Impact of Globalization on Mexican Culture and Identity Essay -- Mexic

The ethnic- Mexican experience has changed over the years as American has progressed through certain period of times, e.g., the modernity and transformation of the southwest in the late 19th and early 20th century, the labor demands and shifting of U.S. immigration policy in the 20th century, and the Chicano Civil Rights Movement. Through these events Mexican Americans have established and shaped their culture, in order, to negotiate these precarious social and historical circumstances. Throughout the ethnic Mexicans cultural history in the United States, conflict and contradiction has played a key role in shaping their modalities of life. Beginning in the late 20th century and early 21st century ethnic Mexicans have come under distress from the force of globalization. Globalization has followed the trends of conflict and contradiction forcing ethnic Mexicans to adjust their culture and combat this force. While Mexican Americans are in the struggle against globalization and the impac t it has had on their lives, e.g., unemployment more common, wages below the poverty line, globalization has had a larger impact on their motherland having devastating affects unlike anything in history. Globalization has taken over the role of shaping the ethnic-Mexican culture. Globalization is the force that is establishing the divides of conflict and contradiction. Of course to pursue further this understanding of globalization’s effects we must first understand what exactly globalization is. According to Merriam-Webster, globalization is the act or process of globalizing, the state of being globalized, especially, the development of an increasingly integrated global economy marked especially by free trade, free flow of capital, and the tapping ... ...l unlike the Americans in the war. Globalization is affecting the whole globe and doing the same things throughout the world, as it tries to create uniform culture. Ultimately, Globalization is a powerful force which will try to deprive lesser nations of their culture and identities. However, culture is a powerful force which allows for the contradictions and conflict faced between the globalizing world to be solved and answered. With culture ethnic-Mexicans are able to remain who they are, a rich, diverse culture with a long history. The one positive of globalization has been the ability of cultures to share their greatness with others and spread about the world. However, this comes with caution, as cultures sometimes battle for dominance in an area. Globalization is good for some, terrible for others, but through culture people are able to maintain their identi

The House on Mango Street - Fantasy vs. Reality :: House Mango Street

The House on Mango Street - Fantasy vs. Reality Sometime in our lives, we have wished for things we don't have. No matter how hard we wished on the star or a candle, our wishes never seemed to be answered. We have all felt that bitter disappointment on Christmas morning when we finally realized that we were never going to be able to have what we want. This is the same exact feelings that the characters in Cisneros' The House on Mango Street. Unlike us, the disappointment for these characters last throughout their childhood. Esperanza, Rachel, Nenny, Sally, and Lucy are among the kids growing up on Mango Street. They all long for friendship, love, and a better life, but all these kids face are the harsh reality of the "real world." In the society that Esperanza and her friends live in, love takes a back seat when it comes to relationships. "Someday, I will have a best friend all my own. One I can tell my secrets to. One who will understand my jokes without my having to explain them." These are the longing words of Esperanza. While growing up on Mango Street, Esperanza finds herself in a community that she feels she doesn't belong to. With all her heart, she longs for a true friend that she can tell her dreams to and will understand her for it. These wishes seem easy enough to grant, but Esperanza soon finds out that there is more to friendship. "If you give me five dollars, I will be your friend forever." Esperanza discovers that she can not have anything for nothing. Rachel and Lucy sure enough become her friends, but only after she helped them pay for the bike. Esperanza never does truly find a real friend who shares the same goal as she does because all the friends she has have more problems than her. For instance, Sally was a friend for whom Esperanza cared for. When Esperanza was raped, Sally was not there to help her and when Esperanza tried to prevent Sally from making a mistake, Sally told her to leave. All Esperanza wanted was a friendship that would help her escape her life, but all she ended up with were friendships that reminded her of her broken dreams because in her society nothing was given for free and the people she was associated with didn't have the same goals as she did. Another one of those broken dreams was the concept of love. Esperanza was not the only one who longed for a man's endless love.

Alfred Hitchcock :: essays research papers

Films were a great form of entertainment from their debut in the early 1900’s and continued to grow more popular over the years. The film making business hit a growth period in the 1920’s. In Hollywood, the assembly line â€Å"studio† system of producing a movie was changed and refined, and the famous studious that dominate Hollywood production today, such as Universal Studious, were being put together. Censorship regulations were being formulated for the first time, and Wall Street began to take a more prominent, powerful role in film making. It was the era of short silent films that were backed by organists who could play a variety of famous composers such as Beethoven, and Sousa, and who mastered other sound affects for further enhancement of the movie. It was a time when movies came and went quickly and films that had no pretense of being art were made in mass. Nobody ever expected a movie to have an afterlife. They were made only for entertainment and to ma ke money, and were considered disposable back then. It took decades to develop movies as a concept of art. During this time of rapid change in the film making business, a certain aspiring director began his dream of working with cinema. Eventually, the talented and mysterious director, Alfred Hitchcock, played a huge part in establishing his and others’ masterpieces as an art. Born on August 13th, 1899, in London, England, Hitchcock’s childhood was that of a lower class Roman Catholic child who attended church regularly. His parents were greengrocers, William and Emma Hitchcock. A strict man, William once told a five year old Albert to go to the police station with a note from his father after some mischief making. Upon reading the note, a sergeant put young Alfred in a cell and left him there for ten minutes. The policeman returned only to tell him, â€Å"This is what happens to naughty boys.† This story and Hitchcock’s Roman Catholic background encompassed all the themes Hitchcock would later put in is his work such as terror inflicted upon the unknowing, and sometimes innocent victim; guilt, both real and the appearance of it; and fear and redemption. He grew up with his older siblings, William and Ellen Kathleen in Leytonstone, part of London’s East End. Fascinated by numbers and technology, Hitchcock was educated at the Jes uits’ St. Ignatius College, a day school for boys.

