Monday, September 30, 2019

My (Not So Unique) Holiday Family Traditions Essay

When our Sociology class was assigned to write about family traditions, I instantly became nervous because I couldn’t think of one tradition off the top of my head that was special and unique to my family. I sat there and wondered, should I tell the truth and reveal the fact that my family doesn’t have any traditions? Should I make one up and fake my way through the entire thing just to get a good grade? Should I take someone else’s family tradition and call it my own? As you can probably tell, I was completely stuck. I feel as though my family traditions are ones that are shared with other families around the world. The typical family traditions that I’m referring to are about are during the Thanksgiving and Christmas holidays. During Thanksgiving, we always have our annual family dinner down at my grandmother’s house. All the women of the family cook different dishes such as turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, green beans, etc. The women usually si t around the dinner table while the men of the family assemble in the living room and watch TV, typically football. The children of the family usually sit at a separate table and after they are done, they usually go outside to play. Christmas traditions and the traditions of Thanksgiving are much in the same. Occasionally after everyone gets their stomachs full, we usually play a game called â€Å"catch phrase.† There is never a dull moment when we play this game. It is similar to charades in which you hold a device that shows you a word that you must describe to your teammates without saying the word directly. When I was assigned this essay, I went to my mother, hoping that we had a tradition that I just overlooked. Needless to say, I was back at square one, she couldn’t think of any that were unique! I began to look to my peers for help, which resulted in the usual, â€Å"Just say something obvious, like, ‘On the twenty-fifth day of December, my family opens presents that are left underneath an artificial tree by an obese man who has some strange obsession with red clothes and non-existent animals who can fly’!† That wasn’t much help either. In comparison to the traditional Caucasian holiday traditions, I researched via internet on the African Am erican holiday traditions. A common statement that I found was that â€Å"Today’s Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners are just a taste of how African Americans used to eat.† Before you slice into that sweet potato pie, douse those greens in hot sauce or cut a corner of macaroni and cheese this holiday season, consider where those traditions came from. In the late 19th  century, geography factored in how people celebrated the yuletide season. During this time, African Americans lived mostly a rural existence, which translated into a farm-to-table lifestyle. I found a blog of two sisters discussing their African American culture during the holiday seasons. Sisters Norma Jean and Carole Darden discussed their history and recipes in recounting African-American life and culture. Their grandmother’s traditions were passed down to them in which they will pass them down to their children and so on. She lived on a dairy farm and wanted milk and cream in the family’s dishes. A favorite dish was painted Christmas cookies, made with rose water and orange-flower water. Norma will be preparing Thanksgiving dinner for her family in November. She’s been cooking since age 9. Her dinner table will have turkey with corn bread dressing on the side, many quarts of giblet gravy, whole cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes. But in h omage to her stepfather, she’ll make smoked oysters for an appetizer, corn and peas as a side dish as well as yams in a cast-iron pot, without marshmallows. Just as he taught her. We live in an age in which it is hard to spend time together as a family. Many families today wonder if having quality time together is a thing of the past. We are inordinately busy, for one thing, whether household bread-winners or college students. Also, the definition of family has changed. We are dealing with new definitions and characterizations of the idea of family. Some of us have traditional families. Some families have divorced, single, and/or remarried parents, creating a rather confusing family tree. Some people choose to live their lives alone, but may still be close enough to some friends to consider them family. Whatever the circumstances, many of us honestly don’t know how to celebrate together. We may even see the word â€Å"tradition† as something dulling and old, having no meaning for or application to us personally; something usually being forced upon us. It is up to us to create new family traditions. Celebrating is not hard. We all know about celebrating and have some ways of doing it. The only challenge is to find new ways. Why do we need to celebrate tradition? It gives us something to look forward to and makes a formal statement that there are some things in life to be grateful for. The notion of honoring tradition is unsettling for some people; let alone creating new ones. We seem to think that traditions must be heavy and complex ideas that had been around for hundreds of years and will be around  for a hundred more. In my opinion, this is not true. It need not be big or religious at all. I believe a tradition is something that you do once that feels good, so you do it again and again. Tradition is in all our lives in one way or another. Without participation in such activities there would be no family bond or pride. Being involved in these activities brings people closer and makes us understand who we are. Everything we do and every day of our lives we take part in a tradition in one form or another. After writing this paper, I realize that my family traditions may not be unique to others, but they are special to me and the members of my family and that is something that I will always cherish and hope to pass down to future generations.

Saturday, September 28, 2019

Should the Drinking Age Remain at 21 or Be Lowered to 18

Dominicia Ferrell Mrs. Burns English 101 December 1, 2011 Should the legal drinking age be raised (or lowered)? Should the drinking age be lowered to eighteen years old, when one is considered an adult, and assumes adult privileges, or should the drinking age remain at twenty-one years old, since people are more mature and therefore, can be safe and responsible with alcohol? I believe that the drinking age should remain at twenty-one years old because lowering the legal age would not be the best interest of the public’s safety, as well as today’s youth.Why the drinking age should not be lowered? Let me explain some reasons why not to lower the drinking age. One is if the drinking age is lowered it will be contributing to more fatal accidents. Second, lowering the drinking age might influence eighteen year olds to buy alcohol for younger teenagers. An third, eighteen year olds may not be mature enough to know their limitations on drinking alcoholic beverages. I also beli eve that the drinking age should be lowered because when one turns eighteen years old they are considered an adult.At the age of eighteen one is able to make his/her on decision. I have come to the conclusion that the legal drinking age should be changed to eighteen. But drunk driving is the one big factor why people do not want to change the legal drinking age to eighteen years old. In this instance there would be a risk of many more deaths in America due to drunk driving. The reason would be that if underage drinkers could consume alcohol they would not have to be forced to drive from authorities.In the case I would support the legal age of twenty-one. Drunk driving is a very big concern to a lot of people and keeping the age at twenty-one would reduce drunk drivers on the road as opposed to eighteen. If the age were lowered to eighteen there would be less conflict with higher authorities such as parents and police officers. The legal drinking age should be lowered to eighteen yea rs old because at eighteen you are classified as an adult in the eyes of the law. The legal drinking age in Louisiana is currently twenty-one.It was changed from eighteen years old to twenty-one in 1996 when the Federal Government threatened to withhold money for highway construction that the law changed and the minimum age was raised to twenty-one across the board for buying, consuming and selling alcohol. This is a point that has been proven time and again with other things such as prohibition. Just because you make something illegal it does not mean that people are just going to stop doing it. Just because you make something illegal it does not mean that people are just going to stop doing it.Because of the laws many young people learn to drink in unsafe environments. They use alcohol with the intention of getting drunk rather than as an accompaniment to food. In the eighteen, nineteen, and twenty year old range do dangerous binge drinking far more often than the twenty-one who d rinks responsibly. I believe that considering twenty-one as the legal age of maturity is foremost ridiculous. Who is to say that just because an individual is twenty-one means that they are mature enough to consume alcohol in a responsible manner? Changing the legal drinking age to eighteen should be forced.Eighteen year old individuals can take on many responsibilities, but they do not have the right to consume alcohol. I feel this is unfair and biased. Just because a person lives to be twenty-one does not determine how mature they are. For example, there are many teenagers in the world that are considerably more mature than the average twenty-one year old. The determination of legal drinking should not be age, but rather maturity and ability to handle responsibility. If twenty-one is considered so mature, then why an eighteen year old is considered an adult?At the age of eighteen, an individual can vote, serve on a jury, stay out without a curfew, leave home, drive, smoke, buy wea pons, be sent to adult prisons, and die for this country. If an eighteen year old can be held to so many responsibilities, then it seems unfair to say that they are not old enough to drink. Prohibiting the sale of alcohol to people under the age of twenty-one may cause habits such as binge drinking and alcohol abuse. Binge drinking, or drinking for the purpose of getting drunk, harms both drinkers and nondrinkers.They use bingeing as the get a way that allows them to escape stress. It allows them to forget their worries, fit in with the crowd, and live a fast paced life. Keeping the age at twenty-one makes it seems as if an eighteen year old is not a real adult. Drinking is then viewed as an activity since it is only for adults. Then the underage will just find a way around it. For example, many have fake identification cards, steal alcohol from their parents’, or even put another person in jeopardy by asking someone who is twenty-one to illegally purchase the alcohol for the underage drinkers.This kind of attitude does not encourage responsible drinking habits. In addition, this gives the young individuals the urge to drink even more when they get older so they can make up for their lost time, causing alcoholism. The argument against changing the legal drinking age has many issues. There have been many vehicle crashes among eighteen year olds than twenty-one year olds after the drinking age was raised to twenty-one. I believe that there will always be people that will drink and drive, and there is nothing anyone can do to completely stop it.But people of all ages get into car accidents. Instead of restricting the eighteen year old adults, there should be better ways to educate the eighteen year olds on the dangers and responsibilities that come with drinking. My final reason for why the drinking age should be lowered is that if an eighteen year old is considered an adult and have the same responsibilities as a twenty-one year old they should be able to purchase and consume alcohol and drink as much as they desire only if they are able to control their maturity and take on much more responsibilities as to not drink and drive.

Friday, September 27, 2019

Describe only four (4) factors that create a current account deficit Essay

Describe only four (4) factors that create a current account deficit. Leave a space between each factor - Essay Example Deficit therefore implies that the value of the payment for the imports is greater than the receipt from the exports. The factors responsible for a current account deficit are:- Decline in domestic savings The domestic savings of a country is the path of increasing investments as in economics savings is considered to be identical to investments. If there is a continuous decline in the savings of a particular country then the scope of investment will causes an increase in the real interest rate of the country. Increase in the domestic interest rate (real) in turn attracts more foreign investment in the country as the scope of return is expected to be high. With increasing foreign investment the demand of the home currency in the foreign exchange market also increases because of the need of  Ã‚   currency conversion. This creates an upward pressure on the value of the domestic currency in comparison to the foreign currencies. Moreover, with the decrease in savings as a percentage of the total Gross Domestic Product of the country, consumption increases. Thus the demand for goods and services in the economy increases and if the domestic producers fail to meet up the increasing domestic demand of the country the import of the country increases resulting in a deficit in the current account. (Arnold).

