Saturday, August 31, 2019

Nurses’ Work Hours

I have been a staff nurse in the emergency room for fourteen years. I have worked a variety of 8, 10, 12, and even 16 hour shifts. I currently am working 8 and 12-hour shifts on nights. Previously, I also worked some 12-hour day shifts. I personally have been struggling with working the 12-hour shifts. My commute to work is 1 hour one way and I have fallen asleep several times driving home from work. The last four hours of my shift I experience great fatigue and even have had trouble staying awake. I have come close to having medication errors and feel that my quality of care is less during the last four hours. When working 12-hour shifts I average around 5-6 hours of sleep before returning to do another 12-hour shift. During an interview with another colleague also working 12-hour shifts she states she also experiences feeling very tired and less alert. She actually admits to having a medication error that she feels was associated with the long hours and fatigue. With these concerns I ask, â€Å"Are nurses work hours a concern for nurses and patient safety†? Introduction As demands for flexible work hours and a balance between home and work life have increased for nurses, twelve hour shifts are more common. The nursing shortage has also contributed to nurses’ working longer hours to cover shifts. Nurses must remain alert to provide safe care and prevent errors in medications and procedures. Nurse work hours are a concern to me regarding patient safety. I am also concerned with the health risk of nurses working long hours so I decided to do a search on how long hours affect nurses and their patients. I searched evidenced based research articles available from a variety of trustworthy healthcare sites like CINHAL, ANA, and Nursing Journals. I organized this literature review in three categories. These categories are: Positive and negative effects of long hours, effects of long hours on patient safety, and if there are any health effects on the nurse working 12-hour shifts. Literature Review Positive and Negative Effects of Long Hours There are both advantages and disadvantages of working 12 hour shifts (Ede, Davis, & Sirois, Circadian, 2007). One advantage is working less days during the week, which is desirable of most nurses. It is also easier to have all the shifts covered because you do not have to hire as many nurses (Circadian, 2007). In a qualitative study by Richardson, Turnock, Harris, Finley, & Carson (2007) the purpose was to examine the impact and implications of 12-hour shifts on critical care staff. Two groups and questionnaires with critical care staff from three critical care units were reviewed. Positive effects were found with planning and prioritizing care, improved relationships with parents/relatives, good quality time off work and ease of travelling to work. Less favorable effects were with caring for patients in isolation and the impact on staff motivation and tiredness. Acceptable patterns of work were suggested like no more than 2-3 consecutive shifts should be worked and rest periods between shifts. The survey concluded that most of the nurses that responded wanted to continue with 12-hour shifts. Systems and practices need to be developed to improve on the negative effects of working 12-hour shifts. In one of my interviews the nurse agreed that she enjoys 12-hour shifts because she has more days off during the week and feels she has more time with her family, although I personally disagree. She also states it is easier to provide day care for her children. Disadvantages of longer work hours according to Circadian (2007) included that it is harder to cover absences, limited family and social time during working days, more pay lost when a day is missed and increased percentage of night shifts. Longer work hours have also been associated with increased tiredness, less sleeping hours, driver fatigue returning home, and increased risk of errors or near errors ( Richardson et al. , 2007); (Scott, 2006); (Scott, 2010); (Chen, 2011). I have no time with my family on the days I work 12 hours. Even though I have more days off I feel I am spending at least one day recovering after working a long shift. I personally would rather have interaction with my family daily especially since the kids are in school. A colleague I interviewed also agreed that when working 12 hour shifts she had limited time with her family. Effects on Long Hours on Patient Safety As a result of nursing shortage hospital staff nurses are working longer hours with few breaks (Chen et al. 2011). In one quantitative study by Scott, Rogers, Hwang, & Zhang (2006) they randomly selected 1148 critical care nurses and sent them a demographical questionnaire to fill and return related to medical errors and the hours they worked. The objective of this article was to describe the work patterns of critical care nurses, determine if there was a relationship between the occurrence of errors and the hours worked by the nurses, and explore whether these work ho urs had adverse effects on nurses’ vigilance. The 502 respondents consistently worked longer than scheduled and for extended periods. Longer work duration increased the risk errors and near risk errors and decreased nurses’ vigilance. The findings supported the Institute of Medicine recommendations to minimize the use of 12 hour shifts and to limit nurses’ work hours to no more than 12 consecutive hours during a 24 hour period (IOM, 2006). Although the findings note that 12 hour shifts can have negative effects, most participants wanted to continue working them. Nurses are responsible for the safety of their patients. Nurses must remain alert to provide safe care, recognize discrete changes in patient conditions, and intercept potentially dangerous errors in medication and procedural orders (Keller, 2009). Nurses’ work hours are a concern given the expectation of their sustained vigilance to maintain the well-being of patients. The 12 hour shifts worked by many nurses are associated with reduced sleep times, difficulties staying awake, frequent overtime, and significant risk for error (Rogers, Hwang, Scott, Aiken & Dings, 2004)( Scott, Rogers, Hwang, & Zhang, 2006). Even though 12 hour shifts may be preferred by many nurses, studies indicate that extended shifts worked by hospital staff nurses are associated with higher risk of errors. Long hours coupled with insufficient sleep and fatigue is even risker (Scott et al, 2010). More than two-thirds of 895 hospital staff nurses reported â€Å"struggling to stay awake on duty† at least once during a 28-day data gathering period (Rogers, Hwang, Scott, & Dinges, 2003). Nurses reported fighting sleep about once every five shifts (2,258 out of 11,218 shifts). Drowsiness was not confined to the night shift; more than half of these episodes occurred between 6 A. M. and midnight. Nurses who reported shorter sleep durations were more likely to struggle to stay awake, fall asleep, and make errors while on duty (Scott et al, 2010). Effects on Nurses Working Long Hours Studies examing the health and safety consequences of nurses themselves are beginning to shed some doubt about the wisdom of continuing to use the twelve hour work schedule. According to one study, adverse health and safety outcomes of extended work hours include increased rates of musculoskeletal disorders, needlestick injuries, motor vehicle accidents, and inadequate sleep (Greiger-Brown, & Trinkoff, 2010). All of these can be attributed to reduced vigilant attention, fatigue, and decreased neuromuscular fine motor control associated with sleep deficiency. In an interview with one colleague she states that her body, â€Å"hurts all over†, when working a twelve our shift. I have fallen asleep driving before which could of resulted in injury of myself or someone else. Lengthening of the shift duration from 8 to 12 hours significantly restricts the opportunity for sleep and produces sleep deficiency (Smith et al. , 1998). Working without adequate sleep between shifts can lead to negative chronic health effects including Cardiovascular Disease, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, obesity, decreased immune function, and increased cancer risk (IOM, 2006). In a quantitative study by Chen, Davis, Pan, & Daraiseh (2011) a total 145 nurses wore monitors for one 12-hour day shift to record heart rate (HR) and work pace(WP), which were used to calculate energy expenditure(EE). The purpose of this study was to determine whether hospital nurses are experiencing physiological strain at work by examining their physiological and behavioral response patterns over 12-hour shifts. The EE and HR data presented in the study revealed a moderate physiological strain experienced by 12-hour shift nurses, regardless of their slowed paces during the last four hours. The study noted that although work pace slowed during the last 4 hours, the nurses’ heart rate continued to be elevated, which could lead to cardiovascular disorder. Moreover, inadequate work break and sleep, family care-giving responsibility and aging presented challenges that may have prohibited nurses from full recovery and potentially exacerbated the negative impacts of the 12 –hour shifts. Overall their results relates to EE and HR suggest that nursing workload of 12-hour has a negative physiological impact on nurses. Policy Implications Although there are negative effects noted in working twelve hour shifts, I don’t think it is going anywhere due to the fact that nurses love them, and the increase in nursing shortage. Keeping this in mind instead of focusing on stopping twelve hour shifts, there needs to be interventions on how to improve the 12 hour shifts to provide safer patient care and prevent health problems in nurses. The preliminary policy implications I have discovered is the possibility of limiting how many twelve hour shifts a nurse should work in a row, mandating breaks while working twelve hour shifts, allowing the night shift to nap, regulate how many hours a nurse can volunteer to work, and allow the older nurses to have an option between 8 and 12-hour shifts. In my institution there is no limit on how many hours a nurse can voluntarily sign up for as long as it is approved if it puts the nurse in overtime. Our breaks are not mandated, if we get one great, and if not we can get paid for not getting a break. Most of the time, our breaks are interrupted. Regarding naps, physicians on the night shift are allowed to sleep if there are no patients, but there is no policy stating the nurse can sleep. Some nurses actually work 24 hour shifts, but are allowed to sleep at night if they are not busy. There are times though that they are busy the whole 24 hours. In one interview a nurse stated that if she lays her head down and naps for about 20 minutes she feels much more alert. I have also tried taking a nap at work when there were no patients in the ER, and I did feel so much more alert, especially driving home. It is therefore wise to consider limiting shift length and hours worked per week per IOM recommendations. After reviewing the literature it is clear that the main problem is nurses not getting enough sleep between shifts which causes fatigue. In a study of nurses’ sleep habits, Geiger-Brown (2010) found that 58 percent averaged only 5. 5 hours of sleep. When they work three or four 12-plus hours a day, they are also unable to easily reestablish a â€Å"consistent sleep schedule†. In one research article it noted that allowing the nurses to nap, especially the night nurses showed improvement in alertness and feeling less fatigued and ultimately showed a reduction in errors or near errors (Fallis, McMillan, Edwards, 2011). It also noted that anagement needs consider to mandating that the 12 hour plus nurses are taking full uninterrupted breaks which also improves alertness. Most nurses are not taking full breaks and stay longer than the scheduled 12 hours which reduces their sleep and recovery time between shifts (Greiger-Brown, & Trinkoff, 2010). In a recent review of studies between 1970 and 1998, 12 hour shifts nurses were fatigued in 5 of 7 studies, and of 10 studies measuring performance, 4 were negative, and 6 were neutral; none showed positive effects. In this review, laboratory studies showed deteriorated performance; but field studies found no difference between 8 and 12 hours. Recent studies with stronger designs and methods have increased the evidence that questions the safety of 12-hour shifts. More recent studies as mentioned earlier demonstrate an increase in patient care errors when nurses work 12 hour shifts compared to 8 hours. The research question that has been uncovered related to nurses’ long work hours is if the long hours affect the health of the nurse and patient safety? In my institution other colleagues have stated that they feel that when working 12 hours or longer more than two days in a row really decreases their quality of care because they are tired. I feel more studies need to be done on the impact of working hours and the nurses’ health along with more evidence regarding patient safety. One ethical implication researching effects of 12-hour shifts is that the managers do not want to take away 12-hour shifts due to nursing shortage because they do not have to hire as many nurses to cover shifts. Another issue is that most nurses enjoy the twelve hour shifts even though they know they become really tired because they enjoy having more days off during the week. Managers may fear that nurses will leave to find jobs that offer 12-hour shifts. I feel this is ethically a problem with colleagues and coalitions because they are not looking at the negative effects on the nurses and the patients. With research it has become obvious that working longer hours can effect both the health of the nurse and safety of the patients yet our facility along with many others have not come up with adequate resolutions to the problem. Conclusion Twelve hour shifts contribute to flexible patterns of work, but the effects of delivery of direct care and staff fatigue are important topics for deeper examination. More recent studies as mentioned earlier demonstrate an increase in patient care errors when nurses work 12 hour shifts compared to 8 hours. Although 12 hour shifts are popular, evidence shows us that extended working hours, and working while fatigued and sleep deprived reduce vigilance and impair physical/behavioral functioning. The result has damaging effects on patient safety, quality of care provided and the health of the nurse. I believe it is the responsibility of the nurse to recognize the risks of working longer hours to keep the patient safe and to also maintain their own health. I used the Patterns of Knowing (White, 1995) to view my topic and to gather information on this literature review. These patterns of knowing in nursing include empirics, esthetics, ethics, and personal knowing (White, 1995). I used empirics by gathering factual information regarding my topic. I discussed issues in regards to ethics on my topic that was mentioned in chapter 3. I included my personal knowledge and experience with working longer shift hours, and also looked at the esthetic form by putting it all together and acknowledging what the problem is. Doing this literature review I realize that working the longer hours does put a strain on my overall health, and also has potential to put my patients at risk. I will focus more on getting better sleep, and I have asked my manager about working only 8 hour shifts. I also really want to pursue gathering more information about night nurses being able to nap.

