Cultural Differences Paper “Driving Miss Daisy” Essay

There are many ways that the movie â€Å"Driving Miss Daisy† portrays cultural issues. There are a number of scenes in the film in which different cultural issues are described and in which racial issues are prominent. It is important to note that the movie is set in 1948 in Atlanta, Georgia. According to Edward Hall there is a reality that everyone lives in that is a particular reality as there are a number of reasons for which this occurs but mainly it is because we are looking through our own reality as though it were a screen. There are a number of cultural issues that are dealt with in the film, â€Å"Driving Miss Daisy† and through this film and looking at Edward Hall’s beliefs on the issue there a number of examples that can be noted. According to Geert Hofstede’s there are five dimensions of cultural patterns. These dimensions are most commonly used in international business but can be adapted to everyday life situations as well. These five patterns include the following: (1) low vs. high power distance (the way that those who are in power interact, meaning between those who are on the low end of the spectrum and have little power to those who are on the high end of the spectrum and have a lot of power), (2) individualism vs. collectivism (this is the extent to which one is able to stand up for himself or expects others around him or those who are part of his group to stand up for him), (3) masculinity vs femininity (this is the association with traits that are generally thought to be gender biased), (4) uncertainty avoidance (when someone tries their hardest to avoid any uncertainty and takes special precautions in order to do so), and (5) long vs short term orientation (this is the standard by which something is measured as in whether or not it is in the long term or in the short term). Each of these areas can be explored through the movie, â€Å"Driving Miss Daisy. † Cultural Identity— Each person has the ability to have an identity. The different social groups, structures and classes that each person fits in with and feels a connection to is an example of their cultural identity. This identity makes each person whom they are and continues to give each person a reason to look for a particular group or a particular culture with which to identify. In the beginning of the movie as Daisy is refusing a driver this is again because of a screen that she is seeing herself through. She believes that if she has a driver that she should be embarrassed. This is because she thinks that there is either going to be a problem where others think of her as very wealthy or they will know her embarrassment of being too old to drive. In this aspect of the film, Daisy is fighting hard against being associated as being part of the aging crowd or so it could be examined through Hall’s theory. This is also an example of Hofstede’s ideas on uncertainty avoidance. This is because Daisy is so uncertain of what will happen when she loses her power to drive. This would mean that she would not be able to come and go as she pleases and that she would not be able to just jump in her car and drive and see friends or to go to the store to grab that last forgotten item. In a way this is so much more important in this situation than it is with other issues as the aging process is one that is hard enough without all of the added dilemmas and problems. So the idea that Daisy is having such a hard time with the aging process should not be a surprise to those who are around them. Another area of culture that is seen in this movie is the culture of the aging. Through Hall’s theory Daisy thinks that she is okay to drive at the beginning of the movie but her son is sure that she needs a driver and that she is not going to be able to drive on her own as there were too many problems with her driving in the past and she was unable to keep her driver’s license. Towards the end of the movie her driver has aged and is no longer able to drive either which makes for an interesting plot as he attempts to take taxi cabs to visit her while she is in the nursing home. While she is in the nursing home it is noted in the movie through character dialogue that Daisy has good days and bad days and when she is having bad days it is hard to connect with her. This could be a way of being able to look at the orientation of the individual as looked at by Hofstede. As Daisy is having problems with losing her identity and losing her ability to communicate as well as she used to she is having a harder time with her orientation and being able to be oriented to the present rather than issues from the past. Cultural Bias— A cultural bias is where one culture is favored over another. Therefore the culture that is favored has an advantage in all areas where concerned. This is because there are a number of different areas in which the culture with the advantage is able to take advantage of the situations and make things easier for their cultural or their beliefs and harder on those whom they disagree or can not connect with. In one scene Daisy truly begins to see the racism that has been around her. She is being taken by Hoke to her brother’s party in Mobile, Alabama. While she is on the trip with Hoke she begins to realize how differently people view him and how he is treated just because he is African American. This is something that she has previously been blind to as she was a very open and accepting individual. Again this is an example of how Hall’s theory has affected Daisy as she has been looking at things from a different perspective than before. This overt racism is a part of the ideas that have been passed down from generation to generation. This is an example of what Hofstede referred to as low vs high power as the racial issues are typically interacted between those who are in low or high power at the time. In this way the lower power race is the African Americans while the higher powered race is the white Americans. Another area of the movie that explores racial issues looks at the many problems that Daisy has faced herself being a Jew. She also realizes at one point, after her synagogue is bombed that she is treated differently too. Through the relationships and beliefs in the movie many different issues involving racism are explored. This movie is able to look at cultural issues and serious issues with racial injustice from a different perspective than other films have done as it was from two different view points, both who were being prejudiced against but in different ways. Again this has been looked at a few different times in the movies and it is again a power struggle between those who have less power and those who have more power. Cultural Patterns— There are many different cultural patterns that can be seen in the movie, â€Å"Driving Miss Daisy. † These patterns include that there are a number of different areas in which there are ways that the cultural identity of a person is considered to be either a negative or a positive trait. The problem is that there is off a miscommunication and a lack of connection between the two. There were a lot of scenes in the movie where there were times when the characters were involved in areas that were necessary for interactions. Verbal and Non-verbal Intercultural Communication— Throughout the movie, â€Å"Driving Miss Daisy† there is a number of different areas of communication. There are times when the communication is done through spoken dialogue while other times the communication is in a look or gesture that is done between two different characters. Each of these type of communication play an important role in the overall communication process and in how a character is able to communicate with another in one way or another. One example of Hall’s theory is the interaction between Miss Daisy and her driver, Hoke Colburn. She believes that she is better than him and that she should be able to have him do what she wishes. This is because the story takes place at a time when African Americans were only known to be servants or slaves to white Americans. Through her screen or her perspectives as they were taught to her, Daisy has been taught in her culture and during this time period that she is above these other citizens and that they are not equal to her. This is a common misconception among many individuals when cultural issues are concerned as there is often a time period where the individual has feelings or thoughts on a subject purely based on what they have learned. After some time however Daisy’s mind is changed about Hoke and she believes him to be a true friend to her, she even tells him that he is her best friend. There was another scene in the movie where an Alabama state trooper sees the two of them driving off together and he states â€Å"An old nigger and an old Jew woman takin’ off down the road together†¦that is one sorry sight! † This just goes to show the overall perceptions of reality in particular areas (the area in the South where Daisy is from) and the time period that they are living in. Through communication it can also be obvious which parts of the communication are through a group effort or group opinion and which ones are that of an individual. This is shown in many areas where racism is occurring in the movie. For example when the synagogue was attacked it was a sign that there was a group of individuals who did not like the idea of being a Jew. Hofstede’s theory would look at these issues and why there were times when this racism was prevalent on an individual basis and there were times when it was based on a group basis or a group effort. Conclusion— In conclusion the movie, â€Å"Driving Miss Daisy† touched on a lot of cultural issues having to do with age and race. This movie is about a growing relationship between an elderly woman and her driver and their amazing bond that they have which helps them to each see and understand a number of things about themselves, their culture, their heritage, and the overall connection between a social group.

