Afghan American Story Essay

The entire story of the book entitled â€Å"West of Kabul, East of New York: An Afghan American Story† started as an e-mail sent by the author himself to at least 20 people which in turn got forwarded to 1,000 or more people in the entire American region and some other parts of the world. The email was sent after the September 11 bombing in New York which wiped out the twin towers [World Trade Center] and some parts of the Pentagon structures. The startling situation that surprised the whole world began to bring up notions and allegations against the Afghan community which was the primary suspect in the said event. This particular situation has lead to the wanting of the author to present his situation as bi-cultural American-Afghan and the views that he may be able to partake in clearing some issues in the case. The author, Tamim Ansary was a well-known author of Children’s books. However, with the even of the September 11 bombing arising in the scene, he decided to change his approach for a while and set a straight path in presenting the reality behind the Afghan communities and cultures against that of the Taliban fictionary stories that were mixed up with the reports during that particular event in history. The use of his personal experience in this reading has made Tamim Ansary one of the most entertaining authors of history. His enlightened view of his situation and his personal being gave at least a glimpse of the reality behind the Afghan communities. The issues were at least presented in a less political approach thus making the readers focus more on the personal views of the author as a person who is torn between two conflicting cultures at the time. Using the emails as a prologue to the book made it more personal and highly regarded by the public. Although it was not a mere process of marketing on the part of the author himself but a personal aim of reaching to the hearts of those who are concerned about the current situation governing Afghanistan and America, it could not be denied that the emails became the most effective invite to the readers to buy the book of Ansary. One particular part of the book that highlights the personality change in the author’s being is that of his transfer to the Americas during his 16th year of age. Most likely, being half American, half Afghanistan made him a bit torn on which culture he ought to follow as a growing teen. However, the circumstance of his life seems to already have decided on this matter. His being acquainted and later on familiarized with the American culture during his earlier years of teenage has actually shaped him into an exact American individual that he is right now. Something that made a great impact on him that even though when he went back to Afghanistan and learned about his Islam roots in a deeper view, he remained being an American thus deciding to be called as â€Å"Tamim Ansary, the American†. This particular decision on his part may have caused several readers to exclaim that he may not have considered his Afghan roots as much as he should. However, it should be noted that as a person who is bicultural, he has every reason of deciding on which part of his being he should stand strongest at. Seeing the situations entangling both cultures, perhaps he saw himself better as an American than that of an Afghan. This particular decision is based upon his own gauge of himself. No one should actually judge him based on this decision as it only depicts the real person that he is with regards his own measurement of his personality and nothing more. This decision is a right that he has to accept and act upon; anyway, whether he chooses to be an American or an Afghan, in the end, it would still be him that would decide on how he should be known by the people that he lives with and it is not through the historical roots of his cultures but through the being that he has become as an individual who aims to become the best . As mentioned earlier, Ansary decided to come to America for his high school education. This may have raised issues, but on the other hand, he is indeed able to see his American roots in as he made this particular decision in his life. As a 16 year-old young man, he was able to rationally consider the differences of being and Afghan and an American thus making him more knowledgeable of who he really is or who he really wants to become. His standing as an individual on which culture he wanted to be most likely acquainted with has been further developed in this stage in his life. Undeniably, this experience in his life made him more developed as an individual giving him all the skills and the possibilities that he needs in his life. Obviously, he became the author that he wanted to become because of being an American. His career soared because his choice was quite clear. He did not abandon being an Afghan through this process as others may conclude. As he turned into a more adult person, his want of seeing his Afghan roots furthered that he decided to travel back to Afghanistan and discover the culture and the history of the country with a more mature view as a freelance journalist. This decision in his part made him see what kind of life he would have possibly been living through all his life if he chose to remain in Afghanistan. This situation made him appreciate the decision that he has made in transferring to America for further high school education. He knew within himself though that the afghan part of his being remained in tact and is still and would always hone the individual that he is inside. It is already a part of who he is and would always be a part of who he becomes later on. He grew up as a Muslim. This is obviously no part of his own decision, but getting absorbed with the culture at an early age could have been one of his particular decisions to have taken responsibility about. Being absorbed much in the Muslim culture has further hardened his process of recognizing his other culture in a much acceptable process. This may have been dealt with earlier in a more decisive way on his part. However, giving him the benefit of the doubt, he was rather young during those years to make certain actions and decision upon himself. At some parts of the book later on, he points out the differences of the Americans and the Islam communities in the east. The differences were quite presented in a biased view that showed more concern of the American culture’s positivity. This may have raised questions but it could not be denied that the author had these views because of the fact that he was able to actually see the differences of the two cultures in different distinctive perspectives of knowledge and involvement. He could have at least made the differences depict the positive effects of the culture to his development as an individual. As an Afghan-American individual, he was further developed into a person who knows the differences of a traditional life with that of a more democratic way of living. He showed how much an Islam could change in a different culture that is presented to him in a more vivid picture. He changed as much as he could and became a democratic individual as he embraced the American culture as a youngster. The presentation may however be one particular flaw of the book to some readers particularly because of the fact that it may have been viewed with some certain bias on the presentation of the views of the author with the situations that he faced as a young Afghan American in fitting in with the western culture. To present the facts with more objectiveness on the subject, it is constantly required among authors to have a balanced presentation of both sides of the facts that they are tying to show the readers. This could have been done consistently in the entire book as to how Ansary presented the first parts of the reading. One more part of the reading that ought to be changed is that of the author’s handling of the changes that he had to face as an Afghan-American during his 16th year of age. He ought to have been able to immediately adapt to the changes needed in his original culture if he has tried to make the changes more delicately related to his original Islam culture. Adjustments were acceptably hard to accept immediately but the changes were likely more effective if he was able to relate how Islam culture could be more related to that of the American lifestyle.

Research Methods Essay

In case where I am taking part in a community mentoring program and have been assigned to help a local high school student who is experiencing difficulty in writing research papers, I am most likely to discuss the research methods that I utilized and why they worked best for me. First of all is experimental method. I will explain to the student that experimental research is a method of research wherein it aims to test a hypothesis in controlled circumstances, which means, â€Å"that all the causes/independent variables are controlled separately from a test variable to investigate the effect on a dependent variable† (Oulu.. 2000). I will also inform the student that the simplest model of laboratory experimentation is where two independent variables are contrasted (Oulu.. , 2000). I will provide examples for the student to understand it better, for instance, subjects are exposed to two different sound stimuli such as tones of different frequencies, to compare the effects on the dependent variable, which in this case is, heart rate (Oulu.. , 2000). It works best for me because the experimental method as a way to research because laboratory experimentation has been used to take a more in-depth look at human and animal behaviors basically because the effects of confounding variables including the influence of observation are controlled (Oulu.. , 2000). Another method of research that I will reintroduce to the student is the one which is technically referred to as â€Å"qualitative research† wherein its findings are not deduced by statistical or any other quantitative procedures (Bureau.. , n. d. ). I prefer this and it works best for me as well because it entails â€Å"detailed verbal descriptions of characteristics, cases, and settings or data deduced from observation, interviews, and document review† (Bureau.. , n. d. ). I will also inform the student about the objectives of the aforementioned method of research including the fact that it aims to: a) develop hypothesis or theory; b) understand behavior in a natural setting; c) study phenomena in their entirety rather than concentrating on narrow aspects of the phenomena referred to as independent or dependent variables (Ipsos, 2007).

Benefits of Human Resource Portals Essay

Torres-Coronas & Arias-Oliva define a human resource portal as a set of applications which avails a single gateway to personalized as well as customized information (2005). It is worth mentioning that Portal strategies are currently being either adopted or employed in many modern organizations. This has been necessitated by the need of organization to implement one common base in terms of Human Resource procedures and policies throughout the organization. In addition, there is an increase in the number of international branches in several organizations due to the urge for global expansion. With this background this paper will objectively discuss the reasons for the popularity of human resource portals among the human resource managers. Human resource portals enable the human resource managers to experience enterprise unification especially if a global HR portal is put in place. This solution ensures the provision of better services to the employees. Besides, human resource managers in global organizations find it very easy to connect directly with the employees and the entire workforce of the firm in all locations. Employees can easily access all the relevant services via the employee portal and as such the human resource manager does not have to attend to each individual employee unless under very special circumstances. This consequently reduces the workload of the human resource managers due to the availability of short cut processes (Torres-Coronas & Arias-Oliva, 2005). Additionally, the managers are in a better position to focus on the achievement of organizational strategic goals. A case in point is the Time Warner’s portal, which is referred to as the Employee Connection. This portal gives the 80,000 employees of this organization, expense reimbursement, access to benefits enrollment and other services (Robb, 2006). The recruitment process has equally been made easier, faster and more efficient. Considering global staffing technology and operations, the BearingPoint portal is a milestone achievement when it comes to global recruitment. Its â€Å"Called Career Connections† enables employees to access and apply for jobs internationally, thus making it very simple for human resource managers to carry out recruitment. Moreover, the referral section found in this portal allows for online employee referrals that give room for new employees, unlike initially where the firm relied on premium job boards which were very expensive (Robb, 2006). It is worth mentioning that these portals are usually affected by issues such as local regulations in terms of taxation as well as privacy. For instance, the Data Privacy Directive employed within the European Union which restricts transmission and monitors the type of data in question. This therefore implies that some employees working in other international branches of any firm may not be able to access information stored in other parts of the world (Hildebrandt & Gutwirth, 2008). However, when the right measures are put in place, there are more advantages that come with the employment of these portals and as such human resource portals are increasingly become more popular among the human resource managers.

