Critical Thinking Essay: the Godfather Essay

The Godfather, a story about a multigenerational crime family by the Italian American author Mario Puzo, was one of the best-selling books since it was published in 1969. Not only the book was a phenomenon, its movie under the direction of director Francis Ford Coppola had also become a landmark in American movie since it was released in 1972. The Godfather detailed impressively the activities of the gangster world, especially the Corleone family which was under the control of the patriarch Vito Corleone starring by Marlon Brando and Al Pacino as his youngest son Michael Corleone who soon inherited his father’s position. The film lived up to the term masterpiece which helped it win three Academy Awards for best actor, best picture, and best adapted screenplay. Although the movie was full of brutal violence and mass killing of people, it also showed the care, the love, and the loyalty of the Corleone family members for each other. Rather than just showing the criminal side of breaking the laws or murdering people, The Godfather showed a brand new vision of the gangster world to the audiences. The criminal genre first started with the film the Little Caesar which was the first movie ever made about the gangster world in 1931. Later, many famous directors had taken advantage of this new trend and released many great movies with this genre, such as director Howard Hawkes with his famous film Scarface in 1932 and director Raoul Walsh with the movie White Heat in 1949. Those were all the big films that gave the audiences the impression of how audacious and dangerous the Mafia was. Mostly those movies focused on a younger gangster who was trying to work his way up in his criminal career to become well-known and powerful in the underworld by all means. Then, the release of the Godfather impressively surprised all the fans of the mob movies with a totally different viewing experience. The film depicted a systematic criminal organization, a â€Å"family business† that was transferred from generation to generation. The audiences are attracted in the very first plot of the movie when it shows Vito Corleone is doing his â€Å"business†. The man is insisting him to take revenge for his daughter who was brutally beaten by her boyfriend and he will pay any price the Godfather wants. The audiences will think that surely the Don will say â€Å"yes† because that is how a mobster is in their mind: Give them money, they will do anything. However, Vito says â€Å"No† because the only thing he wants from the man is friendship and he feels disrespectful when the man is only talking about money. Another plot that shows the breakthrough of the Godfather is when his oldest son, Santino, was butchered by Emilio Barzini’s men, the second most powerful Don, Vito still takes the initiative of renouncing all the vengeance at which audiences think there will be a massacre between the two families. Vito also makes a concession in doing drug business though he mentioned that he never believed drugs. In return, he wants a guarantee from other families for the safety of his own family and the younger son, Michael, who is still in Sicily hiding away from the police. Furthermore, thanks to director Coppola for being determined in choosing the appropriate actors and actresses for every characters in the movie which was a great contribution to the movie that made it become a masterpiece. Marlon Brando was not the first choice for the character Vito Corleone, he was actually refused for casting by the Paramount executives. However, Coppola believed Marlon was the best match for the character so he fought hard for him until the executives agreed. Marlon proved to the executives that Coppola was right by showing his consensus in being a patriarch of a powerful criminal family. The way the Godfather talks to his clients makes him a respectable man to his friends and family but a dangerous and cold-hearted killer to those who wants to go against him. Besides, the great performance of Marlon Brando puts an outstanding development of Al Pacino’s character. Like Marlon, Al Pacino was not highly valued by the executives because of his looks and lack of experiences in acting. However, with his efforts, the viewers can see the improvement in performing Michael Corleone through all the scenes. The scene he played that helped him keep his role is when Michael was in the restaurant with McCluskey and Sollozo. This plot was really breathtaking and terrifying that makes viewers attentively watch it to the end. Michael’s shiver and worry before the shot successfully portrays an inexperienced mobster, a newbie in the underworld of Michael. Indeed, in the second half of the movie, when Michael took over his father’s chair and started the wipe-out of all of the family’s rivals, he showed an image of a young Don who was more wise and dangerous than his father. As a gangster movie, the Godfather has many plots that can make viewers jump out of their chairs or hide their faces behind their hands. As an experienced director, Coppola knew how to combine background music with the plots to emphasize their contents. For example, when Jack Woltz refused the offer from the Godfather of letting Johnny Fontane cast a role in his movie, the next morning he woke up and saw his beloved horse head in his bed. The evil music was playing very small when the scene was showing Woltz’s garden, viewers could even hear the sound of the crickets. Then the camera slowly moved to Woltz’s bedroom where the music was playing louder and louder as it reached near Woltz’s bed. Finally, the music turned to maximum when Woltz was screaming because he saw the horse head. This scene really freaked people out because Coppola used a real horse head. Lastly, the movie is remarkable because it shows deeply the human part of mobsters. A typical example of how the Corleone members care for each other is Santino’s care about his sister, Conny. At the first scene of the movie, there was the wedding of Conny and Carlo. Unfortunately, Carlo did not love her. He purposely married to Conny because he wanted to get involved in Corleone family which was the most powerful Mafia family in New York. However, Vito Corleone did not let any outsiders to be part of the his business. Carlo was disappointed and he started abusing Conny fiercely, his just married wife. In the film, audiences can see Santino was the only member in the family protected Conny. Santino was also a very hot-tempered person. In some plots, because he was so aggressive, he brought a very bad impression on viewers. Nevertheless, watching him beating Carlo on the street, viewers would have a more positive feeling toward him. Another plot that makes the audiences more sympathy with the movie is when Vito retired, he became an old man with very simple joys of doing gardening and playing with his grandson. Later in the movie, he died by a heart attack, a very normal way that could happen to other elders. That scene really surprises viewers because they may think as one of the most powerful Don in the Mafia world, Vito Corleone should have had a more honorable death. Overall, although the Godfather was released in 1972 at which the performance of the actors and actresses were not as good as the casts now, it still has the full attention of audiences every time they watch. It is rated R which means it has many extremely violent scenes and nudity plots. Some people may think its violence is quite tame. However, if parents don’t take seriously consideration before letting their kids see the movie, their kids might still have a nightmare at night. Work Cited Seal, Mark. â€Å"The Godfather Wars.† Vanity Fair. N.p., Mar. 2009. Web. 18 Nov. 2012. . Rovi, Bruce Eder. â€Å"Little-Caesar – Trailer – Cast – Showtimes – NYTimes.com.† Little-Caesar – Trailer – Cast – Showtimes – NYTimes.com. The New York Times, n.d. . â€Å"TheGodfather Trivia: Leavethe Gun, Read the Trivia!(Total Trivia Entries: 147).† The Godfather Trivia. N.p., n.d. .

Ambugity and Clarity in Writing

I chose example 2 which stated â€Å"I was thrown from my truck as it left the road. I was later found in a ditch by a flock of wild turkeys. † This statement in my opinion is an example of vagueness. The vagueness comes from the statement that is very unclear. I am having a hard time understanding how this person was thrown from their truck. It is missing information and is hard to follow. This statement allows me to know that the person was thrown from a truck but we do not know how or how they were found by a ditch of flock.This could have been by a car accident or by someone who could have literally threw this person out of the truck. This type of vagueness throws the reader off because they are unclear of what is really going on in the writing, it becomes a problem when you are trying to understand reasoning behind this statement. The second sample writing I chose was â€Å"The online course helps me in a lot of ways. I can use all kinds of resources. The place in the li brary offer tutorials in all different areas, Microsoft Word, Excel and other tutorials.Also, there is services, that offers technical support, tutoring, library help, and then there are financial aid and academic advising. The library section offers help in finding books, journal articles and more. There is even places in math, writing and technical. † This statement is ambiguous because it is open to more than one interpretation. This can be speaking on behalf one online course or the school of online courses. Also when they mentioned that the library offers all types of resources it does not specify which library and where this library can be found. It could be found online or it could be a place where you have to go.When you write a statement it needs to be clearly understood and it should not have your reader trying to understand the statement you are trying to put across. In this example the writer would get that the writer likes online courses but in the supporting sent ences it just goes into stating help from the library and is somewhat confusing. The relationship between critical thinking and clear writing is that they both work together. You have to critically think to clear write. When you are jotting things down your brain is working to come up with these unique thoughts which is critically thinking. They go hand in hand.