Last Chance in Texas

Hubner, John. (2005) Last Chance in Texas: The Redemption of Criminal Youth. New York, NY. Random House Inc. Last Chance in Texas is an eye opening look into the efforts of the juvenile justice system to rehabilitate youth offenders and integrate them back into society. The book chronicles the research of author John Hubner who heard about a facility in Texas that ran an aggressive and one of the most successful, treatment programs in America for violent young offenders. He was particularly curious how a state like Texas, known for its hardcore attitude toward crime, could be a leader in rehabilitating violent and troubled youths.Through a span of over nine months at The Giddings School in Texas, Hubner discovered that making offenders understand their past and how their actions affected others was key to successful rehabilitation. By observing school’s therapists and students, Hubner learned that the rehabilitation process was an intense self realization program that forced o ffenders to review and re-live their past experiences that led up to the crimes they committed. The staff at Giddings challenged offenders to step into their past and visualize their crimes before and after they were committed, as well as the impact of those around them.Different techniques were used help the students remember their pasts that most have tried to forget. Forcing them to recall specific details of their lives and the pain they suffered allowed them to address these experiences that ultimately led to them to violent crime. In most cases, the offenders were victims of violence well before they became violent offenders themselves. It was an emotionally painful and time consuming program designed to reprogram them and their behavior by understanding their own feelings and how their actions affected other people.In the program at The Gidding School there was a specific gang member named Ronnie who was convicted of armed robbery and kidnapping of an elderly couple. Through intense therapy it was learned that he previously suffered from different forms of abuse throughout his life. Family fighting, drug use, poor parental guidance ultimately led to a life of anger and violence. As a child, his mother would often leave Ronnie and his brother Kenny alone while she went out to use drugs. On occasion, his aunt would look after the two boys while their mother was away.Not only did their aunt physically abuse them, but later on their mother’s boyfriend introduced them to using and selling drugs, stealing, and guns. Re-living these memories was as agonizing and traumatic as one could imagine but it was paramount in learning how and why he became the person he did. Many boys at Giddings were convinced that no one loved them, and Ronnie was no exception. Giddings therapists used these sessions to break through the wall he put up thinking that no one loved them or cared what happened to them. More often than not, they were successful reaching students thi s way.One unique approach to developing self worth for the students at Giddings was the organization of a football program where they actually played surrounding schools. Hubner saw that this not only was a great release of aggression but also created a sense of trust and camaraderie among students based on mutual respect. Ironically, it was on the football field where they learned that there are alternatives to the violence they usually used to resolve differences. Unlike many football teams with teenage boys, winning was not the ultimate goal for the players at Giddings. In fact, they lost their final game.However, they all felt a sense of pride and recognition for starting and finishing the football season as a team. The girls at Giddings, on the other hand, were treated somewhat different than their male counterparts. They had different ways of expressing their emotional pain that led to the crimes they committed. Surprisingly, one hundred percent of them had been sexually or ph ysically assaulted. With females, therapist had to dig even deeper than they normally would have with boys. This could be somewhat dangerous since the girls were much more emotional and measurably more violent during therapy sessions.Oddly enough, female fights were more unexpected, viscous, and ended more painfully than those of the boys. One interesting approach in therapy was when parents of murdered children visited the program and told their stories. The idea was to appeal to the inner hearts of the emotionally withdrawn young female offenders. It was thought that females would better identify with the stories of these families and be able to tell their own story. It proved effective as many made great emotional progress and were able to tell their own stories in therapy.One by one all the young women opened up, pouring out their feelings they had been holding inside for so long. It was an incredible experience to witness for everyone in attendance. Upon graduation from The Gid dings School, each student goes their separate way. For many, going back to institutions and detention centers was their next stop in their journey. Others went back to their respective homes with their families. Many of these students managed to change their lives for the better and become someone they never thought they could.They are the rehabilitation success stories for The Giddings School. Sadly however, there are many that are not rehabilitated and eventually return to correctional facilities. This book is an intense story about rehabilitation and hope within the juvenile justice system. The young men and young women at Giddings can go through years of intense therapy and counseling. Only after they learn how to deal with their past and the pain they have endured, can they begin to heal. Most kids enter Giddings with no feelings of love, self worth, respect for others, or hope.However, through very structured program administered by loving therapist and staff members, most st udents begin to realize that though they have made mistakes, they too are loved. This book would be an outstanding reference for anyone interested in learning about a more positive approach to rehabilitating violent youth offenders who seem to have no hope. The Giddings School consistently provides some of the best results in the county. At Giddings, kids with no hope they leave with feeling of self worth, love, and sometimes even a new family.

Different forms of communication Essay

Nonverbal communication is a way in with we communicate without speaking, this can be using many different methods. Sign langue this is way in which we can communicate with a people who have hearing impairments. With children and young people you can use makaton witch is a basic from of sing langue. For adults you can use B.S.L which is short for British Sign Language. â€Å"The British Deaf Association states that BSL is a first or preferred language for nearly 7, 00000 people in the UK.†(Nolan, Moonie, and Lavers 20005 health and social care page 13). Learning just a few simple sings and phrases will help with how you are able to relate to death people and how they respond to you. Pictures and symbols: they are more common than you may think. For example road symbols, a zebra crossing has flashing belisha beacons these tell you where is safe to cross, also there are zebra crossing with traffic lights a red man flashes up when it is not safe to cross, when it is safe it flashes a green man. They also have a loud beeping sound. Most places use symbols to inform us and the workers about health and safety for example in a kitchen if the floor has just been cleaned, health and safety states that you must put up a bollard or board displaying caution Wet Floor! Body language, the way we stand or sit can show a lot for example if you stand with your arms folded it could mean a few things but most people often portray this as being protective. If you were to have your arms in your lap you would be seen as more open, friendlily and relaxed. We can tell a lot from facial expressions we make assumptions of what we think people are feeling. For example it is quite easy to see if someone is smiling or frowning. Touch or contact this can be shown in many different ways for example a friendly gesture could be a simple hand shake or offering a person your arm to help them cross a road, another form of friendliness is to rest you hand or some ones shoulder as reassurance or as encouragement. A negative from of touch or contact can be an inappropriate sexual gesture for example slapping or pinching some ones bottom. Verbal communication is a way of using your words and phrases carefully and accurately good verbal communication is essential. There are many types of this. One to one this is when one person communicates with another in a private conversation without other people joining in. this is mostly an intense conversation between two people exchanging information, which should be maintained a remembered and not subject to any other person. An advantage of this could be than an individual receives specialist assistance, help or support. A disadvantage of this could be that the information could be biased. Group discussion this a little harder as it is only effective and works properly if everybody gets involved and has a chance to share their thoughts and opinions. In most groups there are some people who talk a lot and some that say very little or nothing at tall. The people that talk a lot may over power the discussion and people may get left out. This can create an unfair discussion. Away around this could be to pass an object around and the person who hold it is the only that can speak; you could also set a time limit of about 1minute. Written communication is a crucial part of working with in the caring services as it vital to keep records and reports. They must be hand written it is unacceptable to abbreviate words or use informal language. There are many other forms of written communication like letters, voicemail, newspaper and magazine articles. Written communication is very significant to within the business world, one of the main reasons is conformation of sails emails are ok but can be tampered with. Another reason that written communication is key to business is contracts with other business. The Advantages of written communication are: It is strate to the point and the information is precisely and accurate. Another advantage is that Legal defences trusts written information as thy uses on a regular basis the written information as it pervades valid and trustworthy records. The disadvantages of written communication are: if you were to send a letter to somebody far away the responds would not be instant and may tack a few weeks to be delved. A big disadvantage of written communication is than not every may be able to understand you hand writing. Informal communication is for people who know each other well and maybe be used between those who work closely together on a day to day basis. This form of communication is used with personal conversations. Informal communication can help build better relationships with the staff you work with. An advantage of Informal communication allows you a variety of words according to the area you live in. For example a few of them things are phrases like hay up duck or you all right love. A disadvantage is you may say a word or sentence mean one thing, but some else might interpreted a have a whole different meaning. Formal communication is most likely to start with phrases and greetings like â€Å"Good Morning, â€Å"Good Afternoon† or â€Å"how are you today†? It mostly used when communicating with professional people such as lawyers, other examples of this is a nurse talking to patient. Advantages of this form of communication are: that is straight forward and to the point it has no slang or abbreviations. A disadvantage is that people don’t always use plain English so the information could be misinterpreted. Technological communication aids we have may electronically devices to help use communicate with people, most of these devices have change the manner in which we communicate with people, because of some devices we don’t talk with our friends or family as much as we used to we just send an electronically message this could be a text or picture message or email. Telephone amplifier this is device than can be attached to you telephone which can make the incoming calls louder and clearer to hear. These devices can be attached to either the ear piece of the handset or between the phone and handset only if you handset is detachable. An advantage of this is than is clear and easy to hear what a person is saying to you, a dis advantage is that simple plug in telephones are become less used instead they are being re place with cordless telephones. Mobile phones now days nearly everyone owns a mobile phone. Either a plain and simple phone than just has texts and calls. Or a more advanced phone with lots of feathers like radio, keypad, mp3, touchscreen and apps (applications). This device has helped change the way we communicate with our friends and family. There are many advantages to owning a mobile phone: you are contactable no matter where you are. Also if you had an accident or saw an accident you would be able to get help. There are a lot of disadvantages for having a phone. Is that they could become a detraction at work. The most common one is than people use them when driving this highly dangerous and Couse a lot of accidents another disadvantage is that the older generation of people struggle to lean and understand how to use them effective and just think they are pointless or a nuisance. Also a bad thing about mobiles is they are always being improved. One other disadvantage is theft. Social networking sites have changed the way we interact with people. There are many different social networking sites, flicker, hi 5, msn; facebook and twitter the last two are the most commonly known and used. We can talk to friends and their friends but the scary thing is we don’t even know if our friends are how the say they are, so we must be very careful how we talk to people, we must also be careful what we say or write about on social network sites, as what you have said can never be totally removed from the computer hard drive. The advantages of this form of communication are that you can upload photos and videos. Emails are like electronic letters, they give us a lot of important information. Advantages of emails are they are instant they are cheaper than letters as no postage for the stamp is required, also they are extremely fast compared to traditional letters. Most companies now use emails as it an instant way of advertising as they can email hundreds of people at once. Disadvantages are that you receive scam emails which can place versus onto your computer. Another disadvantage is that some emails clam to be legitimate but scam the user into proving personal information like bank details, and address on a fake website the information is then used for indemnity theft.