Curriculum Theory Essay

Historical accounts of public education reaching back into the nineteenth century reveal successive waves of polarization of view points, limited approaches to curriculum development, and recurring upsurges of dissatisfaction with school offerings. Curriculum development activities in the past show a seeming lack of rigorous, systematic thinking about curriculum development and give insight into the attic thinking about curriculum development and give insight into the need for an adequate theory of curriculum development. Without an inclusive theory of curriculum theory, child-centered, society-centered, subject-centered, and other approaches of limited dimensions will continue to compete with each other as exclusive routes to curriculum planning. Evidence of a long succession of limited approaches to curriculum development may be found in historical literature. In the colonial era, free public schooling had not yet been conceived. The prevailing concept at that time, borrowed from European schools, was that education was for the elite-a view that haunted public education in one way or another for generations. Traditional Theory The American Revolution added new power to the emerging spirit of democracy and focused new attention on schools and education. The colonial view that formal schooling was only for the upper classes came into question, and public schooling was introduced in this country. Its expressed purpose is in the poster evolutionary period were to inculcate moral standards by transmitting the traditional culture — a job previously. American culture out of the diverse cultures brought here by immigrants from many countries. Although educators viewed the Dewey (1916) concept as desirable, they disagreed on how to carry it out in practice. To some it meant a school without structure or predetermined objectives and content. Harold Rugg viewed such superficial interpretations with alarm in 1926 and urged educators to realize that curriculum-making is a complex, highly specialized task that must be the cooperative endeavor of many minds. Despite its varied interpretations, the Dewey (1916) concept brought an upsurge of curriculum development in the 1920s and 1930s that moved away from traditional classicism and toward emphasis on the needs of the individual and of society. Dewey (1916) finds that, when pupils are a â€Å"traditional† class rather than a social group, the teacher acts largely from the outside and not as a director of processes of exchange in which all have a share. In Dewey’s (1916) view, when education is based on experience and educative experience is seen to be a social process, the situation changes radically. Planning, in their view, is the structuring of a living situation with a wide range of educative alternatives. The transactions that take place within this structure cannot be planned in the traditional manner. They are more in the nature of â€Å"planned accidents† . . . . The curriculum is the cultural environment which has been selected as a set of possibilities for learning transactions (Dewey, 1916) When a range of educational alternatives is available, the principle of choice becomes an essential consideration in planning for freedom. The preceding discussion gives numerous examples of needs assessment procedures that encompass far broader concepts of needs than the traditional expert-determined or producer-determined needs or the narrow definition of needs that arises from comparison of student achievement scores with national norms on standardized tests. The examples given here include psychological needs as well as educational needs and describe ongoing procedures in various parts of the country in which individuals and groups directly concerned with a curriculum development process are also involved in identifying the needs that curriculum and instruction should meet. Structure of Disciplines Theory The work of Jerome Bruner (1960) and others emphasized the â€Å"structure of the disciplines† as a basis for curriculum design. Burner called attention to the general usefulness of structure within a discipline as an organizing principle, but he did not set forth a comprehensive curriculum development theory. Hilda Taba ( 1962) noted that the either/or practice still prevailed and that, while in the 1930s the cry was for attention to the child, in the 1950s the battle was to reintroduce disciplined content, with the problem of balance still unresolved. James Macdonald (1971) observed that the â€Å"curriculum reform movement† of the 1950s and 1960s was in no real sense a movement, because its separate parts were never really related or coordinated. Rather, it was a historical accident — a combination of Sputnik, McCarthyism, interested professors, federal money, and the ambitions of commercial publishers. Structure identifies order or sequence or notes that order is immaterial. Structure for an individual may develop from his or her interests and motivations, when a range of alternatives is available. Jerome Bruner’s widely publicized statement in The Process of Education (1960) that anything worth teaching can be taught in some intellectually honest way at any level has conveyed the impression to a wide audience that there is some definite pattern of construction or organization of the subject matter of the separate disciplines that should be known by curriculum-makers and used in sequencing information to impart it to children in an efficient and effective way. This point of view influenced the curriculum â€Å"reforms† of the 1960s, which did not in actuality reform curriculum. John Dewey (1916) would probably not have advocated a rigid or set structure as an intellectually honest way to introduce children to life and experience. Knowledge, of course, must be integrated to be meaningful, and curriculum structure can be constructed not only within the separate disciples but also across disciplines or interdisciplinary areas of social, cultural, or personal interest. As a system of ideas and beliefs, it includes aspects of the cognitive world isolated by disciplines and/or subjects in terms of facts, information, generalizations, principles, laws, and the like. . . . Cultural systems are substantive aspects of social and personality systems and evolve in a constant interaction shaped and influenced by the dynamics of structures and actions in . . . culture, society, and personality (Macdonald 1971). George Counts (1952) maintained that the responsibilities of the school included curriculum development directed toward constructive modification and development of the nation’s economy, social structure, cultural institutions, and outlook on the world. Curriculum development should lead toward creating as well as transmitting culture, meeting and maintaining democratic social relationships, and increasing individual self-realization, Counts asserted. The scope of available culture is almost limitless. It involves societal conditions, knowledge from the academic disciplines, professional knowledge about learning and educative processes, philosophical and value bases, futures research, realities in the classroom, pluralistic ethnic backgrounds of the participants, and their needs and desires. Behavioral Theory A dominant influence on