Human resource 420 Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Human resource 420 - Assignment Example Also, in relation to the successful completion of the internship program, I received two letters of accreditation with ‘A’ grade certification. I feel that this particular achievement will definitely help me in fulfilling my ultimate and predetermined goals. Moreover, the achievement would enable me to develop the work as an efficient HR recruitment coordinator. The best thing to discuss about my college is that the authorities themselves provided me with the opportunity to undergo the internship programs for which I am very much thankful to my college. In addition, the college authority provided me with the prospect of conducting along with participating in numerous workshops and also made me engaged in performing different HR related activities. These eventually developed my theoretical as well as practical skills linked with HR field by a considerable level. There still lays a greater scope for acquiring sufficient knowledge that my college will provide to me as there are still 14 months to complete my course. This fact makes me keep going in the positive mode for acquiring more and more HR related skills. Before beginning my graduate program, it was pre-planned that I would have my specialization in HR because this particular field is always been my favorite as I deeply favor the aspect of identifying human talents. It strongly represents my interest area and also I possess a strong zeal to start and pursue a career in the field of HR just after my graduation (Hansen, 1996). The college in which I am studying is home to several reputed professors who possess variable amount of industrial exposure in dissimilar fields. And fortunately, our HR subject is taught by an authoritative individual who shares a friendly attitude, having specialization in the field of recruitment for several years. During the past one and half years of my educational program, I met several people who liked to share common interests relating to the concerned filed or subj ect matter. Me and my fellow classmates were continuously engaged in participating several counseling sessions and discussed along with solved numerous project reports and assignments in a cohesive manner. It can be affirmed that the graduation program not only supported me to gain valuable insight about HR, but also provided me with greater knowledge and understanding of other subject areas. These subject areas encompass marketing, finance, statistics, managerial economics and business communication among others (Hansen, 1996). Short-term goals: In the next 14 months, I plan on completing my graduate course with maximum score, so that I could get a proper assistance in relation to placement. As the course is continuing to provide me with all diversity in the modern education process, I strongly feel that I will be able to grasp all those necessary skills that are required to get a kick start in the corporate sector. I am trying to create a strong co-ordination with reputed companie s that my college has tied up. This might support me to fulfill my ultimate goal by a certain extent. Even tough, I have developed a strong interrelation with the placement cell in my college which might enable me to get a good job in future. I am studying very hard in order to fulfill my

Thursday, September 26, 2019

The Problem of Leadership in Cuba, Mexico and Brazil Essay

The Problem of Leadership in Cuba, Mexico and Brazil - Essay Example 2. Cuba The Cuban tale of independence was preceded by two more important events namely the independence of Haiti in 1791 and the call for independence from Spain in the 1820’s. The Haitian revolution had proven beyond doubt that people from various racial and ethnic backgrounds could operate together to subdue not one but three colonial powers to claim their independence. The Cuban revolution and its constituents resembled the Haitian insurgents in racial composition as the call to arms was taken up by blacks, mulattos and whites alike. Previously the Cuban domain had remained faithful to Spain even though other nations were claiming their independence. Cuba was given the motto â€Å"The Always Most Faithful Island† by the Spanish Crown although small plans for insurgency had been unearthed throughout the 1830’s and 1840’s. The loyalty towards the Spanish Crown stemmed from dependence on Spain for trade as well as protection from pirates and unease at the rising power of the United States. The actual insurgency was initiated by Carlos Manuel De Cespedes who was a sugar plantation owner. Carlos freed his slaves and declared that any slaves who were presented for military service would be freed. The conflict emerged in 1868 and became known as the Ten Years War with the emergence of a new government supported by blacks, mulattos and white men. Throughout the struggle race was nearly dismantled as a classification as white men served under blacks and blacks and mulattos rose to prominence as colonels, generals and the like. The newly formed government was not recognised by the United States though other European and Latin American governments recognised it. The war ended in 1878 with the Pact of Zanjon as Spain promised greater autonomy to Cuba. In the following year another insurgency was initiated by a Cuban patriot better known as Calixto Garcia. This effort was labelled as the Little War but it received little support. Slavery was abolished generally in Cuba following these events and abolition was completed in the 1880’s. The next conflict in Cuba emerged in 1895 with forces led by Jose Marti who was finally killed in the battle of Dos Rios on May 19, 1895. The large Spanish army outnumbered the insurgents as local people were forced into concentration camps by the military governor of Cuba. The final end of the war in 1898 placed leadership in the hands of the influential whites and some mulattos. Following independence Cuba saw social and political corruption along with short regimes that boomed and waned in rapid succession till the socialist revolution. 3. Mexico Mexico was ruled by a republican general Porfirio Diaz who took over Mexico during the French intervention. Porfirio was in charge of the country from 1876 to 1880 and then from 1884 to 1911 through five consecutive reelections and the period became known better as Porfirio. This era was characterized by large progress in economics as wel l as the arts and sciences though economic disparity was on the rise along with political repression. Election fraud associated with Diaz’s fifth election instigated the Mexican Revolution of 1910 which was led by Francisco I. Madero forcing Diaz to resign in 1911. However Francisco was overthrown only two years later in a coup by the conservative general Victoriano Huerta which put the nation into another civil war

Wednesday, September 25, 2019

Self care theory Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Self care theory - Essay Example One of the nursing theorists who drew from the systems theory to develop a more operational theory is Betty Neuman. Applicability of Neuman's Systems Theory Betty Neuman’s model, the ‘Neuman System’s theory, seeks to portray the constant interaction between a patient and his or her environment, and how it contributes to balance and a sense of well-being from the patient’s perspective (Hinton & Neuman, 1995). In the Neuman System’s theory, a patient is viewed as being in constant contact with different factors such as the larger community, the environment, and the family. These factors affect the patient developmentally, spiritually, psychosocially, and physiologically in positive or negative ways. Neuman’s system’s theory holds that it is how an individual reacts to such factors that determine his or her environment. For example, if a person is irritated when a family member that he disagreed with earlier comes to ask him for something, the person has generated the feeling of irritation in response to the request of the family member. The person’s irritation will give birth to other symptoms such as anxiety and a feeling of stress which will in turn affect his blood pressure and possibly sleep disturbances. If his anxiety persists over a long period of time, the person’s self-concept may even be subjected to changes even as his physical health further deteriorates. In this case, the person’s powerlessness in adapting to the new environment results in the breakdown of his protective barriers. The Neuman Systems model also addresses the factor of perceived barriers that an individual can adopt so as to be able to cope with a transformation in the immediate environment. Neuman's Systems Theory in use in Culturally Diverse Families In the Neuman System’s model, it is believed that the nurse’s function is to view the patient as being a distinct individual with his own aspirations and coping abilities. While executing primary, as well as secondary interventions, the nurse is always conscious of the need to view the patient in a holistic manner that respects their protective barriers in order to enable the client to return to a state of well being (Fawcett, 2005). Due to the fact that the environment around the patient does not remain constant, the nurse always has to constantly re-consider the best ways to meet the client’s needs. This would be the case particularly in culturally diverse families where people may have different opinions and thus create new environments for the patient constantly. Neuman regarded people as being open systems which work with other elements when interacting with their environment. Neuman's model allows for nurses to be able to evaluate and care for the entire family unit as a singular client. Even though Neuman tended to concentrate o the client’s health, she felt that a patient’s health was basically dependent on the way in which they were presently reacting to the factors in their environment. The nurse who seeks to use the Neuman model has to analyze his professional role in the primary as well as secondary stages of prevention (Hinton & Neuman, 1995). By using this method, the nursing function is then transformed into one whereby the nurse chooses various effective interventions to treat the patient. In any culturally divers

Tuesday, September 24, 2019

Juvenile Drug Abuse Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Juvenile Drug Abuse - Research Paper Example However, the various researches reveal that teenagers have access and abuse different studies from as early s middle school. The habit is notably higher in high school. Different factors contribute to the increasing rates of the habit. According to a fact sheet from the United States Department of Health and Human Services that analyzed facts surrounding Boys and Substance abuse, young boys are prone to developing the habit of drug abuse more than girls develop. The fact sheet indicates that adolescents venture into substance abuse in middle school. Drinking alcohol starts bat this age, but increases greatly in high school. In addition, in 2006, boys reportedly took more alcohol than girls did. In specific statistics, 16% of eight grade boys took alcohol. 47% of boys from twelfth grade and about 34% of tenth grade boys also took alcohol. In 2005, another research showed that three out of five boys used tobacco while two out of five tries out inhalants. In 2006, 22% of boys in grade twelve grade, 13% of tenth graders and 8% of those in eighth grade reportedly smoked at least a cigarette in a month. However, comparison with other years indicates that the rates of tobacco and inhalant use have been falling (United St ates Department of Health and Human Services, 2008). Concerning the use of marijuana the fact sheet indicates that more boys used marijuana in all grades than girls did. In addition, 38% eighth graders, 29% tenth graders and 15% eighth graders who were boys had used marijuana in a year’s time. However, research proved that girls used prescription drugs more than boys did. The fact sheet suggested that the trends in substance use were generally falling on comparison wit previous years. The sheet also made highlights on the factors affecting substance abuse. Teenagers turn to substance abuse to show rebellion, to evade the reality of poor performance in school and

Monday, September 23, 2019

Book Report Two Old Women Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Book Report Two Old Women - Essay Example The author was looking for a very remote and intimidating environment to base the tale of two old women. The environment was very well selected and established. It is the part of the novel that depicted difficulty in the whole book. Apart from the difficult and intimidating environment, the story of survival and perseverance would be of no logic. The timing of the novel was very crucial and the author did an exceptional job in the timing of her book. It is the olden times of the novel that gave the tale logic in terms of few and scattered communities of people. It is also in the olden days that cannibals existed and held so much significant to people (pp. 98). In the novel cannibals were a feared lot. It also with the migrations made by characters in the novel made the timing of the tale exceptional. Apart from the setting of the novel, it is with great appreciation that I would recommend the novel to the modern society. In the novel, there was the depiction of laziness as a weakness. By strength, will and hard work that the two old women managed to survive during winter. This is a challenge to individuals who may use their weaknesses to avoid responsibility and seek attention. In my opinion, this fact created the most significant part of the novel. The choice of the vice by the author was exceptional. The author also focuses on society ties, betrayal and expectations. In the novel, the two old women were betrayed since they could not fulfill the tribe’s expectations of fitness (pp. 76). The authors mind was relating the struggles by the old population and the society reaction to their old age. At the conclusion of the novel the author expresses the apologetic feeling of the tribe when they found out the two women were still alive. This is a depiction of regret when we do not do the right thing. In the modern day society the novel still hold significance since we witness large numbers of old

