The Lost Symbol Chapter 117-118

CHAPTER 117 Langdon felt his stomach drop as the CIA helicopter leaped off the lawn, banked hard, and accelerated faster than he ever imagined a helicopter could move. Katherine had stayed behind to recuperate with Bellamy while one of the CIA agents searched the mansion and waited for a backup team. Before Langdon left, she had kissed him on the cheek and whispered, â€Å"Be safe, Robert.† Now Langdon was holding on for dear life as the military helicopter finally leveled out and raced toward the House of the Temple. Seated beside him, Sato was yelling up to the pilot. â€Å"Head for Dupont Circle!† she shouted over the deafening noise. â€Å"We'll set down there!† Startled, Langdon turned to her. â€Å"Dupont?! That's blocks from the House of the Temple! We can land in the Temple parking lot!† Sato shook her head. â€Å"We need to enter the building quietly. If our target hears us coming–â€Å" â€Å"We don't have time!† Langdon argued. â€Å"This lunatic is about to murder Peter! Maybe the sound of the helicopter will scare him and make him stop!† Sato stared at him with ice-cold eyes. â€Å"As I have told you, Peter Solomon's safety is not my primary objective. I believe I've made that clear.† Langdon was in no mood for another national-security lecture. â€Å"Look, I'm the only one on board who knows his way through that building–â€Å" â€Å"Careful, Professor,† the director warned. â€Å"You are here as a member of my team, and I will have your complete cooperation.† She paused a moment and then added, â€Å"In fact, it might be wise if I now apprised you fully of the severity of our crisis tonight.† Sato reached under her seat and pulled out a sleek titanium briefcase, which she opened to reveal an unusually complicated-looking computer. When she turned it on, a CIA logo materialized along with a log-in prompt. As Sato logged in, she asked, â€Å"Professor, do you remember the blond hairpiece we found in the man's home?† â€Å"Yes.† â€Å"Well, hidden within that wig was a tiny fiber-optic camera . . . concealed in the bangs.† â€Å"A hidden camera? I don't understand.† Sato looked grim. â€Å"You will.† She launched a file on the laptop. ONE MOMENT PLEASE . . . DECRYPTING FILE . . . A video window popped up, filling the entire screen. Sato lifted the briefcase and set it on Langdon's thighs, giving him a front-row seat. An unusual image materialized on the screen. Langdon recoiled in surprise. What the hell?! Murky and dark, the video was of a blindfolded man. He was dressed in the garb of a medieval heretic being led to the gallows–noose around his neck, left pant leg rolled up to the knee, right sleeve rolled up to the elbow, and his shirt gaping open to reveal his bare chest. Langdon stared in disbelief. He had read enough about Masonic rituals to recognize exactly what he was looking at. A Masonic initiate . . . preparing to enter the first degree. The man was very muscular and tall, with a familiar blond hairpiece and deeply tanned skin. Langdon recognized his features at once. The man's tattoos had obviously been concealed beneath bronzing makeup. He was standing before a full-length mirror videotaping his reflection through the camera concealed in his wig. But . . . why? The screen faded to black. New footage appeared. A small, dimly lit, rectangular chamber. A dramatic chessboard floor of black-and-white tile. A low wooden altar, flanked on three sides by pillars, atop which burned flickering candles. Langdon felt a sudden apprehension. Oh my God. Filming in the erratic style of an amateur home video, the camera now panned up to the periphery of the room to reveal a small group of men observing the initiate. The men were dressed in ritual Masonic regalia. In the darkness, Langdon could not make out their faces, but he had no doubt where this ritual was taking place. The traditional layout of this Lodge Room could have been anywhere in the world, but the powder-blue triangular pediment above the master's chair revealed it as the oldest Masonic lodge in D.C.–Potomac Lodge No. 5–home of George Washington and the Masonic forefathers who laid the cornerstone for the White House and the Capitol Building. The lodge was still active today. Peter Solomon, in addition to overseeing the House of the Temple, was the master of his local lodge. And it was at lodges like this one that a Masonic initiate's journey always began . . . where he underwent the first three degrees of Freemasonry. â€Å"Brethren,† Peter's familiar voice declared, â€Å"in the name of the Great Architect of the Universe, I open this lodge for the practice of Masonry in the first degree!† A gavel rapped loudly. Langdon watched in utter disbelief as the video progressed through a quick series of dissolves featuring Peter Solomon performing some of the ritual's starker moments. Pressing a shining dagger to the initiate's bare chest . . . threatening impalement should the initiate â€Å"inappropriately reveal the Mysteries of Masonry† . . . describing the black-and-white floor as representing â€Å"the living and the dead† . . . outlining punishments that included â€Å"having one's throat cut across, one's tongue torn out by its roots, and one's body buried in the rough sands of the sea . . .† Langdon stared. Am I really witnessing this? Masonic initiation rites had remained shrouded in secrecy for centuries. The only descriptions that had ever been leaked were written by a handful of estranged brothers. Langdon had read those accounts, of course, and yet to see an initiation with his own eyes . . . this was a much different story. Especially edited this way. Langdon could already tell that the video was an unfair piece of propaganda, omitting all the noblest aspects of the initiation and highlighting only the most disconcerting. If this video were released, Langdon knew it would become an Internet sensation over night. The anti-Masonic conspiracy theorists would feed on this like sharks. The Masonic organization, and especially Peter Solomon, would find themselves embroiled in a firestorm of controversy and a desperate effort at damage control . . . even though the ritual was innocuous and purely symbolic. Eerily, the video included a biblical reference to human sacrifice . . . â€Å"the submission of Abraham to the Supreme Being by proffering Isaac, his firstborn son.† Langdon thought of Peter and willed the helicopter to fly faster. The video footage shifted now. Same room. Different night. A larger group of Masons looking on. Peter Solomon was observing from the master's chair. This was the second degree. More intense now. Kneeling at the altar . . . vowing to â€Å"forever conceal the enigmas existing within Freemasonry† . . . consenting to the penalty of â€Å"having one's chest cavity ripped open and pulsing heart cast upon the surface of the earth as offal for the ravenous beasts† . . . Langdon's own heart was pulsing wildly now as the video shifted yet again. Another night. A much larger crowd. A coffin-shaped â€Å"tracing board† on the floor. The third degree. This was the death ritual–the most rigorous of all the degrees–the moment in which the initiate was forced â€Å"to face the final challenge of personal extinction.† This grueling interrogation was in fact the source of the common phrase to give someone the third degree. And although Langdon was very familiar with academic accounts of it, he was in no way prepared for what he now saw. The murder. In violent, rapid intercuts, the video displayed a chilling, victim's point-of-view account of the initiate's brutal murder. There were simulated blows to his head, including one with a Mason's stone maul. All the while, a deacon mournfully told the story of â€Å"the widow's son†Ã¢â‚¬â€œHiram Abiff–the master Architect of King Solomon's temple, who chose to die rather than reveal the secret wisdom he possessed. The attack was mimed, of course, and yet its effect on camera was bloodcurdling. After the deathblow, the initiate–now â€Å"dead to his former self†Ã¢â‚¬â€œwas lowered into his symbolic coffin, where his eyes were shut and his arms were crossed like those of a corpse. The Masonic brothers rose and mournfully circled his dead body while a pipe organ played a march of the dead. The macabre scene was deeply disturbing. And it only got worse. As the men gathered around their slain brother, the hidden camera clearly displayed their faces. Langdon now realized that Solomon was not the only famous man in the room. One of the men peering down at the initiate in his coffin was on television almost daily. A prominent U.S. senator. Oh God . . . The scene changed yet again. Outside now . . . nighttime . . . the same jumpy video footage . . . the man was walking down a city street . . . strands of blond hair blowing in front of the camera . . . turning a corner . . .the camera angle lowering to something in the man's hand . . . a dollar bill . . . a close-up focusing on the Great Seal . . . the all-seeing eye . . . the unfinished pyramid . . . and then, abruptly, pulling away to reveal a similar shape in the distance . . . a massive pyramidical building . . . with sloping sides rising to a truncated top. The House of the Temple. A soul-deep dread swelled within him. The video kept moving . . . the man hurrying toward the building now . . . up the multitiered staircase . . . toward the giant bronze doors . . . between the two seventeen-ton sphinx guardians. A neophyte entering the pyramid of initiation. Darkness now. A powerful pipe organ played in the distance . . . and a new image materialized. The Temple Room. Langdon swallowed hard. On-screen, the cavernous space was alive with electricity. Beneath the oculus, the black marble altar shone in the moonlight. Assembled around it, seated on hand-tooled pigskin chairs, awaited a somber council of distinguished thirty-third-degree Masons, present to bear witness. The video now panned across their faces with slow and deliberate intention. Langdon stared in horror. Although he had not seen this coming, what he was looking at made perfect sense. A gathering of the most decorated and accomplished Masons in the most powerful city on earth would logically include many influential and well-known individuals. Sure enough, seated around the altar, adorned in their long silk gloves, Masonic aprons, and glistening jewels, were some of the country's most powerful men. Two Supreme Court justices . . . The secretary of defense . . . The speaker of the House . . . Langdon felt ill as the video continued panning across the faces of those in attendance. Three prominent senators . . . including the majority leader . . . The secretary of homeland security . . . And . . . The director of the CIA . . . Langdon wanted only to look away, but he could not. The scene was utterly mesmerizing, alarming even to him. In an instant, he had come to understand the source of Sato's anxiety and concern. Now, on-screen, the shot dissolved into a single shocking image. A human skull . . . filled with dark crimson liquid. The famed caput mortuum was being offered forth to the initiate by the slender hands of Peter Solomon, whose gold Masonic ring glinted in the candlelight. The red liquid was wine . . . and yet it shimmered like blood. The visual effect was frightful. The Fifth Libation, Langdon realized, having read firsthand accounts of this sacrament in John Quincy Adams's Letters on the Masonic Institution. Even so, to see it happen . . . to see it calmly witnessed by America's most powerful men . . . this was as arresting an image as any Langdon had ever seen. The initiate took the skull in his hands . . . his face reflected in the calm surface of the wine. â€Å"May this wine I now drink become a deadly poison to me,† he declared, â€Å"should I ever knowingly or willfully violate my oath.