National Health Service - United Kingdom Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

National Health Service - United Kingdom - Essay Example The approach of the NHS is patient centric. The details of services carried out by the NHS are schematically given in a diagram provided on the web site of the organisation which at Figure 1. The NHS has a three tiered strategic structure. Thus at Tier 1 is the apex body of the Department of Health, UK which provides funding, directional support and other related functions. The Strategic Health Authorities are designed to manage and improve local services, while the Primary Care Trusts or PCTs assess local needs and organise care. The provision of health care has been divided into two phases. Phase 1 is providing primary care which comprises of services as that of GP Practices, Dentists, Opticians and pharmacists and so on. NHS Direct is also a part of Primay Care. Secondary Care caters for emergency and urgent care and is provided by various trusts such as the ambulance trust, NHS trust, mental care trust and care trusts. A detailed survey of the NHS is being carried out as per succeeding paragraphs to provide a better insight into its functioning and suitability for adoption of the suggested model of e governance. NHS is said to be a patient centric organization, thus patients are provided with dedicated care. However there is a general complaint that this is dependent on the area in which they live, as a result those in relatively far flung areas receive much less support than those located centrally near prominent places. Attempts are also being made for greater involvement of patients by encouraging them to make their own choices, reorganizing them as partners in the system to support health professionals and facilitate decision making through forums and foundation trusts. This has increased in greater outreach to patients.2 Ensuring Safety of Patients and Professionals There is a high need to ensure that patients are assured that the care they receive is safe and the best possible. The staff also has support of the system. This enables attaining high quality of health service, responsive to the needs of the people and provides the organisation and the people who are working within, freedom and support to work with confidence. A number of inititatives have been taken to achieve this to include the Star Rating system at the national level and encouraging staff to out report, "adverse incidents". This is done with a view to carry out analysis and share information through out the system. Reporting processes at the local level are evolved with clarity and for creating a system of, "clinical governance". Patient Choice The key to patient satisfaction in the NHS is Patient Choice. This provides them control over appointment dates and time to suit their work and family commitments. There is also a choice of place of treatment, of selecting a hospital where best possible treatment is available, with limited waiting list and appropriate availability of specialists. This also ensures that hospitals compete for patients by improving their services and in turn provide better service to patients.3 Information Information is the key to providing patients the choice for all aspects, which have been stated above, be it

Beauty Contest Essay Example for Free

Beauty Contest Essay In the average dictionary beauty is defined as a combination of qualities that pleases aesthetic senses, especially the sight. Unfortunately, in today’s society, the meaning of beauty has become extremely distorted and in place beauty pageants have become very popular. These contests take place across the entire world; in big cities and small towns. The contestants’ ages range from 0 to 30 years old. Thus, children are thrown into this lifestyle, without knowing exactly what they are getting into. They are judged by physical beauty and sometimes personality and talent, with the winners awarded prizes or titles. Many people say that it beauty pageants boost ones confidence but in fact, they increase eating disorders, excessive dieting and can even lower ones self-esteem all because they do not feel as physically attractive as â€Å"they should be†. In more ways than one, beauty pageants significantly impact young girl’s life as she develops into a woman. According to an article by Women’s News, the United States generates approximately 100,000 beauty pageants for young girls and approximately 2.5 million girls compete in them. For most pageants, children are entered into them as soon as they are able to sit up by themselves. This means that from a young age these girls learn that the worth of a person is solely based on appearance, thus enabling them into a vain and insecure individual in the future. Though these pageants host talent portions, they are often flooded with over promiscuous dance routines and outfits, throwing pageant kids into things that are not appropriate for their age. Sadly enough, not every girl that enters a beauty contest can win. So, their parents become very competitive and make them go through tanning, waxing and many make-up and hair sessions, to guarantee that they are the â€Å"best†. However, when these girls do lose, they believe that they were not good enough for the judges and lose all of their self-esteem. These pageant kids now become overly competitive and believe everything is about winning. And even worse, a high percentage of these pageant kids will engage in cosmetic and plastic surgery in the future to maintain their definition of beauty. In addition to low self-esteem, beauty pageants can create many bad habits including excessive dieting. Because the parents of these young girls are very obsessive with their children’s appearance they end up robbing them of their childhood. They are not able to grab a slice of pizza or even a kid’s meal because they are watching every calorie intake. These young girls are forced to go on crash diets, to gain energy