Sunday, September 22, 2019

Qualites of an Effective Helper Essay Example for Free

Qualites of an Effective Helper Essay I believe that ill be an effective helper because I am caring trustful honest and open minded. I also know What its like self , family problems I also know the feelings of being unwanted and unloved is so Powerful that its hard to over come. I am motivated by desire to help all types of people work thought their problems no matter how big or little they are. The qualities that I have that will make me an effective helper are that I am a good listener, I am open- minded about all most everything even if I don’t really understand. I am honest and I don’t mind telling the truth to someone even if it hurts their feelings sometimes people need to hear the truth it helps them see it through someone’s else’s eyes, but I also know when to be respectful to other people needs, beliefs and values. I have had some personal problems that I think other people may have, I don’t mind sharing them with a client to show them that I have been down that road in life and with sharing I would hope that it will help our relationship. I don’t like to judge people because at some point in life everyone has had some kinds of problems and I have no right to judge we are all human we all live and learn. I have an happy go lucky presonallalliti so smiling and showing that I care comes easy for me, I have no problem putting myself on the spot to break the ice with a client. I am a patience person, I know that time is the key to help out with the relationship,, I know that it is hard to open up to someone that you think will judge you. I believe that helping a client find forgiveness it the key to most problems and that forgiving ourselves is one of the hardest things to do. I believe that everyone should have respect for all and be understanding, I try to understand everyone’s views, values and beliefs but when it comes to someone that has sexual abuse or killed a child would be really hard for me because I see children as the best gift in life, I don’t understand how any one would want to hurt them in any way. I know that they may have had it done to them . If I had to work with that has done one of those thing I would try really hard to put my feelings aside as best as I could. Nicki Prudhomme