† Obviously, this initiate had intended to violate his oath beyond all imagination. Langdon could barely get his mind around what would happen if this video were made public. No one would understand. The government would be thrown into upheaval. The airwaves would be filled with the voices of anti-Masonic groups, fundamentalists, and conspiracy theorists spewing hatred and fear, launching a Puritan witch hunt all over again. The truth will be twisted, Langdon knew. As it always is with the Masons. The truth was that the brotherhood's focus on death was in fact a bold celebration of life. Masonic ritual was designed to awaken the slumbering man inside, lifting him from his dark coffin of ignorance, raising him into the light, and giving him eyes to see. Only through the death experience could man fully understand his life experience. Only through the realization that his days on earth were finite could he grasp the importance of living those days with honor, integrity, and service to his fellow man. Masonic initiations were startling because they were meant to be transformative. Masonic vows were unforgiving because they were meant to be reminders that man's honor and his â€Å"word† were all he could take from this world. Masonic teachings were arcane because they were meant to be universal . . . taught through a common language of symbols and metaphors that transcended religions, cultures, and races . . . creating a unified â€Å"worldwide consciousness† of brotherly love. For a brief instant, Langdon felt a glimmer of hope. He tried to assure himself that if this video were to leak out, the public would be open-minded and tolerant, realizing that all spiritual rituals included aspects that would seem frightening if taken out of context–crucifixion reenactments, Jewish circumcision rites, Mormon baptisms of the dead, Catholic exorcisms, Islamic niqab, shamanic trance healing, the Jewish Kaparot ceremony, even the eating of the figurative body and blood of Christ. I'm dreaming, Langdon knew. This video will create chaos. He could imagine what would happen if the prominent leaders of Russia or the Islamic world were seen in a video, pressing knives to bare chests, swearing violent oaths, performing mock murders, lying in symbolic coffins, and drinking wine from a human skull. The global outcry would be instantaneous and overwhelming. God help us . . . On-screen now, the initiate was raising the skull to his lips. He tipped it backward . . . draining the blood-red wine . . . sealing his oath. Then he lowered the skull and gazed out at the assembly around him. America's most powerful and trusted men gave contented nods of acceptance. â€Å"Welcome, brother,† Peter Solomon said. As the image faded to black, Langdon realized he had stopped breathing. Without a word, Sato reached over, closed the briefcase, and lifted it off his lap. Langdon turned to her trying to speak, but he could find no words. It didn't matter. Understanding was written all over his face. Sato was right. Tonight was a national-security crisis . . . of unimaginable proportions. CHAPTER 118 Dressed in his loincloth, Mal'akh padded back and forth in front of Peter Solomon's wheelchair. â€Å"Peter,† he whispered, enjoying every moment of his captive's horror, â€Å"you forgot you have a second family . . . your Masonic brothers. And I will destroy them, too . . . unless you help me.† Solomon looked almost catatonic in the glow of the laptop sitting atop his thighs. â€Å"Please,† he finally stammered, glancing up. â€Å"If this video gets out . . .† â€Å"If?† Mal'akh laughed. â€Å"If it gets out?† He motioned to the small cellular modem plugged into the side of his laptop. â€Å"I'm connected to the world.† â€Å"You wouldn't . . .† I will, Mal'akh thought, enjoying Solomon's horror. â€Å"You have the power to stop me,† he said. â€Å"And to save your sister. But you have to tell me what I want to know. The Lost Word is hidden somewhere, Peter, and I know this grid reveals exactly where to find it.† Peter glanced at the grid of symbols again, his eyes revealing nothing. â€Å"Perhaps this will help to inspire you.† Mal'akh reached over Peter's shoulders and hit a few keys on the laptop. An e-mail program launched on the screen, and Peter stiffened visibly. The screen now displayed an e-mail that Mal'akh had cued earlier tonight–a video file addressed to a long list of major media networks. Mal'akh smiled. â€Å"I think it's time we share, don't you?† â€Å"Don't!† Mal'akh reached down and clicked the send button on the program. Peter jerked against his bonds, trying unsuccessfully to knock the laptop to the floor. â€Å"Relax, Peter,† Mal'akh whispered. â€Å"It's a massive file. It will take a few minutes to go out.† He pointed to the progress bar: SENDING MESSAGE: 2% COMPLETE â€Å"If you tell me what I want to know, I'll stop the e-mail, and nobody will ever see this.† Peter was ashen as the task bar inched forward. SENDING MESSAGE: 4% COMPLETE Mal'akh now lifted the computer from Peter's lap and set it on one of the nearby pigskin chairs, turning the screen so the other man could watch the progress. Then he returned to Peter's side and laid the page of symbols in his lap. â€Å"The legends say the Masonic Pyramid will unveil the Lost Word. This is the pyramid's final code. I believe you know how to read it.† Mal'akh glanced over at the laptop. SENDING MESSAGE: 8% COMPLETE Mal'akh returned his eyes to Peter. Solomon was staring at him, his gray eyes blazing now with hatred. Hate me, Mal'akh thought. The greater the emotion, the more potent the energy that will be released when the ritual is completed. At Langley, Nola Kaye pressed the phone to her ear, barely able to hear Sato over the noise of the helicopter. â€Å"They said it's impossible to stop the file transfer!† Nola shouted. â€Å"To shut down local ISPs would take at least an hour, and if he's got access to a wireless provider, killing the ground-based Internet won't stop him from sending it anyway.† Nowadays, stopping the flow of digital information had become nearly impossible. There were too many access routes to the Internet. Between hard lines, Wi-Fi hot spots, cellular modems, SAT phones, superphones, and e-mail-equipped PDAs, the only way to isolate a potential data leak was by destroying the source machine. â€Å"I pulled the spec sheet on the UH-60 you're flying,† Nola said, â€Å"and it looks like you're equipped with EMP.† Electromagnetic-pulse or EMP guns were now commonplace among law enforcement agencies, which used them primarily to stop car chases from a safe distance. By firing a highly concentrated pulse of electromagnetic radiation, an EMP gun could effectively fry the electronics of any device it targeted–cars, cell phones, computers. According to Nola's spec sheet, the UH- 60 had a chassis-mounted, laser-sighted, six-gigahertz magnetron with a fifty-dB-gain horn that yielded a ten-gigawatt pulse. Discharged directly at a laptop, the pulse would fry the computer's motherboard and instantly erase the hard drive. â€Å"EMP will be useless,† Sato yelled back. â€Å"Target is inside a stone building. No sight lines and thick EM shielding. Do you have any indication yet if the video has gone out?† Nola glanced at a second monitor, which was running a continuous search for breaking news stories about the Masons. â€Å"Not yet, ma'am. But if it goes public, we'll know within seconds.† â€Å"Keep me posted.† Sato signed off. Langdon held his breath as the helicopter dropped from the sky toward Dupont Circle. A handful of pedestrians scattered as the aircraft descended through an opening in the trees and landed hard on the lawn just south of the famous two-tiered fountain designed by the same two men who created the Lincoln Memorial. Thirty seconds later, Langdon was riding shotgun in a commandeered Lexus SUV, tearing up New Hampshire Avenue toward the House of the Temple. Peter Solomon was desperately trying to figure out what to do. All he could see in his mind were the images of Katherine bleeding in the basement . . . and of the video he had just witnessed. He turned his head slowly toward the laptop on the pigskin chair several yards away. The progress bar was almost a third of the way filled. SENDING MESSAGE: 29% COMPLETE The tattooed man was now walking slow circles around the square altar, swinging a lit censer and chanting to himself. Thick puffs of white smoke swirled up toward the skylight. The man's eyes were wide now, and he seemed to be in a demonic trance. Peter turned his gaze to the ancient knife that sat waiting on the white silk cloth spread across the altar. Peter Solomon had no doubt that he would die in this temple tonight. The question was how to die. Would he find a way to save his sister and his brotherhood . . . or would his death be entirely in vain? He glanced down at the grid of symbols. When he had first laid eyes on the grid, the shock of the moment had blinded him . . . preventing his vision from piercing the veil of chaos . . . to glimpse the startling truth. Now, however, the real significance of these symbols had become crystal clear to him. He had seen the grid in an entirely new light. Peter Solomon knew exactly what he needed to do. Taking a deep breath, he gazed up at the moon through the oculus above. Then he began to speak. All great truths are simple. Mal'akh had learned that long ago. The solution that Peter Solomon was now explaining was so graceful and pure that Mal'akh was sure that it could only be true. Incredibly, the solution to the pyramid's final code was far simpler than he had ever imagined. The Lost Word was right before my eyes. In an instant, a bright ray of light pierced the murkiness of the history and myth surrounding the Lost Word. As promised, the Lost Word was indeed written in an ancient language and bore mystical power in every philosophy, religion, and science ever known to man. Alchemy, astrology, Kabbalah, Christianity, Buddhism, Rosicrucianism, Freemasonry, astronomy, physics, Noetics . . . Standing now in this initiation chamber atop the great pyramid of Heredom, Mal'akh gazed upon the treasure he had sought all these years, and he knew he could not have prepared himself more perfectly. Soon I am complete. The Lost Word is found. In Kalorama Heights, a lone CIA agent stood amid a sea of garbage that he had dumped out of the trash bins that had been found in the garage. â€Å"Ms. Kaye?† he said, speaking to Sato's analyst on the phone. â€Å"Good thinking to search his garbage. I think I just found something.† Inside the house, Katherine Solomon was feeling stronger with every passing moment. The infusion of lactated Ringer's solution had successfully raised her blood pressure and quelled her throbbing headache. She was resting now, seated in the dining room, with explicit instructions to remain still. Her nerves felt frayed, and she was increasingly anxious for news about her brother. Where is everybody? The CIA's forensics team had not yet arrived, and the agent who had stayed behind was still off searching the premises. Bellamy had been sitting with her in the dining room, still wrapped in a foil blanket, but he, too, had wandered off to look for any information that might help the CIA save Peter. Unable to sit idly, Katherine pulled herself to her feet, teetered, and then inched slowly toward the living room. She found Bellamy in the study. The Architect was standing at an open drawer, his back to her, apparently too engrossed in its contents to hear her enter. She walked up behind him. â€Å"Warren?† The old man lurched and turned, quickly shutting the drawer with his hip. His face was lined with shock and grief, his cheeks streaked with tears. â€Å"What's wrong?!† She glanced down at the drawer. â€Å"What is it?† Bellamy seemed unable to speak. He had the look of a man who had just seen something he deeply wished he had not. â€Å"What's in the drawer?† she demanded. Bellamy's tear-filled eyes held hers for a long, sorrowful moment. Finally he spoke. â€Å"You and I wondered why . . . why this man seemed to hate your family.† Katherine's brow furrowed. â€Å"Yes?† â€Å"Well . . .† Bellamy's voice caught. â€Å"I just found the answer.†