Friday, August 30, 2019

Black House Chapter Twenty-five

25 OH, FORGET about that. We know where Jack Sawyer went when he disappeared from the edge of the cornfield, and we know who he is likely to meet when he gets there. Enough of that stuff. We want fun, we want excitement! Luckily for us, that charming old party Charles Burnside, who can always be depended upon to slip a whoopee cushion under the governor's seat during a banquet, to pour a little hot sauce into the stew, to fart at the prayer meeting, is at this moment emerging from a toilet bowl and into a stall in the men's room on Daisy wing. We note that Ol' Burny, our Burn-Burn, hugs Henry Leyden's hedge clippers to his sunken chest with both arms, actually cradling them, as if he were holding a baby. On his bony right arm, blood slides out of a nasty gash and rolls down toward his elbow. When he gets one foot, clad in another resident's bee slipper, on the rim of the bowl, he pushes himself up and steps out, wobbling a bit. His mouth is twisted into a scowl, and his eyes look like b ullet holes, but we do not suppose that he, too, carries a weight of heavy-duty sorrow. Blood soaks the bottoms of his trousers and the front of his shirt, which has darkened with the flow of blood from a knife wound to his abdomen. Wincing, Burny opens the door of the stall and walks out into the empty men's room. Fluorescent lights on the ceiling reflect from the long mirror above the row of sinks; thanks to Butch Yerxa, who is working a double shift because the regular night man called in drunk, the white tiles of the floor gleam. In all this sparkling whiteness, the blood on Charles Burnside's clothes and body looks radiantly red. He peels off his shirt and tosses it into a sink before plodding down to the far end of the bathroom and a cabinet marked with a piece of tape on which someone has printed BANDAGES. Old men have a tendency to fall down in their bathrooms, and Chipper's father thoughtfully installed the cabinet where he thought it might be needed. Drops of blood lay spattered across the white tiles. Burny rips a handful of paper towels from a dispenser, dampens them with cold water, and lays them on the side of the nearest sink. Then he opens the bandage cabinet, removes a wide roll of tape and a wad of gauze bandages, and tears off a six-inch strip of the tape. He wipes blood off the skin around the wound in his belly and presses the wet paper towels over the opening. He lifts away the towels and presses a pad of gauze to the cut. Awkwardly, he flattens the strip of tape over the gauze. He dresses the stab wound on his arm in the same fashion. Now swirls and scoops of blood cover the white tiles. He moves up the row of sinks and runs cold water over his shirt. The water turns red in the bowl. Burny keeps scrubbing the old shirt under cold running water until it has turned a pale rose only a few shades brighter than his skin. Satisfied, he wrings the shirt in his hands, flaps it once or twice, and puts it back on. That it clings to him bothers Burny not at all. His goal is a very basic version of acceptability, not elegance: insofar as it is possible, he wants to pass unnoticed. His cuffs are soaked with blood, and Elmer Jesperson's slippers are dark red and wet, but he thinks most people will not bother to look at his feet. Within him, a coarse voice keeps saying, Fazzdur, Burn-Burn, fazzdur! Burny's only mistake is that, while buttoning up his damp shirt, he looks at himself in the mirror. What he sees stops him cold with shock. Despite his ugliness, Charles Burnside has always approved of the image returned to him by mirrors. In his opinion, he looks like a guy who knows where to find the corners sly, unpredictable, and foxy. The man staring at him from the other side of the mirror is nothing like the canny old operator Burny remembered. The man facing him looks dim-witted, worn-out, and seriously ill. Sunken, red-rimmed eyes, cheeks like craters, veins crawling across his bald, skull-like crown . . . even his nose looks bonier and more twisted than it once had. He is the sort of old man who frightens children. You shud fry-den cheerun, Burn-Burn. Dime do ged moo-vuhn. He couldn't really look that bad, could he? If he did, he would have noticed long before this. Nah, that wasn't how Charles Burnside faced the world. The bathroom's too damn white, that's all. A white like that makes you look bleached. Makes you look skinned, like a rabbit. The dying old horror in the mirror takes a step nearer, and the spotty discolorations on his skin seem to darken. The spectacle of his teeth makes him close his mouth. Then his master is like a fishhook in his mind, pulling him toward the door and muttering, Dime, dime. Burny knows why it's dime: Mr. Munshun wants to get back to Black House. Mr. Munshun comes from some place incredibly distant from French Landing, and certain parts of Black House, which they built together, feel like the world of his home the deepest parts, which Charles Burnside seldom visits, and which make him feel hypnotized, weak with longing, and sick to his stomach when he does. When he tries to picture the world that gave birth to Mr. Munshun, he envisions a dark, craggy landscape littered with skulls. On the bare slopes and peaks stand houses like castles that change size, or vanish, when you blink. From the flickering defiles comes an industrial cacophony mingled with the cries of tortured children. Burnside is eager to return to Black House, too, but for the simpler pleasures of the first set of rooms, where he can rest, eat canned food, and read his scrapbooks. He relishes the particular smell that inhabits those rooms, an order of rot, sweat, dried blood, must, sewage. If he could distill that fragrance, he would wear it like cologne. Also, a sweet little morsel named Tyler Marshall sits locked in a chamber located in another layer of Black House and another world and Burny cannot wait to torment little Tyler, to run his wrinkled hands over the boy's beautiful skin. Tyler Marshall thrills Burny. But there are pleasures yet to be reaped in this world, and it is dime to attend to them. Burny peeks out through a crack in the bathroom door and sees that Butch Yerxa has succumbed to weariness and the cafeteria's meat loaf. He occupies his chair like an oversized doll, his arms on the desk and his fat chin resting on what would be a neck on a normal person. That useful little painted rock stands a few inches away from Butch's right hand, but Burny has no need of the rock, for he has acquired an instrument far more versatile. He wishes he had discovered the potential of hedge clippers long ago. Instead of one blade, you get two. One up, one down, snick-snick! And sharp! He had not intended to amputate the blind man's fingers. Back then he thought of the clippers as a big, primitive variety of knife, but when he got stabbed in the arm, he jerked the clippers toward the blind man and they more or less bit off his fingers by themselves, as neatly and swiftly as the old-time butchers i n Chicago used to slice bacon. Chipper Maxton is going to be fun. He deserves what he is going to get, too. Burny figures that Chipper is responsible for the way he has deteriorated. The mirror told him that he is about twenty pounds less than he should be, maybe even thirty, and no wonder look at the slop they serve in the cafeteria. Chipper has been chiseling on the food, Burny thinks, the same way he chisels on everything else. The state, the government, Medicaid, Medicare, Chipper steals from all of them. A couple of times when he thought Charles Burnside was too out of it to know what was happening, Maxton had told him to sign forms that indicated he'd had an operation, prostate surgery, lung surgery. The way Burny sees it, half of the Medicaid money that paid for the nonexistent operation should have been his. It was his name on the form, wasn't it? Burnside eases into the hallway and pads toward the lobby, leaving bloody footprints from the squishing slippers. Because he will have to pass the nurse's station, he shoves the clippers under his waistband and covers them with his shirt. The flabby cheeks, gold-rimmed glasses, and lavender hair of a useless old bag named Georgette Porter are visible to Burnside above the counter of the nurses' station. Things could be worse, he thinks. Ever since she waltzed into D18 and caught him trying to masturbate stark naked in the middle of the room, Georgette Porter has been terrified of him. She glances his way, seems to suppress a shudder, and looks back down at whatever she is doing with her hands. Knitting, probably, or reading the kind of murder mystery in which a cat solves the crime. Burny slops nearer the station and considers using the clippers on Georgette's face, but decides it is not worth the waste of energy. When he reaches the counter, he looks over it and sees that she is holding a paperback book in her hands, just as he had imagined. She looks up at him with profound suspicion in her eyes. â€Å"We sure look yummy tonight, Georgie.† She glances up the hallway, then at the lobby, and realizes that she must deal with him by herself. â€Å"You should be in your room, Mr. Burn-side. It's late.† â€Å"Mind your own business, Georgie. I got a right to take a walk.† â€Å"Mr. Maxton doesn't like the residents to go into the other wings, so please stay in Daisy.† â€Å"Is the big boss here tonight?† â€Å"I believe so, yes.† â€Å"Good.† He turns away and continues on toward the lobby, and she calls after him. â€Å"Wait!† He looks back. She is standing up, a sure sign of great concern. â€Å"You aren't going to bother Mr. Maxton, are you?† â€Å"Say any more, and I'll bother you.† She places a hand on her throat and finally notices the floor. Her chin drops, and her eyebrows shoot up. â€Å"Mr. Burnside, what do you have on your slippers? And your pants cuffs? You're tracking it everwhere!† â€Å"Can't keep your mouth shut, can you?† Grimly, he plods back to the nurses' station. Georgette Porter backs against the wall, and by the time she realizes that she could have tried to escape, Burny is already in front of her. She removes her hand from her throat and holds it out like a stop sign. â€Å"Dumb bitch.† Burnside yanks the clippers out of his belt, grips the handles, and clips off her fingers as easily as if they were twigs. â€Å"Stupid.† Georgette has entered a stage of shocked disbelief that holds her in paralysis. She stares at the blood spilling from the four stumps on her hand. â€Å"Goddamn moron.† He opens the clippers and rams one of the blades into her throat. Georgette makes a choked, gargling sound. She tries to get her hands on the clippers, but he pulls them from her neck and raises them to her head. Her hands flutter, scattering blood. The expression on Burny's face is that of a man who finally admits that he has to clean his cat's litter box. He levels the wet blade in front of her right eye and shoves it in, and Georgette is dead before her body slides down the wall and folds up on the floor. Thirty feet up the hallway, Butch Yerxa mumbles in his sleep. â€Å"They never listen,† Burny mutters to himself. â€Å"You try and try, but they always ask for it in the end. Proves they want it like those dumb little shits in Chicago.† He tugs the clippers' blade out of Georgette's head and wipes it clean on the shoulder of her blouse. The memory of one or two of those little shits in Chicago sends a tingle down the length of his member, which begins to stiffen in his baggy old pants. Hel-lo! Ah . . . the magic of tender memories. Though, as we have seen, Charles Burnside now and again enjoys erections in his sleep, in his waking hours they are so rare as to be nearly nonexistent, and he is tempted to pull down his pants and see what he could make it do. But what if Yerxa wakes up? He would assume that Georgette Porter, or at least her corpse, aroused Burny's long-smoldering lusts. That wouldn't do not at all. Even a monster has his pride. Best to carry on to Chipper Maxton's office, and hope that his hammer doesn't go limp be fore it is time to pound the nail. Burny tucks the clippers into the back of his waistband and yanks at his wet shirt, pulling it away from his body. Down the corridor of Daisy wing he shuffles, across the empty lobby, and up to the burnished door further distinguished by the brass nameplate reading WILLIAM MAXTON, DIRECTOR. This he reverentially opens, summoning to mind the image of a long-dead ten-year-old boy named Herman Flagler, otherwise known as â€Å"Poochie,† one of his first conquests. Poochie! Tender Poochie! Those tears, those sobs of mingled pain and joy, that yielding to utter helplessness: the faint crust of dirt over Poochie's scabby knees and slender forearms. Hot tears; a jet of urine from his terrified little rosebud. There will be no such bliss from Chipper, but we may be sure there will be something. Anyhow, Tyler Marshall lies bound and waiting in Black House, helpless as helpless could be. Charles Burnside plods through Rebecca Vilas's windowless cubicle, Poochie Flagler's pallid, deeply dimpled backside blazing in his mind. He places a hand on the next doorknob, takes a moment to calm himself, and noiselessly revolves the knob. The door opens just wide enough to reveal Chipper Maxton, only monarch of this realm, leaning over his desk, his head propped on one fist, and using a yellow pencil to make notations on two sets of papers. The trace of a smile softens the tight purse of his mouth; his damp eyes betray the suggestion of a gleam; the busy pencil glides back and forth between the two stacks of papers, making tiny marks. So happily absorbed in his task is Chipper that he fails to notice he is no longer alone until his visitor steps inside and gives the door a backward kick with his foot. When the door slams shut, Chipper glances up in irritated surprise and peers at the figure before him. His attitude almost immediately changes to a sly, unpleasant heartiness he takes to be disarming. â€Å"Don't they knock on doors where you come from, Mr. Burnside? Just barge right on in, do they?