The Media, Oppression, And The Islam - 915 Words

What do most people imagine when they hear the terms â€Å"Islam† or â€Å"Muslim†? Is it a flattering picture? Perhaps it is the image of a dirty, turban wearing, dark skinned man. Or a culture that is often described as psychopathic, radical, and only consisting of terrorists. This cruel image has affected the treatment of Arabic people and religion by forcing Muslims to endure stereotypes that cause discrimination and hostility. The main source that upholds the harsh view of Islamic culture is the strong media bias. However, the media would not hold such a strong influence over the general population if people took time to consider the source of this partiality. In the process of understanding the media, oppression, and the Islam religion, as well as how the elements are intertwined, the simple solution of education presented itself; a result that allows for a better understanding and recognition of discrimination in mass media. Education is the solution to prejudice d westernized media that has projected Islamophobia for years; triggering hatred, discrimination, oppression, and pure racism- especially in the United States after the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001- to an entire culture. The basic purpose of mass media is to provide the public with easy access to reliable and accurate information, yet there is a shift in priorities, as coverage focuses more on what the audience wants to hear rather than actual facts. This focus can become dangerous when biased westernizedShow MoreRelatedEvelyn Alsultany Takes A Different Approach To The Oppression1585 Words   |  7 Pagesthe oppression of Muslim women that the U.S. portrayed in the media to fuel the War on Terror and analyses that the U.S. portrayed Islam as backwards and an uncivilized culture. Alsultany analyzes published stories and news shows on CNN, NBC, CBS, and Fox after the 9/11 attacks and concludes that these news stations used women’s oppression and linked it with terrorist attacks because they conveyed that Muslim men hated the West’s cultural ideals of women being free and wanted to impose Islam on theRead MoreReligion For Some Is A Pathway To Heaven. Following Any1134 Words   |  5 Pa gesReligion for some is a pathway to Heaven. Following any religion is a personal choice of living a life with faith in a divine and supreme power. As any other major religion, Islam promotes peace, love and equality for all mankind . People who follow Islam are Muslims which is defined as â€Å"one who surrenders† in front of God. Islam has given both rights and responsibilities to men and women, but it has also handed extra responsibility to men to look after their families, to provide for them, and toRead MoreMuslim Women Are Oppressed By Their Religion Essay1272 Words   |  6 Pagesoppressed by their religion. Oppression is the use of power and control to treat people in an unjust and cruel manner (Merriam Webster 2016). According to the Quran 2016, Islam is a religion of peace, submission, purity and obedience to the wording of Allah (God), which is an Abrahamic, monotheistic faith. Islam is the second largest religion in the world founded in the seventh century and was revealed through Prophet Mohammad. However, in contempory Australian society, Islam is seen as a violent andRead MoreThe Gender Roles1630 Words   |  7 Pagesreligion Islam. These days we hear so many negative things regarding women in Islam. The only time we hear those words together on the news anymore is when some Islamic country is terribly mis-treating its women. The media just loves a juicy story of some barbaric Islamist controlled country mistreating their women. They write their stories in a way that implies all Muslim countries are like this. I truly believe one the biggest problems today (at least in western culture) is the media. Media outletsRead MoreCulture Within The Islamic Religion1290 Words   |  6 Pagesprone to stereotyping. Islam is practiced all over the world by people from different ethnic backgrounds. As long as cultural traditions don’t contradict the teaching of the Holy Quran, anyone from any culture can be a Muslim. The primary difference between culture and religions is that it is localized. Islam is one of the major religions in the world, and it is preached and practiced by hundred millions of believers (Omotosho n.p) In comparison to Christianity, Islam is usually stereotypedRead MoreMedia Portrayal of Islam Essay760 Words   |  4 PagesIslam: suppressor of women, enemy of Western nations, and breeder of terrorists. The West has many stereotypes and misconceptions about Islam that are due to the media, prejudice, and ignorance. Islam is often seen as an extremist or terrorist religion. Often, the medias reports about Islam are incorrect due to ignorance or not wanting to acknowledge its true teachings. This is one of the reasons why Westerners are often wary of Muslims. In contrast to what the media portrays, Islam is a peacefulRead MoreUnveiling The Hijab : Oppression Versus Self Determination1719 Words   |  7 Pages Unveiling the hijab: oppression versus self-determination in modern Islam The hijab is a traditional headdress worn by Muslim women, and to a lesser extent, Muslim men, based on Qur anic interpretations relating to modesty. Since religious mandates are rarely enforced in modern society, especially in Western nations, the persistent practice of wearing veils by Muslim women has received increasing scrutiny from government agencies and certain feminist groups . A common misconception stems fromRead MoreFemale Equality and the Quran1771 Words   |  7 Pagesimportantly, it’s not about assigning blame. There is not a freed woman on one side and an imprisoned on the other.’ Muslim women: the Western view of these ladies is one of abuse, terror and oppression. The burka has become a symbol of male control and domination, warping the truth about Islam, and turning it into a violent regime focused on terrorism and ruling by fear. For example, if one were to do a â€Å"Google search† on the words Muslim women, the preponderance of images are of burka-cladRead MoreThe Misconceptions About Women in Islam Essay1326 Words   |  6 PagesThe Misconceptions About Women in Islam While people in the west think that women in Islam are oppressed, they do not know that Islam liberated women from oppression. There are many people who have opinions about the religion of Islam, but mostly about the women who follow it. Westerners have this idea that women in Islam are disrespected, mistreated and oppressed. In actuality, these allegations are incorrect. Women in Islam have rights and are not oppressed. The veil is widely misunderstoodRead MoreReligious Mosaic Of Contemporary America983 Words   |  4 Pagesreadings, I believe it was a constant theme. Lastly, I will be addressing a â€Å"persona† I felt that was throughout the in-class discussions, and readings about â€Å"US† (Americans) vs â€Å"THEM† (Muslims). Islamophobia is a hatred or fear of the religion of Islam, Muslims, and of their politics or culture. â€Å"Muslims struggle for recognition of their beliefs and practices within the religious mosaic of contemporary America† (3, Shari’ a ...U.S.).America was founded on Christian principles, though many of our

Is The Recognized Perception Of Autism How Does It Affect...

What happens when you spend the majority of your life living with a misdiagnosed disease? How does it affect your life? Do you become depressed? What happens when you are treated for something that isn’t affecting you? Could that make you worse? For many women, this life and these questions are a very harmful reality. Recently, there has been a surge of late-diagnoses for women on the high functioning end of the autism spectrum. These women had previously been diagnosed with everything from depression and anxiety to multiple personality disorder and had spent years wondering why no treatments seemed to work for them. Why does this happen? Recent strides in autism research has enabled doctors to pinpoint autism as early as infancy in some cases, so why are these women not being diagnosed until much later in life? To understand this, we must first understand what the recognized perception of autism is. For most of the public and many within the research community, autism is seen as a very masculine disease. Not only do males make up most of the population diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, but autism is also seen as an exaggeration of the stereotypical male brain. As a matter of fact, Simon Baron-Cohen, the scientist who discovered the â€Å"extreme male brain† (EMB) theory of autism, found that females on the autism spectrum displayed more masculinized personality traits. Baron-Cohen acknowledged that there was a slight difference in the severity ofShow MoreRelatedAutism Spectrum Disorder ( Asd )1575 Words   |  7 PagesThere are a wide variety of symptoms that have been associated with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD, the name adopted in 2013) including, repetitive movements, emotional difficulties, sensory problems, etc. The exact cause of these symptoms is a widely debated topic. In this paper, I will discuss the overall prevalent causes for Autism as well as the different variations and subgroups. People are familiar with other disorders such as Down syndrome or Trisomy 21. These types of disorders are discussedRead MoreIntroduction. Managing Autism Can Be A Challenge To Cope1397 Words   |  6 PagesIntroduction Managing autism can be a challenge to cope with in any family with-out understanding ASD. In the article, Autism Spectrum Disorder, Catherine Lord explains autism spectrum disorder, or ASD, as a neurodevelopmental syndrome that is defined by deficits in social reciprocity and communication, and by unusual restricted, repetitive disorder (2000. P355). Parenting a child on the autism spectrum is difficult for any parent who is uneducated about the specific disorder their child is facedRead MoreVaccination Is The Most Important Factor2351 Words   |  10 Pagesa single person, they benefit an entire community. Vaccines impact not only communities but also the population, which is proven to be higher success rate than most other health interventions attempted. Lastly, vaccines are both cost effective and life saving by preventing deadly diseases (Davey et al 13). Vaccines have showed to be one of the most cost effective and effectual medical interventions obtainable nowadays (Institu te of Medicine Staff). Approximately 20% of the worlds children, mostlyRead MoreCase Study Of A User Undergoing A Radiographic Examination Or Procedure3265 Words   |  14 Pages Case study of a user undergoing a radiographic examination or procedure Student I.D S149389 Word count: 2730 MI5-The Service User For this case study I will evaluate the care consideration for my patient with autism and how their additional needs were met in the X-ray department in order to accommodate the patient. We will consider the care of the service user and the adaptations in order to meet the needs of the patient. Throughout this examination we will look at legislations, policiesRead MoreJob Motivation Differnce Ampong Male and Female Employees7828 Words   |  32 Pagesmotivate your employees and you can turn things around for everyone. You may be thinking that the change needs to come from the individuals when really the change begins with you. Being in a management position by default makes you a leader. Others are looking to you for guidance and support. You must rise to the occasion. Your management style can greatly improve the general attitude in the workplace. Positive messages coming from you as a manager will go a long way towards improving your productivityRead MoreThe Development of Empathy10581 Words   |  43 Pagesimportant component of empathy. Research in this area suggests that different aspects of empathy interact with each other to produce empathic experiences (Decety Jackson 2004). Determining the age at which infants display empathy depends on your definition of empathy. Most models of empathy involve â€Å"an affective response that is more appropriate to another’s situation that one’s own† (Hoffman, 2000, p. 4). Hoffman’s model (1983) emphasizes a motivational component of empathy and its role inRead MoreA Descriptive Study of the Practice of Music Therapy in Hong Kong17388 Words   |  70 Pagesproject: Raymond Ng, Ivory Chan, Andrea Chan, Joanna Chan and Yasmin Li. It is my great pleasure to know all of them. Last, but by no means least, I wish to t\hank my dear parents for the love and support they have given to me so freely throughout my life, for the musical opportunities that they made available to me as a child, and for teaching me to do my very best in everything I undertake. TABLE OF CONTENT CHAPTER I Definition of Music Therapy Historical Use of Healing in Music Recent DevelopmentRead MoreAn Assessment of the Impact of Corporate Social Responsibility on Nigerian Society: the Examples of Banking and Communication Industries18990 Words   |  76 Pagessystematically used corporate funds to create a healthy community which, at the same time is a direct, though intangible investment in a healthy environment for his company. Miller specifically aimed at endowing his small industrial town with the ‘quality of life’ that would attract to it the managerial and technical people on whom a big high-technology business depends. Only if business and particularly Nigerian business learns that to do well it has to do good, can we hope to tackle the major challenges facingRead MoreStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 Pagesphotocopying, recording, or likewise. To obtain permission(s) to u se material from this work, please submit a written request to Pearson Education, Inc., Permissions Department, One Lake Street, Upper Saddle River, New Jersey 07458, or you may fax your request to 201-236-3290. Many of the designations by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and the publisher was aware of a trademark claim, the designationsRead MoreHigh School Student Essay20272 Words   |  82 Pagesas we try to answer the following questions: â™ ¦ â™ ¦ â™ ¦ â™ ¦ â™ ¦ What is cultural diversity, and how does it influence student learning? How are the educational experiences of boys and girls different? How do schools accommodate ability differences in learners? What are learning styles, and how should teachers respond to them? Who are learners with exceptionalities, and how can schools best meet their needs? Let’s see how learner diversity influences the lives of teac hers. Shannon Wilson, a fifth-grade teacher