Los Angeles Police Department Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3000 words

Los Angeles Police Department - Research Paper Example In the year, 1846, the great war of the Mexican-American broke when there was invasion in its northern territories. The economy of Los Angeles has been suppressed due to poor government formation in this region. Being a region with a mixed race structure, it has been a challenge to empower black-Americans who have been considered as the minority groups in this country. Industrial expansion in this country occurred in the early 20th century, a period when this county accelerated it economic development (Whittemore, 2012). A recent census has indicated that the population in Los Angeles has continued to grow rapidly and by 2010 there were close to 3.8 million citizens in this region. Since the development of the Los Angeles government system there has been a number of issues raised against the police. The mayors and the LAPD were involved in corruption scandals often taking bribes from illegal bodies within the public. For instance, in the late 1920s, the police department came under sharp criticism for taking bribe from madams and gamblers to allow them to conduct illegal business in this country. The government was against any member of public who criticized the police bodies. The intelligent units spied and too actions against any Los Angeles citizens who criticized the police. While this may have been a strategy to foster loyalty, it was one way of the government to avoid accountability to the public. During the end of the 20th century, the police department was hit by criticism due to the use of excessive force in handling the public. In the recent past, there has been criticism of the LAPD due to their brutality and inefficiency not only in operation but a lso in the recruitment procedures (Whittemore, 2012). The focus of this analysis is to evaluate the efficiency of the Los Angeles Police Department and to provide new strategies that can be deployed to improve

Breastfeeding and Population Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words - 47

Breastfeeding and Population - Assignment Example The mother also loses the protection against the development of ovarian and breast cancer that breastfeeding can give, in a later life. Most recent studies have illustrated breast and ovarian cancer as the greatest population detriments to the female population. There are a number of strategies, which are used to encourage mothers to breastfeed their children. For example, lactation amenorrhea, which relates to natural post-partum fertility that occurs when a woman is not menstruating, is one of the strategies employed to encourage mothers to breastfeed their newborns. Through this, breastfeeding is regarded as a population control technique where women, in the underdeveloped countries, are considerably advised to breastfeed for six months exclusively, by their government and other non-governmental organizations. Most mothers also have different myths associated with pregnancy especially in the rural settings. For example, breastfeeding cannot be relied upon to prevent pregnancy, which evidently is not the case because various scientific studies and experiments have proven this undoubtedly true. Mothers, therefore, are always advised to breastfeed their children exclusively through certain accurate criteria to give perfect results. In many high-income countries, like Australia, women do not exclusively breastfeed infants for the required period of six months as stipulated by the World Health Organization. In many cases, they tend to prefer an early gradual introduction of other forms of nutrition like the infant formulas due to job pre-occupation hence no time for the baby.

Interior Design Research Proposal Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Interior Design - Research Proposal Example Introduction Environment Design is basically a learning milieu where design graduates are encouraged to use their innovative and inventive talent in the management and marketing of design in order to pursue their careers in the design industry. â€Å"Lighting is a science and an art†, assert Steffy (2002:1). There have been numerous developments in lighting design recently which make it an interesting topic of research. Professional lighting designers are required today since they are being offered various job opportunities in the lighting industry. There are a number of lighting design consultancies which are offering outstanding lighting schemes to its consumers and organizations like landmark hotels, restaurants, shopping spas, exhibitions, yachts, house gardens, etc. Steffy (2002:1) affirms that nearly $10 billion worth lighting hardware is sold in the United States every year. The research will focus on questions like: How rapid has the lighting design industry flourished during the last decade? Which areas of lighting design are more in demand? What particular kinds of designs are more in demand from consumers’ perspectives? What benefits has it offered to different international lighting design companies? Is the trend increasing, decreasing or is consistent? What are the hard and soft issues that arise in different lighting fields such as in interiors, exhibitions, theatre, and garden projects? What are the costs? How does lighting weigh on the companies’ budget? These issues have inspired me to conduct a research about lighting design in today’s design industry. Literature Review Sources. Some sources that are going to be helpful in the research are: Karlen, M, & Benya, J 2004, Lighting Design Basics, illustrated edn., John Wiley and sons, USA. (This book is helpful in understanding the basic science that is involved in lighting design. It is a good study guide for beginners helping them understand through concise and visual lesson format.) Tregenza, P, & Loe, D, The Design of Lighting, illustrated edn., Taylor & Francis, USA. (This book has been written for practicing designers and thus will be a helpful guide in understand what issues practicing lighting designer face. Technicalities regarding lighting and color theories and other concepts have been discussed in detail.) Past Research Papers. Some past research that will be helpful is: Dorsey, J, Arvo, J, & Greenberg, D 1995, ‘Interactive design of complex time dependent lighting’, Computer Graphics and Applications, vol. 15, no, 2, pp. 26-36. (Researchers conducted a research about lighting design in theatrical productions. They have discussed some specific techniques that help in lighting regardless of complexities of scene and design. This research will prove helpful in understanding lighting concepts in theatres.) Shacked, R, & Lischinski, D 2002, ‘Automatic lighting design using a perceptual quality metric’, Computer Gra phics Forum, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 215-227. (This presents a new approach for the rendering of 3D objects. This approach serves as an effective lighting design tool. This research will prove to be helpful in understanding lighting design tools and their working.) Methodology I plan to visit different lighting design companies to locate answers to my research questions. I plan to conduct structured personal

There is an ongoing debate on the use of capital punishment. Discuss Essay - 1

There is an ongoing debate on the use of capital punishment. Discuss the social, moral and historical aspects of this controversial topic - Essay Example religious leaders, and foreign press make quite a spectacle of how the Throughout the world legal systems regularly sentences people to die for the crimes they have committed. As such, many nations around the globe view the death penalty as something of a novelty (Debrevnik, 2004). From a purely economic standpoint, capital punishment is an extraordinarily expensive form of punishment. As compared with life in prison, the average cost of execution is approximately the same cost to keep a prisoner housed and fed for over 100 years (Petersen & Lynch, 2012). Currently, the average cost of execution in California exceeds 4 million dollars per criminal executed. Comparatively, the average cost to keep a prisoner housed and fed as well as ensuring proper health care and medicine usually does not exceed $35,000 per year (Semeshenko et al, 2012). At such an exorbitantly high expense, it is clear that choosing capital punishment on the grounds that killing the criminal will somehow save the state money over time is entirely illogical. As such, the argument for execution does not hinge on economic savings; instead, it hinges upon the Judeo-Christian belief of â€Å"an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth†. In this way, the major supporters of the death penalty believe that certain crimes are so heinous that rehabilitation is not possible. As such, one’s life is forfeit for certain crimes if convicted. This further raises the tangential issue of the purpose of prison; whether it is it to rehabilitate or to punish. According to death penalty activists, prison’s primary objective is to punish with rehabilitation being a very distant second. A secondary issue with the death penalty in its current form is that they death penalty has been proven not to be a significant deterrent against the crimes it punishes. It is obvious that murder rates throughout the world are comparably higher than almost any other nation that currently does not have the death penalty as

Kick-off Meetings Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Kick-off Meetings - Research Paper Example The team leader must assign different work to each of the members. A schedule of weekly meetings must be prepared. The team also has to set delivery dates to ensure the project is completed on time. â€Å"In any effective meeting, participants are better off when they have a clear understanding of how it will progress† (Sisco, 2002). Last semester I was involved in a project for school. During that project we had a kickoff meeting when it started. The kickoff meeting was a complete disaster. The members of the team did not communicate well. The members were constantly arguing with each other. Two people wanted the team leadership position. After the two hour meeting we did not accomplish anything. This experience taught me that kickoff meetings should be handled differently. In the future whenever I get a chance to participate in a kickoff meeting once again I will try to do things differently. The first thing that I will focus on during a kickoff meeting is to keep the lines of communication open. I will also act more proactively by performing research prior to the meeting in order to bring good ideas to the table from the start. Sisco, M. (2002). Follow these steps to conduct an effective project kickoff meeting. Retrieved February 27, 2013 from

Globalization Impact on Public Administration Essay

Globalization Impact on Public Administration - Essay Example Globalization is referred to the phenomenon of converting the local markets into global markets. More specifically, it can also be explained as an initiative to encourage the domestic business players to emerge with the outlook of a global competitor (Globalization-Bowne Global Translation, 2011). It is in this context that globalization has played an effective role to speed up the significance of democracy in public administrations. Democracy, in turn, strongly influenced sociable relations between different nations leading towards a positive impact of globalization on the public administrations practices. It is worth mentioning that implementing democracy to ensure legitimate governance in public services is highly essential in this context. Currently, the public officials are concentrating on the implementation of the democratic governance in their respective administrations which enhances the role of democracy in the system. Thus, because of the interdependent relationship existi ng between public administration and democracy, it is quite likely that the practices of this concept will differ from one nation to the other on the basis of the democratic divergences (Gonzalez, 2004). For instance, public administration practices of United States of America have been claimed as different from that of other countries. According to the experts, the private sectors in US follow a modified and reframed law, sophisticated organizational theory, effective political science and economic implications. It is because of these factors that the public administration in US is quite different from other nations (Riggs, 2000). The public administration of US also possesses certain distinctive features. Among these the most significant feature is that the public administration practices consider a veil between the politics and their administration in order to create and ensure effective and clean governance. In US, the public officials do not allow the political issues to affect the internal atmosphere of the organization; whereas, the tendency differs in certain other nations which may include both developed and developing countries. This significantly assists the public organizations in US to achieve its goal with limited political influence and other similar hurdles. Thus, the US public officials can be observed to approach with an inductive thinking for the betterment of the system (Sezen, 2000). Globalization plays a key role in framing legal constraints and also tends to direct legal practices and modifications in the existing forms through restructuring and expansion. Furthermore, the functions of national legislation have been observed to decline. Simultaneously, the international commercial arbitration centers earned increasing importance after the elimination of transnational commercial disputes. These were the effects of the legal restraints over globalization. Moreover, these effects took place due to the increasing importance of privatization in the jurisdiction of the US. These effects are measured on the basis of increase in the number of commercial arbitration centers. On the contrary, the US practiced a unique jurisdiction for public administration. This in turn diminished the dependency of public administrations on the administrative laws and thus the role played by these laws was also altered (Sezen, 2000). In the similar context, public officials tend to be highly influenced by the cultural bases which again are reflected in their public administra