† â€Å"Barge right on in,† says his visitor. â€Å"Never mind. The truth is, I've been meaning to talk to you.† â€Å"Talk to me?† â€Å"Yes. Come on in, will you? Take a seat. I'm afraid we might have a little problem, and I want to explore some possibilities.† â€Å"Oh,† Burny says. â€Å"A problem.† He plucks his shirt away from his chest and trudges forward, leaving behind him progressively fainter footprints Maxton fails to see. â€Å"Take a pew,† Chipper says, waving at the chair in front of his desk. â€Å"Pull up a bollard and rest your bones.† This expression comes from Franky Shellbarger, the First Farmer's loan officer, who uses it all the time at the local Rotary meetings, and although Chipper Maxton has no idea what a bollard may be, he thinks it sounds cute as hell. â€Å"Old-timer, you and me have to have a heart-to-heart discussion.† â€Å"Ah,† Burny says, and sits down, his back rigidly straight, due to the clippers. â€Å"Hardz zu hardz.† â€Å"Yeah, that's the idea. Hey, is that shirt wet? It is! We can't have that, old buddy you might catch cold and die, and neither one of us would like that, would we? You need a dry shirt. Let me see what I can do for you.† â€Å"Don't bother, you fucking monkey.† Chipper Maxton is already on his feet and straightening his shirt, and the old man's words throw him momentarily off his stride. He recovers nicely, grins, and says, â€Å"Stay right there, Chicago.† Although the mention of his native city sends a prickling sensation down his spine, Burnside gives nothing away as Maxton moves around the side of his desk and walks across his office. He watches the director leave the room. Chicago. Where Poochie Flagler and Sammy Hooten and Ferd Brogan and all the others had lived and died, God bless 'em. Stalks of grain, blades of grass, so foul so beautiful so enticing. With their smiles and their screams. Like all Caucasian slum children, pure pale ivory white under the crust of dirt, the fishy white of the city's poor, the soon-to-be-lost. The slender bones of their shoulder blades, sticking out as if to break through the thin layer of flesh. Burny's old organ stirs and stiffens as if it remembers the frolics of yesteryear. Tyler Marshall, he croons to himself, pretty little Ty, we will have ourselves some fun before we turn you over to the boss, yes we will yes indeedy yes yes. The door slams behind him, yanking him out of his erotic reverie. But his old mule, his old hoss, it stays awake and on its mettle, bold and brash as ever it was in the glory days. â€Å"No one in the lobby,† Maxton complains. â€Å"That old bag, what'shername, Porter, Georgette Porter, down in the kitchen stuffing her face, I bet, and Butch Yerxa sound asleep in his chair. What am I supposed to do, ransack the rooms to find a dry shirt?† He strides past Burnside, throws up his hands, and drops into his chair. It's all an act, but Burny has seen much better than this. Chipper cannot intimidate Burny, not even if he knows a few things about Chicago. â€Å"I don't need a new shirt,† he says. â€Å"Asswipe.† Chipper leans back in his chair and clasps his hands behind his head. He grins this patient amuses him, he's a real card. â€Å"Now, now. There's no need for name-calling here. You don't fool me anymore, old man. I don't buy your Alzheimer's act. In fact, I don't buy any of it.† He is nice and relaxed and he oozes the confidence of a gambler holding four aces. Burny figures he is being set up for some kind of con job or blackmail, which makes the moment all the more delicious. â€Å"I gotta hand it to you, though,† Chipper goes on. â€Å"You fooled everybody in sight, including me. It must take an incredible amount of discipline to fake late-stage Alzheimer's. All that slumping in your chair, being fed baby food, crapping in your pants. Pretending you don't understand what people are saying.† â€Å"I wasn't faking, you jackass.† â€Å"So it's no wonder you staged a comeback when was that, about a year ago? I would have done the same. I mean, it's one thing to go undercover, but it's another to do it as a vegetable. So we have ourselves a little miracle, don't we? Our Alzheimer's gradually reverses itself, it comes and it goes, like the common cold. It's a good deal all around. You get to walk around and make a nuisance of yourself, and there's less work for the staff. You're still one of my favorite patients, Charlie. Or should I call you Carl?† â€Å"I don't give a shit what you call me.† â€Å"But Carl's your real name, isn't it?† Burny does not even shrug. He hopes Chipper gets to the point before Butch Yerxa wakes up, notices the bloody prints, and discovers Georgette Porter's body, because while he is interested in Maxton's tale, he wants to get to Black House without too much interference. And Butch Yerxa would probably put up a decent fight. Under the illusion that he is playing a cat-and-mouse game in which he is the cat, Chipper smiles at the old man in the wet pink shirt and rolls on. â€Å"A state detective called me today. Said I.D. on a local fingerprint had come back from the FBI. It belonged to a bad, bad man named Carl Bierstone who's been wanted for almost forty years. In 1964 he was sentenced to death for killing a couple of kids he molested, only he escaped from the car taking him to prison killed two guards with his bare hands. No sign of him since then. He'd be eighty-five by now, and the detective thought Bierstone just might be one of our residents. What do you have to say, Charles?† Nothing, evidently. â€Å"Charles Burnside is pretty close to Carl Bierstone, isn't it? And we have no background information on you at all. That makes you a unique resident here. For everybody else, we damn near have a family tree, but you sort of come out of nowhere. The only information we have about you is your age. When you turned up at La Riviere General in 1996, you claimed to be seventy-eight. That would make you the same age as that fugitive.† Burnside gives him a truly unsettling smile. â€Å"I guess I must be the Fisherman, too, then.† â€Å"You're eighty-five years old. I don't think you're capable of dragging a bunch of kids halfway across the county. But I do think you're this Carl Bierstone, and the cops are still eager to get their hands on you. Which brings me to this letter that came a few days ago. I've been meaning to discuss it with you, but you know how busy things get around here.† He opens his desk drawer and pulls out a single sheet torn from a yellow notepad. It bears a brief, neatly typed message. † ? ®De Pere, Wisconsin,' it says. No date. ? ®To Whom It May Concern' is how it starts. ? ®I regret to inform you that I am no longer able to continue monthly payments on behalf of my nephew, Charles Burnside.' That's it. Instead of writing her signature, she typed her name. ? ®Althea Burnside.' â€Å" Chipper places the yellow notepaper before him and folds his hands together on top of it. â€Å"What's the deal here, Charles? There's no Althea Burnside living in De Pere, I know that much. And she can't be your aunt. How old would she be? At least a hundred. More like a hundred and ten. I don't believe it. But these checks have been coming in, regular as clockwork, since your first month here at Maxton's. Some buddy, some old partner of yours, has been looking out for you, my friend. And we want him to continue what he's been doing, don't we?† â€Å"All the same to me, asswipe.† This is not precisely truthful. All Burny knows of the monthly payments is that Mr. Munshun organized them long ago, and if these payments are to stop, well . . . what comes to an end with them? He and Mr. Munshun are in this together, aren't they? â€Å"Come on, kiddo,† Chipper says. â€Å"You can do better than that. I'm looking for a little cooperation here. I'm sure you don't want to go through all the mess and trouble of being taken into custody, getting fingerprinted, plus whatever might happen after that. And me, speaking personally, I wouldn't want to put you through all of that. Because the real rat here is your friend. It sure looks to me like this guy, whoever he is, is forgetting that you probably have something on him from the old days, right? And he's thinking that he doesn't have to make sure that you have all your little comforts anymore. Only that's a mistake. I bet you could straighten the guy out, make him understand the situation.† Burny's mule, his old hoss, has softened up and dwindled like a punctured balloon, which increases his gloom. Since entering this oily crook's office, he has lost something vital: a feeling of purpose, a sense of immunity, an edge. He wants to get back to Black House. Black House will restore him, for Black House is magic, dark magic. The bitterness of his soul went into its making; the darkness of his heart soaked through every beam and joist. Mr. Munshun helped Burny see the possibilities of Black House, and he contributed many and many a touch of his own devise. There are regions of Black House Charles Burnside has never truly understood, and that frighten him, badly: an underground wing seems to contain his secret career in Chicago, and when he drew near that part of the house, he could hear the pleading whimpers and pungent screams of a hundred doomed boys as well as his own rasps of command, his grunts of ecstasy. For some reason, the proximity of his earlier triumphs made him feel small and hunted, an outcast instead of a lord. Mr. Munshun had helped him remember the scale of his achievement, but Mr. Mun-shun had been of no use with another region of Black House, a small one, at best a room, more accurately a vault, which houses the whole of his childhood, and which he has never, ever visited. The merest hint of that room causes Burny to feel like an infant left outside to freeze to death. The news of the fictitious Althea Burnside's defection has a lesser version of the same effect. This is intolerable, and he need not, in fact cannot, endure it. â€Å"Yeah,† he says. â€Å"Let's have some straightening out here. Let's have some understanding.† He rises from the chair, and a sound from what seems to be the center of French Landing speeds him along. It is the wail of police sirens, at least two, maybe three. Burny doesn't know for sure, but he supposes that Jack Sawyer has discovered the body of his friend Henry, only Henry was less than perfectly dead and managed to say that he had recognized his killer's voice. So Jack called the cop shop and here we are. His next step brings him to the front of the desk. He glances at the papers on the desk and instantly grasps their meaning. â€Å"Cooking the books, hey? You aren't just an asswipe, you're a sneaky little numbers juggler.† In an amazingly small number of seconds, Chipper Maxton's face registers a tremendous range of feeling states. Ire, surprise, confusion, wounded pride, anger, and disbelief chase across the landscape of his features as Burnside reaches back and produces the hedge clippers. In the office, they seem larger and more aggressive than they did in Henry Leyden's living room. To Chipper, the blades look as long as scythes. And when Chipper tears his eyes away from them and raises them to the old man standing before him, he sees a face more demonic than human. Burnside's eyes gleam red, and his lips curl away from appalling, glistening teeth like shards of broken mirrors. â€Å"Back off, buddy,† Chipper squeaks. â€Å"The police are practically in the lobby.