Max and Liesel; How Max Plays an Important Role in Liesel’s Life

The idea of a Jewish male and a German girl becoming good acquaintances is an unimaginable, punishable thought in the time that The Book Thief is written. However, Max Vandenburg and Liesel Meminger went against this abomination during this time and during their friendship Max Vandenburg gave many things to Liesel: purpose through strength, purpose in knowing that Jews are humans as well, and purpose in knowing the power of words. Max and Liesel are two similar but very different characters in The Book Thief. These two characters although conflicted find comfort in each other through seeing things in color and words, which gives Liesel a different view on varying prominent things in her life, in Germany. By better understanding how Max and Liesel compare and differ in character a reader can determine how Max’s life gives Liesel purpose through making her stronger, showing her the brutality of the Nazi’s, and showing her the power of words. Liesel becomes stronger emotionally through having a shared feeling of abandonment between Max and her from their past experiences. After she and Max Vandenburg share their nightmares in the basement of the Hubermann’s, Liesel begins to deal with her nightmares by herself and to not let them envelop her. Liesel also realizes through these stories of Max’s experiences that if he can fight for his life everyday and live by running then she can persevere through her nightmares and be stronger. By keeping some emotions inside her, like fear and love, she helps adjust to relying on just herself which is shown in the ending of the book, â€Å"Hot tears fought for room in her eyes as she would not let them out. Better to stand resolute and proud† (Zusak 512). Having strength also gave her a voice allowing her to stand up to different people and change people’s minds in very intricate ways. As Liesel became stronger it led her to have more of a purpose in different ways and she finds new reasons to live. One of the most prominent of differences between the two characters is physical; Max is Jewish and Liesel is German. As the book is set during the time period of World War II in Germany, the separation between the Jews and the Aryan race is an outstanding factor in people’s lives. Liesel overcame the sense of being hypnotized to the Furher’s words through Max and their friendship. Beginning to realize the brutality of the Nazi’s and the nature of the Jews, Liesel changes her mind about the Nazi government, allowing her to not be as easily swayed by the propaganda of the dictator of Germany. People begin to realize the innocence and the lack of prejudice in a child especially through Liesel as she grew older, â€Å"She was a Jew feeder without a question in the world on a man's first night in Molching† (Zusak 532). This gives Liesel purpose to show other Germans the same realization that both those of the Aryan Race and the Jewish people are human and they can share the same interests as each other. Through Max’s and Liesel’s shared love of books and writing Max gives Liesel the extensive knowledge of the power of words. For the rest of her life she cherishes this knowledge, â€Å"She was still holding onto the words who had saved her life† (Zusak 499). Words not only helped her and Max, but she found her true calling in comforting people through reading to them. â€Å"The Standover Man† and â€Å"The Word Shaker† allows Liesel to see the effects of words on her through someone else’s eyes as well as the effect of her words on someone else. Max shows her that she too has made him stronger and he accepts several troubles in his life. Through recognizing this it gives Liesel purpose and eventually led her to write a book on her own called â€Å"The Book Thief†. Soon after Max leaves the Hubermann household Liesel finds out the reason she steals books and why they mean so much to her, giving her stealing a purpose as well. The knowledge of words from Max really contributes to Liesel’s purpose in life and allows Liesel to grow as a person by knowing the effect of words on people. Max gives Liesel a different outlook on different things in her life like her bad experiences, the German government, and words. Liesel becomes stronger as she begins to realize that compared to Max she is without struggle in her life. She sees that before she met Max Vandenburg she was devoted to the ways of the Nazi’s and now seeing what they have done to those like Max, she changes her ways. Also, the biggest thing Max has bestowed on Liesel is showing her the power of words; this gives Liesel true purpose in giving her the power to comfort and harm people through both reading and writing. The relationship between Max and Liesel is a great marvel in Markus Zusak’s, The Book Thief, and is a huge turning point in the book as well.

Mountain Dew Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Mountain Dew - Research Paper Example The advertising campaign of Mountain Dew’s is currently directed at the right market segment in terms of age, since the new campaign targets the teenager consumers to the consumers in their 20s. The ads are made for different mediums including television and radio and a diverse lineup of up to seven celebrities has been used to tailor the appeal to the needs of regional markets. However, the use of celebrities has not been made rightly. For example, as of the year 2011 in Los Angeles, there is a majority of white persons i.e. 71.8 per cent. The second largest population is of the Hispanics or Latinos i.e. 48.1 per cent, the non-Hispanic Whites make the third-largest population in Los Angeles with a population of 27.6 per cent of the total, Asians are the fourth-largest population i.e. 14.2 per cent, whereas the African Americans are the fifth-largest group in Los Angeles with a population of only 9.3 per cent (United States Census Bureau, 2012). Taking these statistics into co nsideration, Mountain Dew should have used a white celebrity in its ad for the audiences of television in Los Angeles whereas it included Lil Wayne in the ad who is an African American. Mountain Dew does not differentiate the product from the competition but the advertising campaigns run in the past have emphasized on the products’ benefits, e.g. â€Å"Ya-hoo! Mountain Dew! It’ll tickle your innards† (Stanford, 2012) and â€Å"Shore as shootin’, there’s a bang in every bottle† (Stanford, 2012). Mountain Dew has taken certain initiatives in the right direction like introducing new varieties and different flavors in addition to the original version in the states. To make more sales, Mountain Dew needs to make new customers without loosing its old customers. There has been a decrease in the percentage of the non-Hispanic consumers of Mountain Dew from the year 2000 to 2012 by almost three per cent. This is a huge loss for Mountain Dew since the whites make 80 per cent of the total population of Mountain Dew consumers. To make new customers, Mountain Dew needs to reflect in its ads that it caters for the interests and needs of people from all races and ethnicities. While there has been a decrease in the population of whites since the start of the 21st century, there has been a corresponding increase in the population of the non-whites in the US in general and the African Americans in particular. By casting Lil Wayne in its new TV advertising campaign, Mountain Dew has provided the African Americans with a means to identify with Mountain Dew, but not the audiences belonging to other races. The ad has been made strategically since it conveys the message in catchy phrases e.g. â€Å"If you got anything from me, it’s to find your thing and do you† (Stanford, 2012). In this sentence, Lil Wayne is drawing the audiences’ attention toward Mountain Dew. To generate a more universal appeal through its campaign, a better approach would be to use multiple stars belonging to different races and ethnicities in the ads meant for all states rather than including a star from a particular race or ethnicity to ensure maximum sale among particular groups within a state instead of everybody in general. This can be achieved by including stars from different races like Lil Wayne and Jason Aldean in the same ad. This

Mock Concept Paper for Dissertation Research Proposal

Mock Concept Paper for Dissertation - Research Proposal Example Employment gives people tasks and responsibilities that keep them busy, which leaves them with little time to engage in vices that might lead to criminal activities. The most common methods of crime prevention are through deterrence, which is achieved by incarcerating offenders in jails, prisons and penitentiaries. The basic principle with this method is that it denies offenders their basic freedoms of movement and association amongst others. Depending on the terms of their incarceration, offenders eventually get to return to their communities and societies, which are referred to as reentry. The process of reentry poses different challenges depending on the nature of their communities and societies. This is because there exist various stereotypes and perceptions with regard to people who have been involved with crime. The degree of successful reentry into society after incarceration determines the levels or extent of recidivism of offenders. Previous research studies have established a connection or relation between employment, reentry and recidivism of offenders in society. Various factors play a role in determining the success or failure of re-integrating back into society or their recidivism into crime and incarceration. Employment is a key factor in these matters because it determines whether they are able to cater for their needs in a sustainable and lawful manner. Statement of the Problem The role of employment as a factor in offender reentry and recidivism provides a potential avenue for further study into the role that it can play in rehabilitation efforts away from institutions. Employment ensures that offenders are engaged in constructive endeavors that benefit themselves and their community. Various factors influence the ability of offenders to acquire or attain employment after they rejoin their communities. These factors have varying effects depending on the individual and characteristic society or community. As it has been established by previous studies, employment or its lack is a major instigator of crime. This is because; employment provides a source of livelihood, without which an individual is forced to seek alternative means of earning a living. In today’s world, alternative sources of earning a livelihood are permeated with illegal aspects that land people in jail. There are various independent (IV), dependent variables (DV), mediating and moderating variables that have been the subject of research studies regarding their influence on employment and crime (Fairchild & Mackinnon, 2009). A key construct in the journal article ‘Reentry and the Ties that Bind: An Examination of Social Ties, Employment and Recidivism’, are the social ties of an offender reentering society (Berg & Huebner, 2011). Researchers in this study found out that offenders who maintained social ties with their families and obtained steady work were less likely to recidivate (Berg & Huebner, 2011). A research study was conducted u nder the title, â€Å"Predicting Recidivism for Released State Prison Offenders: Examining the Influence of Individual and Neighborhood Characteristics and Spatial Contagion on the Likelihood of Re-incarceration† (Stahler et al. 2013). In another research study, the effects of Minnesota Prison-Based Educational Programming on Recidivism and Employment were

Case Study 5 Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 1

5 - Case Study Example For example, Banyan Tree has managed to charge premium prices on customers just for its memorable experiences. As an experiential brand, Banyan Tree had its brand experience as well. Thus, the company had its value propositions to offer; one of them being corporate social responsibility (CSR). Enz (2010) explains that Banyan Tree engages its customers in many projects based on CSR which creates and impact as well as expression that lasts for long. Banyan Tree Holdings Limited also uses materials and methods of construction which are environmental friendly which then enables the company unify their developments into an environment which s very natural. The staff of Banyan Tree is also recruited from the community which then signifies their giving back to the community. Consistency of products and services is also another value proposition offered by Banyan Tree (Enz, 2010). The company has a way of designing and furnishing their rooms and villas to ensure that its look is consistent. Service delivery is also done uniquely to provide pleasurable experience to the customer. The exclusivity of Banyan Tree Holdings is another value propositions that has contributed to the great experience at Banyan Tree. The company presents exclusive locations which have views of nature which are spectacular. Each of their villas is also very exclusive hence contributing to the wonderful experience of the company’s brand. According to Enz (2010), Banyan Tree Holding also focused on training of its staff and developing it well. A corporate culture was established to provide opportunities for staff in advancing their career and their own personal development. The general team of management is composed of people from different cultural and geographical backgrounds. This style of management has allowed creativity and innovation among the staff of Banyan Tree. Therefore, innovation in its spa

Study Research Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Study Research - Essay Example Mcmahon-Parkes et al. researched the outlooks and beliefs of patients who were resuscitated and those never resuscitated as well. Mcmahon-Parkes et al. argue that nurses always fear that family members may obstruct efforts to resuscitate their relatives (Mcmahon-Parkes et al., 2009). This fear is the key reason they do not tolerate them during resuscitate procedures. Nurses today also fear that family members who see their relatives undergo resuscitation processes might be harmed mentally. Mcmahon-Parkes et al justify this study by pointing out that there are no past qualitative literatures on the perceptions of nurses towards the company of families during the resuscitation of patients (Schmidt, 2010). In addition, few research works ever examined what patients preferred when it came to their families witnessing their resuscitation. Mcmahon-Parkes et al. explained the perspectives of patients who were revived successfully and patients taken to the ER but not requiring resuscitation (Mcmahon-Parkes et al., 2009). These perspectives examined whether both types of patients preferred their relatives present during resuscitation or not. The methodology used by Mcmahon-Parkes et al involved a sample of 21 revived patients and 40 patients taken to the ER. All patients were from 4 hospitals in two big cities in Southwest England. Mcmahon-Parkes et al. used a myriad of reviewers and uniform decision-making techniques (Schmidt, 2010). These methods proved effective for gathering perspectives from both types of patients regarding the company of their relatives during resuscitation. Findings showed that most patients preferred the company of their relatives while being resuscitated. Mcmahon-Parkes et al. discovered that both types of patients had three common themes in their preferences. The first theme was positive. Both types of patients understood that the company of their relatives meant that they were