Many software systems employ graphical user interface. What sorts of Essay

Many software systems employ graphical user interface. What sorts of user interface were employed before GUIs was available How - Essay Example On the other hand, liveware refers to the users i.e. human beings, who operate the systems by issuing commands to be executed by the system (Anderson 2001). However, for these users to be able to input data and commands, which instruct the system to perform various actions, there must be a way through which they can interact with the computer, which is commonly referred to as human computer interface (HCI) (Stephenson 2001). For example, if a user wants to open an already existing document, he must issue an ‘open’ command to the system through the computer interface available in his system. Currently, there are two major HCI i.e. command line (CLI) and the graphical user interfaces (GUI). Command line interfaces were the most widely used before technological advances in programming resulted to the designing of window based operating systems, which enabled users to interact with their computers through GUI. In a command driven interface, the user uses the keyboard to type commands, which are acceptable to the computer, after which the results are displayed on the screen in form of text. This type of interface came in to use in the early 1950s, an invention which was motivated by the introduction of teletypewriters, which demanded instant display of results (Stephenson 2001). Before this, batch interfaces were used, which are considered to have been non-interactive as they only required the user to input all the data in order for processing to begin, after which there was no opportunity for inputting more data until after all the data was processed and output was given (Stephenson 2001). The disc operating system (DOS) is one of the environments that make use of the command line interface. In order to be able to operate such an interface, it is a must for one to have excellent skills and understanding of the various internal and external commands, which follow predetermined syntaxes (Gookin 2004). For example, if a user intends to view files located in the hard drive i.e. the hard disk, he would have to type a command, which would order the system to display all the files as per the user’s request. The syntax in such a context would appear as follows; c:\dir after which you press enter to display the contents. To access a removable storage media named drive E, one has to type a special command designed for that purpose. This would appear as follows; c:\e: then press enter. C:\ in this case is the root directory, while e: is the destination drive. This implies that command driven interface is tedious to use as one must follow the exact syntax and path in order to get results, which may be the reason why it is widely used by programmers and other IT specialists, who are well conversant with the commands (Gookin 2004). The graphical user interface as opposed to command line interface uses images, which are event driven. This means that once the user clicks on the image, a predetermined action is triggered and as such, click ing becomes a command executor in contrary to CLI where one had to type a specific command on a command prompt (Anderson 2001). However, it is important to note that GUI enables the user to use both the keyboard and the mouse to execute commands. Images in this context are for example; radio buttons, windows, icons, menus among others, which are designed in a

Police Corruption Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Police Corruption - Research Paper Example Thus, the author recommends more emphasis in fighting police corruption as a way of promoting governance and democracy. Cole, Smith and DeJong (2013) define police corruption as a form of police misconduct aimed at obtaining personal gains, including financial benefits or career advancement in exchange for selective or non-pursuance of an arrest or investigation. These could take the form of bribery and payoffs where police officers would accept money or its equivalent in exchange for some favours and demand payment from an individual in return for services respectively; shakedowns describes attempts by an officer to coerce money or its equivalent from criminals; and mooching which describes acceptance of free gifts from a person in return for favourable treatment to the gift giver (Gaines & Miller, 2013). Just as other values, attitudes and norms toward corruption, Martin (2011) argues that police corruption would be bound by context and hence would vary across cultures. For example , in the West, bribery was a major factor in hiring and posting the police in the past but has ceased to be a major concern nowadays. Survey also indicates visible and pervasive police corruption in developing countries as opposed to developed countries where it would be common among those working undercover rather than among the uniformed and visible officers (Bayley & Perito, 2011). This variation in police corruption would undoubtedly impact on the public regard for the police, particularly on perception of legitimacy. Police corruption remains widely spread throughout the world. In the US, the Knapp Commission found out that the New York Police Department, NYPD not only engaged in these corrupt dealings but had gone a notch higher to commit the crimes themselves (Gaines & Miller, 2013). In the UK, suppression of evidence and tampering of confessional evidence and perjury has been documented in the famous cases of the Guildford Four and the Birmingham Six among many other cases. Organised police corruption has also been uncovered in Victoria, Queensland and New South Wales in Australia. The holds or worsens in the rest of the world with Transparency International ranking the crime top in its corruption index among nine public services (Bayley & Perito, 2011). Effect of Police Corruption According to Bayley and Perito, police corruption has been noted to be â€Å"severely regressive,† affecting majorly the low income earners (2011, p. 2). Aid administrators, diplomats and other varied field personnel argue that police corruption leads to wastage of resources, mockery of justice, undermining security, alienating populations from their governments and slowing down economic development. Neild (2007) reveals obstacles in the fulfilment of the basic objective of the international community objective of establishing the rule of law. Incorporating corruption in the administration of law amounts to denial of equal justice. This undermines fair elections, fair trials, cultural expression, socio-economic opportunities and access to the basics of food, shelter, health and education. With the police being the primary institution for the implementation of society’s law, police corruption hinders the implementation of the rule of law. When the police resort to selling their services profitably, the rule of law gets compromised. Cole et al. (2013) cite three major effects of police corruption

