Soliloquies of Hamlet Essay Example for Free

Soliloquies of Hamlet Essay Hamlets first soliloquy  prominently displays deep distress, even emotional fragility. He stands in the castle after having a long conversation with his mother and uncle-turned-step-father. This conversation has left him agitated and contributed to his unstable emotional state. The argument recounts his feelings toward his mothers actions and the current state of his country. All of these things put him in a state of distress. The death of his father is a heavy blow, and his mothers quick marriage, or her words, do nothing to ease his pain, but only exacerbates it. His mothers lack of loyalty and quick submission to Claudius makes Hamlet believe that something is awry in the affairs of Denmark. Hamlet idealized his parents and their relationship, and he bemoans the fact that although his father doted on his mother and was a good husband and father, she rushed into a relationship with another man, much less Hamlets uncle, a man that differs from his father in almost every respect. In his description of Denmark, he uses a metaphor to compare the country to an unweeded garden/That grows to seed, things rank and gross in nature/Possess it merelys. To him, the country has become rotten, and will only lead to more infection. The final two lines of Hamlets soliloqu/ are a conclusion and an analysis. He reacts to his mothers indecency and lack of respect for his father, and decides her actions will not lead to anything but bad consequences. Hamlet concludes that there is nothing he can do. His mother has been disloyal to his father, which Hamlet takes as a sign of disloyalty to the ideal that he believed his family was, but she is the queen. His country is falling apart, but he has no real power to make any changes. Hamlet must hold his tongue, because he is expected to be a loyal son and fulfill his duties as the prince. This soliloquy presents Hamlets emotions and psychological state. Hamlet feels emotional pain and is enraged, and he is directing his anger towards his mother and what he feels is her disloyalty. Hamlet desires the power to change the situation around him. As if for the first time in his life, things are going very wrong, and everyone is acting as if nothing is wrong. His powerlessness is beginning to drive him toward depression and desperation. Because of this pain, he is very agitated, and his speech is disjointed. He often interrupts his thoughts with an impassioned  exclamation, as if his thoughts are too painful. Additionally, Hamlet is perceptive. At this point, he only knows that his father is dead. However, his insight tells him to deem Denmark as rotten. Without knowing what has truly happened, he knows that something about his fathers death is not rightHamlets anger with his mother begins very early in the play, and continues into this soliloquy. While Hamlet is expected to play the part of the loyal son, he is rebelling against his mother and what is expected of him. He has expressed the desire to return to school and continue his lengthy education. Claudius denies this request because most royal family members are told where to live and are kept in the same area; the king also wants to keep an eye on his new step- son. While the rest of the court has moved past the death of Hamlets father, he continues to wear black, defying his mother, who has asked him to take off his black clothing and make friends with Claudius, in a quiet form of rebellion. Hamlet is also hostile to his mother. After she asks  him to remove his clothes of mourning, she says that death is common.  After Hamlet agrees  with her statement, she asks why it seems to be such a special case with Hamlets father. Hamlet becomes agitated at her use of seems, since it does not just appear particular, but is particular to Hamlet. He states that all of the signs of mourning crying, black clothing, or a sad face are not an act, but simply a byproduct of the very real, not seemed, pain that Hamlet is feeling. In these actions of rebellion, Hamlet is slowly taking the power he will need to make a difference. Hamlets emotions continue to playa major role in his second soliloquyll. Hamlet is frustrated with himself for his lack of action. His fathers ghost came to the castle and continued to visit his former home until he spoke with Hamlet and Hamlet has not yet taken any action to avenge his death. Because he has none to blame but himself, his personal view of himself is very negative: he calls himself a coward, a rascal, and a man unpregnant of my cause.l2 In the second partJ3, Hamlet begins to form a plan. He has thought of other ways to exact revenge, but none of them were  ever effective. Hamlet plans to use a play, which reenacts his fathers death, to prove to himself that Claudius is guilty. Hamlet will watch his uncle and observe his facial expressions; Claudius will prove his own guilt. Hamlet concludes that he will use the play to catch Claudius. He wants to ensure that the story he has been told by the ghost is correct. Although Hamlet doubts whether the ghost is actually the ghost of his father, he is being driven by some kind of spirit. Even if the spirit is evil  bent on bring harm to Hamlet, its pull on him is very strong. Hamlets only focus is catching his uncle and it has consumed him. Hamlet is committed to the blood revenge the ghost charged him with. He feels guilty because he has not taken any action toward avenging his fathers death, as ifhe is betraying his father. The ghost implies that it will not rest until Claudius is dead; by not killing the king, Hamlet prevents his father from resting in peace. More pressure is placed on Hamlet by the ghosts words, If thou didst ever thy dear father love. The ghost is telling Hamlet to prove his love for his father, but he must commit murder in order to prove this. In addition to the blood revenge, Hamlet feels it is his responsibility, as the prince, to right the wrongs in his country. However, Hamlet is conflicted by the actions he must take to correct the sins of the current king. Claudius killed his brother, the king. In order to find revenge, Hamlet must commit murder in the same way; he must kill his uncle, the king. In his third soliloquyl4, Hamlet is contemplating one of the greatest enduring questions: is it better to live and suffer through all of lifes hardships, or die and face the unknown consequences of the afterlife? He thinks of the many things that are supposed to emich a long life, but ultimately make living painful and difficult to endure: the whips and scorns of time,! Th oppressors wrong, the proud mans contumely,lThe pangs of despisd love, the laws delay,lThe insolence of office ,, 15 He also weighs the benefits and the disadvantages of each, but he never concludes as to which is better. However, he does conclude that humans suffer through out of fear of what comes after the last breath. He adds that this fear makes people cowards, undermining the power of decisiveness and action with  thought and fear. Hamlet often restates ideas using different words. This allows the reader to see him think, to see the process of his brain as his ideas and thoughts develop. This is a reflection on Hamlets current state. He states that actions are often stalled and determination is taken away by over-thinking: conscience does make cowards [of us all],!And thus the native hue ofresolutioniIs sicklied oer with the pale cast of thought,! And enterprises of great pitch and moment.lWith this regard their currents turn awry,! And lose the name of action.,,16 He has a task to complete avenge his fathers death but his thoughts and fears of have made him pause and prevented from taking the actions necessary to accomplish this. Hamlet is deeply reflective. He is troubled that he has let his fears of death take away his resolve. He knows that he must commit murder, but the fears the consequences, and that slows his actions. While he still fears what he must do, he has begun to accept it. This is evident in the fluidity of his speech. His previous soliloquies feature speech broken by his thoughts and outbursts. In this soliloquy, Hamlet uses complete thoughts, filled with intelligent insights and coming to educated conclusions. His thoughts cut through the situation and answer the questions which he has raised. In his final soliloquy 17, Hamlet first questions the purpose of man, concluding that humans are not meant to simply pass through life, but to change and affect those around them, leaving an imprint. Without higher thought and the ability to reason, man would simply be a common beast, only eating and sleeping, never achieving. Hamlet states that God