and lose weight very quickly. Sadly, this creates a number of problems for their health such as impaired growth, menstrual irregularities, low blood pressure and impaired kidney functions. Unfortunately, many of these parents do not know exactly how they are impacting their children’s bodies. They are not only forming nutritional deficiencies but psychological issues too. According to the National Association of Eating Disorders, 90% of the time, girls who were forced to start a diet from a young age increase the frequency of taking extreme measures to continue a â€Å"perfect† figure, which is very destructive to one’s health. Excessive dieting can lead the way for a more harmful habit, eating disorders. In today’s society, 35% of â€Å"occasional dieters† progress into pathological dieting, (disordered eating) and as many as 25%, advance to full-blown eating disorders (Philadelphia Eating Disorder Examiner, July 2011). When these pageant kids grow into young women, they have all of their eggs stacked in one basket, which in this case will be the â€Å"looks department†. They are so used to concentrating on the external and superficial aspects of beauty that they cannot focus on reality. The longing to be thin like the supermodels on magazine covers, causes these pageant girls to go to extreme measures such as bulimia and anorexia. In one situation, a pageant girl as young as 6 years old was hospitalized with anorexia, which was linked to body image. This is not acceptable at all. But the blame cannot be solely placed on them. Their moms are so obsessed with their image; they allow their children to engage in these horrific activities. There is therefore no doubt that beauty pageants do no good for these kids. In closing, beauty pageants cause a great deal of problems for girls in the long run. These pageants are more likely to hurt one then to help one. These pageants are supposed to boost confidence, when in reality they ruin children’s lives and basically kill their mental beings. I believe that beauty pageants for kids are a form of child abuse. These mothers exploit their children, teaching them that there will always be a person better than them. This is unacceptable and beauty pageants need to be banned because beauty is not counterfeit. It is being confident in your own skin without the approval of others. The time for taking action has come.

Strategic business management planning

Strategic business management planning Introduction In this assignment I will be aiming to access, in a critical manner, the classic and contemporary models, concepts and tools in business strategy and planning. I will also be evaluating the methods used by organisations to identify their goals and values. I will be doing the above two in reference to the British bakery chain Greggs plc. 1) Manning (1988:27) made a set of assumptions about the contemporary concept and ideas of strategy, and in relation to Greggs plc they are: The strategy Greggs develops must be designed in order to allow the organisation to deal with an uncertain future. The strategy developed designs a restructuring process instead of a plan per se. The rules of competition with other bakery must be inherent in the strategy. Inspiration and imagination of Greggs allow better performance for them. Synthesis is the most important skill for Greggs. All discussions in the Greggs board room are followed by measurements, which in turn is managed. ‘Transformational is an executive management tactic. This involves combining Greggs organisational strategy and target with their initiatives for the employees, process and technology. This tactic helps in supporting the business strategy and achieving the long-term goals. This tactic is achieved by combining different areas of people, process and technology, and trying to achieve specific targets together; this involves changing appearance, shape and form, and also through new technology, business models and management practices. Incremental is a gradual increase by a certain (or fixed) amount. E.g. Greggs experienced the opposite of incremental (a decrement) as it had a gradual decrease in its profit margins from 2009 to 2010, and then continuing to 2011. However, they also had an increment as sales increased on a fixed percentage of 2.1% year on year. 2) Greggs uses various methods, as shown above, to achieve their targets. As a modern day organisations, it is fair to evaluate the success of those methods for Greggs. The strategy Greggs developed a few years back has surely failed to ensure it was designed for an uncertain future. This is evidenced by their fall in profits from  £52 million to  £48 million; they were not able to prepare for a future they were not sure of and thus had to face consequences. On the other hand, if Greggs initial strategy was to increase sales then they have indeed succeeded as they have experienced increases in sales of 2.1%. But, even so Greggs can still be taken to be a failure as it failed to increase profit. Therefore we can conclude the success of their strategies depends on exactly what they were, but either way Greggs have faltered. Transformational is visibly used by Greggs. This is evidenced by their use of newsletters to increase communication between employees; this will allow staff, starting from those in the lowest level to those in the most influential position, to be aware of the organisations target, as well as staying updated on any happenings around any other departments. This in turn will aid in motivating and inspiring staff to work harder together towards the common target. 