To What Extent Did Lenin Adhere to Communist Ideology in His Consolidation of Power free essay sample

To What Extent Did Lenin Adhere To Communist Ideology In His Consolidation Of Power? In this essay I will first explore how the Bolshevik party developed communism in Russia after their success in the Russian Revolution. I shall then revise if Lenin remained faithful to communist ideals, and if not, why. To answer a question on communist ideology, it is crucial to define communism in its root forms. Marxism, the political belief from which communism is derived, is the political theory by Karl Marx in the mid-to-late 19th century, which calls for a classless society. It declares that capitalism in all its forms is destructive for a society, and that each individual should work for the government, therefore for the common good of all the society. Vladimir Lenin took Marx’s theory and applied it to post-revolution Russia. After the October Revolution of 1917, Lenin introduced three political policies, that each imposed communist ideals on the country. We will write a custom essay sample on To What Extent Did Lenin Adhere to Communist Ideology in His Consolidation of Power? or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The Council of People’s Commissars (or Sovnarkom), created in November 1917, was the first step towards the political construction of the Soviet Union. The members were all Bolsheviks, and each one was part of Lenin’s elitist Vanguard party. Lenin was chairman, Alexei Rykov Commissar of the Interior and Leon Trotsky was appointed Commissar of Foreign Affairs. With this union, the Sovnarkom governed the territories the Bolsheviks controlled, and therefore applied communism as the political state. It was a year later, in February 1918, when Lenin again enforced communist ideals on Russia. He secularized the country, banning religious teachings in the classroom. Between April and June, the state took ownership of banks, mineral resources, foreign trade and national industries, and outlawed the inheritance of property. A new constitution was formed on the 10th of July, 1918, and the state was re-named the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic (RSFSR). Based upon the ‘He who does not work, neither shall he eat’ communist philosophy, the RSFSR declared itself as a classless society, with no privatization of property and religious freedom. Anyone could vote, apart from previous members of the Tsarist government. The All-Russian Congress of Soviets was declared the new electoral system. The third major implementation of communist Leninism was what is now known as War Communism. This economic policy was introduced during the desperate years of the Russian civil war, lasting from June 1918 to 1921. All forms of economic production and distribution were strictly controlled by the government, and all forms of private trade were made illegal. In an attempt to fairly distribute food around the impoverished country, and also to supply the army, a mass requisitioning of grain was ordered to be carried out throughout the country. The food was rationed to each proletariat population, according to its contribution to Russia’s economy. Non-working classes were forced into labor, and a strict discipline was imposed on many industrial workers. If the workers showed any sign of resistance, they could be shot. To sustain the industrial and social workings, the printing of vast amounts of money was ordered. Even though Lenin imposed these political reforms so that Russia could make it through the civil war in one-piece, the harsh nature of these policies had disastrous effects. Inflation destroyed the rouble, and dire famine struck many parts of Russia. All in all, during the years of 1917 to 1921, it is estimated that the amount of deaths because of disease and famine is about nine million. Parts of the peasant populous, which had been deeply affected both by the civil war and by the scarceness of food, gathered together and conducted uprisings throughout Russia in protest. During the escalation of the Russian revolution, Lenin had relentlessly stuck to and promoted his communist beliefs and ideals. But when it came to the actual implication of them on Russian society, the issue proved to be more complicated. As noted by historian D. Mitchell, â€Å"The Bolsheviks had not captured a Ship of State, they had boarded a derelict†. This statement refers to the strenuous socioeconomic situation that reigned over Russia after the October revolution. The people were exhausted after overthrowing the oppressing Tsarist regime, and the country was in political disarray. To properly control Russia, and to bring it back to a steady Soviet state, Lenin commenced several policies that seemed to go against his communist philosophies. The first of these communist-contradictions occurred in March 1918, known as the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk. Fulfilling their promises concerning Russian withdrawal from World War I, the Bolsheviks released the ‘Decree on Peace’, which ordered all fighting forces to form peace treaties in their according regions. As a result, Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland were taken under German occupation. This trade to Germany in exchange for peace meant that Russia lost 32% of its agricultural land, 26% of its population and 75% of its coal and iron resources. This condition frustrated many pure-communists. It was a political move that was seen as severely un-patriotic, and Lenin was castigated as a traitor by many. Lenin denounced these accusations, noting on his ‘two steps back, one step forward’ philosophy. The biggest political decision made by Lenin, that contradicted the basic principles of communism, is considered to be the New Economic Policy (NEP). On March 7th, 1921, until the 17th of that month, there was an insurgence of revolts that occurred from the naval base at Kronstadt. The sailors that occupied the military base, who had previously greatly supported the Bolshevik movement, now produced a list of demands that included freedom of press, elections by secret ballot and the release of political prisoners. The uprising was of course bloodily suppressed, much like that of the peasants, but it nevertheless prompted Lenin to introduce new political measures that would benefit the economy of the country, and therefore satisfy the frustrated population. The act of requisition of grain was lifted, and the peasants were to pay a low tax that would take the form of food. In addition to this, although the land still belonged to the government, peasants were allowed to sell their surplus grain, as well as hire labor and machinery. The heavy industry, transport and foreign trade still remained in the control of the state, but freedom of enterprise was re-introduced to small businesses and factories. Furthermore, in October 1922, the rouble was introduced again and reconstituted. Although these socioeconomic changes had the potential to help Russia’s economic success and stability, the capitalistic nature of the NEP created uproar amongst the Bolshevik party. Like in the instance of the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, Lenin was seen as going against the greater-good of his country. Fortunately for Lenin, he had established the rule against factionalism in 1921, right after the uprisings at Kronstadt. This rule ‘On Party Unity’, made the forming of factions within the party illegal, and also condemned anyone who disagreed with the higher rank of the group. Due to the creation of this rule, no one could openly disagree with Lenin, and therefore display animosity against his implication of the NEP.