curriculum development since the early1950s has been the Tyler rationale, set forth in Ralph Tyler Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction (1950). Tyler’s frequently credited with providing impetus for the behavioral objectives movement of recent years. Its advocate proposition is that instructional goals be stated in behavioral terms, with built-in criteria for measurement of outcomes. Selections are then made from alternative activities expected to help the student attain the desired behavioral objectives. Scope and sequence decisions follow, and evaluation is carried out. Various interpretations of this approach have led to highly technical procedures to develop a preplanned program of behavioral objectives closely tied to subsequent measures of achievement. Behavioral and other models adapted from Tyler seem to over- emphasize educational need and underestimate psychological need. Although Tyler was cognizant of the latter and referred to two types of need, he gave psychological need no more than a nod of recognition (Tyler, 1950): The inclusion of psychological need in curriculum development is advocated by those who fear that overemphasis on behavioral objectives, academic achievement, and grading may develop negativism among students toward school learning. Academic objectives retain their importance, but these planners also stress the importance of psychological processes, human relations, positive mental health, and student involvement in setting goals, selecting options, learning how to work toward goals, and developing persistence in spite of occasional failures. Arthur Combs (1972), taking a strong position, outlines the hazards of accountability programs that focus almost exclusively on test scores of detailed behavioral objectives. A truly comprehensive approach to accountability, he says, must consider at least five major problems related to curriculum and instruction: 1. Basic skills. Specific, atomistic behavioral objectives can be applied successfully only to simple skills and problems for which they are appropriate and must be constantly updated. The information explosion and rapidity of change make â€Å"right† behaviors rapidly obsolete. 2. Intelligence and holistic behavior. Accountability must contribute maximally to intelligent behavior and problem-solving action directed toward fulfillment of the individual’s and society’s needs. 3. The nature of learning and the causes of behavior. Attention should be concentrated on the causes of behavior rather than on behavior itself. Personal meanings are the causes of behavior, and these are formed through two aspects of learning: the provision of new information or experience, and the discovery by the learner of its personal meaning for him. 4. Humanistic goals of education. Developing humane qualities, self-actualization of the individual, good citizenship, learning to care for others, and working together are all aspects of humanism for which schools must be accountable. â€Å"We can live with a bad reader,† says Combs, â€Å"but a bigot is a danger to everyone,† (Combs, 1972) 5. Professional accountability. Teachers can and should be held accountable for professional behavior: being informed in subject matter, being concerned about the welfare of students, being knowledgeable about their behavior, and understanding human behavior in general. Professional educators may be held professionally responsible for the purposes they seek to carry out and the methods they use. Constructivist Theory Outside the fortress of elitism’ in secondary education, political, social, and educational leaders began to awaken to the broader responsibilities of the schools and to look to the public schools for constructive approaches to the public’s needs and problems. Mark Chesler, a frequent observer and consultant in disrupted schools, gained some insights into procedures that seem to hold promise for constructive change. In â€Å"School Crisis and Change† ( 1970), he asserts that when school officials sought only superficial techniques for reestablishing the status quo, stress and turmoil were more likely to continue. When collaborative decision-making procedures were instituted among students, community people, school executives, and faculty, meaningful and positive curriculum improvements began to takes place. A statewide assessment of the Michigan plan, conducted by Ernest House, Wendell Rivers, and Daniel Stufflebeam (1974), reflected general support of the accountability process in principle but was highly critical of the implementation of the plan in Michigan. The evaluators pointed out that attention had been limited mainly to reading and arithmetic at two grade levels, that no constructive purpose had been gained by ranking schools on norm-referenced tests, and that the promise of providing needs assessment in relation to the full scope of goals had not been pursued. It is obvious that curriculum development must be a responsive process, constantly extending, expanding, and revising the curriculum. This requires continuous planning of learning outcomes that will help individuals draw effectively on growing realms of knowledge, develop new skills in a rapidly changing world, and develop insights into and constructive approaches to unresolved problems. The process of curriculum development must continue to be responsive to needs and problems and to generate alternative means for reaching desirable ends George Counts (1952) maintained that the responsibilities of the school included curriculum development directed toward constructive modification and development of the nation’s economy, social structure, cultural institutions, and outlook on the world. Curriculum development should lead toward creating as well as transmitting culture, meeting and maintaining democratic social relationships, and increasing individual self-realization, Counts asserted. Research studies have found that very young as well as older students formed important and serious work groups to discuss, plan, and carry out activities in cooperation with adults. In the cases reported, the schools provided constructive learning situations in which children were involved in forging their own roles, working out relationships, and assuming responsibility for self-evaluation. In these situations the teacher acted as guide and resource rather than a not- to-be-questioned authority, critic, and judge. A systems approach is an analytic rather than an erratic approach. It requires planning and action to be accomplished in a manner that allows participants to revise the plans, as action and experience proceed, and incorporate constructive improvements. A systems approach requires initiative and commitment. Curriculum-planners using a systems approach must be ready to document and make public exactly what they are doing, why they are doing it, and how the curriculum is being developed. The participants and consumers must evaluate the curriculum development effort so that it can be continually improved. Experiential Theory Active critics and reformers on the contemporary scene can be classified roughly into three categories. One includes those who focus on individual freedom in learning. They are sometimes termed the â€Å"romantics† or â€Å"radicals,† and they advocate