Human Rights Violations Essay

Human rights are commonly understood as â€Å"inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being.†[1] Human rights are thus conceived as universal (applicable everywhere) and egalitarian (the same for everyone). These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national and international law. The doctrine of human rights in international practice, within international law, global and regional institutions, in the policies of states and in the activities of non-governmental organizations, has been a cornerstone of public policy around the world. The idea of human rights states, â€Å"if the public discourse of peacetime global society can be said to have a common moral language, it is that of human rights.† Despite this, the strong claims made by the doctrine of human rights continue to provoke considerable skepticism and debates about the content, nature and justifications of human rights to this day. Indeed, the question of what is meant by a â€Å"right† is itself controversial and the subject of continued philosophical debate. Many of the basic ideas that animated the human rights movement developed in the aftermath of the Second World War and the atrocities of The Holocaust, culminating in the adoption of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Paris by the United Nations General Assembly in 1948. The ancient world did not possess the concept of universal human rights. Ancient societies had â€Å"elaborate systems of duties†¦ conceptions of justice, political legitimacy, and human flourishing that sought to realize human dignity, flourishing, or well-being entirely independent of human rights†. The modern concept of human rights developed during the early Modern period, alongside the European secularization of Judeo-Christian ethics. The true forerunner of human rights discourse was the concept of natural rights which appeared as part of the medieval Natural law tradition that became prominent during the Enlightenment with such philosophers as John Locke, Francis Hutcheson, and Jean-Jacques Burlamaqui, and featured prominently in the political discourse of the American Revolution and the French Revolution. From this foundation, the modern human rights arguments emerged over the latter half of the twentieth century. Gelling as social activism and political rhetoric in many nations put it high on the world agenda. All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood. History of concept The modern sense of human rights can be traced to Renaissance Europe and the Protestant Reformation, alongside the disappearance of the feudal authoritarianism and religious conservativism that dominated the Middle Ages. Human rights were defined as a result of European scholars attempting to form a â€Å"secularized version of Judeo-Christian ethics†. Although ideas of rights and liberty have existed in some form for much of human history, they do not resemble the modern conception of human rights. According to Jack Donnelly, in the ancient world, â€Å"traditional societies typically have had elaborate systems of duties†¦ conceptions of justice, political legitimacy, and human flourishing that sought to realize human dignity, flourishing, or well-being entirely independent of human rights. These institutions and practices are alternative to, rather than different formulations of, human rights†. The most commonly held view is that concept of human rights evolved i n the West, and that while earlier cultures had important ethical concepts, they generally lacked a concept of human rights. For example, McIntyre argues there is no word for â€Å"right† in any language before 1400. Medieval charters of liberty such as the English Magna Carta were not charters of human rights, rather they were the foundation and constituted a form of limited political and legal agreement to address specific political circumstances, in the case of Magna Carta later being recognised in the course of early modern debates about rights. One of the oldest records of human rights is the statute of Kalisz (1264), giving privileges to the Jewish minority in the Kingdom of Poland such as protection from discrimination and hate speech. The basis of most modern legal interpretations of human rights can be traced back to recent European history. The Twelve Articles (1525) are considered to be the first record of human rights in Europe. They were part of the peasants’ demands raised towards the Swabian League in the German Peasants’ War in Germany. The earliest conceptualization of human rights is credited to ideas about natural rights emanating from natural law. In particular, the issue of universal rights was introduced by the examination of the rights of indigenous peoples by Spanish clerics, such as Francisco de Vitoria and Bartolomà © de Las Casas. In the Valladolid debate, Juan Ginà ©s de Sepà ºlveda, who maintained an Aristotelian view of humanity as divided into classes of different worth, argued with Las Casas, who argued in favor of equal rights to freedom of slavery for all humans regardless of race or religion. In Britain in 1683, the English Bill of Rights (or â€Å"An Act Declaring the Rights and Liberties of the Subject and Settling the Succession of the Crown†) and the Scottish Claim of Right each made illegal a range of oppressive governmental actions. Two major revolutions occurred during the 18th century, in the United States (1776) and in France (1789), leading to the adoption of the United States Declaration of Independence and the French Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen respectively, both of which established certain legal rights. Additionally, the Virginia Declaration of Rights of 1776 encoded into law a number of fundamental civil rights and civil freedoms. Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen approved by the National Assembly of France, August 26, 1789. We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. —United States Declaration of Independence, 1776 These were followed by developments in philosophy of human rights by philosophers such as Thomas Paine, John Stuart Mill and G.W.F. Hegel during the 18th and 19th centuries. The term human rights probably came into use some time between Paine’s The Rights of Man and William Lloyd Garrison’s 1831 writings in The Liberator, in which he stated that he was trying to enlist his readers in â€Å"the great cause of human rights†. In the 19th century, human rights became a central concern over the issue of slavery. A number of reformers, such as William Wilberforce in Britain, worked towards the abolition of slavery. This was achieved in the British Empire by the Slave Trade Act 1807 and the Slavery Abolition Act 1833. In the United States, all the northern states had abolished the institution of slavery between 1777 and 1804, although southern states clung tightly to the â€Å"peculiar institution†. Conflict and debates over the expansion of slavery to new territories constituted one of the reasons for the southern states’ secession and the American Civil War. During the reconstruction period immediately following the war, several amendments to the United States Constitution were made. These included the 13th amendment, banning slavery, the 14th amendment, assuring full citizenship and civil rights to all people born in the United States, and the 15th amendment, guaranteeing African Americans the right to vote. Many groups and movements have achieved profound social changes over the course of the 20th century in the name of human rights. In Europe and North America, labour unions brought about laws granting workers the right to strike, establishing minimum work conditions and forbidding or regulating child labor. The women’s rights movement succeeded in gaining for many women the right to vote. National liberation movements in many countries succeeded in driving out colonial powers. One of the most influential was Mahatma Gandhi’s movement to free his native India from British rule. Movements by long-oppressed racial and religious minorities succeeded in many parts of the world, among them the African American Civil Rights Movement, and more recent diverse identity politics movements, on behalf of women and minorities in the United States. The establishment of the International Committee of the Red Cross, the 1864 Lieber Code and the first of the Geneva Conventions in 1864 laid the foundations of International humanitarian law, to be further developed following the two World Wars. The World Wars, and the huge losses of life and gross abuses of human rights that took place during them, were a driving force behind the development of modern human rights instruments. The League of Nations was established in 1919 at the negotiations over the Treaty of Versailles following the end of World War I. The League’s goals included disarmament, preventing war through collective security, settling disputes between countries through negotiation and diplomacy, and improving global welfare. Enshrined in its charter was a mandate to promote many of the rights later included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. At the 1945 Yalta Conference, the Allied Powers agreed to create a new body to supplant the League’s role; this was to be the United Nations. The United Nations has played an important role in international human-rights law since its creation. Following the World Wars, the United Nations and its members developed much of the discourse and the bodies of law that now make up international humanitarian law and international human rights law. Philosophy The philosophy of human rights attempts to examine the underlying basis of the concept of human rights and critically looks at its content and justification. Several theoretical approaches have been advanced to explain how and why human rights have become a part of social expectations. One of the oldest Western philosophies of human rights is that they are a product of a natural law, stemming from different philosophical or religious grounds. Other theories hold that human rights codify moral behavior which is a human social product developed by a process of biological and social evolution (associated with Hume). Human rights are also described as a sociological pattern of rule setting (as in the sociological theory of law and the work of Weber). These approaches include the notion that individuals in a society accept rules from legitimate authority in exchange for security and economic advantage (as in Rawls) – a social contract. The two theories that dominate contemporary human rights discussion are the interest theory and the will theory. Interest theory argues that the principal function of human rights is to protect and promote certain essential human interests, while will theory attempts to establish the validity of human rights based on the unique human capacity for freedom. Non-governmental Organizations International non-governmental human rights organizations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, International Service for Human Rights and FIDH monitor what they see as human rights issues around the world and promote their views on the subject. Human rights organizations have been said to â€Å"†translate complex international issues into activities to be undertaken by concerned citizens in their own community† Human rights organizations frequently engage in lobbying and advocacy in an effort to convince the United Nations, supranational bodies and national governments to adopt their policies on human rights. Many human-rights organizations have observer status at the various UN bodies tasked with protecting human rights. A new (in 2009) nongovernmental human-rights conference is the Oslo Freedom Forum, a gathering described by The Economist as â€Å"on its way to becoming a human-rights equivalent of the Davos economic forum.† The same article noted that human-rights advocates are more and more divided amongst themselves over how violations of human rights are to be defined, notably as regards the Middle East. There is criticism of human-rights organisations who use their status but allegedly move away from their stated goals. For example, Gerald M. Steinberg, an Israel-based academic, maintains that NGOs take advantage of a â€Å"halo effect† and are â€Å"given the status of impartial moral watchdogs† by governments and the media. Such critics claim that this may be seen at various governmental levels, including when human-rights groups testify before investigation committees. Human rights defenders Main article: Human rights defender A human rights defender is someone who, individually or with others, acts to promote or protect human rights. Human rights defenders are those men and women who act peacefully for the promotion and protection of those rights. Corporations Multinational companies play an increasingly large role in the world, and have been responsible for numerous human rights abuses. Although the legal and moral environment surrounding the actions of governments is reasonably well developed, that surrounding multinational companies is both controversial and ill-defined.[citation needed] Multinational companies’ primary responsibility is to their shareholders, not to those affected by their actions. Such companies may be larger than the economies of some of the states within which they operate, and can wield significant economic and political power. No international treaties exist to specifically cover the behavior of companies with regard to human rights, and national legislation is very variable. Jean Ziegler, Special Rapporteur of the UN Commission on Human Rights on the right to food stated in a report in 2003: [T]he growing power of transnational corporations and their extension of power through privatization, deregulation and the rolling back of the State also mean that it is now time to develop binding legal norms that hold corporations to human rights standards and circumscribe potential abuses of their position of power. —Jean Ziegler In August 2003 the Human Rights Commission’s Sub-Commission on the Promotion and Protection of Human Rights produced draft Norms on the responsibilities of transnational corporations and other business enterprises with regard to human rights. These were considered by the Human Rights Commission in 2004, but have no binding status on corporations and are not monitored. Human rights violations Human rights violations occur when actions by state (or non-state) actors abuse, ignore, or deny basic human rights (including civil, political, cultural, social, and economic rights). Furthermore, violations of human rights can occur when any state or non-state actor breaches any part of the UDHR treaty or other international human rights or humanitarian law. In regard to human rights violations of United Nations laws, Article 39 of the United Nations Charterdesignates the UN Security Council (or an appointed authority) as the only tribunal that may determine UN human rights violations. Human rights abuses are monitored by United Nations committees, national institutions and governments and by many independent non-governmental organizations, such as Amnesty International, International Federation of Human Rights, Human Rights Watch, World Organisation Against Torture, Freedom House, International Freedom of Expression Exchange and Anti-Slavery International. These organisations collect evidence and documentation of alleged human rights abuses and apply pressure to enforce human rights laws. Wars of aggression, war crimes and crimes against humanity, including genocide, are breaches of International humanitarian law and represent the most serious of human rights violations. In efforts to eliminate violations of human rights, building awareness and protesting inhumane treatment has often led to calls for action and sometimes improved conditions. The UN Security Council has interceded with peace keeping forces, and other states and treaties (NATO) have intervened in situations to protect human rights. Substantive rights Right to life Every human being has the inherent right to life. This right shall be protected by law. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life. —Article 6.1 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights The right to life is the essential right that a human being has the right not to be killed by another human being. The concept of a right to life is central to debates on the issues of abortion, capital punishment, euthanasia, self defense andwar. According to many human rights activists, the death penalty violates this right. The United Nations has called on states retaining the death penalty to establish a moratorium on capital punishment with a view to its abolition. States which do not do so face considerable moral and political pressure. Freedom from torture Throughout history, torture has been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion. In addition to state-sponsored torture, individuals or groups may be motivated to inflict torture on others for similar reasons to those of a state; however, the motive for torture can also be for the sadistic gratification of the torturer, as in the Moors murders. Torture is prohibited under international law and the domestic laws of most countries in the 21st century. It is considered to be a violation of human rights, and is declared to be unacceptable by Article 5 of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Signatories of the Third Geneva Convention and Fourth Geneva Convention officially agree not to torture prisoners in armed conflicts. Torture is also prohibited by the United Nations Convention Against Torture, which has been ratified by 147 states. National and international legal prohibitions on torture derive from a consensus that torture and similar ill-treatment are immoral, as well as impractical. Despite these international conventions, organizations that monitor abuses of human rights (e.g. Amnesty International, the International Rehabilitation Council for Torture Victims) report widespread use condoned by states in many regions of the world. Amnesty International estimates that at least 81 world governments currently practice torture, some of them openly. Freedom from slavery Main article: slavery Freedom from slavery is an internationally recognized human right. Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: No one shall be held in slavery or servitude; slavery and the slave trade shall be prohibited in all their forms. Despite this, the number of slaves today is higher than at any point in history,[68] remaining as high as 12 million to 27 million, Most are debt slaves, largely in South Asia, who are under debt bondage incurred by lenders, sometimes even for generations. Human trafficking is primarily for prostituting women and children into sex industries. Groups such as the American Anti-Slavery Group, Anti-Slavery International, Free the Slaves, the Anti-Slavery Society, and the Norwegian Anti-Slavery Society continue to campaign to rid the world of slavery. Right to a fair trial Main article: Right to a fair trial Everyone is entitled in full equality to a fair and public hearing by an independent and impartial tribunal, in the determination of his rights and obligations and of any criminal charge against him. The right to a fair trial has been defined in numerous regional and international human rights instruments. It is one of the most extensive human rights and all international human rights instruments enshrine it in more than one article. The right to a fair trial is one of the most litigated human rights and substantial case law has been established on the interpretation of this human right. Despite variations in wording and placement of the various fair trial rights, international human rights instrument define the right to a fair trial in broadly the same terms. The aim of the right is to ensure the proper administration of justice. As a minimum the right to fair trial includes the following fair trial rights in civil and criminal proceedings: the right to be heard by a competent, independent and impartial tribunal the right to a public hearing the right to be heard within a reasonable time the right to counsel the right to interpretation Freedom of speech Main article: Freedom of speech Freedom of speech is the freedom to speak freely without censorship. The term freedom of expression is sometimes used synonymously, but includes any act of seeking, receiving and imparting information or ideas, regardless of the medium used. In practice, the right to freedom of speech is not absolute in any country and the right is commonly subject to limitations, such as on libel, slander, obscenity, incitement to commit a crime, etc. The right to freedom of expression is recognized as a human right under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and recognized in international human rights law in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Article 19 of the ICCPR states that â€Å"[e]veryone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference† and â€Å"everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, eit her orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice†. Freedom of thought, conscience and religion Main articles: Freedom of thought, Conscience, and Freedom of religion Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance. —Article 18 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights Freedom of thought, conscience and religion are closely related rights that protect the freedom of an individual or community, in public or private, to think and freely hold conscientious beliefs and to manifest religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship, and observance; the concept is generally recognized also to include the freedom to change religion or not to follow any religion. The freedom to leave or discontinue membership in a religion or religious group—in religious terms called â€Å"apostasy†Ã¢â‚¬â€is also a fundamental part of religious freedom, covered by Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Human rights groups such as Amnesty International organises campaigns to protect those arrested and or incarcerated as a prisoner of conscience because of their conscientious beliefs, particularly concerning intellectual, political and artistic freedom of expression and association. In legislation, a conscience clause is a provision in a statute that excuses a health professional from complying with the law (for example legalising surgical or pharmaceutical abortion) if it is incompatible with religious or conscientious beliefs. Rights debates Events and new possibilities can affect existing rights or require new ones. Advances of technology, medicine, and philosophy constantly challenge the status quo of human rights thinking. Future generations In 1997 UNESCO adopted the Declaration on the Responsibilities of the Present Generation Towards the Future Generation. The Declaration opens with the words: Mindful of the will of the peoples, set out solemnly in the Charter of the United Nations, to ‘save succeeding generations from the scourge of war’ and to safeguard the values and principles enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and all other relevant instruments of international law. —Declaration on the Responsibilities of the Present Generation Towards the Future Generation Article 1 of the declaration states â€Å"the present generations have the responsibility of ensuring that the needs and interests of present and future generations are fully safeguarded.† The preamble to the declaration states that â€Å"at this point in history, the very existence of humankind and its environment are threatened† and the declaration covers a variety of issues including protection of the e nvironment, the human genome, biodiversity, cultural heritage, peace, development, and education. The preamble recalls that the responsibilities of the present generations towards future generations has been referred to in various international instruments, including the Convention for the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage (UNESCO 1972), the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the Convention on Biological Diversity (Rio de Janeiro, 1992), the Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (UN Conference on Environment and Development, 1992), the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action (World Conference on Human Rights, 1993) and a number of UN General Assembly resolutions relating to the protection of the global climate for present and future generations adopted since 1990. Sexual orientation and gender identity See also: LGBT rights by country or territory Sexual orientation and gender identity rights relate to the expression of sexual orientation and gender identity based on the right to respect for private life and the right not to be discriminated against on the ground of â€Å"other status† as defined in various human rights conventions, such as article 17 and 26 in the United Nations International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and article 8 and article 14 in the European Convention on Human Rights. Through the way many because of their religious beliefs claim that they support human rights in general while denying that LGBT rights are human rights, LGBT rights stand prominent in the very defense of the universal principle of the human rights. If human rights are understood in a way that makes it possible to exclude the basic rights of certain groups only because of certain religious and cultural prejudices, we find that the principle of universality is taken right out of the human rights, and human rights are trans formed to a set of rules only reflecting certain historically values. Homosexuality is illegal in 76 countries[citation needed], and is punishable by execution in seven countries. The criminalization of private, consensual, adult sexual relations, especially in countries where corporal or capital punishment is involved, is one of the primary concerns of LGBT human rights advocates. Other issues include: government recognition of same-sex relationships, LGBT adoption, sexual orientation and military service, immigration equality, anti-discrimination laws, hate crime laws regarding violence against LGBT people,sodomy laws, anti-lesbianism laws, and equal age of consent for same-sex activity. A global charter for sexual orientation and gender identity rights has been proposed in the form of the ‘Yogyakarta Principles’, a set of 29 principles whose authors say they apply International Human Rights Law statutes and precedent to situations relevant to LGBT people’s experience. The principles were presented at a United Nations event in New York on November 7, 2007, co-sponsored by Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay. The principles have been acknowledged with influencing the French proposed UN declaration on sexual orientation and gender identity, which focuses on ending violence, criminalization and capital punishment and does not include dialogue about same-sex marriage or right to start a family.[95][96] The proposal was supported by 67 of the then 192 member countries of the United Nations, including all EU member states and the United States. An alternative statement opposing the proposal was initiated by Syria and signed by 57 member nations, including all 27 nations of the Arab League as well as Iran and North Korea. Trade Although both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights emphasize the importance of a right to work, neither of these documents explicitly mention trade as a mechanism for ensuring this fundamental right. And yet trade plays a key role in providing jobs. Some experts argue that trade is inherent to human nature and that when governments inhibit international trade they directly inhibit the right to work and the other indirect benefits, like the right to education, that increased work and investment help accrue. Others have argued that the ability to trade does not affect everyone equally—often groups like the rural poor, indigenous groups and women are less likely to access the benefits of increased trade. On the other hand, others think that it is no longer primarily individuals but companies that trade, and therefore it cannot be guaranteed as a human right.[citation needed] Additionally, trying to fit too many concepts under the umbrella of what qualifies as a human right has the potential to dilute their importance. Finally, it is difficult to define a right to trade as either â€Å"fair† or â€Å"just† in that the current trade regime produces winners and losers but its reform is likely to produce (different) winners and losers. See also: The Recognition of Labour Standards within the World Trade Organisation and Investor state dispute settlement Water See also: Water politics and Right to water In November 2002, the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights issued a non-binding comment affirming that access to water was a human right: the human right to water is indispensable for leading a life in human dignity. It is a prerequisite for the realization of other human rights. —United Nations Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights This principle was reaffirmed at the 3rd and 4th World Water Councils in 2003 and 2006. This marks a departure from the conclusions of the 2nd World Water Forum in The Hague in 2000, which stated that water was a commodity to be bought and sold, not a right. There are calls from many NGOs and politicians to enshrine access to water as a binding human right, and not as a commodity. According to the United Nations, nearly 900 million people lack access to clean water and more than 2.6 billion people lack access to basic sanitation. On July 28, 2010, the UN declared water and sanitation as human rights. By declaring safe and clean drinking water and sanitation as a human right, the U.N. General Assembly made a step towards the Millennium Development Goal to ensure environmental sustainability, which in part aims to â€Å"halve, by 2015, the proportion of the population without sustainable access to safe drinking water and basic sanitation†. Reproductive rights Main article: reproductive rights Reproductive rights are rights relating to reproduction and reproductive health. The World Health Organisation defines reproductive rights as follows: Reproductive rights rest on the recognition of the basic right of all couples and individuals to decide freely and responsibly the number, spacing and timing of their children and to have the information and means to do so, and the right to attain the highest standard of sexual and reproductive health. They also include the right of all to make decisions concerning reproduction free of discrimination, coercion and violence. — World Health Organisation Reproductive rights were first established as a subset of human rights at the United Nations 1968 International Conference on Human Rights. The sixteenth article of the resulting Proclamation of Teheran states, â€Å"Parents have a basic human right to determine freely and responsibly the number and the spacing of their children.† Reproductive rights may include some or all of the following rights: the right to legal or safe abortion, the right to control one’s reproductive functions, the right to quality reproductive healthcare, and the right to education and access in order to make reproductive choices free from coercion, discrimination, and violence. Reproductive rights may also be understood to include education about contraception and sexually transmitted infections, and freedom from coerced sterilization and contraception, protection from gender-based practices such asfemale genital cutting (FGC) and male genital mutilation (MGM). Information and communication technologies Main articles: Right to Internet access and Digital rights In October 2009, Finland’s Ministry of Transport and Communications announced that every person in Finland would have the legal right to Internet access. Since July 2010, the government has legally obligated telecommunications companies to offer broadband Internet access to every permanent residence and office. The connection must be â€Å"reasonably priced† and have a downstream rate of at least 1 Mbit/s. In March 2010, the BBC, having commissioned an opinion poll, reported that â€Å"almost four in five people around the world believe that access to the internet is a fundamental right.† The poll, conducted by the polling companyGlobeScan for the BBC World Service, collated the answers of 27,973 adult citizens across 26 countries to find that 79% of adults either strongly agreed or somewhat agreed with the statement: â€Å"access to the internet should be a fundamental right of all people†. Relationship with other topics Human rights and the environment There are two basic conceptions of environmental human rights in the current human rights system. The first is that the right to a healthy or adequate environment is itself a human right (as seen in both Article 24 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and Article 11 of the San Salvador Protocol to the American Convention on Human Rights). The second conception is the idea that environmental human rights can be derived from other human rights, usually – the right to life, the right to health, the right to private family life and the right to property (among many others). This second theory enjoys much more widespread use in human rights courts around the world, as those rights are contained in many human rights documents. The onset of various environmental issues, especially climate change, has created potential conflicts between different human rights. Human rights ultimately require a working ecosystem and healthy environment, but the granting of certain rights to individuals may damage these. Such as the conflict between right to decide number of offspring and the common need for a healthy environment, as noted in the tragedy of the commons. In the area of environmental rights, the responsibilities of multinational corporations, so far relatively unaddressed by human rights legislation, is of paramount consideration.[citation needed] Environmental Rights revolve largely around the idea of a right to a livable environment both for the present and the future generations. National security See also: National security and Anti-terrorism legislation With the exception of non-derogable human rights (international conventions class the right to life, the right to be free from slavery, the right to be free from torture and the right to be free from retroactive application of penal laws as non-derogable),[120] the UN recognises that human rights can be limited or even pushed aside during times of national emergency – although the emergency must be actual, affect the whole population and the threat must be to the very existence of the nation. The declaration of emergency must also be a last resort and a temporary measure. —United Nations. The Resource Rights that cannot be derogated for reasons of national security in any circumstances are known as peremptory norms or jus cogens. Such United Nations Charter obligations are binding on all states and cannot be modified by treaty. Examples of national security being used to justify human rights violations include the Japanese American internment during World War II, Stalin’s Great Purge, and the modern-day abuses of terror suspects rights by some countries, often in the name of the War on Terror.