Creatity idea work Scholarship Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Creatity idea work - Scholarship Essay Example The alcohol control bodies also streamline the abstinence from excessive drinking through taking the victims through reliable measures of withdrawal and abstinence. The alcohol and drug control agencies ensure that rehabilitation programs work and are adequately resourced (Cornett 2009, p. 34). Consequently, the factors, which lead to alcohol engagement, are eliminated. For instance, low-income status and domestic conflicts result in the involvement of the people in alcoholism. The victims are also responsible for the predicaments. They are the ones to take the initiative to ensure that they abstain from overdrinking. Moreover, the society is negatively affected by the binge drinkers. The alcoholics also consume national resources, which are supposed to enhance developments. For instance, the funds spent by the government in the rehabilitation process cost the government much (Carr 2011, p.56). There are counselors needed to guide and counsel the binge drinkers and encourage them to stop the drinking habit even if they have become addicts. Additionally, the pills provided for abstinence cost the government much funds. The society also suffers because the binge drinkers always cause domestic chaos because the alcohol compromises the thought process of the victims. The physical factors influencing the aspect of binge drinking include a negative effect on health of the affected individuals. The proposal on the resolving of the prevalence of the binge drinking practice among the youth is sound. However, many factors must be considered in order for the remedy to apply efficiently. The idea proposed is viable because it is important to isolate heavy drinkers from the rest of the people in order to prevent the spread of the practice among other people who do not drink heavily. Additionally, the attention given to the heavy drinkers is vital especially in the rehabilitation process. It is plausible for the

Risk and Threats of Cloud Computing Services Research Paper

Risk and Threats of Cloud Computing Services - Research Paper Example In spite  of the varied horizon  being  offered by the cloud computing services, most of the enterprises are skeptical about the safety of the cloud environment and are less willing to take the risks.  Ã‚  In order to maintain the  clientage  and market competitiveness, cloud service providers must learn from the managed service provider (MSP) model to  guarantee  secure services to their clients along with increasing  virtualization  service  efficiencies, (Foster, 1998). Further, the  companies  that are opting for cloud services are unaware of the unidentified risks existing  within  the cloud environment. The ability of the cloud computing model to offer its clients/users to utilize the service provider’s applications which run on a cloud model infrastructure and these applications can be accessed by a number of clients through a system interface, for example, a Web browser, web-based email system. The user is free of responsibilities such as to manage the infrastructure, web servers, operation management and applications, data storage server maintenance, and network application tasks. b.  Platform as a Service (PaaS):  The cloud computing  PaaS  model offers the user the facility to deploy itself on the computing infrastructure which is built according to the user related applications with the help of programming languages like Java, Net, etc.). As already stated before, the user does not have to manage the infrastructure of the cloud computing service, but the user has full

The introduction to macroeconomics, bubbles, and investment behaviour Essay

The introduction to macroeconomics, bubbles, and investment behaviour in Part Three of the module, Bubbles and the economy - Essay Example Therefore, the accounting identity can also be explained as: As shown in the above graph, the savings (s) in a closed economy is always given exogenously. The investment in the market (I) is a function of rate of interest (r). The cost of borrowing money in an economy becomes high when the lending rate of interest is elevated. Hence, investments made in the market are adversely related to the lending rate of interest. At equilibrium rate of interest (re), national savings and investment remains equal to each other (S=I) (Baddeley, 2005). When the aggregate savings in an economy rise up to 30% of GDP, the investments can be expected to increase (to match savings) only if the lending rate of interest (r) falls below the previous equilibrium rate (re). (ii) The supply side policies are implemented in an economy for increasing productivity of its real national output, during a state of recession. These policies help an economy to grow sustainably, without the persistence of inflation (Bernanke, Gertler and Gilchrist, 1996). However, economic growth cannot be successfully achieved solely with the essence of supply side policies. The supply side approach is rendered successful with presence of adequate aggregate demand in the economy. If the housing confidence slumps and the economy suffers from recession, then the individuals desire to save more and spend less. As a result, if the monetary authorities of a country lower interest rate and stimulate investments, then aggregate production related activities will rise, but the output produced will not be sold adequately due to lack of consumers’ demand (Mankiw and Taylor, 2006). (iii) The problems associated with a supply side approach can be resolved with the help of expansionary fiscal policies. These policies will enable the government authorities to stimulate the level of aggregate demand. Such initiatives can be undertaken by the fiscal authorities by way

A Brief Profile Analysis of an Immigrant by the Name Chulryong Seo Essay

A Brief Profile Analysis of an Immigrant by the Name Chulryong Seo - Essay Example The interviewee states that there are a lot of tribulations facing North Korea such as famine, lack of freedom and lack of communication. It is sad that he lost both of his parents through starvation. His escapes from North Korea allowed him to learn about several things in America such as freedom of communication, religion, dressing and movement. He wants to learn the experiences in America so as to go and change the perceptions of living in North Korea. The 25years old boy who has lived in the United States for four years is well conversant with the English language hence giving him an opportunity to interact with the Americans effectively. Ironically, he stays with a Korean family in New York despite him saying that Koreans are not good people as compared to the Americans. He first met the family he is putting up with while in China. Despite being a tempered person he is open-minded to every person thus can interact effectively. Chulryong cites that the government of North Korea practices dictatorship which does not give its people privileges to enjoy hence causing sufferings, challenges and underestimation. The government controls both cultural and social activities in the country. The dictatorial tendencies do not go down well with Chulryong who feels that something must be done to end the vice. He is surprised that Americans do not appreciate the privilege of freedom that is bestowed upon them. The treasure of freedom is the best gift one must always appreciate because it is rare according to Chulryong. Whereas he appreciates freedom in the United States, Chulryong asserts that too much freedom is very dangerous. He cautions Americans not to send money to friends in North Korea. Too much freedom is very dangerous to a nation and can cause harm if not tamed. (Sen Pg 23) Chulryong states that freedom of religion is not guaranteed in North Korea. As a Christian, he  believes that church is an essential tool in life for progress.   