Lecture Notes on Modernism and other ‘isms’

Is a shorthand for the seemingly complex array of ideas and theories that surround art and design as a socially and culturally located practice. With many of these ideas it is difficult to find a starting point, and a lot of these terms have superseded one another or are in conflict in some way. There is no real chronology of these ideas, In fact, a linear approach to these Ideas Is probably misleading. 2. These different ways of formatting knowledge are prevalent in visual culture and art and sign.They are what followers of the French philosopher Gilles Delude might describe as ‘reading machines' or a tool kit for examining the world of Ideas, concepts that shape our lives. 3. They are ways of modeling the world as well as being lenses through which we view our surroundings, the ideas, habits, concepts and histories that make up a culture or society. Ways of thinking Like this provide critical positions from which we organism these seemingly chaotic or impractically complex su rroundings. 4.The following list is by no means exhaustive but I hope that in some says what will become apparent are the different ways that people try to make sense of their subject (Graphic design or illustration), their discipline (art, art and design, applied art, visual communication, visual culture) and the wider world (society, political systems, culture, difference, power etc). 5. These Ideas can often provide insight, comfort and / or revelation to the adherents, but they can also impose dogma, inflexibility and / or a predictable response.Think of the different approaches almost as a set of tools that can be used to strip down the engine of history. 6. My respective on this, and one I think I share with everyone here, is the perspective of the practitioner. 7. Whether the concepts here are familiar or entirely new, what I ask all of you to do Is re-talk these Ideas Interns of how they might relate to each another and to your practice, your practical research and your writ ten work for this module. 8. We will begin to consider race, gender, class, sexuality, in themselves, and as ways of as ways of reading or seeing cultural material. . As we go through the material that you are presented with, you should also try to think of an original idea o research for the essay that you will be writing for the end of the semester. These Ideas may also respond to some more fundamental questions that you may already have about things in general. 10. Modernism. Historical, grand narrative, about progress and humanism. We know modern art, but the first use of the word modern was used In the time of the Emperor Charlemagne In about DADA. 11.The enlightenment in the ICC is the beginning of what we would call ‘modern' with science, the beginnings of industry, rationalism and a belief in progress taking over from a superstition and subsistence. Western values, from the equals-holocaust trope of the 300 (battle of Thermopile) seen as defense of West against East. 1 2. Michael Gave represents English kings model of linear history, Paolo Ferrier educational theorist against this banking model of education. 13. Narrative of the thread of history often still dominant in public discourse. 4. Challenge the idea that to know anything you need to know its entire history. Be wary of this, as it takes up a lot of issues, practices etc. Than to attempt a rambling second hand history that is largely in the public domain anyway, linear history, progress. 15. The ideas and principles of modernism are fundamental to the development of capitalism and the free market. 16. Modernist literature, high modernism, Joyce, Becket, Ezra Pound, Sentiment, De Still, Bauhaus, modern art. 17. Intellectuality – texts' refer to one another.Some would argue that this period of modernism was the high water mark of Western culture, and that we are already going down hill fast. 18. Cultural reproduction. Social and cultural basis for all of the definitions of what we con sider to be of value or what can be classified as art. What we do here at college is a form of cultural reproduction, mom things are taught, some aren't. Some things you learn (by choice) some you don't. We all do this to some extent. 19. It is important to understand these habits and to challenge or break them.Habits in making, thinking and acting can be unnecessarily restrictive 20. Orientation – a kind of patronizing beatifications of the East, or the non – West by the West. Edward Said, post – colonialism. Slavery and Liverpool. The image of slavery, architecture, visual evidence in buildings, street names etc. Liverpool wealth comes in a large part from the slave trade. Liverpool and Bristol. Can this still be seen? 1 . The West genuinely feels that it is the most advanced, civilized, free and valid form of social organization, Like the Romans, Mayans, Egypt, Mesopotamia etc.All civilizations collapse for similar reasons (see Collapse of Complex Civilizatio ns, Law of Entropy) 22. Colonialism, Socialism and Fascism all products of modernism, as is radical Salamis Noon Gray, Straw Dogs, Heresies) in spite of the tendency to compare non-western ideologies to the past, medieval attitudes towards crime and punishment in Saudi Arabia for example, tribal conflicts in Africa or peasant communities of China. 3. Representation of Africa as behind Western Europe in terms of development (Edward Said). 24.Socialism – Meta-narrative of class [power. A socialist view on art and design might be that it supports the power elite (the owners of the ‘means of production', the already wealthy), the forces that subjugate the working classes, by presenting them (the wealthy) in the best possible light. (think about this next time you visit a major art gallery). 25. The means of production, publishing and media companies, art institutions etc. Are all owned or were established by the wealthy, and it is their interests that these institutions ser ve (see Media Lens). 26.Consumerism is one of the mechanisms that dazzle the ordinary folk into coexisting with the mechanism of their oppression (read Ragged Trousers Philanthropists by Robert Treeless, Germinal by Andre Guide, any George Orwell). 27. Capitalism – Corporate ownership of media and publishing. 28. Normative. Progress, idea of the self-made man, level playing field, Work hard and you will be successful'. National lottery or ‘idiot tax' is something that cashes in on the success of this image. 29. Racism – examples in earning, canons in education, National Galleries. Anglo-centric curriculum acts as propaganda for status quo. 0. Children's books golliwogs and teddy bears. Also animal characters and difference, what do they represent? Are there any patterns there? 31 . Anthropomorphism – Children's books, animal characters. Assumption of gender in animal characters. (Anomalousness) Animal Farm (Orwell). Function and reality, the farm, Sue CEO, the bastion. Fur trade and fashion, image and advertising (Theodore Adorn, Peter Singer) 33. Anarchism – Media Lens, Chomsky and propaganda model (Manufacturing consent, E. Herman and N. Chomsky) outlines how western mass media works as propaganda.John Pilfer – obvious propaganda of totalitarianism (USSR, N. Korea) compare to softer more inclusive (more deceptive? ) propaganda of corporate media. 34. Feminism Images of gender, (Butler, Original, Drink), Magazines. Lads mass, women's magazines. Andrea Drink, ironically vilified for her appearance but wrote extensively on the image of sexuality and patriarchal power and the relationship between Sexuality, queer theory and hetero normative. I challenge you all to get your head round these ideas and to seriously hint about visual culture and its affects in this arena. 35.Feminism is an inspiring way of looking at images, artifacts and design. These critical positions are critical of what they describe as the heterosexuali ty that dominates popular media and political discourse. Egg. Top Gear, football, marketing (big pen for her http:// www. Amazon. Co. UK/Bloc-For-Her-Medium-Ballpoint/EDP/BUFFETING). 36. The differentiation of gender roles in print media being an obvious example, but there are examples abundant in the visual language of science, heritage, leisure, commerce, and everything really. 37. Politics – Overtly political – Kendal, Chitchats, Kale Lass, Sue CEO, Joe Image.Covertly political – Marketing, publishing, advertising, product design, packaging (tacit support of Western consumerism, status quo) Apple, Span, suicides. 38. The discreet politics of art and design, consumerism, globalization and the visual cultural economy. Art turning left (Tate). 39. Semiotics – A theory of reading, not sure whether it is a theory of making. Look at Visible signs by David crow, Reading images, for examples. 40. The visual turn – the move to visuals from text based com munication (or the triumph of reading? . If images are seen as texts then ‘reading' still dominant. 1 . Multiplicity (objects can be encountered in a number of ways at the same time). 42. Intellectuality (texts refer to other texts, images exist within a world of images, styles of representation, critical interpretive communities (that maker can also be a member of etc) ever more so in digital communication. As a kind of coda to this presentation I would like to also talk about the upcoming talk on What's New? And briefly mention a couple of things. Structuralism / post structuralism and Post-Modernism – context – We will look at territoriality.Alto-modernism, after the structures and narratives of modernism. Hybrid, cultural, social and material mixing and matching. Common points of reference. Hipster cool, political disenfranchisement or disengagement with class ridden power structures or class identity. Postposition, DC culture, tropes and mimes. Franà §ois L aurelled – Non philosophy – Idea of looking critically or creatively at a discipline from the outside. Non – anything, (this references well known critique of Faculty by Deride, where D argues that Ifs history of Madness is always going to be room the point of view of the not mad.Really, what F was doing was imaging madness from an oblique and UN referenced perspective). Could this inform our practice? What would non-design, non-illustration look like. Illustration that doesn't illustrate? Design that hasn't been designed? What would it be to make work that doesn't do what it is told. Or that doesn't do what it is supposed to? This speculative thinking will be picked up in lecture 4. I have tried to talk you through some of these different that can be asked within these frameworks.The aim, though you are of course alcove to pick up on any of the questions that arise from this talk, is for you to be able to think differently about both your practical work, and yo ur wider cultural landscape. The main thing to remember here is that these are ideas that should inspire you to develop your work along a path that you were previously unaware of, to go off in a new direction or trajectory, one that isn't for everyone but is Just for you. At the moment, your work might not fit in with your ideas on society, politics, culture or whatever. But we are all products of this cultural m ©Lange and so is everything you sake.At the moment, it may be the best idea to strike out in a different critical direction (for the essay) and think about practical research on a module by module basis, keeping some of these ideas in the back of your mind, allowing the cross fertilization of thinking when appropriate. It is not necessary to rush headlong (in terror) into post-modernism. Next week we will be looking at the work of the photographers Adam Broodmare and Oliver Chain. I will send you a link to one of their books and an accompanying text. Your homework is to s tudy this material.