Discussion Board 2 - Apologetics Essay Example for Free

Discussion Board 2 Apologetics Essay 1. What are some ways the Christian gospel is perceived in our culture? To many individuals, the Christian gospel is seen as selective and intolerant. Although we are all free to accept the gift of salvation through Christ, He tells us in John 14:6 that He is â€Å"the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.† To many, this will seem intolerant and almost haughty. How can a God who wants nothing more than to have a relationship with us say that there is only one way to do so? 2. What are some specific moral reasons people may reject the Christian gospel? Many individuals who will reject the Christian gospel do so for moral reasons such as their sexual preferences (gay, bi, or straight), their marital status, or the apparent intolerant moral code found in the Word of God. People believe that you have to give up everything that is worldly to follow Christ, and that Christians think they are more righteous than others. The fact is, you will have to give up living in sin, and you will have to give up treasures of the world, but the heavenly treasures that you gain will outshine any possession that you will have on this earth. 3. What are some specific emotional reasons people may reject the Christian gospel? One specific emotional reason that people will reject the Christian gospel is that they cannot grasp the concept of God’s unconditional love. God loves each and every one of us, even the worst sinner, and tells us in His Word. People will say things like â€Å"God would not let me be poor, or God would not have let me be abused like I was.† Even though we are all loved by God, and He wants us to have a relationship with Him and be happy and well, even the most devout Christian has to go through trials and tribulations. 4. What are some specific intellectual reasons people may reject the Christian gospel? For most Christians, believing in God is â€Å"faith-based,† and that there is no room for science and fact in Christianity. Many non-Christians will say that the Bible is nothing more than a collection of fairy tales for those who are easily enchanted and to make the people who read them feel good. The intellectual non-believer’s insistence that the Bible has no basis in fact  is one reason that they will reject the message, even though there is historical proof to show that Christ lived, died, and was resurrected, as well as that many other Biblical places and people existed at one point in time, even if they do not anymore. 5. What can Christians do to address these objections and better communicate the Christian gospel? As Christians, when we approach someone and begin to talk about our faith, it may seem like they are a little frightened, or maybe just upset and unwilling to take a leap of faith. They maybe feel like we have come on too strong, even though we know that we are just eager to talk about our faith. It is important for Christians to learn that we need to be patient with others but also diligent as we share the gospel of Christ.

Reflection on Child Observation Study

Reflection on Child Observation Study The purpose of this essay is to discuss an observation I undertook of an 18 month year old boy, whose mother was a friend of a friend who I had no prior knowledge about. Initially I explained the observation to the mother and a contract was soon drawn up and subsequently signed. It ensured that the study was completely confidential and the child’s name would be anonymised. I have used x to refer to the child. Firstly I am going to discuss some of the challenges I faced, how intrusive I felt initially and how I struggled not to interact. I will then discuss the benefits of child observations in helping me to overcome these challenges, for instance, the benefits of seminar groups and how the observation has been beneficial in developing my reflective skills. I will then discuss some factors I felt impacted on my observation and how these will be useful to me in future social work practice. For me one of the most challenging aspects I found with the child observation was feeling intrusive. Initially on my way to the house I felt very nervous and during the observation when x ran off to the kitchen to see his mother I felt very uneasy following him as I felt I was invading their privacy. Having read McMahon Farnfield (1994) I now know that this is a common anxiety for students who undertake child observations as many observers feel uncomfortable about intruding in to the privacy of someone’s home. However, having read Quitak (2004) I know that social workers often have to visit client’s homes and if they are too anxious to invade a client’s privacy they may miss out on information that is vitally important. For example, social workers can feel intimidated by parents and find it difficult focussing on the child (Blom-Cooper et al, 1985). Social work will often involve infringing on a client’s privacy (Trowell and Miles, 1991). Therefore it is vital social workers have the confidence to deal with their uncomfortable feelings of intruding in order for them to be effective in their role (Quitak, 2004). I felt the seminar groups were beneficial in helping me to overcome my fear of intruding because they felt like a safe space in which I could discuss my anxieties. McKinnon commented that the seminar group provides a â€Å"safe container† (2009: 90). The seminar creates a safe environment where students can share and discuss any uncomfortable feelings and experiences that they came across during the observation (Ruch, 2007). The term containment was developed by Bion (1962) who believed that therapeutic relationships, such as groups can act as containers for uncontrollable feelings (Ruch, 2007). In the same way a mother or carer contain the painful feelings of a child and return them in a way the child can understand in an attempt to make the child feel safe (Mckenzie Beecraft, 2004). The seminar also acts as a container, by discussing my feelings and anxieties about intruding on somebody’s home it helped me to overcome the anxiety of feeling intrusive which was distra cting me from observing properly. As I continued to visit the home for following visits, I subsequently developed my confidence in visiting the home and not feel quite so intrusive. In addition, one of the biggest challenges I faced was my desire to intervene. Ruch (2009) believed that attempting to not interact with a child is arguably one of the most challenging elements of the child observation. I always felt cruel because at times I had to completely ignore the child and this felt strange and unnatural for me. Tanner Turney (2000) and Le Riche (2006) commented that not interacting can feel strange and uncomfortable for observers because it is unnatural and goes against traditional customs. However, not interacting can be beneficial because it creates space to reflect on and explore my feelings (Tanner Turney, 2000; Trowell and Miles, 2004). For example, I found myself in disbelief because x refused to eat the peas on his plate and x’s mother although attempting once to make them eat them, gave up quite quickly. This could be because this took me back to when I was a young child when my parents always made me eat my vegetables; otherwise I wasnâ€⠄¢t allowed to leave the table. I was surprised at how strong and how personal my reaction was. Having read Fawcett (1996), however I realised that as children we all grow up with certain rules our parents make us obey and these may still reside with us when we are older and can have a major influence on our attitudes (Fawcett, 1996). In my case I found myself judging x’s mother because she didn’t view eating vegetables as important. Having read McMahnon Farnfield , they argued â€Å"It takes emotional effort for students to see that what is different is not necessarily wrong† (2004: 240). Therefore, I realised that just because x’s mother is doing things in a different way and I view my family’s experience as the ‘correct’ way, this does not mean what she is doing is wrong. Fawcett (1996) and Trowell Miles (2004) argued that it is acceptable for students to have these attitudes and preconceptions provided that students identify these and question them through reflection. Therefore, one of the benefits of the child observation f or me was significantly developing the ability to reflect and develop self-awareness. These are useful skills for me as a student social worker because by allowing time to reflect I can begin to recognise and question how my emotions and preconceptions may be affecting my judgement or an assessment of a family or individual and can incorporate this before deciding the next steps to help them (Turney,2008; Mckinnon, 2009). One of the most significant learning points from the child observation for me was when I first met the family, one of the first things x’s mother did was explain the bruise on x’s face and how he was always falling over. Despite my best efforts to ensure the mother that it was purely an observation, I believed she still felt that she was being judged as a mother and felt anxious about being observed. At the time I did not question this because I was very anxious myself, it was only later when I was writing up my notes that I realised how significant this was. Having experienced this, it made me aware of the power imbalances that existed between the observer and the observed. Turney argues that it could be slightly anxious and uncomfortable for those being observed because they are aware of â€Å"the power of the gaze, the power of the looker in relation to the â€Å"looked at†Ã¢â‚¬  (2008: 124). Therefore because x’s mother knew I was observing her she p erhaps felt vulnerable and anxious because she viewed me as being in a more powerful position than her. This could explain why she defended her son’s bruise so early on in the observation. During a normal assessment between a social worker and a client these feelings are intensified. Therefore, this has taught me the importance of remembering that as a social worker I can be intimidating to the client because I am perceived as the more powerful person. As a next step, I must learn the most effective methods and techniques to try and minimise the imbalance of power between myself and the service user. For me the most meaningful aspect of the child observation was when I attempted to explain to x that he was being observed. Despite him being only 18 months old and although I did not feel he understood me due to his age, for me this demonstrated how powerless children are. Young children in particular are totally dependent on adults for their safety and well-being, by not telling the child they were being observed I felt that this was reinforcing their invisibility and undermining their views and opinions. Ruch (2009) commented that some observers believed it was oppressive by not introducing themselves to their child and this is how I felt because by not asking a child for their consent, arguably we are not valuing what they have to say. For example, reports in to the death of children such as Victoria Climbre and Jasmine Beckford, reveal how children were not effectively â€Å"seen and heard† (Fawcett, 1996:18). In addition, inquiries often revealed that there was limited u nderstanding of the child’s world and everyday activities were inadequately described because adult’s interpretations were valued over children’s (Mckinnon, 2009; King, 2002). Turney (2008) believes that the child observation can help to develop the skills of ensuring excluded groups such as children are completely focussed on and is crucial in evaluating whether a vulnerable child is safe or not. Fawcett (1996) argued that observation allows the chance for a child’s voices, stories and opinions to be taken seriously and valued. Therefore, I believe the child observation has helped me to focus on the child, observe what they do and listen to what they say to ensure that they are not invisible. I feel I have significantly improved my understanding of the powerlessness of children which will help me to improve and adapt my communication skills with children. To conclude, for me one of the biggest challenges of the child observation was initially feeling intrusive, however the seminar acted as a â€Å"safe container†, where I could discuss and overcome my anxieties in a safe environment. Subsequently on following visits I found these anxieties soon disappeared. In addition, I found not interacting very challenging, but soon learnt how valuable this was because it gave me an opportunity to reflect and explore my feelings. Recognising and questioning how our values and attitudes may be affecting my judgement or an assessment of a family is a valuable skill in social work and this can be taken in to account when deciding the best help for a family. The child observation has been an important reminder that as a social worker I can appear more powerful and even intimidating to the client, as well as the powerlessness of children. Therefore developing techniques to try and minimise these power imbalances is a crucial next step.

Should Torture be Justified in any Case?