† â€Å"I ain't deaf.† Burny rams one blade into Chipper's mouth and closes the clippers on his sweaty cheek. Blood shoots across the desk, and Chipper's eyes expand. Burny yanks on the clippers, and several teeth and a portion of Chipper's tongue fly from the yawning wound. He pushes himself upright and leans forward to grab the blades. Burnside steps back and lops off half of Chipper's right hand. â€Å"Damn, that's sharp,† he says. Then Maxton comes reeling around the side of the desk, spraying blood in all directions and bellowing like a moose. Burny dodges away, dodges back, and punches the blades into the bulge of the blue button-down shirt over Chipper's belly. When he tugs them out, Chipper sags, groans, drops to his knees. Blood pours out of him as if from an overturned jug. He falls forward on his elbows. There is no fun left in Chipper Maxton; he shakes his head and mutters something that is a plea to be left alone. A bloodshot, oxlike eye revolves toward Charles Burnside and silently expresses an oddly impersonal desire for mercy. â€Å"Mother of Mercy,† Burny says, â€Å"is this the end of Rico?† What a laugh he hasn't thought of that movie in years. Chuckling at his own wit, he leans over, positions the blades on either side of Chipper's neck, and nearly succeeds in cutting off his head. The sirens turn blaring on to Queen Street. Soon policemen will be running up the walk; soon they will burst into the lobby. Burnside drops the clippers onto Chipper's broad back and regrets that he does not have the time to piss on his body or take a dump on his head, but Mr. Munshun is grumbling about dime, dime, dime. â€Å"I ain't stupid, you don't have to tell me,† Burny says. He pads out of the office and through Miss Vilas's cubicle. When he moves out into the lobby, he can see the flashing light bars on the tops of two police cars rolling down the far side of the hedge. They come to a halt not far from where he first put his hand around Tyler Marshall's slender boy-neck. Burny scoots along a little faster. When he reaches the beginning of the Daisy corridor, two baby-faced policemen burst through the opening in the hedge. Down the hallway, Butch Yerxa is standing up and rubbing his face. He stares at Burnside and says, â€Å"What happened?† â€Å"Get out there,† Burny says. â€Å"Take 'em to the office. Maxton's hurt.† â€Å"Hurt?† Incapable of movement, Butch is gaping at Burnside's bloody clothes and dripping hands. â€Å"Go!† Butch stumbles forward, and the two young policemen charge in through the big glass door, from which Rebecca Vilas's poster has been removed. â€Å"The office!† Butch yells, pointing to his right. â€Å"The boss is hurt!† While Yerxa indicates the office door by jabbing his hand at the wall, Charles Burnside scuttles past him. A moment later, he has entered the Daisy wing men's room and is hotfooting it toward one of the stalls. And what of Jack Sawyer? We already know. That is, we know he fell asleep in a receptive place between the edge of a cornfield and a hill on the western side of Norway Valley. We know that his body grew lighter, less substantial, cloudy. That it grew vague and translucent. We can suppose that before his body attained transparency, Jack entered a certain nourishing dream. And in that dream, we may suppose, a sky of robin's egg blue suggests an infinity of space to the inhabitants of a handsome residential property on Roxbury Drive, Beverly Hills, wherein Jacky is six, six, six, or twelve, twelve, twelve, or both at the same time, and Daddy played cool changes on his horn, horn, horn. (â€Å"Darn That Dream,† Henry Shake could tell you, is the last song on Daddy Plays the Horn, by Dexter Gordon a daddy-o if there ever was.) In that dream, everyone went on a journey and no one went anywhere else, and a traveling boy captured a most marvelous prize, and Lily Cavanaugh Sawyer capt ured a bumblebee in a glass. Smiling, she carried it to the swinging doors and launched it into the upper air. So the bumblebee traveled far and away to Faraway, and as it journeyed worlds upon worlds on their mysterious courses trembled and swayed, and Jack, too, journeyed on his own mysterious course into the infinite robin's-egg blue and, in the bee's accurate wake, returned to the Territories, where he lay sleeping in a silent field. So in that same darned dream, Jack Sawyer, a person younger than twelve and older than thirty, stunned by both grief and love, is visited in his sleep by a certain woman of tender regard. And she lies down beside him on his bed of sweet grass and takes him in her arms and his grateful body knows the bliss of her touch, her kiss, her deep blessing. What they do, alone in the faraway Territories, is none of our business, but we compound Sophie's blessing with our own and leave them to what is after all, with the gentlest possible urgency, their busine ss, which blesses this boy and this girl, this man and this woman, this dear couple, as nothing else can, certainly not us. Return comes as it should, with the clean, rich smells of topsoil and corn, and a rooster's alarm-clock crowing from the Gilbertson cousins' farm. A spiderweb shining with dew stitches the loafer on Jack's left foot to a mossy rock. An ant trundling across Jack's right wrist carries a blade of grass bearing in the V of its central fold a bright and trembling drop of newly made water. Feeling as wondrously refreshed as if he, too, were newly created, Jack eases the hardworking ant off his wrist, separates his shoe from the spiderweb, and gets to his feet. Dew sparkles in his hair and his eyebrows. Half a mile back across the field, Henry's meadow curves around Henry's house. Tiger lilies shiver in the cool morning breeze. Tiger lilies shiver . . . When he sees the hood of his pickup nosing out from behind the house, everything comes back to him. Mouse, and the word given him by Mouse. Henry's house, Henry's studio, his dying message. By this time, all the police and investigators will have gone, and the house will be empty, echoing with bloodstains. Dale Gilbertson and probably Troopers Brown and Black will be looking for him. Jack has no interest in the troopers, but he does want to talk to Dale. It is time to let Dale in on some startling facts. What Jack has to say to Dale is going to peel his eyelids back, but we should remember what the Duke told Dean Martin about the whisking of eggs and the making of omelettes. In the words of Lily Cavanaugh, when the Duke spoke up, ever'-dang-body lissened up, and so must Dale Gilbertson, for Jack wants his faithful and resolute company on the journey through Black House. Walking past the side of Henry's house, Jack puts the tips of his fingers to his lips and brushes them against the wood, transferring the kiss. Henry. For all the worlds, for Tyler Marshall, for Judy, for Sophie, and for you, Henry Leyden. The cell phone in the cab of the Ram claims to have three saved messages, all from Dale, which he deletes unheard. At home, the answering machine's red light blinks 4-4-4, repeating itself with the ruthless insistence of a hungry infant. Jack pushes PLAYBACK. Four times, an increasingly unhappy Dale Gilbertson begs to know the whereabouts of his friend Jack Sawyer and communicates his great desire to converse with the same gentleman, largely in reference to the murder of his uncle and their friend, Henry, but it wouldn't hurt to talk about the goddamn slaughter at Maxton's, would it? And does the name Charles Burnside ring any bells? Jack looks at his watch and, thinking that it cannot be correct, glances up at the clock in his kitchen. His watch was right after all. It is 5:42 A.M., and the rooster is still crowing behind Randy and Kent Gilbert-son's barn. Tiredness suddenly washes through him, heavier than gravity. Someone is undoubtedly manning the telephone on Sumner Street, but Dale is just as certainly asleep in his bed, and Jack wishes to speak only to Dale. He yawns hugely, like a cat. The newspaper hasn't even been delivered yet! He removes his jacket and tosses it onto a chair, then yawns again, even more widely than before. Maybe that cornfield was not so comfortable after all: Jack's neck feels pinched, and his back aches. He pulls himself up the staircase, shucks his clothes onto a love seat in his bedroom, and flops into bed. On the wall above the love seat hangs his sunny little Fairfield Porter painting, and Jack remembers how Dale responded to it, the night they uncrated and put up all the paintings. He had loved that picture the moment he saw it it had probably been news to Dale that he could find such satisfaction in a painting. All right, Jack thinks, if we manage to get out of Black House alive, I'll give it to him. And I'll make him take it: I'll threaten to chop it up and burn it in the wood-stove if he doesn't. I'll tell him I'll give it to Wendell Green! His eyes are already closing; he sinks into the bedclothes and disappears, although this time not literally, from our world. He dreams. He walks down a tricky, descending forest path toward a burning building. Beasts and monsters writhe and bellow on both sides, mostly unseen but now and then flicking out a gnarled hand, a spiky tail, a black, skeletal wing. These he severs with a heavy sword. His arm aches, and his entire body feels weary and sore. Somewhere he is bleeding, but he cannot see or feel the wound, merely the slow movement of blood running down the backs of his legs. The people who were with him at the start of his journey are all dead, and he is he may be dying. He wishes he were not so alone, for he is terrified. The burning building grows taller and taller as he approaches. Screams and cries come from it, and around it lies a grotesque perimeter of dead, blackened trees and smoking ashes. This perimeter widens with every second, as if the building is devouring all of nature, one foot at a time. Everything is lost, and the burning building and the soulless creature who is both its master and its prisoner will triumph, blasted world without end, amen. Din-tah, the great furnace, eating all in its path. The trees on his right side bend and contort their complaining branches, and a great stirring takes place in the dark, sharply pointed leaves. Groaning, the huge trunks bow, and the branches twine like snakes about one another, bringing into being a solid wall of gray, pointed leaves. From that wall emerges, with terrible slowness, the impression of a gaunt, bony face. Five feet tall from crown to chin, the face bulges out against the layer of leaves, weaving from side to side in search of Jack. It is everything that has ever terrified him, injured him, wished him ill, either in this world or the Territories. The huge face vaguely resembles a human monster named Elroy who once tried to rape Jack in a wretched bar called the Oatley Tap, then it suggests Morgan of Orris, then Sunlight Gardener, then Charles Burnside, but as it continues its blind seeking from side to side, it suggests all of these malign faces layered on top of one another and melting into one. Utter fear turns Jack to stone. The face bulging out of the massed leaves searches the downward path, then swings back and ceases its constant, flickering movement from side to side. It is pointed directly at him. The blind eyes see him, the nose without nostrils smells him. A quiver of pleasure runs through the leaves, and the face looms forward, getting larger and larger. Unable to move, Jack looks back over his shoulder to see a putrefying man prop himself up in a narrow bed. The man opens his mouth and shouts, â€Å"D'YAMBA!† Heart thrashing in his chest, a shout dying before it leaves his throat, Jack vaults from his bed and lands on his feet before he quite realizes that he has awakened from a dream. His entire body seems to be trembling. Sweat runs down his forehead and dampens his chest. Gradually, the trembling ceases as he takes in what is really around him: not a giant face looming from an ugly wall of leaves but the familiar confines of his bedroom. Hanging on the wall opposite is a painting he intends to give to Dale Gilbertson. He wipes his face, he calms down. He needs a shower. His watch tells him that it is now 9:47 A.M. He has slept four hours, and it is time to get organized. Forty-five minutes later, cleaned up, dressed, and fed, Jack calls the police station and asks to speak to Chief Gilbertson. At 11:25, he and a dubious, newly educated Dale a Dale who badly wants to see some evidence of his friend's crazy tale leave the chief's car parked beneath the single tree in the Sand Bar's lot and walk across the hot asphalt past two leaning Harleys and toward the rear entrance.