Miner Resume Essay

Objective To gain employment and work along side industry professionals, to further my experience and knowledge within the mining industry. I am a willing candidate who has the ability to adapt and respond to new challenges, in a safe and professional manner. Employment Coal Mine Worker Mastermyne April 2013 – Current Installation of underground secondary support at Moranbah North Coal Mine. Daily duties include: Installation of roof and rib support, mega bolts and high tension flexi bolts in accordance with mine managers support plans. Underground roadworks, installation of VCD’s, underground water storage dams and longwall face bolt up. Trained and authorized in the use of QDS bolting rigs, Airtrack bolting rigs, handheld bolting equipment and underground loaders (eimco ED7 ED10, Juggernaut). Daily practices in housekeeping, creating a safe and productive work environment and risk assessing each task. Coal Mine Worker Minestar Alliance January 2013 – April 2013 Installation of underground conveyor systems at Carborough Downs Coal Mine. Installing drive heads, sacrificial bases, transfer stations and all associated work Underground Civils and roadworks Coal Mine Worker Vulcan MiningNovember 2012- January 2013 Longwall take off and install at Carborough Downs Coal Mine Trained and authorized in the operation FBL 10, FBL 15, 50t Chock Chariot, RapidFace Bolters Transportation of heavy equipment for installation underground Daily tasks included, pulling of chocks from longwall face, building of cob timbers, bolt up of huesker mesh, transportation of chocks out in and into pit using wheel assisted chock trailer, roadwork’s, assisting fitters and general housekeeping duties WDSApril 2012 – November 2012 Development projects and operations at North Goonyella Coal e. g. Operating iner mounted bolters in sequence with the production of coal with an ABM20, Roadwork’s and set up for my crews development panel, working closely with other team members to maintain a safe and positive outcome Trained and authorised for operation of Driftrunner, loaders: Eimco LS130 ED7 ED10, Juggernaut, HfX miner mounted bolters, Stone dusters, Bolting rigs, Cable Reelers and other plants and attachments Follow instructions from supervisors and other team m embers in a safe and efficient manner to Complete tasks at hand Completion and understanding of CHALLENGES, JSA and Zero Harm Training commenced on other mobile plants e. . Shuttle car Coal Mine Worker Diversified Mining ServiceJuly 2011 – April 2012 Installation of underground conveyor belts at Broadmeadow Mine Underground civil work and preparation of work areas including concreting of intersections, take off roads, loop take up sites Follow instructions from supervisors and other team members in a safe and efficient manner Completion and understanding of TAKE 5, JSA and Zero Harm Operation of mobile plants and installation of heavy mechanical systems e. g. oop take up, belt maintenance stations, belt drives and transfer stations Junior Sous Chef Baguette Bar Bistro BrisbaneAugust 2009 – July 2011 Running of sections within a team of chefs Complete formation of menus, costing’s and maintain good upkeep on profit and loss Delegate other employees of the lower b rigade in daily tasks to achieve results Follow workplace health and safety guidelines to ensure a safe working environment Personal Attributes Ability to work under pressure and for long periods of time Fast learning at all tasks and objectives Professional and safety first attitude to work ethics Hard working and reliable Highly self motivated, with the ability to work as an individual or as a team member Training and Authorisations Vale Carborough Downs Inducted, NGC inducted, Broadmeadows inducted Current Cold board medical and Underground Generics Working at heights certified Underground mobile plants e. g. Driftrunner, Loaders, HFX Miner Mounted bolting rigs, Various Hydraulic QDS attachment