Saturday, September 21, 2019

How Can Television Influence Behaviours In Children Young People Essay

How Can Television Influence Behaviours In Children Young People Essay ABSTRACT Everyone in this world watches television. Some people do not like to watch it and some people have no time for it but it is a lie if they never watched it before. No matter how much they hate it or no time for it, they must have watched it once before. Television programs give us a lot of information and we can get a lot of benefits from it. However, it has been misused by todays youths because they do not know how to interpret all those information very well. Indirectly, this causes the statement of television programs affect the attitude of todays youth to arise. It seems that television programs may lead to aggressive behavior because kids are very easy to be influenced as they are still young and just about to know the whole world. So, whatever they see on television, they tend to imitate it. As we all know, kids learn while they are growing up. After watching a lot of violence shows, they might be immune to violence and this will automatically encourage them not to hesitate to be violence in reality. Besides that, television programs also cause the development of negative social amongst youths due to the advertisements of alcohol, smoking and sex scenes. Youths will be encouraged by these scenes and advertisements as it is easier to attract peoples attention by using animation rather than pictures. Furthermore, television programs affect self development and self esteem. People who are addicted to television are willing to do anything for it including sacrifice their sleeping time just to watch their favourite shows. This will indirectly c ause self development to be affected. Television programs affect self esteem because they might put on diet as they want to compete with skinny beautiful models and actresses that can be seen on television. Do television programs affect the attitude of todays youths? From the reasons that have been mentioned above, the answer is certainly yes, television programs do affect the attitude of todays youth. 1.0 INTRODUCTION Televiewing causes people to duplicate inappropriately, in other areas of their lives, behavior styles developed while watching television. (Kottak, 1990, p.3) Television programs can be educational as well as entertaining. It can give people the opportunity to travel around the globe, expose them to new ideas that they might not have encountered from their community and also a chance to learn about different cultures. Pro-social messages from shows on television will give a positive impact on the behavior of todays youth. However, these youths are more likely to learn negative values from these television programs. Statistics show that an average of children ranging from ages 2-5 years old spends about 32 hours a week in front of the television while children ranging from 6-11 years old spends about 28 hours a week watching these television programs (McDonough, 2009). Another set of statistics show that 68% of children between ages 8-18 years old have a television set in their bedrooms, 37% of them have cable/satellite television and 20% have premium channels. This is very interesting as studies show that 53% of households of 7th to 12th graders have no rules or boundaries regarding the amount of time they spend watching television or the type of programs they watch thus making these television programs a very influential tool because studies have shown that kids with no televisions in their bedroom spend an average 1.5 hours less per day watching television than kids who do (Roberts, Foehr Rideout 2005). Television has now become a debatable issue as some question its influences on the attitude and psychological development of todays youth. Nowadays, the world of television has been discovered by children at very young age. As we know, television is an effective educational tool. With programs showcasing wildlife, scientific theories etc, it helps these children to be broad-minded and also have a better understanding about the world around them. However, we have to remember and be aware that the television also is seem to posses more negative effects than positive ones. A day in a youths life will generally be filled with activities such as playing with friends, reading, doing homework and being physically active but this can be easily replaced with the presence of television. This is detrimental to their physical and mental development because studies show that the first two to three years of a childs life is where he/she learns through observing, interacting, playing and also exploring new things. Thus if these children are glued and become addicted to these programs on television they will have lesser time to interact with human beings. This is crucial, as it can retard their normal physical and social development and skills. Hence, the burning question here is, do television programs affect the attitude of todays youth? If we look further into the issue, television programs do indeed affect the attitude of todays youth as it enhances negative social development amongst youths, which may lead to aggressive or violent behavior, and they tend to affect self development and self esteem. As we all know, youths are more likely to imitate and adapts ones behavior into their own because they can easily relate to what is shown on television. There surely will be a lot of behavioral changes in youths today if they are exposed to excessive violence shown on television. These kinds of programs will encourage these youths to be aggressive in both their behavior and in their thoughts. Not only that, they will also be more likely to be influenced with what they have seen regularly like smoking and drinking scenes which are shown frequently in these television programs and even commercials. This will encourage the development of such unhealthy habits at an early age (Bora, 2009). This report shows the effect television programs have on the attitude of todays youth. These research findings are confined to the United States of America as the knowledge and collective behaviors of contemporary Americans are everywhere. Like any other problem, there is always a solution, in order to ensure that television is used as a source of knowledge and healthy entertainment, one must be sure to watch it in moderation by setting a time limit when you sit down to watch it. Besides that, the government, the parents and the teachers should encourage todays youth to participate in other positive activities like playing outdoor and indoor games. Not only that, they should also encourage todays youth to watch programs that reinforce family values. 2.0 TELEVISION PROGRAMS MAY LEAD TO AGGRESSIVE OR VIOLENT BEHAVIOR Aggressive attitudes, values and behavior can be increased by watching entertainment violence, particulary in children. The effects are measurable and also long lasting. Some of the television programs will show scenes with stabbing, hitting, shooting, punching, guns and any type of other violence. Almost all the violence shows on television are fake as television programs use fake guns and fake blood to represent violent acts during acting (Kaufman, 2004). Violent scenes on television may not be a great deal for the adults because adults know the difference between reality and fantasy compared to children who know nothing about it or not clear about the difference between reality and fantasy. Most of the time, children who see a lot of violence will settle their conflicts in violence way. According to psychological research, youths can be negatively affected by the violence on television. Watching violence on television will give three major effects which youths will be less sensitive to pain and suffering of others, youths will be more fearful of the world around them and they might behave aggressively toward the others (Abelard, 2008). ACT Against Violence (cited in Kaufman, 2004) states that infants are interested in television only for a short period of time as they are attracted to the light and sound from the television. Toddlers who are 18-36 months are paying more attention to what is on television and are able to get the meaning from the programs they watch. The link between their fantasy and reality is not strong which will cause them to react equally to animated violence and real violence. Preschoolers who are 3-5 years old are looking forward to shows on television. Eventhough they can understand what they are watching, they cannot give it a context. They cannot judge commercials versus regular programs or reality versus fantasy. Vivid scenes, rapid movement, sound and colour are highly attracted by the preschoolers. Hence, this shows that most of them pay the most attention to the most violent scenes on the screen. Children in the range of 6 to 11 years old believe that television reflects real life. The y will show more aggressive behavior after watching the violent scenes. 2.1 THEY TEND TO IMITATE SUCH BEHAVIOR FROM WHAT IS SHOWN ON TELEVISION Everyone knows that viewers may imitate positive and negative behaviors from the television programs. However, the Gerbner group has found that people will be more apt to perceive the real world as being similar to television programs if they spend more time on watching television (Kottak, 1990, p.11). This situation will be faced mainly by the children as they do not have enough knowledge and experiences to differentiate between reality and fantasy. Since they only spend their time on watching television, they might have forgotten that they are actually watching something that is fantasy, not a reality. Hence, the innocent children will follow blindly what they have seen on television because they think that the characters on television programs can do so, why cant they. Violence on television programs may create blur images of good and evil. Kottak (1990) states that the distinction between heroes and villains is fading. This will cause the children to be more confused and lead the m to do anything they want. For example, if they adore a character from one movie, they might just imitate the behavior of that character without knowing that behavior is a good behavior or a bad behavior. Most of the shows on television are using violence as the central to the storyline, where the heroes and villains can get what they want by using violence as it is an effective way. It is true that television programs may lead to aggressive behavior. This can be proven by an incident in Dallas where a boy has been killed by his elder brother, 7 years old with a clothesline maneuver he had seen on a wrestling show (Kaufman,2004). 2.2. THEY BECOME IMMUNE TO VIOLENCE Children will tend to have favorable attitudes toward aggressive behaviors if they watch more violent television programs. This will indirectly cause the child to become immune to the horror of violence (American Academy of Child Adolescent Psychiatry, 2002). This is because, they can always see violence in the television programs that they are watching. Hence, the child will gradually accept violence as a way to solve problems. Lefebrve has found an example to show that a child has immune to violence until he uses the type of violence that has been seen by him on television to solve his problem. A six years old boy wearing turtle costume stabbed his friend in the arm for not returning his toy. This shows that this child has no humanity because for him, it is only a normal thing to stab someone as he has already immune to violence. AGGRESSIVE AND VIOLENT BEHAVIORS ARE CONTRIBUTED THROUGH OTHER CHANNELS Some people argue that not only television programs can lead to aggressive and violent behaviors but these behaviors can be influenced by people surrounding them like peers and family. However, children spend most of their time by watching television. Almost everyone in the world has their celebrity idol. Children tend to like the characters of their idols on the television programs or movie without thinking whether their idols are doing the good or bad thing in that show. This will cause children to imitate their favourite characters in particular shows because they are too obsessed with the characters. Factors that may lead to aggressive and violent behaviors that have been influenced by their peers or family members are not a strong argument compared to television programs. This is because, children will not always agree or listen to what people say to them because they are quite stubborn and will just follow their hearts to do whatever they want. Eventhough they have been influen ced a lot of times by people surrounding them, they still can choose whether to do it or not as they might not interested in their type of violence. If they chose not to do it, they can just not do it and can stay away from people who are influencing them. Think about television, how are they supposed to stay away from television? There is no way for people in this world to stay away from television unless that person is in a jungle or no television set at home. Although they do not have television sets at home, they can still watch it at their office place or any stalls. No matter what, they can still watch programs on television and somehow will come across to violence. Besides that, television programs are visual and children can always see the act in an interesting way and it can be watched repeatedly. There are so many types of violence on television programs that can be seen by the children. So they have variety types of violence to be chosen and if children love what they are watching, then they will start to behave like what they are watching. Hence, television programs are the main source which may lead to aggressive and violent behaviors. In a nutshell, the attitude of todays youth are affected by television programs as they will indirectly encourage the children to be aggressive and violent in their behaviors. Children tend to imitate such behaviors from what is shown on television and also the immunity to violence cause the childrens behavior to be easier affected by television programs. 3.0 TELEVISION PROGRAMS ENHANCE NEGATIVE SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT AMONGST YOUTHS Children are very curious because they are still growing up and just about to see the whole world. So, they are more easily being influenced to do either negative or positive things when they see something new or something that they can see often on the television. We cannot control childrens mind because they seem to keep it to themselves and we can only see the differences in them when they express it. Besides that, they do not know what the good and bad things are as they are just about to understand and see the real world. So, they will simply do whatever they like which have been seen by them on television. Examples of negative social development that can be enhanced by the television programs are drug and alcohol abuse, smoking and also sex amongst the youths. All of these cannot be expected not to be seen on television because these will be included in most of the television programs and advertisements. Outley Taddese (2006) state that one of the factors for increased drinking amongst the youths are due to the exposure to alcohol use on television and in music videos like MTV, Hitz, and [V] channels. According to Kaiser Family Foundation, three quarter of the prime time shows entitled Sex on TV contain sexual references. There is only one tenth of the sexual content shows include the risks, responsibilities and safety of sex. Only 17% of messages about safety and responsibilities of sex have been portrayed in shows about teenagers in sexual situations. Children will start smoking at an earlier age for those who watch more television as the factors of influenced by the peer and parental smoking and gender is not as strong as the relationship between the age of starting smoking and television viewing (Mekemson Glantz, 2002). 