Comparing Plan Columbia and the Merida Initiative

The purpose of this paper will be to make a comparison between the Colombian drug cartels at the turn of the century with the mexican cartels today. The object of this comparison will be to determine the effectiveness of large scale millitary intervention against drug cartels. I will assess weather this comparison is not only justified but in any way usefull in understanding how fight a well funded well armed non-state enemy. This is a response to public comments by high ranking United States officials making this comparison (most notably secretary of state Hillary Clinton) while pledging a significant amount of American resources to such an effort. I will also attempt to answer all of the various questions that are begged by this nature of action. Most people do not realize the sheer lucrativeness of the drug trafficking business especially on an industrial scale. â€Å"The (Mexican) cartels have built a network of dealers in 231 U. S. cities from coast to coast, taking in about $39 billion in sales annually, according to the U.  S. Justice Department. † (*1) To put that into perspective, In 2009 Canada's total annual military expenditure was just over half (21 billion USD) of the total annual profit of the Mexican drug cartels in the United States. (*2) Comparing Columbia and Mexico The 1st thing that is obvious when making this comparison is the fact that Mexico is over twice the size of Columbia both in land mass and in population. In terms of governance Columbia was in a state of profound political instability from as early as the 1940's while Mexico enjoyed a relatively stable PRI government following he Mexican civil war. Geographically the two countries have nothing in common but their proximity to each other. Mexico is a largely flat terrain that poses no real problems to transportation and offers little in the way of cover. By Contrast Columbia has a large mountainous area covered in tropical forests, the majority of the drug production takes place is these remote areas. From a governmental standpoint, the Colombian government is largely decentralized compared to the federal structure in Mexico. Due to the federal government and the larger tax base the Mexican government has some extra capacity when it comes to overall resources available before assistance. As far as the method in which the governments of these two countries approach dealing with traffickers is quite diffrent, Mexico has up until very recently preferred to use it's police forces to deal with drug traffickers while Colombian governments have preferred to use their military as a police force, which is more common in most Latin American countries. The Mexican Cartels There are essentially two major Cartel groups within Mexico that fight each other for a large piece of the drug trade. The first is made up of the Tijuana cartel and the Gulf cartel make up the first major group and operates primarily out of North of East Mexico. A group known as â€Å"The Federation† is made up of of many smaller cartels and â€Å"is led by representatives of the Sinaloa, Juarez and Valencia cartels†. (*3 p. 4) members of this group as scattered all throughout the rest of Mexico. Even though these groups are concentrated in certain areas there isn't a place in Mexico that is off limits to any of these groups. All of these groups operate independently and it is not uncommon for alliances to be fickle between drug traffickers. None of the Mexican drug trafficking organizations are known to have any political allegiances or stated long term goal other then to make money and control as much turf as possible in order to achieve that end while minimizing the damage to the people of their own groups. The Mexican cartels were not always as violent as they are today, the fall of the PRI along with a strengthening of the Mexican police force is said to have resulted in the upswing in violence. Another contributing factor the recent escalation in violence is that since the fall of Major Columbian cartels (replaced mostly by smaller scale operations) Mexico and it's drug trade began to have to fill the void that was left in the US market for a period of time, greatly strengthening their financial base and ability to purchase weapons and to employ a larger number of foot soldiers from poor communities (usually with family ties to promote increased loyalty to said group and a deeper anchor within the local community). Florida was actually the main entry point for drugs during the early 80's but the strengthening of the American navy and coastguard geared towards stopping smuggling led to Mexico becoming the transit point it is today. It is most important that though Mexican troops have been used largely due to the ineffective and corruption of the police department I would not classify it as a war. The army is simply there to do carry out the actions of a police force because he regular police for cannot be trusted. There is no way for either side to declare a complete victory. It is my opinion that even if every drug trafficker in Mexico dropped dead this morning there would be a new group forming to take it's place by nightfall and it wouldn't take them long to gain momentum capital and weapons. Likewise a drug gang can never truly triumph against the state without any political agenda. The majority of the murders are between rival gangs, though there have been many police officers and politicians killed the battle is essentially between the cartel groups and each other not with the state. The increased military strength is simply a self defence response. I would argue that if the Mexican cartels were 1 hegemonic group you would probably see at least a 10 fold drop in violent crime. Columbia at the hight of the culumbian drug trade You cant tell the story of the Columbia drug trade without talking about Pablo Escobar. In 1989 Forbes magazine estimated that was the 7th richest man the world with personal assets estimated at over 25 Billion dollars. This however is not what made him a unique, he was known as an extremely charitable man by many of the poor people in Columbia giving them land, housing, employment and even building football fields, building a lot of good will among the people something that you find little evidence of on the side of the Mexican cartels. The Medellin cartel he was a part of is thought to have controlled about 80% of the cocaine market in the early 1990's and was the most prominent of the Colombian cartels at the turn of the century. This cartel was rivalled by the Cali cartel who emerged largely due to weakening of their rivals the Medellin cartel. The biggest difference between Columbia at the turn of the century and the situation in Mexico today is the existence of the various guerrilla groups that existed in Columbia, many of which are still in existence. The lines are often blurred between these guerrilla groups and the drug traffickers themselves. The standard arrangement between these guerrillas and drug traffickers was essentially protection of traffickers' production and processing areas in exchange for a handsome percentage of the profits. The profitability on investment on cocaine grown in Columbia being about 200$ for every 1$ invested, there was more then enough capital to go around. The wars between these various guerrilla groups enveloped Columbia in a civil war since eginning in the 1960's, this was far before Columbia drug trafficking organizations began to collaborate with the leftist guerrillas. By comparison Mexican cartels have no real political allegiances, their allegiance is to the dollar and the dollar alone. The fact that the terrain in Columbia is so difficult and access to remote areas is much more easy to control, these various groups are able to hold territory much more effectively then the Drug Cartels in Me xico. The aspect of some of these guerrilla groups that really begins to attract the United State's attention for obvious reasons is their leftist/socialist ideology. The oldest and most notable of these groups is FARC or â€Å"The revolutionary armed forces of Columbia†. This group has been fighting the Colombian national army as well as â€Å"right wing paramilitaries†. At first glance the conflict between these two groups seems to be one for control over the Colombian drug trade and various areas of Columbia where drugs are produced. A closer look reveals a much more sinister reality. There are a number of noticeable irregularities in the accounts of the violence. Over the course of my reasearch I kept hearing certain terms to describe the columbian drug war that you dont hear when you read on the mexican drug war. Many mentions of human rights abuses as well as massacres with large numbers of innocent people being killed, you hear of much violence in mexico but are always termed â€Å"drug related murders† implying that those killed were afiliated in organized crime. When you take a closer look at the ‘right wing guerrillas', first of all it's just about imposible to find a video of any of their leaders with any kind of mission statement or anything of the sort, second you cannot find any documentation anywhere of any known ally. Now, you tell me how does a heavily armed paramilitary group, even with drug money, take part in over 30 years of civil war including alleged armed conflict against the US millitary, without any support from any government or even any other criminal organization? If everything where as it appears at 1st glance it results in a paradox, how does major international drug trafficking organization not even have ONE known ally/accomplice? It just doesn't make any sense purely on a business level. If you look up any of the Mexican cartels as well as FARC you can find known allies. Additionally, why is there a right wing guerrilla group for decades with a right wing government in power? Finally, Why is one side of the guerrillas (FARC) involved in negotiations with the Colombian government and not the other? Even if they were to sign a peace treaty they would still be at war. The conclusion that asking these questions leads you to is that the Paramilitary groups were actually an unofficial extension of the Colombian armed forces that traces it's roots back it's formation during the cold war where they were trained by US army officers in ‘tactics of counterinsurgency' at the School of the Americas, these tactics are said to specifically target the civilian population without the support of which the guerrillas cannot continue to function. This groups true purpose is to combat communist guerrillas by what ever means necessary. Statistics show that these right wing paramilitaries are responsible for 80's of the ‘political killings' in Colombia, which upon closer examination seem more like like acts of widespread political repression of the Colombian people spanning almost a half a century and crossing the line of human rights abuse with regularity virtually without any opposition from anyone internationally, opposed only domestically by FARC. Accounts from former Colombian army officers allege that the national Colombian armed forces maintained contact regularly with right wing paramilitary groups and directed them to many of the areas where they are accused of committing human rights atrocities. (*9) It has been alleged that the right wing paramilitaries acting in concert with the Colombian national army tried to remove the rural population from certain areas altogether forcing them to become urban refuges and further isolating the FARC forces. In 2005 Columbia had the 3rd largest internal refuge population in the world. Not only that but the paramilitaries are responsible for just as much if not more of the Colombian drug trade then FARC making ‘Plan Columbia' truely appear to be a futile action according to it's officially stated goals. Assessment of â€Å"Plan Columbia† 1998-2010 (lessons learned) Assessing the success of plan Columbia really depends on what you consider to be a success. If