Practice and Research Clinical Rheumatology

Question: Discuss about the Practice and Research Clinical Rheumatology. Answer: Introduction: Presence of focused issue- The analysis of the randomized controlled trial (RCT) study by Moyle et al. (2014) reveals clear focus of the study as the detail regarding the intervention given to specific population group was clearly mentioned. The main objective was to compare the impact of foot massage and quiet presence on aggression and depressed mood in people with dementia. Hence, the intervention is the foot massage and control variable is the quiet presence. Randomization of intervention- As the research was based on RCT methodology, randomization process was conducted in the trial by randomizing participants by a computer program (Moyle et al. 2014, pp.856-864)). This helps in concealing allocation. It increases the strength of the study by means of eliminating biases and confounding factors in the study (Berkman et al. 2014). By the computer program, patients were randomly allocated to foot massage or quiet presence group (Moyle et al. 2014, pp.856-864)). Analysis of patients in the randomized group- Moyle et al. (2014, pp.856-864) maintained follow-up of patients and this can be said because data of participants who received at least one intervention was statistically analysed by means of Baseline and Post-Test One analysis. Detailed question Blinding process of RCT- Blinding process is an important element of RCT process as it is done to reduce biasness and confounding factors in research. Blinding deals with optimizing the likelihood of differential outcome in research studies. It is done by means of concealment of group allocation from one or more groups of individual in the research study (Karanicolas 2010). In the RCT study conducted by Moyle et al. (2014, pp.856-864)), allocation concealment was done for the participants by means of a computer program. This computer program helped in randomization of participants to intervention (intervention) and control group (Quiet presence). Similarity of the group at the start- Similarity at the start of the group in RCT trial is related to focus of the researcher on maintaining equality of the group at baseline. This is done by keeping factors like age, sex, educational qualification and health status similar for both intervention and control group. While reviewing the research article, it can be said that the researcher considered maintaining the baseline balance in both groups. This can be said because no difference between both groups was seen at base line based on factors like living situation, gender, age, time and medication for disruptive behaviour in participants (Egbewale et al. 2014, p.49). Treatment of groups- The quality of the randomized controlled trial study is enhanced by identification of factors that might influence the performance of one group over the other group. The review of the article revealed the treatment fidelity in the study by giving adequate training to research assistants regarding the protocols to be followed during providing the foot massage (intervention) and quiet presence to people with dementia (Moyle et al. 2014, pp.856-864)). The rigor of the research is also seen by the attention of the researcher to train assistants regarding the core principles needed for supporting people with dementia. Following the core principles is important because dementia is associated with a number of medical difficulties and so careful diagnosis and assessment is necessary to provide sensitive support and relief to dementia patients (James et al. 2017). On this basis, intervention assistant could easily provide standardized massage on each foot of patients and the quiet presence assistant just sat before the participants without interacting or physically touching them. Effect of treatment- To examine the impact of the intervention on two groups of participant, Moyle et al. (2014, pp.856-864)) measured both baseline data and after the end of the study. By this approach of measuring outcome measures prior to initiation of intervention and three weeks after providing the intervention, treatment effect could be easily enhanced. This approach enhanced the quality of RCT and its outcome analysis. Furthermore, outcome was measured specifically by two scales. As the intervention was focused on improving mood disorder and agitation in people with dementia, measuring this outcome was important to evaluate the efficacy of the intervention on target population. Similar strategy was also taken by the researcher to analyse the treatment effect by assessing agitation by Cohen Mansfield Agitation Inventory (CMAI) Short form and assessing the mood in dementia patients by the Observed Emotion Rating Scale (OERS). The detail in reporting is seen as detailed descripti on about each scale helped to enhance the clarity behind taking these two specific outcome measures. It reflects a focused approach to enhance the quality of study findings and making it reliable to be used in actual setting (Hulley 2013). Estimate of the treatment effect- To judge the reliability of the research study, it is necessary to evaluate how far precision is achieved in the result of the study by addressing the clinical and statistical significance of results. In addition, reporting adverse effects and external validity issues also determine whether target patient may benefit from the intervention or not (Estellat et al. 2009, pp.291-303.). In case of the RCT study for analyzing the efficacy of foot massage as an intervention for dementia patients, the precision in result was maintained by calculating the means and standard deviation of the CMAI and OERS score both at baseline and after the test for intervention and control group. On this basis, the results of the study showed evidence for the increase in total CMAI score in both groups, however symptoms of aggression was more in control group compared to intervention (foot massage) group. Application of results The strength of the study is reflected from the generalizability of research and its application to target population group in actual setting. As the research study by Moyle et al. (2014) was focused on evaluating the efficacy of non-pharmacological treatment options (foot massage in this case) for managing mood disorder and agitation in dementia patients, the research article finally showed that this intervention cannot be applied in real setting. This was because of many limitations found in the intervention. Firstly, foot massage did not significantly reduced agitation or mood disorder in people with dementia. Secondly, certain confounding factors might also be the reason for poor outcome. This may include the unfamiliarity of the participants with the treatment assistant, which have made them uncomfortable. The limitation is also consistent with other findings, which proves that more rigor in research is needed to finally adapt foot massage as an intervention for people with deme ntia (McVicar et al. 2016, pp.739-750). Consideration of important clinical outcomes Although no adverse event was seen due to the intervention, however the clinical outcome is not adequate and additional work is needed in this area. Firstly, many participants reported feeling distressed as unfamiliar people gave them foot massage. This might have affected the result. Hence, in the future study, this limitation can be solved by delivering foot care massage by a familiar person (such as family member or regular care worker) to reduce aggression and agitation in patients. Despite certain limitation, the RCT trial all showed many positive results which might help to improve the efficacy of the intervention in the long run. For instance, foot massage participants became less alert than quiet presence group, which indicates a state of relaxation in intervention group. The strength and credibility of the study is also seen from the way the complete case was analysed and put together. All efforts were made to make the data free from any selection biases and confounding variables (Moyle et al. 2014, pp.856-864). Hence, it reflects that foot massage has the potential for improving symptoms in people with dementia and improvement in outcome can be achieved by more rigorous research to find the condition in which foot massage can promote relaxation in dementia patients. The appropriateness of reporting is also seen as the researcher compared their findings with other research study and gave suggestions on precaution needed in conducting future research design for people with dementia. Reference Berkman, ND Santaguida, PL Viswanathan, M Morton, SC 2014, Study quality assessment. Egbewale, BE Lewis, M Sim, J 2014, Bias, precision and statistical power of analysis of covariance in the analysis of randomized trials with baseline imbalance: a simulation study,BMC medical research methodology,14(1), p.49. Estellat, C Torgerson, DJ Ravaud, P 2009, How to perform a critical analysis of a randomised controlled trial, Best Practice Research Clinical Rheumatology,23(2), pp.291-303. Hulley, SB Cummings, SR Browner, WS Grady, DG Newman, TB 2013, Designing clinical research. Lippincott Williams Wilkins. James, J Knight, J Cotton, B Freyne, R Pettit, J Gilby, L., 2017, Excellent Dementia Care in Hospitals: A Guide to Supporting People with Dementia and their Carers. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Karanicolas, PJ 2010, Practical tips for surgical research: blinding: who, what, when, why, how?, Canadian journal of surgery,53(5), p.345. McVicar, A Greenwood, C Ellis, C LeForis, C 2016, Influence of Study Design on Outcomes Following Reflexology Massage: An Integrative and Critical Review of Interventional Studies, The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine,22(9), pp.739-750. Moyle, W Cooke, ML Beattie, E Shum, DH ODwyer, .T Barrett, S 2014, Foot massage versus quiet presence on agitation and mood in people with dementia: A randomised controlled trial, International journal of nursing studies,51(6), pp.856-864.

Freedom and the Good Life free essay sample

Freedom and the Good Life Most people believe that freedom is one of the most important things in the world. Freedom is not only mandatory for a good life but it also seems to be essential for morality . In his discussion of moral philosophy and freedom, Immanuel Kant wrote that â€Å"Ought implies can†. It is often said that without freedom there cannot be morality and there would not be much worth living for. Two very important questions related to are raised that are frequently overlooked. These are; What is so important about freedom to us? And; what exactly is ‘freedom’? There are a vast number of definitions of freedom. ‘Freedom’ is generally defined as the lack of all the unreasonable restraints in our speech, movement, activity and beliefs. But this definition begins to seem vague when related to various issues relating the issue of freedom. Frithjof Bergmann outlined what he called our â€Å"schizophrenic view of freedom† in his book On Being Free, which consisted of two sides. We will write a custom essay sample on Freedom and the Good Life or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page The first being that freedom is a wonderful thing that not only gives us humans a distinguished status thus separating us from nature, but also assumed to be a main human goal. However, the other view is that freedom is a horrible thing that humans desperately try to escape. In this view people are glad that they may easily escape the authority on a matter that seems difficult and too painful to face. This can be referred to as ‘bad faith’, coined by the philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre. Freedom is so often a negative concept that it becomes a problem to define freedom and mention its good qualities. When people are constantly suffering under a particular oppressive leader, the meaning of freedom means ‘free form’. When something is imposed on a person and the person does it unwillingly, then relief from this imposition would be considered freedom. However, this becomes more difficult when there is no evident oppressor or nothing definite to react against. The context does not justify the conclusion at times. Freedom cannot simply be thought of as ‘freedom form’ some undesirable imposition, but also a freedom that allows one to do or have something also. Since the eighteenth century, these two concepts have been called negative freedom and positive freedom, both used together and always assuming the other when stated separately. Leaving out the positive concept of freedom would result in people demanding freedom from everything. This absolute freedom does not work since there are various situations where a certain amount of restraint is necessary in order for there to be a justifiable claim for this freedom. On the other hand, looking at only the negative concept of freedom, interference by imposing parties leads to absurd conclusions that the people who do not have anyone to impose on them are the most free, which is not necessarily the case.