would not have given man the ability to think and reason if He did not intend for them to use these skills. With this thought, Hamlet questions why he is still alive. He has not yet exacted the revenge; he is not changing anything and simply passing through each day. These thoughts come as he watches large armies approach his country. He knows that the men who are marching towards him will most likely all die, and he questions whether their deaths are worth whatever end will be reached. Hamlet continues to be unhappy with the situation he finds himself in. He is a young prince, who was visited by his murdered fathers ghost and charged with retaliating against this crime. The  king is a murderer, and Hamlets mother has shown no loyalty, instantly falling into what Hamlet considers the incestuous arms of a man who is nothing compared to her first husband. Now, Hamlet watches as a foreign army passes through Denmark. He is ashamed that he lives as an inactive man, while thousands of men are soon to die. He concludes saying the he will find revenge, or he is worth nothing as a man. Hamlet is resolved. He is still disgusted with the fact that he has not acted on the charge of revenge, but the idea of oncoming war spurs him to act on his bloody thoughts. All doubts he had about what he must do are gone. He knows he must kill his uncle, committing the same sin he is avenging. However, this thought no longer strikes fear within him; he is no longer concerned with the consequences of his actions http://www.book-review-circle.com/Hamlet-William-Shakespeare.html Hamlet conforms to the Aristotelian forms of tragedy. It is well constructed and bides to Aristotle’s definitions regarding a complete dramatic action which arouse pity and fear inducing Catharsis. : The time is out of joint: O cursed spite, That ever I was born to set it right. The play is based on the theatre of illusion where the audience experiences the predicaments of the characters vicariously By identifying emotionally and psychologically, we are drawn closer to the characters and are aroused by their terror to pity and fear (pathos) to a state of Catharsis, releasing our tension, soothing and purging our souls. This is ephemeral; there are no lasting consequences. The plot is linear, progressing from a beginning, a middle and an end with various techniques of wholeness, unity and purpose. It reaffirms a rational, ordered universe,   Ã¢â‚¬Å"There’s a divinity that shapes our ends, rough hew them as we may† The characters are appropriate, realistic and plausible; the hero from a good family, going through a crisis with a reversal of fortune. Hamlet is an  Aristotelian model of a classical drama there is an overall logic to the action, and the plot has a discernible shape: a beginning, middle, and end. By the conclusion of the play, in other words, through the actions of the participants, something has been dealt with, resolved. There is an emphasis on structure, causation, unity, cohesion†¦. Suffering is depicted as ennobling. At the end, order is restored, god is on his throne and all is right with the world. O That This Too Solid Flesh Would Melt† Soliloquy Translation: He wished that his body would just melt, turn to water and become like the dew. Or that the Almighty hadn’t made a law forbidding suicide. Oh God! God! How weary, stale, flat and useless everything about life seemed! He moaned. It was terrible. The whole world was like an unweeded garden that had gone to seed – only ugly disgusting things thrived. He couldn’t believe what had happened. Only two months dead; no, not even two. Such an excellent king he had been, compared with this one. It was like Hyperion, the sun god, compared to a lecherous satyr. He’d been so loving to his mother that he wouldn’t even allow the gentle breeze of heaven to blow too roughly on her face. He lifted his hands and blocked his ears as though to shut his father’s memory out. She had loved him so much, adored him, as though the more she had of him the more she wanted him. And yet, within a month! He couldn’t bear to think about it. Women were so inconsistent! Only a month, even before the shoes with which she had followed his father’s body were old, all flowing with tears, she, even she†¦ Oh God! Even an animal that doesn’t have reason, would have mourned longer – ..she married his uncle! His father’s brother, but no more like his father than he was like Hercules. Even before the salt of those hypocritical tears had left her swollen eyes, she married. Oh, most wicked speed, to hurry so enthusiastically to incestuous sheets! It couldn’t end happily. But he would just have to break his heart, because he had to hold his tongue â€Å"O, What A Rogue And Peasant Slave Am I† Soliloquy Translation: What a deceitful fellow – a rogue, a peasant slave – he was! It was monstrous that this actor had only to imagine  grief for his face to go pale and his eyes tostream. In a fiction! A made-up script of passion! He was able to effect a broken voice, a desperation in his body language, and everything he felt necessary to the situation he was imagining. And it was all for nothing! For Hecuba, dead for a thousand years! What was Hecuba to him, or he to Hecuba, that he should weep for her? What would that actor do if he had the motive and the reason for grief that he had? He would flood the stage with tears and split the ears of the audience with the language he would find, terrifying the innocent and making the guilty mad. He would bewilder the ignorant and amaze the eyes and ears of all. He stood up and paced. He was the opposite of the actor: he was a rascal, the mettle of whose character had become tarnished and dull. He was shrinking away from his duty like a John-o-dreams, slow to translate his purpose into action, unable to say a word, no, not even on behalf of a king who had been robbed of his property and most precious life. Was he a coward? The victim of bullies? Would he let them call him names, strike him on his head, pull his beard out and throw it in his face, assassinate his character? Ha! God, yes, he would just take it because it was impossible that he could be anything but pigeon-livered , lacking the gall to summon up enough bitterness to do anything about his father’s murder. Otherwise he would have fed this slave’s intestines to the local kites. The villain! Bloody, filthy villain! Remorseless, treacherous, lecherous, cruel villain! Oh vengeance! His heart was beating fast and he was almost breathless from the thoughts that were plaguing him. He sat down again. What an ass he was! What a brave man! That he, the son of a beloved father who had been murdered, with every reason between heaven and hell to act, should unburden his heart with words and descend to cursing, like a whore – a servant. Curse it! He sat for a moment and an idea that had occurred to him while talking to the actors began to take shape. He had to concentrate on it now. Hmmm. He had heard about guilty people who, while watching a play, had been so affected by the contents of the scene, that they had confessed to their crimes, because murder will always find a way to proclaim itself, even though it has no voice of its own. The idea crystallized. He would get the players to perform something like the murder of his father in front of his uncle. He would watch his uncle’s reactions. He would probe his very thoughts. If his uncle so much as flinched he would know what to do. The  ghost may have been the devil for all he knew, and the devil had the power to take on a pleasing shape. Yes, and perhaps the devil was taking advantage of his weakness and his grief to damn him. He was therefore going to get proof. The play was the thing in which he would catch the conscience of the king. â€Å"To Be Or Not To Be† Soliloquy Translation: The question for him was whether to continue to exist or not – whether it was more noble to suffer the slings and arrows of an unbearable situation, or to declare war on the sea of troubles that afflict one, and by opposing them, end them. To die. He pondered the prospect. To sleep – as simple as that. And with that sleep we end the heartaches and the thousand natural miseries that human beings have to endure. It’s an end that we would all ardently hope for. To die. To sleep. To sleep. Perhaps to dream. Yes, that was the problem, because in that sleep of death the dreams we might have when we have shed this mortal body must make us pause. That’s the consideration that creates the calamity of such a long life. Because, who would tolerate the whips and scorns of time; the tyrant’s offences against us; the contempt of proud men; the pain of rejected love; the insolence of officious