Citibank Budgeting Essay Example for Free

Citibank Budgeting Essay 1. Analysis of Budget Process at Citibank Direction and control of Citibank’s international branches are conducted via two formal management processes. Each year, top management sets sovereign risk limits for its independent branches based on proposals by country managers. Country managers may choose to operate with self-imposed limits below this upper guideline. Following, there is the budget setting process, where headquarters only provides administrative guidelines but not specific targets, with operating managers being responsible for budgets for the following year. Indonesia often set their targets above these long-term goals. Performance is measured and compared against the budget each month, and a new forecast, which will be reviewed by the division manager, is drawn up each quarter for the remainder of the year. This structure of bottom-up budgeting is appropriate for a decentralized firm like Citibank. This is evident from the freedom Mr Mistri has over Indonesia’s operations and the different business segments and divisions, as shown in Exhibit 2 3. Such a participative process is likely to increase management commitment to achieve the targets since country managers are responsible for influencing their own targets. More importantly, country managers know the local business environment and culture better than group managers, therefore their targets are likely to be more accurate and realistic. Furthermore, bottom-up budgeting is a form of action control while the frequent reviews of the budgets serves as preaction review. Both facilitate information sharing within the organisation, with long-term strategic goals of the firm being communicated downwards and local business potentials and risks conveyed upwards via the budgets and forecasts. They also encourage managers to think further ahead about what they want to achieve in the near future. However, Citibank’s budgeting process appears to have an imbalanced focus with most of the emphasis placed only on financial measures. Although these measures can be easily obtained and are inexpensive because they are by-products of the accounting system, it does not fully represent all aspects of the organization’s strategies and goals. Instead, the budget could be restructured to include other non-financial aspects such as customer satisfaction and employee morale to obtain a balance, which will be vital towards the long term success of Citibank. None of Citibank’s budget items extend beyond the next year; instead there is an emphasis on a fixed short horizon. This can result in managers developing a myopic focus instead of measuring the fulfilment of Citibank’s long-term goals or the local government’s societal expectations. Myopia is aggravated by the monthly performance reviews which reveals the focus on short term goals. Citibank should look at its budget with a longer horizon. Moreover, the budgeting process in Citibank appears to be tedious and too time-consuming. The requirement for operating managers to conduct discussions and forecast all the line items shown on the submission form seems to take up significant time and effort. Such a process could be costly for the firm in terms of opportunity costs related to unnecessary time and resources spent. The benefits of such a tedious budgeting process must be high enough to justify the related costs. Also, there seems to be no connection and a mismatch between the two management processes. It is only reasonable that these two processes should go hand in hand as higher returns may only be possible with a higher risk appetite. However, increase in profit goals is not matched by an increase in risk tolerance (sovereign risk limit). Moreover, sovereign risk limits is set yearly but not adjusted when budgets are revised each quarter. Citibank should consider allowing country/division managers to adjust risk limits to match any revisions in budgets during the year. Use of the Budget for Performance Evaluation of Managers Performance is monitored every month against budgets, and incentive compensation for managers were linked to budget-related performance. Incentive compensation could range up to approximately 70% of base salary although awards of 30-35% were more typical. Assignment of bonuses were based approximately 30% on corporate performance and 70% on individual performance, primarily performance related to forecast. This emphasizes results accountability as it involves rewarding the managers for generating good results that are aligned to the budgets. As such, it influences actions because it causes employees to be concerned about the consequences of the actions they take. However, the contradiction in this is that while these managers will not be constrained in what actions they can take to achieve their goals, they are also empowered to take whatever actions they believe will best produce these desired results. Hence, it is highly dependent on personnel controls with regards to the managers hired. Provided that budgets were adequately set with appropriately extent of goal difficulty, these budgets act as results controls and affects a manager’s motivation since the targets are linked to performance evaluations and compensation. Furthermore, it is beneficial that manager’s compensation is tied directly to both individual(70%) and corporate performance(30%), allowing a larger perspective to be considered. Differentiation of base earnings from extraordinary earnings for which managers are not held accountable for is in line with the controllability principle. This is vital because setting performance targets to attain for each measure allows the managers to assess their performance and also get rewarded, encouraging behaviors that lead to desired results. As such, this will promise manager rewards that provide the most powerful motivational effects in the most cost effective ways possible. However, performance evaluations based on budgeted information is backward looking (extrapolating past trends) while it is best that the evaluations be forward looking. It should be evaluated based on the future cash flow/profits that can be brought to the firm instead of historical performance to promote a higher performance in the future. Furthermore, as their compensation is tied to meeting targets, it might promote game-playing and politics. As for Citibank, their culture encourages aggressive mark-ups to budget with managers constantly setting challenging budgets. For Mr Mistri, he will feel the extra pressure since the aggressive targets can barely be met with the deteriorating conditions in Indonesia. In conclusion, the current budget and performance evaluation system, which is mainly bottom up with top down guidance, matches the decentralized structure of Citibank. Although there seems to be trade-offs and problems with Citibank’s current bottom up budgeting system, there is no perfect budget system to optimally serve all the different purposes of budgeting. What Citibank can do is to put in place measures to minimize some of these shortcomings. 2. Are managers at Citibank committed to achieving budget targets? Yes, managers are committed as a result of their freedom to set their own budgets subject to guidelines provided by top management. Mr Mistri can choose to operate with a self imposed sovereign risk limit which is lower than the one approved by the New York Headquarter if he thinks that the one set by the top management is too aggressive. The fact that he has control over this means that he will be less pressurised to set unrealistic goals or engage in budget slacks. These will garner higher commitment from managers since the budgets set are not restrictive and offer flexibility to managers according to the business conditions. The commitment to achieve targets is augmented as incentive compensation for managers is linked to budget-related performance. Thus they will work towards getting more incentives for themselves through surpassing the budgeted forecast. On the other hand, the amount of commitment may be limited by the constant revision of budgets each quarter. Managers may be less motivated to hit their budget target if they know that those targets can be revised lower in the next quarter if performance was unsatisfactory. In addition, the frequent changes may make managers unfocused and reduce their motivation to work towards the goals set. If so, are the budget targets too challenging? The targets may prove to be too challenging. This can be shown by the fact that although incentive compensation could range up to 70% of base salary, awards of 30-35% were more typical, implying that it may be difficult to surpass the budgeted levels. Furthermore, Mr Mistri felt that the increased profit goal by $500K to $1mil set by Mr Gibson is too much as the budget he submitted is already very aggressive, judging by the bleak short term outlook due to the decrease in oil prices. This is supported by the self-imposed sovereign risk limit that Mr Mistri is operating at in order to minimise his exposure which will reduce the likelihood of the firm achieving higher returns due to the lower risk. We also doubt the achievability of the budget set. Though the forecasts and budgets are set by the operating managers themselves, we have to take into consideration Citibank’s risk-taking culture. While challenging targets induce motivation, the aggressive year-on-year increase in targets might prove to be detrimental to the achievement of the firm’s strategic objectives. Firstly, this is especially so when targets are not adjusted in times of bad macroeconomic conditions. With the incentive compensation for managers linked to budget-related performance, it seems that managers might be motivated to set unrealistic targets and employ excessively risky methods to accomplish them. Such a system would eventually serve to promote short-term gains at the expense of long-term losses for the organisation. In addition, the practice of comparing actual performance to budgeted amount monthly is too short termed and may render managers to become myopic. This may encourage managers to engage in gamesmanship such as earnings management, manipulating data to receive additional bonuses especially towards the end of a quarter. Is there any evidence of budget gaming? Yes, there is evidence of budget gaming. The main reason Mr Mistri used to justify his less than ideal budget (as compared to Mr Gibson’s) is likely to be false and there are unhealthy motivations for him to engage in such behaviour. Mr Mistri justified his budget by claiming that the Indonesian economy had slipped into a recession when oil prices decreased significantly. This is supported by the fact that Citibank’s Indonesian operations growth paralleled that of the Indonesian economy. However, evidence in Exhibit 4 suggests otherwise, revealing both the net and inflation-adjusted GDP of Indonesia to be increasing steadily over time. Even in 1983, GDP increased 5%. Moreover, a fall in oil prices will not necessarily lead to a recession. As such, Mr Mistri’s concerns are unlikely to be true and a simple check by the group managers would have allowed this to be uncovered. Moreover, even though Indonesia’s economy is highly dependent on oil prices, a fall in oil prices is also likely to affect Citibank’s other operations in different regions. The group managers will probably have considered this effect when setting the $4mil profit goal for South East Asia. In our opinion, Mr Mistri is likely to be acting as a Sandbagger. By presenting less ambitious budgets, there will be higher likelihood of positive variances in actual performance. Given that compensation is tied to budget-related performance, such gaming behavior will probably increase Mr Mistri’s bonuses and salary. Another motive for budget gaming could be to cover up the ongoing high staff turnover problem with the bad economic conditions. Mr Mistri just lost his chief of staff and two senior officers, and is concerned with constraints to growth due to his lack of experienced staff. This could in turn affect his bonus and salary. Since managers are not accountable for extraordinary earnings or losses at Citibank, by blaming the external economy (recession) for a less aggressive budget rather than on internal problems, his bonuses will not be affected. Furthermore, Mr Minstri has the freedom to operate at a sovereign risk limit lower than the group’s since country managers are given substantial autonomy in deciding their country’s budget and risk limits. He is likely to be able to get away with a less than optimal budget if his group manager trusts him. This way, his budget gaming behavior will escape the suspicions of Mr Gibson and other group/division managers.