Free Essays on Nights In Rodanthe

Love and Sacrifice Nicholas Sparks, an American author, wrote â€Å"Nights in Rodanthe†. This is a love story that tells about the relationship between man and woman. It shows how love can surmount the obstacles that keep these two loving humans apart. Paul Flanner, a surgeon, and Adrienne Willis, a part-time librarian, meet at the Inn in Rodanthe, North Carolina. Meeting each other was only destined by fate. They fall in love and end up splitting to their original ways only to regret leaving each other. The sacrifice they take to part their ways makes each other realize how much they love each other. Paul and Adrienne keep in contact by letters while Paul is in Ecuador. The distance between the two grows as each one is excited to see each other when Paul returns from his mission trip. The day Adrienne received the letter from Paul’s son was the most devesating day of her life. She learned how Paul died in a horrific mud slide. The regret she builds up for letting Paul travel to Ecuador to see her son is only for the good. She wanted him to go, but she lost the man who made her the happiest. She teaches her own daughter, who lost her husband to cancer, to move on with her life. Remembering the past is hard when you share wonderful memories, but one needs to live each day to the future and not ponder the past with regret. I have enjoyed this author up until now. His books seem to be all sappy love stories that have bad endings, besides â€Å"A Walk to Remember†. The theme in this story was a little difficult, but it drew out a lesson to teach the reader about moving on after death. I don’t think I would recommend this book to others, because it was a disappointment to me.... Free Essays on Nights In Rodanthe Free Essays on Nights In Rodanthe Love and Sacrifice Nicholas Sparks, an American author, wrote â€Å"Nights in Rodanthe†. This is a love story that tells about the relationship between man and woman. It shows how love can surmount the obstacles that keep these two loving humans apart. Paul Flanner, a surgeon, and Adrienne Willis, a part-time librarian, meet at the Inn in Rodanthe, North Carolina. Meeting each other was only destined by fate. They fall in love and end up splitting to their original ways only to regret leaving each other. The sacrifice they take to part their ways makes each other realize how much they love each other. Paul and Adrienne keep in contact by letters while Paul is in Ecuador. The distance between the two grows as each one is excited to see each other when Paul returns from his mission trip. The day Adrienne received the letter from Paul’s son was the most devesating day of her life. She learned how Paul died in a horrific mud slide. The regret she builds up for letting Paul travel to Ecuador to see her son is only for the good. She wanted him to go, but she lost the man who made her the happiest. She teaches her own daughter, who lost her husband to cancer, to move on with her life. Remembering the past is hard when you share wonderful memories, but one needs to live each day to the future and not ponder the past with regret. I have enjoyed this author up until now. His books seem to be all sappy love stories that have bad endings, besides â€Å"A Walk to Remember†. The theme in this story was a little difficult, but it drew out a lesson to teach the reader about moving on after death. I don’t think I would recommend this book to others, because it was a disappointment to me....

Paraphrasing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 6

Paraphrasing - Essay Example This discovery is according to Ryan and Deci’s (2000), the assimilation of the organization’s demands with personal values and needs. Gaertner and Gaertner’s finding suggests that extrinsic rewards in combination to staff training or feedback to employees on their work have a greater impact on performance other than extrinsic rewards alone. The findings of Gaertner and Gaertner (1985), Dowling and Richardson (1997), Redman et al. (2000) and O’Donnell and Shields (2002) are supported by Frey’s (1997) contention that, once the wages and salaries go past a subsistence level, intrinsic factors are better motivators than extrinsic rewards. It also shows that using extrinsic rewards alone is difficult and motivation of staff will require intrinsic rewards such as recognition and satisfaction of a job well done and a sense of amazing work. Williams (1998) describes how different people have different values, drives and perceptions to things and that not all people are passive recipients who automatically conforms to working systems as the management would want. Etzioni (1988) and Larson (1977), values are a necessity and are crucial to an employee’s development and commitment to a particular organization in achieving required goals and objectives. Berry, Broadbent and Otley (1995) describe the control of an organization which includes elements such as, goal setting, performance measurement and rewards. Organizational control is generalized and employees in the caring services may consider remunerative motivation less effective in comparison to the normative reward of doing a job that can satisfy them As reported above in the results a null hypothesis is rejected. The Employees of this organization occur to be motivated by intrinsic rewards. The results debate with the conclusions of Gupta and Mitra (1998) that extrinsic

Semi Conductors Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Semi Conductors - Essay Example If a firm manufactures a undoubtedly distinguished good, where the customers associates the good with the brand name, it will become very difficult for the new firm to come into the market and take the customers away from the old firm because here the problem is not to produce at a low cost but to produce a significantly attractive product so as to distract the loyal customers from a familiar brand.   Lower Cost for an Established FirmA monopoly is probable to have maintained expert production and marketing abilities. It is more likely to be conscious of the most proficient methods and the most trustworthy and cheapest providers. It is likely to encompass access to cheaper funding. It is therefore working at lower cost curve. New firms would consequently find it difficult to compete and would be likely to lose any price war. Ownership of, or Control over, Key Factors of ProductionIf a firm is the only owner of a particular raw material or good then it can deny supply of that partic ular good to its competent firm.Ownership of, or Control over, Whole Sale or Retail OutletsIn the same way if the firms owns and controls the outlets through which the good may be sold. It can stop it rivals from gaining access to customers.This creates a barrier to entry as it protects the existing firms by patents on necessary processes, by copy rights and also by different type’s licensing( for example a license which only allows one firm to operate in a particular region) and tariffs and also by other trade restrictions. Like many Fishing companies have got license to fish in a particular region and are also given a particular quota. Mergers and takeovers The monopolist firms takeovers new firms by putting bid on them. This increases discouragement for new firms. Aggressive tactics A monopolist who is business for quite a long time can sustain losses for a long time but a new entrant cannot and hence it would start a price cutting war, start big advertising campaigns and introduce new brands and drive the new entrants out. Intimidation In order to drive the new entrants out the existing firm May way out to different forms of harassment and which may be legal or illegal. Semiconductor Rivalry in USA: A Current Example Here we can cite the example of USA where first and second generation chip organizations like Fairchild, General Electric and RCA paved a path for the third generation companies as the

Course review of the semester Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Course review of the semester - Coursework Example The most common of all civilizations recorded in the Indian history is the Indus Civilization. When analyzing the history of the ancient civilization, (Srinivas, 2004, p.58) argues that the Indus Civilization began in the Bronze Age stage of human evolution. Among the three prehistoric culture, the Indus Civilization was the most widespread covering an approximate area of over a million square kilometers. The other civilizations were Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt. Another surprising fact about the Indus Civilization is that its inhabitants developed techniques such as metallurgy (melting metals such as copper and tin) and handcraft (carving and basketry). Furthermore, the civilization had cities with excellent urban plans such as drainage system, water supply system and huge residential buildings. The Vedic era was characterized by the Aryan culture that was associated with Vedas. In his work, (Srinivas, 2004) describes the Vedas as texts that are sacred to Hindu. In addition, the Vedic civilization, which lasted up to 500BC, forms the foundation of Hinduism religion and many other Indian cultural aspects. The era of the Vedic civilization marked the genesis of the present day India. Most of the current day states of the art technology can trace their roots on the Indus and Vedic civilizations. In India, religion forms a foundation in major areas of life. According to (Srinivas, 2004, p.60), about 85 percent of Indians adhere to Hindu religion while the rest are mainly Muslims. Just like Indian gods and goddesses. Hinduism has many dimensions depending on location and caste. Indians follow dharma as their moral codes while Vedas are considered as being the sacred texts. Spiritually, (Srinivas, 2004, p.63), declares that Indians believe in reincarnation. In the belief, life is a continuous process of death and rebirth. According to the belief, when someone dies, a rebirth takes place