3.1 THE MONKEY SEE, MONKEY DO THEORY Audience can experience strong emotional reactions, gain new values and change the way they behave by observing the performance of actors. This will be more likely to happen especially when the models show new patterns of behavior and thought which are rewarded (Bandura, 1985). This explains that the audience will do whatever they like which have been seen by them on the television and this will affect their behavior and attitude. Most of the people who can think rasionally, they will not follow the negative things that have been watched by them on television. However, we have to remember that youths are still young and they are still learning about things around this world. This world is new to them and they do not understand which is good and which is bad until the adults thought them the right things. At this range of ages, youths will have problems in controlling themselves if they are addicted to television programs which will then lead to the monkey see, monkey do theory. Television is the most influenced medium. It can be part of the solution and part of the problem in the area of sex amongst the youths. It will give solutions to the area of sex amongst the youths when the shows are giving a technique to have safe sex, a warning program to the teenagers about the consequences if that person gets pregnant, the responsibilities that they need to know from the start before they decided to have sex, etc. However, it will give problems when the children watch the sex scenes in the television programs. When they watch this kind of scenes, they will get attracted to it because everyone has the passion and it is a human nature to have the feeling to do it. Children will think that it is not wrong to have sex because they can always see the sex scenes on television without being censored and the monkey see, monkey do theory will be seen in this situation. They see it on television and they will do it in real life. Not all of them will do it in real life becau se some of them might not get a partner to do it in real life but nowadays, in this kind of situation, it is not difficult anymore to get a partner to have sex due to the influenced by television programs. For those who might not get a partner to satisfy his satisfaction, he might do something worst like rape the girls. In most television programs, there will be at least one scene where they will be drinking alcohol and smoking. For those children who watch this scene, he or she might not know what is alcohol and cigarette. As the theory said, monkey see, monkey do, the children might try to drink and smoke in real life like what they have seen on television. 3.2 THEY HAVE BEEN ENCOURAGED BY THE TELEVISION PROGRAMS People in the advertisements of alcohol can always be seen more successful, happier and sexier when they drink. Alcohol advertising including the television advertisements caused the drinking among youth to be increased (Johnson et al. 2004). When they see this kind of advertisements, they will be more likely feel encouraged by the advertisements because everyone wants to be sexy, happy and successful. Since these advertisements show that they can feel all of the feelings, this will indirectly encourage them to drink so that they can feel to be more successful, happier and sexier. There are some of the television programs about a group of friends ignore he or she because that person doesnt want to do something that had been asked to do by that group of friends, for example like smoking. When children watch this kind of shows, they will feel scared because they do not want to lose their friends, and they are still young to know that actually the friends who ignored them are not good friends for them. In order to be secure, children will take precaution steps before they lose their friends, and hence they will decide to smoke. This shows that television programs are indirectly encourage the children to develop the negative social in them. YOUTHS RECEIVED THE KNOWLEDGE OF NEGATIVE SOCIAL FROM OTHER SOURCES We are doing our young people a real disservice by attempting to protect them from straight and open information that is imperative for adjustment in the real world.  (Maw, 2007) Some people argue that youths can get the information and knowledge from their friends, parents, teachers, magazines, etc. There are also some of them who claim that the purpose of television programs show all these kind of programs is because they want to protect todays youth by showing them the real side of world. However, television is still the most influenced medium. This is because, children can spend most of their time in front of television and can watch that particular show for a long period of time as well as get the information in detail throughout the show. If compared to the information by the parents, peers, etc, they will not get the information in detail. Besides that, it is not that they will spend their time with their parents and peers to talk about it for 24 hours, they need to talk about something else too like family talk and etc. Hence, that is why television programs will give more impact on the negative social development amongst youths compared to the other sources. 4.0 TELEVISION PROGRAMS MAY AFFECT SELF DEVELOPMENT AND SELF ESTEEM In order to create a good relationship with other people, it is important for us to have good self esteem and self confidence in ourselves so that we can achieve our goals. People who have trouble getting positive relationship and afraid to do anything that can improve their life is due to the lack of self esteem. We can always see beautiful skinny models and actresses on television. Most of the children will then start to feel insecure and they will definitely want to do something with their bodies so that they can feel as good as the beautiful skinny models and actresses on television. However, in order for them to maintain their bodies or to get the body like their role models, they have to sacrifice a lot of things. For example, they have to diet in order to be beautiful and skinny like models and actresses on television. This will affect the youths self development and self esteem. 4.1 THEY HAVE SLEEPING PROBLEMS BY WATCHING TELEVISION Sleeping disorders and sleeping patterns among youths have been altered by television viewing. In order to get healthy sleep, we need regular sleep schedules. Thompson Christakis (2005) state that watching television makes the youths to have more irregular sleep disorders. Children need to get enough sleep so that their brain can work and can think carefully. If they do not have enough sleep, their brain will be very tired and cannot think carefully which will indirectly make their brain to be slow. When the brain is slow, this will affect the development of the youth. Besides that, the development of youth will be affected by the sleeping problems because they need to have enough sleep to grow. The growth at this age is very important and the growth rate should not be affected by anything so that the self development will not be interrupted. 4.2 THEY TEND TO PUT ON DIET When they see beautiful actresses and models on television, they feel insecure about their bodies and they will start on diet to get hot body like those actresses and models. When they look someone beautiful on television, their self esteem will automatically being activated. They will start to ask themselves whether they are beautiful or not. For example, when someone sees Megan Fox on television, she will automatically feel very insecure and she thinks that herself is ugly. She will definitely think the way how to compete herself with Megan Fox. No matter how preety that person is, normally if she sees someone who she thinks is preety, her self esteem will then automatically be activated and cause her not to eat in order to be preety like the others. Not only that, when they are not having a proper diet, this will also affect the self development on them. SELF ESTEEM AND SELF DEVELOPMENT CAN BE AFFECTED BY PEOPLE SURROUNDING THEM People who do not agree with television programs may affect self development and self esteem say that self esteem and self development can be affected by people surrounding them. It is true that it can be affected by surrounding people but we have to remember that our surrounding people are random people. We will not see the same person every day. It is also possible if the children see their idols as random people for only once. Compared to television, children can always see their idols on television again and again, which will make them feel more uncomfortable with themselves due to the self esteem and self development. Hence, television is the biggest influenced medium on youths. 5.0 RECOMMENDATIONS The following recommendations have been made to solve the problem of youths attitude that has been affected by the television programs: Provide the youths with media education and monitor them Discuss the contents of the shows with youths Give them more confidence in themselves According to the American Academy of Pediatrics, the kids will be less influenced to the negative effects of watching violent shows on television by the help of media education. Some studies have shown that media education can make the kids to have less violent behavior after watching violent shows on television (Kyla, 2009). This shows that media education can help the youths to control their aggressive behavior eventhough they have watched a lot of violence shows. Hence, it is not wrong for the parents to try the method of providing their children with media education. Either it works or not, parents are highly recommended to try this method as it is one of the most effective ways for controlling childrens behavior. We have to remember that we cannot control everyones interest. If the kids love to watch violent programs, we cannot stop them from watching it and it is not wrong for them to watch it as long as they can differentiate what is good and what is bad. Besides that, another way to prevent the youths from having aggressive or violent behavior is parents should monitor the children on what they are watching. This is to prevent the children from straight away imitate whatever they have seen on television, especially for kids. Parents should try to explain to kids as many as possible about what have been shown on television because the children do not know how to differentiate which one is reality or fantasy as they are still young and know nothing about it. Usually, children love to imitate the aggressive or violent behavior from cartoon and this is the main reason that the parents need to explain to their children about reality and fantasy terms to give the children an idea about this issue. Secondly, parents should discuss the contents of the programs with their children in order to avoid the development of negative social amongst the youths. The advertisements about alcohol and cigarette as well as sex scenes cannot be avoided from the youths. Parents should spend more time with their children to share opinions between them. Parents need to know what exactly on their childrens mind so that they can give advices to their children. This is the time for the parents to be a good role model for their children. Give them good advices and hear their opinion patiently without judging. Eventhough their thoughts are wrong, parents need to correct it and give them a bigger idea about the effects of alcohol, smoking and sex before married by giving them a story based on experience or tell them the consequences of all these actions. In order to avoid self esteem and self development from being affected, parents should help their children to build confidence in themselves. They should remind their children how attractive they are and nobodys perfect. Parents should keep on telling their children that that all those beautiful skinny models and actresses on television must have scarcity in themselves. Parents have to help their children to build their confidence so that they do not want to be someone else due to the confidences that have been built in them. Besides that, parents should set rules for their children. For example, set the rule that they have to switch off the television before 10 P.M so that they can sleep early and get enough sleep. This rule may help the children to have a good self development. . 6.0 CONCLUSION To summarize, television programs contribute more damage than benefits. Television programs may lead to aggressive behavior and violent behavior as kids become immune to violence and they tend to imitate what is shown on television. Eventhough aggressive and violent behaviors are contributed through other channels, television is the main source which will lead to this behavior. This is because, they spend most of their time on watching television compared to the others. They can easily imitate the violent behavior due to the blur images of good and evil which have been created by television programs. Since they watch more violent television programs, they become immune to the horror of violence as they can always see violence in the television programs that they are watching. Evidently, television programs enhance negative social development amongst youths. This can be proven by the theory of monkey see, monkey do. Whatever have been seen by them on television, they can always do if they want to without thinking the consequences because they are still young and do not know how to differentiate the good and the bad things. Eventhough the knowledge of negative social can be received from other sources, television is the most influenced medium because they can watch those actions as if it is real while magazines and posters are only in a form of pictures. Not only that, television programs may also affect self development and self esteem. The self development is affected by the sleeping disorder because they might watch their favourite shows until late night and have not enough sleep. Sometimes they tend to put on diet due to their self esteem as they see beautiful skinny models and actresses so that they can be as preety as those models and actresses. Youths can always see the beautiful skinny models and actresses as long as they watch television, they cannot avoid from seeing them on television. Do you think it is logic for us not to see even one beautiful actress? Of course the answer is no and that is why television is the most influence medium which can affect self development and self esteem. In a nutshell, television programs do affect the attitude of youths today as it enhances negative social development amongst youths, which may lead to aggressive or violent behavior, and they tend to affect self development and self esteem.