Activities for Building Student Character

Today, it is a topic to include character education in educational programs. According to Jakarta Post (May 22, 2009), character building is a missing link in the Indonesian curriculum. Among them, it is pointed out that the Indonesian curriculum focusing on students who passed the national exam had forgotten the core of education; this seems to grow people physically, academically, and spiritually It is to educate. Ironically, Indonesia is a country that can win the International Science Olympic Gold Award and is one of the most corrupt countries in the world (Wisnu, 2009). The framework of role construction such as six pillars developed by the Josephson Institute of Ethics will lead us to when to consider the role of students. The six pillars are based on several key criteria that allow trusted, respectful, responsible, fair, considerate, and citizenship, and that the students theoretically fully develop I will cover it. One thing is certainly the subject of school personality educ ation and student response, they will face exam questions, it is necessary Character construction will also occupy an important position. Textbooks are rewritten to create personality, nationalism, patriotism. All the students feel like Indians, and finally Indians. They are engaged in constructive activities and are asked to build a new India without poverty, dirt, and drowsiness. Sports and cultural activities are strongly encouraged. Athletes are caught young and receive intensive training to bring fair names to the country at various international conferences The paper If I become Prime Minister of India is 10th grade, 12th grade, and graduation class. Build a personality: If everything is constrained, students can not learn to think about themselves. However, we know that critical and creative thinking is an important skill in the modern knowledge economy. Students need to participate in practical activities, communicate with their colleagues, learn to cooperate, and raise citi zen's awareness. Paying excessive attention to preparing for exams may harm students and teachers. It leaves us a system that teacher's grades are based on the ability to pass a series of standard tests, not based on the actual student's grades. However, the modern working environment has little to do with standardized testing. It requires students to be effective communicators, creative problem solvers, and agile thinkers.

Business environment Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Business environment - Essay Example IKEA has more than 1,500 suppliers spread around 50 plus countries, and it uses online and mail order selling tactics. The company’s success lies in resourcing the right manufacturer for a precise product. The suppliers and designers pose a threat of customizing some of IKEA’s products to sell them for a better price in the market due to IKEA’s cost-cutting strategies and low profit margins. The company, however, has been enjoying steady growth in sales each year due to its store expansion and continuous price cut strategies, despite a maximum of 10% operating profit in home furnishings (Jones, 2008). Coca-Cola Coca-Cola is one of the world’s top notch organisations offering refreshing soft-drinks in the non-alcoholic beverage category. Four of the world’s top five brands in soft-drinks belong to The Coca-Cola Company (TCCC). These brands are Coca-Cola, Diet Coke, Fanta and Sprite. It also licenses a number of other brands and drinks for sale, amoun ting up to 3,500 in more than 200 countries. More than one billion carbonated drinks produced by TCCC are consumed each day. The formula for Coke was invented in 1886, primarily for the purpose of medicinal usage, by pharmacist John Pemberton of Atlanta (Hoovers, 2012) To analyze the business environment and variations in the market, we need to use the PESTLE method. PESTLE is short form for Political, Economic, Sociological, Technological, Legal and Environmental, all of which determine the ever fluctuating market (Morrison, 2007). PESTLE Analysis of IKEA and Coca-Cola Political Political analysis studies the existing and possible effects of political pressures. IKEA is an organisation that is successful in both international and domestic business. It is a Swedish based company that has set world-wide brand recognition, and has gained popularity by retailing Scandinavian design furniture with flat packaging and â€Å"do-it-yourself† trend (Analysis on IKEA, 2010). Government plays a vital part in the operation of manufacturing Coca-Cola as it is a non-alcoholic beverage falling under FDA. If the company does not meet the regulation requirements laid out by the government, then the government has the authority to impose fines on such companies. The changes in laws and regulations may also affect the organisation’s entry in another country. In order to enter the emerging and developing countries, the company needs to study its political conditions and changes, with respect to the government and internal markets, as it affects the penetration ability of the company. Both Coca-Cola and IKEA endlessly watch and observe the regulations and policies laid out by the government (Analysis on Coca Cola, 2009). Economic Economic analysis studies consist of both the national and local economy, and its impact on the world. This also comprises of the inflation rates and issues related to recession. In order to own customer loyalty, different strategies are bei ng adopted by IKEA, keeping in view the current trends and economic changes. IKEA also adopted other styles in its furniture product category, such as dinnerware and rugs, in order to compete with the changing economic conditions and boost market performance. The company needs to analyze key issues involved in the economic conditions and every aspect of business, in order to spawn high performance (Analysis on IKEA

Being An Adult Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Being An Adult - Essay Example I believe one of the significant aspects of adulthood is the ability to support and fend for oneself without one’s parental support. As individuals leave their home and enter college or this work environment this is exactly what is required of them, constituting a significant aspect of assuming adulthood. While I recognize that moving out of one’s parent’s home constitutes a significant aspect of adulthood, another important aspect is simply living one’s existence after the age of eighteen. In these regards, when one passes this age they assume significant legal responsibility. For instance, they then assume legal responsibility for their actions, as if they commit a crime they will be tried as an adult. At age eighteen, individuals are also given the right to vote, join the military, and serve on juries. With this in mind, it’s clear that even if the individual doesn’t have specific experiences, they are still forced to encounter adulthood t hrough these legal elements.

Great depression in USA Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

Great depression in USA - Coursework Example The other great expansion was amount of buyers. All this factors that experienced great expansion led to the increase in buying public utility stocks contributing to a rise in their prices. In October 1929, America experienced a dramatic fall in utility price. The decline in utility price caused panic among the margin buyers and they had to sell all the stocks (Divine et al., 751). 2. What was the legacy of the New Deal? The legacy of the New Deal is that it played a crucial role toward alleviating the worst suffering of the depression. For example, the early New Deal contributed in assisting bankers and industrialists (Divine et al., 762). Moreover, the early New Deal tried to assist large farmers and members of the labor union (Divine et al., 762). However, the New deal was still being held captive of the conventional thinking of the day. It is not possible to say that the New Deal would have ended the depression basing in the historical facts. For example, development of the World War II interrupted the process. 3.  How did Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s political philosophy affect his New Deal? Roosevelt political philosophy contributed to a decline in his New Deal (Divine et al., 751). He played a crucial role in defeating a number of conservative Democratic congress representatives and senators. Roosevelt’s target gleefully changed the interference with local politics. Divine et al., (774) indicates that only one of the men that Roosevelt sought to defeat lost in primaries. The worst blow of Roosevelt’s New Deal came in the economic sector. Most of the business executives claimed that Roosevelt recession reflected a lack of confidence in FDR’s leadership hence leading the New Deal to become ineffective (Divine et al., 751). 4. How did Herbert Hoover deal with the depression? Hoover blamed the depression on foreign policies. He rejected various proposals for bold government and relied instead on voluntary cooperation within the b usiness of which he used to halt the slide (Divine et al., 754). Moreover, he called various leaders associated with industries to the White house and secured agreement to maintain prices and wages at a high level. Hoover also believed in voluntary efforts that played a significant role in relieving the human suffering brought about by the depression. On this case, he called private charities and local governments to help in offering clothes and food to the needy ones. With the request of Hoover, Congress managed to cut taxes in an attempt to restore public confidence. He also managed to adopt a few federal works projects such as boulder dam in order to provide jobs for the young people (Divine et al., 754). 5. What were the weaknesses of the New Deal? Through the New Deal, Roosevelt managed to develop the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Through this organization, the burden of unemployment eased but it failed to overcome depression (Divine et al., 760). This means that one of the weaknesses of the New Deal is failure to overcome depression. Through the New Deal, the WPA filed to prime the American economy by increasing consumer purchasing power. The other weakness associated with the New Deal is that it led to a growing frustration and the appearance of more radical alternatives. These alternatives challenged the conservative nature of the New Deal that made the FDR to shift to the left (Divine et al., 760). Part 1 (B) What were the forces that caused the stock market to crash? According to the article, one of the causes that led to the

Journal Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 61

Journal - Essay Example In this respect, I am most interested on studying Intrapersonal context of communication as one of the theories that explore the complex system of the society. Interpersonal relations constitute attribution theory, uncertainty reduction theory, expectancy violation theory, and cognitive dissonance. Attribution theory remains an important aspect of interpersonal relations which affirms that whatever the cause may be, there always remain a strong need to comprehend and make clear what is going on in our world. This attribution theory gives the need for people to explain their feelings and desires which prompts interaction in various social settings. This opens up interesting influence and possibilities which promotes communication as a tool of interpersonal relations (Wood 919). The importance of understanding intrapersonal communication and the theories cannot be overestimated as it plays central role in defining our diverse and unique identities. This theory is viewed as the point at which all communications begin, which leads on to overt communication. It is therefore important that interpersonal relations theory is given much emphasis as it dictates the aggregate working of the entire

Article summarize Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words

Summarize - Article Example 30 female and 39 male participants completed all the requirements and were included in the data analysis (Tate 2008, p. 19). In assessing self-monitoring, the synder and Gangestad’s version of a self-monitoring scale was used (Tate 2008, p. 19). A measure of authentic leadership was created during the research because no such measures were in existence. The created measure was based on Georges five characteristics of authentic leadership that are; passion for the purpose, leading with heart, demonstrating self-discipline, practicing solid values, and establishing enduring relationships. The responses were using the 5-point Likert-type scale (Tate 2008, p. 19). To test hypotheses 5, 3, and 1 of the research, correlational analysis was used while hypotheses 4 and 2 were tested using Hierarchical Liner Modeling (Tate 2008, p. 20). The results failed to support hypotheses 5, 3, and 1. There was no substantial correlation between perceptions of leadership and self-monitoring. Based on the results, neither authentic leadership nor self-monitoring correlated with self-rated perceptions of leadership. Leadership perceptions over time were, however, positively related to all measurement times (Tate 2008, p. 21). The researcher concluded that the variations on how individuals are seen as leaders by others have effects on leadership practice (Tate 2008, p. 27).