Requirement Model For Student Monitoring Systems

Requirement Model For Student Monitoring Systems The focus of this study is to get a good requirement model for Student Attendance Monitoring Systems (SAMS) in secondary school. It is aimed at system designer who want to know how to design an efficient SAMS. At the end of this study, a SAMS prototype will be designed based on the requirement model and also analyze user acceptance of this system. A generation ago, either in principle or in practice, attendance was not optional. Today, often in principle and almost in practice, it is optional (Romer, 1993). According to Lim, Sim and Mansor (2009), most educational institutions administrators are concerned about student irregular attendance. Shendell et al. (2004) defines it can affect student in overall academic performance. Romer (1993) found that attendance did contribute significantly to the academic performance of students. There are a slightly stronger relationship between attendance and performance. Also, Durden Ellis (1995) conclude that attendance does matter for academic achievement. Thus, it makes student attendance mandatory in schools (Romer, 1993), (Woltz, 1955). Yet, almost everyone noticed that attendance in schools is far from perfect (Romer, 1993). There have a lack of school attendance data and a lack of consistency in the definition and measurement of non-attendance (Bourke, Rigby Burden, 2000). Large schools are more likely to have problems with student attendance than small ones (Epstein Sheldon, 2002). Everyday, school staffs spends much time to handle students attendance. There are many problems when recording data manually (Richard, 2005). Sometimes, the attendances record books were missing. In real situation, it is hard for school staffs to search students record by looking at attendances record books one by one. School staffs usually spend much time to find the students record especially when there are many classes in the school. Furthermore, parents may miss to get any information or letter from schools when their children didnt attend to school. According to Epstein Sheldon (2002), high school staffs communications with parents about attendance can increased student attendance and reduced chronic absenteeism. Hence, by creating school attendance system is one of the best solutions to address this problem. The system should help school staffs to take attendance for student especially in secondary schools. It must make the process of taking the attendance easier, faster and secure as compared to conventional method. The conventional method of taking attendance by calling names or signing on paper is very time consuming, inefficient, and insecure (Ervasti, Isomursu, Kinnula, 2009), (Lim, Sim Mansor, 2009). It is a one way that helps teachers or school staffs reducing the taken time to carry out routine processes and enable them connected with parents by sending real-time information on their childrens attendance immediately if students are not-attended to school more than the limit. Thus, teacher have more time for teaching. (Ervasti, Isomursu, Kinnula, 2009). Problem Statement In schools, attendance is important and mandatory. Nowadays, due to enlarge of information technology environment, it is efficient to use School Attendance Monitoring System (SAMS) to manage attendance in secondary schools. In recent years, system designers have expands many ways and characteristics in design a good system. The problem of this study is to identify important characteristics to design a good SAMS, set up a requirement model, and build a prototype for testing user acceptance. The requirement model must meet the user needs, goals and constraints in order to determine the important feature, relations and design implications. The requirement must be specify clearly about what and how the SAMS should perform. Objectives To create a SAMSs requirement model for secondary school. To design and build a prototype of SAMS. To help other system developer within related area. Scope The study will be conducted within the Kampar district, Perak. All schools chosen for survey will be secondary schools only. Similarly, there are nine secondary schools in Kampar district (sample size). People who manage secondary school organizations are the only respondents of the study. The population is between 15 to 25 or more school staffs. The particular focus areas of the study would include attendance system which is already used in secondary schools. LITERATURE REVIEW According to Epstein Sheldon (2002), reducing the rates of student chronic absenteeism has been and continues to be a goal of many schools and school systems. In 1999, a student tracking system involving a database is being trialed in government and non-government schools Western Australia (Bourke, Rigby Burden, 2000). The student tracking system involved a set of processes, procedures and systems which can identify and monitor the location of students. In the Torres Strait schools, they used a system called Student Information Management System (SIMS). The SIMS provides a good quality data regarding student attendance. This computer-based system collates individual class attendance records on a weekly basis (Bourke, Rigby Burden, 2000). The relationship between staffs and parents was seen as vitally important by parents and principals. The student survey results indicated that attendance levels were significantly higher among students when teachers got in touch with their parents to talk about how they were going at school (Bourke, Rigby Burden, 2000). Therefore, in schools where students have attendance problems, school staffs may need to go beyond the school building to involve parents in reducing absenteeism (Epstein Sheldon, 2002). Hence, student attendance monitoring system should help school staffs and parents easy to communicate. There are varieties of opportunities for implementing IT in management education. Technology can be used to facilitate the display of information, to increase access to external explicit information, and to increase the sharing and construction of knowledge (Leidner Jarvenpaa, 1995) but some of the use of this technology is not yet widespread, efficient and practical for implementation of data management (Wayman, et. al., 2004). Implementation of an application system can present many unforeseen challenges. The first step toward implementing a student data analysis system should be to thoroughly assess the data, needs, and resources available to a school or district. The successful implementation is important for the long-term development of a data based decision-making climate (Wayman, et. al, 2004). Fig. 1 shows the model for integrated functional requirement which has been explained by Malet et al. (2007) Figure 1: Model for Integrated Functional Requirement In Fig. 1, functions can be linked with specific processes. The technical realization of functions takes place in these processes. Functions can also be related to specific positions in the product structure. As a result of linking the requirements with functions, functions to processes and the product structure, an indirect relation between requirements, processes and the product structure has been established (Malet et al., 2007). There are many views of softwares development or development process though that has evolved over the years. What follows is a brief discussion of the theories of the software development process that recently used today. The first formal description of the software development process model is published in 1970 by Winston W. Royce. Below is one of the software development processs model: Figure 2: Conceptual model of software development process According to Royce (1970), firstly, developer must analyze user requirements. After that, make requirement specifications by clearly set out necessary features of system based on user requirement. Then, developer can design a suitable solution and do implementation by develop the proposed solution. In addition, developer must test the system to ensure that the solution solves the original problem and works in context. Lastly, developer must maintain the system. METHODOLOGY Fig. 3 shows the requirement modeling process which has been explained by Malet et al. (2007) Figure 3: Requirement modeling process The first step is elicitation of requirements. The requirements will be based on collected data. The sites are the secondary school managing departments. The sampling frame will be based on the list of the secondary schools within area of Kampar district, Perak. The sample size will be nine secondary schools. The population is between 15 to 25 or more employees including principal, clerks, and teachers. The method of data collection is by questionnaire and interview. According to Creswell (1994), measurement instrument can helps in get a quantifiable data. A questionnaire will be given to each employee within the sampling to get employees personal details, personal experiences of using any school attendance system, problem with existing attendance system and an opinion or suggestion for the future systems developer. The purpose of the study and how to answer the questionnaire will be explained to the employees under study. During interview session, the informants will be selected ind ividuals within the sample employees who had an experience of using any school attendance system. The second step is analyzing the requirements. All user requirements will be investigated. The data will be analyzed and displayed using SPSS 16.00. The percentage, the mean and statistic formula (ANOVA) will be used when describing the data. It will be interpreted and translated into a form that suitable for other developer (sequence diagram, activity diagram, class diagram etc.). A requirement specifications model will be defined by clearly set out necessary features of SAMS. The third step is managing the requirements. In this step, a prototype of SAMS will be design and built based on user requirement model by using several types of tool such as Dreamweaver CS4, Photoshop CS4 and etc. The programming language that will be used for building the system is PHP. During this system development lifecycle, requirements might be change and evolve. These changes need to be tracked and traced (Malet et al., 2007). Lastly, the fulfillment of requirements needs to be validated with virtual or physical tests. A product is deemed successful (by means of satisfying the customer) if all requirements are fulfilled (Malet et al.,2007). SAMS will be tested to ensure that the solution solves the original problem and integrate the system to make sure that the solution will working in circumstance. The user acceptance testing will be done by choosing user randomly within the sample. Requirements modeling takes place in all phases of product development. More emphasis needs to be put on later development phases such as usage, recycling and maintenance. The knowledge gained in these phases, once included in the development process, can accelerate the development of new products (Malet et al.,2007). EXPECTED FINDINGS At the end of this study, the requirement model can help any system designers to design good SAMS for secondary schools. They will know how to design useful, usable and desirable SAMS such as in the system should contain the right functions, secure and must be user friendly. SAMS should contain all these basic needs of attendance system. Below shows the flow of Students Attendance Monitoring Systems (SAMS): 1 Record attendance 2 Check attendance 3 Process data 4 Save data 5 Send email Figure 4: The flow of Students Attendance Monitoring Systems (SAMS). SAMS should helps school staffs records students attendance, checks either student is present or absent, process the attendance data, save it and send an email to the parents if student was absent more than three days. SIGNIFICANCE The aimed of requirement model for Student Attendance Monitoring System (SAMS) is to help system designer in designing a good attendance system and also conduct them to develop the attendance system in the future. Attendance system are important because can gives many benefit to schools such as security on attendance, reduce work time on taking attendance and create connection between school staffs and parents. CONCLUSION There is no comprehensive and generally accepted manual on how to design good human factors into computer systems (Shackel, 1984) but there are a lot of guideline on how to design a system. However, this requirement model can guide any system designers who want straightly focus to design Student Attendance Monitoring System (SAMS). Creativity and innovation are required to make a great SAMS. The system should be usable. Usability consists of many pieces such as system performance, system functions, user interfaces organization and so on. REFERRENCES Bourke, C. J., Rigby, K., Burden J. (2000). Better Practice in School Attendance: Improving the School Attendance of Indigenous Students. Commonwealth of Australia. 1-62. Creswell, J. W. (1994). Research design. Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage. Durden, G. C. Ellis, L. V. (1995). The Effects of Attendance on Student Learning in Principles of Economics, The American Economic Review, Papers and Proceedings of the Hundredth and Seventh Annual Meeting of the American Economic association Washington, 85(2), 343-346. Epstein, J. L., Sheldon, S. B. (2002). Present and Accounted for: Improving Student Attendance Through Family and Community Involvement. Educational Research and Improvement. 95(5). 308- 318. Ervasti, M., Isomursu, M., Kinnula, M. (2009). Bringing Technology into School NFC-enabled School Attendance Supervision. ACM 978-1-60558-846-9 09 Leidner, D. E. Jarvenpaa S. L. (1995). The Use of Information Technology to Enhance Management School Education: A Theoretical View. MIS Quarterly: Special Issue on IS Curricula and Pedagogy, 19(3), 265-291. Lim, T. S., Sim, S. C. Mansor, M. M. (2009). RFID Based Attendance System, Symposium on Industrial Electronics and Applications (ISIEA 2009), 2, 778-782. Maletz, M., Blouin, J. G., Schnedl, H., Brisson, D., Zamazal, K. (2007). A Holistic Approach for Integrated Requirements Modeling in the Product Development Process. The Virtual Vehicle-Research Center, Graz, Austria. 1-10. Richard, L. (2005). Handling Qualitative Data: A Practical Guide. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage. Romer, D. (1993). Do Students Go to Class? Should They?. Journal of Economics Perspectives, 7(3), 167- 174. Royce, W. W. (1970). Managing the Development of Large Software Systems. Proceedings IEEE WESCON. 1-9. Shackel, B. (984). Information Technology: A challenge to ergonomics and design. Behaviour and Information Technology. 3. 263-275. Shendell, D. G., Prill, R., Fisk, W. J., Apte, M. G., Blake, D. Faulkner, D. (2004). Associations between Classroom CO2 Concentrations and Student Attendance in Washington and Idaho. Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory: LBNL Paper LBNL-54413. Retrieved from: http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/88r0924r Wayman, J. C., Stringfield, S., Yakimowski, M. (2004). Software Enabling School Improvement Through Analysis Of Student Data. Research on the Education of Students, 67. Woltz, C. K. (1955). Compulsary Attendance at School. Law and Comtemporary Problems. 20(1), 3-22.