Should Torture be Justified in any Case? Jason Poole Date The word torture comes from a Latin root meaning twisted, and first appeared in Rome in 530 AD. 600 years later, Italian and French courts changed from an accusatory system to a judiciary system, as opposed to the Roman courts, where torture was used to extract information (Green). However, the idea of torture in the courtroom was not rested until the 18th century during the Enlightenment period. Voltaire condemned torture profusely in many of his essays, and from the end of the 18th century into the start of the 19th century, nearly every European country had abolished torture in their statutory law (Green). After the adoption of the Geneva Conventions, torture became condemned completely. Recently, the debate of torture has been reestablished with the controversy of waterboarding, brought forth by the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in 2004. It was provoked because the definition of torture has allowed interrogators and lawmakers to interpret it in different ways. The set definition is the infliction of intense physical pain to punish, coerce, or afford sadistic pleasure (Torture). As the definition only mentions physical pain, one could assert that psychological pain, as some argue waterboarding is, does not fall under the restrictions on torture. The debate of whether torture can be defended in any situation is reliant upon whether the life of an innocent takes precedent over the physical and psychological state of a criminal. The argument that torture is able to be justified revolves around utilitarianism, or the idea that an action is for the greater good. Only within recent centuries have attitudes changed against the use of torture. According to a poll done by the Washington Post, 82% of conservatives in the United States believe that torture can be justified in most cases involving national security. However, with the addition of Article 3 in the Geneva Conventions of 1949, the social stigma against torture had been solidified. The UNs standards show that torture can never be justified, and that the interrogator who committed the act should be fully prepared to face the consequences of doing so in court. Non-Governmental Organizations such as Amnesty International and the World Organization Against Torture, are strong ad vocates of this viewpoint. Both press for political action against torture. In the United Kingdom, almost 70% are clearly against torture in all cases (Amnesty). Opinions of respected political analysts, as well as studies of each side, will allow the two arguments in regards of torture to be evaluated and assessed suitably. The perception of temporary pain of a criminal over the perpetual death of an innocent is one found in many arguments of this perspective. It is the thought that the criminal, who has or will do much worse, has a way out of the torture being inflicted upon them in the form of giving up of information that the interrogator needs (Spero). Spero claims that, Certainly, pain is not the equivalent of life itself, so that even saving one life takes precedence over the pain of the terrorist. He supports this statement by arguing that a moral person could not stand by under these circumstances, and that most would put the state of their countrymen above that of the terrorist that threatens their lives. Spero asserts that the happenings at Guantanamo Bay are not torture, but coercion. He doesnt defend the uses of interrogation themselves, but rather compares the enhanced interrogation techniques that the United States uses on terrorists to the permanent defacement used in the Muslim world, as well as the point that the purpose behind the former is for information and the latters is sadism (Spero). However, Spero has a paragraph that shows his bias in this controversy, calling American liberals anti-western and anti-American. He also calls those at the New York Times mentally abnormal. This bias, as well as the fact that he holds no qualifications to defend the use of torture serves to detract from his argument that torture can be justified. In his editorial, Charles Krauthammer cites the possibility of jury nullification in cases where torture occurred, which is usually applied when extenuating circumstances the defendant was under cause the jury to return a verdict that contradicts the facts of the case. The idea that there are specific cases in which jury nullification should be called for is supported by Charles Krauthammer, a known defender of the concept of the ticking time bomb. He asserts that there are two cases in which torture can be justified, those being the aforementioned ticking time bomb scenario, and a situation in which there is a near guarantee that many innocents will be killed. The ticking time bomb is a hypothetical thought experiment that involves the ethics of torture. The experiment first appeared in the 1960s, and poses the question if someone with knowledge of an imminent terrorist attack should be tortured into giving up that information (Lartà ©guy). Krauthammer falls on the consequentialist side of the argument, believing that the torture of the person can be justified, especially if innocent lives are at stake. In his opinion editorial in 2009, he states his viewpoint on torture, and attempts to defend it. However, he fails to discern the difference between interrogation and torture, severely discrediting his argument, starting to defend interrogation instead of torture, causing him to fail in proving his point. Krauthammer also calls his second exception to his no-torture rule an example of Catch-22. As the defenders do not know the information they need to be able to stop an act of terrorism from happening, and cant find that out in time, an interrogator should resort to extremities to deal with the terrorist that acts in extremes (Krauthammer). Krauthammers credibility as the previous Chief Resident in Psychiatry at Massachusetts General Hospital and his Masters Degree in Psychology does help his credibility on the subject of torture, and thus his argument as a wh ole. At this time, there is no one arguing for the removal of laws against torture. John McCain, a prisoner of war in the Vietnamese War and a current Senator of Arizona, believes, I dont believe this scenario requires us to write into law an exception to our treaty and moral obligations that would permit cruel, inhumane and degrading treatment. To carve out legal exemptions to this basic principle of human rights risks opening the door to abuse as a matter of course, rather than a standard violated truly in extremis. This is another example of a case where jury nullification would be a viable solution. Rather, there are those that believe that torture is inescapable, though still morally unjust. One such is Bruce Anderson, a British political columnist and an advocate of torture. He wrote an editorial for The Independent in 2010, arguing that Britain has a duty to torture terrorists. Anderson says that men cannot be angels in the case of torture, and explains that, However repugnant we m ay find torture, there are worse horrors, such as the nuclear devastation of central London, killing hundreds of thousands of people and inflicting irreparable damage on mankinds cultural heritage. He defends this statement by painting torture as the lesser of two evils, and claims that Britain is ensuring their own destruction by not gathering the information needed to prevent a terrorist attack. He also asserts that the best way to garner this information is through torture (Anderson). Anderson continues, floundering for an answer from when he was asked about a hypothetical situation by British liberal Sydney Kentridge about what Anderson would do when a hardened terrorist would not divulge the information needed. His answer was, Torture the wife and children. This answer on how he would break a terrorist shows to be hypocritical of his previous statement. This, and also that he has no specific qualifications on this subject severely discredits his argument. The perception that torture does not work as a means of extracting accurate information is an old principle dating back to the 18th century. It is the idea that if one were to torture for information, at some point the person would say anything for the pain to stop. Rupert Stone asserts that torture is at best ineffective to gather information. To support this, he cites Shane OMara, the author of Why Torture Doesnt Work, sayingtorture can produce false information by harming those areas of the brain associated with memory. An experiment conducted by Charles Morgan in 2006 had soldiers undergo stressful, but typical, means of coercion. At the end of the trial, they exhibited a remarkable deterioration in memory (Stone).   One of his interviewees, Glenn Carle, an interrogator with the CIA comments on the subject, Information obtained under duress is suspect and polluted from the start and harder to verify. He speaks about his experience in interrogating terrorists, and how those who were under stress previously before he tried to interrogate them were more likely to give false information. However, he admitted that he was not sure if it was because of memory impairment or to stop the stressful conditions, which has the potential to weaken his argument. Regardless, he asserts that torture can lead to false confessions (Stone). A letter to Frontline PBS from Michael Nowacki, a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Army also agrees with the idea of false information. He argues that using false information gathered from previous torturees can cause innocent people to be tortured for information they do not know about. As an interrogator, he found that 95% of the people being put under these conditions were innocent, and that most of these cases came from false statements by informants put under torture (Nowacki). The thought that torture can create propaganda for terrorist groups has recently been spurred by the American Air Force Major under the pseudonym Matthew Alexander. He was one of the lead interrogators tasked with finding the location of the Abu Musab al Zarqawi, who was the head of Al-Qaeda at the time. In 2008, he wrote How to Break a Terrorist, which detailed his accounts of how he managed to garner the information needed. He commented on his belief that highly coercive interrogation techniques have not helped the United States in the past, and how interrogating the informant with confidence-building approaches led him to the location of Zarqawi (Alexander). Alexander claims that by stooping to torture, America would be pushing more people to Al Qaeda, thus being counterproductive. He supports this by explaining that the people he had fought against state that the number one reason they had decided to pick up arms and join Al Qaeda was the abuses at Abu Ghraib and the authorized t orture and abuse at Guantà ¡namo Bay. He asserts that the short term gains of torture would be overshadowed by the long term losses (Alexander). He quotes Alberto Mora in his interview, a General Counsel of the U.S. Navy. Mora comments that main causes of U.S. combat deaths in Iraq due to the recruiting insurgent fighters into combat are Abu Ghraib and Guantà ¡namo. This idea is also supported by John Hutson, a retired Rear Admiral in the U.S. Navy, who asserts in a debate about torture run by   that there was a reason the Nazis surrendered to the Americans, the ones they knew would treat them somewhat fairly, versus the Russians, who unashamedly tortured their people for information in World War 2. He also tries to support the argument by also citing the first Iraqi War: In the first Iraq war, tens of thousands of Iraqis surrendered to us because they knew that they would be treated decently. My friends, theyre not surrendering to us anymore (Hutson). There are large amounts of bias here, not only because he is stating his opinion but also that he is trying to convince the audience of the debate the torture is not necessary to gain information. [1] After assessing the arguments for both positions on the controversy of torture, I could only morally agree with the idea that torture is unable to be justified. It is a practice that is hard to condone, as most enhanced interrogation techniques are close or could be considered torture. Henry Porter, attempting to combat the aforementioned Anderson summarizes the idea, It is preposterous for him to suggest that Elizabethan society has anything to tell societies that come after the enlightenment and the birth of the age of universal rights. Its as stupid as citing the Vikings or Visigoths to excuse behaviour in the 21st century. There are many constrictions on interrogation as well as governments in general to prevent the use of torture; the Eighth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, the Geneva Conventions,   as well as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, for example. However, I would like to think myself not naive enough to think that torture will not happen, no matter t he rarity of the cases, as the research of my paper concludes. I maintain the idea that torture is a horrible application, though I have to find myself agreeing with Senator John McCain; that torture should not be a permanent exception to the law, but one violated in extraordinary circumstances, and as Krauthammer said, that a torturer should be fully prepared to face the consequences, no matter the circumstances. However, it is necessary for this topic to be researched much more for the sanctions of under what cases should torture be justified. Overall, the justification of torture is an idea that cannot be applied to all cases. Each detail needs to be thoroughly investigated, and even then, every case has different circumstances that could allow torture to be or prevent torture from being justified. Thus, it is impossible to fully say that torture can or cannot be justified. Works Cited Alexander, Matthew. The American Public has a Right to Know That They Do Not couldillHave to Choose Between Torture and Terror: Six questions for Matthew coulillllAlexander, author of How to Break a Terrorist. Harpers Magazine. 18 December coulillll2008. http://harpers.org/blog/2008/12/the-american-public-has-a-right-to-know-that-they-do-not-have-to-choose-between-torture-and-terror-six-questions-for-matthew-alexander-author-of-_how-to-break-a-terrorist_/ Amnesty poll finds 29% say torture can be justified. British Broadcasting Channel. 13 couldillMay 2014, http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-27387040 Anderson, Bruce. Bruce Anderson: We not only have a right to use torture. We have a couilllllduty. The Independent. 15 February 2010, http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/commentators/bruce-anderson/bruce-anderson-we-not-only-have-a-right-to-use-torture-we-have-a-duty-1899555.html Goldman, Adam. New poll finds majority of Americans think torture was justified after couldil9/11 attacks. Washington Post. 16 December 2014, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/new-poll-finds-majority-of-americans-believe-torture-justified-after-911-attacks/2014/12/16/f6ee1208-847c-11e4-9534-f79a23c40e6c_story.html?utm_term=.12533031f512 Green, Camilla. History of Torture. The Justice Campaign, http://thejusticecampaign.org/?page_id=175 Krauthammer, Charles. The Use of Torture and What Nancy Pelosi Knew. Washington couldillPost. 1 May 2009, http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/30/AR2009043003108.html Lartà ©guy, Jean. Les Centurions. Penguin Classics, December 1960. **** Nowacki, Michael. Join the Discussion: The Torture Question. Frontline PBS. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/torture/talk/ Spero, Aryeh. Its Not Torture and It Is Necessary. Human Events, 16 January 2007, http://humanevents.com/2007/01/16/its-not-torture-and-it-is-necessary/ Roth, Kenneth. Torture: Does it make us safer? Is it ever OK? Human Rights Watch, couldill2005, http://rockyanderson.org/rockycourses/Torture_History_of_Torture019.pdf Stone, Rupert. Science Shows that Torture Doesnt Work and is Counterproductive. couldillNewsweek. 8 May 2016, http://www.newsweek.com/2016/05/20/science-shows-torture-doesnt-work-456854.html Torture: The Definition of Torture. Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/torture http://jaapl.org/content/37/3/332 Word Count: 2812 2734 2657 2622 2362 2286 This is not to say that interrogators that have used torture for information are allowed to be forgiven automatically. There is a general consensus between both perspectives that the inflictor must go to court and be prepared to be punished for his actions, as torture is still against the law. However, the distinction is found in the idea of jury nullification. It occurs when a jury returns a verdict of Not Guilty despite concrete proof or the accepted belief that the defendant has committed the crime they are on trial for. When applied to torture, jury nullification occurs when the extenuating circumstances that the interrogator was placed under allow the act to be justified, and therein lies the controversy. [1]Maybe combine these two paragraphs? Hutson doesnt matter as much as Alexander, and you could do bias for each of them then