Thursday, August 29, 2019

Strategic Human Resource Evaluation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Strategic Human Resource Evaluation - Essay Example The abilities of people to cope with such environment define the success of any organization. Because of this, human resource function has become the integral part of the corporate strategic planning. Top executives are increasingly looking to HR to improve the bottom-line. In addition to staffing, recruiting and compensation, new value-added HR functions have evolved including career planning, training, organizational development and succession planning. Strategic Human Resource Management contributes not only to achievement of the motivated workforce, but also to the accomplishment of the company's long-term strategy and to competitive advantage. The traditional roles of the Human Resource managers has changed from planning and recruiting, and today HR policies and practices influence the organizational performance. This new proactive approach to HRM is the shift from traditional view of personnel that focused on micro issues such as individual performance and satisfaction to the helping managers in maximizing the contribution of employees in achieving competitive advantage (Luthans 1998). Multinational organizations no longer rely on the technology or patents, but they utilize their people to create the competitive advantage. ... Human Resource Management can build the organizational capacity and sustained competitive advantage. Organizations must be able to adapt to the changing environments and be ready to react to risks. "Any organization that wants to remain successful must continually assess and formulate new strategies to meet the needs of its customers (both internal and external) in more effective ways" (Luthans 1998). For example, if the organization is emphasizing the cost strategy, the changes in HRM activities will enable those strategies to become the major focus of organization. If particular, the multi-skilled employees and less expensive staff will help to meet the cost objectives. Without proper changes in HRM functions, organizational strategy might fail. In addition to personnel administration, HR is supporting the company's competitive advantage by providing the talented employees AND helping the managers to strategically plan the functions of these employees within the company (Rowden 1999). Transformation of HR function into the strategic business partner positively affects the company's income. To ensure successful transformation, the overall company's business strategy should be clear. Human Resource Managers help to create customized strategic plans which do influence the effectives of the company's performance. In particular, the strategic HR manager ensures that employees understand their roles in mission accomplishment. This can be difficult to achieve in changing organization because of lack of stability and people leaving organization. The top managers usually know very little about the human resource management and their knowledge is limited to maintaining employee records and avoiding staff

Wednesday, August 28, 2019

Functional Social Support and Major Depression In Cancer Patients Article

Functional Social Support and Major Depression In Cancer Patients - Article Example Functional social support (FSS) is needed, and it entails more of emotional assistance The article highlights the findings that were observed after an undertaking that sought to show the impact of each of these support methods. It was noted that there was no discrepancy in the way both genders perceived the impact of FSS. In the same study, the researchers sought to analyze the impact of social support in relation to major depression by age. In the study, younger patients from the age of 18 to 54 were included in the study. It was observed that the FSS full scale was negative and had significant relation to MD among the younger and the older population (Chan et al p.48). The studies proved that some approaches prove vital for patients suffering from various conditions including cancer. However, for people who suffer from physical illnesses, some support systems proved to have little impact (Chan et al p.49). Notwithstanding this discovery, the study also showed that perception is imperative in aiding the patients. For instance, the Social Support could be beneficial to the patients if their perception is backed up by others in the society. Also, the impact often depends on the gender with evidence from the study showing male patients do not necessarily need the FSS and the AFF. In short, the study showed that the relation between the clinical depression and the SS is mainly moderated by a source or support, gender and the type of FSS employed. Nonetheless, the study comprehensively observed that, â€Å"the provision of social support can lead to a reduction in depressed mood in the following day† (Chan et al p.49). That is to say that whilst not every sickness can be remedied through the said interventions, offer support to these patients has significant impact on their psychological condition. Normally, when patients are left alone, there is

Tuesday, August 27, 2019

You can decide Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

You can decide - Essay Example Therefore over time animals evolve not only physical attributes to be able to catch and devour their prey and avoid being the prey of larger animals, but instinctive behavior patterns as well. In this case the lions take advantage of their similar color to hide in the tall grass. They know they cant conquer the large adult buffalo so they go after the smaller baby who tries unsuccessfully to escape into the river. Two crocodiles seeing a prey of opportunity try to pull the baby into the river but lose out in a tug of war to the more numerous lions. Just as the lions are about to finish off the baby the adults return and with their superior size and horns are able to rescue the still alive baby and fend off the lions. This event shows that while the lions instinctively only successfully attack the baby buffalo, they did not have the foresight to realize the adult buffalo would return to try to rescue their young. Life in the wild for animals is a constant struggle to prey on more vuln erable for food and to avoid being preyed upon themselves. While over time they evolve physical characteristics and instinctive behavior to enhance their survivability, they generally do not develop the intellectual capacity to refrain from a tempting target which could spark effective counterattack. Man has this ability which allows him to evolve to the top of the food chain in spite of potentially more powerful adversaries. Cells are the building blocks of life. As the Cells Alive website states they divide naturally in a newborn producing new cells with minuscule changes in order that their host species of animal is better equipped to survive in their particular environment. These adaptive changes called mitosis occur slowly over hundreds if not thousands of years . A baby is a combination of the mother’s and father’s genes or cell structures and likely there are also small changes that neither parent has. While most cells have specialized

Monday, August 26, 2019

SAINT AUGUSTINE'S CONFESSION Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words - 1

SAINT AUGUSTINE'S CONFESSION - Essay Example First, Monica’s outstanding obedience wife to her husband influenced Augustines conversion. In addition, Monica introduced her son to Ambrose, who would later baptize him. Finally, Monica compelled and encouraged Augustine to attend school that shaped his life and would later be a priest. Augustine’s strong conviction to the Christian world originated Monica. Initially, both Patricius, (Augustines father) and Augustine were non-convert and finally got saved through the influence of Monica. Monica prayed to God on behalf of her husband’s soul and Augustine. â€Å"With a pure heart and faith in you she even more lovingly travailed in labor for my eternal salvation.†1 Augustine wonders how his parents lived harmoniously with each other saves to Monica. Monica was a God fearing individual and served her husband as her lord with care to her children. Her marvelous traits inform Augustine’s strong need for conversion. She is, therefore, significantly inspirational to Augustine making him grow as a God fearing individual hence his conversion to Christianity. Monica instills good morals to her son based on how she cared for her family, husband and merciful manner she submitted to serve God. From the assertions of Augustine, â€Å"When I was a boy, I had heard about eternal life promised to us through the humility of our Lord God. Coming down to our pride, and I was already sighed with the sigh of the cross and seasoned with salt from the time I came from my mother’s womb.†2 From here, we realize that it was the mother that firstly drew Augustine’s attentions towards the Lord. Monica became so amiable to Augustine’s father and vowed never to have a quarrel with her husband. Augustine also asserts that, ‘she anxiously labored to convince me that you, my God, were my father rather than he, and in this endeavor you helped her to gain victory over her husband.†3 From this quote, it is justified that Monica was

Sunday, August 25, 2019

Inclusion and the Inclusive Learning Environment Essay - 2

Inclusion and the Inclusive Learning Environment - Essay Example also requires that the teacher involves recognizes that all learners are different in their own ways and therefore, what may look helpful and good for the attainment of goals for one learner may not necessarily be good for another learner. In seeking to understand the inclusive environment, it is also crucial to consider that each learner has something unique to add to the learning environment that can be of help to other learners. Students come from different background with varying upbringing. It is therefore crucial that a teacher is able to harmonize them to get them to live in peace and unity (Willis, 2009). An inclusive environment is also characterized by flexible approaches to the learning process (Willis, 2009). The world of education is very dynamic as it evolves each decade with new needs arising every time. It is therefore of great need it is reassessed each time and the necessary changes made. The changes can be attributed to the increasing educational opportunities across the globe. Consequently, it is of essential need, those teachers to be able to nurture the full potential of each student. By teachers being in a position to model inclusive learning attitudes in their students, they are able to learn and apply the strategies as they acknowledge their differences and have profound respect for diversity. Examples of strategies used in the inclusive environment are that regarding how teachers nod learners interact and relate to one another (Willis, 2009). This involves use of the respectful vocabularies and terminologies towards one another. Good communication strategies ensure that comments and views are not mistaken to be discriminatory. In addition to this, the body language should also be appropriate and decent at all times. Another strategy is that which involves, the kind of teaching resources the teacher employs (Willis, 2009). The resources ought to be suitable and compatible with all the learners’ needs. Let no learn feel sidelined or

