and got married to Marcelle Martineau. Wildfrid was their first child who was born on November 20, 1841. Seven years later a tragedy struck the Laurier family when Wildfrid's mother died. Since his mother died when Wildfrid was only seven, his father wanted to give him the best education possible. His father knew if he were to succeed in Canada he would have to learn the english language and ways. When Wilfrid was ten years old he got sent to an Anglo-Protestant family who were Scottish immigrants. Here he learned the english language and the Protestant faith. Later on in his life he recalled "how I fought with the Scotch boys and made schoolboy love to the Scotch girls, with more success in the latter than in the former." Remembering the past Laurier would carefully develop the politics of reconciliation rather than conflict. In the year 1854 the young lad went to college, De L'assomption. In his studies he took subjects such as Latin, Latin classics, pre-revolutionary French literature, Greek, English and some philosophy. The education which Laurier got from this school was to prepare him for priesthood but he decided to study law in Montreal at McGill University. At the University Laurier was very hard working and serious to try to accomplish his first major goal which was to become a lawyer. In 1864 Laurier had graduated at the top of his class and was chosen to give the valedictory address. Some of the things he said in his address were how a lawyer bore heavy responsibilities. A lawyer had to maintain liberty and justice; a lawyer had to defend the individual, especially the weak from bold to strong, and that sometimes included the state and church. Differences of language, religion or history paled in comparison to lawyer's obligation to seek justice and freedom." Laurier started his law career in a small law firm in Montreal but due to bad health he moved to a small town in Quebec called Victoriaville where he carried out practising law and became involved with the newspaper in that town. He was lured into politics quite slowly although he always was interested in politics. He was often ill and did not know weather he would go into the political field because of it. As his heath got better and his interest in politics grew he became an M.P (member of parliament) in March 1974. One of the major events that took place in Laurier's political career was the interest he took in the Northwest Rebellion and Louis Riel which later helped him become the Prime Minister of Canada. The situation with the Metis people was not good. Land had been given to them but white settlers were moving in, which meant that the Metis would have to leave and move more West to Saskatchewan. The Metis had demanded money but were not payed any attention to by the government. The Metis called Louis Riel to help them out and try to settle the problems which faced them. After a few months Riel had realized that the government were not going to do anything about the issue so then the problem ended up in a rebellion known as the Northwest Rebellion. Laurier had decided to try to defend the cause because he believed in minority rights although he had a French- Canadian background. Although Laurier was helping the Metis he did not really approve of Riel's ways. Some of the things Laurier said during that time was,"I am not one of those who look upon Louis Riel as a hero. Nature had endowed him with many brilliant qualities but nature had denied him that supreme quality without which all other qualities, however brilliant, are of no avail. Nature had denied him a well-balanced mind. But," he announced, "we cannot make a nation of this new country by shedding blood." These fine words were noted in Parliament. The rebellion ended as Riel surrendered on May 15. He was later tried for treason. Riel pleaded guilty and was executed. This put great tension between the Anglaphone and Francophone people. Because of Laurier's participation in this major historical event he gained the favour over the majority of the francophone community. On July

Medical Anthropology

Medical Anthropology Introduction The increased participation by medical anthropologists in medical research and public health in the recent past has seen medical anthropology become an important area of study among anthropologists. It is therefore not surprising that the increasing number of medical research projects and public health interventions that involve medical anthropologists or that are closely related to social science disciplines.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Medical Anthropology specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More This has also given rise to a powerful cooperation that now exists between anthropologists and health professionals. Despite their different ideologies, these two groups of people have been working hand in hand to lessen the effects of poverty (Pool Geissler, 2005). As a social science, medical anthropology addresses specific health issues and also seeks to build a broad, theoretical based understanding of what h ealth is, how it interacts with culture, the role of social relations in shaping disease, the importance of the health environment interface, and a range of other issues (Singer Baer, 2011). In spite of this, true relationship between the social sciences and medicine remains a challenge for a number of reasons. First, anthropology and biomedicine are based on different assumptions about fundamental issues such as the