you consider the primary objective of the operation to be to simply return control of certain areas of Columbia back to the Colombian government then it would be considered a success. However, if the primary objective was to irradiate the drug trade recent statistics show that though production of cocaine in Columbia did take a severe hit in the early 2000's it has been on the Rise again since 2006. What this confirms is that the drug trade there has not ceased but in fact evolved to meet the challenges of a changed environment. Drug trafficking organizations today are still operating but simply doing it in a more discrete manner their predecessors. Another example of the evolution that ‘Plan Columbia' sparked is the guerrillas branching out to other sympathetic paramilitaries and paramilitary terrorist groups. Members of FARC have reportedly instituted the help of various allies IRA including the since the increased military pressure. An article in British newspaper The Telegraph (*8) highlights how the increased military presence in the countryside as well as an increase in the Colombian urban population has forced FARC forces to urbanize the way in which they conduct warfare. The article highlights significant advancements made by FARC in both explosives as well as counter intelligence and urban warfare. FARC is currently considered the most well armed well trained and well funded guerrilla group in the world. The destruction of crops which was on paper, the primary objective of ‘Plan Columbia' is something that is very temporary, unless you were to actually salt the earth there is nothing to prevent anybody from planting a new crop in the same place. The united states has increased the amount of toxic defoliant that is spays on Colombia and it's citizens every year of ‘Plan Columbia'. Many have made the comparison to agent orange in Vietnam. Many health problems have already been reported with relationship to the defoliant chemical and there are concerns that this chemical is starting to poison some the amazon basin and subsequently effecting other Latin American countries to the south. This defoliant kills all crops including the ones, many of the poorest peasants who grow bananas simply for subsistence have their whole crops destroyed on a regular basis. Some have raised the issue that perhaps this alone constitutes a grave human rights violation. A foreign power spraying toxic chemicals on the population of another is something that is unheard of in the past. The most inditing fact to the type of military action undertaken is most obviously that it has been a commitment that the United States has not been able pull back on after over 6 years no decrease in spending in this area is expected. Not only that but now that the Colombian drug traffickers have evolved we're seeing a resurgence in drug activity in the country. No matter how you look at it ‘Plan Colombia' was almost a complete failure, Colombian left wing guerrillas persist, drug use in the US has never been higher, cocaine production in Columbia is increasing. The only ay in which this operation is a success is that the overall violence seems to have died down and that in the paramilitary groups, which the US created in the 1st place have been disbanded and are no longer committing horrendous atrocities against innocent people for the sole purpose of turning public opinion against FARC. It might be viewed in that instance as a success, I was about half way into my research before I heard/read anything to do with FARC's side of the story. Venezuela, Ecuador and Cuba are the only counties to formally voice support for FARC. (*10) Evaluating the Merida Innitiative One the important things to know about the Merida initiative is that the entirety of the money (400 million to start) approved by the US congress all went to American companies, to train police, to build helicopters, not one dollar of the funding of this operation ends up in non-American hands. It is expected, as was the care with ‘Plan Columbia' that the United states will exclusively employ private American defence contractors to do all the work on the ground. The reason for this is not strong enough to justify the use and possible loss of American soldiers. Also use of American soldiers to fight an urban drug war such as the one in Mexico and might cause a PR nightmare if US Soldiers are viewed as firing on Mexican population, which the drug members of the cartels can hide in plain sight, unlike the Colombian guerrillas they are not in uniform. My investigation into ‘Plan Colombia' led me to the conclusion that the comparison made by the US secretary of defence between Colombia at the turn of the century and the Mexican drug war today to be a very poor and unjustified one. As previously stated I contend that the situation in Colombia was actually a war where as the Mexican situation is simply a police ineffectiveness issue. While the comparison between the who conflicts themselves is unjustified both ‘Plan Columbia' and ‘The Merida initiative' officially have a primary goal to reduce the outflow of drugs into the united states and can still be compared in that instance. The comparison is one that mostly highlights the extreme ineffectiveness not only in terms of result but in terms of cost of this kind of policy. It essentially doesn't solve any of the problems of drug trafficking. The demand in the US for drugs is the real source of this problem. Persistent Problems (police, penal system,banking) A continuing problem that has been acknowledged but not dealt with in any meaningful way in the fact that poor farmers who have been driven into poverty by the international agricultural business (and it's dominance by the west) have no better feasible options then to grow the plants that are converted into drugs. In ‘Plan Columbia' the Colombian government instituted a program to offer coca growers money to grow alternative crops, offering them a sum in the range of 2 million pesos a year (about 950$). *7) Many coca farmers argue is not enough to live. When growing coca (rather then crops such as plantains and Pineapples) not only is the crop worth more but the drug traffickers come right to their doors to pick up the ‘coca paste' they convert the plants to. When growing the crops they are being encouraged to grow they have to transport these tons of produce on â€Å"vehicles they don't have, on roads that don't exist to sell to markets both internal and external† that they don't have access to and to compete with an international aggro business . † (*7- 5:51) It' simply not a sound development plan. less then 20% of the Plan Columbia budget is allocated towards this end) instead the budget is spent on air fumigation spaying defoliant on coca cultures. Secondly the way that the penal system is set up just about everywhere in the world makes the incarceration of major drug lords almost completely futile, they still maintain control over their organization and administer it from prison. The leaders of the Tijuana and Gulf cartels made the agreement to unite while they were both in prison (*3 p. 4), consolidating their power against the rest of the cartels in the â€Å"The Federation†. There is also a persistent (though easilly remedied) problem that the Mexican prisons themselves are not able keep powerful people in there. In the last year alone over 250 prison inmates have been broken out of prison by cartels, most recently 191 were released from from a prison in Tamaulipas by the Los Zetas cartel. This creates even more problems on other fronts, it makes it alot harder to extract information from prisoners then it is in the united states. If an inmate believes it's only a matter of time before he gets out he has no reasons to co-operate in any way, no real threat to guard against. Finally, probably the most important continuing problem is money laundering, this allows for drug operations to run smoothly by giving it a seemingly legitimate flow of cash to use for Bribes, buying up legitimate real estate and other things. Without being able to access the real money of drug kingpins makes it hard to do them any real damage that wont easily be recovered from in a very short time. Many large US banks are complicit in this activity and it is a massive source of capital for them. An article from the Bloomberg press highlights the involvment of American banks such as Wachovia Corp. Bank of America and Wells Fargo's direct complicity in money laundering operations for the mexican cartels. â€Å"Wachovia admitted it didn’t do enough to spot illicit funds in handling 378. 4 billion for Mexican-currency-exchange houses from 2004 to 2007. † (*1) To say they didn't â€Å"do enough to spot† 378 billion dollars entering their bank is laughable. There have reportedly been some efforts to pass more stringent anti-money laundering laws which have met some oppostion from the banking lobby for obvious reasons. The police force continues to be a significant problem, all the training in the world still isn't going to stop corruption, even if a relative victory is acheived and the army pulls out it would seem to me only to be a matter of time before things return to their previous state. Possible solutions In order to fix the problems associated with prisons I think a simple solution would be to transfer people associated to drug cartels to offshore or even just send them to the other side of the world somewhere a pay country X to keep them in isolation. Reducing their ability to communicate is key. Something that I think the world may sooner or later move towards provided the proper technology be available is to curb the drug trade is simply an irradiation of hand held currency. Cash is what funds all of these organizations. This is why they have to launder drug money, it's dirty, you cant buy jet planes and like with cash. If you eliminate cash, how can anyone buy drugs illegally? You cant have a large elligal operation which risks lives dailey if people can only barter for your drugs and every legitimate product is purchased through some form of debit entirely controlled by the government. In conclusion I beleive that the Merida innitiative will probably succeed to a small degree in curbing violence but not the drug trade itself. I think it will be a costly (perhaps everlasting) failure as long as people are beating a dead horse with tactics that are proven not work. The more troubling aspect of this whole research paper for me is the notion that gets brought up by several in various documentaries I watched in doing research of the American government attempted to make security policy which violates many individual freedoms with respect to terrorism all encompassing. If you can keep enforcing the notion that the drug is on the same wavelength as terrorism it gives you the right to treat all people involved in drugs (about 80% of Americans at least once in a lifetime) as people involved in terrorism and produce a progressive erosion of civil liberties which some already believe has gone to far with legislation such as The Patriot Act. Operations in mexico and Colombia set a precedent for the United States intervening (without request in the case of mexico) in domestic affairs of it's neighbours using military force. I would also argue that much of this action could be perceived as just another extension of the US military industrial complex in action. References http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-06-29/banks-financing-mexico-s-drug-cartels-admitted-in-wells-fargo-s-u-s-deal.html http://www.policyalternatives.ca/sites/default/files/uploads/publications/reports/docs/Canadian%20Military%20Spending%202009.pdf http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL34215.pdf http://blogs.mcclatchydc.com/mexico/2010/12/jail-breaks-and-cartel-manpower-woes.html http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/1559348/IRA-training-haunts-Colombias-guerrilla-war.html http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB166/index.htm