Vaccination and Eradication of Smallpox Essay -- Biology Medical Biome

The Vaccination and Eradication of Smallpox Smallpox, a disease caused by the variola virus, has devastated humanity for many centuries. Because of its high mortality rate, civilizations around the world sought to protect themselves from this disease. Throughout the 1700's, these protective methods became more sophisticated, and led up to Edward Jenner’s vaccination method in 1796. Indeed, the World Health Organization, the Center for Disease Control and the Agency for International Development began a joint program to eradicate smallpox in 1967. It utilized methods of mass vaccination, surveillance, and containment. The endeavor was successful, and in 1980, WHO officially declared the eradication of smallpox. Since 1000 B.C., the world had been plagued by the variola virus, the causative agent of smallpox. The disease has a 30% mortality rate (Centers for Disease Control [CDC], 2004). Consequently, it was a great victory for humankind when the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared the eradication of smallpox from the world. The smallpox vaccine was the first vaccine ever developed, and the eradication was the first successful eradication of a disease. Therefore, it is very important for society to study the processes that led to the vaccination and eradication of smallpox. Inoculation, a process that offered protection from smallpox, can be dated back to 1000 B.C. In China, the smallpox scabs were powdered and blown into noses, and in India, pus was rubbed into skin lesions to immunize the healthy individuals against future infections. Throughout Asia and Great Britain, inoculation was also frequently practiced (History and Eradication of Smallpox, n.d., p.2). Inoculation methods improved over time. Originally, ... ...enner's smallpox vaccine. Great Britain: Heinemann Educational Books. Centers for Disease and Control. (2004, December 30). Smallpox Overview. In Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved July 20, 2006, from http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/smallpox/overview/disease-facts.asp History and Eradication of Smallpox. (n.d.). Retrieved July 20, 2006, from http://www.portfolio.mvm.ed.ac.uk/studentwebs/session4/32/history.htm Ogden, H. G. (1987). CDC and the smallpox crusade. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Razzell, P. (1977). The conquest of smallpox. Sussex: Caliban Books. World Health Organization. (n.d.). The World Health Organization Smallpox Eradication Programme. In WHO smallpox eradication programme. Retrieved July 20, 2006, from University of Toronto Web site: http://choo.fis.utoronto.ca/fis/courses/lis2102/KO.WHO.case.html Vaccination and Eradication of Smallpox Essay -- Biology Medical Biome The Vaccination and Eradication of Smallpox Smallpox, a disease caused by the variola virus, has devastated humanity for many centuries. Because of its high mortality rate, civilizations around the world sought to protect themselves from this disease. Throughout the 1700's, these protective methods became more sophisticated, and led up to Edward Jenner’s vaccination method in 1796. Indeed, the World Health Organization, the Center for Disease Control and the Agency for International Development began a joint program to eradicate smallpox in 1967. It utilized methods of mass vaccination, surveillance, and containment. The endeavor was successful, and in 1980, WHO officially declared the eradication of smallpox. Since 1000 B.C., the world had been plagued by the variola virus, the causative agent of smallpox. The disease has a 30% mortality rate (Centers for Disease Control [CDC], 2004). Consequently, it was a great victory for humankind when the World Health Organization (WHO) officially declared the eradication of smallpox from the world. The smallpox vaccine was the first vaccine ever developed, and the eradication was the first successful eradication of a disease. Therefore, it is very important for society to study the processes that led to the vaccination and eradication of smallpox. Inoculation, a process that offered protection from smallpox, can be dated back to 1000 B.C. In China, the smallpox scabs were powdered and blown into noses, and in India, pus was rubbed into skin lesions to immunize the healthy individuals against future infections. Throughout Asia and Great Britain, inoculation was also frequently practiced (History and Eradication of Smallpox, n.d., p.2). Inoculation methods improved over time. Originally, ... ...enner's smallpox vaccine. Great Britain: Heinemann Educational Books. Centers for Disease and Control. (2004, December 30). Smallpox Overview. In Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Retrieved July 20, 2006, from http://www.bt.cdc.gov/agent/smallpox/overview/disease-facts.asp History and Eradication of Smallpox. (n.d.). Retrieved July 20, 2006, from http://www.portfolio.mvm.ed.ac.uk/studentwebs/session4/32/history.htm Ogden, H. G. (1987). CDC and the smallpox crusade. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Razzell, P. (1977). The conquest of smallpox. Sussex: Caliban Books. World Health Organization. (n.d.). The World Health Organization Smallpox Eradication Programme. In WHO smallpox eradication programme. Retrieved July 20, 2006, from University of Toronto Web site: http://choo.fis.utoronto.ca/fis/courses/lis2102/KO.WHO.case.html

Factors that Lead to Teen Pregnancy Essay -- Teen Pregnant Pregnancy E

Factors that Lead to Teen Pregnancy Although the overall rate of teen pregnancy has been declining, the rates have remained high for teens that are most vulnerable. The great majority of Americans believe that teen pregnancies are a serious national problem, indeed a problem that is the major component of what is thought to be national moral decline. However, what causes these teens to become pregnant at such a young age? A large body of research has identified a number of factores that underlie teen sexual and contraceptive behavior, pregnancy, and childbearing. There exists a three part framework of the factors underlying teen pregnancy. There are biological antecedents, including gender, age, testosterone level, and timing of puberty. These factors are causally related to adolescent sexual and contraceptive behavior and pregnancy. A second group of antecedents can be viewed as â€Å"manifestations of social disorganization or advantage† (Kirby, 1997). These include factors in the community and the family such as violent crime, poverty, unemployment, family marital disruption, parents’ lack of education, poor child rearing practice, lack of parental support, and inappropriate sexual pressure or abuse. The second group also includes factors in the individual teen such as lack of religious affiliation, drug and alcohol use, engaging in risk behaviors and deviance, delinquency, poor educational performance, and low expectations for the future. A third group of antecedents are attitudes and beliefs about sexual behavior and pregnancy. These include beliefs, personal values, and perceived norms. Among the many factors which may lead to teen pregnancy, the four that are most predictive of early pregnancy are poverty, early behavioral problems, family problems, and a low self esteem. There are several theories about the reasons why so many young women in poverty become pregnant and carry to full term. Faced with an unintended pregnancy, many teens living in poverty are likely to view early childbearing as a positive, desirable choice. These teens feel that becoming pregnant may in fact improve their lives. Economics may also be responsible for the lower percentage of poor teens who terminate their pregnancies, since Medicaid policies in most states do not pay for abortions, but do pay for services related to childbirth. In addition, some re... ...hildren who are less likely to have early intercourse." Early childhood experiences can make all the difference. Higher levels of parent to teen communication have been related to less permissive sexual attitudes, whereas poor communication with parents and lack of parental support has been linked to earlier initiation of sexual activity. Both high levels of parental supervision and close relationships between adolescents and their parents were related to later timing of teen sexual activity. In addition, parental marital disruption and living with a single parent is associated with the early onset of sexual behavior. This finding probably reflects such factors as lower family incomes, less partental supervision, and parental modeling. The large, complicated, and interrelated accumulation of factors suggest that the course that leads to adolescent sexual activity and pregnancy is complex. Kirby states that â€Å"not merely one or two, but a multitude of antecedents are related to one or more sexual behaviors and pregnancy, including characteristics of the teens themselves, their peers and sexual partners, their families and their communities and states† (Kirby, 1997).