nature of social reality and how it should be studied. Second, medical research and public health are dominated by biomedicine and biomedical professionals often have a poor understanding of what anthropology is and what it has to offer. Third, anthropologists have always failed to communicate effectively with medical professionals and as a result they have been unable to make a convincing case for what anthropology has to offer. Consequently, there is often a need to mediate between these two groups of people with different disciplinary perspectives working towards th e same goal. This paper provides a discussion on the different theoretical perspectives in medical anthropology namely, ecological, interpretive, and critical perspectives. It also looks at how biomedicine relates to culture as well as medicalization of life in Brazil and its consequences.Advertising Looking for essay on anthropology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Theoretical Perspectives in Medical Anthropology As is typical in science generally, medical anthropologists understand the world in certain ways. One of the influences on how a medical anthropologist approaches issues of health or illness is the particular theoretical framework or school of understanding employed. Although there are several such frameworks in medical anthropology, many individuals do not see themselves as supporters of any single perspective. Instead, they take a more varied approach and allow the problems at hand to shape the perspectiv es that they use. Other medical anthropologists consider themselves advocates or even activists of particular points of view. Indisputably, however, the perspectives they bring to their research strongly influence the way a problem is approached, how questions are asked, and the kind of answers that are deemed sufficient and adequate. Among the primary perspectives found in medical anthropology are medical ecology, interpretive or meaning-centered anthropology, and critical medical anthropology. These are explained as follows: Medical Ecology Entrenched in both cultural ecology and evolutionary theory, this approach began with an emphasis on adaptation, defined as behavioral or biological changes at either the individual or group level that support survival in a given environment as the core concept in the field. From this perspective, health was seen as a measure of environmental adaptation. Initially, the central principle of medical ecology was that the type of relationships that existed within different social groups was closely associated with the health status of the members in the groups. While better health meant good relations, poor health meant the opposite. In general, beliefs and behaviors that improve health or protect societal members from disease or injury are adaptive. From the medical ecological perspective, behavioral complexes such as medical systems, including everything from soul loss healing to biomedicine treatment of heart disease can be viewed as social cultural adaptive strategies. As observed by Singer and Baer (2011), there is no single cause of death. Whilst the immediate cause may be a virus, vitamin deficiency, or psychological trauma, disease ultimately is the product of a chain of interacting factors related to ecosystem imbalances including physical and social vulnerability and resilience. Health and disease are deemed to develop within a context of interaction among physical, biological, and cultural systems.Advertising We will write a custom essay sample on Medical Anthropology specifically for you for only $16.05 $11/page Learn More The environment that people inhabit includes not just the physical habitat where they live but also the culturally constructed or built environment such as a city or a village, an acknowledgement that, in health, people impact their environment as much as the environment impacts them. Interpretive or Meaning-centered Medical Anthropology According to Baer et al (2003), the cultural interpretive approach, resulted from the fact that the ecological perspective about health related issues was increasingly becoming popular. By and large, the fundamental claim of cultural interpretive model is that disease is not an entity but an explanatory model. From the interpretive perspective, illness tends to have a strong connection to the culture of medicine that is deeply rooted within societies. And culture is not only a means of representing disease, but is essential to its very constitution as a human reality (Baer et al, 2003). From a cultural point of view, it is only through interpretive undertakings that both therapists as well as their patients get to know the diseases. Generally, the actions or undertakings include a complex interaction of medicine and social behaviors. That different sub-specialties of biomedicine sometimes reach quite different conclusions about the same clinical episode affirms to the interpretive medical anthropologists’ fundamental role of cultural construction in the making of a disease. Historically, the primary shortcoming of the interpretive approach from the critical perspective has been its lack of attention to the role of asymmetrical power relations in the construction of the clinical reality and the social utility of such construction for maintaining social dominance (Baer et al, 20003). Critical Medical Anthropology In the study by Baer et al (2003), critical medical anthropology (CMA) see ks to understand who ultimately controls