Friday, September 20, 2019

Herbal Medicines: Helpful Aids or Harmful Injuries

Herbal Medicines: Helpful Aids or Harmful Injuries Anna Pham   Abstract Despite using plants for medicinal purposes for over 5,000 years, not much is known about the efficacy, mechanism, or safety of herbs pharmacological activity. Although herbal medicines are not a new threat, they are becoming an increasing concern due to their growing popularity around the world. Introduction Use of traditional medicine has expanded globally and has gained popularity. Not only is it used for primary health care of the poor in developing countries, it is also used in countries where conventional medicine is predominant in the national health care system. Three quarters of the world population is estimated to rely on herbal and traditional medicine as a basis for primary health care1. With this increase in popularity, an awareness of the efficacy, quality control, and safety of herbal medicines have become important concerns. Plants have been recorded as being used for medicinal purposes over 5,000 years2. For most of history, herbal medicine was the only treatment. As early as 1890, 59% of the listings in the US Pharmacopeia were from herbal products, and it is estimated that one third to one half of currently used drugs were derived from plants1. Today, thousands of herbal products are available over the counter and are commonly used by patients globally. Public dissatisfaction with the cost of prescription medications, combined with an interest in returning to natural or organic remedies, has led to an increase in herbal medicine consumption1. This is particularly true in individuals with chronic or incurable diseases. Herbal medicines are not a new threat, but they are an important and misunderstood threat. According to the World Health Organization, an herb is any form of a plant or plant product, including leaves, flowers, fruit, seed, stems, roots, and seeds2. These plants can either be sold raw or as extracts, where the plant is softened with water, alcohol, or other solvents to extract some of the chemicals. The resulting products contain dozens of chemicals, including fatty acids, sterols, flavonoids, alkaloids, and glycosides3. Efficacy Echinacea plant is widely used primarily for treatment of the common cold. Assessing the effectiveness of different Echinacea preparations is complicated because of the many extraneous variables. There are three different species of Echinacea in medical use, which include Echinacea purpurea, Echinacea pallida, and Echinacea angustifolia4. As well, not only are different parts of the plant are used (root, herb, flower, or whole plant), different methods of extraction are used. Lastly, other plant extracts or homeopathic components are added in some preparations. Making comparisons and pooling data of different preparations of Echinacea is methodologically questionable, so interpreting the plants effectiveness needs caution due to the heterogeneity of the preparations. Furthermore, the exact mechanisms of action for the immunomodulating effects of Echinacea preparations are unclear. There are four classes of compounds that are known to contribute to the immunomodulatory activity of Echinacea extracts: alkamides, glycoproteins, polysaccharides, and caffeic acid derivatives4. Different concentrations of different compounds are found in the three species of Echinacea. Subsequently, the pharmacologic effects associated with the elements in Echinacea may result from independent or synergistic interactions with single or multiple elements. As well, even if Echinacea extracts and constituents have demonstrated pharmacological activities in various biological assays, there is no evidence-based conceptual framework to explain how Echinacea might effectively prevent or treat acute respiratory infections4. Karsch-Volk et al. investigated in a systemic review the effectiveness of different Echinacea preparations for preventing and treating common colds or induced rhinovirus infections4. Different preparations were compared to a placebo in twenty-four double-blind randomized control trials with 4631 participants. It was not possible to apply a standard definition of the common cold across the trials, so the participants included in this study were individuals with non-specific viral upper respiratory tract infections (URTIs) with a clinical diagnosis of common cold, influenza-like syndrome, or viral URTI; volunteers without acute URTIs but treated for preventative purposes; or volunteers without acute URTIs but challenged with rhinovirus treated for preventative and/or therapeutic purposes. The researchers only included trials of oral Echinacea with one preparation versus a placebo and excluded trials of combinations of Echinacea with other herbs and trials comparing Echinacea with no tr eatment or a treatment other than placebo. A large proportion of the preparations used in the trials were pressed juices (stabilized with alcohol), alcohol tinctures or tablets made from dried extracts. The heterogeneity of the preparations tested did not allow a strong conclusion. The different preparations of Echinacea contained different amounts of bioactive components; therefore, the different preparations were not comparable. Karsch-Volk et al did conclude that some Echinacea products were more effective than a placebo for treating the common cold, but the overall evidence for clinically relevant treatment effects was weak. In general, Echinacea preventing colds did not show statistically significant reductions in illness occurrence; however, nearly all prevention trials suggested small preventative effects. Studies investigating the effects of herbs cannot draw strong conclusions unless heterogeneity and reproducibility are controlled. Regulation Herbal medicines are often promoted as natural and therefore harmless; however, these remedies are not free from adverse effects. Much of the United States botanical industrys products are unlicensed and are not required to demonstrate efficacy, quality, or safety1. Lack of regulation and loose distribution channels may attribute to poor quality of herbal products which will result in adverse reactions. Regulation is difficult since different cultures in different regions of the world have developed various practices of traditional medicine without a parallel international standard and appropriate method for evaluating traditional medicine. Safety Pharmacologically Active Ingredients       Natural products contain pharmacologically active molecules which can potentially cause danger to human health. Examples of toxicity associated with herbal use include the hepatotoxicity due to pyrrolizidine alkaloids-containing plants, acting by a characteristic veno-occlusive disease that may be rapidly progressive and fatal, Aconitum poisoning due to Aconitum alkaloids, which are highly toxic cardiotoxins and neurotoxins, and the severe and lethal cardiovascular side effects associated with Ephedra sinica6. However, other studies have clearly shown that adverse events due to herbal remedies are relatively infrequent if assessed for causality and that although the number of severe clinical reactions was small, fatalities have been described7. The objective of this review was to collect available data on the following: (i) adverse effects observed in humans from the intake of  plant food supplements or botanical preparations; (ii) the misidentification of poisonous plants; and (iii) interactions between plant  food supplements/botanicals and conventional drugs or nutrients. Contamination Biological contamination and chemical contamination of medicinal herbs and herbal products are very common. Impurities in medicinal herbs and their preparations and products refer to biological contamination8. They may involve living microbes such as bacteria and their spores, yeasts and molds, viruses, protozoa, insects (their eggs and larvae), and other organisms. Microbial contamination of herbs may result from improper handling during production and packaging. Sources of contamination are microbes from the ground and processing facilities (contaminated air, microbes of human origin). Cross contamination is also a possibility from extraneous materials such as glass, plastic, and other materials which contact the herbs, herbal preparations, or products. Human excrement, animal manure and feces used as fertilizers are other sources of biological contamination. As well, contamination of herbs with bacterial strains resistant to known antibiotics poses human health risks and infection . Additionally, because molds are widespread in the atmosphere, they are a natural contaminant of medicinal herbs. Molds are potent allergens and producers of mycotoxins. Products of microbial metabolism, such as toxic, low-molecular-weight metabolites from molds, are chemical contaminants. Furthermore, herbal products can be contaminated by heavy metals and pesticides as well. Drug  Interactions Case reports, case series, and pharmacokinetic trials have highlighted that herbal medicines can interact with prescribed medicines6. Interactions can have either a pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamics basis or both, and herbal medicines may interact with prescribed drugs at the intestine, liver, kidneys, and targets of action. Herbal remedies involved in drug interactions have been shown to up-regulate or down-regulate cytochrome P450s and/or P-glycoprotein6. The roles of drug transporters, including the organic anion and cation transporters and the nuclear pregnane-X receptor, are apparent9. However, most of the evidence for herb-drug interactions come from case reports; therefore, it is difficult to establish a cause and effect relationship. Izzo reviewed the clinical data regarding the interactions between herbal remedies and prescribed drugs. Since herbal medicines are a mixture of more than one bioactive ingredient, such combinations of many substances increase the likelihood of interactions taking place; therefore, theoretically, the likelihood of herb-to-drug interactions is higher than drug-to-drug interactions, if only because synthetic drugs usually contain single chemical entitities10. Therefore, it is difficult to rule out what causes the interaction. The review investigated the clinical data for 27 herbal remedies known to interact with conventional medicines, such as Aloe vera, Echinacea, and St Johns Wort. Also examined in the review were characteristics of the patient. Age, frailty, infrequent genotypes, ethnicity, gender, and comorbidity should be accounted for when considering herb-to-drug interactions. This is important since polymorphisms in the genes for drug-metabolizing enzymes or transporters may influence herb-to-drug interactions. As well, the concomitant use of prescription medications and herbal products by older adults is a common situation in western countries10. Since older adults typically have multiple health problems, they are at particular risk for herb-to-drug interactions. Despite this gravity, clinical studies investigating the potential of drug interactions in elderly patients are rare. Additionally, it is well established that the pharmacokinetics of many drugs vary between men and women. Gender differences in herb-to-drug interactions have been reported both experimentally and in clinical trials10. Izzos review article had many limitations. Only clinical reports were considered, and preclinical studies, including human in vitro experiments, were excluded. This and other unpublished articles could lead to underestimation. As well, most of the evidence on herb-to-drug interactions discussed in the article was based on case reports, which are sometimes incomplete and do not allow inferences for a causal relationship. However, it should be noted that even documented case reports can never establish a causal relationship between drug administration and an adverse event since there are so many extraneous variables. Also, the extract type, standardization of extract, part of the plant used and the scientific name of the plant were not specified in the papers reviewed. This is important because preparations obtained from the same plant may have different chemical compositions and therefore different biological actions, as previously highlighted. This leads to uncertainty as to what cau ses the adverse effects. Furthermore, herbal preparations are not subject to the same regulations as prescription drugs, so the content of active ingredients may vary among manufacturers, potentially causing a large variation in efficacy and safety. The under-regulated quality of herbal medicines is another limitation and safety issue since contamination or adulteration of herbal medicines, including adulteration with synthetic drugs, may cause drug interactions. Therefore, a contaminant/adulterant, and not an herbal ingredient, can theoretically cause the drug interactions. Lastly, it is difficult to identify most herb-to-drug interactions because many countries do not have a central mechanism for mandatory reporting, and many people conceal their use of herbal medicines to their physicians or pharmacists, believing that herbal products are natural and therefore safe10. Izzo concluded that clinical reports clearly indicate that herbal medicines can interact with conventional drugs. While most of these interactions have a negligible clinical significance, some may pose a serious threat to public health. Herbal medicines may be used by patients concomitantly receiving conventional drugs, which can result in misunderstood adverse events. Future  Directions Important changes to the regulation of herbs are needed to improve the safety and appropriate use of herbal products. These include requiring manufacturers to register with the FDA, requiring safety tests like those required for over-the-counter drugs, requiring all health claims to be supported by data approved by the FDA, and ensuring that product labels provide an accurate list of all ingredients1. These changes will help the safety of herbal products, but additional changes are needed to improve and promote high-quality research. Defining specific standards for herbal products to ensure consistency between studies is critical. Once a well-established standard of the chemical fingerprint exists for herbs, the formulation of the herbal product can become clear. Additionally, symptoms of illnesses are subjective. Operational definitions need to be addressed to make strong comparisons. Ideally, a robust study design would be able to show all preparations of a plant showing either positive or negative effects. Because of the current regulatory structure and limited available data on safety and efficacy, there is high risk using herbal medicine, including severe side effects from pharmacologically active ingredients, contaminants, or drug interactions. On the other hand, the benefits using herbal medicine lack evidence or have inconsistent evidence, so more high-quality research needs to be conducted, especially regarding high-risk patients such as older adults. Conclusion/Summary Assessing the efficacy, quality, and safety of herbal medicines is problematic because of inadequate or inconsistent study methods being used. Herbal research should be conducted with the same meticulous care as any other medical research, and all herbal products administered to patients should ideally be chemically characterized, standardized, and of known quality. Extraneous variables from different herbal preparations do not allow for generalizations about the efficacy and safety of herbal remedies, and findings of clinical studies must be interpreted cautiously because many studies were performed without sufficient rigor and recorded detail. Additionally, the current regulation of herbs does not ensure that available products are safe, and false and illegal marketing claims are common. Changes to the regulation of herbal products could dramatically improve the appropriate use of herbs. High quality research in this field is needed to firmly establish the efficacy and safety of many herbal products. The biggest threat regarding herbal medicines is that it continues to be misunderstood. It is unknown which exact chemical, or combination of chemicals, in an herb produces a biological effect. Hence, it is difficult to create the ideal herbal product that is precise, controlled, and standardized. Also, it is not known if a single chemical component of the herb or the synergistic combination of chemicals in the plant would produce the desired effect. Which constituent of the herb produces an herb-to-drug interaction is not understood either, allowing for adverse reactions. These ambiguous fallouts result from the many different preparations of herbal products. Standardized, robust study designs are required to address the uncertainty of these findings. References Efferth T, Kaina B. Toxicities by Herbal Medicines with Emphasis to Traditional Chinese Medicine: United States, 2011. World Health Organization. General Guidelines for Methodologies on Research and Evaluation of Traditional Medicine: Geneva, 2000. Rotblatt M, Ziment I. Evidence-based herbal medicine. Philadelphia, PA: Hanley Belfus; 2002. Karsch-Và ¶lk M, Barrett B, Kiefer D, Bauer R, Ardjomand-Woelkart K, Linde K. 2014. Echinacea for preventing and treating the common cold. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2: CD000530. Gauthier S, Schlaefke S. 2014. Efficacy and tolerability of Ginkgo biloba extract EGb 761 ® in dementia: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized placebo-controlled trials. Clin Interv Aging 9: 2065-77. Izzo A, Hoon-Kim S, Radhakrishnan R, Williamson EM. A Critical Approach to Evaluating Clinical Efficacy, Adverse Events and Drug Interactions of Herbal Remedies: 2016. Di Lorenzo C, Ceschi A, Kupferschmidt H, et al. 2015. Adverse effects of plant food supplements and botanical preparations: a systematic review with critical evaluation of causality. Br J Clin Pharmacol 79: 578-92. Kosalec I, Cvek J, and Tomic S. Contaminants of medicinal herbs and herbal products: Croatia, 2009. Cho HJ, Yoon IS. 2015. Pharmacokinetic interactions of herbs with cytochrome p450 and p-glycoprotein. Evid Based Complement Alternat Med 2015: 736431. Izzo AA. 2012. Interactions between herbs and conventional drugs: overview of the clinical data. Med Princ Prac 21: 404-28.