3) The main differences between prescriptive and emergent theories in relation to Greggs plc are: Prescriptive approach, as used by Greggs, will be systematic and based upon pre analysis of future happenings in the bakery industry. But, emergent, in contradiction to that is, unplanned and develops over time as Greggs continually keeps adjusting to the changing business environment in the bakery market. In prescriptive, the executives of Greggs set the objectives, and design the organisation strategy. But, in the emergent approach, managers at any level (e.g. managers of local branches) are capable of having an input in setting the objective or strategy. The prescriptive approach supports analysis of the situation in the bakery market as a strong base for competitive advantage. But, the emergent approach supports Greggs expert knowledge as the basis for competitive advantage. The logical and analytical approach of the prescriptive allows Greggs to predict and revise their strategies in order to take advantage of any new opportunities that may come up. One example of this approach (in relation to another company) is when EasyJet correctly predicted and lowered their cost in order to gain an advantage in the cost-conscious European market. Whereas, the emergent approach allows a more creative and responsive strategy which can be well suited for a hyper-competitive and unpredictable business environment (as that in the food market). Examples of organisations (other than Greggs) that dont tie themselves to pre-designed objectives and strategies include big names such as Microsoft and Apple In todays organisations, like Greggs, the emergent approach would have a bigger relevance. The reason being the prescriptive model doesnt allow the contemporary style of allowing employees at the lower levels to make contributions to the decision made. As a result of such an approach employees become less motivated. 4) There are three types of goals. They act together to form the overall organisation goal. The three goals in relation to Greggs plc are: Strategic Goal (the targeted position Greggs intends to be in the future), Tactical Goal (the targets set for the most important departments within Greggs), and Organisational Goal (specific results expected from a certain department, groups or individuals). Goals help in designing the actions to be taken, and works best when clear choices exist regarding the future. But, in may not work properly if Greggs restructures at a fast rate. Every organisation has its own values, including Greggs. This values shape the Greggs culture and working environment. It helps in setting goals in line with the culture, and in increasing performance in key areas such as quality and customer service. Peter Druckers Eight Content Areas in Developing Goals are: Marketing Innovation Productivity Physical and financial resources Profitability Managerial   performance and development Worker performance and attitude Public responsibility One of the most important problems with goal and value setting is the failure of Greggs to think strategically. A common problem that occurs is that planners (i.e. the executives at Greggs) confuse organisational efficiency with organisational effectiveness. In doing so, they only look at internal matters and how to make things slightly better than they currently are. Ultimately, they end up without having solved potential threats, and without using their strengths to gain advantage. Steps to a progressive strategic thinking (in other words settings goals and values) are: Select the strategies that Greggs wants to implement. Strategies must focus with the restructuring of Greggs, as this aids in directing and sustaining changes. Strategies must be designed in order to allow adaptation to unexpected results. Use brainstorming techniques to allow fellow planners to contribute. While developing the strategy the planners (the executives at Greggs plc) must think whether it will allow a change in the organisation, as well as it was whether it was actually a strategic activity. Reconsider strategies that have failed in the past. Make sure to avoid conflicting strategies. Also, Greggs must take the following into considerations to ensure their strategies, targets and values are truly effective and dont contradict each other: The most important issues always present the most complicating problems. Therefore it is advisable to concentrate more on such matters. Continually question every idea to ensure clarity. Each of the strategies must be associated with currently running programs. 5) Stakeholders in Greggs plc have different interest, some of which are conflicting and some of which are in agreement. Examples of agreement include high profits (which leads to high dividends and job security), interest in growth and prosperity, etc. Examples of conflict include wage rises (which results in a decrease in dividends), growth of the organisation at the expense of short term profit and local community, etc. It cannot be taken that stakeholders have equality in terms of power and influence. Stakeholders can exert influence by disrupting and causing uncertainty in Greggs plans. However, Governments, community groups and managers can also exert influence; government can indirectly through the use of taxation, community groups through protests and violence, and managers as they make decisions and therefore hold extensive power. In conclusion, even though stakeholders on paper have greater influence and power, other individuals or groups can exert influence through indirect means and methods. However, if conflict or disagreement exists between stakeholders, than proportionality in the ownership of the company comes into effect, as those with the largest share are the most influence. 