biomedicine and what the implications are of such control. An analysis of the power relations affecting biomedicine addresses questions such as who has the power over agencies of biomedicine, how and in what forms power is to be delegated, how the power is to be expressed in the social relations of the various groups and actors comprising the health care system, and the principle contradictions of biomedicine and associated arenas of struggling and resistance that affect the character and functioning of the medical system and people’s experience of it.Advertising Looking for essay on anthropology? Let's see if we can help you! Get your first paper with 15% OFF Learn More Ideally, any discussion of the impact of power relations in the delivery of health services needs to recognize the existence of several levels in the health care systems of developed capitalist, underdeveloped capitalist, and socialist oriented societies. At the macro-social level, critical medical anthropology recognizes that the development and expansion of a global economic system represents the most significant, transcending social process in the contemporary historic period. To a large extent, capitalism has progressively shaped and reshaped social life. As a discipline, anthropology has lagged behind in its attention to the nature and transforming influence of capitalism. As part of the larger effort of critical medical anthropology in general to correct this shortcoming, it attempts to root its study of health related issues within the context of the class and relations inherent in the capitalist world system. At the international level, the World Bank has become a key player in establishing health policies and making financial loans to health care undertakings. As a result of its practice of co-financing resources from international and bilateral agencies, the bank has a strong influence on health policies. The bank also conducts country specific health sector investigations and makes proposals for health care reforms that are compatible with market driven economies. Despite the fact that almost all Third World nations are supposed to be politically independent, their colonial inheritance and their neocolonial situations impose health care systems modeled after those found in the advanced capitalist nations (Baer et al, 2003). As a result of the clash and exchange between medical ecology theory, cultural perspective or meaning-centered theory, and critical medical theory, there have been developments in all three of the primary theoretical models within medical anthropology. While medical ecologists have begun to adopt a more political ecological orien tation, interpretive medical anthropologists acknowledge and are attempting, and in some cases, succeeding in producing work that is highly sensitive to political economic issues. Critical medical anthropologists on the other hand have also developed a significant level of interest in political ecology and the role of political economy in the production of meaning. Biomedicine and Culture While recognizing the fundamental importance of biology in health and illness, medical anthropologists generally go beyond seeing health as primarily a biological condition by seeking to understand the social origins of disease, the cultural construction of symptoms and treatments, and the nature of interactions between biology, society, and culture. Similarly, they tend not to accept any particular health care system, including Western biomedicine, as holding a monopoly on useful health knowledge or effective treatment. Instead, they see all health care systems from advanced nuclear medicine or la ser surgery to dream based healing or acupuncture as cultural products, whatever their level of healing value and however efficiency is defined within particular healing traditions. Medical anthropologists seek to understand and help others recognize that health is rooted in three key notions. First, there are cultural perceptions, such as culturally constituted ways of experiencing pain or exhibiting disease symptoms. Second, there are social connections, such as the type of relations that exist within the family or within society and the encompassing political and economic systems generally. Third, there is human biology, such as the threat of microscopic pathogens to bodily systems and the body’s immune responses to such threats. In pursuing these lines of inquiry, medical anthropologists are especially concerned with linking patterns of disease, configurations of health related beliefs and behaviors, and healing systems with cultural foundations, social hierarchies, and b io-social relationships. Consequently, medical anthropologists have tended to look at health as bio-cultural and bio-social phenomena, based on an understanding that as both physical and socio-cultural environments interact, they determine the health of populations under investigation (Singer Baer, 2011). Some medical anthropologists, particularly critical medical anthropologists stress what they call a critical bio-cultural model, one that is especially concerned with investigating the role of social inequality in shaping health, health related experience, behavior, and healing. Whatever their theoretical perspective, however, medical anthropologists tend to lean more towards a particular orientation. They are concerned with putting their work to good use in addressing real and pressing health related problems in diverse human communities and contexts. As