Effect of Health Workers on Policy Makers

Effect of Health Workers on Policy Makers POLITICS, LAWS AND BUDGETS The political system of a country plays a critical role with the affairs surrounding health. It is important to examine the relationship of how health problems affects policy making and how health professionals can participate in the legislative process. Not all health professionals know how policies, that influenced their practice, are made. Some of the decisions that affects healthcare professionals and their customers are made by the government or state or appointed politicians that have limited knowledge with health and who have various field of expertise resulting into some ineffective health policies. This results into increased pressure on health workers and agencies to participate in policy making. People working in the medical field have been long complaisant in just providing research results to the legislative body. However, health professionals must also play an active role in developing health policies. Health Workers and Policy Making The government’s treasury provides advice to the political leaders on the budget distribution for the different government sectors including health. These advice ranges from purchase and regulation of health services to health strategies and policies. In distributing the funds, it is vital to know which health policy should be prioritize for the benefit of the majority. The effectiveness of a health policy can be greatly influenced by staffing the legislative body with people possessing vast knowledge, skills and experience in the field of human health. In order to achieve an effective policy, health professionals must combined their scientific knowledge with actual work and strategies in policy making. This is a big responsibility for healthcare professionals as this means that they also have to developed more their skills and expertise in leadership role to be an effective policy maker. An article written by Roper (1992), states that the recently created Public Health Leader ship Institute offered by Center for Disease Control in US, is designed to enhance the leadership skills of health officers to have a wide understanding on the emerging public health issues. An example of a model for making health policies can be observed in China. Decentralisation of the national government gives the local government the power to make decisions on local affairs. This means that local government can make policies and adapt it to a higher level government. From the gathered information or data from local government the central government will have a basis for making a central policy.It also means that health sectors are involved in the policy making. Areas of Advocacy For Health Workers Advocacy is one of the most powerful tool for health workers to achieve their goals. By advocating, health workers influences the priorities and action of those people in the position or those who are in power. There are areas in which where health workers can be an advocate. Workplace Health personnels should act rather than wait for a crisis to erupt. Health workers serves as the first line of defense in terms of protecting the health of the population. And because of this, they should take part in making a policy that will benefit all and something that would lasts. Kingdon (1992) coined the term â€Å"policy entrepreneurs† to describe public health professionals. In the workplace, one of the most important attributes of a health leader is having an excellent interpersonal skill. As a healthcare leader, they can coordinate all communication/issues between health workers and policy makers. Having a good flow of communication in the workplace will help the leader to decide what information should be provided to the policy maker. Organized communication ensures that the organization speaks in one voice and the legislation have a central point of contact inside the workplace. Staff members within the company should have an understanding on the legislative process for them to know the implications of a proposal and it’s possible results in the future. An example of this is, chain of communication can also be observed inside a specific company. Those workers who belongs to the bottom level in the organisational chart are given the chance to be heard by voicing out their suggestions/concerns with regards to the existing policies and management. The gathered information from these workers, will be reported by the manager to the policy maker or those authorities concerns. In the workplace, health workers may be ask to decide more in an operational way. This involves decision with regards to the daily operation of the organisation. A series of good operational decision can lead an organisation in achieving their long term goal. Government Law (n.d.) defined government as the regulating, restraining, supervising or controlling body of society. They have the political power to exercised these rights upon the individual member of an organised society, for the good and welfare of the majority. The New Zealand government follows the Westminster model wherein it is composed of a constitutional monarchy, a sovereign parliament and the three vital branches of government. These three entities are Legislative, Executive and Judiciary. The most important duty of the legislative body is to make laws. They are the one responsible for assessing if bill can be turned into laws. The head of the executive branch is the President or the Prime Minister. The head of the executive approves and carry out the law passed by the legislative branch. The judiciary exercise the power to interpret and apply the law through the court system. Health workers can impact the way policies are made from the local government to the national government. The role of health workers is vital in sustaining and achieving progress in health sector. To fully understand how health workers can influence policy making, let us take a look on what happen in Tanzania: Cokelet (2009), detailed how a person became an advocate in decreasing the case of violence against women in Tanzania despite of the obstacles. The high rate of violence in this country is directly related to their culture which seems to view this practice as an acceptable issue. Kivulini of Women’s Rights Organization aimed in reducing gender-based violence by mobilising the community to change the norms and the policy in their society. Before starting her advocacy, she needed to have first an understanding about the obstacles addressing the issue of violence by consulting a study done by the World Health Organisation, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. She used the result of the study to serves as a basis of collecting more specific and realistic information. They collect information from women about how well they know the available resources or the policies by the local government to help them with their situation. They found out that local leaders lack the kno wledge, training and resources to help those abused women. By the result of the study Kivulini developed a model of training and care and now advocating this model with the Prime Minister of Tanzania and local government officials. Kivulini started the advocacy in the community/local government and their model also affects the national level. Tanzania increased the funds for the training and increasing resources to tackle the issue of violence. Professionals Organizations Health workers must be involved in policy process that will affect them in personal and professional level. This involves having knowledge on the existing laws and regulations that regulates their profession. References Cokelet, E. (2009). Advocacy to Improve Global Health: Strategies and Stories from the Field. PATH p.2 Kingdon, J.W. (1992): Agendas, alternatives and public policy. Little Brown and Company, Boston. Law,(n.d.):What is government? Retrieved from hhtp://thelawdictionary.org Roper, W.L. (1992): Strengthening the public health system. Public Health Reports 107: 609-615.