Cyber Security Vulnerabilities Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3500 words

Cyber Security Vulnerabilities - Essay Example As per Gartner, 70% of security incident occur internally i.e. from the organization premises (Dickerson, 2004). Likewise, in September 2004, HFC bank that is one of the largest banks in the UK sent an email to their 2600 customers mentioning that an internal operational error has made recipients email address visible to everyone within the email. Consequently, ‘out of office’ feature was triggered from some of the customers and their personal phone numbers and other details were shared with each other (Dickerson, 2004). This shows that even simplest of mistakes can lead to an even bigger problem. As information systems are now considered as the fundamental function, every organization acquires information systems for business automation, better customer service and ROI (return on investment). Moreover, electronic commerce has also introduced many businesses that are only virtually present. For instance, Amazon that is an online store for selling books generates revenue from the Internet. Customers pay via credit cards for the purchased books that are delivered to them. In this scenario, any sort of security breach may inject an SQL injection or cross site scripting attack on the website can affect the business as well as customer confidence. ... It is the responsibility of the organization to protect and secure data privacy. However, there is not a single law that states how to handle customer information. For this reason, organizations sell or trade customer information with business partners and even to third parties. Likewise, sometimes the sole purpose of this personal data exchange is funds. Although, every online organization has a privacy policy which states how they will handle and secure customer data but at the same time there is no verification criteria. In the following sections, we will critically evaluate a single most cyber security weakness for IT managers within an organization. Likewise, our main argument will cover different domains i.e. the local area network, applications, hardware, transmission media, enterprise networking, intranet, extranet etc. As per (Libicki, 2009): â€Å"In theory, all computer mischief is ultimately the fault of the system’s owner if not because of misuse or misconfigurat ion, then because of using a system with security bugs in the first place. In practice, all computer systems are susceptible to errors. The divergence between design and code is a consequence of the complexity of software systems and the potential for human error. The more complex the system and they do get continually more complex the more places there are in which errors can hide† Association and Weakness The above mentioned argument is indicating to a vulnerability resides within the system that can be utilized for hackers to gain access and is known as exploit. Apart from this inherent risk resulting from inadequate coding practices, human element is also considered as a serious threat that is not limited to hardware,

Rene Descartes and the scientific revolution Research Paper

Rene Descartes and the scientific revolution - Research Paper Example The Bible taught that the Earth was a special planet because God has deliberately set it at the center of the others; a clear sign of its importance to God. However, past the 16th Century, some scientists began challenging the existing way of thinking by replacing the past assumptions with new theories. This change in the European thought about the natural world is what is commonly referred to as the Scientific Revolution. The Scientific Revolution was a foundation stone upon which Rene Descartes developed the scientific method approach. The breakthroughs in the scientific revolution were championed by Copernicus who observed that the stars and all the planets revolved around the sun. The thoughts were sparked off by an ancient Greek idea that the sun was at the center of the universe. Copernicus indeed found this to be true after 25 years of studying planetary movements. Though revolutionary, the theory had a limitation in that it never explained why the planets behaved the way they did. Another problem was that it contradicted ancient studies and religious views. For fear of persecution and possible ridicule, the scholar did not publish his findings until 1543; the year of his death. Despite his death, Copernicus’ ideals withstood the test of death and were a good foundation for other like-minded scientists. Brahe, an astronomer from Denmark, made careful and accurate records of the planets’ movements over many years. The scientist produced volumes of accurate data recorded from his personal observations. With his death imminent, it was left to his followers to make the mathematical inferences from the data. Johannes Kepler, his assistant, studied the data and inferred that some mathematical laws governed the movements in the universe. According to Hellyer, (2003) Descartes’ findings disapproved the belief that the planets orbited in circular motions. In contrast,

Strategic mgt. process applied to project managemt Dissertation

Strategic mgt. process applied to project managemt - Dissertation Example The Execution Premium Process or XPP is a comprehensive and integrated management system which combines strategy formulation, planning, and operational execution (Kaplan and Norton, 2008). Program management on the other hand refers to the coordinated management of a selection of projects in order to attain benefits which are deemed strategically important for an organisation (Reiss, 2006). XPP is comprised of six stages: (1) strategy development; (2) strategy planning; (3) organization alignment; (4) operations planning; (5) monitoring and learning; and (6) strategy testing and adaptation. This system was developed due to a need for a framework to which various strategy and operational management tools could be utilized (Kaplan & Norton 2008; Shelldrake, 2011). Strategy development involves the formulation of organizational strategies by addressing three crucial factors: (1) mission, values, and vision; (2) key issues; and (3) the strategy itself. Organizations need to be clear with regards to their purpose, the principles by which everyone is guided in their actions, and future aspirations. An organization needs to reaffirm their mission, values, and vision as an initial step in strategy development (Kaplan & Norton 2008). ...   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The next step involves a review of the organization’s competitive and operating environment. Managers need to utilize three sources for the review: (1) the external environment; (2) the internal environment; and (3) the status of the current strategy. Issues concerning the external environment may be identified through the use of the PESTEL tool which stands for political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal. Meanwhile, issues pertaining to the internal environment include human capital, innovation, operations, and technology deployment (Kaplan & Norton 2008). Another tool used is the SWOT which is described as a table wherein the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to the organization are laid out for review. Information gathered at his point will be utilized to develop a strategic change agenda which rationalizes the need to identify and address challenges. Meanwhile, the third step of this stage involves the de velopment of a new strategy based on the information collected from the previous steps. Factors such as the market niche, customer value proposition, key processes, human capital, and technology are likewise involved (Kaplan & Norton 2008). The second stage of XPP involves creating a strategy plan through the development of guidelines for strategic objectives, measures, targets, initiatives and budgets. Likewise, this stage determines how resources are allocated for each component of the plan. This stage is comprised of five components: (1) creation of strategy maps; (2) identification of measures and targets; (3) selection of strategic initiatives; (4) allocation of funds and resources; and (5) establishment of theme teams (Kaplan & Norton 2008). Strategy

Cancer Vaccination Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Cancer Vaccination - Case Study Example Vaccinations for Cervical Cancer should be given to young girls ranging from 12 years old and above. More likely, parents might have doubts and preemptions that this would only encourage their children to become sexually exposed at such an early age. However, the fact that it is a necessary step to having healthier status in the future, such allegations must be set aside and instead teach the children of the morl-basics they should know about sexuality. This could prevent the immoral act more than what the non-vaccination option could do. (Sakda, 6). This is the reason why vaccination to avoid this situation should be strongly implemented by social workers and in turn should also be widely accepted by the society. Of course, with an aim to preserve health, cooperation between people in the society is vital concept to consider (Del Rosario, 2,3). These two major findings mainly show the importance of the vaccination provided usually by the government to be able to take assurance of the health of the people in the community. The researchers were able to meet this certain conclusion based from "sample population" studies, which they referred to as the core "source of the study". Through the researches performed it had been cleared that vaccination activities are indeed helpful in lowering the rates of women having cervical cancer in their mid-30's. The fact that there is a certain importance placed upon the vitality of the vaccination, it should also be clear that even the governments have the responsibilities in providing their people with such services. This is in connection with their aim to continuously help their people develop healthy lives. On the other hand, the social preemption that young girls would be prone to sexual activities once they would be provided by the vaccination have been proven true, yet it could be solved through open and often parent- daughter counseling regarding matters connected with sexual activities. Indeed, there is also a vital role for parents when it comes to the effectiveness of the implementation of the vaccination matter. There are many advantages brought about by this vaccinating provisions. As Martin's study points out that "Vaccination of young girls aged 12 against the virus which causes cervical cancer cuts deaths from such diseases up to 75 percent. In this way, the lessened death rates help women to be able to enjoy their lives longer and be even more productive as well. OF ALL the diseases that afflict