Importance Of The Performance Appraisal Business Essay

Importance Of The Performance Appraisal Business Essay Q3. Critically assess the importance of the Performance Appraisal as a function of human resource management in either a private or a public sector organization. Use a relevant case study discussed in the seminars to illustrate the importance of the above in relation to the strategic business objective of the organization. Introduction The Human Resources Management (HRM) is rational allocation of human resources in planned way based on the requirements of development strategy of organizations, which ensure the corporate strategic objectives. The HRM is a series of corporate policies in human resources affairs and relevant management activities. A diversity of functions are included in the HRM, and the key is to determine the employment needs of an organization and whether to outsource or hire staffs to fill these vacancies, recruiting, training, evaluating performance, and guaranteeing the personnel and management performs conform to numerous rules. Performance appraisal is one of the key functions of the HRM, it has a largely effect on the success of the organizations HRM, thus, it is no need to say that performance appraisal plays an important role in either private or public sector organizations. However, due to the complicated relationship within the organizations and the difficulties in designing appraisal system, performance appraisal cannot always be effective and useful. In this paper, some basic concept of performance appraisal will be discussed at the very beginning, the importance of performance appraisal will be discussed after that, issues which leads to ineffective of appraisal will be indicated and a case will also be used to illustrate the importance of performance appraisal. The Role and Purpose of Performance Appraisal The performance appraisal is one of the most important parts of HRM system. Performance appraisal is the method of obtaining, analyzing, and recording evidence about the relative value of a staff to the organization. It is an analysis of a staffs recent performance, advantages and disadvantages, and suitability for training or promotion in the future. Besides rewards allocation, organizations also use appraisals to offer growing advice to employees, as well as to know their perspectives about their positions, departments, supervisors and organizations (Walsh and Fisher, 2005). Generally speaking, the processes of performance appraisal are in six following steps: 1. discussing and establishing standards of performance with employees; 2. setting assessable targets; 3. measuring real performance; 4. comparing real performance with the employee; 5. discussing the evaluation with employee; 6. initiating corrective action when it is necessary. As a crucial function of HRM, although there is no consensus on the purpose of performance appraisal, the purpose of performance appraisal is generally identified as to improve current performance, provide feedback, increase motivation, identify training needs, identify potential, let individuals know what is expected of them, focus on career development, award salary increases and solve job problems (Torrington, Hall and Taylor, 2002). Performance appraisal plays a verity of roles in the HRM: it encourages supervisor and staff have regular and organized dialogue, makes the provision of feedback to the employee being assessed comprehensively; it enables to evaluate past and current performance, aims to find out the possibility for improvement and how to achieve it; it identifies the needs of training and individual or professional developmental; it gives advice for promotion and secondment; it is used to decide the performance-based payment. The Importance of Performance Appraisal in Organizations It is clearly that the HRM makes a great contribution for either private or public sector organizations to achieve organization goals, therefore, as an important function of HRM, the performance appraisal has significant importance in organizations. If there is no performance appraisal system, an organization can hardly have a clear understanding of its current situation, therefore it cannot get the direction and goals for improvement for future, the situation of the organization will be dangerous. If the performance appraisal system is full of deviation or even error, it can possibly lead the organization into a wrong direction of resource inputting, thus the organization will lose its long-term competitiveness. On the contrary, an effective performance appraisal system can ensure resources of the organization invested into the most critical processes, which can improve competitive advantage of organization. Generally speaking, the importance of performance appraisal to organization is mainly reflected in three aspects: 1. Affecting the productivity and competitiveness of organization. Performance of employees has a huge effect on productivity and competitiveness of the organization. Performance can be measured from work results, work action and work attitude of employees; 2. Performance appraisal result is an important indicator of personnel decisions. Performance evaluation offers important reference when organization making personnel decisions, such as promotion or demotion, secondment, salary adjustment and so on; 3. Effectively performance appraisal leads to better staff management. It means that an organization can make better evaluation of staff performance, which results in more reasonable remuneration and incentive. It also means that an organization will be able to offer more help to employees self-development since performance evaluation can explore the potential of employees and help them know clearly about what they should do to meet expectations better. Besides, it will help to achieve better communication between superiors and staffs, which promote greater unity of purpose. It is no doubt to say that strategic control plays an important role in meeting strategic business objective of the organizations. Strategy implementation is best accomplished through high-performing people (Michlitsch, 2000), that is to say, the HRM functions are important strategic control measurements. The ability of the organization to obtain a benefit from the professional knowledge and employees vision will be limited if there is an invaluable link between human resources functions and strategic plans of organization (Humphreys, 2005), so the link between the HRM and strategic objective is so important. As one of the core functions of the HRM, performance appraisal has purpose on administration and motivation, it provides important information and feedback for the HRM, so it is necessary for leaders of organizations to understand and create accomplished performance appraisal and feedback systems, which can link human resource management activities with the strategic needs of th e business (Schuler, Fulkerson and Dowling, 1991). On the other hand, according to the research of Walsh and Fisher (2005), organizations performance appraisal processes operate in ways that are less than ideal. Performance appraisal may be leaded to useless and inaccurate situation by many factors such as time pressures, complicated forms and psychological defense. Whats more, the appraisal process may become unclear and incoherent since employees and organizations try to meet different needs by performance appraisal. That is why most organizations agree that performance appraisal is important and must be executed, but only a few organizations can execute it continuously, usefully and effectively. Besides, a performance appraisal system should build clarity and reinforce a strategic corporate mission/direction (Chadwick, 1991), different parts of the organization will make effort to achieve the objectives in their one-sided view if a performance appraisal system didnt build clarity and strengthen strategic organization objective, th is may lead to sabotaging to overall organization goal. If things come to this situation, performance appraisal cannot act as an important and useful role in the HRM, let alone in strategic control. A Case Study of Rother Homes Effective performance appraisal systems do make important contribution for either private or public sector organizations. One of the evidence is from the experience of Rother Homes, which included in the case studies we had discussed in the seminars. The strategic business objective of Rother Homes was to reorganize its top two management tiers, which needed help in plan of succession and in-house development of managers. Rother Homes wanted to create an organization capable of grasping the opportunities which independence allowed (Analoui, 2007). After preliminary restructuring, a brand new performance appraisal system was in great need and conducted gradually. According to well-planned process and customized, well designed feedback questionnaire, Rother Homes benefited from 360-degree feedback not only for their new performance appraisal system but also their program of management development. Ten-month management-development program was conducted on the base of new performance app raisal system, the program made employees expanding and applying knowledge and views better, it also made participants doing better in teamwork. This program got very positive feedback from managers. Finally, under the help of more suitable and supportive performance appraisal system, Rother Homes successfully reorganized its management tiers, whats more, they got a more cohesive and enthusiastic management group (Analoui, 2007), well met the strategic business objective. This example well illustrated the importance of performance appraisal in relation to the strategic business objective of the organization. Conclusion As one of the most important functions of the HRM, performance appraisal plays a big role in the success of the organizations HRM. Performance appraisal affects the productivity and competitiveness of organization, the results of performance appraisal is an important indicator of personnel decisions and effectively performance appraisal leads to better staff management. Performance appraisal has a big importance to either private or public sector organizations and an effectively performance appraisal system does offers great help for either private or public sector organizations to achieve strategic goals. However, since the complicated relationship within the organizations and the complications in establishing well-designed appraisal system, performance appraisal cannot always be effective and useful as we expected it. In one word, establishing an effective appraisal system is not an easy task and it can never be completed overnight (Caruth and Humphreys, 2008). The only way to deve lop a useful and effective performance appraisal system is to work hard, think carefully, plan seriously and design accurately as what Rother Homes has done, it is not easy but is definitely worth to do.

Good Vs. Evil - Analytical Sentence Outline Essay -- essays research p

Theme: Good and Evil Create a SocietyParagraph 1:CENTRAL IDEA: Conflicts heavily arise between the two topics of good and evil. THESIS SENTENCE: Through common stories good and evil are portrayed through both protagonist and antagonist view, creating morals and opinions, and how societies views have changed over time. Paragraph 2:TOPIC SENTENCE: Common stories portray good and evil through both a protagonist and antagonist view.Paragraph 3: TOPIC SENTENCE: Significant morals and opinions are shown in stories made up of good and evil.Paragraph 4: TOPIC SENTENCE: Societies views have changes over time by the reality brought out in good and evil.Paragraph 5: CONCLUSION: Good and evil represented the two different thoughts that occur through the mind of people during their extensive lifetime.Conflicts heavily arise between the two topics of good and evil. These conflicts can be extremely realistic or notably exaggerated. They both represent two powers that involve different emotions wit hin your heart. Through common stories, good and evil are portrayed through protagonist and antagonist view, creating morals and opinions, and how society's views have changed over time. Common stories portray good and evil through a protagonist and antagonist view. The first thing I think of when I hear â€Å"good vs. evil† would be a fairy tale. As in most fairy tales, there is always a good guy and a bad guy. An example of this kind of story would be Beowulf, where as Beowulf is the protagonist ...

Changing Demographics Essay

New demographic changes, economic globalization, high levels of workforce automation, and pressing health and security issues are intertwined instruments that seem to be changing the global polity. A high level of immigration into countries with a relatively stable economy has tremendous impacts on every facet of the host community. America has thus gradually become much more diverse and multiethnic than it was in past decades. The impacts of changing demographics also affect the education sector. In most American elementary schools, there have been tremendous changes from what was the usual status quo many decades ago. Changing demographics in elementary schools can have both many positive and many negative effects. The positive effects are desired, cherished and encouraged while the negative ones are regrettably unfortunate and measures should be put in place to reduce their severity. With the increasingly multi ethnic nature of elementary schools, the students are able to mingle with students from entirely different backgrounds and ethnic affiliations. This has the advantage of allowing intercultural interactions among students of various ethnic backgrounds. Difficult actions like the acquisition of foreign languages and cuisine are easily achieved. There are also many reasons to redesign our elementary schools so that they are more international in character. Part of the redesign process is focused on making it easier for foreign students to be fully integrated into the communities surrounding the schools. Since elementary schools currently have services that reaching far beyond their immediate geographical locality, many types of support services are being put together to help international students. The management and the faculty of many elementary schools are being forced to revise their curriculums with the aims of internationalizing them. This include the introduction of new foreign languages into the curriculum. It is now becoming very popular to see elementary schools teach Chinese and Arabic along with the more traditional French and Spanish. The curriculums that are inspired by changing demographics are set to make the students become more successful global citizens with adequate information about the world, its people and their traditions. The elementary school teaching profession should become more adept at teaching students of different backgrounds. This will involve professionalism and updated skills on the part of the teachers. Thus, teachers are being forced to go for re-training to be able to meet up with the millennial challenge of teaching elementary students. This is a good omen for the teachers and the schools in general because it could be totally absurd to use ancient teaching methods meant for Alaska born and based students in a class with mixed ethnicity. Due to the NCLB Act, the local educational bodies are now compelled to raise the standards of education in the various elementary schools to meet up with expectations of the parents that are bringing their children to the school. Some ethnic groups are considered to be protected minorities, and a school could face sanctions if it fails to achieve adequate performance among these groups. Studies have shown that quest for quality education is one of the driving forces in global migration. Most of the schools are now raising their standards to complete for the enrollment of students in the schools. The improved standard of education is also making it possible for investments in elementary education to be lucrative. With more foreign students admitted, more funds are being generated. This however, is a disadvantage on the side of the students both local residents and foreign that involved often have to pay exorbitant fees for the education. Like the wind, changing demographics blow students about. Sometimes exceptionally brilliant students are coughed in the wind. If blown to the right school, the skills, talents and abilities of such students could be discovered, polished and utilized to the fullest potential. Some skills are priceless in terms of the prestige that is bestowed on the students, the school and the society. A lot has been said in the positive ways that demographic changes have affected and are currently affecting elementary schools. It would be worthy be also note the problems that changing demographics can bring to the elementary schools. According to recent studies, a high influx of foreign students into elementary schools has caused an increase in the rate of ethnic intolerance. This is also evident in middle and high schools. More children are having divided feelings about belonging to the school over time. It is common to see students in their own ethnic groups rather than as a class. They tend to associate only with students for same background while these that are not are liberated and ostracized. The usual tradition of referring to the schools as a community may seem to have been long lost. The variable changes in the education system have greatly increased the worries of some students about their academic performance. Average students may be seen struggling to be in tune with the rhythm. This may be occurring because of the limitations of language barrier and totally different education methods that may lead to problems for them in class. An intense cloud of insecurity also seems to have enveloped the schools. Students of a particular background may feel threatened by students of other backgrounds. Children from Arabic backgrounds may be seen as potential terrorists. There is also a fear students being infected by an unknown disease that was carried by foreign students. In some countries of the world, most citizens are carriers of some types of parasites and possibly strange diseases or diseases such as tuberculosis. When children from that type of background mix with students with whom they don’t share close ties with, there is the possibility of them spreading communicable diseases. Competition for the limited available space in the elementary schools which are near by s is also creating problems when more students apply to schools, and various measures are employed to cut down the size. These can include exorbitant fees and overstressing the available academic resources. Being social with other people is the desire of must individuals. While having people thought of as strangers in one’s territory may bring suspicions, alienation should never be an option. Children at a delicate stage in their life deserve to be brought up in a loving and severe community and the elementary schools should not be expected to be failing in the provision of these. When the influx of immigrants seems to be going at a rate of is alarming, adjustment may be very difficult. The education system is expected to maintain standardized curriculums and it is expected to create a proper community that could facilitate qualitative education. Students in elementary schools deserve to be well educated and their satisfaction should not be taken for granted at the expense of anybody; everybody should be satisfied. Proper legislation should be put in place to check migration and adequate protection should be given so that elementary schools will not be caught unaware when bad wind blows!