noted by Singer and Baer (2011), illness is ordinarily perpetrated by the way a patient perceives his or her experienced sympto ms. Nevertheless, these interpretations are not solely personal but rather are witnessed by wider cultural understandings of illness and the comments and actions of the sufferer’s social network. Apparently, illness behavior is impacted by various factors that include both gender and socioeconomic status. In addition, illness behavior in a society is dynamic and not static. As a society changes, illness behaviors change as well, including patterns of use of health services. As noted by Hahn and Gaines (1984), earlier research studies demonstrated that biomedicine is a cultural system comprised of numerous variations. The studies also stressed on the importance of observation and reporting on actual practices and beliefs, rather than employing negative or positive idealized versions of medical practice, so that it is possible to understand that the healing encounter is a social and cultural event involving communication across cultural or sub-cultural boundaries (Hahn Gaines, 1984). Unlike its characterization by proponents and opponents, biomedicine may be seen to be a part of the wider culture. Theories of Supernatural Causation The most prevalent and important theories of illness found cross culturally in pre-modern societies involved theories of supernatural illness causation associated with personal assumption, meaning that some personal agent acted aggressively to cause the malady (Winkelman, 2008). Apparently, these notions are based on assumptions not recognized by modern medical science as being valid. Although framed in supernatural terms regarding the powers of unusual humans or evil spirits, these theories may nonetheless represent important social and physical processes relevant to health. The most prevalent and important supernatural theories of illness are related to concepts of animism where attacks or punishment from the spirit entities are reflected in a universal theory of illness. Animistic Causation Animistic causes of illness invol ve the actions of a supernatural entity such as a spirit or ghost. These universal beliefs include the attribution that some unseen entity is the cause of our problems. According to Winkelman (2008), there are two types of animistic causation. These are spirit aggression and soul loss. Spirit aggression is a universal belief that illness is caused by the aggressive action of the spirits, an attack that comprises the spirits putting something into a person or doing something to one’s body. On the other hand, soul loss involves a person having an aspect of his or her self, the soul or spirit, leave during a dream or as a result of the soul being frightened or captured by a spirit or act of sorcery. Magical Causation Theories of magical causation involve the linking of illness to malicious actions of other people. Seemingly, the wicked human, sorcerer or witch, has negative effects on other people’s health from overt actions or inadvertent emotions, particularly envy or j ealousy. A distinction between sorcery and witchcraft reflect important differences involving intentional and unintentional effects, respectively. Sorcery includes the impairment of health caused by the intentional aggressive use of magic, affected either by an individual’s power or through assistance provided by a specialized sorcerer or spirits. According to Winkelman (2008), sorcery as a cause of illness is found in most societies of the world. The other societies generally have beliefs in witchcraft, impairment of the health of persons, animals, or crops caused by involuntary actions by special types of persons with inherent powers to cause harm to others. A similar belief is associated with the evil eye. In this belief, someone can inadvertently cause harm by among other things, looking at another’s property. Evil eye power is frequently thought to emanate from the eyes or mouth of persons as a result of their envy. According to Burri and Dumit (2007), analyzing m edicine as culture opens up a fresh perspective on knowledge practices and epistemic features in biomedicine, namely, the construction and fashioning of knowledge objects within science or on the arrangements and mechanisms in biomedicine that shape what is known and how it is known. Biomedicine takes on responsibility for the release of its strange entities and facts into culturally diverse environments. Biomedical experts are, however, able to do so only in close collaboration with social science and the humanities. Medicalization of Life The concept of medicalization rests on the assumption that some occurrences belong in the domain of medicine while some do not. Typically, everything that we do or everything that happens to us affects or depends on the use of our bodies. In principle, we can treat what people do or what happens to them as belonging in the domain of medicine. We can also claim that nothing that we do or nothing that happens to us belongs in the domain of medicine because everything is ordained by God and belongs in the domain of religion. In some instances, medicalization has been used to reassure patients and relieve them of guilt, but at other times, medicalization has been held responsible of oppresses them, as when the complaints of poor and minority patients are dismissed due to bad or immoral behavior. Equally wicked are the understated ways in which bias is built into the very diagnostic