Annotated bibliography Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words - 1

Annotated Bibliography Example The author considers offering an insight on the roles of the organization towards addressing the interests of the market. The insights allows for the promotion of the virtues that enable the firm to emerge superior over its rivals. Apparently, the author argues that the desire to be productive and remain superior over its rivals is central in the organization. The author reflects further on detailed references that allow for the deliberation of the considered concerns and attributes. The prospective role of the respective organization remains accredited to the extent upon which they seek to utilize the available resources. The author considers marketable skills and knowledge as being critical to the performance of the organization. The prospective roles of the skills considered available in the respective fields or departments remains regarded as the strengths of the firm. The authors commence with the evaluation of the role of the trade shows have on the firms. They propose the participation in these events as an ideal marketing strategy for the respective firms. Apparently, the firms participating in the trade fairs or shows remain challenged with the concern of attracting persons of interests in their stands. The authors seem to relate to the challenge, and proceed to offer possible solutions that may assist in its mitigation. Additionally, they consider the possibility of sustaining these persons into the respective stands. The general argument remains vested on the attraction of the clients, and drawing a sense of interest in the offered solutions. The authors advise on the respective branding and product promotion techniques that may be envisioned in the trade show. The central interest may be described to be the attraction of the clients and the sustainability of the respective stands. The paper nests its focus in the role of managers in the promotion of the interests of

TEACHING ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION TO SPANISH SPEAKERS Research Paper - 1

TEACHING ENGLISH PRONUNCIATION TO SPANISH SPEAKERS - Research Paper Example The literature review chapter discussed about the speech sounds, vowels, consonants, speech organs, and production of sounds in a critical manner. The literature review served the purpose of dealing with the research topic in an in-depth manner. It was found that the correct pronunciation is dependent on positioning of tongue and lips and also the movement of air within and outside the mouth and nose. The literature review added great deal of value for the later chapters. The research methodology chapter explained the reason behind selecting the anti-positivism research philosophy and inductive research approach along with the use of questions and graphics for enhancing the pronunciation of students in a well planned manner. This chapter explained the methodology to be used in analysing the major outcomes of the research. The proposed framework chapter explained the framework to be used in enhancing the pronunciation of students. In this regard, Kenilworth’s English Pronunciation Skills as a form of questions along with a number of graphs highlighting the lips and tongue movement, speech organs, and how vowels and consonants are produced and pronounced were used in an illustrative manner. The conclusion and recommendation chapter concluded that enhancing English pronunciation is requires continuous effort along with proper understanding over the production of speech sounds, sound movement, and vowels and consonants production and pronunciation . English has emerged as one of the main languages being spoken in different parts of the world. The global environment seeks people having command over English in terms of communication and exchange of ideas and views. English is a global language that is used for the purpose of communication in countries where it is not a native language. However, with global boundaries shrinking and people exploring different opportunities in different parts of the world,

Gothic Tales and Edgar Allan Poe Essay Example for Free

Gothic Tales and Edgar Allan Poe Essay Compare The Tell-Tale Heart with The Black Cat. How, in these tales, does Poe draw on the Gothic tradition and take us into the tormented, diseased minds of his narrators In both The Tell-Tale Heat and The Black Cat there are many gothic effects used. For example, the gruesome concealment of the victims is described in a deadpan but detailed manner. In The Black Cat our narrator describes all of his options and then illustrates exactly how he carried it out, I easily dislodged the bricks, and, having carefully deposited the bodyHaving procured mortar, sand, and hairI prepared a plaster which could not be distinguished from the old Then in The Tell-Tale Heart he describes this concealment procedure again, I took up the flooringthen replaced the boards so cleverly so cunningly the no human eyecould have detected anything wrongnothing to wash outno blood-spot whatever. Both narrators seem proud at their astute covering-up of the innocent victims. The gruesome lexis, mixed with the matter-of-fact tone gives off a horrifyingly insane, but calm feel to the passage. Also the motives for the killing seemed irrational and over emotional in both stories. This is another typical Gothic characteristic. In The Tell-Tale Heart he says I loved the old mannever wronged menever given me insultOne of his eyes resembled that of a vulturetake the life of the old mad, and thus rid myself of the eye forever. His incentive was unreasonable; he states that there is no other reason than his eye. In The Black Cat his reason for the first killing of his cat Pluto was perversenessfor no other reason than because he knows he should not? In this part of the passage it seems strange as he seems to be excusing himself for the sin he is about to narrate to us. Then also at the end of the story when he kills his wife because she stopped him from killing the second cat he says, this blow was arrested by the hand of my wife. Goaded, by the interference, into a rage more than demoniacal buried the axe in her brain. She fell dead upon the spot. The lexis used here is brutal and infernal, typical of Gothic writers rage more than demoniacal references to the devil highlight the white hot anger surging inside the twisted narrator. The use of an unreliable, villainous storyteller was not a typical Gothic feature at the time but it has greatly influenced future authors who write in the Gothic style. In both tales the narrators give off an intensely nervous energy by using repetition and strong, unruly lexis. The first line of The Tell-Tale Heart sets the tone for the whole story instantly TRUE!-nervous-very, very dreadfully nervous I had been and am; but why will you say that I a mad? The dashes break up the sentences making them erratic; this is helped by the uneven sentence structure and the fusion of long and short clauses to make the whole pace of the story jerky and uneven. A typical Gothic feature that appears in only The Tell Tale Heart and not The Black Cat is the use of the night. The narrator describes how that every night, just at twelve, I looked in upon him while he slept. Also the murder itself was committed at night and the use of the disguise of darkness gives an eerie feel to the piece and emphasis the Gothic tone of the story. However in The Black Cat the story was described through the day and the night and the murders of both the narrators wife and cat were during the day. Although this was not traditionally Gothic, and the description of the gruesome death caused some sections of the story to be more in the genre of horror. An element of Gothic literature that was in The Black Cat and not The Tell Tale Heart was the use of omens, obviously the title itself was a bad omen at the time and the other story had no omens, other than the heart beat motif that causes the narrator to confess his sins to the police. The title itself was not the only omen used in The Black Cat; Poe writes about two other obvious omens in this tale. Firstly the large imprint of the figure of a gigantic cat There was a rope about the animals neck, this was left on the wall the night after our narrator had killed his cat, this is not a figment of his imagination though as other people around can see it; later on however the narrator describes a mark of white hair, which shows the image of a hideous -of a ghastly thing -of the GALLOWS! This is more likely to be an illusion as the remorse builds up inside him. But he describes it as terrible engine of Horror and of Crime -of Agony and of Death! The lexis used here is full of anger and is very strong. The capitalisation of the more significantly brutal words personifies these aspects and emphasises the narrators fear of the cat and of guilt. Poe uses many different techniques to suck the reader into the mind of his narrators. For example in the The Tell Tale Heart he describes his disease to the reader and excuses his actions. The disease has sharpened my senses, not destroyed, not dulled them. This line shows how the narrator is quite openely conceited. His insanity is revealed to us in a number of ways, firstly the deadpan tone of many parts of the passage give the reader an eery feeling of calm, that causes a disturbing sensation, such as when the narrator is describing his method of concealing his victims corpse, I took up three planksdeposited allthen replaced the boards This use of everyday lexis deposited almost makes us forget that he is talking about a corpse, it makes the whole procedure sound mundane, which gives the impression of madness but also numbness to the narrator. Secondly, his lunacy is exposed to us as the character of the narrator is unravelled through the story. Throughout, hints are dropped as to the overconfidence of our narrator, repetition of various phrases. what had I now to fear? and then again when the officers arrived, for what had I to fear? This reiteration of egotism makes us feel as if the narrator is reassuring himself that he is confident, and suggests to the reader that he has inexplicable insecurities lying beneath his cool exterior. Also in The Tell Tale Heart Poe uses many capitalised words and short, broken phrases to speed up the pace of parts of the account. They heard! they suspected! they KNEW! This shows how truly nervous and petrified the narrator is, and with the staggered, gaunt sentence structure makes the reader feel the same way, even if not to the same extent. A way in which The Black Cats method of pulling the reader into the mindset of a murderous narrator is near the beginning we are given some background about the narrators life. In The Tell Tale Heart we were given no information about setting or circumstance to help us detail our image. I find that this helps more as we have more pictures painted to us and these can then feed our imagination to produce a far more complex, but realistic understanding of the narrators mental situation. I was especially fond of animals, This line is quite ironic, as we learn from the rest of the story he seems to, infact, have a severe problem with cats. The way in which Poe implies the insanity of the narrator is in the language used to describe his cats. sagacious to an astnoishing degree His strange attachment to the cat gave the narrator an untrustworthy and evil feel. Then when he describes his motives for hanging his first cat, Pluto, this insinuates utter, pschotic madness, the spirit of PERVERSENESShave we not a perpetual inclinationto violate that which is Law This strange, confused motive gives the narrator a trace of humanity, but more of a childlike malevolence which emitts an air of wickedness. This infantile but wicked narrator, I find, is more chilling than the more simple, insane and evil narrator in The Tell Tale Heart, because of its uncanny likeness to reality. A similarity between The Black Cat and The Tell Tale Heart is that both narrators have a sense of superiority about them and this strong impression of narcissism makes the reader feel overwhelmed by malice and also builds up a strong feeling of resentment to their disagreeable characters. In both stories, the narrators end with a confession to their terrible deeds, both obviously caused by insolence and bravado. Another feature that is in The Black Cat but not The Tell Tale Heart is the sense of paranoia given off by the narrator, about the mark of white hair on his second cats chest, the markof which I have spokenassumed a rigorous distinctness of outlinethe image of a hideous- of a ghastly thing of the GALLOWS! This paranoia of an omen about the sadistic murder of Pluto blatently lays out the narrators madness and causes the reader to feel possibly more sympathetic, but more likely, to feel more estranged from the narrator. In conclusion I found the ways in which we were drawn into the psychotic mind of our killers were more effective in The Black Cat, as some were more subtle, but the more obvious ones were easier to spot and gave a more definite and outlined picture of the narrators psyche. However, I found that the typical Gothic features used in The Tell Tale Heart made it more Gothic than in The Black Cat and also made the tale more chilling, even if not as gruesome or detailed as The Black Cat.