Summary of Tatars Text Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Summary of Tatars Text - Essay Example The frustration in her heart infuriates her and gets her to the pavements along the streets. As she fantasizes on the best and desired life out of punishment and maltreatment by the dad, she gets into visions. The visions were linked to the effects of the condition she was in, hypothermia, but some counted real. She sees her grandmother in the tale as the only person who cared and never mistreated her in her life. And this has been part of her greatest desires ever in this irritating lifestyle. The conditions set for her going back home from the streets where she sold the matchboxes deprived her of any good reason to live under the sun. This forms the basis of her fantasies (Behrens and Rosen, 296-297). The frustration of the imagination of the situation of how it could be at home when she gets home without selling the expected amount of boxes gets her down into deep fantasies. She gets down onto a place within the street where she lights the matches as she visions her situation and links it to the desires that she wants to happen in her life. She lights her matches as she sees the Christmas tree as gorgeous and appealing to the soul. She then sees a falling star from the skies and this reminds her of the story the grandmother told her before she died. It was a signal that a person would die and was to be in heaven in a happy life. Of course, this is what she desires for. This thought of someone important dying and going to heaven does not scare her, and she surges on to light the next matchstick.

Legal Risk and opportunity in Employment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Legal Risk and opportunity in Employment - Essay Example Even though there was a personnel manual that outlined the corrective action plan that would happen before employee termination, the at-will employment statement that Pat Grey signed is taken as contractual rather than those specifications in the manual. Part of agreeing to be an at-will employee means that, similar to the way an employee can quit for any reason, an employer can fire an employee for any reason. The only reasons that are an exception to this rule are things like race and gender that have been labeled discriminatory. (Workplace Fairness, 2008). If Pat Grey's expressed views at the school board meeting ultimately caused him to be fired, then so be it. Furthermore, without a direct statement that this was the reason he was fired, he would have trouble proving it in court - although because of at-will employment it would not matter anyways. Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act protects employees from sex discrimination, which includes sexual harassment. Sexual harassment can include "unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature [that] explicitly or implicitly affects an individual's employment, unreasonably interferes with an individual's work performance, or creates an intimidating, hostile, or offensive work environment." (The U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, 2008). Newcorp is liable to protect its employees from sex discrimination. In order to do so, they can begin by firing Sam. There are many reasons he should be fired. First, by preventing Paula from transferring departments and by making unwelcome sexual advances, Sam is committing sexual harassment. If Newcorp did not reprimand Sam for sexual harassment in any way, Paula may take legal actions against Newcorp. Secondly, Sam likely violated his conditions of employment by becoming romantically involved with an employee that he supervised. Many companies have policies stating that supervisors cannot date the employees they supervise because other employees may feel that they are being put at an unfair advantage by not dating supervisors. Finally, Sam was using paid work time to have romantic encounters with Paula - any employee who uses company time for anything other than work is fair game for termination. It may also be advisable for Newcorp to fire Paula, as she was also using paid work time to have romantic encounters with Sam. Her public displays of affection in front of the other employees may have also caused them to feel uncomfortable - which is a type of sexual harassment. Even if Paula is not fired, she should be disciplined in some way. However, it is a bad idea for Newcorp to fire Paula but not Sam, because Paula will try to sue Newcorp for the sexual harassment from Sam that Newcorp allowed. Legal Encounter 3: Newcorp has very little liability to Paul and his claim for worker's compensation. While Paul's claustrophobia may have arisen from his working conditions, these particular working conditions were normal for the job of a maintenance technician. Because being a maintenance technician normally requires a person to get into small spaces to fix things, Paul will not be able to claim worker's comp for his claustrophobia. On the other hand, for example, if he worked in a cubicle for a calling

The Use of the Second Life Virtual Environment and Other Social Media Essay

The Use of the Second Life Virtual Environment and Other Social Media for Teamwork - Essay Example This research will begin with the statement that the continuous development of technology worldwide has led businesses to invest a significant amount of money in order to keep their IT to a high standard. Moreover, it seems that technology has become a necessary tool for developing a wide range of organizational activities, particularly in regard to the communication of each business with its customers. The potentials of the Second Life as a tool for the development of team meetings and activities are examined and analyzed in this paper. A comparison is also made with other forms of social media used by organizations in various industries. The risks and challenges of social media as tools for organizing team meetings and activities are mostly related to the failures in the management of the relevant IT systems, i.e. this is an issue of faults in the organizational structure and control. The use of IT systems for organizing business activities has been a common practice in markets wor ldwide. In order to understand the role of Second Life virtual environment for specific business tasks, including the development of team meetings and activities, it would be necessary to describe the context of such environment. In accordance with Lehmann-Grube, the virtual environment (known also as the virtual world) is ‘asynchronous, persistent network of people, represented as avatars, facilitated by networked computers’. The Second Life is a virtual world incorporating most of the facilities available in real worlds, such as ‘businesses, recreation, buildings, and services’. The Second Life virtual environment has become particularly popular among businesses, especially regarding its potentials to offer a cost-effective and well-organized platform for training and team working.

Genetic modification of foods Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Genetic modification of foods - Essay Example Genetic engineering is the process of altering the genes of a species by transferring certain traits from the genes of other species into it. Genes are composed of DNA and constitute instructions which direct the cell production of proteins which in turn, facilitate the functions of the cell. Nevertheless, this is an act of meddling with the nature. These days various religious and public interest organizations, environmental activists and numerous other government and private agencies are raising their consent against the genetic modification of the foods. Agribusiness has received massive criticism for enhancing the profitability of the business with the genetic modification of food without care for the environment unfriendly side effects of the same. Owing to our limited knowledge, we are not able to identify many potential demerits of the practice of modifying the genes of the foods we consume. Nature knows its laws best and any attempt to improvise the nature of food does not co me without side effects. Genetic modification of foods yields both direct and indirect unfavorable consequences. Genetic modification may not necessarily make the crop harmful to eat, but may also generate negative effects for the environment in the course of cultivating the very crop. In the Nature study, pollen from the B.t. corn was found to cause the monarch butterfly caterpillars to die in large numbers (Whitman). This was a surprising discovery since monarch caterpillars feed upon the milkweed plants instead of corn. The most likely way for the corn pollen to make it to the caterpillars’ stomach requires wind to blow them and place them upon the milkweed plants. A lot of effort has conventionally been made to cultivate such B.t. toxin that kills just the crop-destroying pests, but hardly any has met with success. Not only the butterfly caterpillars, but also several other species of organisms are exposed to the risk by the B.t. toxins. â€Å"These genetically modified organisms (GMOs) can spread through nature and interbreed with natural organisms, thereby contaminating non 'GE' environments and future generations in an unforeseeable and uncontrollable way† (â€Å"What wrong with†). Thus, we are increasing the resistance of our crops against diseases on the cost of the life of various species and organisms which are not only harmless for us but also play a fundamental role in the beautification of nature. Genetic modification of food cultivates an allergen into it. â€Å"[A] soybean engineered to contain genes from a brazil nut was found to produce allergic reactions in blood serum of individuals with nut allergies† (Massey). These reactions are very serious and have the potential to be fatal. In this particular case, conducting test for the allergenic potential was easier because of the commonality of the nut allergies but it may not be quite as easier in other cases. Identifying the food item that might have instigated the a llergic reaction becomes very cumbersome when a familiar genetically engineered food starts producing unusual substances in the bloodstream. Sometimes, characteristics that have been induced in the food with positive intention can prove toxic in effect. For example, the Bt toxin that is produced by bacteria is conventionally deemed safe for the humans. Toxin in these bacteria sustains in the form of protoxin that yields negative effects for the insects after the digestive system of the insect has activated it. Humans lack sufficient knowledge about exposure to such a toxin form that is produced in activated form by the genetically modified Bt crops and existed before only in the insects’