categories used by biomedical practitioners that force them to make marked distinctions between normal and abnormal and to use assigned categories of ethnicity or race to mark out those people assumed to be at differential risk for various conditions. Generally, to understand medicalization primarily as enforced surveillance, as certain social scientists have done, is totally misleading and must be avoided. Individual citizens and even families frequently cooperate willingly with medical monitoring and management of bodily distress in the belief that they will also benefit. In Brazil, local doctors were able to transform despair, misery, and suffering into the language of sickness. The decisions of local doctors to treat social illnesses as bodily ills and to see hunger, widely experienced by poverty stricken shanty dwellers, as a nervous complaint rather than a symptom of politics of economic distribution were seen to represent an extreme case of what is commonly referred to as bad faith. Through medicalization of the ailments of their patients, local Brazilian doctors consciously deflected attention from the more fundamental incubators of affliction that lie in social, political, and economic oppression. Medicalization is regarded to be bad faith in that doctors and other health workers pretend to themselves and to others that they are not really involved in or responsible for what they are doing or the consequences of their actions. According to Scheper-Hughes (1988), medicine can play a very critical role in reorganizing pe ople’s needs. Although it has been argued that medicalization leads to the isolation of the experience of misery and domesticates people’s anger about the reality in which they are forced to live, it has a serious consequence of creating an over dependence on medicines. As an example of this negative repercussion of medicalization, consider a terrible illustration of the effect of drugs to isolated populations in Brazil. In September 1987, Goiania, a small town in central Brazil suffered a tough blow when several individuals were exposed to dangerous radioactive contamination. Due to ignorance and over reliance on medicine, more than 200 people were seriously affected. While some people applied the radioactive material on their bodies or faces with a hope of becoming more beautiful, others went on to swallow the poisonous substance in order to get healed from ailments (Scheper-Hughes, 1988). Clearly, this example demonstrates how these Brazilians had very high expectat ions of regaining their health status by depending on medicine regardless of the repercussions. Apparently, the local physicians could not be accused of such incidences and nor could they be held liable of the free circulation of restricted drugs across the Brazil. Nonetheless, they had to be blamed for not putting in place strict control measures to check against the importation of harmful pharmaceutical products into their country from places such as the United States, Germany, and Switzerland. Local physicians were also blamed for letting the citizens suffer due to their own selfishness and poor moral standings in the society (Scheper-Hughes, 1988). The so called bad faith thus operates among doctors and pharmacists, who let their knowledge and skills to be misused by the greedy in the society, and self-centered politicians who care less about the masses. Conclusion As has been discussed in this paper, turning to the use of medicine has completely changed the way the society view s illness. In the past, people simply lived based on their cultural settings and never depended so much on advice from local medical practitioners. When people got sick, traditional approaches would be followed while explaining the cause of the illness. Today, however, there is so much reliance on modern medicine and often times, people end up being treated by professional doctors. There is thus a medical explanation for any illness that a person may suffer from. Due to medicalization of life, most people have lost touched with their cultures and are now simply relying on doctors to guide them whenever they fall sick and are in need of treatment. However, it is imperative for people to know that there are negative effects that are linked to the idea of medicalization. As explained earlier, heavy dependency on medicine can lead to undesirable consequences. Unfortunately, undisciplined doctors may indulge in illegal practices to satisfy their own selfish interests at the expense of th e masses. References Baer, H. A., Singer, M., Susser, I. (2003). Medical Anthropology and the World System. Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishing Group. Burri, R. V., Dumit, J. (2007). Biomedicine as Culture: Instrumental Practices, Technoscientific Knowledge, and New Modes of Life. New York, NY: Routledge. Hahn, R. A., Gaines, A.D. (1984). Physicians of Western Medicine: Anthropological Approaches to Theory and Practice. Hingham, MA: Springer. Pool, R., Geissler, W. (2005). Medical Anthropology. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill International. Scheper-Hughes, N. (1988). The Madness of Hunger: Sickness, Delirium, and Human Needs. Culture, Medicine, and Psychiatry, 12, 429 – 458. Singer, M., Baer, H. (2011). Introducing Medical Anthropology: A Discipline in Action. Walnut Creek, California: Rowman Altamira. Winkelman, M. (2008). Culture and Health: Applying Medical Anthropology. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley Sons.