authority; and the advantage that the worst people take of the best, wh en one could just release oneself with a naked blade? Who would carry this load, sweating and grunting under the burden of a weary life if it weren’t for the dread of the after life – that unexplored country from whose border no traveler returns? That’s the thing that confounds us and makes us put up with those evils that we know rather than hurry to others that we don’t know about. So thinking about it makes cowards of us all, and it follows that the first impulse to end our life is obscured by reflecting on it. And great and important plans are diluted to the point where we don’t do anything. â€Å"Now Might I Do It Pat† Soliloquy Translation: As Hamlet passed the chapel on his way to his mother’s room he saw the light in the chapel. He paused and stood silently at the door. He saw the still form of his uncle kneeling before the altar. He drew his sword and tiptoed into the chapel and stood at the back. He could do it, right now, easily, while he was praying. And he would. Right now. He took a step forward then stopped. And so he would go to heaven, and what kind of revenge would that  be? That was something to think about. A villain kills his father; and for that his son sends that villain to heaven. Oh, that would be a service he was giving that villain, not revenge. He killed his father most grossly, full of unresolved sins himself, with all his crimes in blossom, like the flowers of May. And no-one knew how his father’s audit stood in heaven. As far he knew it stood seriously. So would he be revenged if he took his uncle while he was purging his soul, when he was fit and ready for his death? No! He put his sword back. He would find a more suitable occasion, when he was drunk, or asleep, or in a rage, or in the incestuous pleasure of his bed, or gambling, swearing, or some other act that had no taste of salvation in it. Then he would trip him so that his heels would kick out at heaven. His soul would then be damned as black as the hell it was destined for. His mother was waiting, but this delay would only prolong his uncle’s last sickly days. He turned and went out quietly â€Å"How All Occasions Do Inform Against Me† Soliloquy Translation: How the examples provided by everything around him denounced him and reminded him of his inability to sweep to his revenge! What was a man if his most profitable employment was to eat and sleep? Nothing more than an animal. He who made us with that vast capacity for understanding, that ability to reflect on experience and learn from it, didn’t give us that god-like reason just to let it go mouldy from disuse. He didn’t know what it was that was stopping him. Whether it was animal-like inability to understand or some cowardly nit-picking – thinking too precisely about it, analysing his thoughts, which were one quarter wisdom and always three quarters cowardice. He didn’t know why he was saying, ‘this still has to be done’ since he had the reason and the desire and the strength and the means to do it. Examples as weighty as the earth keep urging him. Look at the way this inexperienced young prince, puffed with divine ambition and scorning everything that fortune, death and danger could throw at him, was leading this huge expensive army on a campaign to gain a piece of land that was nothing more than an eggshell. True greatness wasn’t a matter of rushing into action for any trivial cause but when honour was at stake it was noble to act, no matter how trivial the cause was. Where did he stand, then, his father murdered, his mother stained – two huge incentives – and not do anything? It was to his shame that he was watching the imminent death of twenty thousand men who were going to their deaths as easily as one  would go to bed, for almost no reason, fighting for a plot of land that was so small that they wouldn’t even fit on it, that wasn’t even big enough for the fallen to be buried on. Oh, from now on his thoughts would be bloody, or not worth having! Literary review Written during the first part of the seventeenth century (probably in 1600 or 1601), Hamlet was probably first performed in July 1602. It was first published in printed form in 1603 and appeared in an enlarged edition in 1604. As was common practice during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, Shakespeare borrowed for his plays ideas and stories from earlier literary works. He could have taken the story of Hamlet from several possible sources, including a twelfth-century Latin history of Denmark compiled by Saxo Grammaticus and a prose work by the French writer Franà §ois de Belleforest, entitled Histoires Tragiques. The raw material that Shakespeare appropriated in writing Hamlet is the story of a Danish prince whose uncle murders the prince’s father, marries his mother, and claims the throne. The prince pretends to be feeble-minded to throw his uncle off guard, then manages to kill his uncle in revenge. Shakespeare changed the emphasis of this story entirely, making his Hamlet a philosophically minded prince who delays taking action because his knowledge of his uncle’s crime is so uncertain. Shakespeare went far beyond making uncertainty a personal quirk of Hamlet’s, introducing a number of important ambiguities into the play that even the audience cannot resolve with certainty. For instance, whether Hamlet’s mother, Gertrude, shares in Claudius’s guilt; whether Hamlet continues to love Ophelia even as he spurns her, in Act III; whether Ophelia’s death is suicide or accident; whether the ghost offers reliable knowledge, or seeks to deceive and tempt Hamlet; and, perhaps most importantly, whether Hamlet would be morally justified in taking revenge on his uncle. Shakespeare makes it clear that the stakes riding on some of these questions are enormous—the actions of these characters bring disaster upon an entire kingdom. At the play’s end it is not even clear whether justice has been achieved. By modifying his source materials in this way, Shakespeare was able to take an unremarkable revenge story and make it resonate with the most fundamental themes and problems of the Renaissance. The Renaissance is a vast cultural phenomenon that began in  fifteenth-century Italy with the recovery of classical Greek and Latin texts that had been lost to the Middle Ages. The scholars who enthusiastically rediscovered these classical texts were motivated by an educational and political ideal called (in Latin) humanitas—the idea that all of the capabilities and virtues peculiar to human beings should be studied and developed to their furthest extent. Renaissance humanism, as this movement is now called, generated a new interest in human experience, and also an enormous optimism about the potential scope of human understanding. Hamlet’s famous speech in Act II, â€Å"What a piece of work is a m an! How noble in reason, how infinite in faculty, in form and moving how express and admirable, in action how like an angel, in apprehension how like a god—the beauty of the world, the paragon of animals!† (II.ii.293–297) is directly based upon one of the major texts of the Italian humanists, Pico della Mirandola’s Oration on the Dignity of Man. For the humanists, the purpose of cultivating reason was to lead to a better understanding of how to act, and their fondest hope was that the coordination of action and understanding would lead to great benefits for society as a whole. As the Renaissance spread to other countries in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, however, a more skeptical strain of humanism developed, stressing the limitations of human understanding. For example, the sixteenth-century French humanist, Michel de Montaigne, was no less interested in studying human experiences than the earlier humanists were, but he maintained that the world of experience was a world of appearances, and that human beings could never hope to see past those appearances into the â€Å"realities† that lie behind them. This is the world in which Shakespeare places his characters. Hamlet is faced with the difficult task of correcting an injustice that he can never have sufficient knowledge of—a dilemma that is by no means unique, or even uncommon. And while Hamlet is fond of pointing out questions that cannot be answered because they concern supernatural and metaphysical matters, the play as a whole chiefly demonstrates the difficulty of knowing the truth about other people—their guilt or innocence, their motivations, their feelings, their relative states of sanity or insanity. The world of other people is a world of appearances, andHamlet is, fundamentally, a play about the difficulty of living in that world.