Afternoon Tea Report

Sam Blandford Student number: 21184301 Tutor: Peter Cross Professional Pastry Techniques 1 Title: Afternoon Tea Report Contents Page Page Number Introduction3 Methodology4 Current trends5 The Science of Gluten6 Gluten free afternoon tea7 Conclusion10 Bibliography11 Introduction In this report investigations will be carried out to determine what the current trends in items served in afternoon teas are as well as the way in which afternoon tea is served. Other factors that will be looked at include the changing clientele of establishments that serve afternoon tea.The range in price and quality of afternoon teas around the country and the type of places that choose to offer afternoon tea will also be investigated. Now, afternoon tea has been around since the early nineteenth century when tea first started to become popular in the UK. It ‘s invention is often credited to the 7th Duchess of Bedford (http://www. teamuse. com/article_001203. html) who it is thought used it to stave of f a â€Å"mid afternoon sinking feeling†.This was most likely as a result of it being commonplace in these times to only eat 2 meals a day, Breakfast and dinner with dinner being commonly served as late as 9 in the evening. The solution to this was to have a small pot of tea, with a light snack, usually a sandwich or cake of some sort at around 4pm. This is still the traditional time for afternoon tea to be had and many afternoon teas are very careful to keep to traditional items when serving afternoon tea as it is seen as an important part of British history and culture.Some more modern places are keener to adapt and branch out as will be explained later on in the report. Methodology To carry out this investigation research would need to be carried out into what afternoon teas are available and how they vary depending on factors like location, type and price. To this it was concluded a number of establishments would be chosen in cities across the UK and investigate what they had to offer. To do this their websites would be looked at in the hope that they would give me some useful information regarding their afternoon tea menu without me having to visit them in person.This quickly became a problem as it became apparent that the main players in the afternoon tea market, such as the Ritz-Carlton and the Savoy, both of which at the most expensive range of the market had very vague menus for their sweet items on their afternoon tea menus. This could be to so that competitors do not know what they are selling but could also be that because from a business point of view, afternoon teas are a great way to use up anything that is left over.This could have been quite limiting however, after looking at cheaper places it was discovered that they offered far more detailed menu descriptions such as The Milestone and The Goring. Another thing that was looked at over the course of this investigation was the clientele that visit establishments that are serving afternoo n tea. It was discovered that an increasingly large amount of Japanese tourists are visiting afternoon tea establishments. This is because Japanese people are very keen on a sense of history according to the Japan times something that many British establishments excel at providing.This is according to the Japan Times which says: â€Å"What Japanese people tend to appreciate most about Britain is its sense of tradition. The idea of setting aside time in the afternoon for tea is attractive, since it appeals to the Japanese love of continuity† this clearly demonstrates why more and more Japanese people choose to eat afternoon tea, though this could also be down to their superior economy enabling them to have more disposable income to spend on things like afternoon tea. Other clientele areas that are increasingly choosing to eat afternoon tea are the so-called ladies who lunch.These are the kind of women who are wealthy enough to be able to afford afternoon tea on a regular basis and often do so in a large grop of similar women. However this can have a bad effect on their health as a recent study by Dr Anne McTiernan found that those who regularly eat lunch away from home are more likely to gain weight than those who eat at home as reported in a national newspaper (http://www. dailymail. co. uk/health/article-2172900/A-weighty-warning-ladies-lunch-Those-eat-regularly-lose-fewer-pounds. tml) this shows how the rise in afternoon teas popularity can have detrimental effects on peoples health. Current trends In recent times afternoon tea has had a resurgence in popularity in the UK after a period where it was seen as somewhat old fashioned and out of touch with modern times where fast food establishments are plentiful. It may be difficult to attain the reason for this but retailer Debenhams, who has reported a 119% profit increase over the last 2 years in the sales of china cups and saucers.This shows a massive increase in afternoon tea popularity fuelled large ly by the money of many wealthy Asian businessmen and women enjoying afternoon tea either in the UK or in Asia where many things from British culture are becoming very popular, such as private schooling. For example recently Wellington College in Berkshire was paid to build an exact replica of itself in the Chinese city of Tianjin. This shows how Asian economic growth has helped to popularise afternoon tea again in Britain as many Asian people see Britain as the ideal template for their own country.Other factors that have helped to encourage the boom in afternoon tea popularity are the increasing number of establishments that offer it now and at varying prices making it affordable for people with less disposable income. For example an afternoon tea at the Balmoral Hotel in Edinburgh is only ? 37 compared to ? 85. This shows how the more reasonable pricing of some afternoon teas can be a contributing factor in its booming popularity among both British and Foreign clientele. Something else that was noticed when looking at afternoon teas is the vast array of teas that are now available.One teashop that was looked researched in Cardiff had 300 teas on offer for service with an afternoon tea. This is different from when the first mention of afternoon tea came about where you were lucky if a handful of teas were on offer. The Science of Gluten. Gluten is a mixture of proteins that is found in many wheat-based products and other grains such as rye or oats. Gluten consists of two proteins gliadin and glutenin, which is mixed with starch in the endosperm of a wheat kernel.Together they make up 80% of the protein in wheat or other cereals gluten is useful in baking both breads and cakes as it gives the products elasticity and also allows them to keep their shape better. Gluten forms when glutenin molecules cross over creating a web like structure, which contributes to thickness and stretchiness of the dough. If yeast is added to the mixture it produces carbon dioxide bu bbles, which become trapped in the structure causing the dough to rise. Baking the dough solidifies the gluten, which along with starch helps to stabilise the shape of the product.Usually different flours are used in the production of breads to those of cakes and pastries as bread flour has a higher gluten content. This provides the stretchiness needed for good bread and pastry products, it is important to develop the gluten to just the right level or else the bread or pastry will either be too rubbery or too tough or to short, for example when making tartlets or other pastry products it is important not to work the dough too much as this risks developing the gluten too much resulting in a tough and chewy product rather than the more crispy product that is desired.Gluten is also used in the production of many imitation meat products such as Quorn and tofu as when gluten is cooked in a broth it produces a rubbery meat like texture. Gluten free afternoon tea. In doing this research gl uten free afternoon tea options available for those who suffer from coeliac disease were looked at. Many reviewers on online consumer sites found the food to be bland at tasteless particularly at the Ritz where many suggested that the ratio of topping to gluten free bread was far too excessive, many also found the pastry options to be far below the usual high standard that they expect.Others also commented on the poor quality of the Gluten free options and the snooty vibe of the waiting staff who they felt looked down on them because of their intolerance. However at other places such as Browns the gluten free options has been found to be almost identical to those that contained gluten, particularly the gluten free pastries. This lacking of taste from gluten free products is not uncommon as many products contain alternative flours and other ingredients that do not contain gluten such as potato flour and rice flour.These have a different taste to conventional flours and also have diff erent properties causing to both look and taste differently and usually inferior to products made with conventional flour. Currently few gluten free products exist that consistently come close to matching the flavour and texture of normal products such as Genius bread and Warburton’s who produce a variety of gluten free cakes. During the course of this investigation a number of products were thought up that were suitable for gluten free afternoon teas. One of these was a champagne jelly with a brandy syllabub cream and a frosted grape topping.This product was suitable for consumption by coeliac as it contained no wheat based products at all as its ingriedients consisted of   1 pint (570 ml) champagne or medium-dry sparkling white wine|   1 pint (570 ml) champagne or medium-dry sparkling white wine| 2 large lemons| 6 oz (175 g) caster sugar| 4 x 0. 4 oz (11 g) packs powdered gelatine| For the syllabub:| 2 tablespoons of the same wine as above| 1 tablespoon brandy| juice ? lemon| 1 oz (25 g) caster sugar| 5 fl oz (150 ml) double cream| For the frosted grape decoration:| 4-5 oz (110-150 g) seedless grapes| egg white| caster sugar| All these ingridients came to ? 13 for each quantity of ingridient. A rough diagram of this gluten free desert is shown below Champagne Jelly Syllabub Cream Bubbles Conclusion To conclude my report into afternoon teas it has been discovered that afternoon teas are coming back in a big way with celebrities helping to fuel the growth in demand for them. Also they have caught on abroad with Asia showing particular interest in them as they look to grow into a more developed country, perhaps basing that growth on culture much like the British did.Also it has been looked at the different options available for afternoon teas and how different the pricing strategies are for different levels of establishments. Another thing that has been noticed was the sheer variety of teas offered in some places and also a multitude of different cak e and bread mixes as well as sandwich fillings that are available for someone to have with afternoon tea today. Bibliography Tea  and tourism: tourists, traditions and transformations (L, Jolliffe, 2007 | | Teas  of the world (N,H Woodward, 1980) The  rough  guide  to London (R, Humphreys, B, Chaplin, 2008 7th edition) |

Database+Coursework Database 101

Area Film and Literary Society (MLFS) provide groups and events for local people. All participants must be members (who pay an annual fee) or their guests who may attend events. Fees vary from one group to another. In addition members may have a reduction in fees depending on their type of membership. For example Individual members pay 100% fees and Concessionary members pay 50%. There are also Household members and a special category called Friends of the Society. The Society hosts a number of groups which meet monthly.Members can join one or more groups; currently these include Film, Science, Reading and Poetry Groups. A paper record is held for each member, an example of which is given below. Member details| Event talents| Member No1022 NameJay PatelTelephone020 8888 3333AddressHigh Rd, London Member type Individual | Ability Code| Talent | | 01 Poetry 05 Science| membership records| Session (year)| Group code| Group name| CoordNo| CoordName| Feepaid| Date paid| 2007-2008| 01 | Po etry | 102| Carol Duffy| ? 0| 19/09/07| 2008-2009| 01 | Poetry | 102| Carol Duffy| ? 60| 02/09/08| 2008-2009| 06 | Reading| 111| Jane Austen| ? 75| 03/09/08| 2009-2010| 05 | Science| 181| Marie Curie| ? 90| 03/09/09| * | * | * | * | * | * | * | Note that the group code and the ability code are both based on the same domain of values. The latter represents members’ talents which the Society may make use of – this is described later. One group of a particular type (such as Poetry) will be run each year, assuming there are nine or more members who want to join a group.Each group is run by a coordinator, who may change from one year to the next. In addition to the above, the society holds the address and telephone number of each coordinator. Besides groups, the society also holds one-off special events, such as lectures, films, art exhibitions and musical evenings. Events do not relate to particular groups: they are open to all members and their guests and are organised by one of the coordinators. Events will be led by an outside speaker, or sometimes a member (who have special talents as shown in the example record above) will act as the speaker.Each event will have only one speaker (whether an outside speaker or a member speaker), but a speaker may speak at a number of events. Details will be held of the event name, the date, and venue and outside speakers (name and telephone number). The Society will keep records of members who attended events and the number of guests for each member per event. 1a) Entity-relationship model mapped to a relational database If you need to revise this topic, see Text Book Chapter 3. Produce an Entity-Relationship Model using UML notation for the above case.Convert to a relational model by specifying the primary and foreign keys, mapping any one-to-one relationships into relations, and decomposing any many-to-many relationships. This is the Relation diagram and the diagram which you should submit. Note that there is n o need to include the type of each attribute. State any assumptions that you may need to make particularly about optional and mandatory relationships. Note that assumptions are about how you have interpreted the scenario, not about the E-R modelling process. The ERD is not trivial – it involves at least 10 entities.I suggest you start by each member of your group concentrating on different parts of the ERD and then coming together to discuss. Remember: * databases hold historical information, not just details of current records * to work out cardinality of relationship use ‘two sentences each starting with the word one’ * check all attributes; they should be atomic (single-valued) * check primary/foreign key links (remember the foreign key goes on the ‘many side’) * decompose any m:n relationships 1b) Validate the model Checking for connection trapsExamine your model and identify one potential trap (fan trap or chasm trap) – if present. Consid er whether this may cause a problem to your model and re-draw if necessary, arguing your case either way. Supporting the functional requirements Validate the model to check it can support the following functional requirement i. e. specify the access path by listing the appropriate relations (taking into account the correct relationships) from your diagram: ‘List all members by name who have ever belonged to the Science group, who have a talent for music and have attended an event with Goldie as the outside speaker. ’