free schools or the elimination of schools as they now exist. The free school movement can be traced to the publication of A. S. Neill’s Summerhill in 1960 and became manifested in various types of â€Å"free schools,† emphasizing experiential learning that places the highest priority on the â€Å"self† of the individual. Advocates of de schooling see hope in a network of opportunities for incidental education through which each child can discover itself and pursue his or her particular interests in special ways. In Kohlberg’s (1972) studies the main experiential determinants or causal factors in moral development seem to be the amount and variety of the child’s social experience and the opportunities he or she has had to assume a number of roles and to take other perspectives into account. Being able to put oneself in another’s place is a source of principles; for example, when parents sought their children’s views and elicited comparisons of views in dialogues, the children reached more advanced stages of moral development. Roger Pillet (1971) asserts that researchers have perpetuated a separation of experiential theory and practice. He lists as shortcomings (1) the locus of the leadership function in curriculum development that is external to the teachers, administrators, parents, and students who are expected to become users; (2) the negation of reality that occurs when new programs are designed on paper without regard to the knowledge and experience of the learners and educators who are expected to become the users; and (3) the use of abstract language that reduces the possibility of communication among those involved in various aspects of curriculum development. References Bruner Jerome S. The Process of Education. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1960. Chesler Mark A. â€Å"School Crisis and Change†. In Student Unrest: Threat or Promise? edited by Richard L. Hart and J. Galen Saylor, pp. 100-21. Washington, D. C. : Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development. 1970. Combs Arthur W. Educational Accountability. Beyond Behavioral Objectives, Washington, D. C. : Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development, 1972. Counts George S. Education and American Civilization. New York: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College University, 1952. Dewey John. Democracy and Education. New York: Macmillan, 1916. pp. 17 House Ernest R. ; Rivers Wendell; and Stufflebeam Daniel L. â€Å"An Assessment of the Michigan Accountability System†. Phi Delta Kappan 55 (June 1974): 663-69. Kohlberg Lawrence. â€Å"Moral Education in the Schools: A Developmental View†. In Curriculum and the Cultural Revolution, edited by David E. Purpel and Maurice Belanger, pp. 455-78, Berkeley: McCutchan, 1972. Macdonald James B. â€Å"Curriculum Development in Relation to Social and Intellectual Systems†, In The Curriculum: Retrospect and Prospect, part I, pp. 97-98. Seventieth Yearbook of the National Society for the Study of Education, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1971. Pillet Roger A. â€Å"Boundaries of a Curriculum Network†, In Elements of Curriculum Development, pp. 7-11, Monograph supplement of Curriculum Theory Network. Toronto: Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, 1971. Taba Hilda. Curriculum Development: Theory and Practice. New York: Harcorut, Brace and World, 1962. Tyler Ralph W. Basic Principles of Curriculum and Instruction, Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1950. pp. 7-8

All About Smoking in the Philippines Essay

The campaign against smoking, which kills close to 90,000 people a year in the Philippines – on a par with the number of deaths in natural disasters or conflicts – is becoming a losing battle. â€Å"My friends look so cool smoking,† Arnold Santos of Mandaluyong City said, who took up the habit out of peer pressure. â€Å"Now, I smoke 10 cigarettes a day,† the 17-year-old, who has no plans of quitting just yet, said. Despite the passage of the Tobacco Control Act, more Filipino youths are now smoking, â€Å"indicating that the law has not been effective†, Maricar Limpin, executive director of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Alliance Philippines (FCAP), said. The 2003 act sets both the guidelines for and regulation of the packaging, sale, distribution and advertisements of tobacco products. Among others, it mandates the printing of warnings in either English or Filipino of the harmful effects of smoking. Yet a recent global youth tobacco survey showed that smoking prevalence among Filipino youth had jumped from 15 percent in 2003 to 21.6 percent in 2007. â€Å"We are losing the war against smoking,† Limpin conceded. At least 240 Filipinos die each day – 87,600 a year – from smoking-related diseases such as lung cancer, cardiac arrest, stroke and other chronic-obstructive lung failures, the health department reported. These figures are based on the 2005-2006 Tobacco and Poverty Study in the Philippines conducted by the College of Public Health of the University of the Philippines, National Epidemiology Center of the Department of Health and the World Health Organization (WHO). The figures are higher than Malaysia and Vietnam, where 10,000 and 40,000 people respectively die each year from smoking-related diseases, but lower than Indonesia, where 400,000 people die annually. Graphic warnings Since 2007, separate bills have been pending with lawmakers to introduce the printing of graphic health warnings. An FCAP survey on 10,000 Filipino youths revealed they were more receptive to graphic warnings than text warnings. Limpin said the survey showed that the graphic design had a better ability to convey the health risks related to smoking and some said it stopped them from buying cigarettes. While the visual warning has little effect on long-time smokers, preventing young people from taking up the habit would deny tobacco companies a new market, Limpin said. â€Å"The industry knows that the introduction of graphic warnings threatens its future market,† Limpin said. In the Senate, the bill is now being discussed in the plenary. But in the House, composed of district and party list representatives from all 78 provinces, the bill has not passed the committee level because of opposition from legislators. â€Å"It is being blocked because of fears it could kill the tobacco industry,† Northern Samar Rep. Paul Daza, main author of the anti-smoking bill, said. According to the National Tobacco Authority, more than 57,000 farmers are engaged in tobacco farming. La Union Rep. Victor Francisco said the main flaw of the bill was that it would raise the prices of local tobacco products compared with imports. To compete, local manufacturers would have no choice but to increase their prices because of the additional cost, he said. In addition, the bill failed to factor in the repercussions on local livelihoods; almost two million people depend on the tobacco industry. â€Å"Our tobacco farmers, especially in the north, cannot easily shift to other crops because the soil is not compatible with other produce,† Francisco said. The WHO’s Tobacco Framework Convention on Tobacco, to which the Philippines is a signatory, recommends the use of effective campaigns against tobacco consumption. Article 11 requires