Saturday, August 24, 2019

Labor and Employment Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Labor and Employment Law - Essay Example The previous department manager left the company during this employee’s leave. The new manager has agreed to this employee’s return to the previous job, at the previous rate of pay. But the manager has denied the request for the 11 weeks of withheld salary. In this context, the provision for the Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 can be applied to some significant extent. Some of the most important clauses of the act are (EMPLOYEE RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES, 2009): For the purpose of incapacity because of pregnancy, or prenatal medical care and/or child birth; In order to take care for the concerned employee’s child after the birth, also placement for the adoption or related to foster care; To take care for the concerned employee’s partner, son or the daughter, or the parent, who possesses a grave health condition (EMPLOYEE RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES, 2009); One of the most important properties of the act is that if an employee takes leave in regard to any one of the above mentioned conditions, then the business organization where the person works is liable to provide the total amount of employment compensation to that employee. However, there is certainly an upper limit to the total time span of taking the leave – 12 months of maximum time (EMPLOYEE RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES, 2009). However, the FMLA requires covered employers to provide up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave to eligible employees for the following reasons: †¢ For incapacity due to pregnancy, prenatal medical care or child birth; †¢ To care for the employee’s child after birth, or placement for adoption or foster care; †¢ To care for the employee’s spouse, son or daughter, or parent, who has a serious health condition; or †¢ For a serious health condition that makes the employee unable to perform the employee’s job. Under these circumstances it is most likely to argue that the company or the new manager is not liable to pay the full 11 weeks’ salary to the employee. Hence, in this situation, there has not been any violation of the concerned law (EMPLOYEE RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILITIES, 2009). Situation B: One employee is 68 years old and has been with a particular company for 42 years. During the annual performance review last month, it was determined that this employee was doing â€Å"above average† work in the department. Employee B was denied a promotion due to age. A co-worker given the promotion, who is 32 years old, received a performance review of â€Å"adequate.† In this respect there has been a violation of the act. This is due to the fact that the person who has been promoted is the co-worker of another person who has been originally chosen by the company for promotion. As this 68 years old person was denied taking the promotion by the company, therefore it became one of the most illegal aspects to share the promotion with another co-worker of this 68 year s old employee. In this respect, as the older employee himself did not reject taking the promotion and as this decision has been entirely been forced on him by the company, therefore the law has significantly been violated. In this respect the older employee is expected to question the company regarding their act. Also the employee is expected to make legal case against the company asking why the management of the company has denied his

Analyse the impact of a range of contextual influences on classroom Essay

Analyse the impact of a range of contextual influences on classroom processes - Essay Example To effect learning, a teacher prepares for her daily lesson from the motivation or preliminary activity to make students relate prior knowledge to new concepts about to be learned to the evaluation or assessment of students’ learning either through paper and pencil exercises or performance-based activities for better retention of concepts. Classroom Management, on the other hand, refers â€Å"to the set of strategies that teachers and students use to ensure a productive, harmonious learning environment to prevent disruptions in the learning process,† (Rothstein-Fisch, and Trumbull, 2008, p. 2). Finally, Instruction refers to orchestration of student learning. The second part of classroom processes is student behaviour which comprises of the actions a student would make in the classroom which highlights one important variable which is Academic Learning Time – the time spent for learning tasks (Huitt, 2003, p. 5). Other variables which complete the classroom processes include home, peer groups, community, religious institutions, society, culture, and international conditions. Variables related to home involves educational levels of parents, socio-economic status, age and marital status, and other variables including educational materials and equipment in the home like books, magazine, computer technology, etc. (Huitt, 2003, p. 8) Other important context subcategories include the community – its location, emphasis on education, peer groups; the society – emerging TV/Films; state and national policies- laws, programs, and funding; the culture – prevailing values, language, art, music, etc.), and international/global conditions – knowledge explosion or information age movement (Huitt, 1995 as cited in Huitt, 2003, p. 9). To further illustrate how cultural diversity works at students’ advantage, take a social studies class, for instance. For students to have a full grasp of any concept of war, they have to be situated in a context either direct

Friday, August 23, 2019

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

Theory Research - Essay Example e research the social organisation theory and previous research that have been undertaken with regard to this theory, theories related to the social disorganisation discussed in this paper include the gang theory, the concentric zone theory, the cultural transmission theory and the differential social organisation concept. The Social disorganisation theory depicts that crime occurs as a result of failure by the society to organise its institutions, Assumptions of the social disorganisation theory on crime are that crime is caused by social factors, individuals in the society are unable to resist temptation and that the social structure in the society is unstable, according to the assumptions when crime occurs people blame the perpetrators and don’t blame on social disorganisation in the society, for this reason therefore it is almost impossible to identify the causes of crime. Robert Sampton (1997) developed the collective efficacy and social capital concepts, according to him collective efficacy referred to the maintenance of order in the society while social capital referred to the informal networks ties that exist in a society. He stated that a society must first achieve social capital in order to achieve collective efficacy, for this reason therefore he supported the social disorganisation theory by stating that modern societies lack social capital and therefore has not achieved social efficacy and this explains the existence of crime. The gang theory is also another theory that explains social disorganisation in the society. In this theory the various characteristics of gang behaviour include solidarity, shared traditions and cooperation. The theory depicts that gang’s start as groups and collected in certain areas of a society especially area between developed areas, for this reason the presence of gangs can explain the existence of high crime rates in certain regions. The concentric zone theory also explain the existence of crime due to social

Thursday, August 22, 2019

Doris Lessings Book Character Essay Example for Free

Doris Lessings Book Character Essay We are first introduced to Mary as being an independent young woman. However Lessing’s character soon shows signs of being an insecure woman, who cares deeply what other people think about her. The reader is forced to sympathise with this self-destructing character. Throughout the novel Mary is described as being in a state of tension and under strain. Mary is unable to adapt to her new life on the farm with Dick, she is constantly longing for the town she left behind. The linear plot is about Mary Turner’s life, going back to her childhood and progressing to her characters fatal ending. The narrator tells of Mary being raised by â€Å"frustrated parents† and the hatred she felt towards her father. Her body is treated with discust,†She smelt the thick stuff of his trousers†, a possibility that some sort of child abuse occurred, which would account for her arrested sexuality, the fear and repulsion of sex. Mary becomes a friendless character who receives no help from her Husband and no loyalty from the servant. However violent Mary becomes with her servant she never actually commits a crime. Mary is driven to marry Dick after she over hears people mocking her and she feels she is being ostracized. The reader views Mary as a heroine who has lost her struggle. We are told by the narrator that evil was not contained within this woman but that evil was all around her. Throughout the novel the author’s disapproval of sexual and political prejudice and the colonialism in South Africa is constantly reinforced. This in turn influences the reader not to adapt to the main characters viewing of the world. Lessing’s novel can be seen as Mary’s constant struggle to preserve her authenticity and sense of self but she fails to overcome her struggle due to the forces and conditions that surround her. Mary’s failures are rooted in her family and culture that in turn dooms her to her death. Although at the beginning of Mary and Moses’s relationship, Mary exerts all her power and authority, we soon see a role reversal and a curious relationship develop when Moses insists on being treated like a human. From the beginning of the novel we become aware of Mary’s family struggles of poverty. Lessing intentionally tried to make the reader constantly switch from sympathising with Mary to despising her. Both Mary and Dick are identified as being tragic figures because of their failure to communicate and to address the practical and emotional difficulties in their lives. Mary  believed that she was as a white person is superior to the black natives in every way. The relationship that Mary develops with her black servant Moses shatters the complacency of the whites in Africa. Moses’ power in the relationship is unquestionable and real. His action in murdering Mary is simply a demonstration of the control which he exerts over her and in general which the blacks have in their own country still. The whites only retain a hold based on lies and corruption The land is what kills Mary. Mary’s efforts to assert her white authority over a black man continually backfire and leave her with less control. â€Å"While it is never explicitly stated, the novel suggests that Mary succumbs to him sexually just as her mental faculties begin to disintegrate†(40) Mary’s cognizance of the murder as one compounded  by her own guilt and by vengeance, rather than unwarranted aggression, shows a strange ability to forgive her own murderer even as he performs the act that she knows he is compelled to do.(42) Theshadow of regret, followed by the desire to explain and to be absolved of guilt, marks the first and only moment in the novel in which Mary is conceived as a self-possessed agent of her own destiny(43) The reader never consent to Mary’s view of the world but they can relate to the traditions and cultures that she was raised in that influenced her behaviour. Mary had been brought up to be afraid of black men: â€Å"She was afraid of them [the natives], of course. Every woman in South Africa is brought up to be. In her childhood she had been forbidden to walk out alone, and when she asked why, she had been told in the furtive, lowered, but matter-of-fact voice she associated with her mother, that they were nasty and might do horrible things to her†(chapt4) â€Å"She hated their half-naked, thick-muscled black bodies stooping in the  mindless rhythm of their work. She hated their sullenness, their averted eyes when they spoke to her, their veiled insolence; and she hated more than anything, with a violent physical repulsion, the heavy smell that came from the, a hot, sour animal smell.†(chap.7) The reader identifies with Mary’s Emotional failure as a white woman, a wife that rendered from her childhood upbringing and formed her into this insecure woman.

Wednesday, August 21, 2019

Prostitutes: Victims Or Offenders?