Economic Implications on Social Media Essay Example for Free

Economic Implications on Social Media Essay The developments in the information technology sector have led to facilitation in information sharing across the globe in what has been referred to as social media. The internet has brought many changes in the way individuals across the world interact. Through the use of social media, individuals are able to exchange photographs, videos, post their thoughts on blogs and take part in discussions that takes lace online. Social media allows the people, organizations, companies and governments to be able to reach large numbers of people with a lot of ease. This paper shall give an overview of how the social media has impacted on the economic domain of development in the society by analyzing both the positive and the negative impacts. Social Media: Social media refers to the various internet based and mobile services which allows the user to take part in online exchanges, contributing user-created content and being able to join the online community. It also refers to the tools and technologies that enable an online interaction, networking, sharing and collaboration. There are various services internet services that are usually associated with social media which includes blogs, wikis, social bookmarking, social network sites, status updates services, virtual word content and media sharing site (Dewing, 2010). Blogs is a short form of ‘web log’ which can be described as an online journal in which pages are put on view in an overturned chronological order. The blogs can be hosted for free on various websites including WordPress and Blogger among others. Wikis on the other hand refers to collective websites in which anyone participating can modify the pages or create their new pages using a Web browser. A good example of a wiki is the Wikipedia which is a free online encyclopedia that utilizes the wiki technology. Social bookmarking sites are those sites which allow the users to share and organize links to websites for instance the Delicious, Digg, and Reddit. Social network sites are the web-based services which enables the individuals to build a public or semi-public profile in a delimited system. The individuals are also able to articulate a list of other users whom they share connection thus being able to navigate through and view their list of connections and those of others in the system. Such sites include Facebook, MySpace, and Windows Live Spaces amongst others (Dewing, 2010). Status-update services are also referred to as micro-blogging services are more like social network sites but they allow individuals to share short updates and also be able to view updates from others. A good example is the twitter services. Virtual world content on the other hand offers a game-like virtual environment for the users to interact. A good example of this would be the imaginary world that is created in Second Life whereby users can create avatars to interact with each other. Avatars are the virtual representations of the users. Media–sharing sites are those which enable the users to post videos or photographs for instance the You Tube and Flickr. It must be noted that some of these categories do overlap for instance twitter can be regarded as both a social network site as well as a stats update service (Dewing, 2010). Social media is capable of affecting the manner in which individuals interact online. Social media is known to open up new ways for cooperation and dialogue in today’s world. Most of the content posted in social media may remain there permanently at least by default. The content may also be accessible, replicable, and searchable. Social media can therefore be used anywhere, and at any moment provided that there is internet connectivity in the area. Such factors are responsible for shaping of the dynamics of the social media. The fact that the players in the social media are usually invisible raises various questions regarding the framework, correctness and unambiguousness regarding the communication. The identity and motives of those who post contents in the social media are not always clear (Dewing, 2010). Evolution of Social Media: The internet became popular in the last two decades and web sites which allowed individuals to create and upload content started appearing with the first network site said to have appeared in 1997 for the first time. The first social network site to be launched was called ‘SixDegrees. com’ and it was followed soon by many others at the turn of the millennium. In 2002, there was an upsurge in the number of social network sites with some surging to popularity only to fade in a little while such as the Friendstar. However, others were able to develop niche communities for instance MySpace appealed to adolescent music enthusiasts (Dewing, 2010). Towards the end of the first decade of the second millennium, social media was widely accepted, for instance; by the year 2009, Facebook made the announcement that its users were well over 350 million worldwide (Dewing, 2010). There are a number of factors that have led to a surge in the social media participation which include technological factors, social factors and economic factors. Technological factors include things such as readily available broadband, improvement in software tools, and the development of more powerful computer and mobile services. Social factors on the other hand include the rapid uptake of social media by the young generation while the economic factors include the growth in commercial interests in the social media sites and affordability of computers and related software (Dewing, 2010). Impacts of Social Media: Since the widespread usage of social media is a recent phenomenon, social and economic implications can only be barely understood. Some quarters hold the belief that social media is causing isolation amongst the people whereas others believe that social media has broaden democratic participation. According to a research conducted by statistics Canada; We should expect neither a dysfunctional society of loners nor a blissful society of happy net-workers. Rather, we are facing a society that is differently cohesive from the one we have known. There do not appear to be any significant differences in the number of social ties or in the amount of social interaction between Internet users and non-users. Instead, the Internet is providing ways of fostering participation with community members and enhancing relationships, including through social media (Dewing, 2010, para 10). Social media has also had economic impacts in regard to the manner in which what is contained in the social media is created and consumed. This can be summed up to the growth in the information and communication sector of the economy. In most economies, growth in this sector of the economy has been tremendous even surpassing the overall economic growth. Many business firms and organizations have also incorporated social media in their marketing strategies (Dewing, 2010). Socio-economic Impacts: The socioeconomic theory appears to be spearheading the deflationary cycle more than the financial or the political economics. Previously, the Keynesian and libertarian theories were believed to be the key players in the deflationary cycle. According to the socio-economic theories, it is claimed that in order for us to get out of the deflationary cycle, there is need to view it as both a sociological and fiscal problem. The solution is therefore to be found in the ground-breaking technology which promises huge profits to be used in investment so as to commence the next boom cycle, and snap the society out of the predicament created by the economic downturn. Social media could play a role in mitigating the damages that arise from the deflationary cycle. It could also be instrumental in the construction of the next opportunities for technological innovations (Fischer, 2009). Understanding the objective economic potential is very crucial and dependant on the revolution of the social media. Social media is known to utilize technology in enhancing the people’s ability to interact with others. Social media is to be found in interaction, connection, trust and relations that are driven by technology. In regard to business, this implies establishment of trust and channels of communication which supports and enables collaboration and building of engaged teams through the removal of barriers and frustrations that were created by conventional structures. Social media particularly in regard to collaboration has the potential to unlock the hidden knowledge in organizations when required. It also lowers the cost of software via open source cooperation, easing the finding of appropriate information, and making organizations to be more responsive. These are however cultural changes that occurs gradually. Nevertheless, the promise for change is there even though it might take much longer time. However, the technological investment that is required to bring about these changes is quite cheaply available (Fischer, 2009). With social media, change is bound to happen. Social media has the prospects of creating more effective organizations via the collaboration, â€Å"providing a greater variety of information services at low cost through mashups and open source, and a lower cost to product and service messaging, when the product and service has great appeal†(Fischer, 2009, para 7). Similarly, social media has detrimental impacts on the established industries. The conventional advertising media has become decreasingly effective due to the increasing numbers of the individuals who are networked and therefore attentive to one another. It is imperative to observe that; Friend of a friend referrals, rating sites or consumer oriented websites will become the norm and rely on their objectivity to maintain trust with their followers, therefore are not as subject to trying to manipulate their audience based on the promise of big advertising revenue (Fischer, 2009, para 8). There is no doubt that manipulation is part of the social media practice though the ability for any individual to broadcast and gain audience to the large network in the social media indicates that it is not an easy task and it is destined to be the exception and not the norm in the long run (Fischer, 2009). The distribution of retail products may also come to the forefront due to the social media influence. Due to the fact that e-commerce has been enhanced in the recent past owing to a revolution in the social media, some social observations have been made in regard to marketing trends for instance, there has been a relation drawn between the trends on how particular products are moved in the market. Such observations may be observed as ‘individuals who bought product X also bought product Y’. Large business organizations may also offer lower prices and utilize the social media to achieve the personal touch, a domain previously associated with small business organizations. This has been geared towards the ‘commodization’ of products that are produced on a large scale and the futuristic markets with the chances of realizing massive profits. The markets of the future are said to be niche markets that would require subject matter expertise and customization (Fischer, 2009). The gains of the social media in economic venture may be offset by the unsettling role associated with it in the conventional industries. In the past, any technological changes would result in obvious and simple routes to massive increases in the production and demand. However, with the social media, increase in productivity and demand over a short time is not palpable due to the fact that it requires cultural changes together with the technological transformations. Eventually, as the cultural changes are realized over time, massive increases in the production may be realized; however, in the short term social media can not be used to provide an obvious path for investment capable of leading to gains in effectiveness and productivity (Fischer, 2009). There is this argument that tightly knit society has the capability to survive economic stress better compared to a loosely knit society. Social media ensures that the world is woven in complex interactions and also offers individuals with something to do when they are not involved in an economic activity. This is motivated by what can be referred to as ‘reputation economics’ which is designed to motivate individuals to engage in activities such as creating open source software, report on events, and many more information services that would have required individuals to pay for before the advent of the internet. This allows for rich content and growth of valuable products to be carried out devoid of investment and yet with returns for instance a â€Å"business entity that hosts their websites on Linux servers or uses open office to create and manage documents† (Fischer, 2009, para 9). To add on the long term effectiveness of the social media which include the creation of complex systems like an operating system at relatively low cost; it could also enable the development of new innovations presenting a clear path that shall increase production and demand. The deflationary cycle that is predicted by the socio-economic theories could only be shortened if only we are able to find out the kind of innovation required and be able to bring it more quickly (Fischer, 2009). Social media is said to provide revenue to both the users and platforms. It has to be noted that social media better known as social computing is a driver for competitiveness. The effects of social computing may be seen on the industry itself for instance, the development in the social media or the information and communication technology sector. It can also be observed in other industries that uses the social computing. There is evidence that â€Å"more targeted marketing and user research which are reliant on user profiles and content interest are opening new channels to markets† (Pascu, 2008, para 11). There are emergent employment possibilities vial social networks and new opportunities to utilize user innovations in developing the products or as an intermediate between organizations and consumers (Pascu, 2008). The impact of social media can not be wished away as insignificant. This is because, faced with the modern reality where social media provides a platform for the consumers, competitors and the market place to discuss products, services and employees. All this is carried out online â€Å"whether its a protest group on Facebook (United Airlines Sucks! ), a persistent hashtag on Twitter (#attfail) or just a meme that travels from blogger to Blogger† (Taylor, 2009, para 5). At this juncture, it does not matter as to whether it is of importance to probe into the social networks. What is of importance is whether one is paying attention to the social media where the message has gone to. This means that the customer to the company products is the one to define the brand in the market. This is quite challenging as it means that those organizations with acceptable products are bound to be reap benefits even with minimum branding and marketing strategies whereas those companies that are considered bad by the customers are destined to suffer from a bad reputation even when they spent more money to advertise themselves and try to position themselves as market leaders (Taylor, 2009). It is therefore important for organizations to take time and monitor what is going on in the social media. There are various services at the disposal of whoever would like to monitor the social media which include the individual services such as ‘Search. twitter. com’ and more complicated ones such as ‘Filtrbox’ and ‘Radian 6’. For successful business undertaking, there is need for organizations to embrace the social media which provides an avenue to engage with the customers. Interaction on the social media with the customers is crucial and thus joining these sites for creating new bully pulpits for the organization’s marketing and sales messages without proper interaction with the customers is not commendable (Taylor, 2009). The organizations can not be isolated from the social media as they create a powerful impression with the capability of having a lasting impact that may prove to be hard to change. Accompany with a bad reputation might score poorly even with spirited advertisement due to evaluations that are obtained from the social media. It is therefore important to address the problems that are affecting the organizations one by one rather than spending huge sums of money in advertising the products (Chong, 2010). Conclusion: Social media has been a new discovery in the information and communication sector and that its impacts on the economic development are worthy noting. The economic impacts of social media are two fold and may bring positive results or negative results to a business organization. With social media, the consumers of the company products are able to talk about the products, services and competitors and definitely such discussions are to impact on the business entity either for better or for worse. Social media can therefore have far reaching repercussions on the business organizations in terms of profitability. Reference: Chong, S. , (2010). Nothing Can save Negative Buzz on Twitter. Retrieved on 26th July 2010 from; http://www. penn-olson. com/2010/07/02/nothing-can-save-negative-buzz-on-twitter/. Dewing, M. , (2010). Social Media: 1. An Introduction. Retrieved on 26th July 2010 from; http://www2. parl. gc. ca/Content/LOP/ResearchPublications/2010-03-e. htm. Fischer, K. , (2009). Exploring the economic impact of social media. Retrieved on 26th July 2010 from; http://www. web20blog. org/2009/03/24/exploring-the-economic-impact-of-social-media/. Pascu, C. , (2008). ERoSC-The Socio-economic Impact of Emerging Social Computing Applications. Retrieved on 26th July 2010 from; http://docs. google. com/viewer? a=vq=cache:dHneLXVRkYgJ:www. foresight-network. eu/index. php%3Foption%3Dcom_docman%26task%3Ddoc_view%26gid%3D352+Economic+Implications+on+Social+Mediahl=engl=kepid=blsrcid=ADGEEShixNJSG5ddAxmDsp3_H0NmsZ-LetSdSeKnGykkb0y_4ruRrW-EstMaeGHfs16v1u66MJlBbpW-WIgVRxtCabedvJWeojTeW4mfj7Z70xD-y31hAWGz7VhQwakzAylysKUUV0NNsig=AHIEtbRbStc-eBG_GjfGNgsEL-OmZ0oP8g Taylor, D. , (2009). Whats the impact of social media on business growth? Retrieved on 26th July 2010 from; http://www. intuitive. com/blog/impact_of_social_media_twitter_facebook_business_growth. html