that state signatories adopt effective measures by September 2008, but the Philippines missed the deadline. Filed under medicine, philippines Harmful Health Effects Of Smoking Cigarettes The harmful health effects of smoking cigarettes presented in the list below only begin to convey the long term side effects of smoking. Quitting makes sense for many reasons but simply put: smoking is bad for health. Harmful Effects of Smoking * Every year hundreds of thousands of people around the world die from diseases caused by smoking cigarettes – Smoking KILLS. * One in two lifetime smokers will die from their habit. Half of these deaths will occur in middle age. * Tobacco smoke also contributes to a number of cancers. * The mixture of nicotine and carbon monoxide in each cigarette you smoke temporarily increases your heart rate and blood pressure, straining your heart and blood vessels. * This can cause heart attacks and stroke. It slows your blood flow, cutting off oxygen to your feet and hands. Some smokers end up having their limbs amputated. * Tar coats your lungs like soot in a chimney and causes cancer. A 20-a-day smoker breathes in up to a full cup (210 g) of tar in a year. * Changing to low-tar cigarettes does not help because smokers usually take deeper puffs and hold the smoke in for longer, dragging the tar deeper into their lungs. * Carbon monoxide robs your muscles, brain and body tissue of oxygen, making your whole body and especially your heart work harder. Over time, your airways swell up and let less air into your lungs. * Smoking causes disease and is a slow way to die. The strain of smoking effects on the body often causes years of suffering. Emphysema is an illness that slowly rots your lungs. People with emphysema often get bronchitis again and again, and suffer lung and heart failure. * Lung cancer from smoking is caused by the tar in tobacco smoke. Men who smoke are ten times more likely to die from lung cancer than non-smokers. * Heart disease and strokes are also more common among smokers than non-smokers. * Smoking causes fat deposits to narrow and block blood vessels which leads to heart attack. * Smoking causes around one in five deaths from heart disease. * In younger people, three out of four deaths from heart disease are due to smoking. * Cigarette smoking during pregnancy increases the risk of low birth weight, prematurity, spontaneous abortion, and perinatal mortality in humans, which has been referred to as the fetal tobacco syndrome. As mentioned earlier, this list can only begin to convey the harmful health effects of smoking cigarettes and its long term side effects. Next we consider reasons why smoking is bad for those around you in the effects of second hand smoke. Quit-Smoking-Stop.com  ©2011 Len Johnson. All Rights Reserved. – Medical Disclaimer – Privacy – Advantages and Disadvantages of Smoking Smoking is a bad habit widespread among teenagers.It contains dangerous items which destroy the human brain and lungs. It causes different diseases such as cancer in different areas in the human body. From the religious point of view,it’s prohibited . There are different clear versuses in the Holy Qura’n as God says;†Don’t throw yourself in the destroy.† The reason of the teenagers’ smoking is based on psychologica factors.Through smoking they think they show people that they are adult and can do whatever they want. Advantages and Disadvantages of Smoking The great tobacco debate has been going on for years. Ever since it was determined that smoking cigarettes causes lung cancer, along with a host of other diseases, non-smokers have been railing against the evils of cigarettes, while many smokers have clung to their tobacco like a miser with his last penny. But the question is, are the smokers right? Are there indeed advantages to tobacco use? Die-hard cigarette users claim many benefits to smoking, some are the following: * Peer group acceptance if peers smoke * Effective weight loss aid * Performance enhancement in tasks requiring * concentration * Stress relief * Some smokers truly enjoy the taste There are issues with most of these perceived advantages. If a smoker attempts to change peer groups, they could find smoking to be a barrier to acceptance. The performance enhancement is minimal after the first few cigarettes a smoker has in their lifetime; from that point on, it is just a perception of enhancement based on the memory of those initial cigarettes. Weight loss and stress relief could be as effectively obtained by other, healthier means. Therefore the only valid advantage is if a smoker really enjoys the taste, but one has to wonder if they don’t enjoy the taste of the cigarette merely because they cannot taste anything else. The disadvantages to smoking are far more numerous, and much harder to argue against, a sampling of them include: * Death from disease caused by smoking * Diseases (even if they don’t cause death) * Lung Cancer * Throat Cancer * Mouth Cancer * Many other types of cancer have also been linked to tobacco use * Emphysema * COPD * Asthma * Decreased lung function * Advanced signs of aging * Cost of cigarettes, applicable taxes and paraphernalia such as lighters * Decreased acceptance by non-smoking peers * The lingering odor of smoke on body and clothing * Lowered ability to exercise due to inability to breathe * Cost of stop-smoking aids when the decision to quit is made It is clear that the disadvantages of smoking far outweigh any perceived advantages. While there is a cost associated with quitting, over time the damage smoking had done to the body can reverse itself if a person ceases tobacco use. This puts that cost into perspective, especially when compared to the thousands of dollars spent every year on smoking. With all the disadvantages to continued smoking and no real advantages to it, isn’t it time you saved your health and your money by putting in the effort to become tobacco-free? How To Quit Smoking†¦And Quit For Keeps U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Public Health Service National Institutes of HealthINTRODUCTIONThis guides you from thinking about stopping through actually doing it – from the day you quit to quitting for keeps. It gives tips on fighting temptation – and what to do if you give in – and on avoiding weight gain (a handy Snack Calorie Chart is included). By telling you what to expect, it can help you through the day-to-day process of becoming and remaining a nonsmoker.Here you’ll find a variety of tips and helpful hints on kicking your smoking habit. Take a few moments to look at each suggestion carefully. Pick those you feel comfortable with, and decide today that you’re going to use them to quit. It may take a while to find the combination that’s right for you, but you can quit for good, even if you’ve tried to quit before.Many smokers have successfully given up cigarettes by replacing them with new habits, without quittin g â€Å"cold turkey,† planning a special program, or seeking professional help. The following approaches include many of those most popular with ex-smokers. Remember that successful methods are as different as the people who use them. What may seem silly to others may be just what you need to quit – so don’t be embarrassed to try something new. These methods can