7) Strategic intent is the reason behind the existence of any organisation like Greggs. It forms a clear path to achieve the vision of the company. It helps to prioritise and concentrate on the important issues. The means of strategic intent are the following: A properly designed strategic intent allows development of strategies and setting of targets. Inspiring people by making targets a valuable asset. Encouraging participation and contribution. Careful direction of resources. Emphasises on building new resources. Strategic intent has certainly been used by Greggs in restricting their organisation. They have ensured participation, efficiency of resources and have developed a well thought strategy. This is clearly visible as their number of sales as increased in the past years. In conclusion, strategic intent is indeed a successful theory as seen by the success of Greggs due to their implementation of it. Mission statement states the importance behind the existence of Greggs. It explains the basic expectations, and the primary values of the company. The statement should be brief, to-the-point and easy to understand. Also, it should showcase the uniqueness of the organisation. Vision statement is how the organisation wishes to be in the future, in other words its future position. 8) Mission intent is a description of the role the organisation plays in serving their stakeholders.It provides a framework upon which strategies are formulated. The means of mission intent are the following: Produce a mission statement that is feasible and clear. A statement which is inspiring and credible. A statement which is unique and analytical. Greggs mission statement is â€Å"Making a difference to the lives of people in need in the heart of Greggs local communities.† It is a well-structured mission statement because it is feasible and very clear (to help the local communities), it is inspiring (helping others is always a motivating cause) and analytical (because it looks carefully at the specific needs of the community). And it certainly seemed to have succeeded as Greggs successfully raised money in aid of the local community, as well as ensuring to provide environmental friendly packaging for its products. In conclusion, the mission intent is an effective tool in creating a friendly and comfortable atmosphere and environment. It increases organisation profile and allows successful growth. Vision statement is a statement identifying what the organisation intends to be in providing its services and products. A well planned statement should be clear, realistic and should harmonize with the organisations culture and values. Greggs vision is â€Å"Our vision is to be Europes finest bakery-related retailer. Our purpose is the growth and development of a thriving business, operating with integrity, for the benefit and enjoyment of our people, customers, shareholders and the wider community.†It is a perfect vision statement as it is clear (grow into Europes finest bakery), realistic (it can almost be achieve as it continues to grow across Europe) and harmonize with the organisations culture and values (of support for the community). The fact Greggs clear vision has allowed it to become one of Europes biggest and fastest growing bakery shop, proves that vision intent is indeed an effective method. Objectives are targets that the organisation aims for in a certain time. The theory of objectives suggests they are: They are the basics of any plan. Policies are designed in order to achieve objectives. Setting objective is the responsibility the executives. It is common to have a set of objectives, rather than one single. Objectives are set in the short term, as well as long term. Objectives must be set in order to ensure they can be adjusted in the future if needed. The objectives must be feasible, realistic and operational. Greggs objective of being a ‘customer-focused business has certainly been a success, as seen from their increased sales and their growth. This proves that setting objective is indeed effective as it allows an organisation to meet their target in an organised manner. Conclusion: In conclusion, businesses now-a-days use all forms of models, concepts and tools, regardless of whether their classic or contemporary, to develop their strategy and plans, and do so in a successful manner so that the strategies and plans are both compatible for both the present and future situations that the Greggs might find themselves in. Also, the methods used by organisations like Greggs to identify their goals and values, are certainly effective and aids in developing and furthering growth for the company.

Nationalism and the French Revolution

Nationalism and the French Revolution The French Revolution is synonymous with nationalism. In fact, there can be little doubt that the concept of a nationalist revolution was born from the discord that built up in and around the periphery of France during the 1780’s. There was, however, little cohesion or malice aforethought with regards to events that took place after the storming of the Bastille in 1789. Rather than being a planned experiment in nationalism, the French Revolution should instead be interpreted as the result of pent up forces and frustrated political ambitions that had been fermenting in France and throughout Europe for the previous one hundred years. The nationalism of the revolution era was thus rare; a total kind of nationalist ideology that in theory was concerned with furthering the ambitions of ‘la patrie’ (the nation) but which in reality was too dynamic for its own good. The various modes of political office that dominated France over the forthcoming decades were wholly unpre cedented and unable to be contained within the national borders of France alone. As Bouloiseau declares, â€Å"the regime’s intentions were pure, but it lacked the means to put them into practice.