Collaboration in Professional Practice

Collaboration in Professional Practice Effective Interprofessional Collaboration is key to providing good quality patient centred care This essay will discuss the principles of patient centred care and their relationship to multi-disciplinary team working and identify and explain key concepts of individual and team communication within the practice setting. Reference will also be made to experiences in practice and the effect of these experiences on the patient. My personal experiences of multi-disciplinary team working will be reflected upon, as will my strengths and weaknesses in relation to my skills as a collaborative team member. Patient confidentiality will be protected at all times when reflecting on personal experiences in placement in accordance with the NMC code of professional conduct (NMC 2004). The term patient-centred care refers to the participation and involvement of the patient in the decisions taken concerning their care and treating the person as an individual, recognising the differing needs amongst individual patients (Barrett, Sellman and Thomas 2005). The importance of involving the patient in their own care has become increasingly important over the last half of the 20th century, with more people living into older age than ever before, and with this increase of life expectancy has come an increase of those living with chronic or long-term illness (Department of Health 2001). This has led to a heightened number of people becoming, in many instances, more knowledgeable of their condition than the healthcare professionals that are involved in their care and treatment, and therefore, rather than being merely recipients of this care they are increasingly taking responsibility for the management of their illness by making informed decisions concerning their treatment, alongside those of healthcare professionals (Department of Health 2001). As the significance of patient centred care has been identified it also important to understand the relationship between patient centred care and multi-disciplinary team work, which is that to enable the provision of patient-centred care a number of different professions will need to be involved, as it is not possible for one profession to have all the knowledge required to provide effective care, therefore the multi-disciplinary team must work collaboratively to be effective, with effective communication between professions making this collaboration possible (Barrett, Sellman and Thomas 2005). Furthermore, as healthcare teams are not comprised solely as a solitary department a patient may need to attend clinics in many of the different hospital departments in order to gain the desired treatment. In order to provide the patient with the best quality treatment and care, it is essential that there is high level of effective Interprofessional collaboration between all members of the healthcare team. Ensuring efficient communication between healthcare professionals will not only increase the quality of the service, but it could also help reduce hospital waiting lists for treatments and ultimately, increase patient satisfaction. For example, when considering a department such as radiology it is becomes clear why effective communication between all members if the team is essential. A radiology team is composed of many different interdisciplinary professionals not only doctors, radiologists and nurses working within the radiology department, but it also comprises the individuals w ith whom these members of staff interact within their different, complementary departments. For example, a patient will have been referred to a radiologist from a different department e.g. gynaecology. The patient will also go to meet the staff at the admissions desk, outpatients staff, perhaps ward staff if they are to be admitted. Thus, the coordination of this team of practitioners is vital in order to ensure that the patient is treat efficiently and that their care needs are met. When there is a lack of communication between professions the quality of care will inevitably suffer. There are many examples, and consequences, of good and poor communication and one example is that of a scenario my colleagues and I were asked to consider as part of our online learning for the Collaboration in Professional Practice (CIPP) module, which was of a student nurse attending a ward round with a doctor. In the scenario the student nurse had concerns as to the patient having little opportunity to ask the doctor any questions or allay any concerns that he had, which the student nurse perceived to be due to a number of reasons, including the lack of privacy on the ward and the doctor making it apparent that he was short of time. When she reflected on this incident she felt that she had not communicated with the doctor efficiently and acted as advocate for her patient, therefore, the consequences are that he was possibly left with many unanswered concerns. There were many opini ons relating to this scenario put forward on the group discussion board (see appendix 1) and many of us felt that this emphasised the importance of having a mixed number of professions on ward rounds, including a nurse whose responsibility it is to act as advocate for the patient. The student nurse in the scenario pointed out that she felt she had let her patient down in favour of showing the doctor that she was efficient and good at her job and it could be argued that this need to impress the doctor was due to the hierarchical structure within which hospitals tend to operate, with doctors being at the top of this structure, which could affect communication between doctors and nursing staff. One of the objectives of a study which was carried out by Kinley et al (2001) was the investigation of the quality of communication between senior medical staff and ATN (Kinley et al 2001: 2) (The ATN are appropriately trained nurses) and the study was conducted in retrospect of the plans to implement nurse-run clinics and to give nurses some duties which were previously considered to be that of a doctor. This is of importance and relevance to the provision of patient centred care, as the ability of members of a healthcare team to effectively communicate and articulate any problems, concerns or even advice which one may have in order to help another member of the healthcare team to treat a patient is one of the keys to effective collaboration within the multidisciplinary environment of a hospital (Barrett, Sellman and Thomas 2005). The conclusion made by the research team was that there is no reason to inhibit the development of fully trained nurse-led pre-operative assessment, provi ded that the nurses are appropriately trained and maintain sufficient workload to retain skills (Kinley et al, 2001: 3). However, the qualitative counterpart of the study indicated that the use of ATN for pre-operative assessment was agreeable to patients but there was no indication that there was any improvement in the communication between senior medical staff and those carrying out the pre-operative assessments’ (Kinley et al 2001: 3). Hence, this study could be viewed to be indicative of the fact that if interdisciplinary communication and collaboration was to be improved within the healthcare team and hospital settings, perhaps the abilities of nursing staff to fulfil roles and complete duties previously associated with a doctor, such as completing pre-operative assessments and taking medical histories would be enhanced. I myself have witnessed examples of both good and poor interprofessional collaboration and communication whilst out in practice. For example, whilst caring for an elderly lady in hospital who was recovering from surgery it became apparent that she was suffering from acute constipation. Numerous healthcare professionals worked collaboratively to eliminate her constipation, including doctors, nurses, a dietician and physiotherapist and in the end a satisfactory result was achieved. On reflection of this incident I felt that although there was clearly excellent communication and collaboration between professions, once they were working together in the treatment of this problem, there was also an unnecessary delay in the nurses involving these other professions in her treatment for this particular problem, which led to unnecessary suffering and pain for the patient. I referred to this incident on the CIPP group discussion board (see appendix 2) and found that this concern as to the lengt h of time it can sometimes take to involve other professions was shared. Therefore, it is worth noting that even when communication is good between professions the quality of patient care will still suffer if there are delays in bringing about their collaboration. The ability to reflect on incidents such as these is an essential component of nursing as it enables us to analyse what we did, if we did it well or if it we could have done it better, and then how we can develop our skills further to do better in the future (Brooker and Nicol 2003). When considering that nurses are expected to make certain decisions as to the care of a patient the benefits of reflective practice become apparent, reflecting on past mistakes can help greatly when deciding what action should be taken in the care of patient, particularly when it is a situation that one has previously experienced and thus gained knowledge from (Brooker and Nicol 2003). I feel that although I have made significant progress in my ability to reflect over the last year there is still much room for improvement, something which I have referred to in my action plan for the formative assignment (see appendix 3). I listed the priority of this ‘action point’ as being medium to high as although it is to be achieved throughout my career, as part of my lifelong learning, I feel that it is also an essential skill whilst being a student as it will my greatly aide my learning at present as well as in the future when qualified. Being self-aware is vital to the reflective process as it is through our knowledge of ourselves that we are able to recognise our strengths and weaknesses and identify areas where more learning is required (Burns and Bulman 2000). Self-awareness is to be conscious of who we are, to be aware of our own values, beliefs and strengths and weaknesses (Burns and Bulman 2000). Being self-aware is essential to nursing as not only does it form the basis upon which reflection is built but it also contributes to how we communicate with others and aides our interpersonal development with our colleagues, as well as enabling us to build and maintain positive relationships with our patients (Bulman and Schutz 2004). When reflecting upon my own strengths and weaknesses, in relation to my collaborative skills, I feel that whilst I am beginning to acquire an in depth understanding of the role of the nurse in the care of the patient I feel that I lack substantial knowledge of the roles of the other healthcare professionals that I work alongside in the care of these same patients. This point is also referred to in my action plan for the formative assessment (see appendix 3) and I listed the priority of this as being medium to high as I feel that it is not possible to become an effective collaborative healthcare professional without having an understanding of the roles of others with whom you are working alongside. If there is a lack of understanding of the roles of others I feel that it would be difficult to see why they are involved in the care of my patient, or even when it is appropriate to involve other healthcare professionals, inevitably leading to the quality of the care for the patient to suf fer. As we have identified the importance of Interprofessional collaboration in the provision of effective patient centred care and satisfaction within the hospital environment it is important to look at methodologies which can be utilised in order to improve the interactions and communication between members of each multidisciplinary team within the healthcare setting. Buchan and May (2007) describe how the process of skill mix; can be used to as a method of organisational change within a healthcare team and it has a role to play in improving the effectiveness of the organisation and quality of care. The four stages of a skill mix cycle are the evaluation of the need for change, the identification of opportunities and barriers for change, the planning for change and finally making the change happen (Buchanan and May 2007: 1) Therefore, we can see that the methodology of skill mix is one option available to healthcare managers when they are aiming to improve the Interprofessional collabor ation between members of their healthcare teams, the method does however require careful planning. Furthermore, it is important to realise that skill mix is more than just a technical exercise, as it is also a method of achieving organisational change which requires careful planning, communication, implementation and evaluation if it is to achieve its main objectives (Buchanan and O’May 2007: 1). Sibbald, Shen and McBride (2004) value the strategy of changing the skill mix of the healthcare workforce and highlight that factors promoting success in the improvement of the patient care service and the interactions and collaborations of members of the healthcare interdisciplinary teams include: introducing treatments of proven efficacy, appropriate staff education and training; removal of unhelpful boundary demarcations between staff or service sectors; appropriate pay and reward systems; and good strategic planning and human resource management (Sibbald, Shen and McBride, 2004 : 28). It is important to identify the areas which can help to improve staff communication because this will help with the planning and implementation of change and improvements within the healthcare setting. Education and training opportunities appear to be beneficial in two ways, firstly they provide a method for improving the staff morale and self-respect as they feel more satisfied and qualified to hel p others and thus communicate with other members of the healthcare team and additionally the training will provide opportunities for members of staff to become acquainted with other employees and to interact (Sibbald, Shen and McBride 2004). This may then help in the collaboration in the work place. Education and training strategies which could train doctors and nurses simultaneously would be beneficial in reducing the hierarchical boundaries between these disciplines (Freeth, 2005 and Dominelli, 2002). The subject of this essay is increasingly significant at present due to the recent changes observed within the structure and function of the National Health Service (NHS) and the demands placed upon it to reduce the waiting times of patients and increase patient centred care, whilst at the same time cutting the costs and expenditure within the NHS (The Department of Health 2000). This puts pressure on medical staff, not only to increase their efficiency of treatment, but also to cope with and adapt to changes which are being made within their departments (The department of Health 2000). One of these changes which may be difficult for medical staff to adapt to in particular is the replacement of doctors with nursing staff in the carrying out of some of the duties and roles which were previously associated solely with the doctor. As the primary aim of the NHS is to provide the best healthcare possible for each patient, it is important that the staff employed to take over some of the du ties and responsibilities previously associated with the doctors we must ensure that the nursing staff are fully trained and able to perform the tasks to the required standard and in order to do this it is important that there is an effective level of collaboration between the doctors and nursing staff and that the doctors provide a support network, to which members of the nursing team can turn to and ask advice when and wherever appropriate. However, as there may be negative feelings towards this change, perhaps felt more so by the doctors, this may prove to be difficult. Hence, it is necessary to enhance the levels of cooperation and team spirit in order to work more efficiently and make the most of the skills of all the professionals in the NHS workforce (The Department of Health 2000). In conclusion, it is clearly apparent that the effective collaboration and consequentially the communication between members of a healthcare team is of vital importance when considering the accuracy and efficiency in which care can be provided to patients in a patient focused manner, and as this is an important aim of the NHS plan to reform, plans must be put into action to ensure that the levels of communication between members of the healthcare team are achieved to enable the goals made by government bodies to be reached and to aid staff moral in the workplace. Reference List Barrett, G, Sellman, D and Thomas, J (2005) Interprofessional working in health and social care. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan Brooker, C., Nicol, M (2003) Nursing Adults, the Practice of Caring. London, Mosby Buchan. J, O’May. F (2007) Determining Skill Mix: Practical Guidelines for Managers and Health Professionals [online] last accessed on 16th December 2007 at: http://www.who.int/hrh/en/HRDJ_4_2_07.pdf Bulman, C., Schutz, S (2004) Reflective Practice in Nursing. Oxford, Blackwell Publishing Burns, S and Bulman, C (2000) Reflective practice in nursing: the growth of the reflective practitioner (2nd Edition) Oxford, Blackwell Science Department of Health (2000) The NHS Plan: a plan for investment, a plan for reform [online] last accessed 16th December 2007 at: http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_4002960 Department of Health (2001) The expert patient: a new approach to chronic disease management for the 21st century [online] last accessed on 15 December 2007 at http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/PublicationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_4006801 Dominelli, L (2002) Anti-oppressive social work theory and practice. Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan Freeth, D (2005) Effective interprofessional education: development, delivery and evaluation. Oxford, Blackwell Publishing Kinley et al (2001) Extended scope of nursing practice: a multicentre randomised controlled trial of appropriately trained nurses and pre-registration house officers in pre-operative assessment in elective general surgery Health Technology Assessment. Vol 5: No 20 Nursing and Midwifery Council (2004) The NMC code of professional conduct: standards for conduct, performance and ethics, London, Nursing and Midwifery Council Sibbald,B, Shen, J and McBride, A (2004). Changing the skill-mix of the health care workforce. Journal of Health Service Research and Policy 9(1), 28-38.