Parental involvement and biopsychosocial well being among children

Parental involvement and biopsychosocial well being among children This chapter will discuss the general picture of this study. Specifically, the chapter includes a general description of the purpose for this study, its relationship to current phenomena, problems related to it and last but not least, the reason this topic needs to be investigated. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between daily hassles, parental involvement and biopsychosocial well-being among children. According to the definition by World Health Orgnanization (WHO, 1948), health is a state of complete mental, physical, and social well-being and not purely the absence of disease or illness. In current study, the researcher will explore the children health outcome from the biopsychosocial perspective which focuses on the interactions between biological, psychological and social aspects of development. The biopsychosocial perspective follows the view that childrens development is influenced by hereditary and environmental factors as well. In recent years, the figure of children with negative well-being problem is on the rise (Kramer and Garralda, 2000). According to the National Health Interview Survey that was conducted in Unite States, from year 2004 to 2009, approximately 5.1% from children in the U.S aged between 4 to 17 years were reported by their primary caregivers (parents) as having serious behavioural and emotional problem (Bloom, Cohen Freeman, 2010). Besides that, the survey also showed that about one-quarter (14 million) of school-aged children that ranged from 5 years old to 17 years old were absent from school in the past 12 months due to sickness or poor health status (Bloom, Cohen Freeman, 2010). Among developing countries, Malaysia is one of the country that undergone rapid economic and social changes due to urbanization and industrialization. In year 2008, Malaysia has almost one third of the population which comprised of children under 15 years old and this proportion of individuals under 15 year s old were found to be greater than those aged over 50 (Department of Statistics, 2010). This statistic figure has implied that children are important and have vital impact on a countrys human capital development. Moreover, children well-being has always been the focus in research, practice and policy implementation and development. Thus, the alarmingly high prevalence of unhealthy well-being problems among todays children reinforce the public concern about the current health trends of children in the domains f biological, psychological and social factors. Over the past three decades, numerous research was found to support the importance of biopsychosocial perspective and clarified how biological, psychological, and social processes function together to affect a persons physical health status (Suls Rothman, 2004). Moreover, there are many signals of growth awareness from the biological, behavioural and social perspective in understanding and tackled the countrys and the worlds health problems. Besides that, over the past four decades, the health profile of children is not only focusing on infectious diseases but the focus has also been concentrating on the problem that affects overall health of the children. These problems include emotional, social, psychological, physical and school-functioning problems (Kramer, Allen, Gergen, 1995). However, little is known about the biopsychosocial well-being of children among middle childhood. Biopsychosocial well-being is a new perspective that has been derived from Engels biopsychosocial model. This model expands the biomedical model by adding in the influence of psychological and social factors to biological factor (Engel, 1977, 1980). In biopsychosocial model, it proposed that biological, psychological and social factors influence and are influenced by ones health. The biological factors include genetic characteristics and a persons physiological. These factors seek to comprehend how the cause of the illness derives from the functioning of the childrens body (Santrock, 2008). Besides biological factors, the psychological factors include behaviour and mental process of a person, which involved cognition, emotion and motivation. Behaviour and mental process play an vital role in childrens biopsychosocial well being in search for potential psychological causes such as negative thinking and emotions that relates to health problem (Santrock, 2008). Lastly, the social factor s include relationships with other people. In studying children biopsychosocial well being, social factors are used to investigate how the children interact with people such as family or community and the effect of these interaction on childrens health (Santrock, 2008). Biopsychosocial well being is an important development aspect for children. Healthy biopsychosocial well-being can lead to the development of positive attitudes towards health and quality of life. For example, if a child grows up with positive feelings, he or she would achieve healthy identity, ability to form and maintain relationships with others and handling difficulty (Rees, 2010). At the same time, a child with healthy biopsychosocial well-being can also enjoy success in school (Knitzer, 2003). Conversely, unhealthy biopsychosocial well-being will affect the growth of the children in terms of their physical, emotional, social and school functioning. For example, poor physical health status can affect the children in their school attendance and performance, ability to participate in physical activities (e.g., sport) and social development (Brown, Kinkukawa, Michelsen, Moore, Moore, Sugland, 1999). Literature has highlighted that daily hassles is related with the development of childrens biopsychosocial well-being. Daily hassles refers to minor, annoying, and disappointed daily experiences that a persons experience in response to the interaction between individual and environment (Kanner, Coyne, Schaefer, Lazarus, 1981). For example, argument with family members, feeling pressure by peers in school and homework problem. Daily hassles contribute negative outcomes and shown to be useful in predicting ones well-being (Vacek, 2010; Lu, 1991). Children who grow up in the 21st century are confronted with more stress and adjustment issues as a result of changing socio-cultural context and educational expectation. They are facing stress which relates to the examination-oriented education system. Both children and parents tend to pay more attention on education excellence than physical, emotional and health-related outcomes. So, childrens life is packed with organized activities such as after-school tuition classes and extra-curricular activities as enrichment programs (Mahoney, Harris Eccles, 2006; Molinuevo, Bonillo, Pardo, Doval Torrubia, 2010). As a result, children tend to have less time for activity that they like or outdoor activity to relax and develop healthy, balanced lifestyle. Past literature has noted the phenomena of over-scheduling of organized activity among young children, which lead to a hurried lifestyle that entails certain level of pressure and stress experience (Mahoney, Harris Eccles, 2006). Besides o f home, large portion of childrens life were spent in school. Thus, peers are integral part of children and also the major source of potential daily hassles. Therefore, relationship with peers change and social interaction are important in affecting the child well-being (Vacek, 2010). During middle childhood, home is another major domain in childrens life. Research has found that home environment is often the potential source of daily hassles in children (Corbett, 1999). At home, family is viewed as a social system. The reciprocal relationship of parent-child and siblings relationship not only provide opportunity for personal growth, it is also viewed as agent of conflict that can produce stressors to children. In sum, if a child has good cognitive development, he/she can understand the nature of stressors and learn to respond to the excess amount of stressful experiences (Corbett, 1999). Therefore, if the child is having good adaptation to the stressors, it will result in healthy biopsychosocial well-being. Put differently, if the child failed to response to the daily hassles experiences, it will lead to unhealthy biopsychosocial well-being such as health-related problem, low self-esteem, withdrawal and school difficulties (Corbett, 1999; Vacek, 2010). Over the years, many international literatures support that parental involvement is important for children, especially young children (Nokali, Bachman, and Votruba-Drzal, 2010; Hornby Witte, 2010). In the present study, these significant research findings offered evidence of a moderating or buffering role for parental involvement in daily hassles and children biopsychosocial well-being. Most of the past studies on parental involvement have focalized on the associations with academic achievement and positive associations between parental involvement and academic success have been presented repeatedly (Nokali, Bachman, and Votruba-Drzal, 2010). Currently, there is an absence of published research relevant to the middle childhood population that has examined parental involvement in childrens life, together with the experiences of daily hassles of children in promoting effective biopsychosocial well-being program. In addition, there is a major dilemma of how parents participate and putt ing their efforts in childrens well-being promotion (Perry, Luepker, Murray, Kurth, Mullis, Crockett Jacobs, 1998). Generally, parents always serve as role models for children. They influence what children learn, how children respond to the external environment, and also act as gatekeepers to both opportunities and barrier for children (Yeung Hills, 2007). Besides