How English Became English

How English Became English How English Became English How English Became English By Maeve Maddox Here is a book certain to delight, enlighten, or annoy readers of language blogs like this one: How English Became English, Simon Horobin, OUP, 2016. Horobin, professor of English language and literature at the University of Oxford, has packed a huge amount of information into a 57 format of 175 pages, including bibliography and index. The book contains only seven chapters: 1. What is English? 2. Origins 3. Authorities 4. Standards 5. Varieties 6. Global Englishes 7. Why Do We Care? The first two chapters fulfill the promise of the title, placing English in the Germanic branch of the Indo-European family tree and detailing how it lost its inflexions and acquired a Latinate vocabulary. The chapter Authorities traces the early efforts of a patriarchal elite to fix living English into a straitjacket of long-dead Latin and explores the continuing desire by English speakers to be given unequivocal rulings as to what is correct and what is not. As an example of a rule originating in a period of male dominance that viewed the treatment of masculine gender as a default position as unexceptional, Horobin mentions the objection to using the plural pronoun they with a singular antecedent of uncertain gender. Certainly the male grammarians latched onto the rule and repeated it in their own style guides, but the first grammarian to suggest that he may be understood to include women was a woman: Ann Fisher (1719-1778), author of A New Grammar with Exercises of Bad English (1745). Note: From the time of Chaucer until the present, the use of plural they with a singular antecedent has been and remains common in the written work of respected authors. As an even more extreme example of sexist linguistic prescription, Horobin includes the rule of male precedence based on natural order put forward by one Thomas Wilson in 1553. Heres Wilsons comment on the preposterousness of mentioning a female subject before a male one (spelling modernized): Some will set the cart before the horse, as thus, My mother and my father are both at home, even as though the good man of the house wore no breecheslet us keep a natural order, and set the man before the woman for manners sake. Apart from putting women and the hoi polloi in their place, language critics of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries focused on purifying English and securing it from on-going change. Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift admired the French Academy and wanted something similar to govern the use of English. In Swifts view, It is better a Language should not be wholly perfect, than that it should be perpetually changing. Another eighteenth-century pundit, however- lexicographer Samuel Johnson- was forced to admit the impossibility of trying to embalm language. He may have begun his project thinking, as many speakers still do, that a comprehensive dictionary of English would fix the language and put a stop to those alterations which time and change have hitherto been suffered to make in it without opposition. He discovered that such expectations were as unrealistic as any others that aim to rid human society of its many imperfections. Nevertheless, from the efforts to stop the language from changing emerged the concept of Standard English. In Chapter Four, Horobin explains what a standard dialect is and- more importantly- what it is not. 1. Standard English is NOT inherently superior to all other forms of English. [Standard English] is an agreed norm that is selected in order to facilitate communication. 2. Standard English does NOT exclude colloquial speech or regional accents. Horobin points out that its possible to speak casually, bad words and all, without flouting the grammatical principles of Standard English. As for regional accents, its possible to speak Standard English in any accent, since accent refers only to features of pronunciation. 3. Standard English does NOT exist to serve as a social marker to distinguish snobs from regular people. Standard English is the dialect of government, commerce, and education. Success in the education system and access to the prestigious professions require a competence in the handling of Standard English. Standard English is class-neutral. 