Research proposal Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Research proposal - Dissertation Example The errors encountered while trying to understand a second language are dependent on the method (s) of acquisition. Learning is not as faster as being taught in class. On the best possible way to teach a second language, several errors are realized while teaching a second language and thus the context should be set through the adoption of several teachings methods with more emphasis on the topic, the presenter and the setting. There is very little evidence on the errors experienced while trying to learn a second language. Statement of the Problem There is very little literature if any on errors of learning a second language and hence this proposal. However, Krashen, S. D. (1981) in his research study title principles and practice in second language learning points out that learning a new language depends on the feeling of correctness. Krashen developed several hypotheses and tried to prove them qualitatively arguing that quantitative research design may not give all that it is expect ed as directed by the research questions. To Krashen, the errors encountered while trying to understand a second language are dependent on the method (s) of acquisition. Learning is not as faster as being taught in class. Cook, V. (2000) in support of Krashen’s arguments points that learning a second language with success depends on the willingness and ability to graps the first language. To Cook, the in-ability to learn the first language means that learning a second language may be difficult. To gain a deeper understanding of the perceived errors in learning a second language, Cook employed the use of a sample from an entire population of non-English students in a linguist setting using stratified sampling for uniformity of the results. They were then required to read aloud several English words while recording their different scents. Cook was able to detect that, those that had acquired the English language by being taught has grasped it with finality while those that had learned on themselves were not that proficient. Banes (2002) in his research on the best possible way to teach a second language sums up saying that several errors are realized while teaching a second language and thus the context should be set through the adoption of several teachings methods with more emphasis on the topic, the presenter and the setting. The above citations are proof that there is very little evidence on the errors experienced while trying to learn a second language. Aims and Objectives The aims of the proposed study include; Establishing the impact of second language learning among Saudis; and Gauging perceptions of Saudis in relation to second language learning. This will be aimed at; Identifying the errors involved in learning a second language; Enabling policy makers to take a holistic approach in the learning systems; Identify key hindrances to second learning; and Proposing strategies/policies to the education sector; Sensitizing Saudis on the advantages of second language learning and the common errors made. Research Questions In the conducting the research, the researcher aims at answering the following research questions; Are Saudis aware of the advantages of learning a second

Product Design in Cyberspace Case Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Product Design in Cyberspace - Case Study Example Games are being made on subjects that include but are not limited to sex, rape, murder, robbery, fight, theft, insult and humiliation. This paper discusses whether or not video game designers should make games that are too violent for innocent minds. It has been observed that children who have a habit or liking for playing games spend a major portion of their day playing them. This can fundamentally be attributed to the task oriented nature of the games. A vast majority of games are about striving to achieve a certain goal. Having achieved which, the player is taken to the next level. Unless all the levels are cleared, the player would keep struggling hard. The complex plots require the children to put in their maximum effort. In an attempt to conceive the game strategy and achieve the goal, children tend to memorize the plot of the game and in their subconscious, they tend to approve all that is conveyed to them through the game. This can be estimated from the fact that the abbrevia ted language children use to communicate with one another in the virtual world reflects in the speech they deliver in the real world as well. However, this is only one aspect in which the children are affected that most of us are aware of simply because it is so obvious. There are more harsh realities that many of us do not know because they do not show up as obviously as language does.

Specimen Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Specimen - Essay Example Nobody can access it but him." The taller of the two men made a growling sound and took a menacing step towards Jason, "look here you little ." His partner pulled him back before he could continue and whispered something. They walked to the corner of the deck and began talking in urgent murmurs, with a great deal of hand movement and arm flaying. Jason strained his ears, trying to catch what their conversation but their voices were just too low. "The professor," Jason said, more as a confirmation than a question, "I don't know. Last night he told me that he was going to take the dinghy to shore at dawn to collect some specimens from the island and will be back around midday What's all this about," Jason asked fearfully. "No I mean yes, I don't know anything. Like I said, he locks himself up in the lab all day, only comes out for meals and ever so often, takes the dinghy to the island. I took this position as an assistant researcher but actually all I do is prepare the meals and clean up the yacht, and feed the specimens. I don't even know what the professor is working on or anything," Jason concluded desperately. They had to believe him, Jason thought to himself, they just had to. He really knew nothing. He had thought he was applying for a well-paying research position with the world famous marine biologist, James Farnsworth, and that this would be a career coup. However, ever since he boarded the Experian ten days ago, he'd only seen the professor at mealtimes and they had barely exchanged a few words. Jason had tried asking the professor about his research and what areas he would be assisting him in but Farnsworth had just glared at him beneath those bushy eyebrows of his and, in a surprisingly ferocious tone, had told him to mind his own business. Since that incident, which had happened the very first day he had boarded the Experian, Farnsworth had ignored Jason, barely acknowledging him with the briefest of head nods at mealtimes. If the truth be told, Jason didn't like the professor much. Certainly, he admired him as one of the greatest marine biologists of the age but he just did not like the man. He made him feel uncomfortable and a bit wary. "Look here," the taller of the two men said, breaking Jason's thoughts. "We're going to come clean with you. That boss of yours is onto some dangerous work and is involved with some very frightening people. We're not the criminals here and you really have no need to fear us if you're nose is clean. It's that boss of yours that you should be afraid of - very afraid of." A look of total confusion passed over Jason's face. He stared at the two men, open-mouthed and incredulous. "What! Farnsworth may not be a nice person but he's certainly not a criminal. The guy has been published in every single scientific

Pre-writting Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Pre-writting - Essay Example For instance, if you say that Joy is 90 years old, it automatically means that Joy is over 20 years even without mentioning that in the premise. This is because 20 is less than 90 and that it can validated by that, on the same not if Joy is 20 years, then you could not say that she is 90 years because it cannot be validated by the conclusion. The chapter then emphasizes on the arguments that are sound, effective, and cogent. The conclusion of a statement should be carved from the premise of the same sentence, this is what the book tries to put forth in terms of developing a research paper. The chapters have given a legion ways of ensuring that your writing is carefully argued with precaution of not falling into the trap of vagueness. For the authors to make the audience understand the points that they wants taken, they fondly use rhetorical strategies, this means that the author has to consider several factors before choosing on which rhetorical strategy to be used as it determines how the information will be consumed by the intended person. In the case of this book, the author has in forms those rhetorical analyses are important for communicating your purpose of writing and that one has to choose carefully which one to use when developing a research paper (Faigley and Selzer 244). The author has also informed that writing different research papers calls for different use of rhetorical analyses, for instance the way one would report a science paper based on a laboratory research is different with the way a paper that in forms on how something comes into existence or the working mechanism of a process. This book forms the basis of good writing especially for those who want to give a concise paper on their writings. Logical and sound writing is important for the conveyance of intended information, otherwise, the intended meaning of the whole process will no longer hold