that, parents also are the major sources of reinforcement for children and highly instructive in childrens well-being (Yeung Hills, 2007; Klassen, Miller Fine, 2004). High level of parental involvement would safeguard children well-being against unfavourable sources such as daily hassles. Research also demonstrated that one of the factors that commonly used in determining childrens well-being is involvement of parents in their children life (Luthar Latendresse, 2005a). Furthermore, some studies are suggested to investigate the unique contributions of fathers and mothers parental involvement on childrens well-being in order to identity how would father and mother affect individually on childs outcomes (Hellenthal Stephens, 2006). In sum, parental involvement plays an significant role in promoting childrens biopsychosocial well-being. The development of biopsychosocial well-being in children is also affected by intergenerational transmitted of parenting (Belsky, Conger Capaldi, 2009). Therefore, another aspect of the present study is mediating effect of parents parental involvement. The influence on parental involvement may concern on continuities in child raising practices across generations (Neppl, Conger, Scaramella Ontai, 2009). Parents personal socialization experience and developmental history are strongly linked to affect the way they treat their children and the quality of parental involvement (Putallaz, Costanzo, Griomes Sherman, 1998). Several past longitudinal studies have proved that histories of responsive parenting predict participants later high involvement in their own children life and lead to positive child outcomes. Furthermore, study found that parents participation in children life is important in determining childrens well-being (Luthar Latendresse, 2005a). However, to date, most studies on continuity of parenting quality have centralised on the transmission of poor parenting behaviour and much less research has focused on the transmission of positive parenting (Pears Capaldi, 2001; Shaffer, Burt, Obradovi, Herbers Masten, 2009). In addition, currently in Malaysia, the mediating role of intergenerational transmission effect on parental involvement from the perspective of young children and how it relates to childrens biopsychosocial well-being have not been thoroughly researched. In short, this study attempts to understand the childrens biopsychosocial well-being and how it is being affected by daily hassles, parental involvement and parents parental involvement. Therefore, a research was conducted to investigate the relationship between daily hassles, parental involvement and parents parental involvement on childrens biopsychosocial well-being. Additionally, current research is necessary because of if the children failed to develop a healthy biopsychosocial well-being; it will caused long-lasting impacts and affecting the childrens later life. STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM With regards to the literature reviewed on childrens well-being, this part of discussion would outline few issues concerning to the areas of study. Fist and foremost, this research is important to describe how daily hassles that are experienced by children and parental involvement are related to children biopsychosocial well-being. The problem related to over-scheduling of organized activity for young children and the increased of dual-earner families has led to significant effect on family such as more demanding parenting role, less quality time with family and greater expectation on/stress among young children. These ramifications on family functioning tend to exert significant implications on children biopsychosocial well-being. Furthermore, many researchers tend to focus on studying the association between stress and mental health among adults. However, in recent years, there is a shift to the linkage between stress and children well-being problem (Wertlieb, Weigel Feldstein, 1987). But, among all age group that have been studied, middle childhood has received the least attention. Literature showed that developmental changes that happen at this time may give great impact to the children accompanying health outcomes (Kapitanoff, 1992). Changes that occur at several areas such as physical, psychological, emotional and school will determine how children deal with stressful events later when they grow up. Besides that, reactions response to the daily hassles is different from one child to another child (Corbett, 1999). Same with adults, childrens stress response will cover wide range of domains which included emotional, behavioural and social. Based on literature, inability of children in being responsive to d aily stressors will lead to unhealthy biopsychosocial well-being (Vacek, 2010; Kapitanoff, 1992; Garmezy, 1983). Thus, in this research, the researcher wants to examine the relationship between daily hassles that were experienced by children and the outcomes of it on children biopsychosocial well-being. In general, healthy biopsychosocial well-being is essential for childrens growth and development. There are several factors that could interfere with the development of healthy biopsychosocial well being in children. Based on literature, parenting quality are intergenerational transmitted, in which parents in one generation will adopt and practice parenting behaviour in a similar way to what they themselves have experienced while growing up (Serbin Karp, 2003). However, little studies have recognized mechanisms that help specify continuities between first generation parenting and second generation parenting. In addition, there are also raising attention that some parenting in one generation does not predict parenting in the next generation, which means that developmental history do not predict parenting behaviour in subsequent generation. Therefore, in this research, the researcher wants to examine the relationship between parental involvement, and the effects of it on children biop sychosocial well-being. Based on the literature gap, current study determines the relationship between daily hassles, parental involvement and childrens biopsychosocial well-being. More specifically, this research seeks to answer the following research questions: What is the relationship between childrens daily hassles, parental involvement and their biopsychosocial well-being? To what extend does the moderating effect of parental involvement contribute to the relationship between childrens daily hassles and their biopsychosocial well-being? Is there any mediating effect of parents parental involvement on the link between parental involvement and childrens biopsychosocial well-being? To what extend do childrens and parental background characteristics, childrens daily hassles, parental involvement and parents parental involvement have combined and unique influence on childrens biopsychosocial well-being? SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY Childhood is an important stage in life development. It can give a powerful impact on future development. The result from this research is expected to provide a clearer and more detailed model for explaining the association of children stress and parental involvement on children biopsychosocial well-being. In addition, the findings for this result also explore how individual and parental factors, family background and parents parental involvement influence childrens biopsychosocial well-being. Based on these findings, intervention or prevention program for children that are multifaceted can be developed and held by evaluating healthy and unhealthy biopsychosocial well-being among children (Lewis, Sawyer, Clark Carbone, 2006). This intervention or prevention program can help the children gain knowledge and improve their well-being. Furthermore, findings in this research will be useful for parents to identify negative factors and construct a better way in their interaction with children. Parents can use this as guidelines to establish a good parent-child interaction. In addition, the results from this study are expected to help parents in promoting healthy well-being among children. Finally, the results of this research could become a reference that contributes to general knowledge about daily hassles, parental involvement and biopsychosocial well-being among children. A better understanding about factors related to childrens biopsychosocial well-being can guide parent, teacher, government, and society in assisting children to response to their daily hassles and develop healthy well-being. In summary, this can contribute to the countrys human capital development and promote a better quality of life. OBJECTIVE OF STUDY General Objective The general objective of this study is to examine the relationship between daily hassles, parental involvement and biopsychosocial well-being among children. Specific Objective To describe the childrens background characteristics (individual and parental factors) among the respondents. To describe the extent of daily hassles, parental involvement and biopsychosocial well-being among the children. To explore the relationship between childrens background characteristics with daily hassles, parental involvement and biopsychosocial well-being among children. To examine the relationship between daily hassles, parental involvement and biopsychosocial well-being among children. To access the moderating effect of parental involvement on the relationship between childrens daily hassles and childrens biopsychosocial well-being. To examine whether parents parental involvement mediates the link between parental involvement and childrens biopsychosocial well-being. To determine the unique predictors for childrens biopsychosocial well-being. DEFINITION OF TERMINOLOGY Daily Hassles Conceptual definition Daily hassles can be defined as experiences and circumstances