Press Statement Essay Example for Free

Press Statement Essay An approach to aspects of a child abuse investigation in a modern society using police and community cooperation (A reference to the media)   Ã‚   As traditional communities erode and our societies become more diverse, feelings of insecurity grow, fear of crime increases and questions of identity and citizenship come in question A threat on the safety of our children has culminated to an investigation into the cause and the socio-political aspects of the problem. Our law officers and the stakeholders of the social welfare are investigating and researching on various socio perspectives and trends that are described as possible factors leading to the problem. It’s not commonplace in this society to have incidents of child abuse and as such we are working towards stemming down any possible link and also address the problem collectively through arresting those perpetrating such crimes.   Ã‚   Out of every ten children in our community one of them has reported abuse or aggressive behaviour. 17% of the children report that their attackers were burly or sickly looking. 25% of the children are now afraid of venturing into the neighbourhood. The rate of these abuses has rose up with up to 11% which is a considerable rate.    We have checked on any psychopathic connections to the few cases that have been reported. We are also evaluating theories and investigating curtails that have suspect characters that are substance abusers and their possible involvement. We are comprehensively analyzing socio-economic factors as well as ideological issues which could be eliciting the problem. We believe some people might have ideologies which force them to think and argue that children rights and safety are not important. These ideologies result to hate against children. We also view childless individuals who have developed frustration and stress levels might be involved due to obsession with the idea of harassing other people’s children due to this frustration.      We are establishing stereotyping, class and other social factors which have negative impacts on children social groups. Apart from these theories we understand victimisation based on family and social feuds might victimise children. We are working on looking into any possibilities of parents, select social classes, estate neighbourhoods and school based feuds as being the cause of the problem. Some disgruntled parents or neighbours might be trying to settle scores, seek payment of a debt, drug money and illicit business dealings and other bad dealings gone sour might be causes. We are establishing all these theories so that we can close in on the perpetrators so that not a single aspect of the problem will result to unjust prosecutions or any victimisations.   Ã‚   As members of the society we understand that there are various socio-political aspects of crime pattern and jurisdiction that we have to flow and collectively approach when dealing with suspects. We assure the members of the society that we will not victimise or arrest any suspect without credible evidence on his involvement or connection. We understand and respect all human rights and abide by principles of justice. No suspect will be charged until investigations establish credible evidence of involvement. This will be done according to the law and we will emphasise on justice being administered in accordance to all penal codes as stipulated and comprehensively understood in the judicial system. We attribute rise in crime and related social anomalies to changes in economic structure are altering the pattern of regional inequalities (UNICEF 2006).    On the other hand we blame radical political changes on the faà §ade of some expression values, especially in the fourth estate. Too much exposure of various aspects of the judicial system acts to people with criminal intent has increased affableness to crime due to the knowledge and criticism on aspects of legislation and police action on the issues as well as the legal loopholes. We are encouraging more concise and distinctive media education and publishing in judicial and social values content so that we can have a responsible and safe society. We are sure that political dividing lines of class and religion are eroding and cannot sustain values and ethics of safe and respectable humanity.   Ã‚   The perception of increasing violent crime, often drug related, has gone along with a rise in anti-social behaviour: petty criminality such as vandalism on housing estates, or extreme rudeness, disrespect and lack of consideration for others. (Liddle Lerais 2006). We expect that all acts against children will come to book in accordance to the United Nations act that protects children against anti-socio behaviour on children (UN 2007). We are optimistic we will arrest and put behind bars those involved and successfully contain the problem. Sources (Liddle Lerais 2006) Europes social reality: pp 5 UNICEF United Nations (www.undp.com )