Self Directed Work Team

A Briefing on Self Directed Work Team ( SDWT ) by Group 5 Self Directed Work Team is a powerful construct since the ancient Roman host and today about 68 % of fortune 1000 companies implement SDWT construct including Ford, GM, P & A ; G, FedEx, etc. ( Lawler, Mohrman, & A ; Ledford,1995 ) . DefinitionVecchio ( 2003, p.107 ) defined Self Directed Work Teams ( SDWT ) as â€Å"a extremely trained group of six to eighteen employees that is to the full responsible for making a specific product† . And harmonizing to an article in Entrepreneur Connect ( Anon, 1995 ) â€Å"self -directed squads are little groups of employees who have duty for pull offing themselves and their work† . Success in today ‘s disputing competitory environment is based on employee authorization and squad work ( Boyett & A ; Boyett, 1998 ) . This could be closely related to Herzberg ‘s motivation factor which was later merely defined by Barbara ( n.d. ) as â€Å"what makes you work well† . Many companies are attracted to this invention because of the chance of flattening the organisational construction in these times when retrenchment, flattening and work procedure reengineering are so important ( Coates and Miller, 1995 ) . SDWT leads to increased organisational effectivity and employee satisfaction ( Forsyth, 1999 ) which in today ‘s concern is being the competitory advantage ( Ron Williams, n.d ) . Advantages of SDWTGeneral Motors, Proctor & A ; Gamble & A ; Xerox by implementing SDWT resulted in about 30-40 % betterment in productiveness ( Bruce, n.d. ) . In Kodak client aid Centre SDWT resulted in 100 % addition in net incomes ( Anon, n.d. ) .FedEx improved their service by cut downing the loss of bundles and wrong charge by 13 % . Rubbermaid increased gross revenues by 50 % above projectionsQuality betterment.Increased productiveness and reduced cost.Highly flexible.Simpler occupation categorization and each member know every procedure through occupation rotary motion which will cut down dependence one individual.Better invention and creativeness.Team members are motivated by occupation satisfaction, authorization, trust, feel of ownership & A ; personal growing which in bend benefit the company as a whole.SDWT is being a vehicle for conveying in the Total Quality Management construct in an organisation ( Vecchio,2006, p.112 ) Following statistics based on a reappraisal of organisation that transferred to SDWT ( John Cotter, n.d. ) good prove the positive impact. 93 % reported improve productiveness86 % reported reduced operating cost86 % reported improved quality70 % reported better employee attitudes Given the above advantages and success narratives there are effects and jobs in disputing the success of SDWT and even driving to the opposite way to failure. Consequences of SDWTElimination of supervisory place.The demand for displacement from keeping the determination doing power to deputation and leting liberty. In other words supervisor should move as a facilitator and supply counsel to teams particularly outside the squads ‘ countries of expertness. Supervisors should pull off communicating and supervise the effectivity. Leaderships promote squad work and corporation ( Brillhart, 1983 ) . The key in supervisory function is to actuate â€Å"Self-Direction† . In an interview with Sterling Health USA, employees frequently quoted that â€Å"Before, the group leader made all the determinations. You did n't cognize why the determinations were made†¦ now we do† ( Peter, 1999 ) . But is the squad leader ready to accept the passage from keeping the power to deputation? Is S/He ready to better the accomplishments to measure up as a facilitator?Requirement for heavy investing in preparation. Training needed for both supe rvisors and squad members in constructing assorted accomplishments. Cloke and Goldsmith ( 2002, pp 205-214 ) identified 10 accomplishments those are indispensable for members of the work squads to develop self direction, communicating, leading, duty, back uping diverseness, feedback and rating, strategic planning, determining successful meeting, deciding struggles and enjoyment. Williams ( n.d. ) mentioned â€Å"It is non uncommon for autonomous work squads to pass 20 % of their clip in ongoing training† . Organization willing to implement SDWT should hold a clear preparation scheme including cross preparation chance and resources. Top direction should plan the preparation policy and budget for it.Need for more flatter and flexible organisational construction.The determination doing authorization is transformed to the squad members to extinguish waste of clip trusting on blessings from directors. Autonomy, liberty, authorization are the cardinal participants in success of SDW T which is facilitated merely on level constructions. Duties assigned to workers in GM clearly indicate the demand for level construction. ( William,1999, p.11 )Duty for quality control.Duty for care and little fixs.Duty for safety.Duty for capital budgeting and operational budgeting.Duty for staffing.SDWT to get down executing takes long period.As per William ( 1999 ) SDWTs can non be created immediately ; it can take 2 to 5 old ages to to the full implement. Some companies might non hold the clip or resources to travel through this procedurePhases of organizing SDWT:Phase one: ( Start-Up ) Goal readying, account of intent, member choice and edifice trust ( 6-9months ) .Phase two: ( State of confusion ) Technical aid, feedback, implementing processs to back up self way, and preparation. ( 6-9months ) .Phase three: ( Leader – centered squad ) Promoting leading activity among team members. ( 6-12months ) .Phase four: ( Tightly formed squads ) Deciding struggles, start pull off ing on ain, pass oning resource demand and ends. ( 6-12months ) .Phase five: ( Self way ) Maintain ego assurance and ego regard of others. Strong partnership with internal and external clients.Consequently, if you look at the clip and preparation involved in SDWT ‘s it might non be suited for an environment with a high employee turnover.Need for greater leading development.As the organisation would no longer map in a traditional mode the leaders or directors need to construct their ability to let and promote such a high degree of authorization, which can be tackled with specially created plans ( Coates and Miller, 1995 ) .Problems of SDWTTeam members approached the impregnation point of larning through occupation rotary motion and would hold achieved the maximal degree of gaining i.e. works rate where no more room for psychological or fiscal encouragements ( Vecchio, 2006, p.113 ) . Again while speaking approximately wage as a incentive does it truly matter? Can honor and ackn owledgment be the incentive to guarantee go oning public presentation of the employees ( Vecchio, 2006, p.84 ) . Besides the public presentation measuring system should non make any competition within squad members which will cut down co-operation and impact the success of SDWT.Another major challenge is acquiring people to stay committed to the betterment of the procedures when they realize that they may be working themselves out of a occupation. The employees involved in autonomous work squads must hold a great trade of trust so that employees are non concerned about their occupation security ( Anon, 1995 ) .Conflict direction would be another critical and sensitive issue. Again each squad member has different personalities and perceptual experiences. Here comes the importance of needed accomplishments from facilitator. A civilization of cognition sharing has to be built in.Another inquiry is that, are employees ready to be self directed? Whether they have capacity and accomplishm ents? Of class proper preparation would be in topographic point but still some employees prefer director ‘s way on what to make instead than make up one's minding on their ain. Here comes the demand for choosing appropriate squad members which is once more depending on the endowment of facilitator.Is the organisation policies and civilization is supportive in reassigning power and authorization to team members?Other jobs would be marks of certitude which lead to members willing to take excess ordinary hazard, members disregarding the ethical effects, corporate rationalisation and underestimating capablenesss of other groups which may take to failure and fiscal losingss. ( Craig, 2005, p.219 )Given the fact authorization is a cardinal to win in SDWT ; will all the directors support this? Foegen ( 1999 ) stated on the loss of control: â€Å" If one person makes all the determinations in a given section, for illustration, his or her control is across-the-board. Focus is obvious and univocal. But when authorization is delegated, that focal point becomes blurred, determination devising is diffused, and duty ‘s venue is frequently less certain. † He besides stated deputation and authorization can diminish the self image of the directors. The other booby traps of authorization would be deficiency of lucidity, direction ‘s position as shared control / loss of control etc.Finally it would necessitate legion alterations in procedures and processs and necessitate a batch more clip to do SDWT ‘s successful in a nonionized section.DecisionBefore a company can make up one's mind to implement ego directed work squads, Coates and Miller ( 1995 ) point out certain state of affairss or occupation Fieldss in which this method may non work. These include:When there is a demand for way or supervising. This is frequently needed for occupations which may be unpleasant, backbreaking, fast paced or hazardous.When minimum squad interaction is required. In occupations such as these employees may happen it hard to take each other.When a deficiency of professional adulthood exists among team members.An involuntariness to do the attempt exists.The inability to run into on a regular basis as a squad. Work groups with any of these five features would happen it hard to work efficaciously and may hold to fall back to the traditional method of direction. Statisticss shows that authorization has about a 50 % success rate and it is found that major ground for this is deficiency of direction committedness to the alteration procedure. One of the companies failed by utilizing SDWT is The Airline people ‘s Express. ( Fisher, 2000, p.26 ) . Mention:Anon. ( 1995 )Taking the Mystery Out of Self -Directed Work Teams,Entrepreneur Connect[ Online ] . Available from: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.entrepreneur.com/tradejournals/article/17227174.html ( Accessed: 21 August 2009 ) . Anon ( n.d. )Teams, the good, the bad and the ugly[ Online ] Available from: hypertext transfer protocol: //faculty.css.edu/dswenson/web/T & A ; DlearnCo/gains-lossesofteams.html ( Accessed: 22 August 2009 ) Boyett, J. & A ; Boyett, J. ( 1998 )The guru usher: The best of the top direction minds. New York: John Wiley and Sons, Inc. Brillhart, J. ( 1983 )Effective group treatment.fifth erectile dysfunction. Dubuque, Iowa: William Brown Co. Bruce K.Bernard ( n.d )Fixing for Autonomous Work Teams[ Online ] Available from: hypertext transfer protocol: //209.85.229.132/search? q=cache: rEhTVduzfRMJ: www.ux1.eiu.edu/~bkbarnard/preparing2.ppt+self+directed+work+teams+ppt & A ; cd=7 & A ; hl=en & A ; ct=clnk & A ; gl=ae ( Accessed: 21 August 2009 ) . Cloke, K and Goldsmith, J ( 2002 )The End of Management and the Rise of Organizational Democracy. Questia Online Library [ Online ] Available from: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.questia.com/read/111621737? title=The % 20End % 20of % 20Management % 20and % 20the % 20Rise % 20of % 20Organizational % 20Democracy ( Accessed: 21 August 2009 ) . Coates, D. & A ; Miller, M. ( 1995 ) ‘Self Directed Teams: Lessons Learned for Local Government ‘ ,Public Management, 77 ( 12 ) , p. 16, Questia Online Library [ Online ] . Available from: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.questia.com/read/5001654373? title=Self-Directed % 20Teams % 3a % 20Lessons % 20Learned % 20for % 20Local % 20Government ( Accessed: 21August 2009 ) . Craig E. Johnson. ( 2005 )Meeting the ethical challenges of leading.2nd erectile dysfunction. USA: Sage Publications Inc.Ed Rose & A ; Steve Buckley. ( 1999 )Self Directed work Teams, A Trainer ‘s Role in the Passage.United statess: Intersil Coporation. Foegen, J.H. ( 1999 ) ‘Why non empowerment ‘ ,Business and Economic Review,Apr-Jun 1999 [ Online ] . Available from: hypertext transfer protocol: //findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa5313/is_199904/ai_n21437565/ ( Accessed: 22 August 2009 ) Forsyth, D. ( 1999 )Group kineticss.3rd erectile dysfunction. New York: Brooks/Cole-Wadsworth. Jeffrey Christopher Bauer ( 2002 )A Longitudinal Evaluation of The Impact of Organizational Structure on Role Ambiguity and Work Group Performance[ Online ] Available from: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.ucclermont.edu/~BAUERJ/JCBauerDissertationFinal.htm ( Accessed: 21 August 2009 ) . Kimball Fisher. ( 2000 ) .Leading Self Directed Work Teams, A Guide to Developing New Team Leadership Skils.United statess: McGraw-Hill. Peter B.Grazier ( 1999 )Populating with a ego directed work squad & A ; why autonomy plant: A reappraisal of Herzberg ‘s Concepts[ Online ] Available from: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.teambuildinginc.com/article_selfdirected.htm ( Accessed: 21 August 2009 ) . Robert P. Vecchio ( 2006 )Organizational Behavior, 6th erectile dysfunction. Mason, OH, USA: Thomson Corporation South-Western. Robert T.Howell ( 2001 )Fostering Autonomous Team Members[ Online ] Available from: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.teambuildinginc.com/article_selfdirected.htm ( Accessed: 21August 2009 ) . Williams, R. ( n.d. )Autonomous Work Teams: A Competitive Advantage[ online ] Available from: hypertext transfer protocol: //www.qualitydigest.com/nov95/html/self-dir.html ( Accessed: 20 August 2009 ) .