Interpretation of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

Interpretation of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri The process of analysis for this English Extended Essay on Interpretation of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri was definitely a journey where in I discovered and learnt a lot. When I was assigned this project, initially I was a little apprehensive about how to execute this extended essay. My teacher gave me a good briefing about the entire process which I had to follow for the execution of this analysis. I began by reading the novel in its entirety several times. Every time I read the different stories in this novel, it was like going on a new literary journey altogether. The realistic presentation of the characters by the author brought in life to them and at a point I no longer felt that I was a mere reader but transcended into the stories with the characters and played a mute spectator. Post having sufficient understanding of each story, I made note of the thematic aspects of each story, the stage setting and how this helped in portrayal of the mindset of each characters. I employed literary analytical aspects of thematic analysis, language analysis, stage setting analysis to give an in-depth analysis of the novel Interpretation of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri. In the concluding part of this extended essay, I wound up by indicating the effect of the stories on the readers and why the readers could relate to each character as this is an important aspect of story narration and effective engagement of the reader. Introduction: The Interpreter of Maladies reflects the trauma of self-transformation through immigration which ends up being an attempt in futility as resultantly there is a series of broken identities that form multiple anchorages. Lahiris stories present the futile diasporic struggle to keep hold of culture as primary characters that of her stories create new lives in foreign cultures. Relationships, language, rituals, and religion all help these characters maintain their culture in new surroundings even as they build a hybrid realization as Asian Americans. But the lack of harmony and happiness ultimately makes the attempt a futile experience. Interpretation of Maladies brings to the forefront many complex issues with identity confronted by the Diaspora community. The book has the tales and experiences of first and second generation immigrants who are Indians, as well as a few tales comprising involving ideas of otherness among Indian communities. The stories focus around the complexities of several relationships, communication and a feeling of a loss of identity for individuals in diaspora. Despite where the tale takes place, the major players struggle with the similar feelings of exile and the struggle between the dual worlds by which they feel torn apart. The stories essentially deal with the always shifting lines between gender, sexuality, and social status within a diaspora. Whether the player in the tale is a homeless woman belonging to India or an Indian male pupil in the United States, all the characters show the effects of displacement in a diaspora. The characters in her stories dwell with a sense of dissatisfaction on account of their personal lives and experiences. The settings, narration, the mindsets of the characters and the interaction characters have with each other assist the readers in comprehending their plight and the futility of the situation. Findings and Analysis: Interpreter of Maladies: Jhumpas thematic presentation of futility in the Interpreter of Maladies is somewhat subtle yet effective. The setting is just about perfect with the character placement effectively facilitating the futility in their relationships and aspirations. The Central characters in this tale are Mr. and Mrs. Das and the tour guide Mr. Kapasi. The writer through the interactions of the Das couple with their children Tina, Bobby and Ronny present to us the fact that their relationship with their children lack perfection and to a great extent seems futile as the children do not seem to obey their parents and Mr. and Mrs. Das seem more of sibling to their children than their parents as they are constantly squabbling among themselves. Mrs. Das is evidently not interested in the relationship which seems futile to her and the very fact that she describes Mr. Kapasis job as an interpreter of maladies as a romantic one leads Mr. Kapasi to fantasize about her which eventually turns out to be a futile e xercise. An aspect which does not fail to draw attention of the reader is the instance when the Das couple are engaged in an argument as to who would take Tina to the bathroom is indicative of each one desire to shun responsibility. Here, a sense of futility is existent in the parental relationship the couple share towards their children. Jhumpa has utilized the lack of communication as an aspect to present the futility of the relationship all the characters are dwelling in. Mr. Das is presented as a character always buried in his guide book while Mrs. Das hides her inner self behind her sunglasses. Mr. Kapasi is trapped in a loveless futile marriage spending lonely nights drinking tea by himself. The futility of the relationship the Das family is in is very evident in the action of Mrs Das especially when she fails to offer puffed rice which she was gorging on by herself. The element of family sharing a meal fails to be present. This action of Mrs. Das indicates indifference and an underlying sense of hostility towards her spouse and children. The relationships they share is thus understood as being a futile relationship. Mr Kapasi reveals the futility of his existence as he is working as an interpreter feels that his job is a failure as he is a scholar of many languages. The dissatisfaction he experiences in the job of an interpreter leads to a sense of futility within him. Futility is further expressed by the character when he states that the job of an interpreter was taken to pay of medical bills of his son who had contracted thyroid. His sons death made his sacrifice of sorts a futile effort. Mr. Kapasis fantasy ride commences with Mrs. Das. It becomes very evident to Mr. Kapasi that the Das Couples relationship lacks charm and harmony and is futile. He begins to fantasize about Mrs. Das when she admires his job as that of an interpreter. His fantasy leads to a peak when he and Mrs. Das are conversing while staring at the nudity depicted in the form of temple carvings. The sensuality of the situation is well created by the writer by placing her characters in a setting which is erotic leading to temptation but futile desires. He decided to begin with the most obvious question, to get to the heart of the matter, and so he asked, Is it really pain you feel, Mrs. Das, or is it guilt? This quote appears towards the end of the story where Mrs. Das reveals the fact that Bobby is the son of a friend of Mr. Das whom she was intimate with while her husband was away. Mr. Kapasi questions her about her feeling and Mr. Kapasi makes one final interpretation. Mr. Kapasi feels that Mrs. Das desires absolution and not questioning, relief and not reflection. She and Mr. Kapasi are both lonely but the fact that they have differences keeps them apart thus making the possibility of a relationship futile. Revelation leads to futility. The revelation made by Mrs Das about the legitimacy of her child to Mr. Kapasi was the blow which tarnishes the fantasy of Mr. Kapasi. For a short spell of time, Mr. Kapasi was on an imaginative trip which proved baseless and futile as he failed to accept the person who he was daydreaming about to have a scandalous past as such. The revelation of Mrs. Das proves her infidelity further shattering the image of the Das family proving the fact that the relationship is more of an arrangement than a bonding of love. The writer has aptly used setting to bring all her vital characters in the scene and weaving a storyline in a natural way facilitating the flow of human emotions at their various moment of interaction. The writer crafts every character in a natural and believable manner leading us to realize the fact that there are several relationships where people are bound together for the sake of fulfilling an arrangement commenced to fulfill a certain purpose but the lack of depth and gravity of the relationship proves the relationship to be a futile on as in the case of Mr. and Mrs. Das and their relationship, Mr. Kapasi and his profession as an interpreter and a tour guide and his fascination for Mrs. Das which later on sours as he learns about her real self. With regards to being in India, Mr. and Mrs. Das fail to connect with the country India as their home but have a tourists perspective which is very evident when Mr. Das snaps away a picture of the starving peasant instead of helping him. When Bobby is need of help when surrounded by monkeys, Mr. Das is excited about the picture he clicks instead of immediately helping the boy. This indicates a lack of understanding and connection with each other and the country they are in which they understand as being home. Thus the trip too can be safely understood as being an exercise in futility. The camera of Mr. Das is symbolically employed by the writer to present the fact that Mr. Das view the world through his camera and in not in direct touch with reality. The camera proves to be an obstruction and proves to be a futile aspect blocking Mr. Dass chance to view the real world devoid his camera. Interpreter of Maladies is a story with a setting and dialogues which may not be larger than life but is as close and real as life could be though the writer presents her work as a fictionalized account of her imagination and creativity. A Temporary Matter: In this tale, the writer in all clarity wishes to point out that lack of trust and deceit in a relationship makes the existence of that relationship futile. The futility of the relationship of Shukumar and Shoba is visible to the reader as the play the game wherein they reveal to each other their secrets. We the readers learn that the element of deception is predominant and this causes the relationship to be extremely strained and leads to a point of deterioration and a point of no return. The couple indulges in lying to each other and the lies have been with selfish motives in mind. They avoid bring in discomfort to each other and their selves by indulging in not speaking the truth. They have lied to each other, and the lies have been selfish ones-told not to spare the others feelings but to allow the person telling the lie to escape some discomfort or sacrifice. The sanctity of their marriage to a good extent is at