†[1] For the purpose of perspective, the following examination of the role that nationalism played in the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars must adopt a chronological approach, attempting first to trace the genesis and subsequent evolution of the nationalist uprising before attempting to draw a definitive conclusion as to why the nature of the revolution was far too complex to be explained in simple ideological terms. First, however, a definition of nationalism within the specific historical context in which it was formed must be ascertained in order to establish a conceptual framework for the remainder of the discussion. Nationalism could not have emerged as a populist form of political ideology without there first having been the introduction of the paradigm of the ‘nation‑state’, which was first institutionalised after the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. France, Spain, Prussia, Switzerland, Holland and Sweden all signed treaties during the course of 1648 bringing to an end a variety of international conflicts that had beset the European continent for the previous eighty years. The treaty acknowledged the political legitimacy of states on the European mainland, giving rise in the process to the idea of international relations – the foundation of modern foreign policy. This was an important break with the past where relations between countries had been conducted via the historical continental monarchies and the ‘ancien regime’ that had governed feudal, pre‑industrial Europe for centuries. After 1648 the watershed notion had been implanted which suggested th at the rule of the old continental monarchies was coming to an end and that it would be the nation‑state that would become the determining factor in political affairs in Europe in the future. It is a significant point and one that should be borne in mind throughout the remainder of the discussion: without the Peace of Westphalia there could not have been a nationalist revolution, neither in France or anywhere else. Before it, it is difficult to conceive of nationalism in the modern form that is talked of today. The revolution itself was the result of a century of frustration that had built up around the inability to turn this new concept of the nation‑state into a political reality. For instance, despite the increasing urbanisation and industrialisation of the country the monarchy, nobility, aristocracy and the landowners continued to economically and politically dominate France throughout the opening decades of the eighteenth century. Moreover, as was the case with the last days of the Roman Empire, the behaviour of the traditional elite in France appeared to get more lavish and decadent with each passing year so that, by July 1789, France was absolutely ripe to experience what Marxists would understand as a ‘revolution from below’. The intellectuals and the bourgeoisie were able to use a variety of oratorical and politically inflammatory means of inciting the disaffected French masses into open rebellion at this time. One of these means was nationalism. By constantly c laiming that the monarchy and the nobility were destroying the cultural fabric of France, the leaders of the revolution (bourgeois men such as Maximilian Robespierre) were able to quickly turn a large‑scale riot into a wholesale nationalist revolution. In this sense, the dictatorship of Robespierre and The Terror that took effect from July 1793 to July 1794 should be seen as marking the birth of political modernity. â€Å"Robespierre is not so much the heir of Enlightenment as the product of the new system called Jacobinism, the beginning of modern politics.†[2] Modern politics in this instance is a pseudonym for nationalism, which after the French Revolution became the defining concept in European politics until the end of World War Two and the destruction of the Nazi State in 1945. Indeed, the link between the revolution, nationalism and what the twentieth century would come to understand as fascism must at this point be underscored. Fascism, much like the political dictators of the French Revolution, was only able to come to power via a protracted period of liberal decadence having taken place beforehand. Thus in much the same way as the leaders of the French Revolution right wing fascist leaders used nationalism as a means of highlighting the need to undergo a revolutionary national re‑birth; to attempt to form a phoenix from what they perceived as the ashes of political ineptitude and cultural decadence. â€Å"Fascism is a genus of political ideology whose mythic core in its various permutations is a palingenetic form of populist ultra-nationalism.†[3] The association with fascism is also useful for the way in which it spreads light on how the revolution was unable to be contained with the sovereign national borders of France alone. Like Nazism, nationalism in the context of the French Revolution was a highly unstable ideological solution to a long-term socio‑political problem. The revolution likewise required an external enemy in order to maintain popular support and political legitimacy. Thus, war became the lifeblood of the revolution as, during the course of the 1790’s the leaders of the French Revolution decided that it was no longer enough to have successfully removed from power the former political elite from France; rather, an expansion of the ideology and the means of putting that ideology into practice abroad became the raison d’à ªtre of the regime. â€Å"During the 1790’s the policies pursued by France undoubtedly contributed to mass political mobilisation elsewhere in Europe.†[4] The Napoleonic Wars which followed should be seen as the wars of nationalism which raged across the European continent over the following two decades. Yet there was a tangible sense of a faà §ade appearing whereby the French claimed to be conquering foreign territory in order to transfer the libertarian, enlightened principles of the revolution to lands that had hitherto not been afforded such a valuable political and social insight when in fact the struggles that Napoleon embarked upon across the continent were simply a means of affirming the French nationalists’ belief that they alone were the superior European race. Nowhere is this better illustrated than in the invasion of Russia – again a move that strikes immediate comparisons with Hitler and Nazi Germany. By crossing the Urals and moving into the realms of Russian authority, Napoleon finally discarded the mask of the revolution that he had so far been sporting. In no way could the take over of Russia be seen as anything other than the expression of nationalism