make your own personal efforts a little easier.Pick the ideas that make sense to you. And then follow through – you’ll have a much better chance of success. PREPARING YOURSELF FOR  QUITTING†¦ * Decide positively that you want to quit. Try to avoid negative thoughts about how difficult it might be. * List all the reasons you want to quit. Every night before going to bed, repeat one of the reasons 10 times. * Develop strong personal reasons in addition to your health and obligations to others. For example, think of all the time you waste taking cigarette breaks, rushing out to buy a pack, hunting for a light, etc. * Begin to condition yourself physically: Start a modest exercise program; drink more fluids; get plenty of rest; and avoid fatigue. * Set a target date for quitting – perhaps a special day such as your birthday, your anniversary, or the Great American Smokeout. If you smoke heavily at work, quit during your vacation so that you’re already committed to quitting when you return. Make the date sacred, and don’t let anything change it. This will make it easy for you to keep track of the day you became a nonsmoker and to celebrate that date every year.| | | KNOWING WHAT TO EXPECT†¦ * Have realistic expectations – quitting isn’t easy, but it’s not impossible either. More than 3 million Americans quit every year. * Understand that withdrawal symptoms are TEMPORARY. They usually last only 1-2 weeks. * Know that most relapses occur in the first week after quitting, when withdrawal symptoms are strongest and your body is still dependent on nicotine. Be aware that this will be your hardest time, and use all your personal resources – willpower, family, friends, and the tips in this booklet – to get you through this critical period successfully. * Know that most other relapses occur in the first 3 mo nths after quitting, with situational triggers – such as a particularly stressful event – occur unexpectedly. These are the times when people reach for cigarettes automatically, because they associate smoking with relaxing. This is the kind of situation that’s hard to prepare yourself for until it happens, so it’s especially important to recognize it if it does happen. Remember that smoking is a habit, but a habit you can break. * Realize that most successful ex-smokers quit for good only after several attempts. You may be one of those who can quit your first try. But if you’re not, DON’T GIVE UP. Try again.INVOLVING SOMEONE ELSE†¦ * Bet a friend you can quit on your target date. Put your cigarette money aside for every day, and forfeit it if you smoke. (But if you do smoke, DON’T GIVE UP. Simply strengthen your resolve and try again.) * Ask your spouse or a friend to quit with you. * Tell your family and friends that you’re quitting and when. They can be an important source of support, both before and after you quit. * Alta Mira Recovery offers an inpatient nicotine cessation program designed for long-term, chronic smokers.WAYS OF QUITTING†¦Switch brands * Switch to a brand you find distasteful. * Change to a brand that’s low in tar and nicotine a couple of weeks before your target date. This will help change your smoking behavior. However, DO NOT smoke more cigarettes, inhale them more often or more deeply, or place your fingertips over the holes in the filters. All of these will increase your nicotine intake, and the idea is to get your body used to functioning without nicotine.Cut down the number of cigarettes you smoke * Smoke only half of each cigarette. * Each day, postpone lighting your first cigarette 1 hour. * Decide you’ll smoke only during odd or even hours of the day. * Decide beforehand how many cigarettes you’ll sm oke during the day. For each additional cigarette, give a dollar to your favorite charity. * Change your eating habits to help you cut down. For example, drink milk, which many people consider incompatible with smoking. End meals or snacks with something that won’t lead to a cigarette. * Reach for a glass of juice instead of a cigarette for a â€Å"pick-me-up.† * Remember: Cutting down can help you quit, but it’s not a substitute for quitting. If you’re down to about seven cigarettes a day, it’s time to set your target date and get ready to stick to it.Don’t Smoke â€Å"Automatically† * Smoke only those cigarettes you really want. Catch yourself before you light up a cigarette out of pure habit. * Don’t empty your ashtrays. This will remind you of how many cigarettes you’ve smoked each day, and the sight and smell of stale butts will be very unpleasant. * Make yourself aware of each cigarette by using the opposite hand or putting cigarettes in an unfamiliar location or a different pocket to break the automatic reach. * If you light up many times during the day without even thinking about it, try to look in a mirror each time you put a match to your cigarette – you may decide you don’t need it.Make smoking inconvenient * Stop buying cigarettes by the carton. Wait until one pack is empty before you buy another. * Stop carrying cigarettes with you at home and at work. Make them difficult to get to.Make smoking unpleasant * Smoke only under circumstances that aren’t especially pleasurable for you. If you like to smoke with others, smoke alone. Turn your chair toward an empty corner and  focus only on the cigarette you are smoking and its many negative effects. * Collect all you cigarette butts in one large glass container as a visual reminder of the filth smoking represents.JUST BEFORE QUITTING†¦ * Practice going without cigarettes. * Don’t think of NEVER smoking again. Think of quitting in terms of 1 day at a time. * Tell yourself you won’t smoke today, and then don’t. * Clean your clothes to rid them of the cigarette smell, which can linger a long time.ON THE DAY YOU QUIT†¦ * Throw away all your cigarettes and matches. Hide your lighters and ashtrays. * Visit the dentist and have your teeth cleaned to get rid of tobacco stains. Notice how nice they look, and resolve to keep them that way. * Make a list of things you’d like to buy for yourself or someone else. Estimate the cost in terms of packs of cigarettes, and put the money aside to buy these presents. * Keep very busy on the big day. Go to the movies, exercise, take long walks, go bike riding. * Remind your family and friends that this is your quit date, and ask them to help you over the rough spots of the first couple of days and weeks. * Buy yourself a treat or do something special to celebrate.IMMEDIATELY AFTER QUITTING†¦ * Develop a clean, fresh, nonsmoking environment around yourself – at work and at home. Buy yourself flowers – you may be surprised how much you can enjoy their scent now. * The first few days after you quit smoking, spend as much free time as possible in places where smoking isn’t allowed, such as libraries, museums, theaters, department stores, and churches. * Drink large quantities of water and fruit juice (but avoid sodas that contain caffeine). * Try to avoid alcohol, coffee, and other beverages that you associate with cigarette smoking. * Strike up a conversation instead of a match for a cigarette. * If you miss the sensation of having a cigarette in your hand, play with something else – a pencil, a paper clip, a marble. * If you miss having something in your mouth, try toothpicks or a fake