stake and to a large extent they do not seem to care about this fac t. The sweater incident reveals to the reader that they lie about petty issues. Shukumar had returned the sweater to get some money which he could use in order to get drunk to the core. The couple drifting apart commenced after the loss of their baby and the began to care less for each other and this is revealed by the fact that they have been lying unceremoniously. They no longer connect with each other emotionally and this indicates the fading of their relationship. When Shoba displays the fact that their sorrow was on account of a deceptive game, she is following a pattern which is established. All through the week of electricity cuts, Shoba can be seen attempting to reach out Shukumar. But in truth, she is working out her final separation from Shukumar. During the same time frame, the game that seems to be putting them together also displays a past filled with lies. Matters have hardly been as they seemed between these two individuals. To add to this, readers understand early in the tale that Shoba has always been the person to plan way ahead and that she maintains a separate bank account. Readers are left to think as to whether the pattern of deception will end or increase beyond repair. The story indicates a shift decisively towards a happy finale when, on the fifth evening, the writer declares, They had survived a difficult time. Shobas silent behavior that particular evening has been disrupted as the calm after a storm. But that understanding is as misleading as Shobas pattern of conduct has been. We, the readers, like the character of Shukumar, have been given complex signals and only understand at the end which set of aspects was reliable. The stage setting adds to the realm of this tale. To depict futility of the relationship of the protagonists, the writer places the Bradford couple as neighbors Mr. and Mrs. Bradford are neighbors of Shoba and Shukumar. Shoba and Shukumar often witness them strolling by, holding arm in arm, on their path to the bookshop on the second night of the power cut or failure. The Bradfords appear to be a happily married pair and as such make provision of a contrast to the main lead pair i.e. Shoba and Shukumar. The writer specifically mentions that the Bradfords kept a card of sympathy as a goodwill gesture in Shoba and Shukumars mailbox when their baby was lost. The light and dark stage setting present a realistic scenario where the reader can identify with the inner feeling of the characters. As the primary characters have their conflicts within their selves and with each other, the lightning assists in quick identification of their inert feeling. Here the writer, I opine has very meticulously employed the element of light and darkness to reveal the thought, apprehensions and turmoil of the characters making the presentation of the entire story line noteworthy. You went to answer the telephone in the other room. It was your mother, and I figured it would be a long call. I wanted to know if youd promoted me from the margins of your newspaper. Instead of looking for clues about her future husband or finding something of earth-shattering importance, she looks to see if she is making up the little details of Shukumars life. Again, it is clear that the little things mask the greater realities. Alienation further triggers of futility of the relationship. Shoba and Shukumars grief has led them to withdraw from each other. Until the nightly power outages began, they avoided each other. Shoba leaves for work early each morning, returns late, and often brings home extra work to occupy her evenings and weekends. When Shoba is home, Shukumar retreats to his computer and pretends to work on his dissertation. He has put the computer in the room that was to be the nursery because he knows that Shoba avoids that room. She comes in briefly each evening to tell him goodnight. He resents even this brief interaction, which Shoba initiates only out of a sense of obligation. Shoba and Shukumar do not attempt to comfort or support each other. Each withdraws from the relationship, and they endure their grief as if they were two strangers living in a boardinghouse. An important aspect to be noted about this story is the fact that the writers tone in presentation of this tale of grief, tragedy and deception is in totality neutral. This neutral tone is essentially employed to by the writer as the writer, I believe desires the readers form their own individual perspectives of each character and decide who and why they wish to empathize with. This style of presentation makes provision for an unbiased formation of a point of view on the part of the reader facilitated primarily by the writer. Many a times, writer tend to shadow their narrative with their personal and judgmental opinion which I believe that the writer here has refrained from doing so making this an exemplary work of art. Mrs. Sen: Mrs. Sen, the titular character of Lahiris story demonstrates the power that physical objects have over the human experience. This aspect is employed by the writer to display a sense of futility in the thoughts and existence of the titular character. During the entire story, Mrs. Sen is preoccupied with the presence or lack of material objects that she once had. Physically though Mrs. Sen is there where she is but mentally or rather emotionally she seems to be dwelling in another world, a world of the past. Whether it is fish from her native Calcutta or her special vegetable cutting blade, she has the tendency to cling to the material possessions that she is accustomed to, while firmly rejecting new experiences such as canned fish or even something as mundane as driving a car. At home that is all you have to do. Not everybody has a telephone. But just raise your voice a bit, or express grief or joy of any kind, and one whole neighborhood and half of another has come to share the news, to help with arrangements This moment illustrates that Mrs. Sen is referring to her neighborhood at home as a much more closely-knit community than that of the area where Eliot lives. Here she uses a slightly superior attitude when referring to her culture as opposed to Eliots, which helps her remain confident about staying true to her Indian roots while she physically lives in a different place. Lack of the ability of the central character of Mrs. Sen to transcend successfully and accept her new world presents the futility of the situation. Mrs. Sen being homesick is certainly understandable given her meaningless social life, her reflective nostalgic feeling deepens the situation to such an extent that she fails to relate to the individuals she meets in America and the eventually end up as no barrier to her acclimation. The person selling fish at the market fails to immediately address her as Mrs. Sen but he surely reserves special fish for her. The man of the law does not book her but just asks her questions after her car accident does not indict her. The writer presents all characters in the story as people who make life easy for her and facilitate the process of her settling down comfortable in America. But Inspite of all this, Mrs. Sen fails to settle in to any degree, drapes herself always in saris, serving to the mother of Eliot, Indian canapà ©s and putting aside com pletely the prospect of learning to drive. By conducting her life differently through recollected tales imprinted on her her saris, and her aerograms which are grainy, Mrs. Sen deliberately stays away from any kind of assimilation through the empowerment of material objects and what they mean to her. In this tale, 11-year old Eliot commences living with Mrs. Sen a professors wife after school. Mrs. Sen who is the caretaker cuts and makes meals as she tells Elliot tales of her past life in Calcutta, thereby assisting in crafting of her identity. Like A Temporary Matter, this stale is full of lists of produce, catalogs and recipes with descriptions. Stress is placed on ingredients and the mode of preparation. Other aspects are definitely emphasized as well, such as Mrs. Sens collection of saris which are multicolored brought in by her from India. The The entire storyline rotates around Mrs. Sens customary practice of purchasing fish from a seafood market locally. This fish helps in reminding Mrs. Sen of her house back and holds great importance to her. But reaching the seafood market needs driving, a skill that Mrs. Sen has failed to learn and is not interested in learning either. Towards the finale of the story, Mrs. Sen tries to learn to drive to the market without her better h alf but this attempt leads to a car accident. Eliot soon stops living with Mrs. Sen after this. Conclusion: To conclude with, I am of the conviction that Jhumpa Lahiri, the Pulitzer prize winner for this literary work of art The Interpretation of Maladies has undoubtedly excelled in creating a work of literary expression which presents human emotion and interaction in its rawest form. This makes each story believable and close to the readers heart. She has very well employed the human emotion of sorrow in most of the stories as this I believe is one emotion which every individual can deeply identify with and relate to. Her characters such as that of Mrs. Sen, Shoba, Sukumar, Mrs Das and the others are very realistic as they are presented as ordinary humans with issues which every other individual deals with. The added aspect to this realistic presentation is the fact that her characters are primarily migrants finding it hard to get acquainted to a European culture and are being confronted with culture issues and discrimination. She has woven a beautiful story line in each story and the rea ders are drawn enigmatically into her world and her style of storytelling which is essentially different in a unique way than their contemporaries. The stage setting employed in each story differs and is highly apt to the story complementing the story and presenting the characters in a comprehensive way. The Temporary Matter, Mrs. Sen, Interpretation of Maladies etc. has stage setting which make the story realistic and not deviate the attention of the writer. This is an important aspect which can be understood in her works. The language employed by the writer to present her characters is another vital aspect. The language is simple and precise without being dramatic. More importantly the body language of the character plays vital part in communicating the essence and the feeling within the characters. Each story of hers has message or a theme which is learnt by the reader in the process of acquainting himself in her stories. Her bring out themes of deception, love, tragedy, discrimination in a manner most beautiful and subtle.