over political theory. Russia at the time was still an almost entirely feudal country with no industrialisation to speak of even in the major towns and cities such as St. Petersburg. In addition, there was no sophisticated social class system to speak of which could have proved to be a launch pad for a nationalist revolution taking place in Russia on anything like the same scale that had happened in France. Therefore, the invasion was, in the final analysis, simply due to the will of Napoleon and the nationalistic French to increase the revolutionary empire by overcoming the historical pariah of European politics. Furthermore, just like all the other nationalist leaders who went before and came after him, Napoleon was ultimately proved to be incorrect: nationalism (as manifested by the Tsar and the Russian civilian population) was a force that was just as capable of defending a sovereign border territory as it was of invading and con quering it. Nationalism was clearly a double‑edged sword so far as France and Napoleon were concerned. Essentially, the more land the French army seized, the more the Prussians and the English revelled in their own forms of nationalism which were ignited in the first place by French aggression and sustained by the military ambitions of its dictatorial leader. It remains within the realms of conjecture as to whether or not the British Empire would have been established as rapidly and successfully as it was without the experience of the Napoleonic Wars to both inspire as well as crystallise it. There can be little doubt that the rivalry of the two (which had been meted out in the colonial wars that took place at the same time in North America and Canada) had been the result of a growing sense of tension due to the nascent nationalism of both countries. The French Revolution proved to be the catalyst behind the ultimate expression of this nationalistic warfare between the United Kingdom and France – a potent political concoction whose reside is still very much in evidence in the modern era. Mention at this point must be made of the ideological and philosophical impetus behind the French Revolution in order to manufacture an argument against the idea that the uprising was solely the revolt of nationalistic fervour, which it clearly was not. No seizure of power by a people over a ruling government can be anything other than the combination of a number of highly complex social, cultural, economic and political processes. The build up to the storming of the Bastille has been described as the golden age of Enlightenment – an epoch that oversaw the signing of the Declaration of the Rights of Man in America (July 1776), which signalled the notion of all men being born equal and of human beings having been born with certain rights that must be upheld by national and international law. This vision of liberalism that was sweeping across the early modern western world was not initially a vision that was inspired solely by nationalism. Certainly in the United States it is not possible to speak of a nationalist revolution simply because the thirteen colonies at that time consisted of such a mixture of European immigrants as to make the concept of a nation‑state wholly inadequate for the newly conceived ‘Americans.’ The ideal was, rather, a child of ideological and philosophical writings that emanated predominantly from France via contemporary cultural commentators such as Rousseau an d Voltaire. Again, these ideals did not accentuate the nationalism inherent within Enlightenment. Instead they promulgated an essentially socialist view of a new European order that was designed upon a kind of meritocracy rather than values pertaining to inheritance; where ability was seen as more important than historical connection. â€Å"Anyone who excels in something is always sure to be sought after, opportunities will present themselves and merit will do the rest.†[5] This inexorably socialist, libertarian seed that was first planted in what would become the French Revolution is a vital tool for understanding how nationalism alone cannot be seen as responsible for the events of 1789 and the ensuing wars which followed. The ideological impetus behind the revolution was one that genuinely envisaged a utopian new world order that would not be dictated by corrupt and inadequate people the likes of which had conspired to ruin France since the Middle Ages. The reasons as to why this ideal of a revolution from below turned into a large scale international war is entirely due to the make up of mankind, which is especially inclined to be corrupted by power and to look towards routes of making profit out of the conquer and subjugation of alien races. The point has been made before and it must be made again: this kind of overt nationalism that took control of France during the late eighteen and early nineteenth century was the driving force behind all interc ontinental relations over the following one hundred and fifty years. The French Revolution thus oversaw the beginnings of the reign of realpolitik when military might became the only means of maintaining dominance in a Europe increasingly influenced by cultural intolerance and overt political nationalism. Conclusion â€Å"1789 meant a revolution in ideas, in institutions and individual opportunities, which a quarter of a century of upheaval and war made irreversible.