Prostitutes: Victims Or Offenders? The profession of prostitution has existed since times immemorial, with some people even claiming that it is one of the oldest professions in the world. However, till today sex work remains a highly stigmatized and taboo topic in most states and regions of the world. Most people tend to look down upon those who pursue it and perceive prostitutes to be despicable, sex-loving and morally corrupt criminals. Others sympathize with their predicament and consider them oppressed victims of circumstances in which they had no agency. It appears that in most cases, acceptance to be subjected to degradation in the form of sex work is a direct result of poverty and lack of opportunities and hence, is a coerced choice rather than an independent one. In many countries, the profession has been given legal standing though it continues to be illegal in the United States (with the exception of ten counties in the state of Nevada), Argentina, India and a number of Muslim and Communist countries. In England and Wales, current legislations on sex-work are far from straight-forward and leave room for much ambiguity and controversy. The Sexual Offences Act 2003 defines a prostitute as a person who on at least one occasion and whether or not compelled to do so, offers or provides sexual services to another person in return for payment or a promise of payment. Strictly speaking, prostitution is and has always been legal in the United Kingdom though a number of laws criminalize certain activities directly connecting to it. The Sexual Offences Act, 1956 makes it an offence to keep a brothel for the use of prostitution and the 2003 Act bans causing/inciting prostitution or controlling it for personal gains. Moreover, loitering or soliciting sex on the streets, pimping, pandering and kerb-crawling (the act of driving slowly against a pavement to entice somebody for sexual purposes) are all against the law. Since 2001, adverts placed in phone booths have been banned. Human trafficking, which arguably fuels the market for prostitution, has also been addressed under the law. There are several general laws in place for indecency and public nuisance which can be said to target the sex trade industry. In 2009, Section 14 of the Policing and Crime Act rendered it a strict liability offence to pay for the sexual services of a prostitute who has been subjected to force, threat, coercion or exploited in some way by a third party and ignorance of the circumstances will be no defence. The UK government had high hopes the creation of this new offence would reduce demand for sexual services and thereby tackle the rampant issue of sex trafficking and exploitation. Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which has been ratified by the Council of Europe and incorporated into domestic legislation through the Human Rights Act 1998, states All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. Moreover, the UDHR prohibits slavery and servitude and states no one shall be subjected to cruel, degrading or inhuman treatment. At the very essence of the Act, lies the notion that the right to equality and liberty is every living persons birthright and cannot be alienated. Radical feminist Catherine Mackinnon  [1]  argues that women in prostitution are denied all imaginable human rights as they are prostituted precisely in order to be degraded and subjected to cruel and brutal treatment without human limits; it is the opportunity to do this that is exchanged when women are bought and sold for sex. She reflects The gap between the promise of civil rights and the real lives of prostitutes is an abyss which swallows up prostituted women. To speak of prostitution and civil rights in one breath moves the two into one world, at once exposing and narrowing the distance between them. In a similar vein as Mackinnon, American radical feminist and one-time prostitute Andrea Dworkin likens a prostitute to a gang rape victim, asserting the two experience the same trauma and suffering. Oh, you say, gang rape is completely different. An innocent woman is walking down the street and she is taken by surprise. Every woman is that same innocent woman. Every woman is taken by surprise. In a prostitutes life, she is taken by surprise over and over and over again. The gang rape is punctuated by a money exchangeà ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦ Thats the only difference. In Dworkins opinion, women are generally considered to be dirty and a prostitute is not a metaphor of the dirt but in fact, a literal manifestation of scum and filth. Prostituted women are being killed every single day, and we dont think were facing anything resembling an emergency. Why should we? Theyre no one. When a man kills a prostitute, he feels righteous. It is a righteous kill. He has just gotten rid of a piece of dirt, and the society tells him he is right. Prostitution is hardly a victimless crime it dehumanizes and commodifies women, rendering them mere objects of fetish and lust. By its very nature, it tends to be degrading for women and involves risk of violence in the face of both physical and sexual attacks. Perpetrators of such offences vary from pimps, abusive clients and violent bystanders waiting to catch a free ride. Women who have been involved in the profession often describe it as paid rape and voluntary slavery. In a research conducted by PhD of Prostitution Research Education, Melissa Farley entitled Prostitution: Fact sheet on Human Rights Violations, Farley asserts that prostitution is sexual harassment, rape, battering, verbal abuse, domestic violence, a racist practice, a violation of human rights, childhood sexual abuse, a consequence of as well as a means of maintaining male domination over women. She writes: All prostitution causes harm to women, whether it is being sold by ones family to a brothel, or whether it is being sexually abused in ones family, running away from home, and then being pimped by ones boyfriend, or whether one is in college and needs to pay for next semesters tuition and one works at a strip club behind glass where men never actually touch you all these forms of prostitution hurt the women in it. Farley and a team of researchers drafted a report titled Prostitution and trafficking in nine countries: An update on violence and Posttraumatic stress disorder where they interviewed 854 current/recent prostitutes in 9 countries (Canada, Columbia, Mexico, South Africa, Thailand, Turkey, United States and Zambia) inquiring about sexual and physical violence. The results were astounding. Farley discovered that prostitution is multi-traumatic: 71% of the respondents were physically assaulted, 63% were raped, 89% wanted to escape prostitution but had no other career options available and 68% met the criteria for PTSD. According to a study conducted in Exeter University in the UK, at any given time, one in four hundred women is a sex worker. The global economic crisis and recession has driven young girls into the profession of prostitution, against their will. They enter the profession, young, gullible and vulnerable, only to be exploited by pimps and those who pay for their services. Disillusioned and exhausted, they resort to drugs as a means of momentarily relieving themselves of their misery and pathetic state. Call girls or escorts as they are colloquially referred to, are an easy target for men who use them to get sexual favours and ruthlessly beat them up if they dare ask for money. Statistics show crimes committed against prostitutes usually go unreported and the few that are reported with the authorities, tend to go unpunished. There seems to be tacit acceptance of this form of violence that is prevalent in society as very few people question the status quo and the deplorable state of affairs of sex workers. This moral disdain is mirrored on the judicial level where prostitutes bear the brunt of the criminal justice system and their male counterparts, namely the pimps and clients, get off relatively lightly. The violence and abuse, prostitutes face is illustrated by the Ipswich Serial Murders. In the winter of 2006, naked dead bodies of five prostitutes at different locations were discovered in and around Ipswich, Suffolk in England. In 2008, forty-nine year old Steve Wright, pleading guilty, was convicted for murdering all five of them. A forensic scientist informed the court that Wright had had prolonged physical contact with three of the women he later killed and had left behind extensive samples of his DNA. During the courts proceedings, Wright admitted that he had been paying for sex for the last 25 years since he had been working as a steward on cruise ships. In response to the murders, Suffolk Police launched a strategy to effectively eliminate all street prostitution in the town. But the Ipswich case is not a one off instance. Neither will ending prostitution be a long-term solution. In 2001, twenty-one year old Vicky Glass had been missing for two months before her naked and decomposed body was discovered dumped in a stream near Damby, North Yorkshire. Similarly, thirty-three year old Julia Dorsett went missing in 2002. Six years later, her upper torso skeleton, wrapped in a duvet was found dumped in Walthamstow. In recent times, forty year old Stephen Shaun Griffiths has been charged and convicted for murdering three prostitutes in Bradford. Soon after the Ipswich Serial Murders, an extremely pertinent and contentious issue was widely debated as to what kind of legislative measures could change the prevailing conditions of prostitutes. One of the measures proposed by the current Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill was the mandatory rehabilitation of women involved in the profession of sex-work. As per the Bill, street prostitutes would be obliged to attend three counseling sessions with support workers. In the case of absence, they can be held up in custody for up to three days. It is argued that rather than solving the problem, such measures will exacerbate it. Probation officers enforcing mandatory rehabilitation orders are as it is over-stretched and lack the relevant resources required to deal with the issues prostitutes and sex-workers face. Support services for prostitutes lack the capacity to address specific troubles of the latter such as client violence. For example, 15 London boroughs have no sexual health ou treach provision for women in the sex industry. The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) was adopted by the United Nations in 1979 and provides for an international standard for the protection and promotion of womens human rights. The CEDAW committee, which monitors compliance with the commission, incessantly opposes forced prostitution, trafficking of women and young girls and exploitation of prostitution. Though it does not legalize prostitution, CEDAW has in the past, urged certain countries such as China to decriminalize the trade so that women can come out in the open without fear of being labeled consensual criminals and insofar as reducing instances of HIV/AIDS, trafficking and violence against women. India, a country where an alarming number or rape incidents take place every year, suggested the legalization of the trade in 2002. Khushwant Singh, columnist and novelist wrote in an article titled How a rapist should be punished: à ¢Ã¢â€š ¬Ã‚ ¦[A] necessary step [to prevent rape] is to legalise prostitution carried out in brothels or by call-girls provided the sex workers are adults and have not been forced into the trade. The more you try to put down prostitution, the higher will be the incidence of crime against innocent women. You may find the idea repulsive but ponder over it and you will realise there is substance in the argument. The United Kingdom has a number of sex workers rights groups who argue that the only way to prevent gross human rights violations being committed against prostitutes is by completely legalizing the sex trade. They claim legislation will resolve many issues and have a positive impact on society. Not only will it allow law enforcement agencies to respond to more important crimes but it will also relieve the justice system from nuisance cases and allegedly trivial litigation as well as freeing women who are caught by the shackles of prostitution and preventing teenagers from being ensnared into the profession. Over the years, the authorities have adopted an ostrich-like approach towards the predicament of prostitutes; legalizing the worlds oldest profession will allow the trade to be regulated and managed. Health care safety measures can be planned which will significantly reduce instances of sexually transmitted diseases such as HIV and herpes simplex virus. Pimps and traffickers will be prevented from treating prostitutes on sub-human levels. Moreover, studies have found that when brothels are closed, incidents of rape tend to increase significantly. Countries where prostitution is legal, report less cases of murder, rape, and HIV/AIDS. Suicide rates have also been found to be lower along with divorce rates. On the other hand, a research conducted by the London School of Economics, German Institute for Economic Research and Heidelberg University revealed that out of the 116 countries sampled, those where prostitution was legal displayed a higher inflow of trafficking as compared to those countries where the trade was illegal. Furthermore, legislation will not remove the stigma attached to sex work and neither will it improve the economic conditions of those who resort to this profession. In 2000 the Home Office published Setting the Boundaries which was a thorough and detailed analysis of the law governing sexual offences. The report led to the milestone metamorphosis of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. In 2004, yet another strategy report was introduced, titled Paying the Price: a consultation paper on prostitution. This report sought to set a realistic and coherent framework to tackle the issue of sex work. It asserted that to address the issue of social exclusion and to achieve a reduction in anti-social behaviour and violence against women, an in-depth debate on prostitution is imperative. Organised criminality, including trafficking and substantial drug misuse, and sexually and drug transmitted infection, are all part of the problem. Systematic abuse, violence and exploitation are endemic. The strategy included prevention, tackling demand, developing routes out, ensuring justice and dealing with street prostitution. As per the Home Office, in the UK as many as 60 women involved in prostitution have been murdered in the last 10 years; 80,000 women work in on-street prostitution and the average age women become involved is a meager 12 years. Though the arguments against legalizing prostitution are plentiful and relevant, in my opinion the trade should be decriminalized insofar as it reduces exploitation of women and children. Women involved in sex-work are treated as consensual criminals and offenders of the law but are, in fact the victims of a lawless and brutal profession that strips them of their self esteem and individuality. Putting our ethical and moral views aside, if legislation can in any way improve the existing deplorable conditions of sex workers, it should be seriously considered and accordingly reforms should be recommended by the Law Commission. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2007/jun/27/ukcrime.prisonsandprobation http://revdlesley.blogspot.com/2010/10/impact-of-prostitution.html# http://prostitution.procon.org/sourcefiles/paying_the_price.pdf http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/social-care-and-health/childrens-social-care/protecting-children-from-harm/protecting-and-safeguarding-children/protecting-and-safeguarding-children-publications/home-office-prostitution-strategy-report http://www.surreycc.gov.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/168614/SSCB-Prostitution-Strategy.pdf http://www.idppcenter.com/CEDAW_Comm_Pressures_Nations_on_Prostitution.pdf http://www.amnestyusa.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/cedaw_fact_sheet.pdf http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/feb/22/stopcriminalisingthevictims