Thursday, September 19, 2019

Medicine as a Form of Social Control Essay -- Papers

Medicine as a Form of Social Control This critique will examine the view that medicine is a form of social control. There are many theorists that have different opinions on this view. This critique will discuss each one and their different views. We live in a society where there is a complex division of labour and where enormous varieties of specialist healing roles are recognised. We attribute to our modern healers a great deal of power, and trust that they will use it for our benefits rather than to harm us. Professional codes of ethics are promises that doctors will use their knowledge to benefit patients. The sociologist Talcott Parsons (1951) described what he considered the essential point of this contract. These rights, obligations and privileges are standards of behaviour, which Parsons felt people in American society believed desirable in the 1940s. The sociological term for such a standard of behaviour is a norm. People in modern Britain acts in a certain way that is seen as appropriate for ill people. In the 1950s, Parsons (1951) outlined the norms that govern illness behaviour and professional responses to it, in modern society. He also saw the patient - doctor relationship as a social system, governed by norms about appropriate behaviour. Also, Parsons (1951) claimed illness as disruptive, a kind of deviance and is therefore potentially disruptive to the social order. Parsons saw society as a functioning whole, and was concerned with how the social order was maintained, and how various institutions in society in the case health care institution function... ...power, which extend throughout the whole of society. He described what he called the clinical gaze as having moved beyond the hospital and the clinic into many and diverse sites such as our schools, workplaces, and homes. For Foucault (1973) the clinical gaze was a facet of a new kind of power, which relied on surveillance and inspection. In conclusion, this critique has critically examined the view that medicine is a form of social control. Discussing the views of theorists such as Talcott Parsons, Ivan Illich, Narvarro, Irving Zola and Foucault. These theorists have views about how dominating medicine can be in society, the power of the professionals and medicalisation how it refers social problems into medical problems. Throughout this critique, it has been made clear that medicine is a form of social control.

Wednesday, September 18, 2019

Technological advances in society :: essays papers

Technological advances in society Technology enables students and teachers to have a fast and easy way to acquire unlimited access to tons of information. With all of the useful technologies, the curriculum is bound to change in endless ways, creating more opportunity for learning. It is very hard not to realize that technology has overpowered education in many ways. â€Å"Technology integration is similar to a tidal wave, growing silently in strength, then falling with an unstoppable roar upon those who paid no attention or showed little interest† (Guhlin, 40). Nowadays, computers are almost considered a necessity in the classroom, and are the main component of technology integration. Computers are being used in more numerous ways, besides only being used for basic word processing. With a simple computer, copious availabilities of technologies can be used in the classroom. â€Å"The one thing that is so great about the computer is that it does give a lot of instruction--and you don't need to have hearing to take advantage of it† (Anderson, 12). It’s amazing how one simple screen can provide everlasting opportunity for learning. One of the most widely used technologies is the Internet, or also known as the World Wide Web. â€Å"In August 1981 about 200 computers hosted Web servers. By July 1998 there were over 36 million Web servers, that are hosts to approximately 150 million people† (Strauss). The Internet proves to be very beneficial to education, since students have unlimited access to millions of websites with tons of information. There are only so many newspapers, journals and magazines that you can find in libraries or subscribe to. Therefore, the Internet offers an unlimited pile of information that students can always have. Moreover, students are enriched with the most current information in any subject, along with regular updates. Students are able to use the Internet anytime of day, as long as they have a computer at hand. The research process will not have to end when the school day is over (Wissick, 82). Along with using the World Wide Web for researching purposes, e-mail has become a very commonly used feature. Students and teachers can communicate outside of the classroom any time of day. In addition, this also opens up the idea of an online community center.

Tuesday, September 17, 2019

Real time inforamtion Essay

Real time information provides up to date transportation arrival information for passengers waiting at airport, bus-stop or train station. They display the number of minutes that passengers can expect to wait before the arrival of their required transportation. On boarding into it the RTI unit displaces and announces its next station, or stop. How does RTI works? Real time information (RTI) unit works by sending a signal from one place of transportation services to RTI sign using satellite and radio communications. The signal from the vehicle is used to locate it along its route. A computer system uses this information to predict how long will the journey be. The data is dispatched every 30 seconds and the location of the vehicle and its estimated time of arrival are set accordingly. There are RTI signs currently located in the local bus services all around London. Countdown is an electronic information display system that gives people waiting at bus stops real-time information on bus arrival times. The increasing use of information technology and electronic communications has raised travellers’ Expectations on the provision of transport information. Increasingly a printed timetable at a bus stop falls short of the mark, and passengers now expect relevant, accurate and timely information to allow them to make informed decisions on travel choices. Real time information displays at bus stops and stations are highly valued by passengers as they provide reassurance on the time they will have to wait for their next bus. Displays at bus stops along a route can display both the predicted and scheduled arrival times, as well as provide supplementary messages to inform passengers of exceptional delays or service information. Such systems usually base their predictions on the actual locations of vehicles combined with timetable database. For example: if we want to look up for the train to go Kingston station this afternoon, in the network rail website we can find a number of information, by means of postcode or the name of the station, subsequently we can also obtain the entire information, of arriving and departing of the train. We can also find information’s about what route we want to take for it has shown the full map view of the particular place starting from the station. It has also given us information about the ticket fare and also includes various information, such as: ticket fare for pick up and off seasons, means to buy the ticket online. All the way through network rails website can get information about the tram services that goes around other big cities in the UK such as Birmingham, black pool, Croydon, Manchester, Nottingham and Sheffield. Further more, if we need a fast journey it also provides information about the tube services in different areas around London such as: Docklands Light Railway Glasgow Subway ,Liverpool Underground London Underground ,and metro.