cigarette.Avoid temptation * Instead of smoking after meals, get up from the table and brush your teeth or go for a walk. * If you always smoke while driving, listen to a particularly interesting radio program or your favorite music, or take public transportation for a while, if you can. * For the first 1-3 weeks, avoid situations you strongly as sociate with the pleasurable aspects of smoking, such as watching your favorite TV program, sitting in your favorite chair, or having a cocktail before dinner. *  Until you’re confident of your ability to stay off cigarettes, limit your socializing to healthful, outdoor activities or situations where smoking isn’t allowed. * If you must be in a situation where you’ll be tempted to smoke (such as a cocktail or dinner party), try to associate with the nonsmokers there. * Try to analyze cigarette ads to understand how they attempt to â€Å"sell† you on individual brands.Find new habits * Change your habits to make smoking difficult, impossible, or unnecessary. For example, it’s hard to smoke when you’re swimming, jogging, or playing tennis or handball. When your desire for a cigarette is intense, wash your hands or the dishes, or try new recipes. * Do things that require you to use your hands. Try crossword puzzles, needlework, gardening, or household chores. Go bike riding; take the dog for a walk; give yourself a manicure; write letters. * Enjoy having a clean-mouth taste and maintain it by brushin g your teeth frequently and using a mouthwash. * Stretch a lot. * Get plenty of rest. * Pay attention to your appearance. Look and feel sharp. * Try to find time for the activities that are the most meaningful, satisfying, and important to you.When you get the crazies * Keep oral substitutes handy – try carrots, pickles, sunflower seeds, apples, celery, raisins, or sugarless gum instead of a cigarette. * Take 10 deep breaths and hold the last one while lighting a match. Exhale slowly and blow out the match. Pretend it’s a cigarette and crush it out in an ashtray. * Take a shower or bath if possible. * Learn to relax quickly and deeply. Make yourself limp, visualize a soothing, pleasing situation, and get away from it all for a moment. Concentrate on that peaceful image and nothing else. * Light incense or a candle instead of a cigarette. * Never allow yourself to think that â€Å"one won’t hurt† – it will.About gaining weightMany people who’re considering quitting are very concerned about gaining weight. If you’re concerned about gaining weight, keep these points in mind: * Q uitting doesn’t mean you’ll automatically gain weight. When people gain, most of the time it’s because they eat more once they’ve quit. * The benefits of giving up cigarettes far outweigh the drawbacks of adding a few extra pounds. You’d have to gain a very large amount of weight to offset the many substantial health benefits that a normal smoker gains by quitting. Watch what you eat, and if you’re concerned about gaining weight, consider the following tips:Tips to help you avoid weight gain†¦ * Make sure you  have a well-balanced diet, with the proper amounts of protein, carbohydrates, and fat. * Don’t set a target date for a holiday, when the temptation of high-calorie food and drinks may be too hard to resist. * Drink a glass of water before your meals. * Weigh yourself weekly. * Chew sugarless gum when you want sweet foods. * Plan menus carefully, and count calories. Don’t try to lose weight – just try to maintain your prequitting weight. * Have low-calorie foods on hand for nibbling. Use the Snack Calorie Chart to choose foods that are both nutritious and low in calories . Some good choices are fresh fruits and vegetables, fruit and vegetable juices, low-fat cottage cheese, and air-popped popcorn without butter. * Take time for daily exercise, or join an organized exercise group.| 5 Simple Methods to Treat Smoking Addiction By Waqar Akhtar Smoking addiction popularly refers to the formation of an uncontrollable urge to smoke nicotine-induced tobacco cigarettes. This usually causes smokers of all ages to become dependent on cigarettes down to the point where kicking the habit causes severe mental, emotional, and even physical reactions. Various studies have presented statistical research that claims 2 out of 5 smokers may have higher percentages of dying at an early age due to their smoking addiction or by other causes related to smoking such as heart disease and cancer. Only a small percentage of those who have tried to quit smoking have succeeded to kick the habit. Based on various studies, 2 out of 30 smokers may stop smoking in an indefinite or permanent amount of time as opposed to the others who may stop the habit of smoking nicotine-induced cigarettes in intermittent periods of a day to a month or more. Here are some tips for those who want to quit smoking: 1. Motivation is key – this means that you should always be highly motivated to resolve your addiction on your own. You should make it a point to feel the urge to quit smoking more than the urge to smoke a few cigarettes a day until you attain your intentions of totally eradicating the addiction from your system. Gradually reducing your cigarette consumption may just lead to binges here and there, so you should set a schedule wherein you intend to completely stop smoking and stick with it at all times. 2. Support helps – this means that you should seek a support group amongst your family and friends. They will often  at times be very accommodating of your needs when it comes to your purpose of kicking your smoking addiction. They may avoid smoking whenever you’re with them since this would help reduce your cravings for cigarettes. This would also inform them about your intentions that would lead them to understand the changes in your personality since it has been known that withdrawals from nicotine-induced cigarettes often lead to irritability and depression among other emotional and mental symptoms. 3. Medical assistance is an option – this means that you should consider consulting with your physician when it comes to quitting. This is because smoking addiction is now treated as a medical condition just like other addictions to regulated substances such as heroin and cocaine. These medical specialists may offer you support in terms of prescribing drugs and dietary programs that best suit your intentions of kicking the smoking habit. 4. Calculate the cost of your addiction – this can help some smokers to get rid of their smoking addiction once and for all, but it may not work for others. You need to think about the money you spend for financing your deadly habit, and the various things you could gain by channeling your ‘cigarette money’ to your family’s needs. You need to set up some sort of financial plan to best support your intentions of getting rid of your smoking addiction since this would add to the advantages you could gain once you successfully kick the habit out of your system. 5. Consider the health of others – this is especially effective for smokers who live with their family and children. As passive smoking is more of a risk to children and adults alike than smoking itself, you should think about the people you endanger along with yourself whenever you smoke a cigarette at home or wherever you are with them.