Pediatric Trauma Scoring System in Predicting Mortality

Pediatric Trauma Scoring System in Predicting Mortality PEDIATRIC TRAUMA SCORE AS PREDICTOR OF OUTCOME OF PATIENTS ADMITTED TO CENTRALIZED SURGICAL INTENSIVE CARE UNIT IN A GOVERNMENT TERTIARY HOSPITAL: A RETROSPECTIVE COHORT STUDY I. Justification of the Study Intensive trauma care of pediatric patients is faced with many issues such as quality of care, efficiency and cost-effectiveness. Scoring systems such as the Pediatric Trauma Score can aid in clinical decision making through objective measurement of severity of illness in relation to a particular outcome such as mortality or morbidity. In particular, scoring systems have become the standard for intensive care unit outcome and efficiency benchmarking. Furthermore, there is considerable difference between clinicians prognostication estimates. Early identification of patients with high probability of mortality can help families with difficult decisions, prevent unnecessary suffering and help direct limited resources to a more practical use. Thus, this study will investigate the use of a simple Pediatric Trauma Scoring system in predicting mortality. II. Relationships of research objectives, data substrates, operationally-defined variables and data analyses. Objective Data Substrates Operationally-defined variables Analyses To compare the outcome of patients to pediatric trauma score Pediatric trauma score sheet Pediatric Trauma Score Mortality rate per category of Pediatric Trauma Score Rate of patients with Prolonged Hospital Stay per category of Pediatric Trauma Score Relationship of outcome of patient (mortality and prolonged hospital stay) to pediatric trauma score TOPIC BACKGROUND Intensive trauma care of pediatric patients is faced with many issues such as quality of care, efficiency and cost-effectiveness.1 Quantitative observations of severity of illness in pediatric trauma using scoring systems has the potential to impact overall evaluation from baseline presentation to case endpoints.2 Scoring systems have become the standard for intensive care unit outcome and efficiency benchmarking.1 Early identification of patients with high probability of mortality can help families with difficult decisions, prevent unnecessary suffering and help direct limited resources to a more practical use.1 A Pediatric Trauma Score (PTS) was developed with grading variables commonly seen in pediatric trauma accounting for the unique physiological and anatomical nature. The PTS consists of six variables. Each variable is scored +2 for minimal or no injury, +1 for minor or potentially major injury, or -1 for major or life-threatening injury. The total score ranges from +12 to -6 with increasing severity.3 Scoring systems such as the Pediatric Trauma Score can aid in clinical decision making through objective measurement of severity of illness in relation to a particular outcome such as mortality or morbidity.4 Several studies revealed consistently the direct linear relationship between Pediatric Trauma Score and injury severity thereby confirming that P.T.S. is an effective predictor of both severity of injury and potential for mortality.5 REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE Most of the scoring systems are not appropriate for pediatric trauma patients. Variables such as respiratory rate, heart rate, and systolic blood pressure differ with infancy and childhood. In addition, the verbal response as used in GCS is not applicable for young children. For these reasons, Tepas and colleagues3 created the Pediatric Trauma Score (PTS). The authors stated that weight becomes a variable because pediatric patients had fewer physiologic reserve. Systolic blood pressure, patency of airway, level of consciousness, presence of wounds or fractures were variables included. 3 The presence of these injuries suggests severe energy transfer and positively correlates with concomitant visceral injury.10 Below is the Pediatric Trauma Score. Pediatric Trauma Score +2 +1 -1 Weight >20kg 10-20 kg Airway Patent Maintanable Unmaintainable Systolic B/P >90 mmHg 50-90 mmHg CNS Awake + LOC Unresponsive Fractures None Closed or suspected Multiple, closed or open Wounds None Minor Major, penetrating or burns The assessment of severity of illness as well as mortality predictive value of the Pediatric Trauma Score (P.T.S.) was evaluated in several studies with different conclusions. In a study by Tepas, three categories of patients with probability of mortality were identified. Pediatric trauma score of greater than 8 had a 0% mortality while pediatric trauma score between 0 and 8 had an increasing mortality related to their decreasing pediatric trauma score. Score of less than 0 had 100% mortality. This study documented the direct linear relationship between Pediatric Trauma Score and injury severity validating that P.T.S. is an effective predictor of both severity of injury and risk for mortality.5 Consistent with the findings of the latter, Ramenonofsky compared the evaluation of pediatric trauma patients by paramedic in the field versus the physician in the emergency room using the Pediatric Trauma Score. There was agreement between the scores of these two individuals 93.6% of the time, correlation coefficient 0.991, r2 = 0.982. The sensitivity and specificity of Pediatric Trauma Score was computed at 95.8% and 98.6%, respectively. He described Pediatric Tra uma Scoring System as a straightforward modality for assessing the severity of injury.6 Eichelberge examined the applicability of the PTS found significant correlations with survival, Injury Severity Score (ISS) and mortality. 8 On the other hand, the use of PTS as a predictor of mortality was found to be inadequate in a retrospective study by Balik. Size classification was noted to be overemphasized because of the low mortality (7.7%) in children less than 10 kg. Forty-nine of 71 surgically treated patients with intra-abdominal organ injuries had a PTS >8. The existing variables of PTS did not have equal relationships to mortality.7 Critics have also noted that the PTS suffers from scoring ambiguity leading to misinterpretation and inadequate scoring.11 Problem also arises due to a systematic bias in scoring. For example, the assessment of a patient’s consciousness can be done at the scene or on admission to the emergency department. 12 Despite exhaustive review of the literature on Pediatric Trauma Scoring, there has been no mention of the predictive value of Pediatric Trauma Scoring done on patients upon entry to an ICU. Conclusion of studies on Pediatric Trauma Score may be less generalizable due to possible variability in settings.9 RESEARCH QUESTION Among pediatric trauma patients admitted to Centralized Surgical Intensive Care Unit in Davao Regional Hospital, what is the relationship of outcome of patients to pediatric trauma score using a retrospective cohort study? SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY Investigating the reliability of Pediatric Trauma Scoring system in predicting mortality and prolonged hospital stay is important. The results of this study can be a validation of earlier studies made on this scoring system as a tool in objective measurement of severity of illness as well as an intensive care unit outcome and efficiency benchmarking. OBJECTIVES To determine the pediatric trauma score of all patients and classify as to pediatric trauma score category of greater than 8, 0 to 8 and less than 0 To determine the mortality rate per pediatric trauma score category of greater than 8, 0 to 8 and less than 0 To determine the survival rate per pediatric trauma score category of greater than 8, 0 to 8 and less than 0 To determine the rate of pediatric trauma patients with prolonged hospital stay per pediatric trauma score category of greater than 8, 0 to 8 and less than 0 among surviving patients To determine the risk for mortality or prolonged hospital stay among pediatric trauma patients per pediatric trauma score category of greater than 8, 0 to 8 and less than 0 METHODOLOGY RESEARCH DESIGN A retrospective cohort study of all pediatric trauma patients admitted to Centralized Surgical Intensive Care Unit between January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2013 in Davao Regional Hospital will be conducted. SETTING This study will be conducted in Davao Regional Hospital (DRH), a tertiary hospital with 250-bed capacity, in Tagum City. The Centralized Surgical Intensive Care Unit (CENSICU) is an intensive care unit for adult and pediatric surgical patients in Davao Regional Hospital. The Department of Surgery of Davao Regional Hospital is a member of the Mindanao Integrated Surgical Residency Training Program under the Department of Health, Region XI. PARTICIPANTS All pediatric trauma patients admitted to CENSICU in Davao Regional Hospital between January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2013 will be retrospectively included in the study. INCLUSION CRITERIA All patients admitted to Centralized Surgical Intensive Care Unit due to trauma All patients aged less than 14 years old EXCLUSION CRITERIA Patients discharged against medical advice Patients transferred to another hospital OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS Traumaan injury to any site of the body described as multiple or single (neck, thorax, abdomen or extremeties) site caused by an extrinsic, blunt or penetrating agent Pediatric trauma patients-patients aged less than 14 years old admitted due to trauma Pediatric Non-Trauma patients- patients aged less than 14 years old admitted for surgical intervention of non-trauma cause (example: intestinal obstruction due to Hirschsprungs disease, massive pleural effusion due to malignancy) Prolonged Hospital Stay-length of hospital stay is more than 14 days with or without surgical intervention DATA GATHERING All pediatric trauma patients admitted to Centralized Surgical Intensive Care Unit (CENSICU) in Davao Regional Hospital between January 1, 2013 to December 31, 2013 will be identified from the admission logbook in the CENSICU of Davao Regional Hospital. The patients will be identified using the inclusion and exclusion criteria . The list of patients will be submitted to Medical Records Section of Davao Regional Hospital for chart retrieval. The charts will be reviewed for the following data will be gathered from each patient: age in years, sex, length of hospital stay in days, weight in kilograms, systolic blood pressure in mmHg, patency of airway, loss of consciousness, presence of fractures and wounds. After calculating the Pediatric Trauma Score of each patient, the category of Pediatric Trauma Score (PTS greater than 8, PTS between 0 to 8, or PTS less than 0) can be determined. In addition, the outcome of the patient will be determined as to: Mortality With prolonged hospital stay among surviving patients MaIN OUTCOME MEASURES AND OTHER DEPENDENT VARIABLES The primary outcome is the mortality rate of admitted patients categorized per pediatric trauma score of greater than 8, pediatric trauma score of 0 to 8 and pediatric score of less than 0, respectively. The secondary outcomes are the following: Number of pediatric trauma patients categorized per pediatric trauma score of greater than 8, pediatric trauma score of 0 to 8 and pediatric score of less than 0, respectively Survival rate of admitted patients categorized per pediatric trauma score of greater than 8, pediatric trauma score of 0 to 8 and pediatric score of less than 0 Rate of surviving pediatric trauma patients with prolonged hospital stay per pediatric trauma score category of greater than 8, 0 to 8 and less than 0 INDEPENDENT VARIABLE The identified independent variables include age, sex, weight in kilograms, length of hospital stay, patency of airway, systolic blood pressure in mmHg, level of consciousness, presence of fractures and minor or major wounds. SAMPLE SIZE COMPUTATION Sample size for this study was computed using Epi Info 7 StatCalc. Calculations were based on the assumptions that: 1) the ratio of patients unexposed to the risk factor (i.e., PTS greater than 8) to patients exposed to the risk factor (i.e., PTS 8 or less) is 3; and 2) the prevalence of the outcome (i.e., death) in the unexposed group is 15%. Estimations were done in order for the study to detect an odds ratio of 5 as statistically significant. In a computation for odds ratio carried out with 5% level of significance, a sample size of 79 patients will have 80% power of rejecting the null hypothesis (no significant increase or decrease in odds ratio) if the alternative holds. DATA HANDLING AND ANALYSIS Clinical characteristics (age in years, sex, weight in grams, length of hospital stay), systolic blood pressure in mmHg, patency of airway, loss of consciousness, presence of fractures and wounds, and Pediatric Trauma scores of patients will be compared statistically. A p value will be computed to establish whether the difference in the values were significant or not. A p value The Pediatric Trauma Score of each patient will be calculated and the category of Pediatric Trauma Score (PTS greater than 8, PTS between 0 to 8, or PTS less than 0) to which the patient belongs will be determined. The total number of patients in each category will be evaluated. Outcome (mortality rate or survival rate) of each patient belonging to a particular category will be tallied and each frequency computed. Among surviving patients, length of stay will be evaluated as to prolonged (>14 days) or not prolonged. Rate of surviving patients with prolonged hospital stay will be determined. Risk of mortality as well as prolonged hospital stay among surviving patients will be expressed in odds ratios (OR) with 95% confidence interval.

The Subject of Relationships in Robert Frosts Poem The Mending Wall :: Mending Wall Essays

The Subject of Relationships in Robert Frost's Poem The Mending Wall Robert Frost's poem "The Mending Wall" may not seem to be a poem with a lot of meaning but if readers take time to listen to what the author has to say they will discover that it is talking about the basic relationships between people. The author is focusing on an inanimate object that separated two individuals even though it is nothing more than a little stone wall in the middle of a field. Something there is that doesn't love a wall, That sends the frozen-ground swell under it, And spills the upper boulders in the sun; And makes gaps even two can pass abreast The above selection of the poem shows how impersonal the wall is. There is no humanity associated with this object, nor is there any emotion attached to it. Even thought the object has no emotion itself, there is emotion directed toward it as we see in line 1 of the poem. There is something out in the world that doesn't like this wall. Not only does this relate the author's feelings about how it keeps objects separated, This feeling of animosity has gone so far that something has gone as far as to destroy sections of the wall. I have come after them and made repair Where they have left not one stone on a stone, But they would have the rabbit out of hiding, To please the yelping dogs, The gaps I mean, The author goes even further in his description of the emotions directed at the wall, and explains that other dislike the wall as well. Although they dislike it because it is helping to hide the quarry they are after. The hunters express this dislike of the wall but physically destroying the wall, they tear it down even though it is not their wall. This goes a long way at letting the reader understand that this poem is also about relationships between people. Often times others will attack a person to get something they want with little to no regard for the person that is being attacked. But at spring mending-time we find them there. I let my neighbor know beyond the hill;