†[6] As the above quotation suggests, the revolution that took France by storm during the final years of the eighteenth century was an extremely potent political process that seemed to gather intensity as the success first of the bourgeois dictatorship of The Terror and second of the military dictatorship of Napoleon cemented the ideals of the Enlightenment upon the European mainland. However, although this process might have began as an expression of egalitarian views pertaining to the freedom of all men, the reality of the revolution was one that spoke volumes about the essentially violent nature of the human condition and the extent of the socio‑political frustrations that had been steadily rising since the middle of the previous century. The greatest beneficiary of this volatile mixture was without doubt nationalism – the only ideological force that was able to hold together the disparate aims and ideals that conspired to make up the French Revolution. Nationalism and th e defence of la patrie were used as rallying cries by the petty bourgeoisie, the revolutionary instigators of the Terror and the imperial machinations of the Napoleonic war machine. To what extent these people were successful in their aims of inciting a nationalist revolution remains an issue that still resides predominantly within the realms of conjecture. There certainly appears to be a major schism between the nationalism that gripped the streets of Paris and the other chief urban centres of France and the relative tranquillity of the rural areas of the country that largely retained their bonds both to the nobility and to the ancien regime in the years that immediately followed the revolution[7]. In the final analysis, the concept of la patrie meant very little to the uneducated proletariat working on the rural estates in the agrarian parts of the country where economic necessity took precedence over revolutionary rhetoric and nationalistic uprisings. This then suggests that nationalism is inexorably tied to industrialisation, urbanisation and the ability to wage mobile industrial warfare across a large land mass. This is exactly what happened one hundred and fifty years after the defeat of Napoleon at Waterloo when the distorted vision of nationalism that inspired the French Revolution came back to haunt Europe and the world on an unimaginable scale. BIBLIOGRAPHY Andress, D. (2005) The Terror: Civil War in the French Revolution London: Little, Brown Co. Bouloiseau, M. (1983) (translated by J. Mandelbaum), The Jacobin Republic, 1792‑1794 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Dann, O. and Dinwiddy, J.R. (1988) Nationalism in the Age of the French Revolution London: Continuum Furet, F. (1981) (translated by E. Forster), Interpreting the French Revolution Cambridge: Cambridge University Press Griffin, R. (1991) The Nature of Fascism London: Pinter Merriman, J. (2004) A History of Modern Europe Volume 2: From the French Revolution to the Present London: W.W. Norton Co. Pilbeam, P.M. (1995) Republicanism in Nineteenth Century France, 1814-1871 Basingstoke: Macmillan Rousseau, J-J (1971) (introduction and translated by J.M. Cohen) The Confessions London: Penguin Voltaire (1964) (introduction and translated by J. Butt) Zandig London: Penguin Zeldin, T. (1980) France 1848-1945: Intellect and Pride Oxford: Oxford University Press Selected Articles Biddis, M. (October 1994) Nationalism and the Moulding of Europe, in, Journal of the Historical Association, Volume 79, No. 257 London: Blackwell Footnotes [1] Bouloiseau, M. (1983) (translated by J. Mandelbaum), The Jacobin Republic, 1792‑1794 Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.227‑8 [2] Furet, F. (1981) (translated by E. Forster), Interpreting the French Revolution Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, p.204 [3] Griffin, R. (1991) The Nature of Fascism London: Pinter, p.26 [4] Biddis, M. (October 1994) Nationalism and the Moulding of Europe, in, Journal of the Historical Association, Volume 79, No. 257 London: Blackwell, p.416 [5] Rousseau, J-J (1971) (introduction and translated by J.M. Cohen), The Confessions London: Penguin, p.271 [6] Pilbeam, P.M. (1995) Republicanism in Nineteenth Century France, 1814-1871 Basingstoke: Macmillan, p.267 [7] Zeldin, T. (1980) France 1848-1945: Intellect and Pride Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.2-5

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Some people feel that their life is in their own hands and if they are terminally ill and do not want to suffer, they can end their own life. Assisted suicide or euthanasia is one way they can do it. The issue of assisted suicide has been a controversial one around the world for some time. Many think it is immoral and against the religious values, while others argue for the option to have a physician help to end his or her life painlessly. There is also another group of people who are terminally ill but trying to survive and keep their life longer as much as they can. These people usually spend their time in hospice and in an oncological unit. Suicide is the act of ending one's own life. It is literally called as self killing. As a matter of fact, this act is considered a very complex work particularly with regard to the reasons. However, there are a many different reasons which can lead people to commit suicide. Nowadays, suicide has become an important subject all over the world. That not only because it is a dangerous phenomenon which has an unfavourable effect on any society, but also because of the dramatic increase in the number of people who died as a result of suicide. Over the past ten to twenty years a big issue has been made over a person’s right to commit suicide or not. The American courts have had to deal with everything from assisted suicides to planned suicides. Also they had to deal with whether the constitution gives the American people the right to take their own lives or whether it says they have the power to allow someone else to take their lives. They have had to determine in some cases whether it was done for a reason such as insurance fraud. Euthanasia or assisted suicide is a very sensitive topic of today’s world. With the medical technology of today, it is possible to keep a person alive even if brain dead by the use of life support machines and other life sustaining equipment. The debate is that when a person is at a dead end, either in a coma or having been diagnosed with a terminal disease that ends in death, should that person be able to have the right to choose to die by an assisted suicide.