Philosophy The New Testament Essay Example for Free

Philosophy The New Testament Essay It is a well known fact that the Bible is at the head of the list of the most widely read books in the whole world. Moreover, it seems that with time the Bible only expands its range of influence as this text is being constantly examined by representatives of various religious groups, by historians, by philosophers, and by many other people. In this regard, what makes the Bible such a prolific and unique religious and historical text is its wide scope of significance and various patters of meaning in it which, depending on the employed analytical tools, can contain different messages within the same parts of the text. Let us on the example of the excerpt from the twelfth chapter of the Gospel of Mark in the New Testament try to find out how meaning and significance are encoded in the Biblical texts, and what approaches readers can use to extract messages contained in these writings. The larger context of the chapter with the passage devoted to the question about the resurrection The excerpt that we are about to explain in a systematic way is tentatively called â€Å"The Question about the Resurrection† in the book of Kurt Aland â€Å"Synopsis of the Four Gospels†. Indeed, this part of the twelfth chapter of the Gospel of Mark is dealing with the question that at first might seem to undermine the very idea of resurrection, and is giving the answer of Jesus Christ to that apparent dilemma. However, before going into the details of the polemics between Christ and Sadducees, it would be helpful to consider the general content of the chapter, so that we could better appreciate the context in which the question about the resurrection is discussed. The excerpt about the resurrection issue is preceded by the mentioning that Jesus had started speaking in parables. In accordance with this, in the first part of the twelfth chapter the parable of the tenants is given, then a famous answer of Christ about paying of taxes to Caesar follows, then goes the question about the resurrection, and before its end the chapter also includes several other important teachings of Christ. What unites all of these sub-parts of the twelfth chapter of the Gospel of Mark is that most of them, including the question about the resurrection, give account of the immediate instances of communication of Christ with people who are integral participants of dialogs, so that their questions and answers shape the way Christ responds and teaches. Meaning conveyed by the form of the passage devoted to the question about the resurrection With this larger context of the twelfth chapter of the Gospel of Mark in mind, we can start the analysis of the excerpt devoted to the issue of the resurrection. The excerpt begins with the description of the provoking behavior of Sadducees, who, similarly to those who just before them had tried to provoke Jesus by asking about payment of taxes to Caesar, compose a sophisticated case against the plausibility of the resurrection. That Sadducees are characterized as those â€Å"who say that there is no resurrection† (Mark 12. 8) instantly suggests that their intent in not an honest inquiry, but a hidden desire to disprove the teaching of Jesus. Besides, the strict succession and logical structure of the formulation of their question makes us think that it had been prepared well in advance, maybe even specifically for this encounter with Christ. For example, the question as voiced by Sadducees begins with the phrase: â€Å". . . Teacher, Moses wrote for us that if . . . † (Mark 12. 18). In this way, while formally appealing to the wisdom of Christ as the teacher, Sadducees actually advance their own vision of things, and so, along with Pharisees and Herodians, are on one hand presented as tempters of Christ, and on the other hand may be viewed as representatives of the limited earthly wisdom. This impression is also bolstered by the artificiality of the case of a woman who had married seven brothers, which seems to be a very unlikely occasion, or at least the one extremely rare. Ironically, for the purpose of the argumentation Sadducees might well deal only with the example of two brothers and one wife, so the fact that they went as far as mentioning the seventh brother may be interpreted as bespeaking their blind striving for their self-assertion as intellectually superior to others, including Jesus Christ. In reality, it is exactly this type of arrogance that is often reproached by the Bible, and this part of the passage about the resurrection offers perhaps one of the best instances of such hidden criticism. However, for those who might omit this implicit negative stance towards the arrogance of Sadducees, an open criticism of their quasi-intellectualism voiced by Christ quickly follows. In his answer to Sadducees Christ does not allow them to draw him into the format of the discussion that Sadducees had striven to create to achieve their own aim of confusing Jesus, but rather outright rejects the very premises of their line of argumentation as the ones completely ignorant of the subject of the discussion. In this way, Christ is actually shown by the text to masterfully possess skills of argumentative dialogue as he is able to change the form of the dialogue, which is persuasively shown by the observation later in the text of the twelfth chapter of the Gospel of Mark that says: â€Å". . . And after that no one [including Sadducees] dared to ask him any question. . . † (Mark 12. 34). So, to summarize on this point, the changes in the form of the passage about the resurrection from what starts as an instance of communication presumably controlled by Sadducees into the one ultimately controlled by Christ carries in it the wider meaning directed at the instigation of readers to think by analogy, and to compare the form of the dialog between Sadducees and Christ with other passages in the Bible, and with instances from our everyday life. Significance of the content of the passage devoted to the question about the resurrection Aside from its instructive form, the passage about the resurrection is very important in terms of the significance of its content. In fact, this excerpt is devoted to one of the key notions of the very Christian religion in which the miracle of resurrection serves as the manifestation of the power of God to defeat even death. Therefore, any passage in the Bible that clarifies this conception is significant, not to mention excerpts akin to the one we are examining that directly deal with the matter of the resurrection. In this respect, the peculiarity of the contribution that the twelfth chapter of the Gospel of Mark makes to this issue is not so much that it tells us what is the resurrection, but that it rather provides Chirst`s explanation of what the resurrection is not. In the context of the question of Sadducees, Christ explains that it is wrong to apply to those who are dead the familiar earthly notion of marriage, because â€Å". . . when they rise from the dead, they neither marry nor are given in marriage. . . † (Mark 12. 25). In the line 27 Christ also points out that God is â€Å". . . not God the dead, but of the living. . . † (Mark 12. 27). It is this powerful denial of superficial views on the resurrection held by Sadducees that is the essence of Christ`s indignant response to the question about the resurrection and of his attempt to show that it is fundamentally ill-formulated. Moreover, in the studied passage we also can find some hints as to what the resurrection is like. Jesus briefly comments that after the dead are risen they â€Å"are like angels in heaven† (Mark 12. 25). Still, it seems that this characterization is simultaneously equally used to further bolster the description of what the resurrection is not, as the comparison of people who have been risen with angels carries the theme of the discussion away from the material world on which Sadducees seem to be overly focused. Thus, readers who seek explanations for some crucial religious ideas may view the studied passage that examines the question about the resurrection as primarily one of those parts of the Bible that provide the firsthand account of the theological aspects of teachings of Jesus Christ. Conclusion As we can see, the Bible, being the text that pretends to give an account of historical events and at the same time to send universal and timeless messages, indeed works on many levels that coexist within the same biblical texts, and mutually reinforce one another by enhancing their significance and by highlighting various patters of meaning that they contain. More specifically, in the passage devoted to the question of the resurrection the form of the text as if works to copy the conversational and emotional aspects of what might have been an actual argumentative tug of war between Sadducees and Christ in which Jesus had the final word. So, in this regard the Bible has the function of a historical document. At the same time, the content of this passage, which sheds light on the phenomenon of the resurrection, has the life of its own because this excerpt also has the function of a religious text that elucidates important elements of the Christian doctrine.

Inflation and Unemployment Essay Example for Free

Inflation and Unemployment Essay Recently, the United States of America has been bombarded with a great financial crisis. Many companies resulted to bankruptcy forcing the owners to close their businesses. Other companies had lay-off some workers to lessen the operating costs of their business. Few other companies resulted to cutting the employee’s benefits to avoid laying-off and closure. Workers earning below marginal income resigned from their job in the hope that they could find another job which pays better. Among these responses, the most notable problem is the increase in the rate of unemployment. In a report from Bureau of Labor Statistics (2009) among the 2,309 population in Iowa only 1,602 are employed while 62 are jobless in 2007. In 2008, from 2,325 members of the population, 1,607 are employed while 69 are jobless. Measuring the employment-population ratio of Iowa residents aged 16 years and above, the rate of unemployment was at 69. 4 percent in 2007 and 69. 1 percent in 2008 (U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2009). Meanwhile, the U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2009) reported that the unemployment rate in Waterloo-Cedar Falls Metropolitan Area rose at 8 percent in February 2009 whereas the jobless rate was recorded at 4. 9 percent. This is relatively high as compared to unemployment rate in 2008 which was at 3. 9 percent and in 2007 which was at 3. 7 percent (U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2009). State inflation has been identified as one of the major factors that contributed to the increased number of the unemployed. Inflation refers to â€Å"a process in which the average level of prices increases at a substantial rate over a considerable period of time† (Grolier Encyclopedia, 1995, 150). This implies that more money is needed to buy a certain amount of products and services. In Keynesian term, the relationship of inflation and unemployment has been described as: Wage costs are among the costs that rise in response to higher pries. When unemployment is low, employees can old out for full compensation for the higher prices, and raises above that. When unemployment is high, however, the employees will have to settle for less, and so costs do not rise as fast as prices when unemployment is high. (cited in Inflation and Unemployment). Adopting this term in the case of Waterloo-Cedar Falls, the high price of goods and services lead to increase in the number of unemployment since the companies are forced to cut down their human resources to adapt to the increasing prices of goods and services that caused high costs in production. There are also times in Waterloo-Cedar Falls when high unemployment caused high inflation yet the production cost did not increase as fast as the prices. In this situation, high employment is caused by low labor wage. Since the wage is low, the demand for product and services is also low forcing the companies to increase their prices in order to compensate for the low demand of products and services. Analyzing the relationship between inflation and unemployment the following factors are said to contribute to the increase or decrease of the two variables: wage as part of production costs, level of demands and supply, and cost of goods and services. Depending on the movement or behavior of these factors, the level of inflation or unemployment will either increase or decrease. Yet, it does not always follow that when unemployment is high; inflation is also high or vice versa. There are other instances when unemployment is low yet the level of inflation is high or vice versa. Again the increase or decrease in level of the two variables depends on the above mentioned contributing factors. The Waterloo-Cedar Falls, however, tried to address the problems of inflation and unemployment by creating job opportunities for its residents. As expressed by Bob Seymour, Cedar Falls community services manager and economic development director, in an interview by Jim Offner (2009)† â€Å"Obviously, we’re not immune to what’s going on nationally, but we’re pleased that we’ve been able to see some expansion and new-project interest in Cedar Falls right now. The university obviously keeps us on an even keel, and I think our business community has learned to be more diversified and in a better position to weather these down times. Projects like Target Corp. ’s new perishables distribution warehouse and retail developments in Cedar Falls also are helping the city withstand national trends. † (cited in Offner, 2009). This solution however is applicable only for a short period of time. To really solve the problem of inflation and unemployment, Waterloo-Cedar Falls should implement a demand managing policy wherein the government and private sectors will be required to learn how to manage demands in supply (both of labor and product materials) and demands in product and services according to economic situation. Such management is needed so that the people of Waterloo-Cedar Falls will be trained to expect the worst consequences of increase or decrease level of inflation and unemployment. References Grolier Encyclopedia. (1995). Inflation. In U. S. Grolier Encyclopedia of Knowledge 10, 150. USA: Grolier Incorporated. Mc Cain R. A. 2009. Inflation and Unemployment. Retrieved April 24, 2009 from http://william-king. www. drexel. edu/top/prin/txt/AS/where1. html Offner, J. (2009). Local jobless rates among best in state. Retrived April 24, 2009 from http://www. wcfcourier. com/articles/2009/03/11/news/breaking_news/doc49b7a3bf91f75482515049. txt U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2009a). Over-the-year change in unemployment rates for Metropolitan Areas: Monthly rankings, not seasonally adjusted. Retrieved April 24, 2009 from http://www. bls. gov/web/laummtch. htm. U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2009b). Regional state and unemployment, 2008 annual averages. Retrieved April 24, 2009 from www. bls. gov/news. release/pdf/srgune. pdf.