The History of the Computer Mouse

The History of the Computer Mouse It was technology visionary and inventor Douglas Engelbart (January 30, 1925  Ã¢â‚¬â€œ July 2, 2013) who revolutionized the way computers worked, turning it from a piece of specialized machinery that only a trained scientist could use to a user-friendly tool that almost anyone can work with. During his lifetime, he invented or contributed to several interactive and user-friendly devices such as the computer mouse, Windows operating system, computer video  teleconferencing, hypermedia,  groupware,  email, the  Internet  and much more. Making Computing Less Cumbersome Most of all, though, he was known for inventing the computer mouse. Engelbart conceived of the rudimentary mouse while attending a conference on computer graphics, where he started thinking about how to improve interactive computing. In the early days of computing, users typed codes and commands to make things happen on monitors. Engelbart thought an easier way was to link the computer’s cursor to a device with two wheels- one horizontal and one vertical. Moving the device on a horizontal surface would allow the user to position the cursor on the screen. Engelbart’s collaborator on the mouse project  Bill English built a prototype- a hand-held device carved out of wood, with a button on the top. In 1967, Engelbart’s company SRI filed for the  patent on the mouse, although the paperwork identified it a little differently as x,y position indicator for a display system. The patent was awarded in 1970. Computer Mice Hits the Market Before long, computers designed to work with a mouse were released. Among the first was the Xerox Alto, which went on sale in 1973. A team at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich liked the concept as well and built their own computer system with a mouse called the  Lilith computer, sold from 1978 to 1980. Perhaps thinking they were on to something, Xerox soon followed up with  the  Xerox 8010, which featured a mouse, ethernet networking and e-mail among various innovative technologies that have since become standard.   Ã‚   But it wasnt until  1983  that the mouse started to go mainstream. It was that year that Microsoft updated the MS-DOS program Microsoft Word to make it mouse-compatible and developed the first PC-compatible mouse.  Computer manufacturers such as Apple, Atari and Commodore would all follow suit by debuting mouse compatible systems as well.    Tracking Ball and Other Advancements Like other present forms of computer technology, the mouse has evolved significantly. In 1972, English developed the â€Å"track ball mouse† that allowed users to control the cursor by rotating a ball from a fixed position. One interesting enhancement is technology that enables wireless devices, a fact that makes Engelbarts recollection of an early prototype almost quaint. We turned it around so the tail came out the top. We started with it going the other direction, but the cord got tangled when you moved your arm, he said.   For an inventor who grew up on the outskirts of Portland, Oregon and had hoped his achievements would add to the collective intelligence of the world, the mouse has come a long way. It would be wonderful,† he said, â€Å"if I can inspire others, who are struggling to realize their dreams, to say if this country kid could do it, let me keep slogging away.

Chronicles of Tao Book Review

Chronicles of Tao Book Review In reading Chronicles of Tao, this type of spirituality appeals to me in many ways. I have long been fascinated with the Chinese philosophy and practice of Feng Shui, i.e. the flow of "chi" (energy) and balance of yin and yang. I have even arranged my home in a fashion that optimizes this concept and attempts to bring "balance" into my life. Although it is obviously not a complete form of Taoism, I found many similarities and felt very comfortable with the concepts of the Tao. In addition, I have, for a long time, felt that meditation and certain rituals help to bring balance and spirituality to a person's life. This type of spirituality is completely different from the beliefs that I grew up with, but it is difficult to deny that meditation helps to calm the mind and bring some balance to the inner thoughts. Although I could not ever see myself becoming a Taoist, I agree that some of the practices can help a person become more spiritual in whatever beliefs he or she might have.Confu cianism, Taoism, and Buddhism are one, a lita...Since I know a few things about Feng Shui, reading Chronicles of Tao was entertaining because Feng Shui seems to have come from the Taoist religion. When the Grand Master was telling Saihung the story of the Two Immortals in chapter fourteen, he tells of how they became immortal. They were two little boys who happened upon a disciple of another immortal named Dong Fengshui, whose name might be coincidental or perhaps related in some way, who offered them a peach that if they ate would make the boys immortal so they ate it. In chapter seventeen, when Saihung is to be left at the cave to "discover his true self," the Grand Master gives Saihung a Bagua mirror, which...

The Devolution of Greek Economy Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

The Devolution of Greek Economy - Dissertation Example The humans have managed to evolve by thinking of new and different things. The ability to innovate had always helped the sons and daughters of Adam to get out of the caves that remained their home for centuries. The human race with the passage of time learned the art and science of building homes and sowing seeds. These activities have assisted the mankind in moving in the direction of industrialization. The industrialization is a trend and is also a force that caused the needs of the masses to be fulfilled over a period of long tenure. The scientific development and growth is done in order to facilitate the achievement of industrialists’ objectives and goals (Oakey, 60). The economy is always known to be controlled by the local corporate sector of the country. There are two significant powers in the world. The first one is called the power of entropy that forces any system to disintegrate over the years and the other one is the strength of evolution that with the help of huma n effort makes things better and better (Peck, 115). The scientific development and the growth in every other field are repeatedly attributed to the people who dared to think differently (Baron and Tang, 55). The different and unique people have always been defined by the ability to see the world in a different way and method. The evolution has its roots in the ability and power of the people who are blessed with the tendency to see, observe and think. The quality of life on the other hand, is directly related with the local entrepreneur’s ability to translate new product and business ideas into commercialized corporate offerings. The offerings are also not the end in themselves but they have to be made better in order to overcome the traditional power of entropy and disintegration. The disintegration is created by the nature itself in order to keep the humans attempting to evolve and inspire. The economic growth is always caused by the force of inspiration that makes people to think and try to become more than what they are in their current state (Fuglsang, Sundbo and Sorensen, 663). The leaders are famous for playing their due hand in the process of evolution as they are primarily responsible for giving direction and purpose to people. The governments are supposed to provide the services of leadership by fueling the process of development and evolution. The Chios Island is the fifth biggest one in the country of Greece and it has a population of 55,000 but the area remained much neglected in the past as the shipping served the country as a major industry in the past years. However, the tide is turning and Chios Island is finally getting all the attention it needed because it is becoming an agricultural hub of the region. The immigrants are building their homes in the Island so that they can take care of the fields while, keeping their families in the newly developing residential areas. Research Question Following is the research questions of the study : - Q.1 Would economic crisis in Greece, be the motive in rehabilitation of abandoned rural areas and its settlements? Significance of the Study The importance, value and significance of the study exist because it is going to discuss the effects of growing population in the rural areas of

Understanding - Active Listening or Maslows Hierarchy of Need Assignment

Understanding - Active Listening or Maslows Hierarchy of Need - Assignment Example Here people want to be treated with loved, affection and feel parts of groups. The next level of needs is the self-esteem and the esteem from others. When all these have been satisfies, a person would now look for self actualization, where he will be seen trying to achieve individual potential like power in the society. Maslow then sys that if we are motivated by the fact that we want to self-actualize, the every other need will just work out. As managers, we need to concentrate on the client centered skill like active listening. This is the skill that will enable a manger to listen carefully to the customer’s needs and react according to the client’s likes or dislikes. In this kind of feeling, a person is guided by the feelings displayed by the client about the kind of service being offered. It therefore requires one to actively react to such feelings in order to meet the client’s

Ideological Racism vs Prejudice Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Ideological Racism vs Prejudice - Essay Example In the case of the United States, for much of the countrys history, the important institutions were dominated by the White Anglo-Saxon Protestant (WASP) community. As a result, all other immigrant groups were disadvantaged from the outset. Even among whites, Eastern European ethnic groups and South European communities (the most prominent of which are the Italian Americans) were discriminated against. The challenges were all the more steep for immigrant groups of other races. This includes the Hispanics, African Americans and Asian Americans. A typical example of the potency of ideological racism is the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which barred Chinese immigrants from attaining citizenship. This legislation was prompted by the ideology of the dominant group, the WASPs, who believed in modelling American society on the basis of their traditional values and beliefs. Prejudice, when compared with ideological racism, is relatively unstructured. Prejudice is largely an expression at the individual level, as opposed to ideological racism which is clearly defined and recognized by the entire society. Since prejudice can differ from one individual to the other, and since it does not lend itself to easy definitions, it is tough to study it sociologically. Ideological racism, by virtue of being part of mainstream discourse, as well as being well-documented, gives the sociologist a lot of factual and statistical material to conduct his/her analysis. Seen in this way, ideological racism can be said to be more sociological. Similar logic can be applied in differentiating between institutional discrimination and other forms of discrimination. Institutional discrimination is the blatant expression of prejudiced attitudes and beliefs, which is often backed by legislation. For example, before 1960s, black children were not allowed to register in schools exclusively meant for white children. This policy of segregation was backed by law, which