of daily living that have been evaluated as prominent and baleful or threatening to ones well-being (Lazarus, 1984)(p. 376 Daily hassles refers to minor, annoying, and disappointed daily experiences that a persons experience in response to the interaction between individual and environment. (Kanner, Coyne, Schaefer, Lazarus, 1981). Operational Definition Daily hassles refers to the total frequency and intensity score that happen to children in the area of peer, school and family as measured by The Hassles Scale for Children (Parfenoff Paul, 1989). The daily hassles that are experienced by children were measured in terms of frequency, a total of the number of items checked as happened and intensity. Parental involvement Conceptual definition Parental involvement refers to how parent get participate in children life (Desforges Abouchaar, 2003). Parental involvement has been defined in several ways, such as participation in school and home activities (e.g., Grolnick Slowiaczek, 1994); quality of time spent together between parent and child, and having close feeling to parents (Wenk et al., 1994). Operational Definition Parental involvement refers to the total score in Perception of Parent Scales (POPS) (Grolnick, Deci, Ryan, 1997). Perception of Parent Scales (POPS) measured the degree of involvement in terms of devoting resources to their children, knowledgeable about their lives, and concerned about what is going on for them. Parents parental involvement Conceptual definition Parents parental involvement refers to the influence of parents own experiences as a child on how their parents participated in their life when they were a child (Belsky, Conger Capaldi, 2009). Operational Definition Parents parental involvement refers to the involvement of parents of the participating parents in this study. Similarly, the involvement of parents parental involvement is measured by Perception of Parent Scales (POPS) (Grolnick, Deci, Ryan, 1997). Biopsychosocial well-being Conceptual definition Biopsychosocial well-being refers to the health status of a person, either health or illness that are outcomes of the interaction between biological, psychological and social factors (Sarafino, 2002). Operational Definition Biopsychosocial well-being refers to the total score that was obtained by children in The Pediatric Quality of Life Inventoryà ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ Genetic Core Scales (PedsQL à ¢Ã¢â‚¬Å¾Ã‚ ¢ 4.0) (Varni, Seid, Kurtin, 2001). This scale contains four subscale which is physical functioning, emotional functioning, social functioning, and school functioning. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK In the present study, bioecological human development theory by Urie Bronfenbrenner (1977, 1979) is presented to investigate the linkages between daily hassles and parental involvement on childrens biopsychosocial well-being. Additionally, Belskys Model (1984) is adopted to explain the mediating effect of parents parental involvement on childrens biopsychosocial well-being. Bioecological Human Development Theory Conceptualized by Bronfenbrenner (1979), Bioecological Theory of Human Development was used to elucidate the function of different environments and its outcomes on children developmental well-being. Based on the assumptions of the theory, childrens ecological environment is constituted by a series of nested structure of environmental influence. Thus, in order to address childrens biopsychosocial well-being, it requires comprehensive examination into the different domain of environments, such as individual, family, school, neighbourhood and community settings. In the present study, the researcher claimed that children are firstly affected by the direct environments (e.g, family, school and peers) and secondarily affected by the experiences that they get from neighbourhood and society. Thus, combination of different related environments from the ecology will increased the risk of children to develop unhealthy well-being. However, the more children experienced and able to response towar ds hazards in the ecology (e.g., teasing by peers, academic problem and arguing with family members), the more likely children will resist themselves from the threats and develop healthy well-being. Put differently, the more children experienced hazards in the environments contexts and unable to response to it, it will be greater chances to place them at developing unhealthy well-being. Furthermore, current study also highlighted the role of parents in promoting effective biopsychosocial well-being among children. In line to the propositions in bioecological theory of human development, in this study, parents are conceived as the most influential people in children lives. Parents always serve as an immediate environment or closest layer to the children. Review of research demonstrated that high level of parental involvement could buffer children from stressful life condition and adverse developmental outcomes (Hoover-Dempsey et al., 2001, Lindquist, 1998). Belskys Model Besides that, Belskys model (1984) is illustrated to elucidate the mediating effects of parents parental involvement in altering the links between parental involvement and childrens biopsychosocial well-being. This model proposed that parents characteristics is one of the most effective factors in shaping competent parenting behaviour. According to Belskys model, parents developmental history can influence their personality, psychological well being and parenting functioning. Review of research also showed that parental involvement in children life is associated to their family of origin (Hwang, 2001). In present study, the researcher postulates that parenting in one generation may affect parental behaviour in the next generation. But, there is little comprehension of the specific process that may facilitate such intergenerational continuity of parenting. Past studies showed that if parent experienced poor parenting, the more they provided their young children with discordant discipl ine and less involved in their childrens life (Capaldi, Pears, Patterson, Owen, 2003). Additionally, according to the assumption in Belskys model (1984), intergenerational transmission of poor parenting can help individual to establish high level of parental involvement by stimulating a compensatory process in a manner expressly opposite to own experiences. In fact, in a recent longitudinal study on intergenerational continuity in parenting, which done by Neppl and colleagues (2009) has discovered that poor parenting that experienced by parents during childhood did not predict positive parenting and highly involved in own childrens life. Conversely, several findings revealed that parent who experienced positive parenting during their childhood time was more involved in their childrens life (Belsky, Jaffee, Sligo, Woodward, Silva, 2005; Chen Kaplan, 2001). Given established an effective parent-child relationship, this will help children to develop healthy well-being and shield the m from hazards. Therefore, in this study, parents parental involvement act as mediator, providing one potential explanation as to how childrens biopsychosocial well-being is being affected by the intergenerationally transmitted parenting. Theoretical Rationale The review on bioecological human development theory and Belskys model has revealed several concepts that could be used in current study. First of all, daily hassles that would increase the risk of children developing unhealthy biopsychosocial well-being was operationalized in an accumulative manner as proposed in the model. This was to repeat the assumption of bioecological human development theory that the more children experienced hazards in the environments contexts, the more chances to place them at developing unhealthy well-being. Secondly, the present study sought to evaluate the role of parents in promoting childrens biopsychosocial well-being. The role of parents was explained by the theory where by high involvement of parents in childrens life could buffer children from stressful life condition and developing unhealthy well-being. Additionally, identification of parental involvement into father and mother variables enables this study to suggest and identify how would father and mother affect individually on childrens biopsychosocial well-being, which could be useful in imply gender related intervention program. Furthermore, parental involvement could act as moderator in present study to investigate how elasticity of parenting context in altering the hazard experiences by children. Thirdly, current study also sought to scrutinize the mediating effects of parents parental involvement in altering the relationship between parental involvement and childrens biopsychosocial well-being. By considering the mediating effect on parental involvement, this study hypothesizes that parenting practices in one generation may influence by the parenting behaviour from previous generation. This was in line with the assumption of Belskys model, which proposed that parents developmental history could influence the competency of parenting behaviour. Thus, parents parental involvement could act as a mediator in this study if it increase or decrease the strength of the relat ionship between parental involvement and children biopsychosocial well-being. Additionally, based on idea of Luster and Okagaki (1993), parents parental involvement may also have direct influence on children biopsychosocial well-being. Antecedents Variable Child characteristics Age Gender Race Religion Parent characteristics Parents age Parents occupation Parents income Parents educational level Independent Variable CHILDRENS DAILY HASSLESConceptual Framework Path c Mediating Variable PARENTS PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT Moderating Variable PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT Path b Dependent Variable CHILDRENS BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL WELL-BEING Path a Figure 1: Conceptual framework of study Daily Hassles, Parental Involvement and Biopsychosocial Well-being among Children. Drawing upon the research questions and theoretical framework, Figure 1 presents the research model for the current study on Daily Hassles, Parental Involvement and Biopsychosocial Well-being among Children. In current study, the researcher will investigate the relationship of different variables such as how the independent variable (daily hassles), moderator variable (parental involvement) and mediator (parents parental involvement) affect the dependent variable (childrens biopsychosocial well-being). Children and parents demographic background (e.g., age, sex, race, number of siblings, parents age, parents occupation, parents education level and parents income) are included in the research as antecedents effect of them on examining their variables. This framework hypothesizes three main interactions between the studied variables. There are two types of variables, namely the factors (independent variable and moderator variable) in this model that are proposed to have significant relationship with will lead to the childrens biopsychosocial well-being (dependent variable). The independent variable which is the child-related factor, daily hassles is proposed to have significant association with children biopsychosocial well-being (Path a). Additionally, for parental factor, which is parental involvement will act as moderator to influence child factor and caused impact on children biopsychosocial well-being (Path b). Consistent to the notion of Baron and Kenny (1986), parental involvement that hypothesized in the model could act as moderator if it affects the direction ore strength of the daily hassles on children biopsychosocial well-being. As shown in the conceptual framework above, there is another hypothesized model that included three variables: p

International Law: Piracy, Law of the Sea, and Use of Force Essay examp

This paper will answer the four questions presented below: 1. What is the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court over piracy? 2. To what extent may European nations claim jurisdiction over acts of piracy committed off the Horn of Africa? 3. What international law enforcement co-operation mechanisms exist to assist in the investigation and prosecution of piracy committed in waters off the Horn of piracy? How these mechanisms assist in the investigation and prosecution of piracy? 4. What barriers to successful prosecution of Somalia piracy exist? What is the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court over piracy? Explain your answer. Piracy becomes one of significant matters across regional, because the menace of piracy attack, especially in the hot spot area as the Horn of Africa is still going up and causes a plenty of loss. As piracy acts as universal crime, so that universal jurisdiction must be adapted to combat against piracy. Although, international community attempts to cope with this issue by establishing mutual-operation, but the final step is to bring pirates into legal proceeding. Some other countries seem to have a limit within their own jurisdiction, so that piracy cases may not be prosecuted after they were captured. Some countries may reluctant to participate in this content as same as reluctant to co-operate with international community. Hence, the establishment of international court which can take responsible on this matter will be an extra option to solve a problem. International criminal court is one of another option that may reduce the conflicts in the case of piracy. The jurisdiction of th e International Criminal Court can be explained under the Rome of Statue which provides a p... ...nal of International Law Rome Statue of International Criminal Court, opened for signature 17 July 1998, A/CONF.183/9 (entered into force 1 July 2002) Totten, Christopher & Bernal, Matthew, ‘Somali Piracy: Jurisdictional Issues, Enforcement Problems and Potential Solutions’ (2010) 41(2) Georgetown Journal of International Law Thedwwall, Craig, ‘Choosing the Right Yardarm: Establishing an International Court for Piracy’ (2010) 41(2) Georgetown Journal of International Law Treves, Tullio, ‘Piracy, Law of the Sea, and Use of Force: Developments off the Coast of Somalia’ (2009) 20(2) The European Journal of International Law Very, Francois, ‘African maritime Security: A Time for Good Order at Sea’ (2010) 2(4) Australian Journal of Maritime and Ocean Affairs http://treaties.un.org/Pages/ViewDetails.aspx?src=TREATY&mtdsg_no=XVIII-10&chapter=18&lang=en

Woody Allen :: essays papers

Woody Allen "A plethora of people have written about Woody Allen", John Lahr said "and they either like him or dislike him. But no one has yet managed, I think, to interpret him." Woody Allen has been revered as one of the brilliant artists of the twentieth century and at the same time called a pervert. His works have been called jokes but also masterpieces. Many critics have tried to explain why Allen writes the things he writes but not one has had success. The drive and brilliance of Allen has not been understood yet. Seeing his movies gives us two opposing views. One is the screwball comedian who is obsessed with death and sex while the other is the serious artist commenting on and criticizing our society. The latter view is more difficult to grasp but is nonetheless there. Through different film techniques Allen mocks our society and film industry without us even realizing. His most widely used technique to do this is the film within a film. In movies such as The Purple Rose of Cairo, Play It Again Sam and Hannah and Her Sisters Allen uses this technique to show us his opinion on a particular subject, and also uses it as a driving force behind his movies.The most notable use of film within a film in Allen?s movies occurs in, The Purple Rose of Cairo. The time is The Depression and the scene a small town. Cecilia (Mia Farrow) is the central figure in the movie. She is married to an abusive gambler and heavy drinker. To cope and escape her problems, Cecilia constantly goes to a nearby movie theater called The Jewel. There she spends hours on end watching movies, sometimes the same one more than three times. When she gets fired one day from her job, she goes to The Jewel and watches a movie called The Purple Rose of Cairo "at least five times" (Blake 117). On her fifth time watching the movie, Tom Baxter (Jeff Daniels) jumps out from the movie and enters the theater telling Cecilia that he has noted her faithful presence and is attracted to her. As they leave the theater together, the actors in the movie aimlessly wonder around bewildered by what had just transpired. Deeply concerned is the real life actor of Tom Baxter, Gil Shephard because this misfortune could "wreck his blossoming career"(Kauffmann 37). To add to the trouble, other cities have reported that the Baxter character has stepped out of The Purple Rose of Cairo in various theaters and has disappeared. Why would Woody Allen create such a unrealistic movie critics called "the most innovative

Feeding and Fishing: the Issue Facing the U.S. and the Global Community

Feeding and Fishing: the Issue Facing the U.S. and the Global Community â€Å"Give a man a fish, feed him for a day; teach a man to fish, feed him for life.† When translated into agricultural terms, this Chinese proverb confronts the question facing the United States and the global community today. The United States has been providing food for the rest of the world for years. While this illustration of care is commendable, it also has a downside. In the future, and debatably in the present, it is not possible for the United States to continue providing for other countries. An increasing world population, a lack of methods for effectively sharing crop surpluses, and a decrease in the amount of food produced by agriculture has created a situation where it is impossible for the United States to feed the world; instead we must teach the world how to feed, or fish, for themselves. Egypt is a prime example of the U.S. feeding the world. Between 1979 and 1991, the U.S. provided Egypt with over three billion dollars in wheat and corn. According to W. Fornos, â€Å"every third loaf of bread baked in Egypt is made from wheat and corn ground in the United States† (Fornos). The U.S. is currently giving the world fish, but we cannot continue to do so. The first issue limiting the ability of the world to feed itself is the increasing world population. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as cited by Agroecology Professor Dave Wilson, the world population was one billion in 1804. The world population doubled itself in 154 years and has since continued to double exponentially. In 1987, the world population was 5 billion, and in 13 years, the population doubled once again. Accompanying 1999 was a world population ... ...tion Development.† Irrigation and Drainage. Vol. 52. 2003. 31-38. McMullum, et al. â€Å"Application of Modern Biotechnology to Food and Agriculture; Food Systems Perspective.† Journal of Nutrition, Education, and Behavior. Vol. 35. 6. Nov/Dec. 2003. 319, 326-328. Academic Search Premier. â€Å"Population Growth and Food Needs.† Population Reports. 25. 4. 3. 1997. 24, Feb. 2005. Academic Search Premier. Pretty, Jules. â€Å"Agroecology in Developing Countries.† Environment. Vol. 45. Nov. 2003. Academic Search Premier. Serageldin, Ismali. â€Å"World Poverty and Hunger-the Challenge for Science.† Science. Vol. 296. 5565. 54. 17, Feb. 2005. Academic Search Elite. Wilson, Dave. â€Å"Homework Topic 6; Genetically Engineered Crops.† Class lecture. 25, Feb. 2005. Wilson, Dave. â€Å"Population Growth.† Class lecture. 7, Feb. 2005.