Teen in Transition. Impact of a Family Move Essay

Teen in Transition. Impact of a Family Move - Essay Example Experts consider moving to be one of the major stresses in life. Leaving behind friends, familiar places, and activities creates anxiety for everyone involved - parents included. And it's hard work to pack and prepare for a move and then settle into a new home. The reasons behind a move may be upsetting, too, and that can add to the stress. A parent may be forced to take a job in a new town because of company layoffs or staff reorganizations. Sometimes a death or divorce in the family can lead to a move, or the family may have to move to take care of a sick family member, such as a grandparent. Cognitive development refers to the development of the ability to think and reason. Adolescence (between 12 and 18 years of age) marks the beginning development of more complex thinking processes (also called formal logical operations) including abstract thinking (thinking about possibilities), the ability to reason from known principles (form own new ideas or questions), the ability to consider many points of view according to varying criteria (compare or debate ideas or opinions), and the ability to think about the process of thinking. Research by the National Institute of Mental Health suggests that "the brain goes through a dramatic period of development during puberty." (NIMH) During adolescence the developing teenager acquires the ability to think systematically about all logical relationships within a problem. The transition from concrete thinking to formal logical operations occurs over time. Each adolescent progresses at varying rates in developing his/her ability to think in more complex ways. Each adolescent develops his/her own view of the world. It is important to keep in mind in the "family moving" scenario that some adolescents may be able to apply logical operations to school work long before they are able to apply them to personal dilemmas. When emotional issues arise, they often interfere with an adolescent's ability to think in more complex ways. The ability to consider possibilities, as well as facts, may influence decision making, in either positive or negative ways. Like other early adolescents, Hayley has already begun to question authority and society standards prior to our move. She also has begun to form and verbalize her own thoughts and views on a variety of topics, usually more related to her own life, such as: which sports are better to play.; which groups are better to be included in; what personal appearances are desirable or attractive; and what parental rules should be changed. And, yes, also where it would be better for the family to live. Sometimes I long for the elementary school-age version of Hayley, when she had strong ties to her family and want to please her parents. The years between 11 and 14 are a transition between childhood and adulthood, and appropriately adolescents begin to feel the psychological urge to become more independent from their families. This is sometimes seen in an all-consuming interest in friends and teen hobbies. Early adolescents tend to form strong solitary, same-sex friendships. Hayley's friends were always coming over in our old neighborhood - city kids tend to run in and out of each other's homes quite a bit. But things are different here in the rural community where we have moved. Even when Hayley does start to

Television in UK Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Television in UK - Research Paper Example People over 65 spend five hours a day watching TV perhaps because certain channels are free for them. Most of the adults between 24 and 65 that spend time on the television, are not actually watching the programs or the ads but are doing some other work simultaneously like talking on the phone or surfing the internet. The three main activities that take up the day include sleeping working and watching TV and men are more likely to watch TV than women. Adults over the age of 16 spend under three hours watching the television and the 24-65 year olds fall under the same category of viewers. The following chart shows that watching television is the most common activity by most people in the UK: According to this, 66% of the adults between 25-64 years of age watch TV regularly, while a higher percentage watches the heritage TV among the 45-64 age groups than those between 25-44 age groups. With the reduction in television viewing, naturally the advertising on television also suffers. With switchover to digital TV all the households will have access to multi-channel and this will affect the viewing behavior. it is expected that over the next decade multi-channel TV viewer ship will increased while the BBC and the traditional channels will decline. It is expected that the position will be thus: UK television advertising is regulated when it comes to minutes per hour and hence the cost of advertising increases. The TV advertising market has two differentiated products - advertising on the traditional commercial channels (Channels 3, 4 and 5) and the multi-channels which includes all other commercial channels. Due to economic conditions and declining audiences, the advertising revenues have declined. There has been a shift from traditional channel viewing to commercial multi-channel viewing which has also impacted the value of TV advertising revenues. The TV has also reduced in its attractiveness as an advertising medium. Because of declining audiences the price of traditional channel advertising has received a boost which means it costs more to deliver to the same audience (PWC, 2006). The advertising budget remains the same but the impacts are fewer. At the same the trend towards watching multi channels is increasing and hence the costs become spread out. The cost of 30 seconds of television advertising now costs just '4.81 per thousand adults and this works out to 29pc cheaper than in 2000 (Mason, 2008). Digital spin-off channels are expected to increase their advertising revenue by ten percent but this will not be able to compensate for the terrestrial channel advertising like the ITYV1, channel 4 and channel 5. The most popular and traditional TV channels are ITV1, Channel 4 and Five and the cost of advertising is the highest for ITV1. Some of the most popular TV channels with the cost of advertising are: * itv1 + GMTV 48.5p * BBC ONE 35p * Channel 4 18.7p * Sat and cable 16.8p * BBC TWO 12p * five 7.7p * BBC THREE 2.5p * BBC FOUR 1.3p * S4C 0.3p Source: Glen, n.d. The television advertising revenue is expected to fall for all channels and by 6 and 7% for channels

A Critique of the relationship between power and desire in Foucaults Essay - 1

A Critique of the relationship between power and desire in Foucaults analyses of the Repressive Hypothesis - Essay Example Sexuality was gradually divided into smaller pockets of desire, and some preferences isolated as ‘perversions’. At the same time, the ethics of the confessional made it seem necessary to analyse and judge every sexual preference; power was created in this way for the benefit of the listener; in exchange the teller gained a system of knowledge, and the release of discourse. Power remained linked to sexuality through discourse and the importance of knowledge. The eighteenth and nineteenth century saw the classification of women’s bodies as ‘hysterical’, children’s bodies as ‘innocent’, family bodies as ‘ritual’ and ‘social’ and abnormal bodies as ‘medical’. â€Å"A sexuality without sex†: Paedophilia and the problem of repression in the current age. Feminists and Foucault: problems and sympathies. Male-repression, chosen sexuality, and the problems of sexual liberation movements; rebellio n and convention: is there a sexual difference? Controlling the body. Conclusion. Michel Foucault has become one of the most influential of the French philosophers of the twentieth century. While Foucault has been connected with both the postmodernist and post-structuralist movements, he was in essence a social theorist and historian, not unlike Lawrence Stone, although Foucault worked more on the interplay of ideas, while Stone concentrated more upon the impact of social alterations on family, sexual relationships, and society at large. While some may wish to study their fellow humans and as ‘does such a thing as human nature exist?’, Foucault instead concentrates upon how the idea of human nature has interacted with other parts of society. In order to truly comprehend what it is that Foucault is saying about power and desire within repression, and (even harder) understand what he means by these terms, the reader must have some understanding of Foucault’s

Biography of Immanuel Kant Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Biography of Immanuel Kant - Essay Example This paper illustrates that one of Kant’s important works include, the critique of Pure Reason, which was aimed at explaining the association between human experiences and reason. By undertaking this project, Kant hoped that he could manage to go past what had been thought as the failures in metaphysics and traditional philosophy. In this project, he had purposed to end what had been long considered as a period of speculative theories regarding human experiences while at the same time, opposing the cynicism of some of the great thinkers. Immanuel was born in Konigsberg town of Prussia in Russia in 1724, is the fourth in a family of nine. After baptism, he changed his name from Emanuel to Immanuel after having been introduced to Hebrew studies. In his early career life, Kant worked as a tutor in the town of Judtschen, which is now Veselovka between 1750 and 1754. His father, George Kant, was a harnessmaker who resided in Memel between 1682 and 1746. In his youthful time, Kant w as sold even though an unspectacular student. He was raised in a pietist family that was devoted to religious devotion, literal reading, and interpretation as well as personal humility, which was based on the teachings of the Bible. In his upbringing, he got a stern kind of education, which was very punitive, strict and full of discipline in which preference was given to religious instructions in Latin as opposed to science and mathematics. Despite the fact that Kant was raised in a Christian background and believed in God, he became skeptical about religion as he grew up later in life. Following this development, many people tagged him agnostic. Kant is renowned for his particular contributions I the fields of metaphysics and ethics, however, he was also helpful in providing important insights into various disciplines as well. Kant was instrumental in developing one of the most important discoveries about the origin of the earth and its rotation. In this discovery, he earned a glob al prize from Berlin Academy in 1754.