Internal Control Essay

Question 1 a) Select two companies where inadequate internal control have resulted in disastrous effects on the organisation or exposed it to heavy losses. Research the facts of the failure and report on the facts and the losses suffered. In your report, include suggestions for changes to operations (internal controls) that could have prevented the final outcome. Where could you find a list of these internal controls and how are they documented? Examples of companies include: Coles Myer Ltd and the Yannon affair Barings Bank (1995) AWA Case (1992) Integral Energy (2003) Australian Museum-theft of zoological specimens (2003) Argonaut Resources (2011) Each report should be about no longer than 1 page in length. Two reports required. b) Select two companies that have experienced recent corporate governance failures. Research the facts of the failure and report on the facts and the losses suffered. In your report, give suggestions on the Corporate Governance principles that should be implemented and that could have prevented the failure. Examples of companies include: ABC Learning (2008) Storm Financial (2009) Strathfield (2009) One-Tel HIH Independent Insurance (UK) Commander Communications (2008) EzyDVD (2009) Clive Peters Beechwood Homes Australian Discount Retail (Crazy Clarks’, Go-Lo, Sam’s Warehouse) (2009) Queensland Health Department (2011) Parmalat (Italy) Each report should be about no longer than 1 page in length. Two reports required. Question 2 a) In your own words explain Internal Control within an organisation, and state the major objectives of a system of internal control to management? b) List and briefly explain the five components of an entity’s internal control structure. Question 3 a) Define Corporate Governance and its application in the corporate world and discuss the need for Corporate Governance. b) Look up the Annual Reports for two of the following companies and comment on the appearance, structure, content, and usefulness of the Corporate Governance and Sustainability section of the report. How does it meet the current principles of Corporate Governance? Companies include: Banks: ANZ, CBA, NAB, Westpac, Bendigo Resources: BHP, RIO Tinto, Woodside, Santos Financial services: Macquarie Group, Perpetual, QBE Health care: Sonic, Resmed, CSL Retail: Woolworths, Wesfarmers, Metcash, Harvey Norman Property: Centro, Stockland, Westfield Property Trust, WRT Family business: Westfield, Harvey Norman, News Corporation Interesting: Fairfax, James Hardie, Qantas, Telstra Your report should be about no longer than 1 page in length. Two reports required.

Rhetorical Analysis compare Essay

This is a rhetorical essay comparing, Looking At Women, written by Scott Russell Sanders; and What Is A Homosexual?, Written by Andrew Sullivan. These two essays describe in detail how children are growing up and knowing at an early age that they are either heterosexual or homosexual. When comparing these two essays both boys are going through puberty, watching their body change and develop. Mr. Sanders essay is about boys learning when they are attracted to girls, usually it’s around the time they are going through puberty; while Mr. Sullivan essay is about when boys learn that they are attracted to boys. This also was when the boy went through puberty. Looking At Women is about when a boy realizes his body and mind are changing towards girls, and realizes his attraction toward girls. When you can look at a girl, and realize it is the opposite sex. Mr. Sander’s talks about how should the male figure look at the female when they display their body with little to no clothing. He goes on to explain that it’s natural for us to look at the opposite sex. We as humans are curious in the opposite sex, so our eyes naturally wander and look. Upon reading these essays I realized we all go through puberty and that is basically when we find ourselves. Our wants and desires for either the same or the opposite sex. Having said that, what if you were not attracted to the opposite sex, but were attracted to the same sex. What Is A Homosexual is a persuasive essay about gay adolescents realizing they are attracted to the same sex at an early age. Mr. Sullivan realizes his attraction to the same sex after he went through puberty as the boy in Mr. Sander’s essay noticing his attractions to girls. Both boys have to control their desires to look at either the opposite sex or the same sex. I realized that both boys are going through similar situations under different circumstances’. While the  homosexual cant not be caught looking at another male while dressing in the locker room. But, the heterosexual can look at the opposite sex and want be picked on. In today’s society the clothes for girls has changed sense I was a preteen and going through puberty. The preteens now wear little clothing as possible to show off their developing figure into a woman. This will attract the eyes of the young male that’s also going through puberty, and doesn’t want to be caught staring at the developing young female. This is also similar to the young boy that is having homosexual thoughts in the locker room. He has to control his action of staring at his same sex friend that has change over the summer from puberty. Both the boys are going through similar situations, one is with the same sex while the other is the opposite sex, finding sexual attraction and the urge to look and their desires for the other person. While Looking At Women and What Is A Homosexual seem very different, they are quite similar. The boys are going through the same body changes and realizing the attraction to either girls or guys. The boys are sorting out their desires on how to look at the other person weather it’s the opposite sex or the same. Interesting enough the boys learn to control their wandering eyes, and when it’s appropriate to look at either gender.