The Power of Music Essay -- Music Art

â€Å"Music is the universal language of mankind† (Longfellow, thinkexist.com). When most people think about music they think of it as a subtle art. It is something that most people take for granted in their lives. It is fun to sing along to a song in the car, or to dance along at a party, etc... It is also a background noise in movies, or parties, or a variety of other places. Most people never stop and think about the transformative power that music can have on them. It should be made clear though that music does indeed have a transformative power. When a person is feeling depressed an upbeat song can lift their spirits up. The same is true for the opposite effect as well. If someone is feeling up, a sad and morose song can bring them back down. This is just a small part of the power that music has over our lives though. As the quote points out, music is a universal language. It is something that people of all ages, religions, genders, and ethnicity can understand and enjoy. This is what truly makes music a powerful force in our world. What happens though when authors choose to put this power in their writing, though? What kind of similar messages and questions about music are raised in pieces from The Romantic Period and the Modern Era? While there may not seem like there is much in common from two eras hundreds of years apart, there are indeed some similar themes in the poems and stories from these two time frames. The most prominent of these themes is the theme of change, and how you can achieve it through music. It is not something that can be obtained by merely being around music. It is something that can only happen when you truly listen to the music around you. First, let us listen to the Romantic Period and the pieces w... ...tions. Web. 12 Dec. 2010. . Oxford English Dictionary Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 12 Dec. 2010. . Wordsworth, William. "Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey." The Longman Anthology of British Literature: The Romantics and Their Contemporaries. By David Damrosch and Kevin Dettmar. Vol. 2A. Boston: Longman. 2006. 390-394. Print. Joyce, James. "The Dead." The Longman Anthology of British Literature: The Twentieth Century and Beyond. By David Damrosch and Kevin Dettmar. Vol. 2C. Boston: Longman. 2006. 2229-2256. Print. Coleridge, Samuel. "Dejection: An Ode." The Longman Anthology of British Literature: The Romantics and Their Contemporaries. By David Damrosch and Kevin Dettmar. Vol. 2A. Boston: Longman. 2006. 606-611. Print. The Power of Music Essay -- Music Art â€Å"Music is the universal language of mankind† (Longfellow, thinkexist.com). When most people think about music they think of it as a subtle art. It is something that most people take for granted in their lives. It is fun to sing along to a song in the car, or to dance along at a party, etc... It is also a background noise in movies, or parties, or a variety of other places. Most people never stop and think about the transformative power that music can have on them. It should be made clear though that music does indeed have a transformative power. When a person is feeling depressed an upbeat song can lift their spirits up. The same is true for the opposite effect as well. If someone is feeling up, a sad and morose song can bring them back down. This is just a small part of the power that music has over our lives though. As the quote points out, music is a universal language. It is something that people of all ages, religions, genders, and ethnicity can understand and enjoy. This is what truly makes music a powerful force in our world. What happens though when authors choose to put this power in their writing, though? What kind of similar messages and questions about music are raised in pieces from The Romantic Period and the Modern Era? While there may not seem like there is much in common from two eras hundreds of years apart, there are indeed some similar themes in the poems and stories from these two time frames. The most prominent of these themes is the theme of change, and how you can achieve it through music. It is not something that can be obtained by merely being around music. It is something that can only happen when you truly listen to the music around you. First, let us listen to the Romantic Period and the pieces w... ...tions. Web. 12 Dec. 2010. . Oxford English Dictionary Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 12 Dec. 2010. . Wordsworth, William. "Lines written a few miles above Tintern Abbey." The Longman Anthology of British Literature: The Romantics and Their Contemporaries. By David Damrosch and Kevin Dettmar. Vol. 2A. Boston: Longman. 2006. 390-394. Print. Joyce, James. "The Dead." The Longman Anthology of British Literature: The Twentieth Century and Beyond. By David Damrosch and Kevin Dettmar. Vol. 2C. Boston: Longman. 2006. 2229-2256. Print. Coleridge, Samuel. "Dejection: An Ode." The Longman Anthology of British Literature: The Romantics and Their Contemporaries. By David Damrosch and Kevin Dettmar. Vol. 2A. Boston: Longman. 2006. 606-611. Print.

Analysis of the Failure of Fire Control Essay -- Public Administration

Introduction Over the past years, as a consequence of the impact on society created by the recent huge corporate collapses and, more recently, the ongoing economical crisis, the concept of Corporate Governance has become central in the economical, academical and institutional debate. At the core of this debate the attempt of rethinking and shaping the Corporate system and mechanisms in a way that â€Å"instill in companies the essential vision, processes and structures to make decisions that ensure longer-term sustainability†. (Vice President, Business Advisory Services, IFC). This mandate is valid not only for the business actors but also for the Public Sector whose role, it is to create Public Value, through developing resonable policies while meeting various stakeholders needs and responding to the increasing demand of accountability, fairness and trasparency. This paper focuses on analysing the governance failures of one of the most innovative and promising UK Government Information Techology project: FiReControl. Started in 2004, FiReControl was meant to be the future of Fire and Rescue Service. Instead after 7 years it was cancelled and branded as "one of the worst cases of project failures " in UK Government's history. It is argued that the failure of the project have been of two types (1) Uneffective engagement of the primary stakeholders and (2) Lack of Leadership and management skills. The idea is that a lack of engagement of the primary stakeholders, in the FiReControl specific context, impacted negatively on the overall performances of the project and worsened a leadership model that was already weak. Questions have been raised also from a stakeholder theory perspective. The information used to examine the cas... ...pecialistic training system and equipment to quickly respond to big emergencies, (3)FireLink, a radio system to permit a better communication between the Fire and Rescue Service England, Scotland and Wales. Our members are frontline public service workers – covering the roles of firefighter to area manager, including emergency fire control staff and firefighters working the retained duty system. The FBU is the only recognised trade union negotiating nationally with fire and rescue service employers on behalf of firefighters and emergency fire control staff on the National Joint Council (NJC)". Source, FBU website, section Who we are: http://www.fbu.org.uk The FBU also pointed out that FireControl was conceived by Burocrats with different skills from Fire Service and that this could led to understimation of the complexity of coordinating emergency incidents.

Trinidad Education

In Trinidad, The Ministry of Education has the policy of free education for all. They preach that this ‘free’ education is not based on class, wealth, race, gender or ethnicity but rather is a way to ensure that the entire nation is educated. Though these are the promises on Trinidad’s and Tobago’s Education Policy Paper, how is it that only nine of every one thousand people continue onto college, university or any higher education after secondary school? Twenty-one percent of Trinidadians live in poverty, which means that twenty-one percent of citizens do not have access to running water or proper health care. Because of this, many children in these poor families immediately enter the world of work or become ‘beggars’ to help feed their family. This shows the importance of social class on the initial decision of whether a child will be educated or not. This is not common as only two percent of Trinidad’s population is illiterate. I would categorize myself in the middle to high status class in my country and this has, in many ways affected my educational opportunities. I lived in a town known as Diego Martin and though my neighborhood mostly consisted of people within my same social class, the town itself has many neighborhoods consisting of people living in poverty. Pre-school education is not considered by government policies and therefore, there are no public pre-schools and if a family wants to enroll their child in preschool they would have to do so privately and with their own money. This goes to show that the first level of education in Trinidad is in fact not free. Because of this, my parents enrolled me in a private pre-school, which would indeed have to be paid for with their own money. This shows the immediate impact that class has on one’s education from just the first steps. Pre-school in Trinidad usually takes about two years and here is where a child learns his numbers and letters and therefore these children living under the poverty line are somewhat ‘robbed’ of these essential learning years. After this, a child must then be signed up for primary school where he or he will spend the following seven years. There are two hundred and sixteen primary schools in the country, one hundred and sixty-three of which are funded by various religious institutions, thirty-two of which are funded by the government and therefore are completely free of charge, and twenty-one of which are privately run. I attended a privately run school as these had higher success rates in the SEA or Secondary Entrance Assessment examination that all primary school students are prepared for in order to gain placement in the school of one’s choice. Once again, though there is an availability of free primary level education, the members of the middle and higher social class send their children to privately run schools in order to ensure that teachers are constantly present and not on strike due to low government wages, and that their children receive a more well-rounded education as there are funds now for sports and other recreational activities. Personally, attending a private school made me not only feel safe, as there were not usually guards present in government funded institutions due to high cost, but to also gave me the opportunities to join different sporting teams and go on school ‘outings’ to various national attractions and the necessary preparation to gain a placement in the secondary school of my choice- the number one girls secondary school in Trinidad. The entrance examination is one aspect that I can truly say that had absolutely nothing to do with class, race or ethnicity as each student was given an identification number and placement into choice schools was done based on results. These secondary schools were again a seven-year course. Therefore, in total one should spend sixteen years at school in order to complete what is considered a general education but the average number of years spent at school in Trinidad is eleven. This means that the average student ‘drops out’ of secondary school after two years. As a female in the top all girls’ institution, I became very gender bias as my school continuously obtained the most government scholarships year after year. Not only that, but nationally women received a significant number of scholarships more than the men did. This may have wrongly shaped my idea that women are in fact smarter than men based on what I experienced at home. Tertiary education for many Trinidadians is extremely class bias. There is one university known as the University of the West Indies and though it is extremely renowned in engineering and mathematical studies it can only facilitate a very small percentage of graduates every year. Therefore, if one wishes to study, he or she may have to look at schools abroad which is a huge expense for any family. Studying in the United States has been a great privilege for me that would never have been possible if I belonged to a lower social class. Overall, my social status granted me opportunities unimaginable for many residents in my country. Despite government efforts to better the education levels of the country there is still a lot to be done in order to meet the goal that class does not determine one’s level or education.