Bullying Causes School Violence Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words

Bullying Causes School Violence - Research Paper Example Bullying involves â€Å"a person’s or a group’s intentional and hurtful action towards one person or more than one person and involves a complex interplay of dominance and social status† (Sutton, Smith, & Swettenham, 1999). Physical violence, slander, and verbal intimidation are just of the few manifestations of bullying. Incidence of bullying are so prevalent in schools that a national estimate of more than 1.5 million students bullying and being bullied on a weekly basis in the United States (Nansel et. al., 2001). By surveying more than 15, 000 students in grades 6 through 10, the researchers found that one in seven students is either a bully or victim. This research was also supported by different self-methodological reports which generally yields that a wide range of bullying prevalence estimated with as many as 75% of youth reported that they are being the target of peer harassment at least occasionally (Olweus, 1993; Cowie & Dawn, 2004; and Sanders & Phye, 2004). Such harassment may include physical contact, verbal assault, making obscene gestures or facial expressions, and being intentionally excluded. Although numerous programs have been created to decrease the violence and harassment occurring at school, there are indications from numerous studies that provide startling results about the frequency of bullying in schools. Such statistics suggest that bullying is quite common and not decreasing (Olweus, 1991; Glew et. al., 1997, and Bradley & Daniels, 2011). Because of this, there is a need to examine the implications of aggression, violence, and bullying among children and young adults across the country. Reactive and Proactive Bullying Because of the growing concerns of the prevalence of bullying in schools, researchers have begun to distinguish... This report approves that bullying is a serious matter involving a substantial number of students. No one knows at this point exactly what caused students such as Charles Andrew Williams, Eric Harris, Dylan Klebold, and Cho Seung-Hui others to shoot and kill their fellow students at school, but bullying is frequently mentioned as a possible contributor. The report released by U.S. Secret service that two thirds of school shootings have been caused by attackers who experienced bullying clearly showed how grave the bullying climate at US schools is. This essay makes a conclusion that bullying may be a barrier that impedes effectiveness of teaching, the primary mission of school personnel, yet recent studies found that evidence-based, whole-school approaches to bullying are rarely implemented in elementary schools. Implementing anti-bullying interventions in the elementary years, before bullying becomes a part of school culture, might improve schools’ ability to carry out their educational mission by improving students’ ability to focus on learning and establishing an atmosphere of respect early on. Well-conducted, comprehensive bullying prevention programs can be effective in reducing the number of bullying incidents and creating a climate that discourages bullying behavior. We should begin to look at bullying as a behavior fraught with inherent violence that can contribute to a horrific cycle of mayhem and at its worst, death of school children in the country. The information presented in this paper provides additional evidence of the need for elementary school personnel to implement bullying prevention programs, not only to prevent school shootings but also to prevent potential barriers to providing education: student feelings of lack of safety, belonging, and sadness.

Human Resource Management Positive Discipline Policy Essay

Human Resource Management Positive Discipline Policy - Essay Example Additionally, by creating a policy which is applicable to a blanket range of offenses against the company or the company’s clients, the employees as well as the owners do not have to go through a debate process of judging the level of the offense and the level of the punishment or reprimand. Coming in late to work is certainly an offence but it seldom mandates the same level of punishment as would the act of stealing from a client or a complete breakdown in security protocols for an organization dealing with sensitive information or material (Ploskina, 2001). By having a policy for employee discipline, both the company and the employees are protected from being harmed. It can be argued that this is not the best policy but it can be shown that due to its common acceptance and the use of similar policies across many different companies it is familiar to a lot of workers. This can be very useful since workers would not have to be explained the procedures every time this policy is applied. For the majority of employees the knowledge of the three strikes system would be more or less ingrained and those who would like to get the details about the policy can simply read the document to get answers for any questions that they may have. Secondly, the policy saves a lot of time and money for a company in terms of being compliant with different government regulations as per the Sarbanes-Oxley Act or the HIPAA regulations since the employee discipline and fiduciary responsibilities mandated by these regulations can be internalized in the policy rules. By internalizing the applicable government regulations and using discipline methods used and recommended by the government e.g. zero tolerance for certain offenses and three strikes for others, the company can reduce the cost of compliance (Lundquist, 2005). McManus (2006) takes an interesting view of rules, regulations and discipline policies like the one used by us and says

Improving Health Insurance Market from Nursing Perspective Term Paper

Improving Health Insurance Market from Nursing Perspective - Term Paper Example This search for lower costs in the labor for providing these services will translate into nursing services taking up additional responsibilities in the providing of health care services at least in the community settings. Though not all medical professionals agree to the taking up additional responsibilities by nursing services in the provision of healthcare services, nevertheless there is enough evidence to show that there is no deficiency in the quality of healthcare services provided by nursing services in nursing independent care settings. Reducing costs of health care and providing more access to health as the means to improving the healthcare insurance market will require a greater role for nursing services and quite likely as independent services in the community settings. In conclusion, health insurance started in America in the 1930s under skepticism on its success. Since that time health insurance has become the way by which people meet the costs of health care needs. Howev er, this growth has come at the cost of high costs of health care and the poor accessibility to health care. Factors intrinsic and extrinsic to the health insurance industry have led to this situation in the healthcare industry, which has led to the need of the hour being improvements in the healthcare insurance market, with particular emphasis on lowering health care costs and enhancing access. Nursing services can and will play an important role in the efforts to improve the health insurance market.... nwards private insurers did provide accident, burial, and sickness policies, while some of the railroad, mining, and timber companies provided workplace health benefits. However, health insurance in its complete form and in an organized manner took root from the 1930s onwards. Against a backdrop of skepticism prior to World War II of a greater proportion of commercial insurers that hospital and medical costs were an insurable risk, health insurers did offer accident, burial and in America became a reality through the efforts of Blue Cross in the mid 1930s. The success that Blue cross achieved in its health insurance offerings brought competitors into play to share in the health insurance pie in America. This rising potent competition resulted in the erosion of market share of Blue Cross and changed the competitive scenario of the health insurance market. The health insurance market now consisted of the non-profit organizations of Blue Cross or Blue Shield and the for-profit commercia l health insurers (Austin & Hungerford, 2009). Towards the end of the 1950s health insurance had become a standard component of the compensation offered by most of the large employers in America. The Federal Employees Health Benefits Plan (FEHBP) which was created by Congress made available to federal workers across the country Blue Cross and Blue Shield health insurance benefits. However, this was the period of time when for the first time a sharp increase in health care costs were experienced. Fuelling this were several reasons that included emergence of new hospitals; growing capital intensity for providing inpatient care; the change from, flat-rate per diem reimbursement for hospitals to full cost payment; and the widening of health insurance benefits that enhanced the ability of

Poetry Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Poetry - Coursework Example 2. On a Sunday evening, the cars that spent relaxation time in the countryside return to the city to bring their passengers back to work/school again. 3. Children play ragball on the streets on a Saturday afternoon. 4. Yes, the speaker is in the poem content. The speaker constantly refers to her/himself in the first person (i.e. I). S/he, for instance, â€Å"have done [the] laundry,† is â€Å"sitting by the window,† etc. Little Rich Boy 1. The little rich boy visits the speaker because he wants something from the speaker which his rich father can't give him. It was â€Å"something more solid, something more – substantial.† 2. The boy receives something to suck, chew, and blow out in balloons - a gum, perhaps. 3. The speaker gives the boy the twist. 4. The boy didn't want the twist at first because he thought it was a cane, belt, or whip – things associated with physical punishment. A shumba is a kind of growling monster. Other Questions 1. The autho r employed language in a way that makes the poem accessible and easy to follow. Most of the words used are simple and have direct, literal meanings. The poem flows seamlessly from one word to another and from one sentence to the next, because of the simple vocabulary used. As a result, literal interpretations are easily obtained after reading the entire poem.

Holmes and Watson Essay Example for Free

Holmes and Watson Essay Holmes requires Watson for companionship, for company, but more importantly as a sort of bodyguard, someone who will protect him. We have already seen, for example, how Holmes always lets Watson take the gun, for he himself does not want to be directly involved in any sort of violence. Holmes also bounces all of his theories and assumption of Watson, to see what his opinion is in the matter What do you make it Watson He would ask, just to see what Watson thought of the whole situation. Watson is someone who is not as clever or imaginative as Holmes, so he needs to follow Holmes lead, watching what Holmes does. Watson can be seen as the foil of the sword, Holmes being the tip of the sword. You can see that they both need each other to function efficiently, or neither work as well. Watson, although he doesnt always have an important role in the stories, still has a important role because he is the narrator of the story, which means he is the link which connects us to Holmes world and he is the one who shows us the character of Holmes. At the start of the Speckled Band, we see the intimacy of these two friends I woke one morning to find Sherlock Holmes standing, fully dressed, by the side of my bed. This scene shows how close the two friends are, and shows that their relationship as one which is very intimate, very close. When Holmes introduces Watson here, he shows us that he regards Watson here as an equal telling Mrs Hudson that This is my intimate friend and associate, Dr Watson before whom you can speak as freely as before myself. Whilst Holmes doesnt always regard Watson as an equal, perhaps this a time were he does. Watson is sort of a sound board that Holmes can relay his ideas off of, often asking for Watsons opinion. He does this perhaps so that he can see if Watson does or does not agree with him, or perhaps so that we can here what Holmes makes of it. Another reason why Watson is our link towards Sherlock Holmes, why Watson is so very Important. During the Speckled band Watson is beside Holmes to protect Holmes form danger, in particular Dr Grimsby Roylott. There relationship in all of the stories is pretty similar, with Watson simply observing Holmess actions, whilst adding in personal thoughts of his own. Holmes and Watson are a team however, they solve the cases together. Although Holmes will sometimes not always require Watsons protection, but also even some ideas What do you make of that Watson? Watson for example, during the adventure of The Silver Blaze figures out something which Holmes could not see The Horse was alone before discovers Watson as he notices a mans tracks alongside the horses. Whilst Watson can figure out certain things for himself, he like Sergeant Gregory lacks the imagination that Holmes has. This is often why Watson can not see beyond the picture, and therefore cannot discover things as quickly as Holmes. Holmes and Watson used to live as bachelors until Holmes got married in Which shows that their relationship may not of only have grown so intimate during their adventures, but also because the were living together. Also at the start of the Sliver Blaze and the Speckled band, we clearly see just from picturing the seen how close they are. In the speckled band Holmes is standing next to Watsons bed apologising from waking him. In the silver blaze, they are sitting down together having breakfast with each other. These scenes show that they have a very deep relationship. Watsons marriage also affects their relationship because it means that they no longer live with each other and therefore may have grown apart. The conclusion of my studies shows that Holmes and Watson are more than simply associate. They have an intimate and deep friendship, which is strengthened through their adventures together. Holmes and Watson work best during the investigations together, combining their different qualities and strengths to help them solve the case. Holmes in the relationship is the more dominant figure, intellectually smarter than Holmes and mainly contributing to the case itself using his powerful powers of observation and imagination. Watson however, is more down to Earth and his role is to assist Holmes by protection (carrying the gun, accompanying Holmes) and being the link between Holmes and us. He is also there perhaps to keep Holmes and check, for when he worries about Holmes smoking. Show preview only The above preview is unformatted text This student written piece of work is one of many that can be found in our GCSE Arthur Conan Doyle section.