Reflection on Clinical Placement

Reflection on Clinical Placement Clinical Placement Reflection 1 Communication with others within the clinical setting – this may include staff members, patients and relatives. From working within in a team I have learnt that communication in health and social care underpins everything that professionals do and can determine the quality of service that patients receive. Poor communication between members of inter-professional teams affects the quality of care patients receive and can result in any number of bad experiences for the patients. I’ve noticed that some of the factors that contribute to poor communication include the use of professional jargon, abbreviations and poor handwriting. Thus I made it a personal objective try and avoid these behaviours and if I did for example, use jargon I made sure its universal so that there is no miscommunication. Your ability to work within a team. During this time on placement I have been able to witness and participate in multidisciplinary team meetings and have also had the opportunity to work with different healthcare professionals such as physiotherapist and also have been involved in ward rounds with doctors and nurses. The ward I was placed had a great team. I always felt a part of the team, and that I was making a valuable contribution thanks to both my eagerness to take on anything they threw at me, and, their inclusiveness and supportiveness. I learnt that holding back and waiting for people to notice you is not a good strategy. Let everyone know that you’re interested every day, and opportunities will come your way. Your role and relationship with others within the clinical practice My role and relationship with others within the clinical setting was very important to me. It was important for me to build the team member relationship with others as it helps to establish a mutual understanding and trust with other team members. When reflecting upon my own strengths and weaknesses, in relation to my role and relationship with others, I feel that whilst I am beginning to acquire an in depth understanding of the role of the nurse in the care of the patient, I feel that I lack substantial knowledge of the roles of the other healthcare professionals that I work alongside in the care of these same patients. I have listed the priority of this as being medium to high as I feel that it is not possible to become an effective collaborative healthcare member without having an understanding of the roles of others with whom I am are working with. If there is a lack of understanding of the roles of others, I fee l that it would be difficult to see why they are involved in the care of my patient, or even when it is appropriate to involve other healthcare professionals, inevitably leading to the quality of the care for the patient to suffer. Thus I made it in my best interest to interact more with others during the placement so that I could work alongside them confidently and work towards the same goals. Your problem solving skills. Where possible give examples of how you have used these. Being in acute care setting, the kind of problem-solving that I did tend to be solving were immediate problems rather long-term problems. For example, patients who cant get up who needs to have a sponge and clean linens on their bed. However each patient is different and often I couldn’t just perform the task without thought. The process of problem solving has guided me in finding solutions to a problem. I have learnt that this process is effective and helps me make the right decisions. I have also learnt to reflect on my decision so that I can see if the decision was the best or not for the situation. To assist me in problem solving more complex situations, I asked my mentor to provide some problem solving stimulations to further develop my problem-solving skills which was very beneficial for my learning process. Your time management skills I learnt the importance of time management a lot during this placement. On one of the days, I did not wash my patient before 8:00 am in order to prepare her for her family visit later on that day. My patient’s 10:00 am Parkinson’s’ medication administration was delayed by 45 minutes because she was being washed at that time. This event occurred because I did not prioritize the tasks I had to complete during the day properly, and therefore I learned the importance of time management. If I had obtained nursing knowledge and familiarize myself with the daily routine care of the patient I could have handle my time more efficiently. After this event, I learned effective time management strategies to handle my time on clinical and I will definitely utilize the time managing strategies step by step from knowing , planning , prioritizing tasks, gaining support from other nurses, and being flexible with my tasks. Your ability to understand your competence and scope of practice It was important for me to have an understanding my own competence and scope of practice as it guides me to good clinical practice and the delivery of my care to my patients. As a student enrolled nurse, there were strict practice standards and regulations, especially when medication is involved and supervision from our mentor was required at all times. Reflecting back, there were situations where although the practice was within my scope of practice, the policy and procedures of the facility did not allow it thus it is important to understand and familiarize yourself with the policy and procedures of the hospital as well as working within your scope. How you adapt and use new technology and reflect on historical changes in nursing As I was quite young and I didn’t have any problems adapting and using new technology. It was very exciting seeing new technology as I believe it will greatly improve nursing practice and make it more efficient. Some of the new technologies I had the opportunities to use include new vital signs machine, lifting machines and computer programs that included online hospital policy and procedures and mims. All documentation was still hand-written and stored in folders. Historically, nursing documentation has been a hand- written. However, today facilities are now introducing new technology aimed to improve efficiency and effectiveness. Your competency in relation to your nursing skills Competency in relation to my nursing skills had a lot to do with my confidence. For me, confidence is an important aspect of the practice of nursing and plays a major role in development. After an incident, I recognised that despite my lack of confidence the skill set that required to be completed for a particular patient was within my scope of practice, within my ability and within my knowledge base. On reflection it is clear that my lack of confidence in my ability, when put ‘on the spot’ contributed to my feelings of inadequacy which affected my competency in relation to my nursing skills. Through reflection and use of a mentor I was able to clarify that my weakness was not my nursing skills or knowledge level but my inability to effectively perform when under close scrutiny, which in turn led to a lack of confidence in my skill level and clinical knowledge. To develop my confidence and communication skill I became pr oactive and requested the assistance of a senior clinical educator to critically assess my skills and knowledge base. By doing this I reinforced my knowledge and skills but more importantly developed self-confidence. My efforts in seeking assistance and assessment of my skills could be seen as a step in ‘becoming more independent’. By gaining input and validation from my clinical educator, I ensured that I was able to successfully utilize my nursing skills competently and independently. An overall reflection of the day and how you can use your reflection to improve your practice Upon starting this placement I didn’t really know what to anticipate as it was my first time in a hospital setting, so when I was asked about my expectations all I could say was â€Å"That I wanted to learn all I can† Thinking back on that not so confident response, now at the end of this placement, gives me good insight into how valuable this placement has been to my professional development. This placement gave me the opportunity to begin to see myself as a professional, as I gradually learnt how to think critically about the patient’s health and managing their care and needs. This led to my becoming increasingly confident in the role I was determined to fill. Although I feel that I have a long way to go in this endeavour and will always continue learning, I know that I have learnt a lot during my time at this placement. To further improve my practice, I will use refle ction as it enables me to solve problems or learn from actions through thinking consciously about an activity which would then enable me learn and develop. Clinical Placement Reflection 2 Communication with others within the clinical setting – this may include staff members, patients and relatives. During my placement I was in a stroke unit. Being on this unit, I worked with many clients who suffered from post-stoke symptoms and many had difficulty with speech. The experience helped me learn the importance of both verbal and non-verbal communication. As an aspiring nurse, I have to continuously sharpen my communication skills because I will be interacting with more diverse range of patients in the future. I have to be able to establish rapport with each new patient and I can do this by communicating with them. I must maximise my communication with my patients because I can do a lot of things by communicating such as motivate, empower, educate and understand my patients. Your ability to work within a team. Working in a team provides me with a great satisfaction. From this teamwork experience, I strongly feel the importance of teamwork in providing consistent care for patients. It taught me to interact with others and as an individual in order to work towards the same goal. I had witnessed examples of both good and poor inter-professional collaboration and communication whilst in practice and have reflected on those incidents. Also, being self-aware I found was not only essential to nursing as a basis for reflection but it also contributed to how I communicate with others and assisted me in developing inter-personal skills with our colleagues so that I could work better in a team. Your role and relationship with others within the clinical practice In order to work efficiently together, it was important to understand my role and the roles of others within the clinic setting. My professional relationships with others was good except with occupational therapist (OT) mainly because I never had a fully understand of their role. I felt more clarity was needed surrounding the role of the OT so I made the efforts to research and speak to some of the OT to find out about their roles. As a result I was able to witness some of their work and worked closely with them. Being professional relationships and understand the roles of others has also lead me to understanding about the unique qualities and skills that different professionals bring to the team. In learning about other team members roles, I was also able to enhance my own professional identity which made me comfortable in the clinical setting. Your problem solving skills. Where possible give examples of how you have used these. I was quite a confident problem-solving however there are times where I’m faced with a situation where I can identify the problem but I’m not able to come up with a solution due to lack of experience. For example performing venepuncture; the patient had very poor vein and my first attempt failed and was very demotivated. We were never taught in school on how to deal with bad veins except to have two attempts and have someone else do it if you fail. Determined to do the venepuncture successful, I suggested to my mentor, if I was able to pull the vein downwards to minimise the movement of the vein. With the approval of my mentor, I went in and was successful on my second attempt. Your time management skills Prioritizing is a necessary tool for effective time management thus I made sure I prioritize tasks from high to low priority order. However during this placement, a staff had questioned my time management skill because I choose to assist patient who was lying in a soiled bed over researching my medications that was due in half an hour. This experience made me question how I was prioritising my time management skills. I decided to reflect on experience, and I believe that the staff was wrong to question my time management skills. I had thought about which was the greater priority in this situation and I still believe that the patient was. If the same situation arose again I feel that I would not do anything different other than to speak up and justify my decisions. I recognize and knowledge Time management as an important skill in nursing and hope that my skills will further improve with practice. Your ability to understand your competence and scope of practice My ability to understand my competence and scope of practice is demonstrated through my clinical practice to safely provide care that is in accordance to the competency standards and actively informing others of my scope of practice. I always clarified what the specific activity or task details were from my mentor and obtained any additional information that I may need, such as facility policies or procedures. I also I made sure I expressed the concern to my mentor or educator. An example of this was my knowledge of medication. Although it was in my scope to administer medication, it was important that I do it competently with full understanding of the drug use and why the patient is receiving it. While it was in my scope, I lacked knowledge of the drug therefore I felt incompetent to administer it safely. For this reason, I made it my goal to research the medications prior to administration. How you adapt and use new technology and reflect on historical changes in nursing During my placement, I adapted well to the new technology. The ward I was on had new software integrated in their computers which allowed me to access patient results and continue my learning through web-based training programs and access to online medical dictionaries and mims. My experience using these was very positive and very efficient. Historically, nursing documentation has been a hand- written. This was still the case in the ward that I was working in. This form of documenting has provided good communication between health care professionals and plan of patient care for the patient for a long period however the increase of medical errors and miscommunication has driven facilities to introduce new technology aimed to improve this and the efficiency and effectiveness of clinical practice. Your competency in relation to your nursing skills Nursing competency requires accumulation of evidence based knowledge and skills, understanding of cultural diversity and the care provided. During clinical practice I used the ANMC competency standards to reflect on my own practice. Areas that I felt competent in was my providing care in a safely manner and my ability to address the physiological, psychological, physical, emotional and spiritual needs of the patients and significant others. In addition, I continued professional education in order to build up knowledge and skills that will be necessary in coping with the dynamic changes in healthcare. Continuing education ensures that my knowledge is current and level of competency is maintained at a satisfactory level. An overall reflection of the day and how you can use your reflection to improve your practice My last placement has proved to be a huge progress. Through observations and clinical practice, I managed to develop my nursing skills both as an independent learner, but also as a member of the health team. Having been assigned patient loads, research medications and or reflecting on how I went, I was able to employ a range of skills that could not have found a better environment to develop in; critical thinking and problem solving, working with others and time management are just few examples. I will continue to do reflective practice to evaluate any clinical incident, positive or negative to attempt to better understand and contemplate the events which have taken place, and the behaviour, emotions and actions of not only myself, but the patient and others involved at that time In doing so, It will increase knowledge surrounding that situation and my professional development.