Social Science Essay Example for Free

Social Science Essay I must admit that before my trip to the California African American Museum I was skeptical that I would learn anything of value to myself from that experience. Being of foreign descent, American History is a bit alien to me and even more so for African American history. Yet as the day went on, I found myself staring in awe at the displays and gaining a profound respect for the African American culture. The first thing which caught my attention was that the California African American Museum was adorned all over by Afrocentric artwork. It was strange the way the paintings attracted by attention. Normally I don’t pay attention to paintings but there was something about these paintings that struck me. The history and beauty of the African American culture was unlike any I had ever seen or experienced previously. On a personal level, the relevance of this to me is that I too am of a different race. I have my own unique culture and I deeply cherish this. Seeing this display made me realize the beauty of my own culture. I began to understand how strong a people can be as long as they appreciate and cherish their own culture. I am not ashamed to admit my roots and my culture. In fact, I can proudly say that because of my experience at this museum I have come to accept more my culture and come to a better understanding of who I am in this world. Another profound feeling I got from my visit was the manner by which this place was designed. The California African American Museum is a fairly large space and has plenty to offer its visitors from painting to sculpture to multimedia installations by African-American artists. Perhaps the most amazing of all the displays is the rotating exhibits of the Rhythms of the Soul, a showcase of the instruments of Africa (Kennedy 2007). One can clearly see how rich the cultural heritage of the African American culture is. In the same line of thinking, one can imagine how cultures and races have evolved from their primitive origins into what they are today. These items are some of the many wonderful pieces that I saw at the California African American Museum. The piece on the left most portion is a head-dress from Nigeria while the one on the right most portion is a face-mask from the Republic of Congo. Being of foreign descent, I had never previously encountered such strange things and so when I first saw these things I had to admit that I was a bit dumbfounded by it and could make neither heads nor tails of them. Along with these ceremonial masks were decorative household implements from across Sub-Saharan Africa. These works show the type of art historical context that African Americans participated in prior to coming to the United States (Kennedy 2007). It was a context that was based on communal well being that encompassed ritual, mythology and cosmology that connected the people with their environment (Gerstle 2002). I dare say that my appreciation for this place has a lot to do with the many races and cultures in the area. The United States is a melting pot of many different cultures. There are so many diverse people in a single location and they all bring their heritage with them. The result is a rich tapestry of culture that is unlike any that can be found in the world (Gerstle 2002). The thing that makes this even more special is the acceptance of the people for the uniqueness of others. This is why I feel that this museum is one of my favorite locations because it is a testament to that spirit of acceptance and mutual respect. As I continue through my favorite place, I see that there are more surprises in store for me as inside the galleries of the California African-American Museum are treasures of African-American art, history and culture. A kaleidoscope of art and history exhibitions is designed to enhance the publics knowledge of the African-Americans contributions, both past and present. Quite a number of these exhibitions also explore little-known African-American contributions to the fields of science, sports, medicine, and technological invention. Upcoming exhibits feature Blacks in golf, science, technology and the California gold rush. As a whole, I think that the California African American Museum is my favorite place because it is very enlightening. While not totally ignorant of the plight of the early African Americans in the United States, I saw another side of this culture. One that is very diverse and full of mysticism and full of talent. The African Americans are a proud people and the California African American Museum has shown that they indeed have every right to be proud. With a background as colorful and magical as theirs, the African Americans and perhaps the rest of the world should all join in to preserve and to develop whatever remains of that proud and beautiful heritage of theirs. Works Cited: Minchin, Timothy. Hiring Black Worker: The Racial Integration of the Southern Textile Industry. North Carolina: The University of North Carolina Press, 1999. Roth, Byron. Prescription for Failure: Race Relations in the Age of Social Science. New Jersey: Transaction Publishers, 1994. Swain, Carol. The New White Nationalism in America: Its Challenge to Integration. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Kennedy, David, Cohen, Lizabeth, and Piehl, Mel (2007) The Brief American Pageant: A History of the Republic Wadsworth Publishing Company 7th Edition ISBN: 0618776125 Hollitz, John (2006) Contending Voices: Biographical Explorations of the American Past, Volume II: Since 1865 (Second Edition) (Paperback) Wadsworth Publishing; 2 edition (June 22, 2006) ISBN-10: 0618660887 Gerstle, Gary (2002) American Crucible: Race and Nation in the Twentieth Century (Paperback) Princeton University Press (August 5, 2002) ISBN-10: 0691102775

Why we no longer need the traditional calendar :: essays papers

Why we no longer need the traditional calendar For over a century North American students have been following a traditional calendar, nine months in school, followed by three months out of school. In more recent times, many schools have been converting to a year-round calendar. Reasons for this include a wide variety of things, ranging from helping the overcrowding in schools, to increasing learning, as well as for the simple reason that we no longer need the traditional calendar. In the article, Effects of school calendars on student achievement and retention, Woodward states how early on, â€Å"farming was the primary source of income for families, and everyone in the family was obligated to help†¦school calendars were scheduled to revolve around the harvesting and planting of crops.†(1). These days, farming is no longer the main occupation in North America, and therefore there is no need to continue to use the traditional calendar if this is not the best way to increase education. The question asked here is, i s it the best way? If so, why are so many schools turning to year-round education? In Vital Speeches of the Day, Charles Ballinger suggests, â€Å"The growth continues because parents and educators question the wisdom of using a school calendar that interrupts formal education for three months at a time, is not educationally-sound, and was designed for yesterday's society.† In this paper, traditional calendars and year-round calendars will be looked at, and discussed, with quotes, by people who have been directly affected by both. The purpose of this research paper is to compare the effectiveness of year-round education and traditional schooling with respect to student learning, knowledge retention and development. What exactly does year-round education entail? Advocates for year-round schooling are convinced that, yes, this is the way to better education in this country, but typically people do not understand what year-round education is. People are quick to assume that this means spending more days in school, but the actual term in the thesaurus notes that year-round schools are, â€Å"schools that operate year-round but have no increased the number of days students must attend† (ERIC database). â€Å"Year-round calendars often begin the academic year in early August†¦45 days in school, followed by 15 days of vacation time (Shields and Oberg 4). Notice, the authors said often, because there are many slight variations of the year-round calendar.

Gay Olympics :: essays research papers

I had always enjoyed the summer Olympics and the way the athletes strive to be their best, but after watching the winter Olympics I couldn’t help but ask, are these really sports. I have no doubt that the races are sport. There is a definite outcome and no dispute over who won. Then you have these other â€Å"sports† like figure skating and ice dancing. Somehow I cannot take any point of view that would support these two as sports. First you have figure skating that requires agility, endurance, stamina, and coordination yet the winner is purely based on the opinion of another. How is that a sport?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Then you have ice dancing†¦ common ice dancing! Through all the rejects that couldn’t make the figure skating squad, lower expectations, and †¦ you know what, just call them ice fairies. That is really what it is. They might as well play Fantasia over and over then judge how well the different animals attempt their aerials. After watching the Apolo Ohno get ripped off in the speed skating, I was treated to the wonderful world of tippy toeing on ice. What kind of transition was that?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Then you have curling, an event that could only have come from the British Isles home of haggis, minced meat pie, and other culinary delights. How does a sport like this even get started? Curling is a combination of shuffle board and sweeping. This is a new addition to the Olympics, one that could have been done without. Tug of War used to be on the program, why didn’t they keep that at least it has a definite outcome. If you haven’t noticed by now, I have ended every paragraph with a question because I really have one question on my mind, are the winter Olympics geared towards women. I would hope that no man alive is sitting at home in anticipation of the ice dancers’ next amazing move. During highlights of figure skating and ice dancing, I look in the audience in amazement of how many proud fathers there are in the audience. I say fathers because that is the only guy I could ever forgive for actually putting any interest into these sports.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  This is a shallow view on sports but I have always thought that sports should be determined by a definite outcome, not another’s opinion.