Case Study: Liver Disease and Hepatitis B

Case Study: Liver Disease and Hepatitis B Case study   Ã¢â‚¬â€œ Liver Disease Introduction A 60 year old woman with a history of hepatitis B and cirrhosis presents with oedema and constipation. The GP takes the following tests on her and these are the results. Albumin 30g/L Platelet count Alpha – fetoprotein 450 ng/mL Test results The test results can be used for analysis to clarify what disease the 60 year old woman has, and by linking her symptoms with the test results. Hepatitis B is a virus that affects the liver, chronic hepatitis can develop without proper treatment. Having hepatitis B will eventually cause scarring to the liver which is known as cirrhosis. The 60 year old woman has developed Chronic hepatitis, the hepatitis is ongoing and serious, this will eventually cause the liver tissue to produce scares and stop functioning as it should .A liver biopsy (tissue sample) can be taken to find out how serious the hepatitis is. One of the function of the liver is to produce a protein called albumin, having liver cirrhosis will cause permanent damage to the liver and when this happens the liver will find it had to produce albumin.(Aspinall et al 2011:Pubmed) Albumin is a protein that is made by the liver which measures the exact amount of protein in the clear liquid portion in blood. The test is usually t aken place to determine whether a person has a sort of liver or kidney disease which is the main reason why the test was carried out. The normal range in human is between 3.4 – 5.4g/dL. The woman’s albumin level shows that it is below average, low albumin may cause oedema which is a symptom that the woman is experiencing. Cirrhosis results in an increase in fluid retention. Cirrhosis also leads to low levels of albumin and other proteins in the blood which could also be the cause of oedema. (Gupta and Lis, 2010) Platelet count determines the amount of platelet in the blood, normal adults produce 1 x10^11 platelets every day, portal hypertension is a complication of cirrhosis of the liver. Portal hypertension always takes place in the liver at all times, an increase in the pressure within the portal vein is caused by barrier of the blood flow to through the liver (Kotoh et al 2012). Portal hypertension causes symptoms to patients that are linked to their liver disease which could be hepatitis B,C or cirrhosis, patients that have cirrhosis had a very high chance of developing portal hypertension and it was increase over years. Patients who have portal hypertension usually have low platelet count which is the case of the 60 year old woman whose platelet count is Alpha fetoprotein is a protein that is found in the liver, it is considered a tumour marker for liver cancer, the test may be done to diagnose possible liver diseases. The normal values in males or non-pregnant females is generally less than 40 micrograms/litre.High levels of alpha-fetoprotein indicates that there could be liver cancer which is the key factor which shows that there is something wrong with the liver.If your AFP level is unusually high but you are not pregnant, it may indicate the presence of certaincancers or liverconditions.so a liver transplant could be an option for the woman. In adults, high blood levels can be a sign of certain types of cancer, including liver cancer. (Alejandro et al, 2012) Symptoms and Diagnosis Constipation is a liver related issue, in this case It was most likely caused by her progressing tumour formation this may press on her digestive system causing constipation, having cirrhosis may also not allow her to properly digest fatty lipids because her bile might possibly be blocked resulting in constipation.  Hypothyroidism  can cause constipation. Blood tests to check thyroid hormones / TSH will help in diagnosing hypothyroidism. Oedema is swelling that is caused by fluid trapped in the bodies tissues, oedema can be a sign of lots of things including malnourishment and low albumin level in the blood and the woman’s albumin level is below average these are the results of having liver failure and cirrhosis. Having history of cirrhosis is the main reason she has oedema. (Gaw et al 2013) Because of the woman’s age cancer would need to be tested for cancer as old people are much more prone to have cancer. Albumin is produced by the liver meaning that her liver is affected inducting liver cancer. Some patients with chronic liver diseases are more likely to develop thyroiditis, hyperthyroidism or hypothyroidism through autoimmune mechanisms (Huang, Liaw 2008). The woman may have Hepatocellular Carcinoma (HCC) which is most common and popular type of liver cancer. The main risk factors associated with HCC are hepatitis B,C and cirrhosis which the woman has a history of. HCC develops in patients with chronic liver disease and patients with cirrhosis are more likely to develop HCC and people over the age of 50 are more likely to develop HCC. The most common diseases that affects the liver are cirrhosis and hepatitis (Marshall and Bangert 2008). HCC is a serious disease in which alpha-fetoprotein will be elevated in a person, alpha-fetoprotein is a gene that becomes expressed when lots of damage has occurred to the liver in HCC. The normal range for AFP is 10-20 ng/mL.A level of >400 ng/mL may be regarded as diagnostic for HCC by some. Further tests A test that can be proposed is an ultrasound of the liver, an ultrasound test uses sound waves to create pictures and to see what is going on with organs inside the body. If any tumours are found in the liver then this can be furthered to test for cancer. An MRI scan can be useful for looking at liver cancers, MRI are sometimes good at telling which cancers are a tumour. Another tests that can be carried out is biopsy which involves actually taking the tumour and inspecting it under the microscope for further analysis which is likely to be more effective and reliable. Alanine aminotransferase(ALT)An alanine aminotransferase (ALT) test measures the amount of this  enzyme  in the blood. ALT is found mainly in the  liver, ALT is measured to see if the liver is damaged or diseased. Low levels of ALT are normally found in the blood. But when the liver is damaged or diseased, it releases ALT into the bloodstream, which makes ALT levels go up. Most increases in ALT levels are caused b y liver damage. Treatment and Prognosis Some treatment for HCC can include a liver transplant or surgery which can remove small or small-growing tumours.Sorafenib tosylate (Nexavar), which is an oral medication can be taken to block and stops tumour from growing.The prognosis is often poor, because only 10 20% of hepatocellular carcinomas can be removed completely using surgery. Radio frequency ablation can be used to kill cancerous cells. If the cancer cannot successfully be removed or killed, the disease is usually deadly within 3 6 months. However, this is not always the case as everybody is difference and so on some occasions people will survive much longer than 6 months. (Forner at al 2012: Pubmed) References Alejandro Forner, Josep M Llovet, Dr Jordi Bruix. (2012). The Lancet.  Hepatology. 379 (9822), P1245–1255. Allan Gaw, Michael J. Murphy, Rajeev Srivastava, Robert A. Cowan, Denis St. J. OReilly. (2013).  Clinical Biochemistry. 5th ed. London: Churchill Livingstone. p197-202. Aspinall EJ, Hawkins G, Fraser A, Hutchinson SJ, Goldberg D.. (2011). Pubmed:  Occupational Medicine. 8 (2), p531-540. Digant Gupta and Christopher G Lis. (2010). Nutrition Journal. Pubmed:  Pretreatment serum albumin as a predictor of cancer survival: A systematic review of the epidemiological literature. 9 (69), p112-120. Feldman M, Friedman LS, Brandt LJ, Pratt DS (2010).  Liver chemistry and function tests. 9th ed. Philadelphia: Saunders Elsevie. p436-450. Kazuhiro Kotoh, Marie Fukushima, Yuki Horikawa, Shinsaku Yamashita, Motoyuki Kohjima, Makoto Nakamuta, Munechika EnjojiJanuary. (2012). Experimental and theurapitcal mediine.  Serum albumin is present at higher levels in alcoholic liver cirrhosis as compared to HCV-related cirrhosis. 3 (1), p166-170. Miau-Ju Huang and Yun-Fan Liaw. (2008). Wiley Online Library.  Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology. 10 (3), P237–364. William J Marshall, Stephen K Bangert (2008).  Clinical chemistry. 6th ed. Edinburgh: Mosby Elsevier. p40-50.