Tuesday, August 20, 2019

Challenges of the UAE in Demographic Imbalance

Challenges of the UAE in Demographic Imbalance Introduction Prosperity, one of a national interests of the UAE, requires development in all sectors of the UAE. People in the UAE cannot grant the desired prosperity by using local human resources; so development always requires foreign expertise. The number of expats has increased proportionally with the growth of the economy. Even with the growth of UAE national population, the ratio of citizens to non-citizens has severely decreased which caused the imbalance in population. The demographic imbalance has become one of most complex issue to for the UAE which created several challenges that should be addressed. The development   Economic development since the establishment of the UAEunion caused that the expats to reached to 88 % of the population in 2010. When we compared this figure with the situation in EU, where people can barley tolerate an average share of 6.5 % foreigners plus 9.4 % foreign-born new citizens. In the period from 2005 to 2010, the average growth rate for citizens was about 3% every year while non-national population has increased from 3.3 m to 7.2 m , which confirmed the statistics that says UAE is has the most rapid growth rate in population in the world in the period from 2005 since 1950s.These figures are enough to illustrate how the UAE is a unique case in population imbalance. Opportunity or threats Expat labor s are  is one of the main tool  tools for development that contributes to the accomplishment of construction, development programs, and the establishment of the basic infrastructure necessary for economic development. On the other hand, foreign labors led to numerous negative consequences, some of which being still persistsent. The presence of foreign labor in the UAE has turned from a development tool to a challenge that may be turn into a threat to national security from different aspects. The challenges can be categorize into four aspects: culture, economy, policies, and security. The impact of demographic imbalance on culture The presence of more than 200 nationalities who came from different religion, heritage and traditions merged ways of communications among people in the UAE[a1], which interact together daily in a limited area. This leads to the transnational spread of ideas, values and information among people with different cultures, this interaction includes ideologies and believes or even politics[a2]. In 2012, Arab nationalities consisted of 28% of population including citizens, while the Indian and Pakistani nationalities above 50% , which makes the Arabic language it the third in the country after Urdu and English languages. This is true if we assume that all Arabs speak Arabic. Unfortunately, lots of young Emiratis are more comfortable speaking English language instead of their Arabic, they even text each other in English when using communication technology. Furthermore, some elder citizens try to practice it too despite their weakness in speaking English. Moreover, names of residential complexes, streets and shop labels are dominated by foreign names, it witnessed Chinese sometimes. In media, such as radio, programs that presented in other languages are much more than Arabic even though most of them are produced and emitted in the UAE. When comparing the case of the UAE to other countries, countries use only their own languages domestically even if nobody else speaks his langu age such as Turkey and Korea, so what makes new generation of emaraties abandon their mother language is not only the need of to talk with the majority of the foreign peoplepopulation, but because of the weakness of culture that influenced by foreign cultures which consist not only for language, but for a combination of tradition, customs and values. Another challenges is the influence of presence of domestic servants. UAE has a high number of domestic workers helpers as domestic helps which came come from other cultures,: the statistics suggested that 96% of Emarati families employ them, those helpers have been converted to many things such as personal servant or nannies. Most of Emirati families rely on them to raise their children from very young age, they leave their kids in a companion of their domestic servants more than the biological family members. The low cost of domestic servant made people more dependent which perform 80% of parental tasks and responsibilities .This impacts the bonds between mothers and children, as the kids are more drawn toward their care taker and they tend to learn various other languages instead of mother tongue. Another recent issue came to UAE culture that UAE ladies are followed by their domestic servants publicly in shopping malls, hospitals, and parks, which reflects the ignorance of these l adies publicly[a3]. The low cost of domestic servant made people more dependent which perform 80% of parental tasks and responsibilities . The presence of high number of foreign people in UAE caused the creation of a lot of foreign academic institutions locally, the drawback that identifies this case is the threat by these schools which consists of minority of citizen students whom identity may depleted diluted among other identities. Normally, in other countries, foreigners tend to learn the national language for their interest and for the possibility of granting a nationality of hosted country, but in the UAE foreign people insists to preserve their own culture because they understand the difficulty to of getting UAE citizenship so they believe that they would go back to their country at some time to entertain their cultureeventually. Moreover, citizens are who have to[a4] The challenges of demographic imbalance on Economy Economy is the main driver for the influx of foreign people to the country. As people welfare is one of the main objective to maintain life prosperity, this welfare needs a strong economy which cannot be existsed without human resources at all levels and specialists. This demand of expats caused this imbalance. UAE’s economy is expanding according to the strategy of economic diversification. To maintain the economic growth rate, industries create lot of jobs in this market including high skill professionals and law skill worker, both of them usually does not fit citizens. Thus, citizen consists less than 5% in private sector while more than 95% are expats , this figure even exceeded the agreed ratio among labor ministries of GCC which should be less than 20% , which created another challenges that confront political decisions. Even the idea of emiratization in such sectors could not be pragmatic practicle due to the lack of skill that demanded by these industries. Therefore, the, the recruitment of foreigners to fill these opportunity vacancies instead. The role of foreign people is a vital to maintain the prosperity speciallyespecially for citizens’ welfare, that makes citizens relinquish some of their values to maintain their life prosperitystyle. Foreign people have the right to seek better life too, so by the time, old comers try to upgradeimprove their life style, so they would demand more newcomers to provide welfare for them too, which would add more imbalance to the population. It is a vicious circle. The majority of the expatriates working are single males from various Asian. Salaries of single staff who working in the country would be repatriated to his home country with very limited material benefit to the UAE. This would impact the UAE economy and would loses opportunities in local human resource investments too. This situation indicates that UAE are beingsuffers from massively financially drainage :; Iin 2014, remittances were more than 140 billion dirhams that transferred abroad, the continuation of this drainage is unhealthy phenomenon for the economy. Impact of demographic imbalance on policies The issue of foreign labor in the UAE became a political and global issues. In the context of International Labor Agreements and the implications for international economic systems, Some of these agreements request giving expat workers citizenships which is an evidence of political interface interference under the pressure of NGOs and international community. One of the consequences is the possibility of turning of foreign workers into lobbying powers. In fact, some Asian governments demanded UAE government to review employment agreements for alleged lack of appropriate safety measures in the workplace, this demands attracted more actors around the world such as embassies to put more pressure whether it is true or exaggeration. India has become capable to put pressure on political decision-makers, in favor of this large community. Furthermore, there are some concerns about the possibility of these communities demanding the right to autonomy in case of they become the majority of a sp ecific nationality. The foreign communities in the UAE have even have a second generation of immigrants who could become over time citizens with their own social status. They might turn into political movements that express their thoughts, aspirations and demands. Other political demands emerge more apparently in the US State Department annual report on human rights. In 2013 the department issued a report included workers rights in several sections. The laws of freedom of association and the right to collective bargaining such as allowing an employer to suspend an employee for striking and low wages. Prohibition of child labor and minimum age for employment and the acceptance condition of work. However, lot of regulation already been set and amended in the ministry of labor such as Wages Protection System (WPS) that set in 2010 and the prohibition of the use of children who used to be Asian or African in camel races. Therefore, this amendment shows the consequences toof the interference of the international organization in regards to foreign workers and shows the desire of the UAE government to develop better situation to people which turned these criticisms into opportunity. This challenges had opportunities too; several entities related to human rights has been founded including the Human rights department in the ministry of interior and Human rights association in Dubai. These organizations has enhanced the world perception about lot of issues such as children abuse and human trafficking. Furthermore, it developed the judicial system and rebuilt the reputation of the UAE that distorted by some NGOs. In October 2013, the UAE obtained a recognition in the area of human rights. The UAE was first among Arab countries and fourteenth globally on the International Human Rights Rank Indicator (IHRRI), published in 2013 by the Global Network for Rights and Development (GNRD). Impact of foreign worker on security The UAE witnessed lots of demonstrations that carried out by expat workers, Asians in particular, demanding to improveimprovement of working conditions. Labor protests resulted in disagreement with some issue in their own country such as the protest in 2007 set by 600 Chinese workers against their recruitment company in Chinea asking that the money they paid should be returned, they marched in Sharjah and blocked some road in the industrialy area. Such as demonstration might become a security threat if it deviateds from peaceful objectives and headed to the destruction of public properties as happened in Ras Alkhaimah in April 2015 when laborers wrecked and set fire to their building site and 17 cars after a worker fell to his death in an apparent suicide which prompted the police to use force to break up demonstration. Another demonstration took place in March 2015 when hundreds of workers from South Asia have staged a rare protest in Dubai ( BCC 2015), they blocked one of the main landmark area in Dubai. Different expats are is inseparable from conflicts between in their own different countries, which meansmean they may be interact influenced with byany future developments taking place abroad. During the Arab spring, a lot of Arab communities demonstrated their support or opposition to their political actions[a5]. An example of the demonstrations resulted in situations that happened abroad by Syria and Libya, as a result, In 2011, Syrians demonstrated in front of their consulate in Dubai, condemning action of Assad in their homeland. The consequentce of these demonstrations is are not always positive, sometimes it is converted to riot which need to be suppressed by forces. Some foreign labors involved in organized crime in various forms. UAE security services have succeeded over the years in discovering networks involved in trafficking, jewelry and liquor, perpetrated by expat labor, particularly Asians. More dangerously, some of these elements have proven to have links to some border crossing organized crime groups, such as money laundering, currency counterfeiting, drug trafficking, and other illegal activity. In addition, this increases the expenditure in security sectors to maintain the internal security. Other challenges of Demographic imbalance Lot of strategies in the UAE has been adopted or revised by foreign people who contributed to build the country, where the role of citizen was limited in managing and leading the development, this contribution gave the chance for foreign consultant organization to manage most of the economic and strategic plans, and it is notable that most of projects especially real estate projects extensively attracted more foreign companies with different identities. Institutions and organizations in the UAE have being been developdevelopingeding continuously. Government sectors which used to comprise of citizens is inflated yearly to absorb the requirements of other sectors that exponentially increase. There are a lot of organizations that have been under pressure to fulfill population demand. General directorate of residency and foreigners affairs is one of the departments that suffer from the imbalance, it is one of organizations that should inflate in accordance [a6]with population . population. Municipalities is another organization that suffered from this imbalance, the requirement of them increasing every year not for the interest of citizens, but for the high number of expats. The high population of foreign people put more pressure on water and energy sectors, and so on for all other services sectors. It is admitted that foreigners are who helped to develop the civilization infrastucture of the country but the surge in development did no t allow enough time to observe on cultural identity in the civilized environment, as cited by Dubai municipality . Another challenge resulted in this imbalance is in the structure of the security forces organization in the UAE which was were originally designed for the population of the UAE, but with the presence of high population such the double expats in 5 years from 2005-2010, this put lots of burden on security services which mainly comprise of minority of citizens, especially when the number of expats is fluctuating as a result of any global or domestic issue. Conclusion Expats in the UAE have greatly contributed to the economic growth including, infrastructure, transportation and domestic needs, as well as raising living standards of nationals, education, and health and social care. However, the rapid development has to trade off several aspects of culture, security and policies. An equilibrium is needed to meet the standard requirement of the UAE and the presence of people to prioritize requirement and to maintain a steady growth to the country to balance the cost-benefit of expats. Needs documentation Ahmed Almualla 1 [a1]Not clear what you mean [a2]More than other means like internet [a3]Why? [a4]Not complete sentence [a5]Need different word [a6]Choice of words