Forensic Scientists Essay -- Criminal Investigative Laboratories, DNA

â€Å"Even with the reliability of DNA examinations, forensic scientists need additional safeguards to ensure the significance of their findings are not over- or under-interpreted† (Willis, 2011, p77). While laboratory techniques for DNA recovery and profiling are well established in criminal investigative laboratories (Bond, et al, 2007, p129), it can be argued that a possible weakness of the use of national databases are understaffing and/or under training of investigators and laboratory staff. Standardization of testing, analysis, evaluation and result presentation to the courts such as that the jury may understand how many people in the population are possible to match the particular DNA profile. This allows the jury to decide on all information presented to direct judgment (Lincoln, 1997, p26). Walsh et al. derived â€Å"an inferential model for DNA database performance using data from major national DNA database programs in 2010 using the parameters that optimizes desirable database outputs as matches† (Walsh et al., 2010, p1556). Research has taken â€Å"important steps toward identifying measures of performance for forensic DNA database operations† (Walsh et al., 2010, p1556). With the expansion of the national DNA database, hit â€Å"rates will continue to increase as approximately 25,000 to 35,000 new arrestee and convicted offender DNA profiles are entered† monthly (Gabriel et al., 2009, p408). Proper use of national DNA databases will strengthen both laboratory and policy efforts with â€Å"standards that guard against bias and error† (NAS, 2009, p111). Regardless of methods, automation or legislation laboratories and criminal investigators involved in forensic sciences must maintain integrity and professional training to expect credibility... ...f how a sample is deemed suitable for entry into the National DNA Database. For example the FBI Criminal Justice Information Service Division (Wide Area Network) recognizes entry into the NDIS of a forensic profile requires a DNA profile to contain ten or more specific CODIS core loci (FBI, 2011). As of 2010, England maintains authority at a National level under Home Office and National DNA Database Strategy Board (FSS, 2010) to regulate NDNAD entries under seven of 10 core loci requirement. These regulations can often change as technology advances such as that in England new PCR kits allow for testing of 15 loci, and as such if DNA samples are capable of being individualized by an increased number of loci authorities will have to address the possibility of enhanced core loci regulations for entry into national databases, while other countries advance accordingly.

Amy Tan: The Joy Luck Club

The novel, The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan takes place in a couple of different places. All of Suyuan Woo’s childhood memories take place in China. After coming to America the setting takes place in San Francisco California in 1949. Also there are few different time frames. The time frames consist of the 1920’s to 1980’s. I have to give this timeframes because of the flashbacks that are given in the book. The characters that I believed are most fully developed are Jing-ming â€Å"June† Woo, Suyuan Woo, An-mei Hsu, Lindo Jong and Ying-ying St Clair. Jing-ming has taken her mother’s Suyuan place in the Joy Luck Club after she died. The members of the Joy Luck Club are planning to send June off to China so she can meet her twin sister her mother was trying to find before she died. When she reunites with her twin sisters, she gains a profound understanding of who her mother was. Suyuan Woo started the Joy Luck Club in China. She is the mother of June. Suyuan had to leave Kweilin because of a war. Suyuan was unable to continue her journey because she became weak. As a result she left her twin daughter on the side of the road in China. Despite her struggles she creates happiness and success where it lacking. An-mei Hsu, Lindo Jong, Ying-ying St Clair are all member of the Joy Luck Club. They all go through trail and tribulation. Trails, tribulation and life lessons that the mothers go through are past down to the children. The character that is most interesting to me is Suyuan. I chose Suyuan because she is a strong woman who refuses to focus on her hardships. She seems like a character who tries to find hope in time of despair. This quality is what I admire about Suyuan. I also believe I am most like Suyuan because I can relate to her fierce love for her child. She fears being estranged from her daughter for some reason such as different upbringings. I believe most parent can relate. Since I am parent I to worry about these things and do want the best for my children as well. Just like Suyuan I can be a little critical as well. The mood of this novel is perplexed, distressed, regretful and deferential. First the mothers all speaking in turn, remember clear memories with their relationships with their own mothers, and they worry that their daughters’ memories of them will never possess the same potency. Secondly when the daughters recall their childhood memories with their mother also supports my idea of the mood. And last when the daughter tell about their delimas in the adult life as they search for an answer which adventually bring them back to their mothers and their relationships begin to heal. The major conflict in this novel is the mothers are trying to instill in their daughter a part of their hertige. The daught take this a medley or their mother lack of american culture. But all the mother want to do is save their daughter from the pain and grief they felt as children. Both the mother and daughter struggles with their identies. The mothers try and reconcile the past is their present and the daughter are trying to find a positive balance between their loyaty to their heritage and some sort of independance. This is resolved when the bridge is gapped between two countries, two generation and two cultures. The ending to the story was very satisfying because June was able to find her inner Chinese identity. And doing that she built a bridge to her mother. June gives hope to all the other characters struggling for a stronger mother and daughter bond despite the culture, age and language differences. I think the author message has to do with finding your true identity and keep your family roots strong. I think despite language barriers, culture and generation gaps people should try even harder to understand each other. But I guess sometimes it take a lose to find something else. I would recommend this story to other people. But most to my daughter when she gets holder. I would hope that the story touches her heart like it touched mine and learn that we could recognize the gaps and bridge it up sooner than later.