Monday, September 16, 2019

Impact of Cuban Trade Embargo

The Impact of the Cuban Trade Embargo By: Natalie Bell 2/25/09 [pic] International Business Law BLAW 4320 [pic] Cuba, the largest island nation in the Caribbean just ninety miles off the coast of Florida, experienced many difficult struggles through its extensive history. It was the last major Spanish colony to gain independence, following a lengthy struggle that was begun in 1868. It was in 1898 when the U. S. intervened during the Spanish-American War that it finally overthrew Spanish rule. The Treaty of Paris established Cuban independence, which was granted in 1902 after a three-year transition period. The United States and Cuba concluded a Treaty of Relations in 1934, which, among other things, continued the 1903 agreements that leased the Guantanamo Bay naval base to the United States (CIA World Factbook). In the time before 1959, the United States had maintained strong ties with Cuba. Many Americans had many various business investments there, and the country was a special place for tourists from around the world. Since the fall of the U. S. -supported dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1959, it was Fidel Castro who has mainly led Cuba throughout the years. It was in Febuary 19, 2008 when Fidel Castro finally ceded power to his brother Raul Castro. Since the majority of Cubans were born after the 1959 revolution, most of the Cuban people have known no other leader. President Fidel Castro outlasted no fewer than nine American presidents since he took power in 1959 (Castro:Profile). Relations between the United States and Cuba deteriorated rapidly as Fidel Castro and the Cuban regime moved toward the acceptance of the one-party communist system. Cuba seized the assets of American citizens and U. S. irms including farms, factories, hotels, bank accounts, and real estate without compensation. It was finally on April 16, 1961 when Fidel Castro declared Cuba a socialist state. Cuba's Communist revolution, with Soviet support, was brought to other countries throughout Latin America and Africa during the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. Castro maintained close relations with the Soviet Union and worked jointly with the goals of Soviet communism by fund ing and provoking violent rebellious activities, as well as using military intervention in other countries, until the fall of the U. S. S. R. in 1991 (Castro: Profile). In response, the United States imposed an embargo on Cuba in October 1960, and, broke diplomatic relations on January 3, 1961. This began the over forty-year period of tension between the U. S. and Cuba, beginning with President Kennedy’s failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1963 and the Cuban Missile Crises (CIA World Factbook). Since 1961, Cuba portrayed many difficulties as the result of the U. S. embargo and the embargo had a great effect on both nations. It was in 1963 that the United States passed the Cuban Assets Control Regulations, under the authority of the Trading with the Enemy Act. The Act was enacted in 1917 to restrict trade with countries that are hostile to the United States. The law gives the President the power to oversee or restrict any or all trade between the U. S. and its enemies in times of war. The purpose of the law was to isolate Cuba economically and politically. It banned all trade and financial transactions between Cuba and the U. S. , and froze all U. S. held assets of the Cuban government and of private Cuban citizens. It also prohibited almost all travel to Cuba by researchers, student groups, journalists, athletes, and those traveling to see immediate family members (Schaffer 268). After the fall of the Soviet Union in the early 1990’s, the U. S. Congress wanted to pressure Cuba for democratic change. First in 1992, the U. S. Congress approved the Cuban Democracy Act, restricting Americans from vis iting the island, banning family remittances, and prohibiting foreign subsidiaries of U. S. ompanies from doing business with Cuba. Following a few years later, on March 12, 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act, also called the Helms-Burton Act. After this law was signed, it further toughened the Cuban sanctions. It imposed penalties on foreign companies doing business in Cuba, it permitted U. S. citizens to file lawsuits against foreign investors who made use of the American-owned property that was seized after 1959 by the Cuban government, and it denied an entry visa into the U. S. to such foreign investors. It was a very controversial because this included many Mexican, Canadian, and European businessmen who did business in Cuba (268). The passage of the Helm-Burton Act caused a worldwide protest, primarily in Mexico, Canada, and the European Union, who argued that the Helm-Burton Act violated international law. A protest was filed with the World Trade Organization by the European Union, but was suspended when the Clinton Administration reassured that the law for visa restrictions under Title III of the Helm-Burton Act would not be enforced against citizens in third world countries. The Act calls for the trade sanctions between the U. S. and Cuba to end as soon as Cuba agrees to have a democratically elected government, abide by human rights conventions, opens its prisons to international inspection, returns Cuban citizenship to Cuban exiles living in the U. S. , and makes progress in returning expropriated property to its rightful owners (268). Today, there are many laws, rules, and regulations that derived from the U. S. sanctions against Cuba. Presently, most commercial imports from Cuba are illegal by law but remain listed under the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 (TSRA). Under the Act, the sale of certain items, including medicine and medical supplies, and agricultural commodities have been approved for export by specific regulations. According to the Act, â€Å"The Department of the Treasury is responsible in issuing licenses that are used to export these goods on a case-by-case scenario and authorizing Cuban travel-related transactions that are only relating to marketing, sales negotiation, accompanied delivery, and servicing of exports and re-exports that also must appear in line with the licensing policy of the Department of Commerce† (U. S. Treasury Department). The only sectors in which U. S. citizens may sell and service products to Cuba include agricultural commodities, medicine, and medical devices. The Treasury Department will is also be able to consider requests for specific licenses for humanitarian travel, educational exchanges (that are at least 10 weeks in length), and religious activities by individuals or groups that are associated with a religious organization. However, any U. S. citizen or corporation that is subject to U. S. law and engages in any travel-related transaction in Cuba violates the regulations. The Act specifically states that, â€Å"The Cuban Assets Control Regulations affects all U. S. citizens and permanent residents wherever they are located, all people and organizations physically in the United States, and all branches and subsidiaries of U. S. organizations throughout the world† (U. S. Treasury Department). If the regulations are not followed, then it may result in both civil penalties and criminal prosecution upon return to the United States (U. S. Treasury Department). Today, traveling to Cuba also has many rules and laws that make traveling to the Cuba very complex. In 2004, President Bush’s Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba placed a further reduction on the restrictions on family visits to Cuba. Visits by Cuban Americans to family in Cuba are permitted only once every 3 years instead of once every year. No humanitarian exceptions are given if there is any of a family illness or crisis going on in Cuba. Visits are restricted to two weeks and strictly limited to immediate family as defined by the U. S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which eliminates the right to visit cousins, aunts, uncles, nephews, nieces, or more distant relatives (LAWG). Only if a traveler receives a license, then a valid passport will be required for entry into Cuba. The Cuban government requires that travelers obtain their visas before they arrive to the country. If there are attempts to enter or exit Cuba illegally, or there is in any kind of aid in helping Cuban nationals or others escape Cuba then punishment is served by stiff jail terms. Entering Cuban territory, territorial waters or airspace, which include being within 12 miles of the Cuban coast, without any prior permission from the Cuban government may result in arrest or other enforcement actions by Cuban authorities. According to the U. S. Department of State, most immigration violators are subject to prison terms that range from four years for illegal entry or exit to as many as 30 years for certain cases of assisting Cuban migrants to attempt to leave Cuba illegally (U. S. Department of State). Family remittances or money sent to Cuba also have specific rules and regulations that must be followed by the people residing under U. S. law. According to the U. S. Department of State, â€Å"U. S. ersons aged 18 or older may send money to members of the remitter’s immediate family in Cuba of up to $300 per household in any consecutive three-month period, regardless of the number of members of the remitter’s immediate family residing in that household. † The law also states that no member of the household can be a prohibited official of the Government of Cuba or a prohibited member of the Cuban Communist Party (U. S. Department of State). Other laws that are also a part of the on g oing U. S. embargo with the Cuban government involves the use of money in Cuba that U. S. travelers are limited to spend during their stay in Cuba. U. S. people traveling to Cuba to visit their family or traveling for other purposes can spend no more than $50 per day on non-transportation-related expense in Cuba, and up to an additional $50 per trip to pay for transportation-related expenses in Cuba. However, professionals such as journalists, photographers, or any other kind of licensed travelers may spend additional money for their professions that are directly related to what they need in order to fulfill their work (U. S. Department of State). It is also interesting to know that U. S. citizens and permanent resident aliens are not allowed from using their credit cards, personal checks, or travelers’ checks that are drawn from U. S. banks in Cuba. U. S. credit card companies do not accept any kind of vouchers from Cuba, and, at the same time, Cuban shops, hotels and other places of business do not accept any types of U. S. credit cards (U. S. Department of State). Today, the U. S. Cuban embargo has become one of the most controversial issues upon many countries throughout the world. There have been many advocating for a change of the current policies towards Cuba for some time now. The sanction has continuously been condemned and voted against by almost all nations throughout the world. For the 16th consecutive year, the U. N. General Assembly recommended that the U. S. ended the embargo. In 2006, a total of 183 member nations of the U. N called on the U. S. to end the sanctions with Cuba (Sierra). In 2007, the 192-member General Assembly passed the measure by 184 votes to four, with one abstention (U. S. Urged). According to Remy Herrera, â€Å"The normative content of this embargo and its rules, which the U. S. intends to inflict on the international community with its unilateral sanctions is a violation of the spirit and letter of the United Nations Charter and of the Organization of American States, and of the very fundamentals of international law† (Herrera). This excessive extension of the territorial jurisdiction of the U. S. , Herrera adds, â€Å"Is contrary to the principle of national sovereignty and to that of non-intervention in the internal choices of a foreign state, s recognized in the jurisprudence of the International Court of Justice† (Herrera). According to Richard Schaffer, even the Vatican protested Helms-Burton, claiming that it increased economic suffering of the Cuban People. Many trade groups have also argued against the law because they believed that economic engagement actually would promote freedom in totalitarian countries. The U. S. firms that are h oping to engage in the business activities in Cuba also seek an ending to the U. S. trade sanctions (Schaffer 269). According to U. S. Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, many feel that the lifting of the travel restrictions to Cuba, family remittances, and trade exchange are necessary and are some of the most important issues in the policy changing process that the U. S. needs to undergo in order to have better relations with Cuba (Pelosi). Ironically, surveys of the American public opinion show that the vast majority of Americans favor ending sanctions as well, and recognizing the government of Cuba (Schaffer 269). According to a recent poll from USA Today that took place between February 21- 24, 2008, 61% of 2,021 adults nationwide favored re-establishing U. S. diplomatic relations with Cuba, 29% opposed, and 10% of the people were unsure (PollingReport). Over Forty-five years of communism have left the island nation an economic ruin and the U. S. embargo had many diverse effects on Cuba. According to a BusinessWeek article by Geri Smith, â€Å"The Cuban government has always referred to the embargo as a ‘blockade,’ a word that has a more sinister tone than ‘embargo’† (Smith). Cuba went through many difficulties as the result of the U. S. embargo since 1961 and suffered much more since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The country faced a severe economic downturn, which really caused the Cubans' living standards to significantly fall. The disappearance of Soviet aid following the collapse of the USSR forced the government to introduce tight rationing of energy, food, and consumer goods, as well as the withdrawal of the former Soviet annual subsidies that were worth $4 billion to $6 billion (Country Profile: Cuba). Since then, it has taken action with limited reforms in order to increase enterprise efficiency and improve some of their economic problems which included their serious shortages of food and goods. Due to the economic problems and domestic inefficiencies that Cuba faced during the 1990’s, President Castro allowed a few steps towards a more market-oriented system. In 1993, the U. S. dollar was accepted by Cuba and allowed to circulate throughout the nation. Because of their lack of basic necessities and few consumer goods, Cuba’s economy persisted with the help of Canadian, European and Latin American investments. Essentially for Cuba, the nation also developed closer relations with China and Venezuela. China invested in Cuba’s nickel industry and provided Cuba support in the form of trade credit, technology, and investment capital while Venezuela provided supply to cheap fuel (Smith). Since late 2000, Venezuela has been supplying about 100,000 barrels per day of petroleum products. Cuba has been paying for this oil with the services of Cuban personnel in Venezuela, including 20,000 medical professionals (CIA WorldFactbook). After market factors improved, in 2004 the U. S. dollar transactions in Cuba were banned and a 10% tax was imposed on the dollar-peso conversions. According to the CIA World Factbook, Cuban exports total $3. 31 billion and their major exports include Sugar, nickel, tobacco, fish, medical products, citrus, and coffee partners. The countries that Cuba mainly exports to include the Netherlands (21. 8%), Canada (21. 6%), China (18. 7%), Spain (5. 9%) (CIA WorldFactbook). On the other hand, Cuban imports have totaled $10. 86 billion and consist mainly of petro leum, food, machinery and equipment, and chemicals. The countries that Cuba mainly imports from include Venezuela (26. 6%), China (15. 6%), Spain (9. 8%), Germany (6. 4%), Canada (5. 6%), Italy (4. 4%,) the U. S. (4. 3%), and Brazil (4. %) (CIA WorldFactobook) Today, Cuba has two currencies in circulation, which include the Cuban peso (CUP) and the convertible peso (CUC). The Cuban peso (CUP) is specifically for the Cubans, while the convertible peso (CUC) is strictly for tourists and foreign businessmen. According to a BBC News article by Michael Voss, â€Å"The average Cuban salary of 400 pesos a month is worth about $16, yet almost everything available in the shops has to be paid for in the convertible pesos (CUC's)† (Voss). â€Å"Why has the economy moved to convertible pesos when workers are paid in the national currency? † declared one of the students in the article. You need to work for two days just to buy a toothbrush† (Voss). The problem with the dual c urrency is one of the biggest challenges that negatively influences the Cuban economy. Cuba faces many hardships because of the economic problems throughout the country. Many of the effects have caused an increase in prostitution, corruption, black marketeering and desperate efforts to escape in search of a better life (Country Profile: Cuba). Many Cubans had enough with the hardships and risk their lives to escape from the country. Thousands have tried to escape through the sea in a waterborne exodus to Florida, but many have drowned. Castro: Profile) According to the BBC News article, Castro: Profile of the Great Survivor, â€Å"Even his own daughter Alina Fernandez prefers a life of exile as a dissident in Miami to rule under her ‘despotic’ father† (Castro: Profile). According to the CIA World Fact Book, illicit migration to the U. S. , using homemade rafts, alien smugglers, or air flights, is still a continuing problem. The U. S. Coast Guard seized 2,864 peop le trying to cross the Straits of Florida in the year 2006 (CIA WorldFactbook). Cuba has also been fraudulent with the UN's top human rights forum, over specific rights abuses. The UN has insisted that Cuba allows for freedom of expression and to release imprisoned protesters who have protested against the government (Country Profile: Cuba). The U. S. has caused Cuba many economic damages because of the U. S. embargo. According to U. S. congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, â€Å"The over-45-year US economic, commercial and financial blockade of Cuba has translated into over 89 billion dollar losses for the U. S. † (Pelosi). According to the article, The Effects of the U. S. Embargo Against Cuba, the direct economic losses for Cuba by the U. S. embargo would exceed 70 billion dollars. The damages were estimated by calculating amounts of Cuba’s potential earnings and unnecessary losses since the institution of the U. S. embargo in 1961. The embargo negatively affected all of the sectors in Cuba, which also directly imposed on the major driving forces of the Cuban economy, which included tourism, foreign direct investments (FDI) and currency transfers (Herrera). Cuba became very limited in having access to technologies and various resources because of the obstacles that were forced by the Unites States. According to a Business Week article, â€Å"Trade and investment open up economies to new ideas. Cell phones, the Internet, and other high-tech communication technologies are detrimental to closed-minded bureaucracies† (Farrel). Since December, 2001, when food and agricultural products were allowed to be exported to Cuba, over $2 billion dollars worth of goods were earned by U. S. firms and shippers (LAWG). According to the article, The Travel Industry’s Push to Unlock Cuba, loosening the restrictions could boost the U. S. economy in the long term by as much as $1. 6 billion annually and create as many as 23,000 new jobs (Unlock Cuba). In this way, Cuba has the potential for economic growth if the U. S. nds or even loosens their trade sanctions. This can also further ease the hardships and economic issues of poverty in Cuba. Relations between the United States and Cuba are hoping to improve in the future, especially because Fidel Castro retired his control over Cuba. Many hope that Cuba will be open for business and that there may be signs of new beginnings of chang e on the economic front under Raul Castro (Smith). Some, however, are more skeptical of the idea. According to a recent poll from USA Today that took place between February 21- 24 of 2008, only 37% of 2,021 people felt that the situation for people in Cuba would get better. A majority of 51% felt that the situation for people in Cuba would stay the same, 6% felt that it would get worse, and 6% felt they were unsure (PollingReport). Fortunately, Raul Castro has introduced a series of reforms since taking over as president from his brother Fidel in February and has already taken steps on improving certain services for the Cuban public. The new leader started focusing on some of the most-mentioned problems, such as spotty public transportation and the low wages paid by the government to private farmers (Smith). According to the article, Cuban Leaders Plan More Reforms, these reforms have also included the removal of some restrictions on the purchase of electrical goods such as mobile phones, microwave ovens and DVD players. According to the article, Cubans have been reported to take out 7,400 new mobile phone contracts in the 10 days since the restrictions were eased. The country has also lifted a ban on its people staying in hotels previously reserved for foreigners (Cuban Leaders). It will be interesting to see if more market-oriented steps will take place with the Raul Castro’s new regime. Another major issue that will be crucial for many U. S. businesses as soon as the embargo ends in the future is the growing interest in the tourism sector of Cuba. According to an article by Sucharita Mulpuru, Americans represent only a small part of the nearly 1. 2 million visitors who come to Cuba every year, mainly from Canada, Spain, France, Germany, and Britain (Mulpuru). Tourism continues to inspire high hopes among many investors. In the article, Enzo Alberto, the Canadian-Italian CEO of ICC, a major investor in the island's Internet infrastructure states, â€Å"I believe that Cuba could be to America like Hong Kong is to Asia,† (Mulpuru). Many countries pour nearly $2 billion into the economy, outstripping revenues from sugar and other core crops such as tobacco (Mulpuru). According to the article, A Warmer Climate for Trade with Cuba, the industry argues that the island nation is a potential source of needed revenues that would be able to boost both the travel business and the U. S. economy while opening to tourism and foreign investment in Cuba. As a result, this will also boost the economy as well as the currency reserves of Cuba. Unfortunately, all of this potential to help both economies and many people in both nations will not end until the U. S. rade embargo ends and the Cuban government loosens its stranglehold on the economy. It will be interesting to see how the U. S. embargo will be affected by the policies of the future elected president of the U. S. Of the three leading Presidential candidates, only Democratic contender Senator Barack Obama has stated that he would be willing to sit down and talk with Rau l Castro's government, as long as human rights are on the agenda. On the other hand, Senator Hillary Clinton stated said she would not do so until Cuba started to implement economic and political reforms, while Senator John McCain has kept President George W. Bush’s policy and states that â€Å"talks are off† until Cuba begins a â€Å"transition to a free and open society† and releases all political prisoners (Smith). According to the Associated Press, the presidential candidates are expected to lightly discuss the question of lifting the embargo during their campaign. According to their article, Five-decade U. S. Trade Embargo with Cuba Expected to Outlast Fidel Castro, there is a great deal of sensitivity on the issue, especially in states with high populations of Cuban immigrants such as Florida (Associated Press). The entrepreneurs of the U. S. ave seen their foreign competitors take advantage of opportunities in Cuba. U. S. businesspersons can only hope that the trade and travel restrictions will be lifted eventually, so that they can tap the potential markets in Cuba especially in the tourism and agricultural sectors. This is very unlikely to happen soon because of the ongoing disputes between many in regards to the Cuban embargo. The impact of the Cuban embargo caused many diverse effects for both nations, but with new policies and politicians that are developing for the future, this story can be the end of an old era. Works Cited ACN Cuban News Agency. 2007, May 2). â€Å"Nancy Pelosi Says U. S. 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Retrieved April 22, 2008 from http://www. treas. gov/ofac Voss, Michael. â€Å"Stepping Into Big Brother's Shoes? † BBC News. 24 February 2008