The Effects of Prejudice Essay -- Racism Essays

Evolutionary theory suggests that in order to prevent contact with harmful pathogens, people identify and avoid heuristic cues that are associated with disease (Schaller, 2011). Further, people who feel most vulnerable to disease tend to associate subjectively foreign out-groups with disease and act more negatively toward them (Faulkner, Schaller, Park & Duncan, 2004). The negative effects of prejudice are both physical and psychological: People who reported being subjected to prejudice also had greater amounts of visceral fat (Lewis, Kravitz, Janssen & Powell, 2011) and ambiguous racism decreased people’s performance in cognitive tasks (Salvatore & Shelton, 2007). Hence, it is of obvious benefit to society to reduce prejudice and alleviate these detrimental outcomes. Combining this past research, Huang, Sedlovskaya, Ackerman and Bargh (2011) reported across three studies a significant correlation between modern health interventions, such as vaccination and handwashing, and reducing prejudice. Their studies, however, indicate that it is the perceived protection from disease which is important in reducing prejudice, which limits the extent that health interventions alone will impact prejudice. Further it will be argued that other factors, such as the prolific nature of disease and alternative causes of prejudice, limit how meaningful these findings are in realistically impacting on social prejudice. A reasonable alternative that will be discussed is that any threat or perceived harm, not solely disease-based, towards an in-group may produce xenophobic attitudes. In study one Huang et al. (2011) examined the effects of vaccination status on reported racism. They reported that when confronted with disease, unvaccinated part... ...61 Lewis, T. T., Kravitz, H. M., Janssen, I. & Powell, L. H. (2011). Self-reported experiences of discrimination and visceral fat in middle-aged African American and Caucasian women. American Journal of Epidemiology, 173, 1223-1231. Retrieved from http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/ Salvatore, J. & Shelton, J. N. (2007). Cognitive costs of exposure to racial prejudice. Psychological Science, 18, 810-815. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01984.x Schaller, M. (2011). The behavioral immune system and the psychology of human sociology. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 366, 3418-3426. DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2011.0029 Schaller, M., Park, J. H., & Mueller, A. (2003). Fear of the dark: Interactive effects of beliefs about danger and ambient darkness on ethnic stereotypes. Journal for Personality and Social Psychology, 29, 637-649. DOI: 10.1177/0146167203029005008

The Power of Words Essay -- Psychology Essays

The Power of Words Communication and language are not always synonymous. Gesticulations and facial expression can convey certain messages that often make verbal expression unnecessary. Although I appreciate the endless possibilities that are associated with speaking, our primary means of communication, I have discovered that the human capacity for speech might not be as extremely innate as the linguist Noam Chomsky claimed. A few years ago, I had the privilege of encountering a thirty-five year-old woman named Joann at a summer camp for adults with multiple disabilities. Being extremely autistic, Joann was unable to close her mouth, let alone form distinguishable words. Instead of talking, her principal method of communication was to make clicks and guttural noises when she was upset or wanted something. Unlike the case of Genie, who was reared in a small room without human contact, Joann and many other autistic people are not raised in silence and should have theoretically learned to talk (as per Chom sky's theory). The camp counselors encouraged Joann's attempts at speech and tried to build her verbal skills, but they were never able to progress beyond monosyllabic words. Why wasn't she able to speak and why did they fail? To a certain extent, language is innate, but Daniel Dennett trivialized the depth and complexity of linguistics. He wrote, "...it's so effortless...for even 'slow' children to learn to speak. They aren't really learning at all, any more than birds learn their feathers. Language, and feathers, just develop in species..." (Dennett 388). This generalization is horribly arrogant and unfair to people like Joann, for whom any form of verbal communication is hardly 'effortless.' I think that some form of learn... ...heoretically could be speaking or trying to covey some message when she makes those utterances, as if she had completely bypassed the evolution of clicks into words. It has been suggested by psychologists that there is a "critical period" for language acquisition which theorizes that children lose the capacity to readily absorb new languages by the end of their toddler years. The fact that children are able to learn new languages so quickly shows that to some extent, language is innate, but speech is not acquired so easily. Joann will probably never be able to speak like other people, but there exists the possibility of her understanding much more than Dennett would give her credit for. Works Cited: Dennett, Daniel C. Darwin's Dangerous Idea. Simon and Schuster: New York, 1995. Pennisi, Elizabeth. "The First Language?" Science 27 Feb. 2004: 1319-1320.

Problems With the Mexican Health System Essay examples -- Popular Insu

According to Mexican citizens, the health care system needs further reform to improve the efficiency, availability, and quality of medical services provided to the uninsured. A major source of inconvenience in medical provision is the long wait for treatment. Patients with scheduled appointments, as well as those in emergency situations often have to wait hours for care, and it is an accepted fact for those with Popular Health Insurance that a medical consultation in a hospital would likely engage the entire day.Additionally, both Ordoà ±ez Ramà ­rez and Mercadao Juà ¡rez agree that subsequent reforms must be made to change the focus of medical treatment towards serious diseases such as cancer and diabetes, as they are prevalent in Mexican society and especially in women and children, and IRC (chronic renal failure), which cause high hospitalization and mortality rates throughout Mexico. "Reajustar el listado de enfermedades (CAUSES) y/o padecimientos que cubre el seguro popular ya que muchos de ellos no se encuentran bien distribuidos a fin de cubrir la mayorà ­a de las necesidades de la poblacià ³n mà ¡s necesitada, un ejemplo de ello serà ­a CHAN (cirrosis hepà ¡tica alcohà ³lico nutricional) que es una de las enfermedades en el listado omitiendo por ejemplo IRC (insuficiencia renal crà ³nica) que es uno de los padecimientos que tiene un alto à ­ndice de hospitalizaciones o mortalidad en la poblacià ³n mexicana." As firmly stated by Ordoà ±ez Ramà ­rez, reevaluation of the list of diseases covered by the Popular Insurance Program is a crucial step towards not only helping relieve poverty and exorbitant prices for medical treatment, but decreasing the death toll due to inaccessible or inadequate medical treatment. However, in conjunction to re... ...cala, Mexico. February 24, 2014. (Ordoà ±ez Ramà ­rez is a doctor, and the wife of a doctor as well.) Vance, Erik. "Mexico Chalks up Success in Health-Care Reforms." Nature. Accessed January 30, 2014. doi:10.1038/nature.2012.11222. World Bank. 2008. Providing Subsidized Health Insurance to the Poor. Reaching the Poor with Health Services Mexico. Washington, DC: World Bank. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2008/01/9455844/providing-subsidized-health-insurance-poor à ¸ World Bank. 2010. Mexico. Reaching the Poor with Health Services Mexico. Washington, DC: World Bank. http://go.worldbank.org/IYG1NQVPU0 *Whyte, Sheila. Sheila Whyte to CBC News newsgroup, "How Mexico's Health System Works," May 4, 2009. Accessed January 30, 2014. http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/how-mexico-s-health-system-works-1.777348. Problems With the Mexican Health System Essay examples -- Popular Insu According to Mexican citizens, the health care system needs further reform to improve the efficiency, availability, and quality of medical services provided to the uninsured. A major source of inconvenience in medical provision is the long wait for treatment. Patients with scheduled appointments, as well as those in emergency situations often have to wait hours for care, and it is an accepted fact for those with Popular Health Insurance that a medical consultation in a hospital would likely engage the entire day.Additionally, both Ordoà ±ez Ramà ­rez and Mercadao Juà ¡rez agree that subsequent reforms must be made to change the focus of medical treatment towards serious diseases such as cancer and diabetes, as they are prevalent in Mexican society and especially in women and children, and IRC (chronic renal failure), which cause high hospitalization and mortality rates throughout Mexico. "Reajustar el listado de enfermedades (CAUSES) y/o padecimientos que cubre el seguro popular ya que muchos de ellos no se encuentran bien distribuidos a fin de cubrir la mayorà ­a de las necesidades de la poblacià ³n mà ¡s necesitada, un ejemplo de ello serà ­a CHAN (cirrosis hepà ¡tica alcohà ³lico nutricional) que es una de las enfermedades en el listado omitiendo por ejemplo IRC (insuficiencia renal crà ³nica) que es uno de los padecimientos que tiene un alto à ­ndice de hospitalizaciones o mortalidad en la poblacià ³n mexicana." As firmly stated by Ordoà ±ez Ramà ­rez, reevaluation of the list of diseases covered by the Popular Insurance Program is a crucial step towards not only helping relieve poverty and exorbitant prices for medical treatment, but decreasing the death toll due to inaccessible or inadequate medical treatment. However, in conjunction to re... ...cala, Mexico. February 24, 2014. (Ordoà ±ez Ramà ­rez is a doctor, and the wife of a doctor as well.) Vance, Erik. "Mexico Chalks up Success in Health-Care Reforms." Nature. Accessed January 30, 2014. doi:10.1038/nature.2012.11222. World Bank. 2008. Providing Subsidized Health Insurance to the Poor. Reaching the Poor with Health Services Mexico. Washington, DC: World Bank. http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2008/01/9455844/providing-subsidized-health-insurance-poor à ¸ World Bank. 2010. Mexico. Reaching the Poor with Health Services Mexico. Washington, DC: World Bank. http://go.worldbank.org/IYG1NQVPU0 *Whyte, Sheila. Sheila Whyte to CBC News newsgroup, "How Mexico's Health System Works," May 4, 2009. Accessed January 30, 2014. http://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/how-mexico-s-health-system-works-1.777348.