A Comparison and Contrast of Andrew Marvell’s

Andrew Marvell’s To His Coy Mistress and Robert Herrick’s Corinna’s Going A-Maying are poems which both present a familiar theme in literature which is Carpe diem which means seize the day. The poems tell about different situations wherein you have to take advantage of the moment because such instances are not permanent and wouldn’t last long.â€Å"To His Coy Mistress† is about a young man professing his love for a young lady, but the lad responds by being playfully hesitant and demure, as though she was full of uncertainty (Marvell, 1999). But according to the female, dallying as such will not do, because youth will pass them by swiftly, so there is a need for them to take advantage of the situation. He then expounds that if they had the luxury of time, then they could their days idly, admiring each other while leisurely passing time.But for them the reality is that time is not on their side because it s a winged chariot ever racing along, they wou ldn’t know exactly when their youth will be gone, but it is certain that if they don’t seize the moment, the only thing that would await them would be the grave.In â€Å"Corinna’s Going A-Maying†, the narrator urges Corinna to wake up and get up early on the first of May, so that she would be able to enjoy the fun of the day, as well as the beautiful flowers of the month of May (Herrick, 2008). She is also told to hurry her morning prayers so that she can already go out into the fields to enjoy May.The narrator also told her that while she spent her time sleeping, many couples have already been engaged, many had played the kissing game, and several other things that could encourage Corinna to go out. In the end, she is told to go while they’re still in their prime, to seize the opportunity before they grow old and die. With life being short, if Corinna would let the opportunity pass, then she couldn’t turn back the hands of time.The title â €Å"To His Coy Mistress† would mean that the lady love of young man is not an easy catch. It is phrased in a way that the author reports the plea of a young man to his beloved. The title â€Å"Corinna’s Going A-Maying† implies that Corinna would eventually go out and enjoy the month of May, as she is being persuaded by the narrator.Marvell’s poem is written in the first person point of view, though it is presented as a plea of some other person. It reports of what goes on inside the mind of the man, as his thoughts were manifested through the words in the poem.It shows of an impatient young man, who desperately urges the young lady not to waste any more time temporizing and playing hard-to-get. It can be seen as more of a selfish desire for something carnal rather than true love by the man, as he is overflowing with passion, like he can’t contain it anymore. He can be characterized as more of an immature and selfish person than a loving one.On the other hand, Herrick’s poem is also in the first persona point of view that of a narrator. He is an unnamed individual who urges Corinna to get up of from the bed, go out, and enjoy the first of May. The narrator tells more of the events that Corinna had missed while she was spending her time sleeping. It is more of an exposition of the joys that May brings, and what they could expect in the coming times. The narrator is more of a persuasive individual, telling every kind of story just to convince Corinna that she needs to go out of bed already.The setting of â€Å"To His Coy Mistress† is not specified in the poem. There is no scene that presents such a place in which the characters would interact. The young man and the young lady are assumed to be from somewhere in England, as suggested by the River Humber which was mentioned in the poem. In â€Å"Corinna’s Going A-Maying† there is also no specified place of interaction for the people in the poem. It can be assumed that it is in the house of Corinna, wherein she is still in her bedroom, still sleeping.It is evident that for both poems, the speaker or the narrator spoke first of beautiful things before telling about the consequences of not seizing the day or grabbing the opportunity. In the poem â€Å"To His Coy Mistress,† it was shown that if the lady and the man were to have the luxury of time, then they could afford of being idle, praising and adoring each other for hundreds of years to come.In the poem â€Å"Corinna’s Going A-Maying†, the narrator speaks of wonderful things that can be done outside, in order to fully enjoy May. They can pick flowers, interact with other people, and explore love with the opposite sex. However, in the end, the speakers in both poems stated that if they don’t seize the opportunity, then the only thing certain for them is that they would grow old and eventually die, without the chance of enjoying the opportunity that they missed.Andrew Marvell and Robert Herrick’s poems tell the readers about grabbing the opportunity while it is there. We cannot afford to let the opportunity pass us by because we would end up losing it forever. We don’t have the luxury of time, and we would eventually find ourselves aging, and unable to do the things when we were young. This is why we should grab every opportunity and seize the day.References:Herrick, R. (2008). Corinna's Going A-Maying.  Ã‚   Retrieved September 17, 2008, from http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/corinna-s-going-a-maying/Marvell, A. (1999). To his Coy Mistress.  Ã‚   Retrieved September 17, 2008, from http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/marvell/coy.htm  