Pollution and How It Affects Elements within an Environment Essay

The Earth is entirely surrounded by a blanket of air which is called the earth’s atmosphere. The atmosphere allows human, plants, and all the earth’s creatures big and small to exist. The atmosphere protects the earth and without it the heat from the sun would burn all that is exposed to its rays, and we could be frozen by the low temps at night. Gas, particulate matter, odors that have been introduced into the air by mankind or nature can destroy the natural balance, this is pollution. There are Primary pollutants and Secondary pollutants, which we will be covering in this presentation, when pollutants are introduced to/in the air, it travels very easily and spread as well, since we breathe in air, we cannot avoid these toxins or pollutants. The efforts on solutions to the problems regarding pollution has, and will continue to be an issue due to mankind disrespect towards mother-nature. We as human beings breathe in an estimated 20,000 liters of air each day meaning that the more polluted the air is, the more we in hale into our lungs the hazardous chemicals, in London of 1952, â€Å"The Smog Disaster†, claimed the lives of four- thousand people within a few days mainly due to the high levels of concentrations of pollution. In March of 2011, an earthquake in the sea of the coast of Japan also known as a â€Å"Tsunami†, the sea level rose and waters flooded the land damaging four of the six reactors in the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant, which can be located on the BBC website. The biggest lifetime risks were seen in humans exposed were in the infants, compared to children and the adults. Females who exposed to radiation from this incident which was found in a report that a four percent increase above the lifetime expectancy, were at risk of solid tumors and a six percent increase above that said to be expected of breast cancer. Men/male exposed to the radiation as infants were expected to have seven percent increased risk of leukemia above that expected on the normal population. The highest risk was noted in thyroid cancer, as for the infant girls, they were estimated to be up to seventy- percent than expected over a lifetime. † (BBC website: /news/health- 21614722). The World Health Organization (WHO) experts confirmed that there is a slight increased risk of different cancer types for those people who were exposed to the radiation, including people residing in this area and employees of the plant. Air pollutants come in the form of gases, particles, and chemicals released into the air, motor vehicles are a major air pollutant, the use of one full commuter bus is equivalent to forty cars driving through your neighborhood. Vehicle exhaust contributes to roughly sixty-percent of all carbon monoxide emissions (discharge) nationwide, and up to ninety-five percent in the cities. Air pollution may contribute to asthma and allergy by corrupting protective cells in the human body that tones down immune system reactions, the pollution components seem to also increase overactive immune warriors already linked to allergies that actually require no prompting. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are the product of burning of fuel in diesel engines, furnaces, wood fires, wildfires, and barbeque grills. A new study done by researchers found that children exposed to these high levels of PAHs had poor functioning T-regulatory cells (peacekeeper cells), which normally keeps immune –caused inflammation down. Kari Nadeau, a biochemist and physician at Stanford University, held a study on the effect of air pollution and these PAHs, she and some colleagues obtained blood samples, took in lung function readings, and recorded health information from 153 children at the age of four-teen in Fresno, CA. She sampled airborne PAHs to estimate rates of exposure due to Fresno’s high rate of air pollution levels. Kids with a high exposure made higher amounts of Immunoglobulin E and showed low rates of T regulatory cell function than those exposed to lower levels. It is said that air pollution may harm populations in ways so subtle and slow that it may have gone undetected, these reasons research is being done to determine the long-term effects of chronic exposure to low levels of pollution-what some may experience –as well as to determine the interaction between air pollutants in the body, nutrition (physical factor), stress, alcohol, smoking (tobacco), and medicines. It also has been linked to defects in birth, cancer, and genetic mutations. The Montreal Protocol of 1987required that developed nations signing the accord not to exceed 1986 CFC levels. Several more meetings were held from 1990 to 1997 to adopt agreements to hurry the phasing out of ozone-depleting substances. † Pollution is known to cause holes in the ozone layer in the atmosphere above Antarctica and the Artic. Depletion of the ozone layer can increase the amount of ultraviolet radiation reaching the earth, causing damage to crops and plants as well as causing sk in cancer and cataracts.

The Meaning of Citizenship

The Meaning of Citizenship Essay The Meaning of Citizenship according to the author is what we make it mean. What a bunch of malarkey! The history of how the definition of citizenship has evolved was well done but I kept having this feeling that she was trying to get me to subscribe to some new world order of citizenship. I like the Dictionary definition of citizenship is the state of being vested with the rights, privileges, and duties of a citizen. The character of an individual viewed as a member of society; behavior in terms of duties, obligations, and functions of a citizen.She suggested that citizenship was inconsistent from the very beginning of the United States. Yes it was because we were all immigrants from the start. Women were still seen a property to their husband, Africans was slaves, Native American conquered, and a lot of old world racism was in full swing. America was the great experiment by its founding fathers. Never had it been tried to bring all people together a s one country of citizens, well at least what they consider â€Å"as people† at that time.Some may argue that the romans were doing the same thing but they were doing it at sword point then by volunteer. Even though some of the founding father was still behind in their thinking others were not. They build the constitution so that future generations could learn from their father’s mistake and improve America for everyone. I was very surprise that the Supreme Court did not rule that the power of husbands over wives is no longer recognizable in law until 1992. Wow that took 216 years to figure that out.Also that if a woman got married to a noncitizen she would lose her citizenship and be seen as a citizen of her husband country but on the flip side of the coin if the wife married an American husband they became a US citizen until the law change in 1934. Currently the married spouse has the option to either become a permanent residence or naturalization. Naturalization is no easy task either. Under the Path to citizenship on the U. S. Citizenship and Immigration Services the spouse has to take a naturalization test. Sad part according to US News and World Report Weekly poll done back in April of 2012 1 in 3 Americans would fail this test.Another big issue today is illegal women having children in the United State in order to not to get deported. This loop-hole has become to be known as â€Å"baby anchor†. In a way they gain citizenship though the kids. Many countries have closed this loop-hole and I think it time for America to do so too. I would give amnesty to all kids and parents here now then set a deadline date 10months out that one of the child parents is must be a U. S. Citizen otherwise that child will be consider as the citizen of one of the parent foreign citizenship.The history about race factor on citizenship was pretty much dead on. Of all the nationalities from around the world the people from African have had it the worst. Even till this day I don’t see why people looked down on Africans. African American has had the hardest time integrate in to American society. It was mostly because their immigration was forced to America by slavery. When they won their freedom they were still treated like 2nd class citizens. Even today most of the culture seems torn about where they fit into America society. The Chinese and Japanese were treated just as badly.They were seen as rats or beasts to use till they dropped over dead. If anything they weren’t even seen as human beings. They fought back hard to earn their rights and somehow moved forward as a culture to integrate with American society. Then the author goes into class warfare for three pages. Most of it did not make sense other then she trying to make the argument that social security is some kind social citizenship. Now the way I see it with immigration most moving from one country to another are lower or poor people. When they move into a very wel l off country they can bear the cost of it.America is at a point where immigration is collapsing local government fiances. More people are pulling from the system then put in. The states along the Mexican border are suffering majorly from this due to illegal immigration. Immigration is a good thing for a country but it must be controlled. In Europe many countries are having negative birth rates meaning more people are dying faster than babies are born. In a capitalism economy they build the social program are design to be funded by future population grow who pay into the social program.The problem is that most of their growth now is from immigration that are almost doubling unemployment in European country but benefiting from the host country social programs. (See http://www. migrationpolicy. org/pubs/TCM-integration. pdf) Linda Kerber once again starts to ramble on for another five pages. It covers the Boston Tea Party, Dred Scott decision of 1857, Yick Wo the laundry guy vs. Hopki ns, War Brides Act of World War II, and a few other Supreme Court rulings to support her views, California Proposition 187, the Cold War, Iran-Contra, Vietnam War, the Gulf War, and something about Peter Pan vs.Captain Hooker. Well not that last thing. All of this was a setup to give you a right hook to the head about her post national citizenship idea. And so she opens up with â€Å"Do we need citizenship? † This is where the final punch gets you. She starts to make hidden points to being a one world citizenship because like as she stated from the start citizenship means what we make it mean. This will not work as many cultures that have such polar views of each other.An example would be that Islam faith is so tie into it governing system that is Islamic law which is set by the religion is law via in United State religion is kept separated from government laws. She is right that we are one world family but we live under different homes with different rules and values. To me illegal immigration is like having the uninvited family member visits you. They say they are only going to be visiting for 3 days but end up staying for years. We can’t just join with other people if they don’t believe in the Bill of Rights created by our founders.What would be the point of freedom of the press if you can’t write about something that will offend a person or group? In the end I think most people keep mixing citizenship and culture together. Becoming a citizenship must mean more then I was able to sneak into this land. We must close the loop-holes in immigration to remove some of the arguments on citizenship but not eliminate immigration itself. We have to end this feeling of it means whatever it means to you. It’s a cop out. We must stand firm that this is what it takes to be a citizen of the United States.