Coal Mining and Its Impacts Essay -- Coal Dangers Mines Essays Papers

Coal Mining and Its Impacts Coal is a hard, black colored rock-like substance. It is made up of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and varying amount of sulphur. Coal was form as decomposition took place in the absence of oxygen and much of the hydrogen content of the matter was eroded away, leaving a material rich in carbon. The material was compressed over the years by sand and dirt, leaving the form of a carbon known as coal. The different types of coals are Anthracite, bituminous, lignite, peat, coke, and charcoal. Coal is mined out of the ground and used to produce energy. However, they are many deaths, injuries, and sickness involved in mining coal. The earliest known use of coal was in China. Coal from the Fun-Shun mine in northeastern China may have been used to smelt copper as early as 3,000 years ago. Since then there have been several deaths and injuries in mining coal. â€Å"In 1966, an unstable waste tip from the Merthyr Vale mine in Wales released an avalanche of sludge over the village of Aberfan, engulfing not only houses but the primary school, killing 114 children†( Boyle, Everett, & Ramage p. 165). In Britain in the mid-nineteenth century it was estimated that one in every miners would face a fatal accident before completing their mining career. â€Å"1913 saw Britain’s worst mining disaster, with 439 miners killed in an explosion at the Senghenydd mine in Walse†( Boyle, Everett, & Ramage p. 165). It is important to note that the work of a coal miner is one of the most dangerous occupations in the world. The life expectancy of a miner is very low. Mining coal involves going underground to remove coal on to conveyor belts. The deeper the miners go the higher the potential for a disaster becomes.... ...use surface mining which uses machine instead of people to extract coal. The coal companies could provide incentive to workers that suffer from pneumoconiosis. Protective clothing and face mask could also be enhancing to ensure workers safety in coal mining. With government policies and public support the fatalities involved with mining coal could decrease within the next few years. Reference Page Boyle, G., Everett, B. & Ramage, .J. (2003) Energy System and sustainability. United Kingdom: Open University Energy Matters(2003) Energy Matters: Fossil Fuels-coal. Retrieved February, 8, 2007. From http://library. Thinkquest.org Zou CQ, Gao Y, Ma Y. (1997). Pneumoconiosis in China: Asian-Pacific News Letter on Occupational Health and Safety. Retrieved February, 8, 2007, From http://www. China/pneumoconiosis.org Coal Mining and Its Impacts Essay -- Coal Dangers Mines Essays Papers Coal Mining and Its Impacts Coal is a hard, black colored rock-like substance. It is made up of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and varying amount of sulphur. Coal was form as decomposition took place in the absence of oxygen and much of the hydrogen content of the matter was eroded away, leaving a material rich in carbon. The material was compressed over the years by sand and dirt, leaving the form of a carbon known as coal. The different types of coals are Anthracite, bituminous, lignite, peat, coke, and charcoal. Coal is mined out of the ground and used to produce energy. However, they are many deaths, injuries, and sickness involved in mining coal. The earliest known use of coal was in China. Coal from the Fun-Shun mine in northeastern China may have been used to smelt copper as early as 3,000 years ago. Since then there have been several deaths and injuries in mining coal. â€Å"In 1966, an unstable waste tip from the Merthyr Vale mine in Wales released an avalanche of sludge over the village of Aberfan, engulfing not only houses but the primary school, killing 114 children†( Boyle, Everett, & Ramage p. 165). In Britain in the mid-nineteenth century it was estimated that one in every miners would face a fatal accident before completing their mining career. â€Å"1913 saw Britain’s worst mining disaster, with 439 miners killed in an explosion at the Senghenydd mine in Walse†( Boyle, Everett, & Ramage p. 165). It is important to note that the work of a coal miner is one of the most dangerous occupations in the world. The life expectancy of a miner is very low. Mining coal involves going underground to remove coal on to conveyor belts. The deeper the miners go the higher the potential for a disaster becomes.... ...use surface mining which uses machine instead of people to extract coal. The coal companies could provide incentive to workers that suffer from pneumoconiosis. Protective clothing and face mask could also be enhancing to ensure workers safety in coal mining. With government policies and public support the fatalities involved with mining coal could decrease within the next few years. Reference Page Boyle, G., Everett, B. & Ramage, .J. (2003) Energy System and sustainability. United Kingdom: Open University Energy Matters(2003) Energy Matters: Fossil Fuels-coal. Retrieved February, 8, 2007. From http://library. Thinkquest.org Zou CQ, Gao Y, Ma Y. (1997). Pneumoconiosis in China: Asian-Pacific News Letter on Occupational Health and Safety. Retrieved February, 8, 2007, From http://www. China/pneumoconiosis.org Coal Mining and Its Impacts Essay -- Coal Dangers Mines Essays Papers Coal Mining and Its Impacts Coal is a hard, black colored rock-like substance. It is made up of carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and varying amount of sulphur. Coal was form as decomposition took place in the absence of oxygen and much of the hydrogen content of the matter was eroded away, leaving a material rich in carbon. The material was compressed over the years by sand and dirt, leaving the form of a carbon known as coal. The different types of coals are Anthracite, bituminous, lignite, peat, coke, and charcoal. Coal is mined out of the ground and used to produce energy. However, they are many deaths, injuries, and sickness involved in mining coal. The earliest known use of coal was in China. Coal from the Fun-Shun mine in northeastern China may have been used to smelt copper as early as 3,000 years ago. Since then there have been several deaths and injuries in mining coal. â€Å"In 1966, an unstable waste tip from the Merthyr Vale mine in Wales released an avalanche of sludge over the village of Aberfan, engulfing not only houses but the primary school, killing 114 children†( Boyle, Everett, & Ramage p. 165). In Britain in the mid-nineteenth century it was estimated that one in every miners would face a fatal accident before completing their mining career. â€Å"1913 saw Britain’s worst mining disaster, with 439 miners killed in an explosion at the Senghenydd mine in Walse†( Boyle, Everett, & Ramage p. 165). It is important to note that the work of a coal miner is one of the most dangerous occupations in the world. The life expectancy of a miner is very low. Mining coal involves going underground to remove coal on to conveyor belts. The deeper the miners go the higher the potential for a disaster becomes.... ...use surface mining which uses machine instead of people to extract coal. The coal companies could provide incentive to workers that suffer from pneumoconiosis. Protective clothing and face mask could also be enhancing to ensure workers safety in coal mining. With government policies and public support the fatalities involved with mining coal could decrease within the next few years. Reference Page Boyle, G., Everett, B. & Ramage, .J. (2003) Energy System and sustainability. United Kingdom: Open University Energy Matters(2003) Energy Matters: Fossil Fuels-coal. Retrieved February, 8, 2007. From http://library. Thinkquest.org Zou CQ, Gao Y, Ma Y. (1997). Pneumoconiosis in China: Asian-Pacific News Letter on Occupational Health and Safety. Retrieved February, 8, 2007, From http://www. China/pneumoconiosis.org