Bosnian Refugee Life in America Essay

Thousands of refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina have fled to the United States to seek protection from the ethnoreligious conflicts of the region. To best assist these families, service providers must understand their wartime and migration experiences and their culture. The purpose of this article is to review the literature relevant to working with Bosnian Muslim refugees as well as to understand the uruque issues facing this population. The authors’ interest in Bosnian Muslim refugees is a personal one. Between 1992 and 2001, nearly 3,500 Bosnian refugees escaping ethnic cleansing and war migrated to Bowling Green, a small city of 50,000 in rural southcentral Kentucky. The Bowling Green International Center has been a part of the local community since 1979 and actively works with the United States Committee for Refugees and Immigrants (USCRI). For more than 25 years, the center has assisted thousands of refugees of many nationalities in their migration to the United States and the local community. According to the center’s director, Marty Deputy, Bosnians make up the largest percentage of refugees that have relocated to Bowling Green (personal communication, February 3, 2005). Deputy also indicated that while Bosnian refugees have adapted well to the local community, they still face many challenges because of their experiences in Bosnia in addition to their integration into a new culture. One of the issues that continue to haunt many Bosnian refugees is post-traumatic stress—a result of war and genocide. Post-traumatic stress is particularly an issue for the adult women, who experienced the trauma of rape and sexual assault as well as witnessing the murder of their children and spouses. According to Deputy (personal communication, February 3, 2005), social workers should approach Bosnian families and children with cultural competence. If visiting a Bosnian home, for example, removing one’s shoes when entering is a display of respect and sensitivity. A willingness to drink a strong cup of Bosnian coffee is also appreciated. Social workers also must be sensitive about body language and speech tone. It is also important not to assume that all Bosnians are alike. As with all cultures, there is tremendous variation in the Bosnian culture, along with individual differences in personality and environmental experiences. Bosnian Muslim Experiences in the War The 1991 census for Bosnia-Herzegovina shows that Muslims made up 43. 7% of the total population of 4. 3 million people. Serbs accounted for 31. 3% and Croats 17. 3% (Bringa, 1995). Serbs identified the Muslims’ majority population base in Bosnia-Herzegovina as its strategic strength (Cigar, 1995). In 1992, therefore, the Serbs declared war and began a campaign of ethnic cleansing to eradicate non-Serbs. The term â€Å"ethnic cleansing† stands for the policy of ridding an area of an undesirable national group to create a homogenous region; it represents a type of genocide that is designed to spread terror (Friedman, 1996; Weine & Laub, 1995). Serbia’s initial rationale for its policy was promulgated by the belief that the newly formed state of Bosnia-Herzegovina would create national minorities of the Serb population and eventually destroy the Serb populace as a discrete and unique nation (Friedman, 1996). The prospect of acquiring material goods from the Muslims—land, livestock, houses, cars, and cash—apparently was an additional powerful incentive for many Serbs (Cigar, 1995; Sells, 1998). The indigenous Bosnian Serb population was drawn into a terror campaign of killing and mayhem so the non-Serbian populations would never return. This persecution ultimately led to more than one million Balkan refugees migrating to the United States and other countries. The types of experiences they endured in their homeland before emigrating dramatically influenced their initial adaptation to these new environments. Resettlement and Adaptation Issues As difficult as the war-related experiences were, migration to resettlement countries signaled a transition to new types of struggles for Bosnian refugees. Unlike immigrants who leave their homes for a variety of reasons, refugees leave in order to survive, and they face a new realm of stressors as they attempt to rebuild their lives in exile (Keyes, 2000; Worthington, 2001). Such stressors include difficult transit experiences; culture shock; adjustment problems related to language and occupational change; and disruption in their sense of self, family, and community (Lipson, 1993; Worthington, 2001). Additionally, refugees leaving Bosnia-Herzegovina often have suffered multiple losses, such as severance from family and friends who have been left behind or killed, displacement from their homes and communities, social isolation, and the premature death of their children. Such an accumulation of loss can leave a sense of unresolved grief that can significantly impact mental health and future functioning capacity (Akhtar, 1992; Fullilove, 1996; Sundquist & Johansson, 1996; Worthington, 2001). When refugees cross national boundaries seeking asylum, they typically find themselves in an alien social environment with norms that challenge their traditional patterns of family interaction (Mayadas & Segal, 2000). Most Bosnian refugees have a hierarchical familial power structure and clear role definitions; in the homeland, authority was typically gender-based, with males maintaining instrumental roles and females fulfilling nurturing responsibilities. A traditional Bosnian woman’s commitment to her family includes observing strict codes of privacy and public silence on any issue that might bring shame on the family, such as family discord. For many women, this privacy mandate deters them from divulging details about marital strife or child maltreatment by spouses to outsiders such as work colleagues, community members, and mental health professionals. Consequently, Bosnian female refugees continue to be caught between traditional role models prevalent throughout the former Yugoslavia’s patriarchal society in the 20th Century and the expectations of their new culture. The Bosnian family’s patriarchal patterns of behavior tend to be challenged on arrival in the United States, particularly around work-related issues. Women are more likely than men to find jobs in the low-wage labor market, and in becoming the breadwinners exposed to the outside world, they risk upsetting a family equilibrium based on male authority (Mayadas & Segal, 2000). For Bosnian men, key ethnic and social boundary markers of their lives had evaporated; because of their grief over this, many seemed paralyzed in their attempt to move forward in their new life. Bosnian refugee children also face immense acculturation pressures (Mayadas & Segal, 2000). They often are torn between the beliefs, customs, and values learned in their native culture and the often unrealistic expectations of the new one. The pressure to assimilate the cultural norms of their new country can be intense and extremely stressful. Their parents often lack the material resources and support systems to adequately assist them in navigating the complex terrain of foreign school systems, pervasive racism, and intolerance (Mayadas & Segal, 2000). Consequently, many feel as if they are alone in a foreign, sometimes unforgiving new cultural milieu. To further complicate the situation, family roles often reverse as children typically become more fluent in English faster and adapt more quickly to the customs of the new country (Potocky, 1996). Because children are thrust into the role of serving as the interpreters and negotiators of cultural norms for their parents, respect for the authority of elders is often undermined (Carlin, 1990; Drachman; 1992). Even though most teenagers in the United States feel a certain amount of intergenerational tension, the adolescents of refugees often experience the pull of two vastly different worlds: those of their American peers and their parents (Mayadas & Segal, 2000). They also feel subjected to the xenophobia of their American peers, who often ridicule others who they label as â€Å"different. † Immigration to the United States has provided Bosnian Muslim refugee families with many challenges as they struggle to adapt to their new lives. At first glance, their experiences may be similar to that of other immigrants, raising the familiar questions about how to perpetuate the faith of their forebears among their offspring or how to best preserve cherished cultural practices (Yazbeck- Haddad & Esposito, 2000). But there are some real differences. With the attacks on the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon in Washington, DC, the potential for a xenophobic reception of Muslim immigrants and refugees by Americans has intensified. For example, disputes over the building of mosques represent a key source of friction for most Westerners (Pipes & Duran, 1993). While Bosnian Muslim families may encounter the same issues earlier generations of immigrants faced, they also are burdened with the question of whether their children will be accepted in the United States, and whether Islam can ever be recognized as a positive force that contributes to a pluralistic, multicultural nation (Yazbeck-Haddad & Esposito, 2000). Culturally Competent Practice with Bosnian Muslims When working with Bosnian Muslim refugees, service providers need to learn as much as possible about their culture, particularly given the pivotal role that ethnoreligious identity has played in their war-related experiences (Witmer & Culver, 2001). Bosnian men and women tend to adhere to traditional gender roles; connected with this issue is the intense stigma attached to the sexual violation of women. This stigma frequently led women to refrain from disclosing war rapes to their families (Witmer & Culver, 2001). Bosnian Muslims typically act in ways that preserve the positive image of the family’s identity, especially males, who see openly revealing vulnerability or suffering as a sign of great personal weakness (Weine et al. , 1997). Family is the most important social structure across the urban and rural regions of Bosnia (Mojica-Castillo, 2001). Up until the 1970s, adult children commonly lived with their parents and multiple generations lived in the same house. But today, twoparent families predominate in this region with extended family members often living nearby. A cluster of shoes can typically be found outside a Bosnian home (Mojica-Castillo, 2001). This is because it is customary to remove street shoes and leave them at the door. Bosnians maintain a strong social tradition of neighborliness. The drinking of strong coffee or the sharing of food, accompanied by the essential element of lively conversation, is an important aspect of social life. Traditional music and folk dances are an important part of cultural celebrations. A basic principle of generalist social work is that practitioners need to be able to intervene on behalf of various systems, including individuals, families, orgaruzations, and communities. Additionally, the generalist social worker operates within an ecological framework that attempts to improve coping patterns for a better match between the client system’s needs and the characteristics of his or her environment. An empowerment approach to generalist practice assumes that clients can draw from existing competencies and reservoirs of strength. Empowerment indicates the intent and the processes of assisting client systems to discover and expand the tools and resources around them (Furuto, 2004). Swift and Levin (1987) referred to empowerment as an evolution from dependence to independence and interdependence. Gutierrez (1990) described empowerment as â€Å"the process of increasing personal, interpersonal, or political power so that individuals can take action to improve their life situations† (p. 140). The strengths perspective enhances the concept of empowerment with its focus on promoting healing. Healing implies both wholeness and the inborn ability of the mind and body to resist and regenerate when faced with disruption, disorder, or disease (Furuto, 2004). Ethnic and religious identity may lead to discrimination when the refugee is seeking a job that requires intervention on a more personal level. Long-term difficulty in finding a job that provides the family with adequate income may cause low self-esteem and family tension culminating in violence (Furuto & Murase, 1992). Various system levels often must be addressed simultaneously (Mayadas & Segal, 2000). Western thinking on designing comprehensive mental health services is mostly based on the individual as the primary system targeted for intervention; hence, existing services tend to be designed for a North American population (Mooren & Kleber, 1999). Furthermore, treatment of mental health disorders typically follows a medical model using talk therapy and drugs. Western theories also emphasize intrapersonal processes in isolation from the cultural context. The prevailing view that the responses to trauma are individual centered is in keeping with this tradition. Service providers must use the refugees’ own, indigenous cultural definitions of health and illness when making mental health assessments (Boothby, 1996; Wing Sue, Ivey, & Pedersen, 1996). For example, a Bosnian client who had the Western diag nosis of major depression and post-traumatic stress disorder â€Å"refused medication saying that there was nothing wrong with him that medications could fix, and insisted that the clinician understand that his current condition was a result of the wrongs that had been done to him, and not because of anything that was wrong with him† (Weine & Laub, 1995, p. 255). To address the issue of respecting the client’s definition of the issue, Yuen (1999) promoted a more holistic biopsychosocial model of intervention when working with Bosnian children and their families; hence, the importance of using an ethnically sensitive ecological framework becomes a second principle of culturally competent practice. A third principle is to respect the indigenous strengths and resources within Bosnians that empower them to cope with their own experiences. Chow & Yuen (2000) noted the necessity for an empowerment and capacity building model where refugees become partners in the design and elivery of services within their community. Efforts to design and deliver human service programs should include using indigenous Bosnian religious and cultural organizations, as well as self-help groups (Chow & Yuen, 2000). Conclusion After Bosnians flee their homeland, they need protection in the asylum country. This necessitates supportive policies and macrolevel intervention competence. The main policy that guides refugee resettlement in the United States is Public Law 96-212, the Refugee Act of 1980 (Mayadas & Segal, 2000). Based on the goal of helping refugees achieve economic self-sufficiency as quickly as possible, the act defines self-sufficiency as not receiving welfare benefits (Potocky, 1996). As such, this policy may be ineffective in helping refugees to settle in an optimal manner. To become truly self-sufficient, service providers need to redefine success in more progressive ways, such as helping refugees to effectively deal with resettlement issues relating to acculturation, psychological trauma, and intergenerational conflict—all of which can impede long-term economic self-sufficiency. This new goal requires adequate fiscal resources to develop programs and engage in active community outreach (Mayadas & Segal, 2000). Social services must aspire to restore the psychological health and dignity of these families and children, who have seen the worst side of human nature. Helping them establish a positive self-image is critical to their success. While the genocide of family members and violent acts can never be forgotten, surrounding Bosnian Muslim refugees with a network of positive, supportive services can help them establish a solid foothold in the United States.