Elements Of Culture Corporate Artifacts Commerce Essay

Elements Of Culture Corporate Artifacts Commerce Essay Experienced captains know that navigating uncharted sea should be pay more attention to observe, analyze to predict potential risks and make proper decisions. As a manager, running an existing or setting up a new company also need these skills, strategic management helps corporate to focus ahead, understand the marketing environment and reposition business to effectively compete other companies. Corporate strategy management is related to different aspects, such as financial aspects, human resources management, organizational culture, marketing, etc. Organizational culture is one of these important aspects, which is an indispensable and intangible aspect of strategy management. The concepts of organizational culture and organizational strategy looks like different, but they have a closer relationship between each other. Normally one part of corporate success depends on the support of organizational culture to organizational strategy. Organizational culture is about expectations, valu es and beliefs learned and shared by the companys members and transmitted from one generation of employees to anther. The organizational culture generally reflects the values of the founders and the mission of the company. Culture gives a corporate a sense of identity: This is what we stand for. This is who we are. This is what we do. The culture includes the dominant orientation of the company, such as customer care at Hilton, innovation at Apple, product quality at Volvo, or RD at HP. It often includes the many informal work rules that the staffs follow without asking questions. These work practices over time become part of a companys unquestioned tradition. The culture, therefor reflects the companys value. (Thomas, L 2012) Apple Inc does well in their organizational culture, their culture was based on an ideal that self-motivated individuals will work harder if they do not have a boss micromanaging every action. This unique and successful culture helps Apple Inc develop the mos t attractive products and occupy the market rapidly. (Scribd 2010) Elements of culture corporate artifacts, shared values, shared assumption When you walk into a hotel, a resort, a university, a bank, what do you notice first? What do frist impressions tell you about the organization that you have just entered? How friendly it will be? How expensive it will be? What kind of behavior is expected of you? How will the staff approach and deal with you? Now look more carefully at the physical surroundings what positive and negative signs, symbols and signals do you get? How exactly are these being transmitted to you? These are all aspects of organizational culture. Cultural awareness will not only lead to more effective staffs, but also get more customers or clients and increase the customers loyalty. There are many elements of organizational culture, but three of them artifacts, values, and assumptions are the key elements, organizational employees create the sets of artifacts, values, and assumptions, no single element can build corporate culture. Corporate artifacts are the observable signs and symbols of an organizationa l culture, such as the corporate stories or legends, the organizations physical layout and the way guests are greeted, it is also a language and physical structure of the organization, the artifact may be as formal as the staff handbook or a hotel logo, or as informal as decoration in the front lobby. Artifacts are important because they offer the best evidence about a companys culture. In Hilton, there is a famous story, 80% hotels were closed down during the great depression in America. The hotels owner Conrad Hilton still told his staff dont forget the etiquette, the smile is always belong to the guests. After the great depression, Hilton hotel lead into the new flourishing period and became the leader in tourism industry. (Charles Kelly 2010) Values are stable, evaluative beliefs that guide organizational members preferences for goals or plans of action in a variety of situations, such as compassion, innovation, cooperation, compassion, integrity, service innovation, and the cr eativity. Values could demonstrate themselves in the form of corporate strategies, goals and desired qualities. Building organizational core values can be used to guide principles and wish the employees to insist to these. For example: Lenovo which was established with 25,000 RMB investment in a guard house in China, today, Lenovo is a US$21 billion personal technology company which ousts HP as worlds largest PC vendor. (Gartner 2012) Its success mainly depends on its strategy and corporate culture, its core value innovative spirit and customer service attract more talents and customers, which help Lenovo occupy the global market.( Lenovo 2012) Along with shared values , corporate culture consists of a deeper element shared assumptions. These are unconscious taken for granted perception or beliefs that have worked so well in the past that they are considered the correct way to think and act toward problems and opportunities. Shared assumptions are so deeply ingrained that you prob ably would not discover them by surveying employees. Only by observing employees, analyzing their decisions, and debriefing them about their actions would these assumptions rise to the surface. (Steven, L. 2008) Why do executives at Lenovo, Hilton hotel group and other companies pay so much attention to organizational culture? The answer is that they believe a strong culture is competitive advantage. Culture is one of the most precious things a company has, so the company must work harder on it than anything else.the effect of organizational culture depends partly on its strength. Corporate culture strength refers to how widely and deeply employees hold the companys dominant values and assumptions. In a strong organizational culture, most staffs across all subunits hold the predominant values. These values are also organized by established artifacts, which make it difficult for these values to change. A strong corporate culture potentially increase a companys success by serving three important functions: control system, which is deeply embedded form of social control that influence employee decisions and behaviors; social glue, which is increasingly important as a way to attract new staff an d retain top performers; and sense-making process, it helps employees understand what goes on and why things happen in company. Impact of organizational culture on tourism industry customers decision In tourism industry, the organizational culture also play an important role in its daily business, the organizational culture will have impact on the customers decision, employees service, the companys brand or reputation and the revenue. Organizational culture is the most basic determinant of a persons wants and behavior. It comprises the basic values, perceptions, wants, and behaviors that a person learns continuously in a society. Today, most societies are in a state of flux. Culture is expressed through tangible items such as food, architecture, clothing, and art. In the minds of millions of travelers worldwide, hotel means Hilton a place where they know they will find warm hospitality, comfort, value and rewarding recognition. This brand strength, coupled with Hiltons leading edge management systems, translates into an incredibly successful business model. Partnering with this iconic industry The culture of Hilton hotel group helps the corporate to attract more customers and inc rease their customers loyalty indirectly. Impact on employee performance Corporate culture not only have impact on customers decisions, but also on the employees satisfaction and performance, organizational culture has the potential to increase the corporate performance and employee satisfaction, the relationship between the culture and performance are that organizational culture can have a significant influence on a companys long-term economic performance and will probably be an even more important factor in determining the success or failure of firms during the next 10 years, the impact of organizational culture is also related to the service to the guests. Organization culture is important in hotel, because it sets out a control mechanism. It influences the the relationship between the employees and how decisions are made by managers in hotel. An example is where the hotel hire a new supervisor who make decisions without studying the organizational culture first, If the changes he makes conflict with the organization culture, it will confuse the employ ees behavior. In Hilton, the hotel management do it specially, other hotel put the customers in the first place, but in Hilton, they also put their employees in the first place, not matter you are the general manager or the cleaner of the back area, they think that in the hospitality industry fulfilled guests are the direct result of a fulfilled staff. The hotel offer scholarships ,travel plans, health schemes for the employees, and trust, respect, understand their employees, create the relaxed working environment to build team spirit and good mood. Hilton elevator program, which helps the Hilton Group develop a large amount of talented, internationally mobile employees and try the best to make sure every of them to the management level during 5-8 years from starting this elevator program, also helps the corporate retain their talent employees and attract more new employees. Impact on branding Nowadays, the most important thing lead brands famous or not normally is their strong culture. Successful organizations often ask themselves: how do we continue grow and promote the continuation of organization culture that makes them successful? Amazon purchased Zappos.com. Why? One key reason: because of their culture and potential to innovate the customer experience on the web and WOW them. What are the ingredients for the kind of brand culture that will fuel your companys sales, create customer loyalty and attract the right people to work with. When company begin to create culture, people are the companys asset. A company existing in the world now consist lots of people staffs, guests and suppliers. Thats why people and what they think and feel matter now more than ever before. The look of a companys advertising, design of the web site, coolness of its mobile apps are all important, but not as important as the voice and the actions of its people. Building a strong brand culture, then, starts with the people. The culture is not owned by the marketing team, it is owned by the entire company from the CEO to the customer service rep and everyone in between. And companies that nurture a distinct brand culture in the workplace will become a distinctive brand in the marketplace. Focus on developing your people and relationships and everything else will follow. Impact on leadership Organizational culture can have impact on customers decision, employee performance and corporate brand, it also can influence the leadership, leaders is created by the culture; culture created by its leaders, Leaders are supposed to be in charge of organizations, but the organizational culture also have huge impact on their decision-making in the workplace. If the leaders want to change something in company, their styles of leadership should be adjusted strategically and accommodated the organizational culture. Leaders have the roles to decide the daily business and program of activities according the basic assumption of the organizations. If the subordinates behavior are in accordance with the program outlined by the leader the value obtained is high, and vice versa when the behavior of individuals within the organization is far from the truth as set forth in the work program by the leader, then its value is low. Leadership is about supervising and guiding the following employees to wards a unified standard or target, by broadcasting as a positive impact and using motivational strategies. Leaders can be used to lead corporate through organizational, operational, structural and operational reforms.This phenomenon can be said to be similar to the growth phase of organization proposed by, especially in the second growth phase in which an organization grew on the basis of guidance (direction) of a leader that has been agreed upon by the organization. The phenomenon can be turned around, meaning leader could be created by the organizational cultural when the leader is born as a successor (succession) in an organization in which the organizational culture has taken hold and has become part of the life of the organization. An example is in the organization of government. A country or government was born from the foundations of the Constitution and the philosophy of life in which the state constitution and the philosophy of life is the basic assumption of the governmen t culture. New leader as the next generation will continue the previous leadership with the basic assumption that the new leader as the successor will hold and preserve the culture of the organization. It can be said that new leader was being created by the organizational culture. This thinking has been proven by. In his research, he found that the differences of the dimensions of transformational leadership, especially is on the charisma and inspirational motivation. U.S workers have greater leadership on the variables that focus on the vision, expected future, optimism, and enthusiasm in achieving business results. While in Germany, workers have less charisma and initiative. But there is no difference in terms of transactional leadership. Some cultural values may also predict leadership style, but only in small portions. This explains that cultural values have little affect on the leadership. How to learn culture? Building organizational culture should be taken long time, thus let the employees learn the organizational culture also be difficult, Culture is broadcast to staffs in many ways, the most efficient methods are the stories, material symbols, language and material symbols. Numerous of senior Nike executive spend lots of time to be a company storytellers to promote their organizational culture. And these stories they convey are about the Nike history. The executives always tell a story about their co-founder Bill Bowerman, he poured rubber into his wifes waffle iron to create a better running shoe, this story is about innovation sprite of Nike. When the new employees hear the story of Chinese runing star Liu Xiangs battles to be succeed in winning champion at the 100-meter hurdle race, especially he used Nikes equipment, this stroy tells the new hires that Nikes commitment to helping athletes. These stories are circulated through many retail shops and companies. Normally they will tell a narrative of stories about he companies co-founders, reductions in the workplace, rags-to-riches successes, relocation of employees, reaction to reduce the mistakes. The stories explain legitimate current practices and describe history. Rituals are repetitive sequences of activities that express and reinforce the key values of the organization what goals are most important, which people are important, and which people are expendable. One of the better-know is Walmarts company chant. Begun by the companys founder, Sam Walton, as a way to motivate and unite his workforce, Gimme a W, gimme an A, gimme an L, gimme a squiggle, give me an M, A, R, T! has become a ritual that bonds workers and reinforces Waltons belief in the value of his employees to the companys success. Similar corporate chants are used by IBM, Ericsson, Novell, Deustsche Bank. Many organizations and subunits within them use language to help members identify with culture, attest to their accpetance of it, and help preserve it. Unique terms describe equipment, officers, key individuals, suppliers, customers, or products that relate to the business. New employees may at first be overwhelmed by acronyms and jargon, that once assimilated, act as a common denominator to unite members of a given culture or subculture. If you are a new employee at Boeing, you will find yourself learning a unique vocabulary, including Boeing online data, etc. Conclusion Organizational culture has three main functions. It is the bridge that connect people together and makes them feel part of the organizational experience. corporate culture helps employees make sense of the workplace. Third, It is also a deeply embedded form of social control. Organizations with strong cultures normally perform better than those with weak cultures, but only when the cultural content is suit for the companys environment. Also, the culture should not be so strong that it drives out dissenting values, which may form emerging values for the future. As a manager, you can help the company shape the culture. All managers work together and can especially do their part to consider spiritually and its role in creating a positive organizational culture and to create the organizational culture. Often you can do as much as to shape your organizational culture as the culture of the organization shapes you.