Aims and Objectives for Teaching and Learning Essay

The successful teacher is the armed teacher. Lessons’ plans and repertoire of activities are our arms. In order to achieve genuine communication in the classroom, every lesson should be wisely planned and perfectly provided having balanced variety of activities. The teacher of ESOL must manage the class involving all the students all the time to make them active learners. First of all, the teacher is to create a comfortable atmosphere in the classroom according to TESOL general principles. They are: 1. â€Å"Look after your students. 2. Be a caring person. 3. Raise students’ self-esteem. 4. Give deserved praise. 5. Be yourself.† Every lesson should start with friendly chatting with students in a natural way to give them the opportunity to act in real life and to show them the teacher interest. E.g. Ask them about last weekend at the week beginning. It is absolutely important to pronounce the students names correctly. When having difficulties, we may involve the students in learning their names asking them to explain the name meaning and to correct our pronunciation. Paying attention to every student is a clue to a genuine communication. So, we are to look at all the students in the class. The caring teacher moves around the class as a ‘prowling lion’ to make the students feel encouraged, and changes their focus at the moment the subject of learning is changing. E.g. When talking about nature, move to the window and ask some student to describe the sky, another student to talk about the trees behind the window, and so on. We must care about the seating model of the classroom. Facing with standard rows we need to rearrange the furniture to circle or semi-circle/horseshoe to create the most comfortable communication. If rearranging is impossible the teacher may ask the students to walk around the class to find partners for pair/group work. Also, we can make groups asking one pair to turn round to another pair when seating in rows. We may see the separate tables for groups in some schools. This model is also appropriate as allows the teacher to move around the class prompting and explaining something to the table groups. The furniture arrangement may be dynamic, changing every lesson according to the activities. As to a groupwork, it is one of the best techniques of involving the students into communication. The preferred number of students for the group is five to have the opportunity to of major view because of an odd number. The group of five students is big enough to participate in communicative activities (e.g. role-plays, information/opinion gaps and collaborative work), and small enough for effective interaction. However, we may divide the students into smaller or bigger groups, pairs, and teams according to the activities. When organizing a pairwork/groupwork we should take into account some aspects: †¢ friendship. People in the group are to be pleasant to each other. We can make it clear asking the students to write the confidential lists of their preferences and dislikes; †¢ nationality. Teaching multi-lingual classes we shouldn’t put into groups the students of the same nationality to avoid the using of the mother tongue. †¢ streaming. Weak and strong students are to be mixed in pairs and groups to make cooperative work to be effective and helpful. †¢ gender and status. According to some contexts, we can’t put men and women into one group. Also, teaching business English, we should know the status of our students to be sure in the appropriateness of putting people together. We must always remember about L.T.T.T. as we want to achieve genuine communication. The more students speak, the more they learn how to do it. So, we should decrease our talking to increase the talking of our students. E.g. Explaining the grammar involve the students asking them for their examples of the point. Using the white/black board we must write clearly. It’s possible to print something if keeping a board in order is difficult. The white/black board is quite appropriate instrument for various activities as table filling, games, errors’ correction, etc. Encouragement is the cornerstone of communication in class. ‘No!† may discourage everyone. That’s why we should use the more kind intonation as ‘No, but†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ Frequent use of ‘good’ is also appropriate, as in ‘Good, but†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ Giving a puzzled expression to encourage a student to reformulate the sentence is good practice to keep high level of motivation to communicate. Grammar terminology needs to be minimized as it possible. Bur the teacher must know the grammar to keep the credibility. Encouraging students to learn English outside the classroom develops their receptive and productive skills. As for extensive listening, we can find various authentic materials on the Internet. E.g. news reports, radio podcasts, TEFL listening materials, TV shows, songs, etc. To develop the extensive reading we can build up a library of suitable books in our SAC. We can create the website to involve students in writing their blogs for informal communication. And we can go outside the classroom for speaking in an informal environment. Agency gives students the opportunity to make some decisions about the learning process and keeps them encouraged. Learning journals brings much sense helping the students to communicate freely and creating the dialogue between teacher and student. Questions are very popular in a communicative approach. But we should remember some rules: †¢ don’t address the question to keep the attention; †¢ use ‘wait time’ to encourage; †¢ don’t ask students in fixed order, be unpredictable; †¢ ask everyone equally. Two types of questions, i.e. closed and open-ended, help to activate students’ mind in various ways. The open question is appropriate for the lesson starting to focus the students’ attention on the topic. To manage the students successfully we must differentiate their work according to the abilities by task, by support, or my homework. We must be armed at all points to manage interruptions. For example, to have extra copies of textbooks, pencils, and rubbers in the case they may be forgotten; don’t wait for coming-late people; give an extra explanation for lost-on-point students; deal with personal problems outside class time. To help students to process information we should use a VAK presentation that allows different types of learners to accept the point using their best way, i.e visual, auditory or kinesthetic. Creating the successful classroom let us avoid the problem behavior of the students. Engaged and successful students with raised self-esteem have no t ime and purpose to behave badly.

Describe the roles performed by a modern Police Service in t essays

Describe the roles performed by a modern Police Service in t essays This assignment intends to examine the current structure of the Police Service operating in England and Wales, paying particular attention to the various roles of a modern Police Force within the wider criminal Justice System. Firstly, the assignment will look at how the Police Force has evolved and where the origins of the Service lie, and look also at how the roles and function of the Police Service have altered over the past three decades, finally summarising the positive and negative aspects of the current structure and role in comparison to the service provided at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The first Metropolitan Police Force was formed at the beginning of the nineteenth century, under the Conservative Government serving at the time. Sir Robert Peel, the then Home Secretary oversaw the imposition of the Metropolitan Force. There has been vast historical comment suggesting various different schools of thought as to why the Metropolitan Force was established at the time it was, and one such Whig Historian, Reith, argued that the idea of a Metropolitan Police Force was borne in order to control the increase of [the] menace of crime ( Reith, in Controlling Crime. 2002. pp 13). Reith discusses the formation of this Metropolitan Force as a solution to crime and disorder that he considered to be a growing problem during the 1820s. Reith argued that the Government initiative to create a Metropolitan Police Force in the countrys capital was a means of controlling the army of homeless children...who lived by stealing and begging, and as way of stopping the constant menace o f mob disorder, which Reith saw as a threat to the dignity of Parliament ( Reith, in Controlling Crime. 2002. pp 13). As an alternative explanation as to why the Metropolitan Police Force was formed, fellow Whig Historian, Storch comments on the idea of a Police Force as a greater tool ...

Foreign relations of East Timor Essays - Free Essays, Term Papers

Foreign relations of East Timor Essays - Free Essays, Term Papers Foreign relations of East Timor Relations with specific countries and regions Association of Southeast Asian Nations Countries with embassies in East Timor Countries with East Timorese diplomatic missions Main article: Accession of East Timor to ASEAN East Timor is the only country in Southeast Asia that is not a member of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). East Timor also does not hold observer status in the group. However, East Timor has expressed its intention of gaining observer status to ASEAN in July 2002 and in 2006 was spoken of as requiring five years to become an ASEAN member. [2] ASEAN on the other hand has been inviting the small nation to many of ASEAN ministerial meetings as a sign of goodwill. In 2007 East Timor signed the ASEAN Treaty on Amity and Co-operation. [3] [4] East Timor is a potential member of the East Asia Summit.[citation needed] Australia Main article: AustraliaEast Timor relations Australia and East Timor are near neighbours with close political and trade ties. East Timor, one of the poorest countries in Asia, lies about 610 kilometres northwest of the Australian city of Darwin. For many years Australia implicitly supported the Indonesian occupation of East Timor, giving priority to the policy of maintaining good relations with Indonesia. This policy was however changed in the late 1990s, with Australia starting to support UN, Portugal and other countries in the defence of the self-determination of East Timor. Since then, Australia has played a prominent role in the young republic's history. Australia led the military force that helped stabilise the country after it chose independence from Indonesia in 1999 and also after the internal conflict in 2006 and has been a major source of aid since. DFAT[1] (Department of Foreign Affairs) will manage an estimated $68.0 million in bilateral funding to Timor-Leste in 2015-16. Total Australian Official Development Assistance (ODA) to Timor-Leste in 2015-16 will be an estimated $93.9 million. Bangladesh Brazil Main article: BrazilEast Timor relations Brazil and East Timor are both Portuguese-speaking and relations are friendly. East Timor has an embassy in Brasilia and Brazil has an embassy in Dili. Brazil has a co-operation program with East Timor, that includes a wide range of areas, including labour policy, justice, national security, culture, agriculture, education, governance, sports, environment and health. Indonesia Despite the traumatic past, relations with Indonesia are very good. Indonesia is by far the largest trading partner of East Timor (Approximately 50% of imports, 2005) and is steadily increasing its share. Problems to be solved include, East Timor-Indonesia Boundary Committee meetings to survey and delimit land boundary; and Indonesia is seeking resolution of East Timorese refugees in Indonesia. Malaysia Main article: East TimorMalaysia relations Malaysia has contributed to many UN peacekeeping missions on the country, such as one are the Operation Astute during the 2006 East Timorese crisis.[2] Malaysia also has provided assistance to Timor-Leste in the area of human resources development through various training programmes and providing assistance to East Timor in its nation building efforts.[2] Currently, Malaysia has been consider by East Timorese as a model to develop their countries.[3][4] East Timor has an embassy in Kuala Lumpur,[5] and Malaysia has an embassy in Dili.[6] Mozambique The close relations between Mozambique and East Timor are old, coming already from the time when both territories were Portuguese colonies. Before the independence, several Timorese political leaders lived in exile in Mozambique, including the present President of East Timor Jos Ramos-Horta and the former Prime-Minister Mari Alkatiri. Both the countries are members of the Community of Portuguese-Speaking Countries (CPLP). East Timor maintains an embassy in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique. Philippines Being the only two predominantly Catholic nation in Asia, relations with the Philippines became very positive as soon as East Timor was multilaterally recognised as an independent state. The two countries are now engaged in a growing commercial relationship, as well as cultural and educational exchanges. On 6 June 2013, both countries signed three agreements in Manila concerning infrastructure development, defence and education.[7] Portugal Main article: East TimorPortugal relations East Timor has an embassy in Lisbon whilst Portugal has an embassy in Dili. East Timor was a colony of Portugal for over 400 years. As a former Portuguese colony, East Timor has a significant proportion of Portuguese speakers. Portuguese is one of the two official languages of Timor and it is a full member of the Community of Portuguese Language