Creationsim vs. Evolution :: Science Religion Essays

Creationsim vs. Evolution Intro Who or what really is our greatest of great ancestors? Most major religions and early groups of people have an answer to this common question. The Greek myths declare that only Geia (the Earth) and a great sea of Chaos were in the beginning, and in a soap opera fashion the gods eventually came forth, who eventually created humans (Bierlein 47-8). The Chippewa/Algonquin Native Americans believe that the great Earth Mother had two sons, a good one and a bad one that ended up creating the plants, animals, and humans (61). In the Christian, scientific Western Hemisphere, we believe in two possible answers -- one, that we descended from Adam, who was created from the mingling of the dirt of the ground with God's breath into His image (a doctrine held by religious Creationism), or two, that we evolved from monkeys which evolved from bacteria, which evolved from non-living chemicals and lightning (the scientific theory of evolution). These two theories both have credibility - the Bible is one of the oldest and most extensive historical documents we have, recorded with great precision, while evolution is very logical and builds on numerous scientific disciplines. Yet creation and evolution seem diametrically opposed. If we were created randomly and purposelessly, as evolution suggests, then the creation account of a sculptor molding his clay to make man appears erroneous. So scientists often call the Genesis account a â€Å"myth† – a story conceived by early man to explain away his questions. Christians are often offended by implications like these, and end up attacking science’s claims. In turn, many scientists feel distaste for people who don't accept their elegant theory and their mounds of evidence, and thus reject the others' view. Though a war has been established pinning these two theories against each other, this dichotomy is actually a false one. Christians do not need to give up their faith and scientists can start believing in God. These two clashing but persuasive theories, creation and evolution, can be reconciled. First, these theories need to be defined. Definition Evolution is the theory that all living organisms can be traced back to a common ancestor, which came into being from non-living elements, by natural laws. Darwin’s contribution to this theory was the mechanism by which species could evolve – natural selection.

Wireless Protocols :: essays research papers fc

Wireless Protocols As with all data transmission technologies, protocols govern the manner in which information is transferred between stations. A protocol is simply an agreed upon standard that all parties use to ensure that different devices can communicate with each other. Wireless protocols can be discussed on their own, and where they fit in the OSI protocol suite. For the sake of clarity, we will limit our discussion to wireless network implementations. Wireless protocols typically reside in layers 1 and 2, the application and presentation layers, respectively, of the OSI model. These two layers help direct how the data is gathered from the end station and prepared for transmission. The main wireless protocol are: IEEE 802.11 covering wireless Ethernet; 802.15 dealing with wireless personal area networks (WPAN), including Bluetooth technology; and 802.16 for broadband wireless access. 802.11 The IEEE 802.11 specification family consists of four different, primary specifications: †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  802.11 – applies to wireless LANs and provides 1 or 2 Mbps transmission in the 2.4 GHz band using either frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) or direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS). †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  802.11a – an extension to 802.11 that applies to wireless LANs and provides up to 54 Mbps in the 5GHz band. 802.11a uses an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing encoding scheme rather than FHSS or DSSS. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  802.11b (also referred to as 802.11 High Rate or Wi-Fi) – an extension to 802.11 that applies to wireless LANS and provides 11 Mbps transmission (with a fallback to 5.5, 2 and 1 Mbps) in the 2.4 GHz band. 802.11b uses only DSSS. 802.11b was a 1999 ratification to the original 802.11 standard, allowing wireless functionality comparable to Ethernet. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  802.11g – applies to wireless LANs and provides 20+ Mbps in the 2.4 GHz band. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  802.11n – applies to future standards for wireless data transmission that promises a maximum bandwidth of 108 Mbps through the use of multiple antennas (MIMO). Strangely, the order of inception is not alphabetical. Rather, the specifications developed as follows: 802.11; 802.11b; 802.11a; 802,11g; and the projected 802.11n. The 802.11 family specifies the way in which wireless devices communicated with wired LAN base stations, or access points. Wireless-to-wired communication is known as infrastructure mode. A second mode, known as ad hoc mode, specifies the manner in which direct communication between wireless devices occurs. Three of the four current specifications use the 2.4 GHz band. This is an unlicensed bandwidth, which means it is available free of charge to anyone with the technical to use it. Wireless Protocols :: essays research papers fc Wireless Protocols As with all data transmission technologies, protocols govern the manner in which information is transferred between stations. A protocol is simply an agreed upon standard that all parties use to ensure that different devices can communicate with each other. Wireless protocols can be discussed on their own, and where they fit in the OSI protocol suite. For the sake of clarity, we will limit our discussion to wireless network implementations. Wireless protocols typically reside in layers 1 and 2, the application and presentation layers, respectively, of the OSI model. These two layers help direct how the data is gathered from the end station and prepared for transmission. The main wireless protocol are: IEEE 802.11 covering wireless Ethernet; 802.15 dealing with wireless personal area networks (WPAN), including Bluetooth technology; and 802.16 for broadband wireless access. 802.11 The IEEE 802.11 specification family consists of four different, primary specifications: †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  802.11 – applies to wireless LANs and provides 1 or 2 Mbps transmission in the 2.4 GHz band using either frequency hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) or direct sequence spread spectrum (DSSS). †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  802.11a – an extension to 802.11 that applies to wireless LANs and provides up to 54 Mbps in the 5GHz band. 802.11a uses an orthogonal frequency division multiplexing encoding scheme rather than FHSS or DSSS. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  802.11b (also referred to as 802.11 High Rate or Wi-Fi) – an extension to 802.11 that applies to wireless LANS and provides 11 Mbps transmission (with a fallback to 5.5, 2 and 1 Mbps) in the 2.4 GHz band. 802.11b uses only DSSS. 802.11b was a 1999 ratification to the original 802.11 standard, allowing wireless functionality comparable to Ethernet. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  802.11g – applies to wireless LANs and provides 20+ Mbps in the 2.4 GHz band. †¢Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  802.11n – applies to future standards for wireless data transmission that promises a maximum bandwidth of 108 Mbps through the use of multiple antennas (MIMO). Strangely, the order of inception is not alphabetical. Rather, the specifications developed as follows: 802.11; 802.11b; 802.11a; 802,11g; and the projected 802.11n. The 802.11 family specifies the way in which wireless devices communicated with wired LAN base stations, or access points. Wireless-to-wired communication is known as infrastructure mode. A second mode, known as ad hoc mode, specifies the manner in which direct communication between wireless devices occurs. Three of the four current specifications use the 2.4 GHz band. This is an unlicensed bandwidth, which means it is available free of charge to anyone with the technical to use it.