Blood, Guts and Glory: Thalassemia Patients Battle for a Better Life :: Journalism Journalistic Essays

Blood, Guts and Glory: Thalassemia Patients Battle for a Better Life When his company offered Vikram*, a systems analyst in Toronto, a transfer to Montreal with a promotion and pay raise, he was delighted but concerned. The 31-year-old unmarried Vikram worked twice as hard in his job to make up for the time he took off for medical reasons. The promotion was a justified reward for his hard work. But the question bothering Vikram, the issue that would determine his decision whether to accept the posting, was: Will I find a Thalassemia care center in Montreal? It was not the first time this unique blood disorder was the deciding factor for the choices Vikram made. â€Å"Thalassemia makes all the decisions for me,† he said. At nine months, Vikram was diagnosed with Thalassemia, a genetic non-communicable blood disorder. Born and raised in India, he spent his early years in and out of hospitals. His parents moved to Canada but Vikram had to stay back with his grandparents because his parents could not cope with earning a living and paying his medical bills. â€Å"After my grandparents passed away, I struggled with the costs and poor facilities for Thalassemia care in Delhi before deciding to move to Canada,† said Vikram, who shifted to Toronto when he was in his twenties. He has needed consistent and frequent blood transfusions, ranging from one unit (or bag) of blood every two months to one unit every seven days. Currently, he needs three units of blood every four weeks. Vikram explained that he visits a clinic for the transfusion. Here, a pump pushes blood into his veins at a constant speed. Each unit takes about two hours to be transfused which means Vikram must spend from six to eight hours in the clinic. This transfusion gives his blood an iron overload. Vikarm then has to take iron chelation (kee-LAY-shun) which involves infusions of the drug Desferal to remove excessive iron from his blood and organs for five full days. The Desferal infusion, he added, is more painful. He has a portocathetor, which is a device under his skin in his chest. This is connected to a needle which is attached to a syringe pump every Monday to infuse the drug continuously for five days. The pump, which Vikram wears on his waist, is about the size of an oversized palm-pilot and weighs a pound-and-a-half. It buzzes every time it pushes the medicine.

Improving Procurement Lead Times at Hill Air Force Base Essay -- Busin

Improving Procurement Lead Times at Hill Air Force Base In today’s tough economic times organizations need to seriously look at ways to improve their service level, even in the government. With decreasing military budgets and workforce reductions all government agencies need to streamline activities as much as possible to ensure that the taxpayers’ dollars are being spent wisely and the warfighter is being supported. The National Health Service (NHS) of East Midlands, England has established an excellent website, which benchmarks their twelve steps to process improvement on their Improvement Network (NHS - East Midlands, 2012). The website offers many tools and techniques as well as improvement tools that can be used during the process improvement steps. Although many organizations struggle with process improvements, careful analysis suggests that government agencies can reap the benefits of process improvements just as much as other public and private sectors, especially if they follow an organized approach such as the one identified on the NHS improvement network. Step 1 - Choose a Specific Service to Improve The government procurement process can be a daunting task. Whether the acquisition is competitive or non-competitive, procurement lead times can vary greatly depending on the type of procurement. With news stories of impropriety transpiring among the government on a daily basis more oversight is being required during the procurement process which is adding unnecessary time to the procurement lead times. With the increased oversight requirements it has become more difficult to get the necessary products to the warfighter during their time of need, which greatly affects the ability for government procurement offi... ...though some may argue that making improvements within an organization can be difficult. As long as organizations follow the first four steps in process improvement they should be able to operate more effectively and efficiently. In order for organizations to improve their service levels they need to examine both their internal and external processes and determine the steps required to make necessary improvements. It is essential for organizations to reduce operating costs and improve their service level, even in the government. Works Cited Jacobs, F. R., & Chase, R. B. (2010). Operations and supply chain management. (13 ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. MindTools.com. (2012). essential skills for excellent career. Retrieved from http://www.mindtools.com/ NHS - East Midlands. (2012). The improvement network. Retrieved from http://www.tin.nhs.uk/

George Washington Farewell Speech

Early in 1796 President George Washington decided that he didn’t want to run for a third term as the United States President. President George Washington started drafting his â€Å"Farewell Address â€Å". The Address was drafted multiple times in part due to Alexander Hamilton’s suggestions. This address was hand written in crafted into a 32 page speech that warned Americans on issues such avoiding excessive political party spirit and geographical distinctions. In foreign affairs, he warned against long-term alliances with other nations. President George Washington’s Farewell address was printed in Philadelphia Pennsylvania In September of 1796. The Final manuscript of this speech can be found at New York Public Library. I will be summarizing the major points of George Washington’s Farewell address to the American people. First, George Washington opened his Farewell Speech by expressing his gratitude to the Country by sticking by his side when America was in a crisis. Washington urged all Americans to stay focused and not to allow any entity to break the Sprit and power of America. He made a convincing argument to Americans to be patriotic and loyal to their country. Washington also encouraged Americans to stick with the foundations of the Constitution of America and not to be so quick to ratify the constitution; he urged to give the standing laws of the constitution a chance. In Addition to being loyal and patriotic, Washington also encouraged Americans not to have political parties. Washington argued that if there was an existence of political parties, there would be a power struggle between the two parties. Washington more specifically urged the country not to have regional political parties because it would cause extreme problems just 2 s it had during the American Revolutionary War. Washington explained that political parties should be avoided at all cost. Washington also talked about America investing in a good educational system. He justified this idea by saying in order for America to have an intellectual government its people need to be well educated. Also, Washington urged America to avoid permanent Rivals or Alliances illustrating that if America did have permanent Rivals or alliances nothing good would come out of it. Washington told Americans to keep peace, that was the best way for a newly country to thrive. He stated that permanent Alliances would only cause issues with the country you’re in alliance with because you would have to give up things you don’t want to give up, there would be a possibility of divided loyalty between your own citizens, and jealousy was another issue that could possibly arise. Although Washington opposed of permanent Rivals or Alliances he was in favor of alliances when fighting a defensive war, alliances are okay in emergencies he stated. Another point that Washington made in his Farewell speech was that morals and religion both play a major role in politics, law, and government. He stated that without religion it would be hard to trust anyone who swears under an oath of the law. Washington also made the point that a good politician in a position such as leadership should possess good morals and a religious foundation. Washington began to close the speech with saying that he did his absolute best in leading the country in his two terms that he served. He stated that the whole purpose of his farewell address was to leave a record behind that the country could refer to in the future if these issues arise. President George Washington served two terms of presidency and declined the third term offer. Washington was just and fair when it came to his position in power and he never displayed an attitude of being boastful or superior. He displayed all the qualities of a good commander and chief. His Farewell speech was the exit of his presidency. This speech was amazing because George Washington pointed out a lot of issues that America should avoid in order to survive as a new nation. Many of the issues that he addressed turned into reality. In the past two hundred years America has experienced many if not all of these issues that Washington talked about during his speech. Washington was well respected by his peers as well as the American people. He left an incredible legacy behind his name George Washington. I enjoy reading your discussion board essay question. Christian you made some very valid points in your essay that I will like to point out. First, you stated that there is not a clear cut separation of church in state in the United States constitution. I agree with you there is not an underlining separation between the two (church and state). As you read the language of the constitution you notice that there are religious foundations at the root of this document. It is evident that Religion was very important to the founding fathers because they included religious principles in all of the country’s important documents. In George Washington’s Farewell speech he stated that morals and religion both play a major role in politics, law, and government. He stated that without religion it would be hard to trust anyone who swears under an oath of the law. Washington also made the point that a good politician in a position such as leadership should possess good morals and a religious foundation. Washington began to close the speech with saying that he did his absolute best in leading the country in his two terms that he served. He stated that the whole purpose of his farewell address was to leave a record behind that the country could refer to in the future if these issues arise. In your essay you could have addressed the current relationship between church and state in politics. Overall this was a well written essay, you did an excellent job.