4. The teaching of Standard English in the schools is NOT optional. Although Standard English is not inherently superior to other dialects that children grow up speaking at home, schools have a duty to teach Standard English to children, irrespective of their background and linguistic heritage. Home dialects can be acknowledged and respected in the classroom, but, in Horobins words, not to teach it would be a dereliction of duty, since Standard English is an essential tool for enabling children to pass exams, and equipping them for the world of work. In Chapters Five and Six, Horobin discusses the astounding globalization of the language that began as a collection of Germanic dialects spoken by a few thousand people in a confined area 1,500 years ago. English is to the modern world what Latin was to the ancient world at the height of the Roman Empire. In the twenty-first century, an estimated 450 million people speak English as a first language, and 1 to 1.5 billion speak it as a second language in places all over the globe. A language spoken by so many in so many regions will inevitably morph into different dialects. And- like Latin- English may spawn a family of new languages that will be as distinct from their parent as Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Romanian, and Catalan are from their ancestral Latin. One of several mixed varieties of English Horobin cites is Spanglish, also called Chicano English, a mix of English and Spanish that is a well-established dialect widely used among the more than 44 million members of Americas Hispanic population. Another is Singlish, a creole that combines English with Malay and is spoken in Singapore. The final chapter, Why Do We Care, explores the reasons speakers feel so strongly about language choices for themselves and others. Modern speakers realize that English has undergone significant change from generation to generation, but that doesnt prevent them from resisting change in their own generation. Its a kind of not in my backyard syndrome. Horobin explains this unwillingness to accept changes taking place in the English of today by the fact that it is impossible for us to take an external stance from which to observe current usage. We all know whats right, either because we remember what our teachers told us when we were children, or because we have a preferred style guide that keeps us on the straight and narrow now that we are adults. How English Became English is a wonderful little book, an information-packed resource that will surely do what Horobin hopes: stimulate and inform the never-ending dialogue between prescriptivists and descriptivists. Related posts: What To Do About Non-Standard English Want to improve your English in five minutes a day? Get a subscription and start receiving our writing tips and exercises daily! Keep learning! Browse the Book Reviews category, check our popular posts, or choose a related post below:30 Religious Terms You Should KnowUse a Dash for Number Ranges30 Words for Small Amounts

Leadership and Entrepreneurship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Leadership and Entrepreneurship - Essay Example They create visions and goals to be achieved in a pre-determined amount of time and lay down rules to be followed by their employees / followers in order to attain those goals. For a business to be a successful venture, it is of utmost significance that its leader is a visionary. Considering future as an inevitable element of planning for an organizational strategy is thus, one of the crucial factors while aiming for the desired goals set by these leaders. The success of any organization is largely dependent on the various leadership styles, attributes, models applied during the process of achieving organizational goals, irrespective of the size, type or nature of the said business. The various leadership styles, models and attributes as well as the uncertainty of environmental factors in connection with Small and Medium Enterprises, as observed through various research findings and case studies are discussed elaborately in the following sections (Bass, Bernard, 2001). The term SME refers to Small and Medium Sized Enterprise which employs fewer than 250 people, has an annual turnover of EUR 50 million or less or an annual balance sheet total, not more than EUR 43 million as per the Recommendation of the European Commission Some of the common leadership issues faced by SMEs include, lack of clear/ explicit vision and direction, focus on operational v/s strategic activity, no proper delegation of authority, shortage of time for personal development of the leader, lack of recognition of the need for self development, lack of time for or attention to team development. The process of rational strategic decision making in SMEs requires a long-term stable attitude towards risk. Thus the process of leadership in such small and medium sized enterprises should be future oriented, so as to encompass the various strategic obstacles that these firms might have to encounter in the long run.